The Villainess Duke Lady Hides Her Identity - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 18

Five-year-old Leponya wanted for nothing even before coming to this household.
Even alone in that empty house, she had not asked for help as she rode in the carriage with Duke Craithan to the estate—she had simply asked to be used as a servant, since selling herself would fetch no price anyway.
It was the same after her adoption.
But now this Leponya was expressing something she wanted for the first time. Duke Craithan hesitated briefly, then turned his gaze to Pellens.
“Pellens. If you would—”
“No.”
Before the Duke could finish, Pellens refused flatly and rose from the table before finishing his meal.
“Don’t ask me to handle something like that, Father.”
She’s not even a child I adopted. You should take responsibility for this yourself.
It seemed as though Pellens was reproaching Duke Craithan with that very look. Leponya’s eyes flicked toward the Duke.
Duke Craithan merely exhaled lightly.
Pellens turned coldly and left the dining room. The Duke watched his retreating back for a moment, then looked back at Leponya.
“Ponya. Perhaps it’s best we leave Pellens alone.”
“It’s fine.”
Leponya answered briskly, eating as if unbothered.
“I already expected this after being refused yesterday. This much is nothing.”
“Ponya.”
“I know what you’re worried about, sir. You’re afraid he’ll find it bothersome, yes? I won’t be a bother to him.”
“What are you talking about? What would bother Pellens?”
“Huh?”
Wasn’t that why the Duke was trying to dissuade her?
“He needs his life to become a bit more complicated. All he does at the Academy is eat, sleep, and play.”
Then why tell her to leave him alone? Leponya tilted her head in confusion.
“Ponya. I’m worried you’ll be hurt if you keep getting refused.”
“……Me?”
Leponya pointed to herself, tilting her head. Worried she’d be hurt? It was truly the first time in her life she’d heard such a thing.
“You must not feel good about being refused repeatedly.”
Leponya, who had never even considered such a thing, let her lips part slightly. This morning, she had steeled herself, thinking: what’s the big deal about being refused? And yet here they were, worrying about that very thing.
‘If they keep doing this, I’ll get used to this kind of treatment, and my heart will race at every refusal.’
Even though someday I’ll have to abandon all of this.
“But Ponya, I’d like you to know that Pellens isn’t refusing because he dislikes you. If he truly hated you, that boy—who usually sleeps late—would never come down early and sit in the dining room. By the way, Ponya, when you weren’t here, he never once sat across from me.”
It was difficult to tell whether the Duke was offering comfort or speaking the truth.
“Okay.”
There was no need to ask. Either way—comfort or truth—it made little difference to Leponya.
“Then… I’ll try talking with him a bit more.”
“Pellens isn’t particularly gentle with his words, so I worry you might be hurt.”
“It’s fine. He doesn’t curse at me or use violence.”
Anything less than that would count as kindness.
Leponya continued eating. The Duke, who had been about to object, closed his mouth at her startling composure.
He seemed to want to say something more, but Leponya didn’t press him.
The Duke beside her could only mutter earnestly: “Step by step, slowly, one thing at a time.”
After taking a deep breath, the Duke watched Leponya chewing carefully, then spoke.
“Ponya. From now on, you’ll be riding in this.”
At the Duke’s gesture, the steward brought something forward.
It gleamed and sparkled from afar—enormous, brilliant, and radiating all the colors of the rainbow.
“What is this?”
“I mentioned it before, didn’t I? That the estate is so vast you shouldn’t walk through it, so I’d have a wooden horse made for you to ride.”
At first glance, it was a wooden horse crafted from noble timber.
The clarity of the wood’s color made it obvious this was timber used only in the furniture of great nobles.
Moreover, expensive-looking jewels were embedded in the horse’s eyes. If only the eyes had been set with gems, it would be fortunate—but the entire body was studded with jewels to the point where it could be called a jeweled horse.
The wooden horse even wore an expensive-looking necklace around its neck.
“I’ve set a Magic Stone in it, so it will move in whatever direction you wish to go.”
“Gasp—a Magic Stone?”
How much did a single Magic Stone even cost, that he would embed one in something like this wooden horse?
A wooden horse that only a five-year-old Leponya could ride!
Leponya stared down at the Wooden Horse in alarm—it cost far more than her own body was worth.
“It’s designed to move only within the Craithan Estate and can’t be taken outside, so there’s no danger of it being stolen.”
The moment someone tried to take it out, crowds would swarm to pry away every jewel and Magic Stone attached to it.
Leponya swallowed hard, her throat dry.
“Leponya. This is a gift for you.”
A gift. At that word, Leponya—who had been calculating the price of a single jewel—lifted her head sharply.
Only then did the Duke’s face enter Leponya’s field of vision beyond the Wooden Horse.
For all the expensive gems embedded in it,
his expression held only anxiety—worried she might not like the gift, uneasy, fretting.
“Ah…….”
Leponya’s lips parted. She knew in her mind what one was supposed to say upon receiving a gift.
But for the first time in her life—truly the first time ever—Leponya found the words wouldn’t come.
“Th, th…….”
In all her years she had spoken apologies far more often than thanks, had placed pleas for her life on her lips more readily than words of love.
She had said “I’m fine” more than “it hurts,” said “I’m dying” more than “help me.”
Her life had been one of rejecting, dismissing, despising rather than accepting or approving.
“……It’s my first time.”
Unable to finish the word “thank you,” Leponya murmured instead, sincerity trembling in her voice.
One must never let emotion spill out toward those connected to a mission. Emotion clouds judgment, clouds execution.
And yet.
“Being born, truly… receiving something for the first time ever.”
Even so, this—this was genuine.
“Since it’s my first time…….”
Leponya turned the word over and over—”first time,” “first time”—repeating it instead of thanks.
“Really?”
The Duke watched her echo the word awkwardly, then smiled at last. He reached out and gathered the small Leponya into his arms.
“How wonderful that I’m the first to give you a gift.”
It seemed he understood that “first time” was standing in for “thank you.”
‘That it brings him joy to give me something…….’
The irony of it struck her deeply. The world Leponya had known never gave freely. Rather, it had nothing to give. It was a world where you fought to feed yourself, to claim your share—a world where the moment you showed consideration for another, you failed to survive, and eventually died.
So she could not fathom the joy of giving. Such feelings were beyond her understanding.
“Go on, try riding it.”
The Duke carefully settled Leponya onto the Wooden Horse’s back.
‘A rocking horse, and I’m already grown…….’
It even had handles.
“It could be dangerous, so always grip the handles when riding. Understood?”
She’d momentarily forgotten that this was a man who insisted people drink cold water slowly to avoid stomach trouble.
“Mm-hmm.”
She agreed, but she certainly wasn’t going to grip those handles. An adult had her pride, after all!
“You have to grip both handles for it to activate. Grip the handles, give a gentle kick in the direction you want to go, and it will move. After that, turn the handles whichever way you want to go. Release one hand and it stops.”
Thorough. He’d designed it so the whole thing wouldn’t even work unless both hands gripped the handles.
Leponya let out a light laugh, thinking how astonished he’d be if he learned that she’d once jumped from a three-story building while being chased.
Of course, the moment the Duke discovered who she really was, they’d meet on the scaffold—no room for surprise then.
‘If I had truly been born in a place like this…….’
For just a moment, Leponya imagined herself as someone raised in such a place, loved from birth, then shook her head.
It was a reality that could never be and a past that could not be changed. Every time such thoughts surfaced, she only felt more wretched.
“I’m going to ride it and catch up with you!”
Leponya laughed, gripping the handles of the Wooden Horse. The attendants smiled fondly at the sight and opened the Breakfast Hall’s doors for her.
‘First I’m supposed to give a kick, right.’
Leponya gave one smooth kick. The Wooden Horse began to rock slowly back and forth.
“Oh, it really does move.”
Rock, rock.
The Wooden Horse swayed gently back and forth, advancing slowly.
She thought to herself: The Wooden Horse is coming through, make way!
‘……Something’s off.’
The speed was distinctly underwhelming.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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