The Villainess Duke Lady Hides Her Identity - Chapter 26

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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 26

Suddenly, she recalled the words Pelrence had spoken the first time he saw her.
He had regarded her with such wariness, demanding to know where that face had come from.
At the time, she’d thought he was simply picking a quarrel out of nowhere—but now it made sense.
‘I look too much like the Duchess.’
The five-year-old version was only slightly similar, perhaps, but the twenty-year-old Reponya—the one no one else knew—bore a striking resemblance to her.
Though their faces were alike, the atmosphere they carried differed entirely, born as they were from such different worlds.
The Duchess’s face in the portrait was gentle, suffused with the luminous, unburdened air of a dandelion seed that had never known hardship.
But the twenty-year-old Reponya wore a face so numb it was impossible to tell if she was living or dead, and the sharp edge she carried perpetually kept others at a distance.
‘My parents were so poor they sold me to an orphanage when I was barely a year old, or so I was told.’
The resemblance was so striking that she found herself reconsidering her own origins.
The Duchess had married the Duke of Craiton, so her family must have been nobility as well—though she hadn’t investigated the Duchess’s line, so she couldn’t be certain.
Yet it was inconceivable that an aristocratic family would have sold a child to some remote orphanage purely for lack of money.
If there had been any reason at all to do so, they would certainly have come looking for her again.
‘It would be better if they’d simply abandoned me out of poverty. At least then I wouldn’t have to know they had the means and the chance to find me, yet chose not to.’
Then perhaps she wouldn’t have had to grow up the way she did.
And if her birth truly had some connection to the Duchess’s family—so what? What did it matter?
‘I’m not going to go searching for lost parents now.’
The age for yearning after parents had long since passed.
She had no intention of looking.
Reponya’s expression remained cold as she turned away from the Duchess’s portrait.
“This Annex was where the Duchess of Craiton stayed during her pregnancy. The main house was far too busy and loud, she said, so she wished to rest somewhere bright with sunlight.”
The Butler’s voice carried an unmistakable note of longing.
“I understand Young Master Pelrence mentioned it to you, however briefly.”
“Mentioned what?”
Reponya’s gaze snapped back to the Butler, her tone ice-cold.
“That I was adopted here as a replacement for the real princess who disappeared from this house?”
The Butler’s face darkened as he witnessed the utter matter-of-factness with which Reponya stated her own situation.
“You were not adopted as a replacement for anyone, Miss.”
“But if the princess had still been alive in this family, I would never have been adopted in the first place.”
The Butler had no answer.
“You should have explained this to me long ago.”
“……It’s all right.”
The five-year-old who knew nothing would have simply said so, without questioning or demanding answers.
Reponya gave a perfunctory response and looked back up at the portrait.
A happy family. Above it, a layer of damp, creeping dust.
The Duke had called her ‘Laila’ the moment he laid eyes on her.
It wasn’t some impulsive adoption to rid himself of guilt after stopping a stranger on the street.
‘So that’s why he adopted me.’
Because she looked like the dead princess—because she resembled the Duchess.
Now she understood why they’d been so inexplicably kind from the very beginning.
Even accounting for guilt, the speed with which they’d accepted her into the family had been too fast.
There had been no hint of discomfort, as if they were truly dealing with their own daughter.
Pelrence had been no different.
Despite all that initial suspicion, he’d eventually agreed to trust her and even stood guard over her—and now he treated her like a true younger sister.
She thought she understood the reason now.
‘If I looked that much like her, I’d have weakened at the sight of the face too.’
The Butler gazed at Reponya quietly, then spoke.
“The Duke still bears wounds from losing the Duchess that have not yet healed. Perhaps the guilt of failing to find the young princess lingers. But it is not only he who cannot approach this place—Young Masters Craiton also stay away. The remorse runs deep in them all.”
“Then what were you doing here?”
“I have been maintaining this portrait so that it does not fade. It is the only place I have been permitted to be.”
……
“The Duke said that if anyone else moved about, even the faint lingering trace of the Duchess that remains would vanish. That is why I could not tell you sooner.”
“You needn’t have explained.”
Her nose stung from the dust. Reponya sniffled and turned to leave.
“Regardless of the reason, it changes nothing. My place here remains the same.”
A substitute for a true lady. A replacement to lighten the burden of guilt by a manageable degree.
“Don’t worry. That’s exactly why the butler didn’t give me advance notice either.”
Reponya laughed. It was laughter no different from usual. No shock in it, no disappointment.
Just the attitude of someone who understood: I see. So that’s how it is.
Turning her body, Reponya slipped out of the Annex, leaving the butler behind. Just as he’d said, there was no sign of Pelrence anywhere near the Annex—he clearly had no intention of coming here.
‘That was pointless.’
Hide-and-seek was indeed a luxury Reponya couldn’t afford.
As she moved away from the Annex, she caught sight of Pelrence in the distance, rushing toward her with urgent calls of “Reponya!”
“Reponya!”
From all that running, sweat beaded Pelrence’s forehead. He scooped her up into his arms, breathing roughly.
“Whew. Thank goodness. I thought something had happened to you. Whew.”
“I was hiding.”
“Yeah. You won this round, Reponya. …But where on earth were you hiding to come back looking like such a filthy little dust bunny?”
The butler’s words came back to her—that the Duke himself, along with the first and second sons, couldn’t even approach that Annex.
“Under a tree over there.”
“What if you’d wandered too far? No, never mind. That’s my fault for not setting boundaries. Let’s get back and wash up.”
“Okay.”
“You know, looking at you like this, you really do look like a dirty little dust bunny.”
Pelrence laughed as he touched Reponya’s silver, slightly frizzy hair, dusted with dirt.
I need to leave this place soon.
My head feels as though it might come undone from wanting things I shouldn’t.

* * *

The mission is taking longer than expected. I never thought gathering the heirloom would drag on like this.
‘I need to spend time acting as the perfect lady and extracting information from the family. That’s why this is taking longer.’
Reponya watched Pelrence, resting her chin in her hand as he poured out his complaints.
“This dessert seems too sweet for Reponya. Didn’t you check before bringing it?”
“I simply brought the dessert the chef handed me—”
“You bring something without checking just because the chef handed it to you? Don’t you ever consider poison? …Wait. Where are you going? Do you really think those clothes suit Reponya? …And you. You there. I told you to patrol once around Reponya’s quarters. Why are you back already?”
“I just picked them out.”
“You all just throw on dresses without a single thought? You choose your mistress’s wardrobe carelessly like that? …Hey, you. I told you to patrol around Reponya’s bedroom. Why are you back so soon?”
“I—I did patrol.”
“Why aren’t you going back?”
The retainers’ sons had been assigned as Reponya’s attendants. Two valets and one maid.
They arrived at Craiton Mansion as her appointed attendants without proper training, and from the moment they arrived, they dismissed her.

—Sigh. We finally get into Craiton Mansion, only to be assigned to some child like this.

The reason was simple: Reponya was an adopted child who could disappear from this mansion at any moment.

—She’s the Craiton lady now, but how long will that last? You’d better treat me well. Who knows? I might throw you some money after she’s revoked.

It wasn’t wrong, and there was nothing to be angry about in the first place. The Duke of Craiton had appointed the retainers’ sons as her attendants precisely because he couldn’t let it slide.
She’d never expected them to work like Buddy and Becky anyway.
But Pelrence thought differently.
When Pelrence saw the retainers’ sons neglecting Reponya and not doing their jobs properly despite being assigned as her attendants, he burned with fury.
And he began managing them directly himself.
They’d thought an adopted five-year-old lady would be easy to handle, but they were withering under Pelrence’s harsh reproofs.
Of course, the retainers who hadn’t yet departed looked displeased watching their children suffer under Pelrence’s complaints, but they couldn’t say anything to the family’s true son, so they held their tongues.
Reponya, having finished organizing by placing the Rabbit Fur Doll she’d received from Sir Canwell into the Jewelry Box the Duke had given her, lifted her head.
“Brother.”
At Reponya’s call, Pelrence turned with a smile.
“Hmm? Reponya, what is it?”
His face shone. He’d been living such happy days lately, releasing stress whenever it built up, that he looked remarkably at ease.
“Never mind. Keep going.”
“Okay.”
Pelrence smiled and resumed his stress relief—disguised as another round of scolding.
‘I need to report to the Pope.’
Once a mission is received, a report must be filed at regular intervals. If the reports stop, the mission is considered failed or the agent assumed to have fled—and is marked a traitor.
It was time for Reponya’s report again. Three days away.
But the problem was.
‘Even if I go out, will I be able to reach the report location?’
Reponya watched Pelrence’s back, her chin resting on her hand.
‘I might be able to slip away.’
But she couldn’t afford to underestimate him. It was Pelrence who had been the first to notice that the retainers’ children dismissed her, even though he appeared careless and inattentive to everything.
‘By a hair’s breadth of the Duke, though.’
Reponya deliberated for a moment, then parted her lips.
“Brother, I want to go outside the mansion.”
There was no need to hesitate.

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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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