The Villainess Duke Lady Hides Her Identity - Chapter 39

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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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Episode 39

Reponya’s eyes widened in surprise as she glanced around. Now that she thought about it, Ryudeom was nowhere to be seen.
‘Has Ryudeom left?’
She’d been meaning to slip away at the first opportunity and talk things over with him.
As Reponya was still scanning the room, a cold voice drifted down from above her head.
“That’s… the thing that blocked my path back then.”
Pelrens was staring at the Terrace with narrowed eyes. More precisely, at the silver wolf-shape beyond it.
‘Oh no.’
Should that even be exposed? If word got out what it was, wouldn’t people also discover that it had been wandering freely in and out of the Estate?
Could she just leave things as they were?
“Oh, brother. What are you looking at? Hey? Wait, look at me. Look here. Just look at me.”
“Fluffball.”
Despite Reponya’s desperate efforts, Pelrens’ gaze remained fixed on the Terrace.
“You can go play for a bit, can’t you? Remember those friends your age who came to say hello earlier? They’re probably playing together, so go join them for a little while. Understood? Father will be arriving soon anyway, so just until then. Yes?”
Pelrens rose from his seat. Aura gathered in his palm.
“Oh no. Brother. Brother! This is the Party Venue. You can’t just smash everything to pieces.”
“I can. That thing had the audacity to appear in front of me again.”
Again? He’d seen the silver wolf before? No—that wasn’t the important thing right now.
“You’ll cause a scandal if you destroy someone else’s venue!”
“Ha. Don’t worry. I’ve destroyed plenty of things. It’s rarely a problem.”
Was this lunatic bragging about that?
“The way that thing keeps circling around you, fluffball—it’s really rubbing me the wrong way.”
This was bad. Pelrens had lost it completely. He’d decided the silver wolf-shape posed a threat to Reponya.
The nobility around them were retreating to a safe distance with practiced ease, as if they’d done this before.
So her brother really was the reckless troublemaker everyone said he was.
“I’ll catch that thing, find out who summoned it, and either kill it or—” He smiled. “Ha.”
“Wait, brother. Don’t smash anything. This is the day of my first party attendance.”
In her panic, Reponya blurted out whatever came to mind. And surprisingly, it seemed to work.
Pelrens, who had been charging toward the Terrace, faltered.
“So let’s sit down and talk this through instead.”
“Fine then. I’ll catch it without destroying anything, or kill it without destroying anything. That works, doesn’t it?”
“That’s not what I—!”
Before Reponya could finish, Pelrens bolted onto the Terrace. The silver wolf, which had been prowling there all along, put distance between them and soared into the empty air.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re running? Who’s your master? What kind of coward keeps staring at my sister like that? Hmm?”
Pelrens wrapped Aura around his feet and leaped high into the air, chasing after the wolf as it fled.
Last time he had accelerated his speed.
Aura really was a tool whose capabilities changed entirely depending on how one wielded it.
Watching Pelrens in action, she found herself silently swearing never to face an Aura Master head-on.
Tap-tap.
Someone tapped her shoulder from behind.
Reponya turned her head.
“Huh?”
“Come here.”
It was Ryudeom. The moment their eyes met, he seized Reponya’s hand and pulled her with him. She followed without resistance.
Ryudeom led her to the Waiting Room, not far from the main hall, glanced around, and closed the door.
“Are you sure it’s okay to be away right now? That wolf fighting your brother—it’s yours, isn’t it?”
“Mine? Ah. I did summon it to lure away the second son of the Kraitan family. It’s not mine though—it’s a Spirit.”
A Spirit? That was a Spirit?
‘No wonder its form looked translucent like smoke and it could fly through the air.’
She’d heard the term before, but there were so few Spirit Summoners left in the Empire that she’d never learned about them properly.
“Your brother Pelrens said he’d kill it. Will it be okay?”
“I told it to play around for a bit, then drop its manifest form. It’ll be fine. If things get dangerous, it can retreat into the Nature Realm.”
“Ah. …Then that’s a relief.”
“But I’ve figured out who you are, and you’re only worried about the Spirit’s safety?”
“What?”
Reponya turned to face him.
Now that she thought about it, only Ryudeom and Reponya were left alone together.
“That’s right!”
Reponya cried out sharply, as if she’d just remembered something she’d forgotten. Ryudeom stifled a laugh.
There was so much to say. So, well, where to start.
“You—you were the Duke of Billemon?”
“I introduced myself properly just now.”
Ryudeom nodded lightly.
So the Ryudeom she’d known and the Ryudeom standing before her now were one and the same person?
Come to think of it, something didn’t add up. She’d wandered through the Estate searching for the heirloom, yet Ryudeom hadn’t appeared anywhere.
She’d thought it was simply bad luck that they hadn’t crossed paths.
‘If that’s the case, then Ryudeom must have been the first person to report that I was in that house.’
Because if Ryudeom had been the first to report it, Sir Bellic would surely have known.
Sir Bellic remembered what the boy who’d made the report looked like, but he didn’t know who he was.
‘But when I asked him about it back then, he didn’t deny it.’
Reponya’s brow furrowed as she fixed him with a wary gaze.
“Why didn’t you tell me beforehand?”
“You never asked who I was.”
“Are you joking with me right now?”
As Reponya screwed up her face, Ryudeom spoke while barely suppressing a smile.
“I was planning to tell you once I’d properly inherited the title. That’s why I asked you to come meet me. I deliberately sent you my invitation first with my name on it so you’d recognize me. And here you are, saying you didn’t even know who I was.”
“What? Disappointed? Why would you be disappointed? You didn’t tell me you were the Duke of Billemon.”
Her shock was so complete that even her pronunciation grew clipped.
“Still, I told you to come meet me. That’s why I thought you’d understand the signal.”
“How was I supposed to know that?”
“By seeing the invitation and realizing I was the Duke of Billemon.”
Reponya went still.
“…That’s not it. I was planning not to attend this party at all.”
“What? You weren’t going to come at all? Wow. That really is disappointing.”
In all her years, this was the first time anyone had ever told Reponya they were disappointed in her.
People had been angry with her, sad, pitying, manipulative, trusting—but never disappointed.
“You also used me to make sure this party didn’t get cancelled, didn’t you?”
“What? Of course that’s a lie.”
“What?”
Ryudeom looked at her with an incredulous expression, tilting his head.
“You don’t actually believe everything you said to the Duke of Kraitan just now, do you?”
……
“Look, Reponya. You told me not to say we knew each other. And you said you didn’t know me. But I sent you my invitation first, and the moment I saw you, I was so happy I rushed over to greet you.”
“Y-yeah, that’s true.”
“The story didn’t add up, so I mixed fact and fiction together to make it fit.”
“I thought it was real.”
“I know. Looking at your reaction, I guess I have a talent for lying.”
Ryudeom let out a hollow laugh and teased her. Reponya, embarrassed, muttered to herself with a petulant edge.
“If you’d told me beforehand that you were the Prince of Billemon, I wouldn’t have said I didn’t know you.”
At her words, Ryudeom fell silent for a moment. Then he pulled at his perfectly tied Cravat and loosened it slightly as he let out a sigh.
“…If you’d known who I was from the start, we wouldn’t have become this comfortable with each other.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Now that you know who I am, you must have developed certain expectations.”
“Expectations?”
Reponya tilted her head, confused.
“Yes. Tell me what you want. Let’s find common ground.”
‘Self-absorbed….’
She’d been thinking it for a while now, but this boy really was something.
“Listen.”
“Yeah. Whether it’s money or the power you need, just say the word—”
“Is that why you didn’t reveal your identity? Because you were afraid that once people knew you were a Duke, I’d ask you for money or try to borrow your power?”
……
What a narrow, confined way of thinking for a child.
“What could I possibly want from you?”
“What?”
“Well, I don’t want anything from you.”
Of course. Reponya would return once this was all over anyway, so she had never expected anything from Ryudeom in the first place.
“Why?”
“Hmm?”
“A good chess piece appeared, so using it is only natural, isn’t it? I’d make a good chess piece for you, wouldn’t I?”
Ryudeom’s expression betrayed genuine bewilderment. The way he described himself so casually as a chess piece to be used and discarded suggested this wasn’t his first time in such a situation.
As the sole heir to the Billemon Duchy, those around him would never have left him untouched.
“I have no such intention.”
Reponya spoke with finality. Ryudeom’s face remained uncomprehending.
“The Kraitan family has plenty of money, and their power is sufficient—I don’t need anything from you.”
“…Ah.”
Ryudeom exhaled in bewilderment, then turned his head away.
“Right. You’re… a Kraitan noblewoman.”
Within the empire, the only house that could stand equal to the Kraitan family was the Billemon Duchy.
Which meant the Kraitan family was the only place that didn’t need the Billemon Duchy’s help.
The tips of Ryudeom’s ears had flushed red as he turned away, clearly embarrassed at not having thought that far.
Reponya politely pretended not to notice, turning her head as well.
Still, a child referring to himself as a chess piece—how odd.
‘It might be connected to the Billemon Duchess’s affairs.’
But that was none of Reponya’s concern. She had no time to delve into Ryudeom’s personal problems.
Besides, as a Kraitan noblewoman, she had never intended to forge deep connections with anyone.
All of it would be severed once everything ended anyway.
She didn’t understand why Ryudeom had come to her bedroom twice or why he insisted she keep coming. But that wasn’t the point now.
“…I may have no expectations of you, but still—I must do what should be done.”
One thing was one thing; another was another.
“Your Grace, the Duke. Please forgive my earlier rudeness.”
She could not allow her family’s reputation to be tarnished by her conduct. It mattered little how their first meeting had gone or what their age difference was.
She still needed to remain in the family’s good graces.
Reponya offered Ryudeom a proper, elegant bow.
He’d inherited the dukedom—she’d assumed he’d be satisfied with the appropriate treatment.
“……Kheh.”line>
Kheh?

What came back was a stifled laugh. Reponya lifted her head with a bewildered expression.
Ryudeom pressed his palm over his mouth, head turned away, struggling to suppress his laughter as he watched Reponya’s graceful, formal bow.
Perhaps it was because they’d met twice without knowing who the other was and spoken freely. Even after learning he was the patriarch of the great Billemon family, she felt little burden, no great fear.
“So we’re offering greetings now? Your Grace? Will you accept them properly? Hmm? Your Grace? Asking forgiveness for rudeness? Your Grace?”
Or perhaps it was because he was the only person in her life who had ever told her to keep living.
He’d told her to live.
So at least—he didn’t seem the type to kill Reponya no matter what.
“Speaking formally doesn’t make one courteous, you know. My lady.”
There he went.
For such impertinent words, Ryudeom simply laughed. The embarrassment from before had vanished entirely.
Ryudeom reached toward Reponya’s hair. Since Buddie and Beckie needed to look pretty, he’d pinned up her hair tightly since morning—and now he unfastened the Hairpin that held it in place with a soft click.
As the Hairpin came loose, her hair tumbled down in silken strands, and relief washed over her.
Reponya blinked, watching Ryudeom.
“Yeah. This looks prettier after all.”
“…….”
“I’ll keep this, shall I?”
Ryudeom brazenly pocketed the Hairpin, tucking it into his pocket with a confident expression.
“Now I’ve been rude too—will you forgive me?”
“Wh—what?”
“Then let’s forgive each other. Reponya.”

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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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