The Villainess Duke Lady Hides Her Identity - Chapter 43

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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 43

Today was like any other day.
Reponya woke and dressed in the Dress that Buddi and Beki recommended, combing her hair neatly.
The meal was delicious, and she was pleased that the Rocking Horse—now returned with added safety features—had arrived. The speed remained unchanged, but the satisfaction of no longer being carried like a doll in someone’s arms was unmistakable.
Today, the troublesome retainers didn’t catch her eye, and even their charges—the attendants—now performed their duties capably enough that they hardly warranted notice.
“My lady.”
“Yes?”
“The Duke has summoned you to the Family Inner Quarters at once.”
“To the Inner Quarters? What for?”
It was not Reponya who answered Buddi’s words with a question, but Pelrenss, who was always at her side.
Buddi bowed respectfully to Pelrenss’s inquiry and replied.
“Your eldest brother, the Young Master Havelian, has arrived.”
Reponya stiffened. That’s right. She’d forgotten—this household did have an eldest, didn’t it?
“He’s come? Why? It’s not Mother’s Anniversary of Death today. He never shows his face except on that day or when—” Pelrenss muttered cynically, tugging up the corner of his mouth. The reaction was sharp for something between brothers.
‘Even the father and son aren’t on good terms, and apparently neither are the brothers.’
She had already sensed they weren’t close; Pelrenss rarely spoke of Havelian without scorn.
‘If they got along, he wouldn’t have told me at the start that there was no family here.’
Just as Reponya was beginning to nod, Pelrenss spoke first.
“Since he’s not coming with any good news anyway, tell him we’re not going. Neither Ponya nor I.”
Pelrenss scooped Reponya up from where she sat on the Rocking Horse and carried her with one arm while steadying the horse with the other.
“Let’s head that way instead. Ponya.”
It seemed he meant to keep his distance to avoid running into Havelian.
‘Well, I wouldn’t mind not meeting him either, but…’
Still, Havelian was the eldest of this household and the legitimate heir.
It would be one thing if she hadn’t known he’d returned to the Mansion, but she’d already heard—pretending she hadn’t would not be the wisest choice.
Later, if Havelian made an issue of it, she’d have no defense.
“Brother. Let’s go see him.”
“We don’t have to.”
“I’ve never met him before, so I should go and pay my respects.”
“Don’t worry about it. We can do it later.”
“Then you rest, and I’ll go alone.”
“I’m your escort. That doesn’t work if I let you go by yourself.”
With Reponya cradled in one arm and the Rocking Horse held in the other, Pelrenss headed toward the Greenhouse in the Garden.
“Fluffball. You don’t know what kind of person our brother is, do you? When he fell out of a tree and broke his leg, not a single tear crossed his face. Do you know how old he was then? Only about nine years old. So young, but not a single tear fell—I remember thinking he’d turned into some kind of monster.”
“Still, I think I should go greet him. If someone visits, courtesy demands a proper greeting—it’s on the first page of any book on etiquette.”
“There’s nothing good waiting for you if you meet him, Ponya. Father will handle it well enough on his own. He said he’s been training cadets at the Military Academy, so he’ll probably leave this afternoon.”
Pelrenss’s words had barely finished when—
“I’ve already submitted my Resignation Letter to the Academy, so there will be no reason to return.”
A cold, cynical voice rang out from inside the Greenhouse. Reponya turned her head back.
A man sat at a small table with elegant poise, one long leg crossed over the other, his posture perfectly straight as he tilted his Teacup to his lips.
Not a single crease marred his trousers, not a single strand of hair out of place.
Every button was fastened neatly, from his collar to his cuffs—the complete opposite of Pelrenss, who habitually went about disheveled.
The moment Havelian felt her gaze, he slowly turned his head.
Two crimson eyes—Reponya’s and Havelian’s—met while she rested in Pelrenss’s arms.
And in those crimson eyes, Reponya caught a faint glimmer of disdain.
‘Ah. That face from the portrait.’
The family portrait she’d glimpsed in the Separate Building during that breath-holding contest with Pelrenss.
The young child beaming brightly in that portrait came to mind.
So much so that she could tell who he was without even asking.
‘So this is the eldest Havelian.’
His childhood features had all but vanished, so different was his expression now from what the portrait had shown. The child in that painting had looked impish, bright, and endearing, but the man before her now appeared authoritarian and strikingly imperious.
Perhaps because he was an Aura Master, Havelian didn’t look like someone who taught at the Military Academy so much as someone who could have been a student there himself.
“You…? Brother?”
Pelrenss stopped in his tracks, taken aback by the reply. Havelian, who had been regarding Reponya with an expressionless face, turned his gaze toward Pelrenss.
“How did you get here? I was told you’d be in the Family Inner Quarters.”

“Every time you try to avoid me, you end up holed up in this greenhouse, don’t you, Pelrenss.”
It seemed Pelrenss had retreated to this greenhouse more than once to escape Havelian. The eldest brother held his teacup between long fingers and spoke with casual composure.
“You could change your methods. Or perhaps you hid here hoping I’d come find you, Pelrenss.”
“Are you insane? What kind of thoughts run through your head to say something like that?”
“I thought you’d like it, but it’s a shame you don’t.”
“What? What nonsense are you talking?”
“Pelrenss, when you were small, you’d hide and wait for me to find you, and you’d be happy when I did. Or so I remember.”
“Ha. When exactly are you talking about.”
Pelrenss clicked his tongue. Then he set down the rocking horse he held in one hand and Reponya, whom he’d been carrying in the other, onto the floor.
“Do we really need to look at each other’s faces?”
“There’s no need for that.”
“So I made the effort to avoid you, and yet you come here anyway.”
The atmosphere had turned vicious. Havelian sipped his tea as though accustomed to Pelrenss’s sharp tone.
“Ha. Damn….”
Pelrenss, about to let loose a crude curse with casual ease, faltered and glanced at Reponya. Then he cleared his throat softly.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
Reponya, who had grown accustomed to harsh words from an orphanage, a poorhouse, and the pontiff since childhood, remained unmoved.
“Pelrenss. I didn’t know you’d learned to read others’ feelings. That’s new.”
“You be quiet.”
Pelrenss turned and bent down, lifting Reponya onto the rocking horse.
“Cottontop. You said earlier you wanted to go to the Family Inner Quarters, right? Why don’t you head there first—Father should be there.”
He clearly didn’t want to let her see them fighting. Reponya glanced past Pelrenss’s shoulder at Havelian.
If two Aura Masters clashed, would this greenhouse be destroyed?
“Now I understand. Father and you both seemed remarkably foolish, but it was because a genuine fake had come in.”
Havelian spoke as though it mattered not at all whether Reponya heard him. Or perhaps—he hoped she would hear and be hurt.
“I told you to be quiet.”
Pelrenss clenched his teeth, muttering through them.
“From head to toe, it would be no exaggeration to say you were made purely for deception.”
“When I call you brother, it would be better if you closed that mouth of yours.”
“Don’t you feel any shame toward Mother and your sister, who have passed on, Pelrenss.”
Pelrenss could bear it no longer and shot to his feet.
“Reponya. Get outside.”
Reponya hesitated—should she go while still sitting on the rocking horse?
“As long as you remain in this mansion, you’ll encounter me eventually. I won’t stop you from leaving now, if you’re hoping to meet me later when we’re alone.”
Havelian’s words carried warning, and they were not without truth. He’d said he’d submitted his resignation from the Military Academy, so he would remain at the mansion going forward.
Avoiding him now would solve nothing.
Instead of leaving, Reponya looked between the two men.
Havelian, who had delivered his biting criticism, sipped his tea with elegant poise, utterly unlike the rage-twisted Pelrenss.
“If you’re only going to spout such drivel, you shouldn’t have burst in here in the first place. I went to the trouble of avoiding your wretched face, and you couldn’t even grant me that.”
“Why don’t you try using that head of yours for something useful. It’s regrettable that I see no improvement whenever we meet, dear brother. Every time we encounter each other, you flee to the same place—I can’t tell whether you’re sending a message or not.”
“Then simply don’t come here.”
“This was a place Mother loved in life. I have no intention of abandoning it just to avoid one person.”
Reponya decided she would have to revise her earlier thought that Pelrenss and Duke Craitan didn’t seem to get along well.
This wasn’t merely poor relations.
The chill radiating from both brothers filled the greenhouse; the very air seemed ready to freeze solid.
“And I should dispel a grand delusion of yours: I did not come here to see you.”
Havelian drained his teacup and set it down soundlessly, then rose to his feet.
His clothing bore not a single wrinkle or speck of dust—pressed to perfection.
With long strides, Havelian approached to stand before Reponya. She rose from the rocking horse as well.
“Your name is Reponya, I believe. Father mentioned it to me.”
Havelian looked down at her with an imposing air. His height was such that Reponya had to tilt her head back sharply to meet his eyes.
He showed no inclination to bend his legs or waist for her sake.
“Yes.”
Reponya nodded and offered a greeting with perfect propriety, as the pontiff had taught her. Her posture was flawless.
“Reponya Craitan.”
“Father adopted you on the road to the orphanage, I’m told.”
“Yes.”
His brusque tone and rigid expression were as though he addressed a subordinate—the kind that would make a five-year-old weep with terror.
But Reponya was not a five-year-old.
The treatment Havelian showed her was something she had endured countless times before.
When had anyone ever smiled at her with genuine warmth?
If anything, Duke Craitan and Pelrenss were the unusual ones.
So Havelian, rather than frightening her, felt strangely comforting.
“I happened to overhear part of your conversation just now.”
“I see.”
“They say on the very first page of proper conduct, it’s written that one should greet a visitor.”
“I see.”
“So I came to offer my greetings.”
Reponya tilted her head slightly.
“It’s a bit strange for you to seek me out and greet me when you’re not even a true member of this household.”
In Havelian’s eyes as he looked down at Reponya, distrust and contempt and anger were etched so deeply they were nearly impossible to hide.
“That’s why I came here myself to greet you, seeing as you’ve entered this Mansion.”
The intention behind his words was unmistakable.
No matter how long Havelian had been away, he was someone who belonged to this Mansion and had returned to it; Reponya, by contrast, was someone from outside who remained here without leaving, taking root in a place that was never hers.

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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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