The Villainess Duke Lady Hides Her Identity - Chapter 48

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

Chapter 48

* * *

The estate turned out to be unexpectedly peaceful, day after day.
Havelian was not a good family member, but he was an excellent teacher. When Reponya, unaccustomed to the act of asking questions during lessons, found herself troubled, he would notice first, approach her, and ask what she didn’t understand.
In the quarters provided by the Pope, whenever she asked about something she didn’t know, she would be beaten or denied meals—but Havelian was not like that.
“Why are you afraid to ask? Questions are good. It’s foolish to pretend you know something just because you don’t want to admit your ignorance. If you don’t know, ask. And then learn.”
An appropriate distance.
Havelian treated Reponya with exactly that measure of detachment. He would praise her when she learned something new, but he didn’t stroke her head or call her by name the way Pelens did.
It was the attitude of a true teacher toward a student. That was why Reponya found Havelian comforting.
She didn’t need to steel herself against the possibility of excessive affection that would make her endlessly doubt and waver.
Moreover, as Pelens had said, Havelian truly was a genius. Ask him anything, and there was nothing he didn’t know.
The title “teacher” no longer felt strange.
Havelian had such a hunger for learning that he would study alongside Reponya in his spare time.
“Teacher. What is that?”
“Last winter, there was a heavy snowfall that froze all the flora and fauna, causing severe food shortages among the fiefdom’s people. Father is preparing for this winter as well, but he’s still exploring better solutions. Pay close attention. It won’t hurt to know these things.”
“All right.”
On nights when everyone slept, Reponya would huddle under her blanket in the Nursery and call out to Rudeom many times over, but he never appeared.
‘What a liar.’
He said he’d come if I called.
Just in case there was an invisible spirit lingering nearby, she even called out, “Spirit, spirits,” but there was no response.
‘You said you needed me.’
How could he leave someone he said he needed like this?
She was thinking it might be time to seek out Rudeom directly, or perhaps create some pretext and send him an invitation—on such an ordinary day.
Bang!
“What did you just say?”
Trouble had finally erupted.
Havelian, who rarely showed emotional disturbance over minor matters, slammed his palm on the desk and surged to his feet.
“Sit down. Havelian.”
“Where did you say it burned?”
Havelian’s face had grown fearsome in a way it never had before. His red eyes flashed like the pillars of flame from that fire that would not die down.
“What does that room mean.”
The Nursery where Reponya had stayed—the nursery prepared for a true princess—had burned. Only now did Havelian learn this, and his teeth ground together audibly.
“How could you—”
“When I stopped the pursuit, I was even prepared to empty that room and let her go.”
“You know perfectly well what that room means, Father!”
Havelian cried out in fury.
“How could you give up that place? How could you? Do you even understand what was in there?”
Reponya recalled the day she had first stepped into that Nursery.
It was a room filled with invisible affection. Sunlight poured through at all hours, keeping it warm with no chill, and not a speck of dust disturbed the air—it was immaculate.
Hand-carved toys created by a master craftsman were everywhere, and the floor was cushioned so that a growing child learning to walk would not hurt herself if she fell.
Everywhere a hand had touched spoke of the future hoped for, expected for a child yet to come.
“It was a room for my sister. A place that Mother and I prepared and decorated with our own hands for her.”
…….
“Not only did you give up such a place, but it burned to ashes?”
His voice trembled, as if struck by shock. Throughout their time together, the indifferent man who had shown no great disturbance could be undone by one thing alone: his sister, whose very fate remained unknown.
“If she comes back, if my sister comes back, I wanted to show her what Mother and I prepared with such care. You understand that, don’t you?”
At Havelian’s murmur, Duke Kraitan lowered his gaze as though he had committed some sin.
The duke who had lost the duchess and a daughter not yet a year old.
He had always been guilty before his two sons.
“If it had been possible, I would have found her long ago.”
There was no warmth in his words, yet the duke’s voice shook.
What must it have been like for the duke to witness Reponya dying in such a place.
‘I hope they didn’t burn the room itself.’
At that time, Reponya had left a light apology to an unnamed true princess and burned everything to ensure her own safety.
If she had only known how precious that Nursery was to this family, she might have found another way.
‘…No, that’s not right. Get ahold of yourself.’
Reponya bit down on her lip. She had infiltrated to steal a family heirloom, was clinging desperately to escape the Pope’s grasp—pretending to be good was a luxury she couldn’t afford.
She needed to figure out how to cling to this place tenaciously, by any means necessary.
Just then, Pelens, who had been standing silently behind Reponya, reached out. His large hand settled gently over her head.
He didn’t cover her ears or blind her eyes. Yet that large hand resting on her head felt as reassuring as a roof sheltering her from pouring rain.
Reponya relaxed and leaned softly against Pelens behind her.
“Havelian. It’s time to let her go.”
“When exactly is that time? After we search aimlessly for a decade or so, that time arrives?”
“Now we must accept it. Once we accept it and let her go… my daughter can join her mother’s side.”
“You should have asked my permission. If you’re going to bring someone else into that nursery—!”
“If I had asked you, would you have given it?”
…….
“Tell me, Havelian. Would you truly have permitted it?”
Duke Kraitan muttered softly, his voice trembling.
Both men fell silent. Havelian, finding it unbearable, covered his face with shaking hands.
The day they lost the Duchess and the young Princess at once.
All of House Kraitan’s tragedy had begun that day.
“…It’s all because of that child.”
A hollow, ominous voice spilled out. Between his parted fingers, crimson eyes blazing with fury gleamed sharply.
“Father abandoned his pursuit of my sister because of her, my sister’s nursery was entered by that child, and that nursery burned because the servants opposed it. It’s all her fault.”
Reponya met those eyes peering through the gaps in his fingers, accepting the full weight of that gaze in silence.
The eyes stained with bitter reproach clearly hated her.
“And yet Father, Pelens, …even I myself.”
…….
“Were laughing happily with that child. Hoping that child might change this estate’s atmosphere.”
A bitter, self-deprecating laugh echoed through the room.
“We didn’t even realize—that child was taking everything from us. Not just family.”
Her chest ached. Reponya traced her small palm gently over her breast, as though brushing away thorns she’d swallowed.
“Father. Are we even allowed to laugh happily?”
No one answered that question, laden with despair.
“We failed to protect Mother, failed to protect even one little sister, and yet we’re called Guardian of the Empire and Aura Master. Is that right?”
…….
“What have we done well enough to deserve to laugh?”
Havelian muttered, as though the melancholy that had swallowed the house must never be lifted.
Havelian’s vacant eyes turned toward Reponya.
“Yes. You’ve done nothing wrong. What fault could you possibly have? You were only five years old.”
…….
“And yet I resent you.”
Her entire body prickled as though she’d swallowed thousands of needles. She should have been used to words like this by now.
Behind her, Pelens hastily covered both her ears.
But such sharp antagonism could not be hidden.
“I hate myself for hating a mere five-year-old child, and yet I cannot stop.”
Reponya read Havelian’s lips. The Pope had trained her so that even if she lost her hearing, she could understand speech perfectly well, able to read everything whether she wished to or not.
“Ha. My sister, indeed.”
In that moment, she felt the distance that had briefly drawn closer recently collapse back further than it had ever been.
“You can never be my sister.”
He drew the line firmly. Then he turned away and left the office with faltering steps.
“Ponya.”
Duke Kraitan rose from his seat and came forward, pulling Reponya’s small body into a tight embrace.
“It’s not your fault. Even if it hadn’t been you, eventually the time would have come to let her go. So don’t blame yourself. Rather, I should be grateful to you—thanks to you, I was able to let her go.”
The Duke held her close, sheltering her small form from all the harshness of the world.
“Havelian hasn’t matured yet. He fears accepting you as a betrayal of his lost sister.”
…….
“He came to me every day, boasting that you were a genius. He insisted I assign you a private tutor since coursework at the Academy would bore you—he even carried around that test paper you’d solved everywhere, showing it off to anyone who would listen. So that fool only resents you more because of it. It’s not your fault at all. It’s Havelian’s doing.”
“…Yes. I understand.”
“No. Don’t understand. Ponya.”
“Hmm?”
“That’s Havelian’s burden, not something you need to understand. Why would you try to understand? Don’t. Be angry with him too.”
So she was allowed to be angry alongside him.
Reponya, who had been trying to understand and accept Havelian’s resentment with grace, was taken aback.
“Havelian was the one who treated you carelessly first, so of course you have every right to be angry with him. When you see Havelian, you can yell at him if you want, or ignore him—either way, be angry with him. You’re allowed to do that. Reponya. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

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