The Villainess Duke Lady Hides Her Identity - Chapter 52

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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 52

Reponya blinked in surprise as she suddenly found herself pulled into an embrace.
Though she’d grown accustomed to being held by Duke Craitan and Fellens often enough, being embraced by Rudeuum was new, and the awkwardness made her stiffen.
Feeling her body tense, Rudeuum asked with concern.
“Are you very cold?”
“Yeah.”
As Reponya nodded, Rudeuum patted her back. The rough, simple gesture eased the tension from her entire body.
This wasn’t some solitary cell in the basement of the Orphanage, thick with dread—it was the warmth of Rudeuum’s embrace.
That was all that mattered.
She let her body go slack and buried her face against his shoulder.
So warm. She never thought she’d find warmth here.
“You really found us all?”
“Yes.”
“…How?”
Rudeuum smiled and produced the necklace at his throat. What hung around his neck was an identical jewel.
“Once we each kept one of these, I can confirm someone’s voice and location whenever they call the activation keyword.”
She’d heard an explanation like that before…
‘Oh. The general store.’
She was certain she’d seen them at that shop back then.
They were the very things that engaged couples often used.
“I have a spirit of darkness among those I command. It can move by coordinates through darkness regardless of space. Summoning it takes great toll, so I don’t usually call on it, but the moment I heard your voice and confirmed your location, I came.”
How extraordinary. Reponya gazed at him with wonder, then parted her lips.
“Tell me in advance next time. If I don’t know the activation keyword and can’t call you—”
“That won’t happen.”
Rudeuum was resolute.
“The activation keyword is my name.”
“What?”
“My name. You’ve been calling it all along.”
Now that he mentioned it, when he’d given her the jewel, he’d told her to call his name.
So Reponya had always held the gem and called him by his name. She’d kept calling it, never knowing it was the activation keyword.
“But why didn’t you come before?”
Rudeuum held Reponya close to warm her, stroking her gently as he chuckled softly.
“How could I come if you called from the Estate?”
“You came before, though. You rode that wolf into my bedroom twice.”
“Evading three Aura Masters’ eyes is difficult even for me. I can manage two at most.”
“…I see.”
That’s right—Havelian had come to the Estate after the succession celebration.
With Havelian staying at the Estate alongside Duke Craitan and Fellens,
The Estate now held three Aura Masters.
“Were you waiting for me a long time?”
Rudeuum loosened the arm that had held Reponya and looked at her face as he asked.
Waiting for him?
Reponya’s face contorted. She’d thought there was more she wanted to ask.
“…I don’t know.”
She didn’t know if that was waiting. Reponya hated waiting. Her waits had never brought her the answers she wanted.
Not the parents she’d waited for at the Orphanage, nor the rescuer she’d waited for in the Solitary Cell.
“That’s enough, then.”
Rudeuum smiled faintly and brushed back Reponya’s tangled hair.
“That’s enough?”
“Yeah. You didn’t say no, did you? That’s enough for now.”
Rudeuum brushed himself off and rose from the ground.
“Let’s go.”
“…Where?”
“Anywhere. Isn’t that why you called me?”
Rudeuum was exactly like the rescuer from a storybook that five-year-old Reponya had once longed for.
Back when Reponya was truly five.
Trapped in this solitary cell, she would sometimes lose herself in daydreams—fairy-tale fantasies where a magnificent savior would suddenly materialize and whisk her away, declaring, “Come with me!”
Such imaginings were the only way she could endure this reality.
“Reponya, to wherever you want to go. Anywhere but here, yes?”
“Yes.”
Reponya nodded, still seated, and looked up at Rudeuum.
“Will you take me?”
“That’s why I came.”
Trust people, and they betray you.
She’d failed to suspect Havelian, failed to guard her heart—and for that carelessness, she was abandoned here. When the Pope extended his hand, she believed it salvation and followed him into hell.
All that trust, all that blind faith had brought her full circle, back to this orphanage yet again.
Reponya seized Rudeuum’s sleeve.
Rudeuum smiled and helped her to her feet.
“Rudeuum.”
“Yes?”
“Do you know what’s happened with House of Craitan? If you do, tell me.”
Still gripping his sleeve, Reponya asked her question instead of naming a destination.
Rudeuum held her gaze for a long moment, then parted his lips.
“What’s happened? I know.”
“Then—”
“After the noble assembly ended, the Duke invited me to the Estate. I went—wanted to see you, since he mentioned you’d been listless lately. But when I arrived, the whole place was in upheaval.”
“What?”
“You’d disappeared. That’s what sent the Estate into chaos.”
Rudeuum’s face had gone cold—not merely cool, but sharp with accusation.
“The eldest son?”
“What?”
“The eldest of House of Craitan. What he did.”
Reponya’s jaw tightened, and she fell silent. She didn’t know how much he understood, but she couldn’t speak carelessly about internal family affairs.
As her lips pressed shut, Rudeuum exhaled slowly.
He fastened the buttons of the outer garment he’d draped around her shoulders.
“To be honest, it’s a disaster. No—a calamity.”
“What do you mean?”
“Duke Craitan is furious. Genuinely furious. I’ve never seen him like that.”
“He’s… angry?”
Reponya’s face drained of all color.
If the Estate had been thrown into chaos because she’d vanished, he must think she’d slipped away without a word.
‘Havelian and his retainers might have fabricated a story, given false testimony.’
If that were why the Estate had exploded—
‘I can never return to House of Craitan now.’
She should have said a proper goodbye to Fellens at least. Should have passed along his words about making sure she graduated from the Academy this year.
“Reponya. Why do you look so frightened?”
Rudeuum cupped her pale cheeks in his palms and tilted her chin upward.
“Are you cold?”
She shook her head.
Reponya refused the question with a small movement. Rudeuum pressed gently against her cheeks with his palms and let out a quiet laugh.
But her mind remained turbulent.
“The eldest and second sons of House of Craitan fought seriously.”
“What?!”
“Actually, ‘fought’ might not be the right word. The eldest of House of Craitan was beaten one-sidedly.”
Reponya’s eyes widened.
Havelian taught cadets at the Military Academy.
Moreover, he’d mastered his Aura before Fellens ever did, and during that incident in the Greenhouse, his Aura had surged and suppressed Fellens’s own beneath it.
The notion that such a Havelian could be beaten so thoroughly by Fellens seemed impossible.
“From what I saw, I think he deliberately didn’t fight back—just took the blows.”
“What? Why?”
“His guilt was that great, I imagine. If you ask me, he should have been hit harder still.”
Rudeuum’s face was frightening in its coldness as he said it.
“Do you think… the Duke and Fellens know the full truth of what happened?”
“What, you mean—that the eldest son of House of Craitan conspired with his retainers to abandon you at the Orphanage?”
A small, strangled sound escaped her.
Rudeuum knew it all.
Reponya gasped, covering her mouth with the small palm of her hand.
“The eldest son of House of Craitan told Duke Craitan and the second son the truth, and asked them to help find you. Of course, he asked for my help as well.”
“He asked for help? Havelian did?”
“Yes. The eldest prince went looking for you.”
Reponya’s eyes widened in circles.
“Who went looking for whom?”
“The eldest prince went looking for you.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. The moment you left, he thought something wasn’t right and chased after the carriage at once. But he lost you because of the rain, apparently.”
It wasn’t the face of someone telling a lie.
“That doesn’t make sense. The one who abandoned me here was the teach— no, that person.”
“I know. There are limits to being stupid. But he’ll get the same in return later.”
Reponya muttered bitterly, her voice low and cold, carrying a chill that seemed to freeze the very air.
‘Havelian came for me?’
She couldn’t trust everything Rudeuum said. It might simply be a lie to soothe Reponya’s feelings.
Above all, the idea that Havelian had come after her was almost impossible to believe.
“So he went to the Orphanage where you were supposed to be sent, but you weren’t there. They said you never arrived, and the man driving the carriage was found dead.”
“Dead? What do you mean, dead?”
“Yes. He was found near where the eldest prince lost the trail. They said the carriage had an accident when it slid in the mud. There was no sign that anyone had touched him.”
……
“But no one doubts that it was staged as an accident.”
It was the man who had brought Reponya to this Orphanage and handed her over along with the money.
‘He cut off the tail.’
Only that man knew where Reponya was. So if he died, the only person who knew where Reponya was would disappear forever.
He must have been deliberately killed to guarantee absolute secrecy.
“So everyone thinks I was attacked on my way to the Orphanage and that’s why I disappeared?”
“Yes. I thought you’d been attacked too, and I was ready to turn the entire Empire upside down.”
Rudeuum exhaled as if relieved.
“If I’d been just a little later, I really would have.”
“Then…”
Reponya hesitated before asking the rest.
“You said Duke Craitan was so angry he called me a calamity. That means he’s not angry with me, right?”
“What?”
Rudeuum tilted his head as if he truly didn’t understand.
“Duke Craitan angry with you? Why?”
“I thought he was angry because I left the Estate without saying anything.”
At Reponya’s murmur, Rudeuum let out a small laugh as if he’d heard something amusing.
“That won’t happen. He’d never do something so foolish.”
Rudeuum spoke with a certainty that even Reponya couldn’t manage. Something felt strange.
“…Okay.”
If Rudeuum truly spoke the truth—if Duke Craitan, Havelian, and Fellens were all searching for Reponya who had vanished—
“Rudeuum.”
Reponya reached out and took Rudeuum’s hand.
His palm was rough for a child. Startled by the sudden touch, Rudeuum looked at Reponya.
“Why?”
“I’m not leaving now.”
Reponya pulled at Rudeuum’s hand.
“…You’re staying here?”
“How much longer I stay depends on you.”
Reponya whispered softly, fearful of being heard outside.
“Bring someone from House of Craitan to this place.”
Reponya gripped Rudeuum’s hand tightly.

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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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