The Villainess Duke Lady Hides Her Identity - Chapter 58

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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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58

Reponya blinked awake with a start, her long lashes fluttering. The darkness pressing in told her it was the middle of the night.
‘I’m back at the Estate.’
The warmth enveloping her body suggested that escaping the Orphanage hadn’t been a dream.
‘…It’s warm.’
Reponya pushed herself upright. Unlike when she’d slept curled on the floor, the plush bed seemed to have melted away her exhaustion entirely.
Her gaze, still foggy with sleep, found a roaring fireplace ahead.
‘…Did they light that intending to burn the Bedroom down?’
Reponya’s eyes drifted from the fireplace downward. Instead of those rags no prisoner would deign to wear, someone had changed her into the comfortable indoor clothes she normally slept in.
Bandages wound around her fingertips — a doctor must have visited.
“Wait—my jewel!”
Reponya’s eyes widened in alarm. She’d tucked the Green Jewel into her pocket!
After accepting Havelian’s apology and agreeing to return to Craitan’s Estate, exhaustion had claimed her and she’d drifted off.
‘I needed to tell Rudeuum that everything went well.’
Reponya hurriedly checked her surroundings. Fortunately, they hadn’t carelessly discarded it—the Green Jewel sat on the table beside her bed.
“Phew.”
Reponya exhaled in relief and clutched the Green Jewel tightly in her hand.
‘Without Rudeuum, I’d be spending another night in solitary, bruised and battered.’
Reponya perched on the edge of the bed, swinging her short legs back and forth.
‘He said the Trigger Word was his name, didn’t he?’
Now that she knew, it felt a bit embarrassing to call it out.
“…Rudeuum.”
Reponya gripped the Green Jewel and spoke his name—the Trigger Word.
He’d said he could hear her voice from anywhere and they would share location, so he’d know she’d returned to the Estate.
‘What will happen to those servants who sent me to the Orphanage?’
Though nominally an adopted child, Reponya had been publicly recognized by the royal family and formally acknowledged as a Noble Daughter by Duke Craitan himself. Those servants who had laid hands on her would face punishment for their betrayal of loyalty.
Of course, since Havelian had been involved, they wouldn’t face immediate execution.
‘But that servant who swapped the Carriage and the Orphanage without even Havelian knowing…’
Reponya turned the Green Jewel over in her palm, recalling the voice she’d overheard in the Carriage then.
‘I need to deal with him decisively.’
Even if she faced consequences later, a servant who defied Havelian’s orders and tried to eliminate her on his own could become a problem again.
‘…Though I never expected Havelian to cry like that.’
The ashen faces of Duke Craitan and Fellens, and Havelian’s tearful expression, surfaced in her mind again.
‘I shouldn’t have called him if I’d known it would upset him so.’
Reponya lowered her gaze. She hadn’t realized they would project the tragedy of the lost Noble Daughter onto this situation.
If she’d known beforehand, she wouldn’t have made them relive that painful memory.
She knew all too well how they suffered after losing the Duchess and the real Noble Daughter.
She’d only wanted to ensure her own safety so nothing like that would happen again—she’d never meant to touch their wounds.
‘But why do they care about me so much?’
Reponya crossed her arms and tilted her head. Her short legs kicked back and forth.
Duke Craitan had adopted Reponya out of guilt, wanting to atone for the Noble Daughter he’d lost, and he treated her as a daughter.
“It wouldn’t make sense otherwise—adopting her on sight.”
And Fellens? He’d lived under the guilt of failing to protect his family, which was why his Academy graduation was still deferred.
Now, tasked with protecting his sister Reponya, he was finally realizing the duty to protect family that he’d left undone, shedding that guilt in the process.
“Right. From the moment he said he’d protect me, he stopped treating me like a fraud and his attitude changed—I’m certain of it.”
So what about Havelian?
“…I understand he can’t forget his sister, but that doesn’t excuse dumping a five-year-old adopted child in the Orphanage. That was absolutely inexcusable.”
If he could do that without shame or hesitation, he wouldn’t be human.
Reponya nodded to herself.
She understood that each of them, for their own reasons, saw the lost Noble Daughter in her…
“…but if they’re like this, they must be thinking of me as real family.”
Her uncertain voice echoed quietly in the solitary Bedroom.
Real family.
Reponya flinched and shook her head sharply.
“It hasn’t even been a day since I was dumped in the Orphanage and came back. Why would I think like this?”
If she let her guard down believing they were truly family, and then—truly, actually—they rescinded the adoption, what would she do?
What if this time, like when she was abandoned at the Orphanage before, no one came to find her?
Reponya furrowed her brow, remembering those childhood days when she’d wept before the Orphanage’s doors, watching them stay shut to everyone.
That was when it happened.

– [Rudeuum.]
“Yikes!”

The Green Jewel suddenly blazed with light, and Rudeuum’s low voice brushed against her ear as though he were whispering right beside her.
Reponya startled with a sharp cry, shrinking her shoulders. She spun around to check if Rudeuum had arrived, but her Bedroom held only her.
Reponya stared at the Green Jewel in her palm. Coordinates marking Rudeuum’s location flickered across its surface, then vanished.
‘…His voice sounds like… this?’
She’d always been the one calling out to him, so she’d never realized it would reach her ear as a whisper this intimate.
Suddenly she remembered what the shop clerk had mentioned—that couples often used these for such purposes.
‘So that’s what they meant!’
Reponya recalled all those times she’d summoned Rudeuum while holding the Green Jewel.
Did that mean he’d heard her voice like this every single time?
“Ugh! You should have told me!!”
Reponya shot up from the bed on her short legs. If only he’d mentioned it sooner, she never would have used it at all!
“You sold this to a child?! What were you thinking?!”
Reponya conjured the image of that shop clerk—the sort who’d probably sell the entire store if the price was right.

– [Rudeuum.]

At that moment, as if he could see her reaction through the jewel itself, a chuckle bubbled through—playful, mischievous, hilarious. His laughter tickled at her ears.
“Ahhh!”
Reponya tossed the Green Jewel onto the mattress and frantically rubbed both her ears. She scrubbed at them as though to wipe away the lingering sound.
It felt like a dandelion seed had clung to her ear and wouldn’t stop tickling.
‘I’m never using this thing again!’
She’d hide it where she couldn’t even see it. Reponya opened the drawer beside her bed and snatched up the jewel she’d hurled inside.
She moved to toss it back into the drawer when she suddenly froze.
‘That was definitely a mocking laugh.’
She couldn’t let this stand. Reponya, who always returned what she received in kind, clutched the Green Jewel tightly. She glanced around for a moment, then drew a deep breath.
And then.
“Ru—!!! Deu—!!! Um——!!!!!”
She bellowed straight at the jewel with an aggrieved voice, and promptly shoved it back into the drawer and slammed it shut.
If he’d heard it without warning, the shock alone would surely have made his ears ring.
‘That’s my revenge for scaring me!’
The coordinates would still show the Estate, so he’d know nothing was wrong.
Reponya gazed at the drawer with smug satisfaction, a victorious smile spreading across her face.

* * *

– [Ru—!!! Deu—!!! Um——!!!!!!]

The piercing cry drove a laugh straight out of Rudeuum’s chest. From the aggrieved tone in her voice, it was clear she’d finally figured out how it sounded on his end—and wasn’t happy about it.
“Reponya.”
Rudeuum murmured, clutching the Green Jewel that hung at his neck. Her name wasn’t the Trigger Word, so there was no way she could hear him.
Setting Rudeuum as the Trigger Word had been the right call. He could pick up on her thoughts whenever she used his name, and if he’d set it to Reponya instead, Rudeuum’s voice would be constantly bombarding her with every stray call—a disaster.
“This… this little brat.”
At that form of address, Rudeuum turned his head.
Before him stood two assassins who were still very much alive.
If he summoned a Spirit, this would’ve been over long ago. But channeling the Dark Spirit even once left him too weakened to summon other Spirits for roughly a week.
More than that, the other Spirits refused to answer his call while the Dark Spirit’s aura still clung to him.
The restrictions were so severe he’d never ordinarily call upon it—but today, he’d had no choice.
Because Reponya mattered more than his own well-being.
Once when he went to find her, and once more to deliver the sandwich and salve to her.
Two consecutive summonings meant roughly two weeks with no Spirits at his command.
“Just an important message came through. …Let’s continue.”
Rudeuum replied coolly as he swung his blade. Without Spirit aid he could manage these two, though he couldn’t avoid taking wounds at this point—a simple matter of physical limitation.
His body bore several minor cuts already.
The sound of swords clashing and death crying out rang through the air in endless succession.
“Hah.”
As always, it was Rudeuum who stood when the dust settled. He swept his hair back with the hand that gripped his sword, then closed his fingers around the Green Jewel.
“Reponya.”
It was not a Trigger Word, so the words would not reach her.
“You have to live.”
Rudeuum tilted his head back, murmuring into the void.
“If you die, this world will burn entirely and fall into ruin.”
So you must survive, no matter what.
Even if it costs someone else their life.

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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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