The Villainess Duke Lady Hides Her Identity - Chapter 95

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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 95

An uneventful winter was thawing away. Strangely enough, Rudeuum’s prediction had held true—the snow stopped falling.
‘If that’s not Foresight, I don’t know what is.’
Reponya tilted her head back toward the sky, her breath forming small white clouds. The air was still crisp, but spring seemed poised to arrive soon.
Anticipating the coming season, Reponya found herself flooded with tea party invitations.
Though they were styled as tea party invitations, most were simply young ladies her own age asking if she’d like to spend time together.
Duke Craitan had selected a few invitations from young ladies he thought would suit her temperament and provide genuine enjoyment.
It was, in every way, an ordinary and uneventful winter.

“Father, I’ve… I’ve come to find you.”
On the final stretch of winter, on one particularly bitter day.
Until Bellarika came to the door of Craitan Estate claiming she’d come to find her father.

* * *

The butler couldn’t turn away a twenty-year-old girl claiming to have found her father, so he showed Bellarika into the Reception Hall.
“Havelian. Fellens. You two take Reponya and go.”
The Duke rose from his meal upon hearing the butler’s report. He clearly intended to meet Bellarika in the Reception Hall.
“Father. Are you truly going to meet her?”
“First we need to hear what she has to say. We don’t know what information she might possess.”
“But—”
Three pairs of eyes turned toward Reponya, their gazes complicated—apologetic, heavy with guilt.
‘There’s no need to look at me like that.’
Reponya finished her meal and dabbed her lips with her napkin.
They didn’t know who Bellarika was, so they could reasonably assume she might be the true princess—or someone with information about her. Meeting her was natural.
‘Still.’
Reponya tilted her head casually and hopped down from her chair, then grabbed the Duke’s sleeve.
“I’m going too.”
After all, she couldn’t let Bellarika do anything foolish unchecked.
At Reponya’s demand, the Duke’s face grew even heavier with remorse.
“…Reponya. If you wait a moment, I’ll—”
“You said the visitor who came claimed to be your real daughter, didn’t you?”
The Duke stopped breathing.
“You’re going to tell Havelian and Fellens later anyway. Isn’t this House of Craitan business? Are you going to leave me out?”
“That’s—”
“I’m just going with you.”
She needed to watch what Bellarika was up to.
“I know everything already. I hate being left out as if I’m not involved.”
Reponya gripped the Duke’s sleeve with absolute resolve, twisting it slightly.
“…Father, let’s do as Reponya says. If something like this happens several more times, we can’t exclude her as though she’s uninvolved each time.”
Havelian reached out and scooped Reponya into his arms.
“Reponya is a member of House of Craitan.”
Reponya nodded emphatically in agreement. Fellens, standing nearby, furrowed his brow and set down his fork with a sharp clink.
“Just tell her to turn around and leave. That would settle it.”
“Fellens.”
“Obviously she’s a con artist. If she were really the girl she claims to be, why hasn’t she come looking all this time? It makes no sense.”
Fellens shoved his hands into his pockets and slouched against his chair.
“Every year there are frauds matching her age looking for Father. Why should we meet with her? Next year some twenty-one-year-old will show up claiming to be looking for Dad.”
Fellens spoke irritably and ran a hand through his hair.
“I’m sick of it.”
“As I said, even if she is a fraudster, she might possess information we need. That’s why we’re meeting her, Fellens.”
The Duke refused to back down despite Fellens’s objections.
“Fellens. If you don’t want to come in, don’t.”
“Damn…”
Fellens looked back at Havelian and Reponya cradled in his arms, as if seeking their opinion. Reponya answered quickly.
“Even if you and Havelian don’t go to the Reception Hall, I’m going.”
“Sigh.”
The moment Fellens heard Reponya’s opinion, he exhaled deeply and shot to his feet.
“Then I’m coming too.”
“…Fine. Let’s all go and hear her out.”
With the Duke’s permission granted, the four of them made their way to the Reception Hall.
As they entered, Bellarika—draped in a robe—rose from the sofa, trembling visibly.
Anyone could see she was nervous.
“Oh, Father?”
Bellarika opened her mouth carefully, her face taut with tension. Duke Craitan, who had been sitting on the sofa, froze.
‘Bellarika’s acting has improved considerably.’
Reponya observed her with a keen gaze.
“Don’t call me that until we have something certain.”
At the Duke’s cold tone, Bellarika’s cheeks flushed, and she bowed her head as though ashamed.
“Oh, I’m s-sorry… I’m so sorry. It’s just, meeting you made me so happy that I couldn’t think of anything else…”
“I see. So you came looking for me.”
“Yes, yes.”
Bellarika glanced nervously between Duke Craitan and the two brothers.
“These are my sons. If you are truly the daughter I lost, they would be your older brothers—Havelian and Fellens.”
“Ah.”
“And this is my daughter. Likewise, if you are truly my lost child, she would be your sister—Reponya.”
“…Reponya.”
The moment Bellarika heard that name, her face crumpled noticeably.
For just an instant, Bellarika’s mask slipped. She turned to look at Reponya. Reponya stared back at her with cold, unblinking eyes.
Even though she must have known from prior investigation, the way Bellarika reacted to that name confirmed it for Reponya.
‘She remembers my name.’
Of course she would—having schemed and tried to kill Reponya countless times out of jealousy and envy, ever since they were small, for the favor the Pope showed her. She couldn’t possibly forget.
But there was no reason to worry. Reponya and Bellarika had only met when they were ten years old. So Bellarika had no memory of what Reponya looked like at six.
“What a lovely name.”
Bellarika replaced her mask and smiled.
No one seemed to suspect anything amiss.
“Let’s cut through the pleasantries. How did you find me?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The daughter I lost was barely a year old. She would have no memory from that time. And I never gave her anything that could serve as a token.”
True enough—he couldn’t have foreseen such a carriage accident.
“So what in the world made you so certain I was your daughter that you came all this way?”
Had Reponya not drunk the switched potion and shrunk, she herself might have been sitting in that chair, hearing this very question.
Reponya watched intently, eager to hear Bellarika’s answer to this cutting inquiry.
‘Let’s hear the story you worked so hard to fabricate.’
Bellarika fidgeted with her fingers, her voice trembling as she spoke.
“Well, the parents who raised me… they found me. Apparently, people who discovered me tried to sell me to a foreign slave trading ring, but they rescued me at that time.”
It was exactly what Havelian had said when he first came to the Estate.
Maya and Tom, that couple, had found a child and sold her for fifty gold to someone.
The Duke’s information about his lost daughter ended precisely there. Nothing had been uncovered afterward.
‘So she spun a tale about someone who saved her from being sold to the slave trading ring, based on what information he had.’
Reponya nodded inwardly.
“Actually, I only learned about this recently. My parents never told me all these years. But when both of them recently passed away from illness…”
Bellarika bit her lip as though holding back sorrow. Tears glistened like jewels at the corners of her eyes.
“Before they passed, they sat me down and told me everything. When those people who found me were trying to sell me to the slave trading ring, they said I was an infant who had fallen from a carriage belonging to House of Craitan. They said they had to sell me quickly because I was a noble’s child.”
Bellarika clenched her fists and lifted her head sharply. The tears that had pooled at her eyes spilled down her cheeks.
“My parents couldn’t take me back, so they hid me and raised me instead. But before they died, they told me to seek out House of Craitan and find my real family.”
The three men showed no reaction as they watched Bellarika weep.
‘Well-crafted story.’
Whoever had planned this, the narrative was competent. A story too perfect might seem contrived to a cautious man like the Duke.
It was crucial to make the tale plausible—just loose enough to seem genuine.
“Throughout my life, I’ve felt like I was longing for someone. I didn’t understand why, but now I think I finally know.”
Bellarika clutched her chest, tears streaming down her face. Her acting was excellent.
“Sob… Father… no, Duke, seeing you now, I’m certain. I must have been missing you all along.”
Reponya glanced at the Duke. She was curious how he would receive this story.
After a long silence, Duke Craitan parted his lips.
“Proof?”
The Duke regarded the conversation as tedious, his expression flat and colorless.
“I beg your pardon?”
“It’s all hearsay and circumstance. Do you have evidence?” he asked.
Bellarika shook her head gracefully, tears still streaming down her face.
“I don’t have any. The clothes I wore back then are naturally long gone, and as you said, there are no distinctive objects to corroborate my story, and my own memories are fragmented.”
“Evidence-less, then. All words.”
“Yes. My parents, who could have testified as witnesses, have both passed away. I came here because they told me to. If you doubt me, there’s nothing else I can say. The moment I saw you, I was certain you were my father, but if you felt nothing when you looked at me…then I suppose I was mistaken.”
Bellarika spoke with confidence despite her tears. The Duke gazed at her, resting his chin in his hand.
The three men showed no visible reaction.
‘…There’s no way she’d fool me.’
Reponya examined Bellarika intently, tension etched across her face.
Then the Duke rang a bell, summoning his butler.
Shortly after, the summoned butler approached.
“You called for me, Duke?”
“Prepare the Guest Room.”
At the Duke’s words, Reponya’s head snapped up before she could catch herself, and Bellarika smiled.
“We shall observe and wait for now.”
With that, the Duke rose from his seat and left the Reception Hall. Havelian hurried after him in haste.
Reponya stood frozen, staring blankly at the chair where the Duke had sat.
‘Does he believe what Bellarika said?’
It was certainly a well-crafted story. Believable enough, really.
Or so she told herself.
But.
“Cottontail? What’s wrong? Are you alright?”
Reponya quietly watched the back of Bellarika as the butler led her toward the Guest Room.

* * *

“Father. Father!”
Havelian hurried after the Duke as they left the Reception Hall. At the sound of his name, the Duke stopped abruptly in his tracks.
“Father. Have you lost your mind? Her story contradicts everything we’ve recently discovered. A Slave Trading Ring? We’ve just found evidence of children being sold to the Orphanage—”
“Havelian.”
The Duke’s sharp eyes silenced his son. A savage Aura radiated from the Duke’s body. Just as Havelian’s face contorted and he began to step back under the sudden pressure, it happened.
Snap.
The Duke seized Havelian’s wrist and pulled him close.
“Investigate that woman.”
He whispered low so his words would not carry beyond them.
“Reponya knows her.”
“…What?”
“I observed her the entire time. The way she looked at that woman—it wasn’t the gaze of a stranger. She definitely knows her.”
“How could—”
“That woman also clearly reacted when Reponya’s name was mentioned.”
Duke Craitan gritted his teeth.
“Didn’t you say that Reponya might have been confined in the Temple?”
“Yes…?”
“If Reponya was confined somewhere, whether in the Temple or elsewhere, and escaped only to live in that abandoned house before meeting me—”
Duke Craitan formed several hypotheses.
“Then that woman might have come to eliminate the escaped Reponya.”
Dare someone come to threaten his daughter.
Duke Craitan’s eyes flashed a piercing blue as a vicious Aura poured from his body.
“Or perhaps she’s come to spy on information about House of Craitan. Don’t lower your guard—observe her movements carefully. If she attempts to attack Reponya, subdue her immediately; it will mean she came to eliminate her. But if she moves about the Estate with purpose, she’s here to gather intelligence, so leave her be for now.”
“…Why should we let her roam? Can’t we simply capture and interrogate her?”
“Don’t assume that interrogation alone will loosen every tongue, Havelian.”
……
“If her aim is espionage, there will come a moment when she passes information to her allies. That is when we strike.”
“Understood.”
“That woman was never confined in the Temple. She carries none of the distinctive scent and aura that mark the Temple’s priests.”
Duke Craitan, an Aura Master whose senses were honed to extraordinary keenness, recalled Bellarika’s appearance.
The strange, almost scent-free quality to her, as if every trace etched into her body had been carefully erased.
It was like looking at Reponya—someone whose past had left no trace at all.
“Don’t let that one slip away.”
Duke Craitan issued the order to Havelian with cold precision.
“Whether it’s the Temple or not, we’ll dig into their background.”
Havelian’s face hardened as he nodded.
“People of that sort might take their own life if we show our hand too eagerly. We’ll watch and wait for a few days, but don’t take your eyes off them for a moment. Make sure Fellens knows as well.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Keep it from Reponya. There’s no need to frighten her with this.”
“Yes. If she learns we know, her nature being what it is—she’ll only hide deeper out of fear.”
“Precisely.”
“Then let’s make sure that woman sees exactly what Reponya means to this House. Father.”
It was an opportunity to uncover who stood behind all of it—whether the Temple, the Church itself, or someone else entirely.
Duke Craitan’s eyes gleamed with cold satisfaction.
“We’ll make her regret the day she walked into this House of her own accord.”

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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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