The Villainess Hid Her Identity, and Now Everyone is Misunderstanding - Chapter 107

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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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The Villainess Hides Her Identity, and Everyone Misunderstands
Chapter 107

The Investigator’s expression hardened.
He seemed to expect me to throw a tantrum. Though I was being called a Saint now, Evelyn’s notorious reputation before that had certainly been formidable.
The moment my hand touched the teacup, he flinched and tensed his entire body.
What, did he think I was about to hurl it at him?
Watching him cower like that, I couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh. At that, his face grew even more rigid, and he barely managed to part his lips.
“…Miss Evelyn.”
“Ah.”
I raised my palm lightly in a placating gesture.
“Don’t misunderstand. I have no intention of stopping you.”
Slowly, I relaxed my upper body, leaned back against the chair, and crossed my legs.
“Since you’re here, please feel free to look around as thoroughly as you’d like.”
“…Pardon?”
“The room. Whether it’s the drawers, the wardrobe, or under the bed.”
I gestured around the room with my finger in a sweeping motion.
It was, after all, the bedchamber of a noblewoman.
Even if I were hiding something, they were not in a position to search thoroughly enough to find it.
“Who knows? Perhaps I’ve left a note somewhere that says ‘profits gained while impersonating a Saint.'”
“….”
“If something like that turns up, it would certainly make your report to your superiors much easier, wouldn’t it?”
As I added, “Wouldn’t it?”, he fell silent for a moment.
He must have expected me to refuse and resist, but receiving the exact opposite answer left him uncertain how to respond.
“…Then I shall proceed.”
Finally, he answered quietly and gestured to his subordinates behind him.
At his command, two men in Imperial uniforms began moving silently through the room.
Drawers opened carefully, and papers on the desk were examined one by one. He refrained from touching the perfume bottles or jewelry boxes on the vanity.
It was only natural.
This was not a space that mere junior investigators could ransack thoroughly. Overturning the wardrobe of a high-ranking noblewoman and lifting the bedding was something they couldn’t dare attempt without the Emperor’s direct command.
That’s why they’d come to request my “cooperation” in the first place.
Yet even so, Genie kept her mouth sealed shut, her feet tapping restlessly.
“M-Miss Evelyn…!”
A soft whisper reached my ears, but I merely snorted in response. They wouldn’t be able to search properly anyway, and there was nothing to find regardless.
Being suspected of impersonating a Saint—I found even this suspicion distasteful.
“…May I take this with me?”
A man carefully held up several letters placed on the table and a couple of thin books.
They were merely ceremonial letters exchanged formally in High Society, and ordinary books at that. He even glanced at me nervously, as if unsure whether he was permitted to take them.
I tilted my head briefly, pretending to examine them, then nodded with casual indifference.
“Of course, take whatever you wish.”
I added while tracing the handle of my teacup with my fingertips.
“If you mark any passages that interest you while reading and return them, that would be even better.”
The man’s hand faltered.
Regardless, I took a sip of the cooling tea. Its warmth brushed across my tongue and dissipated.
Before long, their hands held bundles of letters, several books, and a note or two. They dared not touch anything beyond that.
I understood—they needed to take something, or their report would seem meager.
‘…So the main matter remains.’
I gazed up at the Investigator leisurely. There was no way this would end with a simple “Thank you, we shall take our leave.”
As expected, after glancing back at his subordinates organizing their findings, he turned his attention toward me.
“Evelyn, today’s visit was merely a preliminary inspection, but given the nature of the matter, it appears the formal investigation will proceed at the Imperial Palace.”
“At the Imperial Palace?”
“Yes, the Imperial Investigation Bureau will send you a formal summons in due course.”
Despite the content, his tone remained courteous throughout.
‘How presumptuous….’
I held back a smile and placed my teacup neatly upon its saucer.
“A summons, how refreshing to receive one after so long.”
“…After so long?”
“I shall be waiting for it.”
It was a word that stirred memories of distant days. Though this time would surely be different.
I was rising slowly from my seat to see him out.
“How dare you insult the main house!”
A thunderous roar shook through the Manor from afar.
‘Oh, dear.’
It seemed the Duke had lost his temper.

* * *

Killian watched the Investigators nervously rifling through his room.
His fingertips trembled faintly each time a drawer opened and closed, though his expression remained composed. There was nothing incriminating to find anyway, and as the eldest son of House of Rosenthal, he had been thoroughly trained in discretion since childhood.
But his mind was elsewhere.
‘…Evelyn.’
His sister’s face was the first thing that came to mind.
The fact that an Investigator had been assigned to him meant the same situation was unfolding in Evelyn’s room. And they had deliberately chosen the moment the Duke had just entered the Imperial Palace.
The strategy was so transparent—isolating the most troublesome Duke and then searching the Noble Family—that he couldn’t even bring himself to comment on it.
‘…Will she be alright.’
Worry surged to the forefront.
The old Evelyn would have hurled tea water in an Investigator’s face by now, calling them presumptuous. And if things escalated, she would have hidden behind the Duke’s name and weathered it.
But the recent Evelyn was different. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what had changed, but something had.
‘Yes, it was around then.’
After the Crown Prince’s broken engagement became public, he had come to the Capital City on the Duke’s orders. The Evelyn he had encountered then carried an inexplicable sense of discord.
Her willful and uninhibited demeanor remained unchanged, yet her eyes had swept across the situation with an oddly composed clarity that he couldn’t shake from his mind.
As if she had been struck by something in a single moment and become a different person….
“Duke.”
The Investigator before him spoke in a formal tone.
“May I take these documents with me for a time?”
“…Do as you see fit.”
Killian answered indifferently and turned his gaze toward the window.
That was when it happened.
“Do you dare insult the main house?”
A roar that shook the Manor thundered through. Killian’s head snapped around.
‘Father.’
It was the Duke’s voice.
With the family’s honor at stake, this was something that absolutely could not be overlooked.
“Forgive me, but I must excuse myself for a moment.”
With those brief words, Killian immediately left his room and hurried down the Corridor.
The red carpet beneath his feet seemed to curl with each step. The voice echoing from the far end of the Manor grew steadily closer.
The moment he turned the corner.
“Since when has the Imperial Investigation Bureau treated the Noble Family’s threshold as though it were their own home? I would appreciate if someone would explain this to me.”
“Your Grace, we were merely….”
Killian’s eyes swept quickly across the scene before him.
The Duke stood before a group of Investigators, dressed as though he had turned back upon hearing urgent news on his way to the Imperial Palace.
The Investigators responded without expression, yet they could not hide their tension in the Duke’s presence.
And beside the Duke….
“Father.”
Evelyn was standing there.
It was unclear when she had arrived, but she was already positioned at the Duke’s side, half a step behind him. Far from showing any confusion, she looked as composed as someone who had just set down a teacup and risen from her seat.
Killian stopped in his tracks and regarded her briefly.
‘First, I should pretend to stop him.’
If Evelyn intervened, the situation could spiral out of control.
Killian, having assessed the situation, stepped forward. Or rather, he was about to.
“The Investigators are simply following orders, Father. Getting angry at them won’t make the person who sent them reconsider, will it?”
A voice tinged with mockery cut through the tension.
Killian froze in place.
The tone was far too composed to be facing the Duke’s fury—as if she knew this was nothing but a performance.
The Investigators who had been arguing with the Duke rolled their eyes, trying to gauge the shift in atmosphere. Yet the Duke merely stared at Evelyn, his lips sealed.
She swept her gaze across the Investigators before curling her lips into a smile and continuing.
“Besides, I truly haven’t done anything.”
She tilted her head slightly, looking up at the Duke. Her blue eyes held a peculiar gleam.
“So there’s no reason for Father to be angry, and no reason for me to cower.”
“….”
“The Investigators are here to fulfill their assigned duties, so we need only show them proper courtesy as they leave.”
She spoke slowly, emphasizing each syllable.
“Isn’t that right?”
With those lightly spoken words, Killian stared blankly at Evelyn. The frozen air that had gripped the room moments before was now being pressed down, layer by layer, by her measured voice.
‘…Ah.’
Killian drew a short breath without thinking.
The image of Evelyn interrogating someone in the Dungeon yesterday suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Without raising her voice or laying a hand on them, simply by standing in the same space, she had slowly dismantled her opponent.
The old Evelyn had possessed charisma too. But it was the sharp, cutting kind—like jagged glass that sliced anyone who drew near.
Yet this Evelyn was different.
There was a weight to her presence that made you want to step back and entrust everything to her—as if following her lead would set this entire situation right.
Like a blade that had been pointed in the wrong direction for so long, finally finding its true aim.
In that moment, Killian finally acknowledged it. Regardless of when it had begun, his sister had changed.

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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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