The Villainess Hid Her Identity, and Now Everyone is Misunderstanding - Chapter 51

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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 51

Goodness, there could be no more perfect gossip for people to chatter about than this.
I could feel Rakiel beside me subtly tensing, uncertain what Ludwig might say.
“It’s been a while, Evelyn. Have you been well?”
How brazen of him.
If he knew that our last meeting had ended with him slapping my face, he would never dare speak to me like this.
It was obvious why Ludwig had gone out of his way to approach me with such words. He still intended to publicly declare that the Rosenthal heiress belonged to him.
…And I had decided to play along with his tune.
“Your Highness!”
I looked up at him with an exaggerated, radiant smile. I could clearly see the amusement dancing in his eyes.
The moment I responded, snickers rippled through the surrounding crowd. Someone murmured, “As expected of the Rosenthal heiress.”
Rakiel glanced at me briefly, but that was all.
“Your Highness, how I’ve missed you. The time spent away from your side felt like the longest season of my life.”
His gaze shifted toward the jewels adorning my dress at the waist.
‘As expected, he recognized it immediately.’
Wrapped around my waist was, remarkably, the necklace he had gifted me, arranged like a decorative accessory. The matching colors made it blend in perfectly.
I had worn it secretly, knowing Genie would have something to say about it, but fortunately, it seemed to have bolstered Ludwig’s confidence.
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. As if satisfied.
“You look particularly beautiful today, Evelyn. Truly worthy of being the most beautiful woman in the Empire.”
I lowered my head slightly, as if bashful.
“You flatter me too much. Your Highness shines by mere existence, like a star of the Empire. No portrait could ever capture your beauty.”
Flinch.
His cheeks twitched slightly, but he quickly turned his head away.
“…So you were here too, Rakiel.”
“I had no idea you would come, brother.”
Rakiel continued with slightly formal speech. He wasn’t openly showing it, but his expression had subtly hardened.
“By the way, did you two enter together? That’s quite rare. I thought you had no connection with each other.”
“Well, it is what it is.”
Rakiel answered briefly, shrugging his shoulders.
Needless to say, the tongues of the surrounding onlookers began moving rapidly at his suggestive response.
“Indeed, it’s a good thing for the princes and heiress of the Empire to build connections. You are the ones who will lead the Empire forward, after all.”
“So that’s why you also maintain relations with the heiress, brother. Truly, you are someone I should emulate.”
At his words, delivered with a sly smile, Ludwig’s expression suddenly hardened. It was a subtle jab criticizing his current behavior.
Ludwig’s brow twitched, and he turned his head to look at me once more.
It seems I’m easier to underestimate than I thought.
The moment he confirmed that I still gazed at him with admiration, his expression relaxed as if he’d found reassurance.
“I received your letter well, Evelyn. I hear you’ve been to the Rosenthal Estate?”
“Yes, Your Highness. During my time at the Estate, whenever the sun rose, I spent each day thinking of you, the Crown Prince, shining brilliantly.”
“That… is quite an honor.”
“I eagerly await the day I can always be by your side, Your Highness.”
‘…Did I overdo it?’
But I had no choice but to provoke Ludwig this way. I needed to make him believe that the ‘Rosenthal heiress’ still belonged entirely to him.
Fortunately, he acted exactly as I anticipated.
“You truly haven’t changed, Evelyn. It seems misunderstandings had accumulated back then. I hope we can maintain a good relationship going forward.”
“I am always on your side, Your Highness. That will never change.”
The murmuring around us grew louder.
Rakiel also began to show signs of unease, glancing at me as if trying to unravel my intentions. Thanks to that, the victorious smile blooming on Ludwig’s face deepened further.
And finally, brimming with confidence from head to toe, he uttered the words he’d been preparing.
“Then, Evelyn, might you grant me the honor of dancing your first dance with you?”
At last.
The moment I heard those words, a thrilling sensation swept through my entire body.
Dance a first dance with someone else when I already had a partner? It was absolutely unthinkable. That would be an insult to my partner.
But if this were Evelyn, she would have danced with Ludwig regardless of propriety or dignity. In other words, Ludwig was trying to demonstrate through this act.
That the heiress who entered with Rakiel—whom everyone believed would become his fiancée—still belonged to him, and that what Rakiel had obtained, the ‘Rosenthal Duchy,’ was merely half-measures.
And I, after gazing at him quietly, finally uttered the words I had imagined all along.
“Oh my, I’m terribly sorry, Your Highness….”
Confirming the timer gleaming in the corner of my vision, I continued with a barely concealed smirk.
“But I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
The reason I had knelt was… to gain momentum!
As my words echoed softly, silence descended upon the entire Banquet Hall.
Could there be anything more humiliating than the Crown Prince, whom everyone believed to be perfect, being rejected for a first dance by his former fiancée?
And in the very center of the Banquet Hall, with all eyes upon us.
Ludwig still hadn’t fully grasped my words, his hand extended toward me unchanged.
“Then come….”
“No, Your Highness. Didn’t you understand? I said the dance won’t be possible.”
“…What?”
His bewildered expression froze in place.
I was savoring the exhilarating sense of victory and liberation.
How desperately I had wanted to speak these words in Evelyn’s body! To see Ludwig’s face like this!
The system’s constraints had loosened considerably, but when it came to Evelyn’s love for Ludwig, there was almost nothing I could do of my own volition.
‘That’s why I thought I could never escape without achieving a high level….’
The ‘autonomous action’ that appeared at just the right moment was like rain in a drought.
Rakiel wore a slightly surprised expression before clamping his mouth shut as if trying to suppress laughter. Despite his efforts, his lips were visibly twitching.
However, no one was signaling Rakiel. Everyone around us was watching Ludwig’s expression and couldn’t help but let out suppressed laughter.
Ludwig seemed too flustered to even notice what had just happened.
Of course, rejecting a dance invitation wasn’t uncommon. Circumstances varied from time to time.
However, the reason he’d become a laughingstock was that he now appeared to have made advances toward someone else’s partner and been rejected.
‘So who would brazenly thrust their face forward like that?’
It felt like a ten-year-old knot in my chest had suddenly loosened.
Ludwig’s face finally seemed to grasp the situation, growing increasingly flushed. A mixture of embarrassment and anger swirled across his features.
“Evelyn.”
He spoke in a low voice.
“Are you joking right now?”
“Joking? I’m quite serious.”
I smiled calmly and continued with an apologetic tone.
“I’m truly sorry. I promised my first dance to Prince Rakiel, so I think I can dance with you next. Would that be alright?”
“Are you asking me to wait while you dance one song with the lady?”
It was an extraordinarily arrogant statement. Especially to direct at an unmarried Crown Prince without even a betrothed.
I covered my mouth with my hand, feigning slight surprise.
“Oh my, I’m so sorry! What should we do?”
I pretended to be at a loss, then secretly tapped Rakiel’s forearm where no one could see. He immediately understood and jumped into the conversation.
“Ah, it’s fine with me, Evelyn. I’ll yield my first dance to my brother. I can wait a moment.”
“Really? You’d truly do that for me?”
I gazed at Rakiel with sparkling eyes, as if I desperately wanted to dance my first dance with Ludwig.
“How kind of you! Your Highness, Prince Rakiel has ‘yielded’ his first dance to you!”
I deliberately emphasized the particular word as if I’d misspoken.
As I spoke with an innocent laugh, I heard laughter burst out from those around us.
They’d understood exactly what I intended.
‘Of course, they wouldn’t think I actually meant it that way.’
Ludwig seemed to think he was being mocked, but he couldn’t openly express his anger here.
After all, the person who lost their temper would look foolish.
He clenched his teeth as if trying to endure the insult, and only after a long moment did he force out a smile.
“No, Rakiel. It’s not as if I desperately wanted to dance with Evelyn… so you don’t need to yield… to me.”
“Is that so? It seemed Your Highness ‘desperately’ wanted to be with Evelyn…”
“That was… not the case. I appreciate it, but I’ll decline on my end. Evelyn, it would be better if we danced together at the next banquet instead.”
The way his lips trembled while still trying to appear superior was quite a sight.
He was doing everything he could to make it seem as though he held the upper hand.
I let my gaze drift with a disappointed expression, pouting slightly.
“I understand, Your Highness. Then you’ll definitely dance with me at the next banquet!”
“…Yes, of course.”
Just as he turned to leave, clearly wanting nothing more to do with this situation, I swiftly passed something into his hand as if by accident.
‘I can’t leave it at this.’
It had been satisfying, but if I left things as they were, all my efforts to deceive him would come to nothing. I needed to appease him at this point.
Ludwig flinched as something suddenly entered his hand, then gripped it tightly. His glance back at me burned with a smoldering intensity.
‘Well, I’m going to have quite the ordeal ahead of me.’
But after steeling my resolve, I took Rakiel’s outstretched hand. After all, he was my partner for the first dance of the evening.

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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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