The Villainess in the Childcare Story Doesn’t Hide Her Personality - Chapter 2

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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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I pushed open the rotting wooden door, its surface pocked and decaying, only to be struck by air far colder than a midwinter night.
‘This is supposedly the Imperial Palace… Did they really deny the heating budget entirely?’
The interior was even worse.
It resembled nothing so much as a storage room choked with miscellaneous junk.
There was not a single trace of anyone maintaining the space.
‘Did I come to the right place?’
As I stood deliberating whether to leave or stay,
“Snore, snore, snooore….”
A faint snoring sound drifted through the air.
Stepping cautiously inside, I found a middle-aged man of haggard, weathered appearance sleeping soundly beyond the piles of clutter.
‘Samuel McGarvin, Child Protection Bureau Director’.
That was the name inscribed on the nameplate resting upon the desk.
“…Director.”
The moment I spoke in a clear voice, Director McGarvin jolted awake with a start.
“Who… Oh.”
A look of understanding crossed his face.
“The new Vice Director. Your name was Tessa, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, I’m Tessa Harrington. But did you say Vice Director?”
I questioned him immediately.
Vice Director?
With my years of service, I would normally be lucky to reach Team Lead.
Yet here I was being offered Vice Director, skipping over both Team Lead and Section Chief?
“Yes, it’s a courtesy—a chance to wear the title before you leave.”
“….”
No further explanation was necessary.
‘In other words, figure out the situation yourself and get out.’
It was such a pathetically transparent scheme I nearly laughed.
“By the way, it’s just you and me here. Once you leave, I’ll be alone.”
I surveyed the office.
So this cluttered, junk-filled warehouse was what passed for an office?
“You should thank me. Before I managed to secure even this space, I had to work out of the bathroom.”
“…How long did my predecessor last?”
McGarvin fell into thought for a moment.
“It was last summer… hmm, about a month? No, maybe three weeks. They lasted quite long, actually. Usually people quit within a week.”
I understood perfectly.
I felt the urge to resign on the spot myself.
With my experience and intellect, surely I could find work elsewhere?
I could take a position at any major trading company, couldn’t I?
But voluntary resignation was not in my vocabulary.
‘Let’s see who wins—me or all of you.’
If I backed down now, I would be admitting defeat.
I wanted to endure to the bitter end, no matter what.
“What exactly is my job?”
“That.”
Samuel McGarvin pointed at a stack of documents with his chin. They weren’t organized neatly—just a chaotic pile of papers—and my chest already felt suffocated at the sight.
“Just stamp them and take a break. That’s all you need to do.”
Samuel McGarvin spoke while yawning.
“Oh, but don’t go outside. If you’re caught taking a walk, you’ll be disciplined for neglecting your duties.”
In other words, once you entered the Child Protection Bureau, you were bound to leave eventually—whether by choice or circumstance.
‘We’ll see about that.’
I moved the stack of documents directly to my desk and began examining them one by one, rubbing my freezing hands together.
‘…There’s really nothing substantial here.’
I had assumed the Child Protection Bureau, with its grandiose name, was a department dedicated to helping the Empire’s children and youth. It was quite the opposite.
Local festival budgets, Imperial Palace servant clothing designs—miscellaneous paperwork that anyone could stamp without consequence.
It seemed that documents everyone avoided processing eventually found their way here, to a place where refusal wasn’t an option.
So was I angry?
No.
‘Stamp papers without using my brain and leave early? This is actually perfect.’
If you can’t escape it, enjoy it.
I quickly skimmed through the documents and began stamping them with brisk, efficient movements.
* * *
A week had passed.
The resignation letter from an “exasperated Tessa Harrington” that my former colleagues at the Ministry of Finance had anticipated never materialized.
Aside from the cold and the complete lack of fulfillment in the work, it was actually quite a decent position.
Far better than being constantly criticized at the Ministry of Finance.
Just as I was becoming accustomed to my new role.
“We have a job, Vice Director.”
Director Samuel McGarvin held an invitation between his middle and index fingers—one bearing the Beiretz Ducal Family’s crest—and waved it ostentatiously.
I stared blankly at the invitation. What did this have to do with me?
“Unfortunately, I’m busy that day. You’ll have to attend as my proxy.”
…What exactly did I just hear?
“Are you speaking to me, sir?”
Samuel McGarvin narrowed his eyes and looked at me.
“Is there anyone else here?”
“…No, sir.”
“Then the Vice Director is going.”
“But I’ve never attended a ball before.”
A ball was a playground for the nobility.
There was nothing good about me going.
“Just go, fill a seat, and slip out at an appropriate time. All that matters is that there’s a record of your attendance.”
Was my displeasure written so plainly across my face?
Samuel McGarvin’s eyebrows twitched.
“Dislike it? Then quit.”
…
“That’s an order, Deputy Director.”
Indeed.
My first official duty as a bureaucrat of the Child Protection Bureau was…
attending a ball at the Beiretz Ducal Family Mansion—something entirely unrelated to protecting suffering children.
* * *
The Beiretz Duchy Mansion was far grander and more opulent than I had anticipated.
Even I, accustomed to the Imperial Palace, could not suppress my admiration.
Every space was adorned with exquisite magic befitting a renowned magical lineage that had produced Fabian Beiretz, the next Duke and the youngest Mage Tower Master in history.
But there was no time to stand in awe.
‘As expected.’
Samuel McGarvin had not been the only director invited. Directors from various other departments had all received invitations.
Including the Finance Minister, who was so eager to tear me apart.
We had never had a proper conversation, but the likelihood of him recognizing me was quite high.
I must have been rather famous in the Ministry of Finance.
‘I’ll waste time on the balcony.’
An attendant continued recording the arrivals and departures of guests.
If I left immediately after entering, I might be caught in the record later.
Just as I was moving toward the balcony.
A sonorous voice announced the arrival of a distinguished guest.
“Grand Duke Cardicha, Lord Achilles, and his sister, Princess Melissa, have arrived!”
The moment the attendant’s voice echoed through the entire ballroom, the crowd began to stir in unison.
I was no exception.
‘That’ Grand Duke Cardicha had come to the Capital?
The Grand Duke Cardicha, who wielded power in the Northern Territory as an autonomous region—power rivaling that of a king—was the second most powerful figure in the entire Empire after the Emperor himself.
‘I heard he rarely left the Northern Territory… and now he comes to the Capital with his sister.’
The moment I craned my neck out of curiosity.
‘…Insane.’
An overwhelming presence that would captivate anyone with eyes to see.
Inhuman beauty honed like a finely sharpened blade; goosebumps erupted across my skin as if cold metal had touched the nape of my neck.
Beneath cascading silver hair like moonlight, sculpted features without a single flaw.
…And those violet eyes, cold and piercing, as if seeing through a person’s very soul.
I understood instinctively.
This person is dangerous. It would be wise not to become entangled in any way.
‘Regardless of what kind of story this is… he’s definitely a major character.’
Male lead, secondary male lead, hidden mastermind.
He possessed the beauty and presence to be any one of them.
‘Well, it’s none of my concern.’
One would need to be at least a Finance Minister to even exchange pleasantries with the Grand Duke.
To him, I was worth less than a stray dog.
My gaze drifted toward the silver-haired girl with flowing locks—Princess Melissa.
‘There’s quite an age gap between them.’
Grand Duke Cardicha appeared to be in his mid-twenties, while the Princess seemed barely ten years old.
Whispers rippled through the crowd around us.
“Princess Melissa, you say? That Princess Melissa? The one rumored to be the illegitimate daughter born to the previous Grand Duchess…”
“Hush now, don’t speak such things. It’s unwise to make an enemy of the Grand Duke.”
“Still, everyone who matters knows the truth.”
I swallowed a sigh.
The nobility’s gossip was the very essence of vulgar backbiting.
Yet these same people wouldn’t dare open their mouths in the Grand Duke’s presence.
Then.
Crash!
The sharp sound of shattering glass pierced the air.
“Melissa!”
Someone cried out the Princess’s name loudly at the same moment.
Every head turned instinctively toward the source of the commotion.
“H-hic… h-hiccup.”
Before Princess Melissa, who was sobbing audibly, lay the shattered remains of an enormous glass sculpture—a masterwork that bore the unmistakable touch of a master artisan.
“I-I’m so sorry, I’m terribly sorry!”
“…Melissa.”
Grand Duke Cardicha exhaled a sigh loud enough for everyone to hear.
His sculpted features, which should have been radiant with youth and beauty, were instead filled with profound weariness.
It was the face of a parent exhausted by the trials of raising a child.
“I truly don’t know what to do with you anymore.”

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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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