The Villainess in the Childcare Story Doesn’t Hide Her Personality - Chapter 65

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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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Princess Melissa fell silent for a long while.
I waited for her patiently, saying nothing.
I had done everything I could.
All that remained was to wait—to let her accept what she could accept, and to release what she could not.
How much time had passed?
Princess Melissa rose from her seat, brushed off her skirt, and wiped away the tears clinging to the corners of her eyes.
“Thank you, sister.”
My mouth had gone completely dry.
Was Princess Melissa truly all right, or was she simply pretending to be?
Had I said too much to a child who still needed to be sheltered from the world’s storms?
And yet…
“Your name, sister—it’s okay if I don’t remember it.”
For the first time that night, Princess Melissa smiled softly.
“No matter what, you’re still my sister. Whether your name is this or that doesn’t change that.”
Words caught in my throat. My chest tightened, and hot tears pricked the corners of my eyes.
“…You too.”
I had to say it.
“You’re my sister too.”
A radiant smile bloomed across Princess Melissa’s face.
“Sister, come slowly!”
And with that, she bolted toward the Banquet Hall.
I blinked. For a moment, I couldn’t quite grasp what had just happened.
It seemed Princess Melissa had accepted the situation far better than I’d expected.
She’d said she thought of me as a true sister, and the moment I told her she was my sister, her mood lifted completely as she dashed toward the Banquet Hall…
Suddenly, I snapped back to reality as if doused with cold water.
‘I can’t let Princess Melissa go alone like that!’
The instant I scrambled to my feet and took a step forward.
“Ow!”
A cry escaped my lips.
My mind had been racing so fast that I hadn’t noticed a protruding stone and stepped on it wrong, twisting my ankle.
‘Seriously.’
The pain was far worse than I’d anticipated, and tears welled up involuntarily.
Still, I couldn’t leave Princess Melissa to go alone, so I had no choice but to limp forward.
As I made my way toward the Banquet Hall, people passing by kept glancing back at me and whispering.
At first I wondered what it was about, and after the whispers continued a few more times…
‘…Oh.’
Only then did I become aware of my own appearance.
My skirt and shoes caked with grass and dirt, my hair disheveled, my eyes swollen and red.
‘This is going to cause gossip…’
I swallowed a silent groan. Strangely, I hardly recognized anyone’s face, yet everyone seemed to know mine.
I gave up trying to make sense of it and walked down a path where few people ventured.
“Vice Director.”
A voice I could never forget reached me from behind.
I turned to see Achilles Cardicha approaching with the sharp, predatory gaze of a great white shark stalking its prey.
A certain truth suddenly came to mind.
Beasts hunt wounded prey.
The Grand Duke and I were the perfect example of that.
“What in the world is this situation?”
* * *
The moment his private audience with the Emperor ended, Achilles strode across the corridor with purpose.
With each passing second, his anxiety deepened.
‘That damned old man made me leave Melissa alone for far too long.’
Under any other circumstance, he would have refused the private audience.
But at an Imperial Court banquet, one could not refuse when the Emperor summoned you.
And the reason he hadn’t brought Melissa with him was….
‘I couldn’t possibly show Melissa to that viper.
The Emperor was a man who exploited people far too skillfully.
The moment he saw Melissa, he would undoubtedly use her like a cog in his machinery to complete his plan of bringing the Northern Territory fully under his control.
That was simply how Emperor Hejeth V had always conducted himself.
Trying to return to the Banquet Hall quickly, I took a secluded shortcut.
“…?”
Achilles doubted his own eyes.
‘Is that… Vice Director Harrington?’
The figure looked less like a person and more like a ‘thing’.
Hair disheveled as if from a full sprint, cascading messily in all directions; clothes completely ruined with dirt and grass; a gait that made no attempt to hide a limp.
The sight of her walking down the corridor with such determination, as if possessed by something, was decidedly….
‘Insane?’
Tessa Harrington.
He had met her only a few times and didn’t consider her particularly trustworthy, but he was grateful that she had at least made Melissa smile.
Even the background investigation revealed that while her personality was somewhat peculiar, she was a capable bureaucrat who worked without flaw.
But.
‘Did she lose her mind while I was in Athos?’
Achilles furrowed his brow and slowly approached Tessa Harrington.
She, focused only on the path ahead, didn’t notice his approach and was startled the moment he spoke.
“Vice Director, what on earth is this? Did you roll around in a grass field?”
Tessa Harrington immediately turned to face him, her eyes widening as she stared at him.
“…Your Grace, the Grand Duke.”
She attempted to show respect by bending her knees slightly but…stumbled badly.
Achilles clicked his tongue.
If she fell at this rate, what would he do?
“That’s enough. You look terrible—I can’t let you end up at the Medical Facility like this.”
“Ha ha.”
Tessa laughed aloud.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, it’s nothing really… but this whole situation is entirely because of you, Your Grace.”
Achilles blinked.
…She’s blaming me for this?
Tessa continued with her explanation.
“Because you left the Princess alone, she rushed out of the Banquet Hall. I hurried after her, and that’s how I ended up like this.”
“…Then where is my sister right now?”
“She went back to the Banquet Hall.”
As if struck by a sudden good idea, Tessa’s voice brightened considerably.
“Please go check on her quickly. If you look after the Princess, I can at least rest easy and head home.”
Achilles frowned.
Of course he was worried about Melissa. He knew how much she struggled with others’ gazes.
But.
“You’re planning to go home in that condition? Alone?”
Tessa shrugged her shoulders.
“I didn’t come with a partner in the first place.”
“You don’t have a partner?”
Had the Intelligence Organization’s investigation been flawed? Or had she acquired one recently?
Either way, it was a failure on the Organization’s part.
Tessa looked at him with a puzzled expression.
“I meant I don’t have a partner at all.”
“…I see.”
He felt oddly relieved. Since his parents’ passing, it had taken considerable time to rebuild the Intelligence Organization from its complete dissolution into something functional again.
It was fortunate that he hadn’t assembled a group of incompetents who couldn’t even properly track details like whether Tessa Harrington had a partner or not.
“…I’ll take you to the Medical Facility.”
“That’s really not neces— Ah!”
Tessa winced as she inadvertently put weight on her foot.
“It’s fine, it’ll heal with rest…”
“Hmm.”
A sigh escaped him naturally.
Achilles dropped to one knee on the ground without ceremony.
“Y-Your Grace?”
“Pardon me.”
He immediately removed the shoe from Tessa Harrington’s injured right foot.
His large hand wrapped around her slender ankle, and he expertly assessed her condition.
‘…Her feet are smaller than I expected.’
For someone so tall for a woman, her feet were remarkably small—almost absurdly so, making it easy to see how she could have twisted her ankle.
“Ugh, there—it hurts….”
A tear finally began to form at the corner of Tessa’s eye.
Achilles let out an audible sigh.
Truly, she was a woman without equal in her helplessness.
“Don’t walk.”
“Pardon?”
“Your ligaments are severely stretched. Where exactly do you think you’re going in this condition?”
“You’re not a doctor—how could you possibly know that?”
Achilles offered a bitter smile.
“On the battlefield, even doctors are a luxury.”
“….”
It was strange.
I had expected her to fire back immediately, but Tessa Harrington suddenly clamped her mouth shut as though her tongue had vanished.
‘Perhaps it’s for the best.’
Silence was far preferable to her endless quibbling.
“I was going to fashion a splint, but circumstances don’t permit it.”
“I-I can make it to the Medical Facility on my own!”
“The Vice Director alone?”
Achilles’s eyebrow twitched.
“You’ve grown foolish in my absence. Do you truly believe you can reach the Medical Facility in that state?”
“….”
“I do need to see my sister immediately, but… given your pitiful condition, I suppose I have no choice.”
The next moment.
Tessa Harrington was too startled to close her mouth.
Achilles Cardicha had hoisted her onto his shoulder like a sack of grain.

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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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