The Villainess in the Childcare Story Doesn’t Hide Her Personality - Chapter 85

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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 had barely closed the door after saying goodnight when Grand Duke Cardicha blocked my path.
He had clearly been waiting for me to finish putting Princess Melissa to bed.
His beautiful violet eyes—as if amethyst had been set directly into them—narrowed with amusement.
I wanted to step back, but the door was behind me.
And since I couldn’t wake Princess Melissa after putting her to sleep, Grand Duke Cardicha had effectively trapped me with nowhere to escape.
‘This doesn’t feel like he’s about to thank me.’
I tensed instinctively.
Certainly, if he were a man of conscience, he would thank me for helping improve his relationship with his beloved younger sister and for caring for Princess Melissa today.
The problem was.
“We need to talk for a moment, Vice Director Harrington.”
From a man like him—a schemer bundled tight with suspicion—I could expect no such courtesy.
And as expected, what he wanted to discuss was….
“What are you plotting, Vice Director Harrington?”
Not a single step away from my expectations.
‘It takes one to know one—clearly you’re the one with dark schemes brewing!’
Of course, since I valued my life, I kept my true thoughts buried.
“What do you mean by that, sir?”
First, I expressed my grievance.
“I merely helped the Princess out of simple goodwill, and I never anticipated that she would come to rely on me.”
I hesitated for a moment before adding.
“If you’re still concerned, I won’t contact the Princess again.”
Of course, if I actually did that, Princess Melissa would cry and wail, so I calculated that the Grand Duke wouldn’t actually do anything to me.
But then.
Grand Duke Cardicha tilted his head slightly, as if asking what nonsense I was spouting, and fixed me with a sharp gaze.
The chilling beauty of someone who resembled a marble sculpture rather than a person sent shivers down my spine.
“I’m not asking about Princess Melissa.”
“…?”
I blinked.
Not about Princess Melissa…?
“Lately, I’ve been hearing rumors about the Vice Director’s dazzling activities.”
What was he talking about now?
“Duke Beiretz and Duke Montina. And the Mage Tower on top of that?”
Achilles Cardicha enumerated each one deliberately, as if the two great dukes were sworn enemies.
When he mentioned the Mage Tower, his tone was almost as if he were naming a mortal enemy.
To be honest, if I were in his position, it would look suspicious too, so I had little to say.
I wondered what excuse I could make, but really, all I could say was that it was coincidence, and that’s what I was thinking.
“Look again, Vice Director. At this rate, you’ll be involved in the imperial succession too.”
“…Pardon?”
It was a moment of genuine bewilderment.
* * *
Achilles Cardicha observed his counterpart carefully.
The woman who had stood rigidly, as though refusing to yield an inch, suddenly let her true feelings slip through as her posture crumbled.
‘That’s the face of someone utterly bewildered.’
Not the look of ‘I’ve been caught!’ but rather the expression of someone wanting to ask ‘What on earth are you talking about…?’
‘Good.’
A tension that had lingered for far too long seemed to dissipate, and my heart grew considerably lighter.
Tessa Harrington was not a threat.
The fact that she had become a benefactor to both great ducal families was purely a matter of fortune.
But I had no intention whatsoever of revealing that I had come to trust her.
“The Vice Director rescued a child from some mad mage, and that child is staying with the Beiretz Ducal Family. I hear the Duke and Duchess are quite fond of the child. And on top of that, you found the lost daughter of Duke Montina.”
“…Have you planted a spy in the Imperial Palace?”
“Hardly.”
Despite it being the truth, I denied it immediately.
“I simply heard rumors.”
“….”
Silence fell. Tessa Harrington’s lips trembled as she struggled to respond, and her eyelids fluttered rapidly.
I found myself momentarily bewildered as I counted the tremors.
What was even more absurd was this:
The sight of her pretty face working hard as she racked her brain struck me as… endearing.
I furrowed my brow.
‘Perhaps I haven’t been sleeping properly. Something must be wrong with my head.’
And when Tessa finally opened her mouth, I couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh.
“It was all merely part of my duties. Under Imperial law, all work conducted by Imperial Bureaucrats must remain confidential, and no one outside the Imperial Court itself may interfere.”
Ha.
I let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re going to invoke principle?”
To me, the Imperial legal code was nothing more than a hypocritical tool that cut down the weak while protecting the strong.
Even that very clause she was invoking was a perfect example.
As long as the exception of ‘members of the Imperial Court’ existed, the autonomous work of Imperial Bureaucrats was nothing but a fantasy.
“Vice Director, no one cares about the trivial clauses of the Imperial legal code. Has that paltry law ever protected you even once?”
Of course, my words were meant solely to break her spirit, but an unusual light flickered in Tessa Harrington’s eyes.
“Yes.”
Now it was my turn to be taken aback.
My words seemed to have been a signal. Like striking a flint to ignite a spark, the woman who had seemed so much smaller than me suddenly blazed with fierce determination.
“Without those paltry clauses, I wouldn’t be standing here now. I would have been cast out or eliminated long ago.”
The eyes I had thought merely pretty now gleamed with an obsession bordering on madness.
“The reason I can stand here now is purely because I have diligently memorized and cited the Imperial legal code to defend myself.”
I felt genuine admiration.
Because her words were right?
No.
That conviction bordering on madness—the audacity to declare that law superseded even the Grand Duke himself….
Thump.
Achilles’s body tensed in an instant.
It was unmistakably an irregular beat.
When mind and body faltered, the blade’s edge would waver; thus, a steady heartbeat was something one must always monitor when gripping the sword’s hilt.
So Achilles had always been conscious of his own heartbeat, whether on the battlefield or in daily life.
And yet.
‘…It’s faster.’
Once my heart began racing, it did not slow again.
Achilles analyzed this phenomenon anew and assigned it a name.
‘Exhilaration.’
…How long had it been since I felt this?
For so long, I had been consumed by the obsession of reclaiming the Northern Territory’s former glory.
A heavy burden I had shouldered since my parents’ death.
The guilt of being an inadequate brother to Melissa had also weighed upon my chest like a stone, relentless and unyielding.
But Tessa Harrington….
She had brought a stirring to my monotonous, ashen existence—a life devoid of any joy or vitality.
Perhaps, with this woman at my side….
The helplessness and emptiness I had endured for so long might finally ease.

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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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