The Villainess is a Millionaire Solver - Chapter 3

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 3

“Duke, you misunderstand! What audacity would we have to dare lie to you? Look! The Young Lady is truly in poor condition!”

“That’s right! We checked several times, and she seemed so lifeless we mistook her for dead!”

The maids explained with all their might, as being accused of deceiving the Duke would be a grave matter.

‘That’s right. That’s right. You’re doing very well.’

Beside them, I put on my most earnest performance. In this brief time I had earned, I secretly observed Aristina’s father.

Carnel Rosen, Duke. Befitting the most famous figure in the Empire’s social circles, he was simply referred to as ‘Duke Carnel.’

Golden hair and red eyes, pale complexion and white hands. He looked like a vampire who had forgotten time, but was undoubtedly human.

Aristina’s father had something of a fantasy novel protagonist about him. Something like 【Surviving as the Sickly Heir of an Imperial Noble House】.

Though he was the only legitimate eldest son, he was born frail and faced threats from various branch families, but he ruthlessly eliminated his enemies and eventually became the family head. He ascended as the absolute ruler of the Rosen Duchy, one of the Empire’s prestigious noble houses.

And he held a wedding with his devoted lover who had shared all his hardships with him…

Who would have thought the genre would change to 【I Became a Villainess’s Father】?

Duke Carnel loved his wife so much that even after her death, no one dared mention remarriage, making him a devoted lover, but he couldn’t be called an excellent father.

Still, he did try to control what could be called a runaway carriage named ‘daughter’ with no brakes. But his daughter, who lived recklessly as if there were no tomorrow, eventually committed a tremendous crime out of jealousy.

Attempted poisoning of the future Crown Princess.

It was natural for the Duke to go mad and jump around frantically. Heed all his advisors and held emergency strategy meetings from dawn to night, but naturally achieved no results.

In short, it was a situation where he had to helplessly watch a nuclear bomb drop from above his head.

So how furious must he be? Anyone could see that touching the Duke now meant death. One had to prostrate completely flat.

Well, prostrating was my specialty. If I put my mind to it, I could flatten myself so much you couldn’t distinguish me from the floor.

But, however…

Come to think of it, didn’t I have one advantageous weapon?

‘I can remove that nuclear bomb for the Duke!’

I smiled triumphantly to myself.

At this point in time, every character believed without doubt in Aristina’s guilt.

But only I knew. That his daughter was innocent!

Right. Let’s start from there. Beginning with clearing my name and recovering my position in this household.

For that, I’d need ‘that’ first, wouldn’t I?

‘The suspicious evidence that Aristina had obtained, albeit belatedly. She hid it here.’

It was such an impressive scene that I remembered it well.

“It hurts! I can’t breathe!”

While pretending to claw at my body, I fumbled around for the inner pocket hidden deep in my dress.

Indeed, there was a small velvet pouch. Through the soft fabric, I could feel the outline of a small, round metal object.

‘As expected, it’s safely there.’

The moment my fingertips touched that object, the memory of when Aristina obtained it came vividly to mind.

Not long after being confined to the annex library.

Aristina was venting her frustration by pummeling cushions when she heard gardeners chattering outside the window.

“The culprit who tried to poison the Hyperion Princess must be our Young Lady, right?”

“What nonsense are you talking? If not her, then who else could it be?”

“No, I naturally think it was our Young Lady’s doing too, but there’s one thing bothering me.”

“What’s that?”

“Shh! Keep this between us. Before the tea party that day, the new gardener went missing, so I went to look for him in the greenhouse. But there I heard the Hyperion Princess having a suspicious conversation with someone.”

“What? Don’t lie. You need to make sense.”

“No! It’s true! The Hyperion Princess seemed very flustered and hurried, then said to the other person, ‘This is a secret only we two know.’ The other person answered ‘Yes.’ The two disappeared right away. It was so strange I thought it might be a hallucination, so I went to that spot and found this. Isn’t this the Hyperion Princess’s belonging?”

“Huh? No way!”

Aristina listened as if entranced, then suddenly stood up.

“You two there! Come here immediately!”

She intimidated the terrified gardeners and quickly got her hands on the item they said they found in the greenhouse.

It was a ring. A birthstone ring engraved with Serene’s initials ‘S. A. H.’ and the Hyperion Duchy’s crest. The ring she never removed from her hand since her 18th birthday was lying alone on the floor of someone else’s greenhouse. Even stained with unidentified bloodstains.

Oh my?

Aristina’s eyes widened.

“I need to tell Father quickly…”

“Gasp! Please spare us! We don’t know anything! We’ve never seen such a ring in our lives!”

The gardeners were so terrified they even climbed over the fence to escape.

“…”

Aristina was so dazed she didn’t even notice.

If Serene was poisoned when she herself did nothing, someone must have been scheming in between…

‘Could it be Serene herself?’

Though she had always enthusiastically argued the 【Serene mastermind theory】, that was just stubbornness. She had tried some slander because her rival was so flawlessly perfect.

‘But did I guess correctly?’

Aristina tried to report this quickly before Serene could discover the ring’s whereabouts, but was ultimately murdered before succeeding.

Originally, this ring would have disappeared forever into darkness along with the corpse, but…

Thanks to my possession, an opportunity arose to raise questions once more.

‘I must quickly inform everyone of this fact!’

I opened my eyes wide. Just then, the physician was approaching.

“Young Lady, let me check your pulse.”

“No, I’m fine.”

I pushed him away and sat up.

“Father, how is Serene doing now?”

“Hmm?”

Duke Carnel’s cold face changed ever so slightly.

Asking about Serene’s well-being – was she showing some remorse? Something like that thought perhaps.

“Thanks to the best medical team working day and night, I hear she’s recovered to the point of moving around without difficulty. Fortunate indeed.”

“Yes, truly fortunate. Then we can interrogate her in detail.”

“…?”

“Everyone in this country has lost their minds. Just because someone was called a villainess, they pin false charges without even basic investigation. Does this make sense! The real culprit used exactly that psychology! The truth might be hidden in surprisingly simple places!”

I said this while confidently holding out the pouch.

“This is that very evidence. If we investigate this, something will definitely come up. Here, I’ve kept it safe!”

A great reversal. The unexpected appearance of a savior. The room turning upside down as noisily as a stirred beehive. I expected such things.

‘…?’

My expectations were completely off.

“Well then, let’s return and resume the meeting.”

Duke Carnel turned around as if he hadn’t heard a word. And his advisors followed indifferently as if wondering where a dog was barking.

“Excuse me.”

I waved the pouch back and forth.

“Hello? Your daughter has discovered important information! Before the tea party that day, Serene secretly had a private conversation with someone in our greenhouse…!”

The Duke’s eyes flashed. Finally a reaction? I thought, but…

“Shut up!”

Duke Carnel barked fiercely.

“You were quiet for a while, so I thought you were at least practicing acting repentant as I ordered! Sure enough, you’ve regressed to your past self, going after Serene again?”

“That’s not it, there’s really evidence! Let me have a trial before sending me to the guillotine! Give me a chance to raise doubts!”

I spoke desperately, but no one paid attention. As if there was a sign saying ‘Do not feed.’

It was the tragedy of the boy who cried wolf.

Until now, Aristina had fabricated and falsified everything as she pleased. Since there were limits to being deceived, now they filtered out whatever came from my mouth unconditionally.

“Now even getting angry is a waste of time. Lock her up again!”

I was startled by Duke Carnel’s ruthless command.

“No! Please, anything but being locked up here…”

“If you hate it that much, then that’s exactly the appropriate punishment for you.”

Father turned and left, and the guards immediately tried to close the study door.

If you’re going to act this way, I have my methods too.

I quickly shouted toward the maids.

“Everyone come in!”

The murderer had committed the crime targeting when Aristina was alone.

Even though I was still trapped in the study, it would be relatively safe if people were bustling around.

“Work here. Anything is fine.”

“Yes? Ah, yes.”

I had put out the immediate fire for now. What should I do next?

“Haaaaah…”

Thinking of Duke Canel’s cold reaction made me sigh first. The iron wall was so strong that it seemed impossible to break through.

No matter how much I struggled, was Aristina’s ending already predetermined? In the end, would it be the guillotine or a murder ending?

Imagining such a terrible ending made my mind hazy and my throat parched.

‘Let me at least drink some cold water and pull myself together.’

There was no cold water on the desk, but there was a champagne bottle chilling in an ice bucket. I picked up the bottle with cold condensation and poured myself a glass.

‘Oh, come to think of it…’

I wanted to pour a drink for the soul of Aristina, who had been miserably murdered.

I poured champagne into another glass with a glug-glug and slid it over, muttering to myself inaudibly.

“Princess, don’t you have anything? Secret loyal servants to use at times like this. Knights who swore loyalty. People you showed kindness to in the past. Or people whose weaknesses you’ve grasped… Don’t you have any of these things?”

Right, as if such things would exist.

“No matter how much your master lived as if there was no tomorrow, how could there be absolutely nothing?”

Just as I was lamenting while grabbing onto the fancy mannequins beside the desk.

Suddenly there was a click! sound from diagonally across, and brilliant light burst forth.

“Huh? Why did the Young Lady’s jewelry box open by itself?”

“That’s strange?”

Between the maids stepping back in surprise, I could see the gorgeous accessories inside the jewelry box.

A necklace with a large teardrop-shaped diamond embedded in the center, decorated with 48 small diamonds arranged around it, and made with pearls strung together instead of a chain.

The ‘Aurora Star’ had revealed itself.

“We didn’t touch it! Really! Anyway, you have to personally input the password with the Young Lady’s own hands to take that out…”

The maids turned pale as they made excuses. A jewelry box opening by itself was indeed a strange occurrence.

‘Is it because I was whining about having nothing? Did it let me know this exists?’

I approached the jewelry box with curiosity.

“What was the password again? Ah… I can’t remember because I collapsed earlier.”

“Oh, yes. It’s the Young Lady’s birth date.”

“My birthday is… ah, my head!”

“October 31st.”

Hmm? Our birthdays are exactly the same? What a strange connection. At least it won’t be confusing.

I entered ‘1031’ and took out the necklace. With such an expensive necklace, it would surely become an excellent survival item. And thinking about it, there was more.

‘Right. That’s it.’

I turned my gaze to look at the fancy mannequins displayed in the study.

These had just been delivered from the wardrobe right before Aristina was confined.

“It’s too much to be locked up without even trying on new clothes!”

When his daughter rebelled like that, the annoyed father just said, ‘Just throw those things in too!’ and sent everything together.

Mannequins dressed in gorgeous gowns. And this ‘Aurora Star’.

I had to find a way to survive using these things. My mind started working hard again.

‘The people of the Duke’s family won’t listen to me at all. Even when I showed them the ring, they had no interest. Outsiders would probably pretend not to see due to fear like those gardeners. But…’

There was one person who might show interest. Someone who valued truth more importantly, whether the Imperial Family was involved or not.

It would be very difficult to meet him.

But thinking carefully, it wasn’t completely impossible for me to meet and talk with that person on my own.

That method was revealed in the last line he said to Aristina.

“Princess, if you do this again, it will be a Sacred Tribunal!”

Right. The Sacred Tribunal.

A trial is also a place of meeting.

Even if we meet as judge and defendant, we can still have a conversation with each other.

Well, that Sacred Tribunal is much more terrifying than ordinary trials.

Depending on the judge’s decision and the jury’s vote, they can sentence up to burning at the stake.

‘Everyone would say I’m crazy for bringing such a Sacred Tribunal upon myself, but…’

But even if I’m thoroughly treated as a madman, wouldn’t it ultimately be my victory if I just survive?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————