The Villainess is a Millionaire Solver - Chapter 84

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 84

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The magnificent carriage that had departed for the lake for the Young Lady’s successor qualification exam returned to the Ducal Mansion.

“This quickly?”

The employees hurriedly rushed out to greet the Duke and his daughter.

However…

When the carriage door opened, the first to emerge was not the Duke.

A woman bound tightly with rope, her arms held by Holy Knights. It was none other than Chief Aide Eunice.

“…!”

Everyone was shocked. In the stunned silence like cold water had been poured over them, the Head Butler asked with a trembling voice.

“Wh-what is this…?”

Aristina stepped down from the carriage and spoke in a menacing tone.

“Eunice Gillian was caught plotting against me. Her accomplice has confessed, so the security forces will come to arrest her soon.”

“What did you say? The Chief Aide?”

“Yes. She certainly didn’t act alone. Seal off this Ducal Mansion immediately so those who cooperated with Eunice can’t escape, and search Eunice’s room!”

“Yes!”

Several Holy Knights dragged Eunice to the basement, while other Holy Knights rushed off to carry out Aristina’s orders.

Shortly after, the Holy Knights returned.

“These are the items we found in her room. There wasn’t anything special, but just one thing – this notebook was hidden under the bed mattress. It’s locked, but when we pried open the gap to look, it seemed to contain a list of accomplices.”

“Really?”

Aristina’s eyes flashed as she turned around.

“We need to torture her immediately to get the key.”

“What should we do with these evidence items?”

“Put them in the storehouse for now. Just set that notebook aside on top.”

“Yes, Young Lady!”

The Holy Knights put the evidence in a box and took it to the storehouse.

“What on earth is going on? Does the Duke know about this? It must be true since the Holy Knights are following the Young Lady’s orders, right?”

“Something must have happened at the party. There must be a good reason why the Chief Aide was dragged away without being able to say anything.”

“That’s right. My goodness! We’re all going to lose sleep tonight!”

The employees murmured and scattered in all directions.

A short while later.

Someone’s shadow suddenly appeared from behind the storehouse shrouded in darkness.

It was Reina, the maid in charge of managing the Duke’s Family’s mail room. She looked anxiously toward the Main Building.

‘What’s going on? I just followed the Chief Aide’s request and pulled out that stupid Villainess’s letters separately to give them to her. Surely that’s not a problem, right?’

Reina stealthily approached and opened the storehouse door.

She could see the notebook placed separately on top of the evidence box.

Although it had a lock, it was an ordinary mass-produced item, and it was already tattered from the Holy Knights handling it.

‘At least it’s fortunate that Villainess is this stupid and careless.’

She picked the lock with a hairpin and quickly opened the notebook.

There really was a list.

【List of Pretty Maids Who Pledge Loyalty to Young Lady Aristina】

1. Sophie

2. Ellen

3. Mia

“…?”

Reina looked down at the notebook with a bewildered expression, and at that moment, intense lamp light shone on her.

“Caught one.”

Aristina emerged from behind a pile of chests stacked in the storehouse.

From her red eyes, a more intense gleam than the lamp light was pouring out.

Reina collapsed in surprise.

“Y-Young Lady…”

“Shh.”

Holy Knights silently appeared from between the chests, seized her, and quietly dragged her away.

‘Phew… That was good fishing.’

I collected the notebook with a satisfied feeling.

A storage location everyone knew about. And a flimsy lock that anyone could easily open.

Using this as bait, I was able to catch four employees who had guilty consciences. They were each locked in separate cells.

“I didn’t even know that was wrong! When the Chief Aide demanded information about the Young Lady, how could I refuse?”

“Then you’re saying you served Eunice’s Gillian Family instead of the Rosen Family? You’ll have to spit back all the wages you’ve received so far!”

I threw a thick bill in front of the traitor. Everyone’s faces turned pale.

“What do you mean you didn’t know? You knew everything when you did it! What, did she promise you a position later when she became the Duchess? Stop making excuses and just choose! Will you take responsibility for this mess alone, or will you give us the names of other collaborators so you can all share the blame?”

“I-I’ll tell you everything!”

The four who fell for my fishing readily spilled the names of employees who had been cooperating with Eunice.

They were all core employees of the Main Building that Eunice could control perfectly, and when all four testimonies were combined and organized, there were about twenty people.

“The Duke has given you full authority, Young Lady. Shall I issue dismissal notices to everyone?”

I shook my head at the Head Butler’s words.

“No, no. We can’t take away people’s precious jobs like that. What if someone was wrongly implicated?”

I too had once been fired for covering for a Store Manager’s calculation mistake when I was working part-time. I still vividly remember how unfair that felt.

“I’ll verify everyone who claims to be innocent separately.”

“Yes, Young Lady.”

Tenaciously pursuing inconsistencies and interrogating them several times. Offering rewards for additional tips. Meanwhile, catching those who tried to flee.

This is how the final list was created. Perhaps accepting that they could no longer make excuses, they began to spill information.

“Eunice wasn’t like that from the beginning. When she first entered the Ducal Mansion, there were signs that she admired the Duke, but… at some point, she began mentioning the late Duchess and the Duke’s social activities more frequently. Even though these were taboo topics here.”

“Ah! Come to think of it, I sometimes felt something strange too. Eunice would know facts that even I, who served the Duchess for a long time, didn’t know. I was curious about who told her such stories.”

“There was also a time when she said the Duke would never remarry to get another heir, and when we were scolded with ‘What do you know to be talking about that?’ She definitely acted like she knew something we didn’t.”

There were many such testimonies.

‘It looks like someone deliberately whispered things to Eunice…’

Lost in thought, I headed to Eunice’s room.

The room with all belongings removed was empty. The fact that there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere suggested the room owner’s personality.

Rigid people tend to go down one path.

‘Could it be that someone noticed Eunice’s feelings and manipulated her by making her swell with the false dream of becoming the Duchess?’

My gaze turned to Eunice’s desk.

The inside of the broken lid was empty, but last time I clearly saw it there. The ashes of someone’s burned letter.

It could have been correspondence with Prince Istan, but there might have been another contact.

“My feeling is that Eunice Gillian seems to be receiving orders from someone.”

That very person Ruellian had mentioned. Someone who knew the Duke’s Family very well.

I suddenly felt chilled.

‘Could that person be the murderer?’

That’s when it happened.

Something pitch black suddenly appeared at the latticed window between the curtains.

Already tense, I quickly grabbed my fan and looked up.

“What is it?”

The thing’s identity was a crow.

It sat on the window sill and looked into the room with red eyes. When it spotted me, it seemed to freeze for a moment. As if I wasn’t the person it was looking for.

“Wait.”

Suddenly I opened my eyes wide. I glimpsed something metallic around the bird’s ankle.

“Catch it!”

Hanna, the security Official who had been running over after hearing my “What is it?”, immediately rushed in.

She picked up a round stone paperweight that was rolling on the floor and threw it at the crow. It was the strength and agility befitting a once-famous martial arts fighter.

Crash!

The glass shattered and the crow fell down with a thud. But it immediately tried to escape by flapping its wings…

Bang!

A brightly glowing magic bullet flew from my fan and hit the crow’s body. It was the last remaining shot out of three.

Using it efficiently until the very end.

With that thought, I shouted down below.

“Catch that bird!”

The servants in the garden immediately grabbed the crow. I hurried down to the garden.

“Give it here!”

I hadn’t seen wrong. Around the ankle of the unconscious, limp bird was a fairly large metal anklet.

“What is this?”

“It’s a message tube attached to the feet of messenger birds that deliver letters. Though this one isn’t a pigeon.”

When the Head Butler pressed both sides of the anklet with his fingernails, it clicked open with a sound.

He pulled out a very small, thin piece of paper rolled up tightly from inside.

“Here it is, Young Lady.”

When I unfolded it, this was written there:

Did it end well?

It was undoubtedly asking about the results of my successor qualification test.

“Caught red-handed!”

I said to the servants.

“Is there a birdcage? Bring it right now!”

“Yes, Young Lady!”

The unconscious crow was locked in the birdcage.

I picked up that cage. I was heading to the basement where she was imprisoned to interrogate Eunice strongly by showing her this bird and note…

My feet stopped before I had even finished going down the stairs.

“Quickly! Quickly!”

“Damn it! Who would have thought!”

The Holy Knights were running around frantically. Beyond them, I could see Eunice collapsed and convulsing.

I asked in surprise.

“What’s happening?”

“We’re sorry, Young Lady! The chief advisor seems to have taken poison! She had it cleverly hidden in her ring, so we had no idea!”

“What? Quickly call a doctor!”

“We’ve called one!”

The doctor rushed over and urgently performed first aid, making her vomit up the poison.

The Duke’s household employees gathered to watch this scene. The advisors who had worked under Eunice also came running. And Duke Carnel had also arrived at some point and was watching with his arms crossed.

“…”

His face was cold as always. But he couldn’t help feeling complicated.

When our eyes met, the Duke shrugged his shoulders and said.

“I thought I was making a decent effort to manage the family well. But with household employees causing problems one after another, I have nothing to say.”

“That’s not our fault.”

I retorted.

Now I understood.

Someone who knew the affairs of this house very well had been plotting a conspiracy.

Perhaps that person was also the one who killed Aristina. Currently, that probability seemed very high.

“I’ll get my act together and fight back. So that something like this never happens again.”

“…”

The Duke looked at me for a moment. Then he opened his mouth.

“Follow me.”

“…?”

“Enough, I have a headache. Seeing your face makes me miss your mother terribly today. Let’s go see her portrait at least.”

What?

The already sickly Duke seemed to feel disgusted by this entire situation and want to escape immediately.

You could call it his own survival technique. I could understand his feelings, but… still, those were very sudden words.

‘Why would he want to take me with him instead of going alone as usual?’

Seeing me hesitate, he raised his eyebrows.

“Why? Don’t you want to? Are you saying you don’t even want to see a portrait of your own mother?”

“N-no.”

I had no choice but to follow Duke Carnel.

To be honest, I was afraid of facing the Duchess. Even if it was just a portrait.

‘From the Duchess’s perspective, she would have no choice but to think that an evil spirit possessing her daughter’s body is deceiving her beloved husband.’

So I felt like I wouldn’t be able to face her.

Duke Carnel brought me to his bedroom, unaware of anything.

When he pushed what appeared to be an ordinary wall, a secret room that had been hidden behind it was revealed.

It was a small altar where the Duchess’s portrait was hung and decorated with fresh flowers. The Duke said to me.

“Greet your mother.”

“Yes…”

I knelt down.

I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry. This wasn’t intentional.

Completely dejected, I raised my head.

But the moment I finally gathered courage to look at the face in the portrait.

‘…Huh?’

I was so shocked that I became dazed.

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