/
There’s one particular reason why Roella made an investment with Hargan.
Since Demos introduced that guy to her, she handed her money and invested without investigating him any further.
‘That prick introduced a conman…’
Seriously, in so many ways, that guy was just so detestable.
Anyway, it’s because of this that Roella, a well-known villainess, was being manipulated by Charlotte, a maid.
It’s frustrating, but it’s not as if I couldn’t understand why this was happening.
But.
‘That matter doesn’t concern me.’
Demos? I don’t care about him.
The duke? I don’t care about that guy either.
Through the original novel, I already knew what kind of ending was waiting ahead.
Therefore, Charlotte’s threats no longer held any weight on me.
Meanwhile however, Charlotte did not know what I was thinking, and so her head remained high up in the clouds.
Seeing her like this made me feel a bit sorry for her, even though I should be mad.
‘What should I do with this kid.’
It felt like I was watching a livestream of someone else’s dark history unfolding in 1080 Full HD.
At that moment.
Ding—!
With the alert bell that sounded familiar to me now, the system window that disappeared without a sound earlier once again resurfaced.
〈 The Tutorial Mission is now here! 〉
〈 Tutorial Mission : Villain Rehabilitation!
Detail : Good grief, we’ve got a wicked maid who’s using someone else’s weakness to their advantage!
Let us rehabilitate this sinful person and make them reflect on their actions!
– Reward upon mission success : Reputation +3 / 3 coins / Special stat +3
– Mission timer — 120:00:00 〉
Tutorial mission?
‘To set Charlotte straight?’
Oh, this is the first mission that I’ve come to like.
Right on time, since I was just thinking about how I’ll be dealing with her.
“Look here, Young Miss. Are you ignoring me now?”
Uh-huh, I’m ignoring you.
As I didn’t mind the maid’s presence, I took my time to brood over the mission.
‘How will I rehabilitate this girl?’
Thinking about it logically, the brutal and straightforward method would definitely work well.
If I say something like, ‘How dare you threaten me. Seems like you have a death wish, huh,’ wouldn’t this be a nice shortcut to a 〈 Cider[1] Rehabilitation 〉?
But of course, as soon as I thought about it, the system window popped up and showed yet another message.
〈 Proper and pleasant words
: Your current reputation is low, so the curse word criteria is sensitive. Please be careful. 〉
After this warning appeared right then, the key word here seemed to be ‘curse word’.
Alright. Then what if I say, ‘How dare you threaten me. Seems like you want your head to be separated from your body, huh.’
〈 Proper and pleasant words
: Your current reputation is low, so the curse word criteria is sensitive. Please be careful. 〉
Ah, I can’t say that either?
Then isn’t the criteria too low?
‘Fine, maybe I can just hit her inste—’
Ding—!
〈 Violence is bad! Let’s strive to solve this in a good way! 〉
I want to punch this stupid status window.
‘What. What, then. A ‘good’ way to settle this, you say, but how the heck am I gonna do that.’
This is a rofan novel, and I’m supposed to be the bad guy.
But why the hell was this system window raining on my cider parade?
Anger flared up inside me, but it soon calmed down.
‘Fine. Another way then, whatever.’
More than anyone else, I’m the best at adapting.
Instead of lamenting the things that wouldn’t work, it’s better to just move on and find another way.
While I wondered if there really was another way, I was struck with an idea.
A benevolent smile tugged on the corners of my lips. I reached forward and took Charlotte’s hand.
“W-What is this.”
“You know, I’ve been watching you for some time now, but I just think that you’re much too pure. I mean, isn’t it only natural for me to feel the beauty of your pure white soul?”
Then, there was a moment of silence.
I gulped as I glanced through the empty space in front of my eyes.
‘I don’t see any warnings popping up, so I guess this isn’t considered to be ‘bad words’.’
What a relief.
I was already thinking that, if it’s impossible to say even something like this, I’d probably die from repressed anger and stress even before my scheduled execution.
“What are you saying…”
Charlotte murmured as she blinked in a daze.
It’s clear that she’s trying to figure out what I just said.
“Charlotte!”
I grabbed Charlotte’s hand before her pure white brain could start working.
I pulled her towards the vanity table, where a jewelry box was.
“You said you want the sapphire, right, Charlotte?”
As I said this, I opened the lid of the jewelry box.
Inside it was a wide array of gems and accessories.
This was the result of the latest round of extravagance.
Charlotte couldn’t take her eyes off the colorful gemstones.
Smiling, I pushed the jewelry box in front of her.
‘That’s right, Charlotte. Be a little greedier.’
I’m casting some really, really expensive bait after all.
¹ Before diving into what ‘cider’ is, you first have to understand the concept of ‘sweet potatoes’.
‘Sweet potatoes’ is internet slang in Korea for anything that’s frustrating or something that makes you impatient—in the same way that it’s hard to keep sweet potatoes down without drinking a beverage after eating it.
The other side of this is ‘cider’ (what Koreans call Sprite) which emulates the opposite effect of ‘sweet potatoes’ in the way that cider gives a refreshing feeling right after eating sweet potatoes—or, after reading something incredibly frustrating in a novel.