/
“
”
When there was no answer, the maid began to get nervous.
Lady Charlize would always throw the food on the floor if she was brought a meal that she didn’t like.
Worried that it would happen again this time, the maid’s eyes dimmed.
‘I’m scared, I’m scared!’
As the long silence came and went, Charlize gestured and answered curtly.
“Go.”
The maid quickly lifted her head and disappeared from the room, telling her to eat well.
Charles leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms, looked down at the watery porridge, and took a spoonful.
“
 It’s flavorless.”
Not wanting to starve to death like this, Charles took a bite of the warm porridge. Then her mouth filled with watery rice.
She thought it would be such a quiet meal time, but–
Bang bang!!
Someone, knocking on the door, came to Charlize again.
“I’m coming in.”
It was none other than Jeremy Ribecca, the second son of Duke Ribecca, who opened the door and entered. He ground his teeth when he saw Charlize.
“I heard you kicked Tia out. Is that true?”
Charlize, who lost her appetite after that question, dropped the spoon into the bowl.
“I didn’t kick her out.”
At Charlize’s brazen answer, Jeremy strode toward her, perhaps crying previously since his eyes were rimmed red.
Jeremy’s large right hand rested on the table. His eyes were on Charlize’s face.
‘Always that same face. A coldness that makes you wonder if emotions even exist. A pain in the neck that hates me.’
Jeremy slammed his hand on the desk.
Despite the loud noise, Charlize remained in her original position unflinchingly.
‘What are you going to do? Threaten me?’
She kept her poise, but Charlize’s black eyebrows arched slightly.
“You’ve been bothering her so much, so it’s only natural that she ran away. So, you kicked her out, am I wrong?”
“Brother Jeremy.”
Jeremy huffed and puffed at Charles, but she pressed him serenely.
“Wouldn’t I just need to leave? Then Tia, who was scared of me, will come back, and peace will come to this family.”
“What are you talking about? What do you mean, you’re leaving?”
Charles answered softly, putting her hand on top of Jeremy’s clenched fist.
“You hate me.”
“
 I don’t like you.”
“I don’t like my brother either.”
“
”
“Then, can you help me get out of this family?”
Charlie was playing on Jeremy’s emotions. When one is stirred, one loses touch with reasoning and will be dragged along with the other person. With his eyes, he could no longer see anything. When his beautiful sister ran away, he was blinded.
Charles was looking for this opportunity.
You can’t let me leave by myself, so wouldn’t I need someone to help me?
Even if it’s my second brother who hates me.
“
 Are you leaving the family?”
“Yes.”
“Are you saying this right now, when Tia ran away?”
“The men who love Tia will come look for her anyway. We don’t have to look for her, do we?”
“I might kill them if they pretend to look for Tia.”
“So, brother.”
“
 why?”
Charles stopped Jeremy, feeling a little annoyed, and started talking to himself.
“I’ll stop, so you live well. So, if you can help me even a bit, I’ll figure this out. When I talked about this to Eugene earlier, I didn’t get a very good answer. But you are a good-natured person, so would you like to help me?”
The simple-minded Jeremy licked his lips at Charlize’s sudden compliment. This was because no answer came to mind.
“Why would I? And you should never think of leaving this family. Don’t even think of leaving until Tia returns.”
“Why?”
“Why? Tia’s birthday party is going to be held tomorrow, but she’s gone. Then you would have to take Tia’s place.”
When the episode about the ‘birthday party’ suddenly came to mind, Charlize pressed her lips together and swallowed her saliva, her throat dry.
‘The birthday party felt like a play.’
Charlize was mentally abused by the male leads, as a villainess, after the female protagonist disappeared and she took her place.
And the two elder brothers who were the only family of Charlize had turned a blind eye to it.
Charlize replied with a chuckle, licking her lips.
“I won’t be able to attend, because I’ll be sick tomorrow.”
“Are you serious?”
“Then is Jeremy saying that I should be Tia’s substitute? Why? Because I’m just a doll of my dead mother?”
Charlize yanked her hand from Jeremy’s, then got up from her chair and raised her chin. There was no life in her golden eyes.
Jeremy bit his lip when he saw the gorgeous woman stare at him coldly.
“How does a doll become a person?”
“
 Charlize.”
“Please tell Brother Eugene that, too. I can’t attend Tia’s birthday tomorrow. Please tell him. I don’t want to go to that birthday celebration, even if I get slapped in the face.”
Venom lingered in Charlize’s eyes for a second then vanished.
‘You’ve seen all the smacking and harassment directed at the female lead. Do you think I could meet the male lead who is madly in love with her? That would be a crazy thing to do. If I see him tomorrow, I’ll just have to hide somewhere.’
Charlize kicked Jeremy out of the room, keeping in mind for the sake of her own sanity that she wouldn’t be attending tomorrow’s party.
“If you’ve got nothing to say, leave. Don’t you have anything to do?”
Jeremy was the First Knight Commander of the Meloa Empire. He had a lot of work to do. But Tia was gone, and he was unable to concentrate on his job.
He was haplessly kicked out of her room with both of her hands as she pushed his back.
There was no particular answer to Charlize’s question. Because she knew it was hard to beat her stubbornness.
Before the door closed, Jeremy stared at Charlize’s blank face for a moment, then turned his head away.
‘Damn, why did mother adopt such a strange thing?’
Jeremy left the mansion to do his work, ruffling his silver hair which shone brighter than Eugene’s. Charlize watched Jeremy’s back leaving the estate through the window and sat down from the nervousness after her enemy had disappeared.
“Why did I have to possess Charlize?”
Charlize wanted to cry. However, she couldn’t even shed tears, as if her tear glands were blocked.
When she woke up, she possessed the legendary villainess Charlize, who had a birthday party tomorrow to attend for the heroine who ran away.
Oh, no.
Charles bit back what could have been a curse word.
‘Is there a room in this mansion that no one knows of, or a place to hide? I’m sure the maids will come here early in the morning. I don’t have the confidence to sneak past the guards at night. I want to dig a hole and get out.’
Wait, what if Charlize had died before the heroine ran away?
Her golden eyes flashed open.
She asked if she was actually dreaming, and sometimes she had dreams that felt real.
Charlize stagged up from her seat and seized one of the bedposts.
“If I die
? Will I ever go back?”
Death was scary, but even if the heroine returned, death was inevitable.
No matter which route she took, she couldn’t avoid death.
Because that was the villainess’s ending.
***
The Duke of Ribecca’s house was in an uproar over Tia’s disappearance, but as the world went dark, it became quiet.
Unlike before, Chalize, who looked calm, sat on a soft chair and pondered what to do for Tia’s birthday celebration tomorrow.
‘If I go to the birthday party, I’ll be the only one who loses and gets cursed at. Is he going to hit me?’
Charlize’s dry eyes turned cold. Still, she couldn’t accept being the ‘Charlize Ribecca’.
No matter how hard she tried to understand, all she did was fall asleep. Most of all, she’d never imagined herself possessing a villainess in this game.
Tsk.
Charlize comforted herself about her dark future, looking at the stars embedded in the night sky.
What the hell could Charlize, who was just a doll of the Duchess, do in this game?
When the female protagonist runs away, what can Charlize do, as the villainess that everyone hates?