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Episode 20: The Villainess Is Back (XIX)
─➽⊰
I went straight to my room, and found Peep burying her face in my pillow and sobbing.
“You said you’re upset, so why did you come here…”
<Then where can poor Peep go!>
Peep protested, beating the pillow with her small wings.
<I don’t own anything, it’s hard to leave the house! Peep will not go to that dirty academy like Kiana, no matter how crappy the situation is!>
I said I would fix Peep’s whining habit, but at that, I immediately raised a white flag.
“Okay… That’s right.”
My legs loosened at the word ‘academy’ and I lay down on the bed with a sigh.
“I shouldn’t have gone there…”
The memory of the last betrayal was enormous. It was more so because the academy supported me.
“But Peep, does that mean this is where I belong?”
I muttered quietly.
“No matter how much I search the original, there is not a single scene in which the family reminisces about me during the time I was gone.”
<That’s Kiana’s misunderstanding.>
Peep slowly raised her head and looked at me.
Surprisingly…
There were no tear marks.
Peep didn’t cry at all. As expected, she was on a high level.
<It’s not just Kiana they didn’t talk about. The family rarely talked unless it was absolutely necessary. It’s dysfunctioned from the beginning.>
It was a very sharp point. Then I saw it. Even if it wasn’t me, it was a family that was already broken because they were awkward and not familiar with each other. No combination of family members was on good terms.
“You…”
I looked at Peep and asked.
“…Don’t you miss Melissa?”
I honestly thought she would. Since she called me ‘evil master’ all the time.
Peep tilted her head to the left, then asked me instead.
<What about Kiana? Don’t you hate Melissa?>
Look at this. Very good at changing the subject.
<In the end, you made the decision to abandon all of the Prelai Duchy and live alone.>
“Hmm.”
<Kiana is struggling to save her family despite her utterly self-serving temperament.>
“Instead, Melissa must be struggling to save the poor all over the world.”
I replied indifferently.
“You know, I’m narrow-minded and victim-conscious, so thinking about Melissa just makes me unhappy. So I try not to think of her at all.”
(TL/N: Victim consciousness is a stage of consciousness in which people deny personal responsibility for the things that happen in their lives. People in victim consciousness believe that the world is acting upon or against them, and they are the innocent targets of other people’s action or behavior.)
The memories of Melissa, which I learned with the regression, were warm. In addition to being obsessed over by Rodrigo and Heaton, she was the crush of many other men.
<table>“Honestly, who thinks that Princess Kiana is a real Prelai? First of all, she has no summon. Melissa, you are the only true princess of Prelai.”</tbody></table>
<table>“Don’t talk like that. I don’t think so.”</tbody></table>
<table>“Melissa, remember, what did Kiana do to you? How can you talk like that? You are really nice.”</tbody></table>
‘What… Is it natural for Melissa to be kind?’
Even when bullied in the social world, she persevered with steadfastness and courage. Even the family members who were indifferent to each other at least said hello to her. Because she always approached first with a smile.
“Thinking about it, it’s like she’s only being exploited by me in this life.”
When I spoke weakly and looked at Peep, she tilted her head to the other side and said,
<But strangely, I feel more energetic. Actually, it didn’t take much time. Delivering secretly is much easier than before… Maybe, next time I can be even faster.>
“…Okay?”
What.
That was a very interesting statement.
Maybe it worked to pretend to be a little pitiful, as Peep seemed to have forgotten that she was upset.
Of course, my mind was spinning as soon as Peep said ‘I can be even faster.’
Melissa didn’t make Peep do anything special. Because it wasn’t a particularly useful ability.
‘Then can the delivery time be shortened by repeating the delivery? If the time can be shortened, can she be trained to carry heavier things?’
Peep shouldn’t have said ‘work went better than expected’ in front of a professor. Since I instinctively thought of how to work more efficiently.
‘For now, I have to make her work non-stop.’
‘If I say it now, it will cause an uproar. I’ll sneakily try a little tomorrow.’
<Anyway, Kiana, in the end, Melissa ran away, but Kiana didn’t.>
“That’s… because the circumstances are different.”
<Still… I know Kiana is having a hard time in the duchy. But how can you stand so firmly here…>
Peep seemed to be sincerely admiring, so I answered with equal sincerity.
“It’s because of the normal force.”
<What?>
“We can all stand on the ground thanks to the force that supports objects in opposite directions to gravity.”
<…If only magic engineering is ruined.>
─➽⊰
“What should we do, Princess!”
As soon as I woke up from sleeping in, the spy maid came running, her steps thundering.
“The Duchy of Purves has sent a marriage proposal to the Princess, and it…”
I yawned once and answered slowly.
“Does it contain Prince Heaton’s opinion?”
“Oh.”
Her spy maid opened her eyes wide and opened her mouth.
“How did you know?”
“Other than the imperial family, is there any other family above Prelai? And if anyone from the imperial family dared to speak about this marriage, it would be Prince Heaton.”
I responded calmly and stood up.
A sigh came out.
Rodrigo moved much faster than I thought. Of course, it wasn’t unexpected.
I was the one who covered my dorm room with sticky notes and thought of all the possibilities. Since I got information about the original work, I already had a plan to deal with this much.
Even in the original, Rodrigo used this method to get Melissa. He enclosed a letter of opinion from his close friend, Prince Heaton, to pressure the Prelai family.
It was only natural that at this point, Heaton was the only person who could hold down the Prelai Dukedom with power.
‘And then he was in great pain because he wanted Melissa too. A scumbag who covets his friend’s fiancée.’
Prince Heaton, who had Melissa in mind later, changed his words, and it fizzled out.
But now Heaton didn’t even know my face. So, without any internal conflict, he would issue an order like ‘Prelai, take responsibility for the wedding with Rodrigo’.
Surprisingly, there was only one excuse for disobeying the order.
If it was an arranged marriage, it had to be done according to the advice of the imperial family. However, it would be different if there was already a partner. It was perfect as breaking apart a couple in love could be interpreted as the imperial family abusing their authority.
‘So, if there’s a man I have a connection to, I can just say I will get engaged to him.’
However, this plan had two weak points.
The first was that there was no man I have a connection to, and the second was that no matter how much I planned to get out of the house, it was a total loss if the owner of the house, my grandfather, would not allow it.
After all, Grandpa was the head of Prelai, and wouldn’t it be more reasonable to make decisions for the whole of Prelai than for me alone, who has a high probability of not being blood related?
Still, I couldn’t marry Rodrigo. And I did help Hou yesterday.
I sighed once and stood up slowly.
“First, let’s go to Grandpa.”
─➽⊰
“What?”
Joshua jumped up after hearing the informant’s words.
“What’s wrong with that crazy guy?”
The news that Rodrigo had sent a marriage pressure letter to the ducal residence was delivered immediately.
“I! I don’t particularly care for Kiana!”
In a rage, Joshua rummaged through his closet and put on the most flashy, logo-studded clothes.
“Still! I can’t take that petty blackmailer as a brother-in-law!”
He also picked out limited-edition shoes that he didn’t wear often as he usually saves them.
“Uh, where are you going?”
Joshua gnashed his teeth in response to the informant’s urgent question.
“The mansion!”
Joshua, who even wore shiny cufflinks, hurriedly headed to the ducal residence. He was heading home for two consecutive days.
To be honest, Prelai and Purves were an acceptable combination.
Alex was so obviously crazy that it was virtually impossible to connect with a high-status young lady. She might be able to live off his face for a day or two, but it was clear that any woman of even the slightest culture would not be able to stand Alex’s rough words and actions.
And Joshua was a celibate.
Kiana didn’t remember because she was young, but Joshua remembered how close their parents were. The expression of the happy couple, who seemed to be dripping with honey just by looking at each other, was clear in his mind.
Every night, their mother even whispered in a warm voice, ‘Mom loves you so much. My family, let’s be happy forever.’
And yet, one day, suddenly throwing everyone away…
Joshua didn’t want to create a family.
And Melissa became a priestess of the monastery. She was now a person who could not be married for the rest of her life.
‘In the end, only Kiana can marry a high-ranking noble…’
Kiana’s reputation was at what one would call ‘rock-bottom’. Looking at it objectively, if it’s the Second Prince of Purves, Prelai would be in a position to say ‘thank you’.
If there wasn’t pressure from Prince Heaton, they didn’t even have a reason to refuse.
‘But I don’t like what that bastard is doing!’
So Joshua, gnashing his teeth, stormed into the ducal residence.
Immediately, he received a report from a servant that Kiana was in Seukali’s office.
It was when Joshua slammed the door open.
“Grandpa.”
Kiana’s clear voice was heard.
Ame: ‘_’ I have a feeling Peep is really originally Kiana’s summon, but so far in both timelines, Melissa doesn’t seem like a white lotus…?