She is the Daughter of the Villainess in a Ridiculous Novel - Chapter 103

Just as Idel had diligently worked for three years, Gianna also lived every day to the fullest.

To protect Idel first, surpassing Dante and Sigmund, who were two years older than her, she had to work hard enough to overcome the two years she was born late.

Although her muscles were not fully developed yet and she weighed less, making her sword light, Gianna believed.

‘Dad and Count Bright said that if I eat well and practice hard, there’s nothing I can’t do!’

And that effort shone today as she lunged at Melisa, who was threatening Idel.

“Ugh… What the!”

Even though her swordsmanship was unrefined, it was enough to restrain Melisa, whose magic power was in turmoil and whose body was not in a normal state.

“Cough! Ugh…”

Was it because he reflexively drew upon his magic power to block the swordsmanship coming from both sides simultaneously? His magic power twisted severely, and red blood streamed from his mouth.

“Idel, are you okay?”

“Yes, thanks to you. And you? Where did you get a sword? You didn’t have one when you came in.”

“Aw, it’s no problem. I just asked Diane or Sylvia to secretly hold onto one. Or I could have just taken out a decorative one like Dante.”

“Ah…”

Gianna, who pointed out the blunt sword Dante was holding with a nod, winked charmingly.

Of course, the two people’s conversation didn’t last long. Rowena, whose mind was blank from the great shock but saw the children in danger, frantically pulled the two towards her.

“Gianna! Idel!”

She held the two children and moved them slightly away from Melisa, then knelt down and checked their bodies.

Fortunately, Gianna was fine, apart from a slightly torn dress and disheveled hair. The problem was Idel. Rowena frowned as she saw the minor scratches remaining on the child’s body.

Her burst lower lip from biting down too hard and her shoulder with a handprint made her heart ache.

“It’s fine. This much is nothing.”

“…It is anything but nothing.”

“It doesn’t hurt as much as it looks.”

“Whatever it is, it’s not a pain for you to endure.”

At her firm words, Idel stared into the Duchess’s eyes.

The Duchess’s eye color was similar to Melisa’s, a shade of purple, but Idel thought she could clearly distinguish the two just by their eyes.

Unlike Melisa’s eyes, which were full of obsession and selfishness, the duchess’s eyes held more varied and warmer emotions.

Her eyes, full of concern, checked Idel’s body repeatedly. In the meantime, Melisa wiped away the reverse-flowing blood and finally calmed his magic power.

“Hah… things got terribly tangled.”

He let out a long breath and grabbed a shawl from among his ragged clothes, wrapping it around his waist.

Though the sudden exposure of his upper body should have been embarrassing, Melisa seemed unconcerned.

He glanced sideways at the knights, who were steadily closing in on the encirclement, as he ripped off the jewelry that was fitting even on his bare skin, as if it were cumbersome.

“It would be best not to let people get any closer, Duke Clementine. I’m in a very bad mood right now. You wouldn’t want to see what a person who missed his prey right in front of him does, would you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think I would trust the words of a man who betrayed and deceived the Clementine Duchy, let alone Rowena?”

“Betray Rowena? Me? You’re one thing, but you shouldn’t drag Rowena into this. How dare you include her.”

The moment the Duke brought up Rowena’s name, Melisa’s entire demeanor turned sharp.

“I’ll say it one more time. Don’t move. If you do, I will also take your most precious thing first.”

“Melisa.”

“Do you think I’m joking? Even if my magic power explodes and I die here, I can still take one life with me.”

Idel noticed Melisa’s gaze shifting toward Gianna and subtly stepped half a pace in front of her.

It would be better for her, not a member of the Ducal family, to deal with Melisa.

Quickly noticing Idel’s action, he let out a short, hollow laugh and sarcastically muttered.

“Since when did our Idel start looking out for the people of the Duchy like that, huh? When did you fool my eyes? I told you there were no allies here for us.”

“You talk as if you were ever on my side.”

Idel, who for the first time spoke out loud what she had always kept inside, unconsciously widened her eyes briefly.

The very act of being able to speak her mind felt particularly emotional.

Seizing the momentum, Idel deliberately turned her body askew to show off and tugged at one corner of her mouth as she looked at Melisa.

“Ah, that’s refreshing. Since things have come to this, shall I tell you everything?”

“Go on and tell me.”

“Sure. No matter how I think about it, you don’t seem to know. ‘My side’ doesn’t suddenly make a complete stranger my father by lying about my birth. They don’t make me an infiltrator in the Duchy or tell me to stab the person I was told to regard as my father.”

Idel, who pointed out the major transgressions with a cynical expression, clapped her hands lightly as if remembering something and added an explanation.

“Ah, about the hair ornament you told me to stab the Duke with, you told me to just prick him lightly, but you had hidden a needle inside, Mom?”

“Aha, so our daughter knew everything and yet bared her belly in front of me like a little fox?”

“Who is your daughter? Don’t you dare lump me in with a coward like you.”

One of Melisa’s eyebrows twitched. It was an action he showed when something displeased him.

Idel ignored his reaction and deliberately pulled her chin up even more defiantly.

“It’s incomprehensible to my common sense, but you loved your younger sister as a woman, right? That’s why you pretended I was the Duke’s child to enter the Duchy. You planned to kill the Duke and swallow up both the Duchy and the woman you loved.”

“…Shut up.”

“But, Mom, if you hated the Duke so much for taking your sister away, why didn’t you bravely rush in and try to kill him face-to-face? It’s embarrassing to have to borrow a child’s hand.”

‘Don’t you think it’s too cowardly, even for you, Mom?’

At Idel’s accusation toward Melisa, someone among the nobles was heard gasping. Just taking in the torrent of information was already overwhelming for them. It was then.

“But I definitely heard that a paternity test was done at the temple…”

A noble, who had been watching the situation without taking a proper breath, cautiously voiced a question.

It was a natural question. When Melisa brought Idel, it was the Clementine Duchy that went through the verification process more thoroughly than anyone else.

Idel tried to ignore the gazes of the Duke and the Duchess from beside her. Instead, she turned her back on the two of them and opened her mouth toward the noble who raised the question.

“That’s right. But as I recall, ‘Mom’ did something to my body before coming to the Duchy.”

“What exactly…?”

“Well? I was young then, so I don’t know exactly what it was.”

Shrugging lightly as if to say what did you expect from a child, she continued.

“All I can say is that I recently requested a reconfirmation from the temple, and the result is as you suspected.”

“…Gasp! S-surely not!”

“Yes. I do not share even a tiny bit of blood with the Duke Clementine.”

Idel fearlessly revealed that she was not a member of the Ducal family, as if she had nothing to be ashamed of.

The hall, which had been filled with silence until just before, was now filled with commotion at the bold and shocking declaration.

“W-what did she say? She mentioned a curse earlier, but surely, s-she didn’t use black magic so sophisticated that it could deceive the temple…”

“For your information, the relevant documents are not in my possession but Shelami’s. Shelami also provided the guarantee. Isn’t that more reassuring?”

“A guarantee from Shelami, too! To think that the Duke’s second child might not be the real second child…! Then what about today’s debutante ball?”

With every word Idel spoke, the expression on Melisa’s face disappeared.

First, the smile he had pulled with the corner of his mouth vanished; second, the interest in his eyes turned cold; and finally, the wrinkles that had formed on his forehead disappeared.

Melisa, with his expressions erased one by one, stared intently at Idel with dark, lightless eyes.

He could tell just from the information that had come out so far.

That the child knew more secrets than he thought.

‘Moreover, I’m slowly losing sensation in my hands. He must have put something else in the hair ornament besides the pathogen I put in.’

Although his mind was frantically working, Melisa intentionally pulled the corner of his mouth into a smile and parted his lips.