She is the Daughter of the Villainess in a Ridiculous Novel - Chapter 74

With a calm and serious voice, she wore a smile on her lips as she spoke.

“To be honest, we thought Farell would target Ivan. From his perspective, Ivan is the one who took his place.”

After all, Farell had tormented Ivan more than once.

It was only natural for him to think of Ivan as the one to vent his anger on after escaping from the Karimba Monastery.

Recalling the moment she received the message from the temple, Vivian let out a small sigh.

“Since that day, we’ve put in so much effort to protect Ivan…”

“He even used dark magic.”

“Yes. Ivan said it was excessive, but I thought like you did. The problem is that all our predictions were completely off. Who would have thought that madman would target a child?”

“Well…”

“I’m just glad you’re safe.”

With those words, Vivian gently patted Idel’s shoulder with sincerity. Idel paused for a moment at the affectionate touch before gathering her thoughts again.

“Putting Farell aside, what’s more important to me right now is meeting Sigmund.”

“Sigmund… You mean the friend who was by your side?”

“Yes. He contacted me urgently. He wants to meet at 6 PM today.”

To be honest, Idel thought what she said might sound ridiculous. To secretly leave the duke’s residence to meet a friend through the count’s family!

‘Even I would have said, “What kind of joke is this?”’

However, contrary to Idel’s thoughts, Vivian listened to her seriously throughout. After rubbing her chin for a moment, Vivian gazed intently at Idel.

“Hm… Where?”

“At the place where Ivan and the count had their wedding.”

Vivian’s eyes widened at the unexpected location, but she quickly gave instructions to the coachman.

Watching this, Idel spoke to Vivian.

“Wasn’t Ivan supposed to be waiting at the count’s residence? That’s why I thought we were going there…”

“That’s right. But Ivan will understand well enough.”

Idel fidgeted with her fingers for a moment at Vivian’s calm response. No matter how much she had promised to help, she hadn’t expected that Vivian wouldn’t mind the lack of explanation.

Meanwhile, the carriage arrived at the place where she had held her wedding.

With Vivian’s assistance, Idel got down from the carriage and quickly moved her feet, trying to recall her memories.

‘Back then, unlike now, there were so many people bustling about, and Sigmund had directly pointed out the way, so we just ran.’

But now that she was here, she could find it. Just as Idel was walking, searching for a familiar spot, she heard a voice call out.

“Hey, customer! Over here!”

Turning her head quickly towards the alley that was starting to darken, she saw someone peeking out, looking both familiar and somewhat welcoming.

“Sigmund!”

Sigmund didn’t return her greeting as kindly as Gianna or Dante would have.

He simply pulled his hand out of his pocket, as if by habit, and lightly grasped her hand. As he pulled her hand, lowering his body slightly, he glanced at the count.

“This isn’t exactly a fitting situation for a pleasant chat.”

“Ah.”

Vivian, who overheard Sigmund’s words to Idel, couldn’t help but smile slightly. She had thought there must be a reason for asking for help, but seeing him act like this, as if wary of his natural enemy, was endearingly reminiscent of a young wild animal.

‘It might be because we’re closer after he helped both me and Ivan before.’

Suppressing the impulse to ruffle his hair like she would with a squire, Vivian nodded.

“Miss, the carriage is nearby, so I’ll stay around there. Call me whenever you need me. Of course, I can’t just leave the two children unguarded, so I’ll keep my senses open. That should be fine, right?”

“Well… that should be fine.”

“Great. It’s settled then. I hope you have a good time.”

As Vivian turned away with a bright smile, Sigmund opened his mouth sulkily.

“Is it because you’re from a well-off family that you always seem to have someone tagging along?”

“Seems that way. Do you have any idea how much I had to think on my feet after receiving your message?”

“Do you think I wanted to contact you? It’s because my master suddenly seems crazy.”

He later realized that one of the notes he sent had a typo, specifically after Idel had sent back the note’s backside.

Putting aside the unpleasant memory, Sigmund spoke seriously.

“If you saw the note, you might have a rough idea, but my master is acting strange. I thought he was just going to work as usual, but then he suddenly came into the room and told me to pack up. He said we can’t stay here.”

“We can’t stay here…?”

“He was muttering something about traces of magic lingering, saying that there hadn’t been any appearances like this before and that changes seemed to have occurred. Honestly, I didn’t understand. He seemed really crazy.”

As he spun his finger to illustrate “crazy,” Sigmund roughly tousled his hair.

“I haven’t forgotten about your curse problem. My master said there has been some progress, and he was thinking of sending an antidote, even if it’s just a trial.”

“He’s sending it? Where? To our house?”

“I don’t know if it’s your house, but probably? My master insisted that he needs to see your face to give you the items. If that’s the case, he should have done it before getting tangled up in all this.”

Idel blinked for a moment at Sigmund’s complaints filled with dissatisfaction.

“Hey, Sigmund. The time when your master started acting strange was after that incident, right?”

“The day we discovered the symbol? Yeah, I mentioned it a few times in the note. That was suspicious.”

“…It seems like you’ve come to the same conclusion as I have, right?”

Idel’s blue eyes met Sigmund’s red ones for a fleeting moment. Before words could escape his lips, his eyes seemed to answer first.

“Yeah. That’s right.”

As if they had made a silent promise, the two lowered their bodies and leaned their heads together to share the same thought.

“Vilred was definitely part of that group, or he could be a member of an opposing organization.”

“So, my master was involved with those damn symbol-bearing guys in the past?”

Though their expressions were different, they both arrived at the same conclusion and looked at each other again.

“But for some reason, he’s a fugitive now?”

“That’s right. That’s why he dodged the question when I said my mother was connected to the symbol—not just because the symbol represents a dangerous organization or because it’s unsettling.”

Idel paused for a moment, reflecting on Sigmund’s words. The term “fugitive” sparked a hypothesis in her mind.

‘What if, just what if, Vilred had known Sigmund’s true identity from the start?’

The means by which Vilred discovered the truth didn’t matter. He could have been the one who abducted the crown prince from the palace, or conversely, he might be temporarily protecting him under the palace’s patronage.

What mattered was that the secret he was hiding could very well be the boy in front of her.

‘In my sister’s book report, it said that Sigmund made a “surprise appearance” during the founding ceremony.’

She had thought that was their first meeting.

‘…Why did I only think that it was all just a coincidence?’

As her mind raced with thoughts, Idel stared blankly at the boy before her.

To be honest, even knowing that Sigmund was the final antagonist after Melisa, she didn’t mind getting involved with him too much.

The reason was simple.

‘After all, my only enemy is Melisa.’

What Sigmund did in the original story wasn’t a crucial part of Idel’s initial plan. If she couldn’t deal with Melisa, she would either be dead or barely alive at that point, and if she succeeded…

‘I had planned to withdraw from the original story early and live a leisurely life.’

After all, it was Vilred, the master who taught Sigmund, that she had business with, not Sigmund himself.

‘That’s definitely how it was…’

Just then, the boy with raised brows filled her vision. It was at that moment.