The Villainess Who Hid Her Identity and Everyone Misunderstood – Chapter 5
“Are you alright?”
I instinctively stepped back.
Raquel Bernhardt, the Second Prince of the Empire.
In all previous loops, he always ended up defeated in the struggle for the throne and then vanished. He was someone who operated from the shadows, successfully pressuring the Crown Prince—but ultimately never becoming emperor.
I flinched and lowered my head.
There was no way he wouldn’t recognize me, Evelyn Rosenthal, daughter of the Rosenthal Ducal House.
It was a reflexive attempt to hide my face.
“I asked if you were alright.”
“…!”
He didn’t recognize me…?
Perhaps because of the deep hood, Raquel didn’t seem to see my face at all.
And if he didn’t recognize me…
“Yes, I’m fine. I wasn’t watching where I was going. I’m sorry.”
Perfect…!
The words came out on their own.
I exhaled in relief inwardly.
If Raquel recognized me here, I’d have to start acting like Evelyn again—and drawing attention would basically ruin this quest.
Because Evelyn Rosenthal would never do something like this kind of good deed!
“If you’re injured anywhere…”
“N-no! I’m really fine!”
I hurriedly cut him off and pulled my hood lower. Raquel tilted his head slightly, watching me as if trying to figure something out.
I need to leave quickly… huh? My hand feels empty?
I flexed my fingers absentmindedly before realizing there was a small glass bottle in Raquel’s right hand.
Ah—almost forgot.
“Ah, um…”
As I stared at his hand, Raquel quickly flinched and handed me the vial.
“Oh, forgive me. I was distracted.”
“No, thank you for catching it. I almost dropped it.”
A precious potion that would increase my stats!
My fingertips trembled as I accepted the bottle.
Just imagining it slipping from my hands and shattering gave me chills.
If that physician was right and this was truly the last one… I would’ve had to search every alchemy shop in the area.
Raquel clicked his tongue briefly as he noticed my trembling hands.
“Are you really alright?”
“I-I’m fine!”
“If you feel unwell later, I can cover your medical expenses, so—”
“I said I’m fine!”
Why is he making such a big deal out of a simple shoulder bump?
I quickly tucked the vial into my robe, used one hand to hold my hood, and pushed him lightly with the other.
‘What is this, a stone?’
Instead of moving, my hand was the one that hurt.
Startled, I pretended nothing was wrong and quickly slipped past him.
If I lingered any longer, I might get exposed.
‘Phew… that startled me.’
Still, why is a prince wandering around a place like this?
Even after countless loops, I had rarely ever encountered Raquel.
He had once served as the supreme commander in the continental war years ago, and even after returning to the palace, he rarely appeared in official events.
And Evelyn Rosenthal had never cared about any men other than the Crown Prince anyway—at most, we might have crossed paths at a banquet.
Raquel was also a character whose thoughts were difficult to read.
Anyway, I carefully secured the recovered vial and headed back toward the slums.
When I returned, Jini’s mother was extremely wary of me and tried to push me away again.
There was a brief commotion due to her suspicion of me (I still don’t know what she suspected), but in the end, she took the medicine.
It seemed she finally believed I was someone working with Jini.
“Then I’ll be going.”
“H-hey, young lady…! At least tell me your name…!”
The moment I turned and left the slum, a translucent system window appeared in front of my vision.
Ding!
[Quest: “Jini the Maid’s Worry” reward is being granted.]
[Stats +4 (However, if discovered, reward reduced by 50%)]
A short while earlier
Raquel Bernhardt, the Second Prince of the Empire, was a rather optimistic man.
More precisely, he was someone who never let interesting things slip past him.
“…Rosenthal Ducal House?”
His red eyes noticed a faint crest engraved on the back of the woman’s robe.
“A maid?”
Considering the worn, cheap fabric of the robe, it was reasonable to assume she worked for the ducal house.
Her behavior—clutching her hood as if desperate to hide her face—was somewhat suspicious.
But the continental war of the past few years had left many scars. There were plenty of people disfigured in both body and face. She might simply be one of them.
What interested Raquel was something else.
He quietly observed the woman. The way she trembled while accepting the small potion bottle suggested she was still shaken from their shoulder bump.
‘Poor control.’
On the battlefield, there was no need to control one’s strength. Everything in front of you was an enemy—or an assassin to be cut down.
Tch.
Raquel clicked his tongue softly.
‘I suppose I should pay for medical expenses.’
Knowing it was partly his fault, he couldn’t just ignore it comfortably.
“Are you really alright?”
“I-I’m fine!”
“If you feel unwell later, I can cover your medical expenses, so—”
He reached into his pocket to take out a business card.
“I said I’m fine!”
She shouted and shoved him. Of course, he didn’t even move a single step, but she still seemed startled and quickly fled.
“….”
For a moment, Raquel’s red eyes gleamed.
Like a child who had just discovered an interesting toy.
Refusing money? And going somewhere like that?
She headed into a district known as the slums—a place rotting with poverty and despair.
A place no normal person would step into, even by mistake.
And yet she climbed the fragile wooden stairs as if it were nothing. Raquel followed like a shadow, maintaining distance so as not to lose her.
After some time, she stopped in front of an old shack.
‘Oh?’
A faint smile formed on Raquel’s lips.
The woman was handing the potion he had picked up earlier to the woman who seemed to be the homeowner.
‘Not acquaintances…’
The shack’s owner still looked uneasy while accepting it, suggesting they were not close.
‘Charity?’
There were always people like that—those who helped others without expecting anything in return. Even during wartime.
Just then, the woman turned her head.
Raquel reflexively ducked.
She left the shack after shaking off the woman who begged for her name, and Raquel once again followed quietly.
His eyes sparkled with interest.
‘An interesting woman. I should ask her name.’
And later, he would recommend the Duke reward her.
Feeling satisfied with his plan, Raquel increased his pace as she left the slum and entered the road leading to the Rosenthal Ducal estate.
He caught up to her quickly.
Just as he was about to call out—
“Hey, wait a moment. Let’s tal—”
Thwack!
“…!”
A sudden impact forced Raquel a step back. The girl’s hooded head had struck his chin perfectly.
“Ugh…!”
He realized he had completely let his guard down. He had failed to react to what he had assumed was a fragile, rabbit-like woman.
But what happened next was even more shocking.
“Kyyaaah! A stalker!”
“St-stalker…?”
As they were now near the central district, passersby began turning their heads.
Before Raquel could react, she changed direction and ran off at full speed.
“What the—! Hey, wait, that’s not—!”
Raquel clutched his jaw and tried to follow her, but he could already feel the stares of people around him.
Some were whispering, others were even running off to call the guards.
In the end, he couldn’t chase her.
The last thing he saw was the small, hooded back of the girl disappearing into the distance.
Later
“Huff… huff…”
Only after sprinting all the way back into the ducal estate did I finally catch my breath.
Damn it, I almost died.
Still, better to hit him and run than risk getting exposed!
…Right? That was better, wasn’t it?
If Raquel learned my identity, he would definitely describe today’s actions in the worst possible light—whether it was good or bad.
And the quest penalty was a 50% deduction if I got caught!
My lips twitched.
I quickly opened the status window and invested all my newly gained stats into Freedom.
Ding!
[Congratulations! <Freedom> has reached Lv. 1.]
[You are now granted a wider range of actions.]
“Kuhuhu…”
It leveled up!
I threw off my hood and laughed wildly.
This time, I would survive for sure!
“What are you looking at?!”
I shouted at the maids giving me strange looks as I passed and went upstairs to my room.
In my mind, endless fantasies of a completely free future were already playing on repeat.
