IDSFTV 02

I Can See the Villain’s Future and It’s Making Me Uneasy Chapter 2

I adapted to the body I had possessed with surprising speed.

Fortunately, when I transmigrated here, I naturally acquired the language and writing of this place, along with all of Garnet Willinger’s memories.

Until I could safely escape from this castle, I would have to work desperately to avoid arousing suspicion.

The last thing I needed was for people to start whispering “The lord’s wife is acting strangely” just because of some out-of-character behavior.

So I began acting exactly as she would — her personality, her speech, her demeanor.

And in living as her, I came to realize something.

Garnet was truly, pitifully, miserably unfortunate.

When the Duke of Shiraz stormed in, I finally understood why she hadn’t even thought about running and had simply given up on life.

Seriously, what kind of life is this for a lord’s wife?!

I muttered countless such laments while living as her.

It’s a long story, but let’s take it step by step.

“Madam, will you be going to see the stablemaster today?”

Without me noticing the door open, one of the maids asked in a flat tone.

I swallowed the urge to snap “At least knock!” and turned slowly toward her.

Her eyes held a trace of irritation, as if to say, Why do you keep meddling in troublesome things and making life difficult for everyone?

No proper lord’s wife would be treated like this by a maid — not unless the maid wanted to be whipped and thrown out.

But I quickly got used to this kind of disregard from the servants.

After all, I wouldn’t be here long.

In fact, keeping my distance from the maids might actually help when the time came to escape.

I smoothed my hair, rose from the vanity, and said,

“Yes. I should go right away. I heard he lost a leg.”

Leaving the grumbling maid behind, I strode steadily down the corridor.

Garnet Willinger, the lord’s wife, was living a life with an expiration date until the day the Duke of Shiraz arrived.

Judging by how much clearer my dreams had become in recent days, that day was not far off.

The stables were located in the most remote corner of the castle grounds, so I had to cross the entire courtyard from morning.

Servants cleaning the floors, gardeners tending the plants, and kitchen staff hauling food supplies all gave me polite but perfunctory greetings as I passed.

“Good morning, Madam.”

“Good morning, Anna.”

“Good morning, Madam.”

“Thank you, Tony.”

They bowed their heads respectfully — but I knew the looks they’d give me once I walked past: pitying, condescending, perhaps even clucking their tongues.

Why?

Because the real mistress of this castle wasn’t me. I was just the title-holding wife.

With a bitter smile, I glanced toward a certain balcony.

Lavishly adorned with flowers and ornate decorations, that was where the true lady of the castle resided.

Her abundant red hair was elegantly pinned up as she stood with a charming little boy, feeding the lark in a gilded birdcage.

“Hohohoho.”

Her tinkling laugh rang out boldly, as if to declare to the world that she was the mistress here.

When she spotted me below, she lifted her chin slightly and looked down with a cold, dismissive gaze.

Then, as if out of politeness, she gave the smallest of nods.

I returned the greeting with a gentle smile, then turned away — my face hardening the moment I did so.

How on earth did Garnet endure this infuriating situation?

Her story wasn’t difficult to piece together.

Garnet’s father, Aiden Kirkrum, had been born the second son of a noble family in the Duchy of Mahat.

As the title went to the eldest, Aiden left home to study medicine, wandering from place to place until he eventually arrived in the territory of the Lord of Willinger.

He raised his daughter with care after his wife died young — only for that vile lord to suddenly kidnap her one day.

After losing his daughter, Aiden fell gravely ill and died. They said he was so grief-stricken that his hair turned completely white before the end.

The bastard deserves a lightning strike.

Grinding my teeth, I thought of the lord.

With her father’s death, Garnet had no family to return to and no one to rely on.

She was brought here as a token wife to hide the lord’s disgrace, treated like a ghost within the castle.

That red-haired woman who had just smiled at me so smugly was not only the lord’s sister-in-law, but also his long-time mistress — and the actual mistress of the household.

What a cesspool of a family.

I could never understand why the lord didn’t simply divorce Garnet and make her his official wife.

But the truth was simple — the Lord of Willinger was a coward. If people learned he was sleeping with his sister-in-law, he’d never be able to show his face again. So he kept Garnet as a shield.

He probably even killed his own brother. That kid’s likely his son, not his nephew.

It was a reasonable suspicion.

Still, there was one good thing about this sordid arrangement.

The lord never touched me.

The red-haired woman kept such a close eye on him that he never dared.

Thank goodness for that.

Just thinking about his lecherous face made my stomach churn.

Eventually, I arrived at the stables.

The maid trailing behind me started grumbling again.

“Madam, you don’t need to trouble yourself with these lowly people.”

I nearly laughed out loud. She was a maid herself — who was she calling lowly?

“I want to. If they serve the lord, they serve me too.”

“This is why the castle folk look down on you. You should just stay in your room, embroider, arrange flowers — not come to dirty places like this.”

This from the same woman who had dragged me here in tears just days ago when her gardener husband fell from a tree.

I ignored her and slipped into the stablemaster’s small, shack-like quarters.

Ugh!

The moment I opened the door, a putrid stench hit me like a wall.

“Eugh!”

The maid gagged and bolted outside, retching loudly.

Honestly, I wanted to join her — but instead I held my breath and behaved as Garnet would have.

She would have ignored the smell and gone straight to check on the patient.

She’d been helping her father with medicine since she was young, and her compassion was genuine.

The more I learned about Garnet, the more I felt I’d possessed someone truly remarkable — not some throwaway extra.

It made me all the more resentful that such a woman had wasted away in this castle because of that wretched lord.

“Bring warm water and clean cloths. And fetch the medicine box from my room.”

“Yes, Madam!”

The maid seized the opportunity to flee, disappearing in a flash.

I couldn’t even fault her for it this time.

Now only the stablemaster and I remained.

I began opening the shutters and doors to let in fresh air.

It’s a good thing I came.

While opening a window, I took the chance to quietly survey the surroundings.

It wasn’t often I could look around without people watching.

Garnet’s medical work had earned her enough reason to tend to others personally — which meant I could explore the castle while avoiding suspicion.

If I wanted to escape later, I’d need a perfect mental map of the place.

“Ughhh…”

The stablemaster groaned in pain.

I approached his bed and examined the injury.

Up close, the smell was bad — but the sight of his ankle was worse.

Blood and pus clung to the wound, but thankfully it wasn’t severe enough to require amputation.

“How did this happen?”

Taking a clean towel from my belt, I began wiping away the pus.

“I set a boar trap… and ended up catching my own foot in it.”

“You got caught in your own trap?”

“That’s about it. Foolish, eh?”

He even chuckled at himself.

“At least your ankle’s still there. But you’ll need to stay off it for a while.”

“Good thing I’ve got my boy. He’ll do my work for me.”

“That’s fortunate.”

“Not just because he’s my son, but—”

And just like that, the man’s injury took a backseat to bragging about his son.

I knew more about that son than I ever wanted to.

Right down to the mole on his backside, the bedroom positions he favored, and the animalistic noises he made — all thanks to the maids gossiping endlessly.

Whether they didn’t realize I could hear from my chambers, or simply didn’t care that I was the lord’s wife, I didn’t know. But they never stopped.

So I’d been forced to learn far more than necessary.

Instead of asking “Do you know your son’s a shameless maid-chaser?”, I asked something I actually wanted to know.

“Did you set the trap because the horses were spooked?”

“That too, but mostly because those things bring a nasty sickness that can spread to the horses.”

“A sickness? Have many horses died from it?”

“Yes. Had a hard time for a while, hauling off carcasses.”

“I see. But… how come I never saw dead horses being taken out of the castle?”

He didn’t think my casual questioning odd in the slightest as I dressed the wound.

“Oh, that’s because there’s another way out. There’s a path through the woods behind the stables.”

I lifted my gaze toward the window.

“I knew there was a forest, but I didn’t realize it connected outside the castle.”