Chapter 8
A chilling silence passed. Unable to bear the awkwardness, Penelope fidgeted and finally opened her mouth.
“Thank you for accepting me.”
“Calix has no need to be sorry or grateful to anyone.”
“Pardon?”
“I mean, there’s no need to feel thankful for trivial things.”
“G-Got it!”
Penelope straightened up like a soldier and answered with vigor.
‘So that’s how it is! Villains shouldn’t say thank you or sorry!’
Now it made sense—there were times when her heart would beat unusually fast. Looking back, it always happened when she said “thank you” or “sorry” to the maids.
‘I was unconsciously acting like a good person!’
It felt like her eyes had been opened. And she realized something else:
‘Rather than racking my brain every day trying to think of bad things to do, it’s way more efficient just to listen to the Duke!’
Indeed, natural-born talent was something to be feared.
Penelope’s eyes sparkled as she looked up at Duke Calix.
He raised an eyebrow, seemingly annoyed by her gaze.
Normally, she would’ve backed down—but not now. She had a living, breathing “Villain Handbook” right in front of her.
‘I can’t miss this golden opportunity!’
Penelope stepped forward and boldly grabbed the hem of the Duke’s sleeve.
Then, she exclaimed:
“Duke! Will you have dinner with me?”
A dinner invitation as brash and blunt as they come.
* * *
Penelope swallowed her food and marveled.
‘Wow. This tastes way better than usual!’
Was it because she was dining with the Duke? The dishes were more numerous and elaborate than usual.
That’s right—Penelope was currently having a private dinner with Duke Calix.
She’d expected to be flat-out rejected, but to her surprise, he’d accepted her invitation.
‘Sure, he frowned a bit, but… that doesn’t mean he hates me, right? If he really hated me, he wouldn’t be here having dinner.’
She rationalized to herself and carefully observed the Duke.
‘So elegant…’
She hadn’t noticed during their first dinner due to the chaos, but his table manners were flawless. Not even the faintest sound as his knife touched the plate.
‘Hmm?’
While admiring him, Penelope blinked in surprise.
‘Wait a second… Did I see that right? No way…’
But the Duke’s expression was as indifferent as ever. He looked too composed to be guilty of what she’d just seen.
“What is it?”
He even asked like he had no clue what the issue was.
“N-No, it’s nothing.”
Penelope clutched her chest, her heart racing, and recalled what she had just witnessed.
‘The Duke… secretly pushed aside the carrots!’
That’s right. She had seen Duke Calix casually push the cooked carrots—just garnish, really—to the corner of his plate and have the dish taken away.
Penelope was shocked.
‘He didn’t eat something totally edible?!’
That was a serious offense in her book. Leaving behind food someone had made with care was a terrible act!
She’d always been hungry growing up, so she had no concept of picky eating.
‘And he didn’t even offer the leftovers to anyone else?’
At her old home, she’d have been beaten black and blue for something like that.
Yet the Duke looked utterly unrepentant.
‘Do nobles just get to be picky?’
She tried to recall, but the children’s etiquette books she had read all said: “Children must not be picky about food.”
Just as she pondered this, Demonia called out from afar:
“Duke…! Villain…! Learn from…!”
It meant she should learn from the villainous Duke.
Penelope nodded solemnly to Demonia’s whisper.
‘I knew it. The Duke really is a perfect villain, just like the rumors say.’
To eat with perfect etiquette like a noble yet commit the vile sin of picky eating without batting an eye…
She couldn’t help but be in awe.
‘They say noble blood is inherited. Maybe villainy is, too.’
Penelope, being neither a true noble nor a real villain, realized she would have to work endlessly hard.
So she made up her mind:
‘I have to learn everything I can!’
She had just learned how to commit a villainous act in a way she never would’ve imagined.
Perhaps unable to hide her burning desire, the Duke furrowed his brows.
“You, kid. Why are you looking at me like that? It’s annoying.”
“Ah, it’s nothing!”
“I don’t like people who hide things from me.”
With things going this far, she had no choice. Penelope confessed.
“…I want to be like you.”
Her honest answer turned all heads in the room. Even the most seasoned servants glanced over curiously.
The Duke stared straight into Penelope’s eyes, trying to assess the truth.
“What do you mean?”
“Um. You’re the greatest of all nobles, with the highest status, and you’re so famous.”
Granted, 99.99% of that fame was infamy, but it still counted.
“Now that I’ve become your adopted daughter, I should try to be better. There’s a lot to learn from you, so I want to be like you.”
Penelope carefully expressed her thoughts. It was a sincere compliment—so sincere it made her heart ache—but she could handle that.
Duke Calix was silent for a moment, then let out a short laugh.
“Calix doesn’t flatter. If you really want to be my daughter, you’d better fix that tone first.”
“B-But I wasn’t flattering!”
“Enough with the cringe-worthy lines.”
“But—!”
She meant every word! It had come from the heart, and it even hurt a little to say! How could he dismiss it as flattery?
Unable to contain her frustration, Penelope kicked her legs under the table.
The Duke, now resting his chin on one hand, watched her silently before speaking again.
“Once a week.”
“…Pardon?”
“Once a week, we’ll dine together at this time.”
“Dinner…?”
“Don’t like the idea?”
“No! Not at all!”
It was great news. Penelope’s face lit up.
The more she saw the Duke, the more villainous acts she could observe and imitate.
“You really mean it? Once a week?”
Her eyes sparkled as she asked again, but instead of answering, the Duke simply rose from his seat and left the dining room.
To this, Penelope thought:
‘Wow. Even his exits are villainous.’
She had to remember that kind of arrogant flair.
* * *
Penelope was a woman of action.
She immediately began practicing the villainous “picky eating” she’d learned from the Duke.
She really, really tried her hardest.
But!
“Waaah! I ate it all again today!”
Penelope wailed as she nibbled on a cookie she’d hidden in her handkerchief. She’d had a full lunch, but it was still ridiculously delicious.
“So good…”
Yeah. Too good. It was impossible to leave even a single vegetable behind on her plate.
“The chef’s cooking is amazing. I’ve been eating here for over a month, but every meal is still delicious.”
「Tsk. Don’t say it like that. Say it more obnoxiously.」
“The chef’s cooking is… tolerable?”
「That’s better.」
“Sigh. It’s so hard to talk like a jerk.”
「That’s why you’ve got to build good habits. It’s the only way to avoid bigger mistakes later. Speaking of which, your failure at being picky is probably because you eat like a baby pig.」
Demonia said primly. Penelope pouted.
“You calling me a pig now? What a lovely companion you are, Demon Blade of the Villainous Duke’s House.”
They were in the sealed room of the cursed blade. Naturally, Penelope had snuck out like a mouse in the night without the maids noticing.
“If you had a mouth, your opinion might change. I didn’t grow up eating well, okay? Now there’s new food every day… It’s heavenly.”
Penelope plopped down on the floor and finished off the last of the cookie.
Demonia pointed out her behavior.
「And yet, you don’t seem to feel all that guilty about this.」
“What do you mean?”
「The maids told you—no snacks at night besides warm milk. Yet you’re not feeling a single pang of guilt.」
Penelope winced.
“W-Well… Uh, wait—really? Eating snacks at night is a big no-no! That’s bad!”
「And yet your ‘magia’ isn’t rising at all.」
Magia increased whenever someone committed an evil deed—or when their notoriety rose.
So what counts as “evil”?
It’s judged based on the person’s own moral compass.
Two people might do the same thing, but only one feels guilt—that’s the one whose magia would increase.
That’s how Penelope could build her magia by picking flowers she didn’t plant or telling small lies.
The flip side? Truly wicked people, numb to ordinary wrongdoing, had to commit extreme crimes to increase their magia.
‘That’s why old dark mages used to offer dozens of human sacrifices to gain power.’
Demonia suppressed those ancient memories and turned to the little girl crouched beside
