Chapter 19
Hmph, so that’s how you’re going to play it?
I smiled sweetly as I looked at Countess Preston, who was blatantly insulting me.
“But still—”
Before I could even speak, Countess Preston wagged her tongue first.
“It’s not me, of course. Like I said earlier, I’m on Miss Tekins’s side. I mean, Countess Tekins and her son and daughter were all commoners, weren’t they?”
“……”
“Ugh, even thinking about it disgusts me.”
She shivered as if recalling something revolting.
“I just believe commoners are commoners, and nobles are nobles. Even if we live under the same sky and on the same land, we’re not the same kind of people, are we? I mean, we have entirely different levels of dignity.”
Countess Preston smiled brightly as she looked at me.
“Doesn’t Miss Tekins think the same way? That’s why you sent your family to prison as your last gift to them, didn’t you?”
She was talking about how I sent that trash heap of a family to prison so I could safely leave the Tekins household.
“That was a very good move. It’s better to be a bit harsh than let commoners taint a noble bloodline.”
After taking another sip of tea, the countess put her teacup down and looked at me meaningfully.
“Still, feeding poison to your half-sister was a bit too obvious, wasn’t it?”
“What do you mean?”
“No need to pretend you don’t know!”
When I blinked, she laughed loudly, raising her voice.
“Everyone knows it! That Miss Tekins poisoned her half-sister at the party.”
Ah.
I blinked slowly.
As soon as I heard her words, a cascade of memories flooded into my mind.
A party held late in the evening, my first time out in months, a kind stepmother and half-sister, and a fiancé I hadn’t seen in ages.
And—
“Ermia, can you take this to your sister? She’s been wanting to drink this so badly.”
A glass placed in my hand.
“…Cough, sister, what on earth did you give me…?”
“It’s poison! She poisoned me!”
“I want to break off the engagement. I can’t be engaged to someone this horrifying. I’m going to Rachel.”
‘That damned day.’
After drinking the medicine that the countess had passed along from Countess Tekins, my half-sister coughed up blood.
Rumors spread like wildfire that I had deliberately poisoned her to kill her.
There was no need to investigate who had started the rumors.
It was Countess Tekins and my half-sister themselves.
‘After that, their reputations soared, while mine plummeted.’
I lost all the people who could have helped me and ended up completely isolated.
After that—well.
It was hell every day.
“But anyway. Up to that point, fine, fine.”
Smiling sweetly, Countess Preston continued.
“But then—”
She dragged out the end of her sentence and looked at the bed with amused eyes.
“If you were going to bring someone in, at least choose someone who looks like you. I mean, just from the hair color, I thought she really was your sister! She’s not your kid, right? Oh my, I’m joking, joking!”
She waved her hand like she’d just told a hilarious joke.
“Her eyes are golden, right? Did you bring her here just because of that? That’s harsh—you should’ve at least matched her hair color.”
She was talking as if I had just grabbed some random child to bring with me to the Grand Duke’s estate.
“……”
How should I crush her?
As I fiddled with the teacup and considered my options—
“So, when are you getting rid of her? How are you going to do it? Poison again?”
She crossed a line she should never have crossed.
“Excuse me?”
Surely, I heard her wrong.
No, even if she were a villainess from a novel—how could she say something like that?
With whatever morality, conscience, and hope I had left in me, I decided to give her a chance to correct herself.
I mean, no decent human being would say something like that.
“I asked, how are you going to get rid of her, Miss Tekins.”
Apparently, she wasn’t a decent human being.
“She’s served her purpose, hasn’t she? She caught your nephew’s eye, she got you into the Grand Duke’s house.”
The countess took another sip of tea, then looked around the room.
“And now you’ve even got a room this nice. My nephew must be truly in love.”
“……”
“So she’s useless now, right?”
“Do you—”
I managed to speak, suppressing my rising fury.
“Do you understand what you’re saying right now, Countess?”
“Of course I do. I know exactly what I’m saying.”
No, she really doesn’t seem to.
“Goodness, no need to be so tense, Miss Tekins. Like I said, I’m on your side.”
When I stayed silent for a moment, Countess Preston looked at me smugly, misinterpreting my quiet.
“Whatever you do, I’ll cover for you. I’ll be on your side. But—”
“But?”
“Take my grandson as your adopted son.”
“Hah.”
I laughed quietly. Everything else had changed since I entered the story three years earlier than in the original plot.
Why is this the one thing that stayed the same?
“My grandson doesn’t have golden eyes, but he does have black hair. He won’t draw suspicion like that child—”
“I can’t listen to this anymore.”
Clink.
I deliberately set down my teacup with a loud sound, placed my hands on my lap, and straightened my posture.
“You’ve been talking nonsense for way too long, Countess.”
“What?”
She stared at me in disbelief, as if she hadn’t heard correctly.
Then let me repeat it.
“You’ve been talking absolute nonsense, and I can’t listen to it any longer.”
As if each word slowly sank into her brain, her eyes gradually widened—
“You—you…!”
And then turned red with rage.
“How dare you speak like that to an elder of the family!”
“I’d treat a family elder like one if they acted the part. Spouting nonsense doesn’t make someone an elder.”
I chuckled. In contrast, the countess’s face turned a mottled red and blue.
“You brat!”
“Quiet, Countess. You’ve no dignity or refinement.”
I openly looked her up and down.
“What would you do if people found out you had commoner blood in you?”
She flinched, just as she was about to rise and slap me.
“What did you just say?”
“Didn’t you hear me?”
Then I’ll say it again.
“I said, it’s obvious that Countess Preston has half commoner blood.”
Why else would she despise commoners so much?
It was because she was afraid her own commoner blood would be discovered.
‘Everyone’s most sensitive about the parts they’re most ashamed of.’
It was a form of inferiority complex. And insecurity.
That’s why she reacted so excessively.
“What…”
A strained smile tugged at her lips.
“What nonsense are you talking about, Miss Tekins? What a funny joke.”
“It’s not a joke. It’s the truth, Countess.”
I spoke slowly.
“I’m sure your mother was from Arichen—”
“Shut up!”
Crash!
The teacup shattered with a loud noise, its pieces clattering across the floor.
I’d better clean that up soon.
Wouldn’t want Veloa to get hurt.
“You—you, how do you know that?”
“How do I know?”
I took another sip of tea and smiled sweetly.
“Easily.”
