I Became the Villainess in an Anticlimactic Novel - Chapter 34

I ended up oversleeping, perhaps due to the fatigue of staying up late for a few nights since I was having too much fun.

[Ara] “Huam~”

t/n: yawn sound

[Kelber] “Woof!”

[Ara] “Yes, did you have a good sleep too, Kelber?”

Kelber wagged his tail in greeting as soon as I woke up, still by my side despite the sun having already risen high in the sky. 

After taking a quick shower and changing, I walked lightly to the dining hall on the first floor. Although I felt excited at the thought of going to the restaurant we had talked about yesterday, the smile on my face soon disappeared after I found someone completely unexpected waiting for me.

[—] “Meliara.”

Although it was definitely the first time I had seen this person, I knew who they were right away. The exact same indigo blue hair that resembled the blue hair I see in the mirror every morning. A face that I had seen countless times on the portraits hanging on the walls of the Duchy. And above all, the familiar emblem of the Darchez Duchy, stuck on both the chest of him and the knights who were escorting him.

[Ara] “Alion Darchez…?”

His face stiffened as he glanced at me for an instant. Shortly after that, he got up from his seat as he parted his tightly closed lips.

[Alion] “Let’s go back.”

[Ara] “What…? Where…”

[Alion] “What do you mean, where? Back home of course.”

Spitting it out in a blunt voice, he approached me. I took a step back instinctively and said.

[Ara] “Lord Darchez, you must not have heard the news since you’ve been out on an expedition this whole time… I’ve left that house.”

t/n: lord is used to refer to the children of high ranking nobles (notably heirs)

[Alion] “…”

He didn’t respond to my words and just stared at me, so I added.

[Ara] “The home you say you want me to go back to is no longer my home.”

At the table behind him, Tanma and Lecht were watching Alion and I with a dark expression. 

There was a moment of silence. 

Alion let out a soft sigh. It was like a tired sigh of a man forced to bear a heavy barley sack on his shoulders.

[Alion] “I’m doing this since I heard something different from Father.”

He spoke with a slight frown.

[Alion] “You know how easy it is for Father to say something harsh when he’s angry.”

[Ara] “Regardless of how angry you are, I don’t think it’s ‘easy’ for someone to say that we should pretend not to know each other since you’ll be expelled from the Duchy forever, though.”

His eyes, which were cold and stiff the whole time I was talking, suddenly widened into circles. He lowered his deep blue eyes to look at the floor.

[Alion] “Haa… I was wondering why you left home all of a sudden…”

He spoke while rubbing his face.

[Alion] “I’ll speak to Father about it and make it as if it never happened. So don’t worry about that and just come back home first.”

As he took another step toward me again, I retreated yet another step back.

[Ara] “What do you mean make it as if it never happened? I have no intention of going back to that house.”

[Alion] “Meliara.”

[Ara] “I asked him to make sure he removes my name from the genealogy though. I told him not to look for me.”

Alion frowned, as if this was the first he had heard of this.

[Ara] “Please go back, Lord Darchez. I have nothing to do with that family now.”

[Alion] “…”

Despite what I said, he seemed to have no intention of moving. I had no intention of standing here and waiting until he left, so I tried to avoid him first. But Alion grabbed my wrist while I was on my way to Lecht’s table.

[Alion] “Meliara, why are you like this all of a sudden?”

His grip on me was strong.

[Alion] “Hasn’t Father only said something crazy once or twice? Why are you like this all of a sudden…”

[Ara] “Once or twice?”

My voice came out sharply, having gotten sharper in many ways due to the recent events with the Crown Prince.

[Ara] “All of a sudden you say.”

[Alion] “…”

Thinking about the past of this body was very complicated, so it was frustrating that the past, which I thought I had completely severed after leaving the Duchy, kept coming back and suffocating me. Even though it was something I had to deal with, it was still very uncomfortable.

[Ara] “Do you know what I heard as soon as I was born?”

[Alion] “…”

[Ara] “Rather than killing her mother, it would’ve been better if she hadn’t been born.”

[Alion] “!”

The reason why it was uncomfortable wasn’t because I wanted to run away. It was because of the weight of that past.

[Ara] “And do you know what I heard most frequently while living in the Duchy?”

[Alion] “…”

[Ara] “Useless bitch.”

It was a frustrating past, even when it had just been reading words on a page. The background of Meliara Darchez’s upraisal was so brutal it was enough to make people wonder if she had no choice but to become a villainess.

[Ara] “A useless bitch who can’t even seduce the Crown Prince. A useless bitch who doesn’t have the faintest trace of magic, unlike her mother who was a mage. A useless bitch who can’t even exhibit a lick of divine power.”

There were so many that I couldn’t even list them all.

[Ara] “So don’t you think it’s a bit unreasonable for you to say it was only ‘once or twice’?”

[Alion] “…”

I could feel the strength behind Alion’s hand grabbing my wrist. His pupils shook.

[Alion] “That… You know Father only said all of that because he wasn’t thinking for a momen-”

[Ara] “Out of anger, out of rage, out of drunkenness, out of frustration.”

I cut him off in a trembling voice. My voice was flat.

[Ara] “I know.”

I was never angry. On the contrary, I was so despondent I would even laugh. Having endured too much to be angry, Meliara was only filled with sadness, just sadness.

[Ara] “By the way, Lord Darchez. A frog can die from a stone thrown by someone unintentionally1.”

[Alion] “…”

Meliara had to endure a long time of loneliness and violence in what he flippantly called, ‘a senseless thing said without thinking’.

[Alion] “Meliara, I…”

[Ara] “Let go of me.”

I wasn’t putting up any sort of resistance into the wrist he was holding. It wasn’t that I had no strength to shake him off, but that I was just too tired to fight.

[Alion] “Meliara.”

[Ara] “Let go of me, Lord Darchez.”

[Alion] “…”

Upon my repeated calm request, he slowly loosened his grip on me. My hand naturally fell out of his grip.

The red handprints were clearly visible, perhaps because of my pale skin. Although it didn’t hurt, I still hid it with my other hand since it looked quite bad.

Taking a step back, I said in a low voice.

[Ara] “Please, don’t ever come see me again.”

It was an earnest request, devoid of anger or resentment. Looking at me for a long time with a complicated expression that I couldn’t understand, Alion finally opened his mouth.

[Alion] “What are you going to do now without the Darchez name?”

The words he murmured lightly dispersed in the quiet space.

I would have ignored it if that question that was closer to a monologue was ridiculing what I could do by myself. But I paused for a moment at the voice that deluded me into thinking he was genuinely worried.

Alion Darchez wasn’t a good older brother in the novel either. He hated her for taking his mother away when he was young, and avoided her when he grew older, and upon her engagement being broken off and being removed from the family, he left for an expedition to the border, not even remaining by her side.

‘But unlike the Duke, Alion actually pretends to be worried about his sister.’

His hypocritical, two-faced appearance was both unpleasant yet satisfying, so I pasted on a shallow smile.

[Ara] “Stay healthy, Lord Darchez.”

Alion’s eyes shook once more. There was a moment of silence, with not even the sound of breathing heard. Alion turned around first.

[Alion] “…Let’s go back.”

Despite it being the first thing he said when he found me, both the target of the sentence, as well as the meaning, were now different.

[Knight] “Your Lordship, but His Excellency, the Duke…!”

[Alion] “Go back.”

Alion glared down with a cold light in his eyes at the knight who seemed to protest against him, making the knight shut up as he walked out. The knight glanced between Alion and I alternately before running after Alion, exclaiming a short ‘Gosh!’ and seemingly wanted to stomp his feet out of frustration. 

Silence came to the dining hall after Alion’s departure. Apart from Alion and his knights, there were only Tanma and Lecht in the first place anyway. It was because Linden had cleared out the whole place so we’d be comfortable.

But what should I do with this heavy atmosphere? Should I explain what sort of situation this was to Lecht? How much of it should I explain? That they were this body’s family, but had left after being removed from the family? Even that I’m actually someone else who just took over Meliara’s body?

[Kelber] “Hing?”

As my train of thought continued with various concerns, one of Kelber’s heads burrowed into my hand. Another licked my wrist while the other one rubbed against my hip. My anxiety slowly melted away despite having been frozen stiff earlier.

At the same time, I heard Lecht speak up.

[Lecht] “I allowed him some space since he claimed that you were family, but your relationship seems to be no better than strangers.”

Turning my head, Lecht had already approached me before I knew it and pulled me into his embrace. Startled by the unexpected hug, Tanma soon entered my line of sight. He had a faint smile on his face like always.

[Tanma] “It’s my fault, miss. I’ll definitely make sure to restrict his entry next time.”

He banned Lord Darchez naturally and lightly, with the casualness he would use to say, ‘Gosh, the tea’s gone cold. I’ll heat it up’.

It was clear that neither of them were deliberately prying into the details or interrogating me too heavily for my sake. But despite that, they were clearly expressing their concern for me.

[Ara] “Thank you.”

[Lecht] “It’s only natur-”

The moment I was expressing my thanks for their consideration of me.

[—] “Ack! Take that hand off! That’s cheating!”

A discontented voice cut off Lecht’s reply and filled the dining hall. When I turned around, I saw an upset Linden entering the dining hall.

[Linden] “You shouldn’t try to score a goal when the opposing team isn’t there, seriously!”

At the obnoxious voice that accused him of foul play, Lecht clicked his tongue with a tch and murmured under his breath.

[Lecht] “I wish I could add that to the restricted access list while I’m at it.”

I burst out laughing at the murmur that was more than half sincere. 

How are you going to restrict access to Linden when it’s his property?

Linden approached us in big strides and pulled me out of Lecht’s arms, placing me by his side as he glared discontentedly at Lecht. Wondering if it would turn into another argument again, I spoke with Linden.

[Ara] “Where have you been since morning?”

Though the sun was already too high in the sky for me to say it was morning.

Turning his gaze to me at my question, Linden smiled softly, his eyes crinkling, as if he hadn’t just been growling at Lecht. 

[Linden] “Ara, I was going to give you this when you woke up.”

[Ara] “Wow! So pretty.

He pulled out a pretty bouquet of tulips from behind him. Lecht clicked his tongue again when I received the colourful bouquet with both hands.

[Lecht] “You did the same thing as me, so what exactly are you dissatisfied about?”

[Linden] “I at the very least still gave it in front of you.”

[Ara] “Ahh, thank you! Wow, tulips! Wow, so colourful!”

I deliberately admired the colourful bouquet between the two men. Having barely managed to reverse the almost bloodthirsty situation, I looked exaggeratedly around the empty dining hall and asked another question.

[Ara] “Where did the priests go? They should’ve finished their morning prayers already.”

They didn’t seem to fight if the topic didn’t have anything to do with me. But a sudden incident immediately overshadowed my topic of choice that I had chosen after much consideration.

The door burst open with a bang as a winged demonic creature appeared.

[Linden] “What’s happening all of a sudden…!”

At the loud sound and appearance of something large, Linden pulled me back and quickly performed barrier magic.

But the expressions of Lecht and Tanma were somehow peaceful. Even Kelber, who was next to me, was carefreely scratching his ears with his hind feet. 

Seeing their relaxed appearances made me turn my head again to reconfirm it was a demonic creature. It was a gryphon, undoubtedly a demonic creature, with the body of a lion, but the head and wings of an eagle.

Did a Demon King, a demon, and a demonic creature have no reaction to it since it was a demonic creature? No, even humans are surprised when a brown bear suddenly appears out of nowhere.

It was then.

[—] “Your Majesty!!”

[Ara] “Oh.”

At the sonorous voice that rang out, I immediately realised why they were so easygoing. There was only one person I knew who would make such a dramatic appearance with such a powerfully loud voice.

[Ryno] “Your Majesty! Are you okay?!”

Sure enough, it was Ryno who jumped off the gryphon. The back of my throat tightened as I got a headache due to many different reasons.

‘Where does that idiot think this place is, showing up riding a gryphon…!’ 

With his horns exposed too!

[Ryno] “Your Majesty! There’s trouble…!”

[Ara] “Hey, you invincible walking disaster!”

Before he could bring anything up, I rushed up to him with an urgent heart and hid his face in my arms.

[1]  proverb meaning be careful of what you say to other people