I’m a Villainess, Can I Die? - Chapter 82

Chapter 82

The seemingly never-ending music had finally stopped.

We took a step away from each other and exchanged our greetings. It was the perfect finish that I couldn’t do at the ballroom last night.

“Now, shall we go back?”

“Yes. Let’s go. In the end, I was just wasting my time and didn’t do anything.”

Aiden and I moved slowly to the carriage area. We were walking down the side of the road, leaving the street where people were crowding at.

“Still, I had fun,” Aiden opened his mouth in a hum. Judging by his expression, he seemed genuinely happy.

‘That’s good.’

“Miss.”

“Yes?”

“Did you enjoy it, too?”

‘Did I enjoy it… Well… How was it?’

I ate chicken skewers and drank cheap wine. It was quite okay. After getting lost for a while, I danced in a deserted place. Okay, wasn’t this nonsense? Well, if I were to be asked whether it was fun or not…

“I think it was fun.”

My first festival seemed to have been quite enjoyable.

On the way to the carriage area, Aiden stopped by a street vendor for a while. Various items were lined up to be sold. While I was just browsing the items with my eyes, Aiden held a paper bag in his hand.

“Did you buy anything?”

“Yes. Didn’t Miss say that you were going to buy souvenirs?”

‘Oh right. I did. Wow, I almost forgot. No, I actually just forgot… Thankfully, I noticed before we got home?’

“What should I buy?”

I bent down and looked around at the items. Rather than buying something like food, I thought it would be better to buy something unique. Aiden also crouched with me and helped me pick something out.

“Uh, that…”

“It’s that fountain from before.”

There was a drinking fountain that we had been interested in at the street vendor earlier.

“Is this for sale, too?”

When I pointed my finger at an object, the nice-looking lady nodded.

“Yes, I am selling it. This product was discontinued in the past, but I was lucky enough to get it.”

Earlier, the owner boasted that it was a very valuable item… Was it because there were valuable things like this all over the place?

Aiden, who seemed to have the same thoughts as me, stared at the object without saying a word, then came close to me.

“It may be broken. It could be fake.”

“But…”

Still, should I have acted fooled and bought it anyway? I was quite impressed with the fountain earlier. If it works, I was sure my family would love it.

“How much is it?”

“Oh, it’s a valuable thing, so it costs a bit. About… 20 silver?”

The nice looking lady looked at me while discussing the price.

‘No way… Are you actually a scammer?’

No, I didn’t think so. Indeed, 20 silver was definitely quite expensive for something sold at a street vendor. She would need to have some sense about who would actually buy it.

Since I had already made up my mind to buy that item, I decided to turn on my positivity circuit.
“Will you buy it?”

“Yes.”

Our conversation brought a smile to the lady’s face. I just hoped that smile was a kind smile.

In Aiden’s arms, there was the fountain I had bought and a paper bag containing the things he bought.

I offered to take the paper bag, but Aiden shook his hand and refused. It was a stubborn refusal.

What was in it… Even after getting into the carriage, Aiden didn’t put down the paper bag, and he still kept it in his arms.

I shouldn’t have been curious about personal privacy… Still, I kept staring at the paper bag out of irresistible curiosity.

“Are you that curious?”

Startled like a child caught playing a prank, I slowly raised my gaze. Aiden was looking at me with a smile on his face.

I was sure I was looking at the paper as inconspicuously as possible… I guess not.

No, I had no intention of threatening him. I wasn’t forcing him to show it, I was just looking at it out of curiosity…

“Yes.”

However, the other person said he would show it, so I had no intention of refusing to see it.

Aiden laughed at my immediate answer. Then, perhaps hesitating for a moment, he fidgeted with the paper bag he was holding, and put his hand inside.

The sound of the rattling carriage felt like a suspenseful sound effect.

“I saw it and it was beautiful. So I wanted to give it to you.”

What he took out of the paper bag was a glass bottle. A glass bottle full of round glass marbles.

Clatter. Every time he moved his hand, glass marbles collided and made a clear sound.

“I bought it because I wanted to give it to the Miss, but I don’t think it’s too much when compared to the fountain.”

The tone was bittersweet. He bought it to give it to me, but since I rushed to buy a high-priced item as a gift, he seemed to be wondering if he could give it to me.

Well, he looked like he was thinking about that again.

Thinking so, I blankly stared at the beads in the glass bottle.

Yellow, blue, pink, green… Beads that boasted and emitted colorful lights.

“Do you like it?”

Concentrating on the marble, I looked up at Aiden’s face at his cautious question.

Green eyes that looked even more shaken than the rattling carriage were looking at me.

They were really the same as those from long ago.

The reaction he gave when I said I would cut his tongue was the same as now, with his eyes trembling.

“Yes. I like it.”

I stretched and held out both of my hands.

Just like when Aiden held out his hands to say I could throw up on him.

Aiden gave a faint smile, perhaps relieved by my actions, and gently placed the glass bottle in my hands.

Receiving the glass bottle, I squeezed both hands tightly and held it.

Clatter, clatter.

Whenever I moved my hands, the marbles made a clear sound, just as they did in his hands.

After staying silent for a while and concentrating on the sound, I raised my hand and illuminated the bottle in the newly shining moonlight.

Even the beads themselves glowed brightly when exposed to the moonlight. There was only one thought that came to my mind as I gazed at the blindingly colored marbles.

“It’s like candy.”

The candy bottle that shattered inside me that day. This looked just like it.

“Something’s up with you.”

“I know.”

Lucas took the napkin Aaron gave him and wiped the wine off his clothes.

However, the red-stained spots were not easily erased. Lucas, who was fiddling with the dark red marks on his dark jacket, gave a small smile.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just that it’s funny that I’m not like myself.”

“That’s it? Whatever.”

Aaron clicked his tongue at his friend a few times and leaned back on the terrace. Lucas followed him slowly to the railing of the terrace.

Beyond the curtains drawn to mark the occupied terrace, people’s shadows were swaying.

“Did he come today?” Aaron, who was watching the dark moving shadows in the bright light, asked Lucas.

“Who?”

“The second son of Count Cooper.”

Aaron’s anger was buried in the resolutely low tone.

It was inevitable.

After all, no one would be pleased to see a dirty fly attached to one’s dear sister.

Lucas stared at Aaron’s stiff face, then smiled loosely and looked down at the garden. However, the light in his eyes was no different than hideous.

The day Lucas told Aaron about the matter with Jacob, he went on a rampage.

Lucas remembered the day he had to stop his agitated friend, so he gently pressed his forehead.

Anyway, after that day, Aaron and Lucas were investigating Jacob privately.

Since Jacob was also the son of a count, it was impossible to take him to court without evidence. Even if he was sent to the court, there was a high probability that it would only damage Selena’s reputation and he would be acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Of course, it would be easy to use some power to put Jacob in prison… If that happened, it would be difficult to find the true culprit. At the same time, it would be difficult to find out the real reason why Jacob did it.

So, without the help of the court or the investigation department, they were privately digging information on it with the duke’s manpower.

It would be more beneficial to Selena if they proceeded like this and discovered something.

However, despite the fact that quite a bit of time had passed since their investigation began, no clues had emerged.

The only clue was Jacob’s testimony that day.

Frustrated, Aaron let out a deep breath. Lucas glanced at his friend, who seemed quite frustrated, and opened his mouth with a loose smile.

“Well, I don’t think he came… He might have died somewhere.”

“No way… you…”

“…What do you see me as?”

A crazy friend.

Aaron held the word in his mouth and swallowed it. Lucas, shrugging his shoulders at the lack of an answer, tapped his finger on the railing.

A steady knocking sound echoed through the terrace where the two were.

“What was the purpose?”

“The most likely hypothesis is that he coveted money or power.”

“Yeah, that would be it. But, it’s kind of weird.”

Hearing Aaron’s doubtful words, Lucas nodded his head as well. It was a problem he had been thinking about. Why did the boss tell Jacob to seduce Selena?

If he coveted money and power, wasn’t it safer to get it through other methods?

Even if Jacob succeeded in seducing Selena, if he admitted it, the money and power would all be gone. It felt too risky to entrust such a thing to a stranger.

“Is it really simply because of money and power…?”

Aaron muttered and closed his eyes.

Unsolved questions were always frustrating. Frustration soon turned into fatigue. Aaron rubbed the back of his neck from the overwhelming fatigue and headache.

He hadn’t been able to sleep properly lately.

Selena’s matter was one thing, but it was also because he was suddenly witnessing monsters near the Duchy’s estate.

He was dealing with the reports of sightings coming in, but the number of sightings hadn’t decreased at all.

Recently, not only eyewitness accounts but also damage cases have been reported.

The problem was that it was getting progressively worse.

His headache wasn’t usually this painful.

After dealing with this and that throughout the day and night, it was obvious that he lacked sleep.

“Are you sleeping well?”

Lucas opened his mouth, keeping his eyes fixed on the garden.

“You don’t have to worry.”

Contradicting his grunt, Aaron grinned and lowered his hand that was rubbing the back of his neck.

“About four hours.”

“You should just kill yourself.”

“What kind words you’ve spoken.”

“I am a kind person.”

Aaron laughed at Lucas’s words. Lucas looked at Aaron with uneasy eyes, then started to laugh himself.

On a busy day these days, it was funny that the terrace within the party felt the most peaceful.

The two took a deep breath and poured the remaining wine into their respective glasses.

Even though the alcohol content was low, a strangely tingly feeling rose up. Perhaps it was because their bodies were tired.

“Time to go.”

It was deep into the night. The moon had already risen a long time ago, and people were now leaving.

Perhaps Selena was also on her way back from the festival too.

Yeah, she must be back by now from that festival she went to with Aiden.

Of course, he knew that the maid named Jane and the priest Ian were also accompanying them… Even so, he couldn’t help but worry about it all day that day.

‘Sir Lucas… what about Aiden?’

The expressionless face that came to his mind spontaneously spoke to him calmly.

Lucas, who was picturing the face, raised his lips.

“Yes, I am jealous.”

‘So look at me now, Selena.’

‘Please don’t look at me with such a terribly calm face, Selena.’

“What?”

Hearing Lucas’s inaudible mumble, Aaron, who was yawning, turned his head. But Lucas didn’t turn his head to Aaron, and just lazily turned his wine glass round and round.

“It’s a secret.”

With those mere words, the peaceful time on the terrace ended just like that.

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