The Double Life of The Villainess Grand Duchess - Chapter 8

‘Is that supposed to be a smile? And a bright one at that?’

Elysée tried to hide the absurdity by approaching and hugging him.

“Older Brother… ! I’m so glad. I was afraid that you might have left.”

“How could I? You’ve endured the most during this major life event more than anyone else….. Didn’t you?”

“No. It’s something everyone goes through.”

Elysée looked up at him and smiled innocently. However, contrary to her expression, her mind was getting more and more confused. The lines were stiff and slightly stuttered, and she didn’t feel continuity as if everything was forced. It was her second hurdle after Blake, who was overly affectionate and threw her off.

‘What’s wrong with you… ?’

Lucas’ mouth was now trembling. Elysée couldn’t take her gaze from Lucas’ awkward face until Blake approached and wrapped her shoulders.

Jealousy and assessments were the key to this dining scene that appears at the beginning of <The Fallen Lovers>.

At this point in fact, the Grand Duchess actually already knew the heart of her step-brother, Lucas Clanton. She was a perceptive woman who knew how he felt about her but pretended not to know and manipulated him.

For example, she treated the male lead as an admirer in her harem.

“Older Brother, will you come to see me again?”

In that respect, Elysee’s acting was perfect. She was pretending to be a loving platonic sibling relationship. She looked at Lucas over the table, pretending to be young, naive, and pitiful.

A blue vein popped up on the back of Blake’s hand, holding the knife. With his mouth closed tightly, Elysée quickly noticed his irritation.

‘This is a really entertaining scene.’

If Lucas had ignited Blake’s jealousy even more, as in the original, it would have been a home run. With an impressed face, her eyes blushed….

“Are you serious?”

—If you said it like that.

But, instead, Lucas said that line with an expressionless face and a sharp look as if, ‘How ridiculous. You dare tell me to come and go?” It only seemed to mean nothing more than that.

Blake looked at Elysee with a sad look, as if he thought, ‘You’ve been treated like this by your family so far?’

If it was according to the script, he should have stared at Lucas with a frown.

‘Wh… . What is he smoking?’

In this situation, Elysée, who was about to say the following lines, had to thoroughly manage her facial expressions.

“Perhaps it’s too much to ask… ?”

According to the description, Elysee’s eyes were now wet.

“I’ll endure it. Don’t worry about me. Of course, I will be very lonely, but….”

She disguised her coquettishness with a pitiful visage. She captured Blake’s and Lucas’s gaze simultaneously as she bit her lips and dropped her head as if she were trying to avoid crying.

Lucas jumped up out of his seat, stood up with a stiff face.

“Now—a-are you crying?”

‘I’m going to hit you very hard.’

Elysée clicked her tongue. Lucas should have jumped up and ran to her in embarrassment—but instead, he hesitated and stopped as if he could not remember his next line.

“Wife, don’t you have me? I will not make you lonely.”

As if he had to show off and check Lucas, Blake was embarrassed as he saw Elysée sad.

‘no…. This is not it… .’

Lucas came up to her too late and patted her shoulder awkwardly.

“I will come whenever you want, so don’t cry.”

‘Don’t hold your tongue so tight and talk so stiff!’

Elysee had no choice but to lower her head, trying to suppress her extreme irritation further.

***

In a word, Lucas’ performance acting during mealtime was terrible.

His lines weren’t wrong, but it didn’t match the male lead’s demeanor specified in the character introduction. He was consistently expressionless, a smile didn’t crack his face—let alone ‘smiling brightly,’ and the lines that should have been friendly sounded sarcastic.

It was a dialogue and atmosphere that would have been perfect if they were playing as real siblings that are no different from enemies.

So when Elysee returned to her bedroom after the luncheon, she wasn’t surprised when she saw Lucas, who was already hiding in her room.

“Something’s wrong.”

As if to announce that he was a different person from the character he was playing, his words became shorter and informal.

“… I know, right. I think so.”

Elysee clicked her tongue. He had a harsh tone paired up with a face that made flowers bloom if he smiled.

“By any chance, are you the upper world agent that was originally supposed to be in my husband’s body?”

“Yes. You must be an investigator at the Midland Fantasy Control Tower.”

“Yes. Although it is ‘temporary.’”

“Temporary?”

“Yeah. I was sent almost right here after I died. To rescue the investigators trapped in this world.”

He looked at her with narrowed eyes.

“… What was your job during your lifetime?”

“Actress. It was pretty good.”

“No wonder. So that’s why there was no sense of incongruity at all.”

Lucas nodded.

“The previous Midland investigators’ acting skills were terrible.”

“As yours was too.”

“I’ll admit it.”

Rather than being offended, he said it was natural.

“I practiced the role of Blake Freysen over several months. I was confident I would not be suspicious. But it is now useless.”

Elysee sighed.

“What the hell happened? Why did you get into that body, not my husband?”

“I do not know. An error occurred as soon as I tried to enter Blake Freyson’s body. I lost consciousness by the strong impact on the spirit body, and when I woke up, I was inside this body.”

“… That can happen? Lucas is the male protagonist of the story.”

Instead of answering, Lucas started to pull out his hair.

‘Ah, this is no small matter.’

It’s not just the character’s personality that matters. In addition to having to digest and memorize the overwhelming amount of dialogue, the degree of his freedom would be significantly reduced as the number of his appearances is large. Whatever his purpose was, it would be impossible to get it right.