TVBS 02

Episode 2

“Why are you saying that? Is it magic…… no, is our Anne’s health poor?”

The Count stammered, sounding as though he was worried about me.

Soon, Hoyas answered.

“She’s extremely weak, very weak….”

“Weak? Surely not!”

The Count glanced at me, then twisted his face in distress.

Before long, the two of them sent me out and continued their conversation alone.

I sat on a chair in the garden and imagined what they were talking about.

Even without hearing it directly, I was sure their conversation would go something like this.

‘You mean her magical abilities are weak?’

In response to my uncle’s question, Hoyas would answer, having ‘wrongly’ guessed what he was actually asking about.

‘Yes. It can hardly even be called an ability. Although she has pure mage blood, by the time she becomes an adult, she’ll barely have enough power to do anything more than possess a tiny bit of strength.’

‘Tiny bit of strength?’

‘At most, she’ll probably be able to put out a candle.’

‘Ah…….’

It felt as though I could hear my uncle’s despairing voice all the way over here.

Since my feet couldn’t reach the ground, I dangled them in the air, swinging both feet back and forth.

As Hoyas had said, Maryanne’s magical abilities were currently extremely weak.

But not everything Hoyas had said was correct.

Maryanne’s innate magical abilities would become tremendously powerful the moment she discovered a magic stone that resonated with her energy.

Later, on the day she became an adult after entering the villainous family, she would coincidentally find that magic stone and become the greatest villainess of her era.

“Zelaus!”

At my single word, a tiny drop of water popped out of my hand.

After possessing Maryanne of the Delve Count’s family, I had desperately tried to remember the magic spells from the original novel.

And this was all I could barely manage to recall.

Just as expected from the spell, the power was about the size of a jelly.

“Ze! La! Us!”

If I put a ton of force into each syllable like this, the water droplet did become twice as large.

Of course, I would never let anyone see this ability. I had to keep it hidden.

Rather than becoming a mage with a magic stone, surviving under my materialistic uncle would be much better.

Learning how to painstakingly save money by watching my uncle from the sidelines and eventually becoming independent was the best plan I could think of.

‘Fighting! Let’s survive!’

…But that plan went up in smoke the very next day.

“Maryanne, wake up.”

“U- Uncle……!”

Exactly two days had passed since I came to my uncle’s house.

I had barely managed to fall asleep because the new environment was so unfamiliar, so why the heck was he waking me up?

I rubbed my eyes in the early dawn light and struggled to sit up. And then, I saw that the luggage the maids had unpacked last night had been packed up again.

“Uncle…… why is that luggage……?”

“Anne, from now on, you’ll be going to the Kereis family instead of staying here.”

“……Whaaat?”

For a moment, I forgot that I was a little child and let out a horrified shriek.

Kereis meant the villainous family.

Why was something that was supposed to happen a month from now happening already?!

I looked at my uncle with my two eyes, black as the night sky, and pleaded with him.

“Why all of a sudden? Why? I-I don’t want to go……. I want to live with you, Uncle, okay?”

A tear rolled down from the corner of my eye.

Look at this poor, pitiful child.

Despite my desperate pleading, my uncle seemed to have already made up his mind and remained cold-hearted.

He tugged his mustache crookedly and said,

“Anne, I carefully considered what would be best for your future. And I made an early decision for your sake.”

“Uncle!!”

“It will be a better choice for your future than staying here.”

What kind of nonsense was this?!

Sending me to the worst villainous family in the entire Empire was a good choice?!

I wanted to grab my uncle by the hair right then and scream.

How much did they pay you?! Huh? Do you really think you’ll be able to sleep peacefully after selling off a little kid?!

“Waaaaah…….”

Even after seeing me crying as I climbed into the carriage, my uncle didn’t even come outside the mansion to see me off.

As it turned out, my uncle had originally planned to send me away a month later.

But because my behavior was so strange—I kept clinging to him with a smile while also looking at him suspiciously—he decided to send me away in a hurry.

I overheard the maids whispering about it, and I almost burst into tears.

‘You horrible man! Just you wait! When I become a villainess later, I’m never letting you off the hook!’

I wiped the corners of my eyes with the back of my hand and curled up in the corner of the carriage.

All my plans had fallen apart, and the situation was the worst possible.

I couldn’t think of anything about what I should do from now on.

I was going to meet those crazy Kereis people this soon……!

Even though I had only read about the villainous family in the original novel, they had somehow seemed terrifying enough to make the stench of fresh blood practically seep from the pages.

Terrifying enough to raise such a tiny, young Maryanne into a villainess.

‘What am I supposed to do now……?’

In a place that could only be reached by passing through a vast forest in the south, there stood the mansion of the Kereis ducal family.

The carriage that had departed early in the morning finally reached the entrance to the forest as evening approached.

The coachman, who had been driving the horses quickly, slowed down as he stared at the foggy road ahead.

He, too, had never imagined that he would come to this place.

If he hadn’t been offered twice the usual amount of money, he would never have come.

Whoooooosh.

The unpleasant sound of the wind rang in his ears, making the hairs all over his body seem to stand on end.

The horse also seemed reluctant to move forward, as though its sensitive animal instincts had detected something strange.

The coachman nervously looked around with frightened eyes and coaxed the horse.

“Come on, come on. We have to keep going.”

Meanwhile, I had dozed off inside the carriage and knew nothing about what was happening.

Then, for some reason, I woke up at the eerie feeling that had crept over my body.

And through the window, I saw the dark trees, almost black, and the hazy fog.

“Wow, did I really come to Kereis?”

In the end, with no clever solution in sight, things had followed the original story.

And not only that—it was happening a whole month early.

Everything felt so futile.

I had made all sorts of plans with such enthusiasm, but now that they were useless, I didn’t feel like doing anything.

“Fine, let it happen however it wants. I don’t care whether I become a villainess or not. Hmph, living as the greatest villainess of all time wouldn’t be so bad, I guess.”

I desperately tried to suppress the worst-case scenario with a victory of sheer mentality.

But easier said than done. My heart simply wouldn’t calm down.

I rummaged through the pocket of my dress, pulled out a twig, and gripped it tightly with both hands.

Then I recalled what had happened in the original novel.

“Kereis… Kereis….”

They were a family that held a tight grip on the fertile, valuable lands and resources of the West.

On top of that, their swordsmanship had been exceptional for generations, so whenever a war broke out, the men of the Kereis family would swarm onto the battlefield and achieve overwhelming victories.

The male lead in the original novel was the Crown Prince, so I couldn’t understand why the author had given the villain such absurd amounts of money and power.

Anyway, I hated this kind of rivalry.

A kind man versus a bad man—was that the kind of setup the author wanted?

Come to think of it, I remembered the novel’s comment section being divided between the Crown Prince faction and the Kereis faction.

“No, no! This isn’t the time for that!”

I once again reminded myself that I was Maryanne of the Delve Count’s family.

And since I had already ended up entering the villainous family’s lair instead of going to the Crown Prince, I had to prepare myself.

“Right! In all those popular stories, the heroine always has the villain wrapped around her finger, right? Why couldn’t I do it too?!”

I had one enormous buff on my side: I knew the original story.

In other words, I knew the future.

That meant I could use that knowledge to prevent or change what was going to happen.

“……Phew.”

At this rate, I’m going to grow old. Seriously.

My parents, whom I had never even gotten to see, died, and I went to my uncle’s house, only to end up at the Kereis family’s place like this.

Things had certainly been quite the variety show so far.

“Get a grip, Maryanne!”

With that resolve, my small lips pressed tightly together.

The Kereis ducal estate was enormous, quite literally.

It was so huge and spacious that I would have believed it if someone called it a palace instead of a mansion.

They said it was the richest family in the Empire, and they really must have poured money into this place.

“My lady, please stay safe.”

“Huh?”

The coachman’s final words were strange.

Normally, when parting, wouldn’t you say something like, ‘Have a nice day,’ or ‘I’ll see you next time’?

But stay safe……?!

As though that one sentence had exhausted all the concern he had for my well-being, the coachman hurriedly unloaded my luggage and immediately left by the same road he had come.

Hey! Seriously?!

As soon as I entered the mansion with anxiety weighing on my heart, the butler came to greet me.

“It is an honor to meet you, Lady Maryanne. I am Dubie. Hohoh.”

He was a handsome man with brown hair tied back after letting it fall long to one side.

On top of that, he was a young butler who looked remarkably good in a monocle.

Even when he laughed, “Hohoh,” he was quite beautiful.

I remembered reading in the original novel that even the servants of the Kereis family were basically a gathering of handsome men.

That was why, every time a new character appeared, the comment section would go wild with people saying they wanted to see illustrations of each of them.

‘As expected, being handsome is always a good thing.’

Thanks to the butler’s looks, I was able to relax a little, even though I had felt like I was about to collapse from nervousness.

Of course, that was before I heard what he said.

Dubie looked down at me with an oddly prim expression and said,

“The Duke is waiting for you right now.”

“Gasp!”

Clatter!

I was meeting the final boss right from the start.

The Duke of Kereis.

He was the father of the villainous second male lead, and he was a true cold-blooded man, without a trace of blood or tears.

In other words, the reason the three villainous brothers had all grown up the way they did was none other than their father, the Duke.

“Your Grace, Lady Maryanne Delve has arrived.”

As I entered the drawing room, the Duke, who had been looking out the window, slowly turned around.

And when I saw him, I barely managed to suppress the “Wow!” that nearly escaped my lips.

Dark blue hair and red eyes. A towering height that put models to shame and a solid, well-built body.

Not a single thing was out of place from head to toe, and the air of maturity about him made him look downright sophisticated.

Was he really the father of three sons?

Wow, he was the definition of sexy…… No, wait, greet him first!

“I am Maryanne of the Delve family.”

As he watched me greet him, the Duke, whose features were perfectly symmetrical, raised one corner of his mouth.

“Welcome to the Kereis family.”

It was a smile that practically revealed the pitch-black intentions hidden underneath.