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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: A Toy Wife
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“She’s your wife. She’s yours. Play with her until you’re tired of her.”
“…”
Is that really something you should say to your ten-year-old son, Mother-in-law?
He might be playing with his wife now, but what will you do when he starts playing with his parents later?
Well, I already knew the ducal family was a little crazy.
If they were a solid, respectable family, the heroine would be here right now, not me.
I had become Cheria Mayol, a character in the novel
Cheria was the heroine’s only younger sister.
But you shouldn’t expect some tearful sisterly bond; I’d grabbed her by the collar right before I left.
Originally, in
To be jealous of her older sister, who had everything but a decent personality, harass her, and then get kicked out of the house.
But now that I was possessing the heroine’s younger sister and experiencing it firsthand, I realized the novel had gotten it wrong.
I wasn’t kicked out. I was sold.
I was only ten years old. My parents had sold their ten-year-old daughter to a ducal family.
Telling them to make her the young heir’s bride, or something else entirely.
And they were waiting outside the door to be paid.
To put it nicely, it was a marriage business deal. In reality, it was a complete disaster.
Yesterday morning, I had woken up in Cheria’s body in an attic.
That place, with its cobweb-covered ceiling and palm-sized window, was an anthill—no, Cheria’s bedroom.
In the closet were a few dresses that didn’t even fit.
The only things given to me, now as Cheria, were my sister’s old shoes and her leftover food.
I thought I must be dreaming, so I even grabbed my sister by the collar to check.
Truth be told, she had grabbed my hair first, but I was the only one who got scolded.
My older sister, born with divine power into a poor count’s family, was a miracle.
When she was born, the Pope himself visited to bless her birth and declared her a Saintess.
And just like that, money and honor followed the count’s family, which had been waiting for the day it would fall into ruin.
Blinded by greed, the Count and Countess pushed themselves to have a second child.
But of course, miracles aren’t that common.
The second child, Cheria, had no such divine power.
The Count and Countess were greatly disappointed and neglected Cheria.
And it’s at this point that I should probably re-examine the title of the novel I’m in.
The heroine is a saintess, so why is the title about a villainess?
Because her personality is absolute trash.
Cheria’s tearful past was vividly etched in my mind.
Cheria was the ugly duckling of the count’s family and was abused by them.
Ugh, this is so frustrating. I should have possessed her sooner!
Possessing her just one day before she was kicked out, I was so incredibly upset that I couldn't even raise some proper hell.
If Cheria had at least thrown a punch at her sister or tried to poison her tea, I could have understood it, just a little.
The only “bad” things Cheria had ever done were shouting at her parents to love her too, and pushing her sister because she hated how she always got new dresses.
Despite that, Cheria was branded a problem child.
In
That day was today.
What happened to Cheria after that? I don’t know either.
Because the novel switched to her sister’s first-person perspective and introduced her peaceful life at the Temple.
After that, Cheria wasn’t even mentioned again until she finally reappeared just before the novel went on hiatus.
And not in a good state, either.
I’m guessing she didn’t have much luck with her husband or her in-laws.
One of those in-laws, the Duchess, propped her chin on her hand with a bored expression.
“I do hope that taking you in wasn’t a foolish decision.”
“Yes, Duchess.”
It seemed my submissive attitude didn’t bother her, at least.
The Duchess’s voice softened slightly.
“You’re not entirely clueless. I’ll be watching to see how long you last.”
That was the end of the conversation. The Duchess rose from her seat.
“Let’s be on our way. The Count is outside, impatiently demanding his payment.”
The Duchess left without a single word of farewell to her son.
After her ladies-in-waiting had also departed, the mansion’s doors closed.
Soon after, we heard the sound of it being locked from the outside.
Now, only two people remained in the mansion.
Me and my husband.
…Hmm.
The little boy flinched, feeling my gaze. His small hands nervously tugged at the hem of his clothes.
Dark scars from a burn covered one of them.
I wasn’t in great shape myself, but that boy didn’t look like the heir to a duchy either.
Nor did he look like Kivrin Nectarian, the crazy psychopathic villain who would one day turn the world of
Kivrin mumbled hesitantly.
“I-I’m, s-sorry.”
I tilted my head.
“To me…? No, that’s not right. Are you speaking to me?”
Just because we were the same age didn’t mean our statuses were, so I spoke formally. Flustered, Kivrin ducked his head.
“B-Because you had to, m-marry, someone, like me…”
He looked pathetic. Though I’m sure the people of the duchy saw him completely differently.
If I hadn’t known that he was safe “for now,” wouldn’t I have run away too?
Kivrin was a very cute-looking child.
He had silver hair that looked as if it were sprinkled with a handful of moonlight, large, round golden eyes like asteroids, and pale skin.
But under his right eye, something like snake scales had sprouted.
And on his back, hidden by his clothes, there would be unknown black characters etched into his skin.
Just as it had been for Kivrin in
Thus, in the novel, a great commotion had erupted in the ducal household right after Kivrin was born.
The Duke gathered every capable person he could find to investigate the characters on Kivrin’s back.
As a result, it was revealed that the characters were a complex magical formula, and the scales on his face were a side effect of that formula.
The type of formula was a Sealing Spell.
But it made no sense. Who could have cast a spell on a child while he was still in his mother’s womb, and how?
And so, people said.
That child is a monster.
That he was something not human wearing a human guise, sealed by a god before he could be born into the world.
They even whispered that his congenital stutter was proof of it.
The problem was that, in the novel, the people who believed the rumors most firmly were Kivrin’s own parents.
The ducal family confined Kivrin to a remote mansion. Afterward, they would occasionally send him “toys.”
Carefully selecting them to be of various ages, genders, and roles so that Kivrin wouldn’t get bored.
And so, Kivrin was raised like a beast trapped in a Snake Pit.
Of course, it had the opposite effect.
Because the mind of Kivrin, who was neither beast nor monster, became filled with nothing but revenge and hatred.
In
He deliberately found a chipped knife and used it to brutally dispose of the members of the ducal family.
Wow.
A sister with a trash personality and a husband who’s destined to become a crazed murderer.
Can’t I just call this possession a failure and get a refund…?
I scratched my head.
My limp, lusterless purple hair was a testament to this body’s poor health.
What’s the point of being the second daughter of a count and the daughter-in-law of a duke!
Anyone can see I’m malnourished!
Swallowing a sigh, I first tried to calm Kivrin down.
“It’s okay. If the ducal family hadn’t brought me here, I would have ended up somewhere much worse. I might have even had to sleep without a roof over my head.”
“Without a, a roof…?”
Kivrin copied me, tilting his head. The way his wide eyes followed me was quite cute.
Compared to the people from the count’s family who starved and tormented me, he’s still an angel for now.
I gave my young husband a bright smile.
“We’re both unlucky with our parents, so let’s try to get along.”
Kivrin blinked.
His bangs, long enough to poke him in the eyes, swayed with the movement of his head.
Naturally, it looked incredibly uncomfortable.
Maybe I should cut his hair when I trim mine?
As I expected, it seemed I would have a lot to do in this mansion.
Hmm, well, I have time, so I’ll take it one step at a time. I’m only ten, after all.
Besides, except for the burn scars on his hand, I was the one who looked to be in worse shape.
I might just be the one to turn on my family first, not Kivrin.
Deciding to check out the mansion’s layout first, I picked up my bag.
Thanks to only packing one dress that was in decent condition and a set of pajamas, I could carry it by myself.
“Where is the bedroom?”
“Th-this way.”
Kivrin scurried down the hall. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he came back.
“L-let me.”
“Hm?”
“C-can I, c-carry that for you…?”
His voice held a hint of pity. It seemed that even to Kivrin’s eyes, I looked more frail.
“Oh, this? Then please, go ahead.”
Kivrin took the bag with both hands and hugged it to his chest.
*There’s nothing valuable in there, so you can just carry it however you want.*
“I-it’s light.”
“I didn’t have much to bring.”
“S-still, I’ll treat it as something p-precious!”
Kivrin, who had started walking bravely, stumbled for a moment. The needlessly bulky bag was blocking his view.
Oh, dear.
“Young Lord, can you see where you’re going?”
“I-I can see! I’m okay!”
It was a relief the bedroom wasn’t on the top floor.
