Chapter 1 - Chapter 1

Translator: Nox

Looking for the Villainess’s Contract HusbandChapter 1

prologue.

“To put it bluntly, I know that you have no intention of getting married, Duke.”

A clear, ringing voice echoed through the drawing room.

Jack, the Duke of Esperanza, let out a hollow laugh.

It was only natural. For standing before his eyes right now was a nine-year-old little girl with messy hair.

“……The little lady certainly has a vivid imagination.”

“Lucian Floyd.”

“…….”

“Ah, is it Lucian Cichlid now? You’re planning to step down after handing over the dukedom to that child.”

However, at the words that followed, he almost failed to maintain his composure for a split second.

He barely managed to keep a smile on his face as he spoke with a subtle sneer.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Do you really think I would hand over my title to a mere member of a collateral branch?”

Driven by a sense of crisis, a slight murderous intent seeped into Jack’s voice without him realizing it.

It was a chilling aura, enough to make even adults catch their breath.

But the girl remained steadfast. Her serene light-blue eyes, which contrasted with her disheveled light-brown hair, were striking.

The girl looked directly at him with eyes that felt somewhat empty and said,

“If that child were truly just a ‘collateral member,’ that would be true. But he isn’t, is he?”

“Young lady.”

“My mother will become your shield, and I will become that child’s shield.”

Jack tried to silence the girl with a threatening voice, but she quickly blurted out her main point before he could.

Fortunately, it was the right choice.

Jack’s murderous momentum, which looked as if he might draw his sword at any moment, subsided for a brief while.

He furrowed his brow and spoke in a flustered voice.

“……What?”

“First. By marrying my mother, you can avoid external pressure regarding marriage. If you take a wife, the issue of an heir will surface, and if you’re not careful, you won’t be able to pass the title to Lucian.”

The girl, who had rattled off her words quickly, paused to catch her breath as if winded, then continued.

“And second. Ultimately, Lucian is publicly known as a ‘collateral member.’ If you suddenly appoint such a child as your successor, there will surely be voices of opposition.”

“…….”

“Coincidentally, for my mother to marry you, she would need to be unmarried and childless, right? So…….”

“……Are you suggesting that I pretend to adopt you, an ‘orphan,’ to create the impression that the collateral Lucian would be a better choice instead?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Ha, look here.”

Jack’s brow furrowed even more than before.

Only then, realizing the girl was serious, did he drop his sneer and speak with a grave face.

“If you do that, you’ll be torn to shreds by people’s gossip. The people in the capital are incredibly vicious…….”

“Does that really matter? If we can’t escape the Marquis’s house like this anyway, both my mother and I will just be used until we die.”

To think a mere nine-year-old could speak of ‘death’ so calmly.

Jack stared at the girl with an indescribable feeling, unable to find his words.

The girl, Labiella, met his gaze head-on and drove the point home.

“So please, propose to my mother, Duke.”

Because only you can save my mother.

1. The Circumstances of That Villainous Mother and Daughter

It was a day when the snow was pouring down as if it would collapse the tower.

“Libby, please. Open your eyes……”

That day, as usual, I had a fever, and Mom was crying endlessly by my side.

‘It hurts…….’

My breath was hot. Perhaps because of the fever, the sight of Mom crying blurred and sharpened repeatedly.

It was so painful and difficult that I even thought, ‘Am I really dying this time?’

[……What is that!] 

But ridiculously, at that moment.

Instead of death, part of my memories from my past life returned.

* * *

“Libby, wouldn’t it be better to rest a bit more after all? Mom can do the dishes alone……”

“No, it’s okay. I’m all better.”

I could feel Mom being restless beside me. I replied nonchalantly and focused on the dishes.

Every time I moved my hand holding the sponge, a squeaky sound echoed, and the plates became clean.

I suddenly stopped my hands and stared intently at a shiny plate.

The sensation of washing dishes, the sound. Even my face reflected in the plate was so vivid.

‘……To think this is a world inside a novel.’

“Sigh.”

“Oh my, look at you.”

I let out a sigh as if the ground were collapsing.

Mom giggled, asking why a nine-year-old was sighing like that.

She looked like the queen of fairies from a legend.

Her long green curly hair reaching down to her waist and her deep blue eyes were as beautiful as if the night sea from a fairy tale book had been captured within them.

‘Haaaa…….’

Seeing her made me twice as troubled. I swallowed my sigh inwardly this time, fearing I’d be teased again.

If the memories of my past life were real, this place where I lived was the world inside a novel called <The Princess’s Man>.

And I was…….

‘Even thinking about it again, it feels like a lie.’

The daughter of the villainess in the novel.

Moreover, a terminally ill daughter who dies early from an incurable disease due to a weak body.

“Cough.”

Perhaps because it was such an absurd thought, a sudden cough burst out.

As I lowered my head and coughed, the color drained instantly from Mom’s face, which had been smiling just a moment ago.

She hurriedly grabbed my shoulders.

“Libby! Are you okay? Don’t tell me, again……!”

“N-no. I just swallowed my spit wrong.”

“First, let’s drink some water first. Your throat might get hurt.”

In reality, my coughing subsided quickly, but Mom remained restless, pressing a warm glass of water into my hands and checking on me.

Her eyes were pitifully wet, as if she might drop tears at any moment.

Seeing that made me feel a lump in my throat again.

……How could such a kind person be a villainess?

‘It really makes no sense.’

I must have had an impossible delusion while delirious with fever.

I dismissed it as such and tried to erase the contents of the nonsensical novel <The Princess’s Man> from my head.

But as if mocking me, a few days later, an article appeared in the newspaper that was identical to the novel’s content, word for word.

<‘Patrick Brian Becomes Duke Brian.’

A rising star appeared during the crisis of defeat. Patrick Brian (24) recently saved the lives of many soldiers, including the Crown Prince, as a mere soldier in the war against Kyklis, and brought a dramatic victory to the Empire by beheading the enemy’s commander-in-chief.

The Imperial Family, which had been discussing rewards for Patrick Brian’s achievements—who has now become an Aura Master—officially announced today their decision to grant him a dukedom, causing a stir in the Empire…….>

My hair stood on end when I saw the article. I stroked my goosebump-covered arms and glared at the newspaper.

‘Is this the male protagonist of the novel……?’

Because I already knew the contents of this article through the ‘novel.’

No matter how great his achievements in this war were and that he manifested Aura, the overwhelming opinion among the people was that there was no way a mere commoner soldier would be granted a dukedom.

I thought so too. This was one of the reasons why I thought the memories of my past life were ‘nonsense.’

But was it because Patrick Brian was the ‘male protagonist’?

He eventually achieved a rise in status from a commoner to a Duke, something that truly wouldn’t make sense if it weren't a novel.

At this point, I had no choice but to admit it.

‘……Damn it.’

This is a world inside a novel, and it seems I was really born as the villainess’s daughter who dies young.

* * *

The novel <The Princess’s Man>.

As the title suggests, this novel was a love story between the female protagonist, the Princess, and the male protagonist, Patrick Brian.

In that process, the ones who appeared as the villain and villainess were my maternal grandfather and mother on the family register, respectively.

In other words, Marquis Diarmuid and Gretel Diarmuid.

‘In fact, the Marquis is the root of all evil.’

My maternal grandfather…… no, honestly, I don’t even want to call him that.

Marquis Diarmuid, the biological father of Gretel Diarmuid, had an extraordinary greed, fitting for a major villain.

The Marquisate of Diarmuid was originally a Baronial family running a small merchant group.

Then, as their business gained momentum and they started raking in money, they steadily raised the family’s rank to a Marquisate through arranged marriages and land purchases.

However, that was their inherent limit.

A dukedom was literally something ‘born into,’ a position one couldn’t covet without noble blood or overwhelming honor.

‘Patrick Brian’s case was an exception. It would normally be impossible if he weren't the novel’s protagonist.’

The Diarmuid family lacked both bloodline and honor to become a Ducal family.

They didn't have Imperial blood mixed in, and because they had used all sorts of schemes to grow the family’s size over a long period, a mean impression was deeply rooted in the public’s mind.

Thus, the current Marquis Diarmuid plans to make his daughter…… my mother, a Duchess.

His intention was that if his daughter gave birth to an heir for a Ducal family, he would raise that heir according to his taste from a young age and interfere in the Ducal family’s affairs.

However, the Marquis’s plan went spectacularly awry from the beginning.

Precisely because of me.

‘No one would have known. That the villainess was being held hostage by a terminally ill daughter…….’

My mother, Gretel Diarmuid, had been like friends with the son of the Marquis’s gardener since childhood, and they eventually developed into a romantic relationship.

It is said that the Marquis only found out after Mom became pregnant with me and was furious.

[How dare a lowly thing touch my daughter……!]

The Marquis, who had lost his mind, killed my biological father and tried to get rid of me too.

But because Mom threatened to kill herself if he killed me, the most he could do was chase Mom away to the North to prevent any rumors.

That’s how I, Labiella Diarmuid, was born inside this tower.

……Actually, since I don’t exist on paper, my name is entirely just what Mom gave me and calls me.

Perhaps because I was born without a midwife in a region where snow piles up all year round, my health has been poor since I was young.

And the time when my illness worsens coincides with the time when the male protagonist, Patrick Brian, returns to the capital.

[He’s a fellow who became a Duke overnight, so he’s bound to be lax in this regard. If I play my cards right, I can easily secure the position of Duchess.]

Marquis Diarmuid sets his sights on Patrick Brian’s existence and the ‘Brian Ducal House.’

Unlike other haughty Dukes, Patrick Brian, who had just become a Duke, was in a situation where he needed massive funds and supporting forces to solidify his political position and stabilize his family.

But there was no way the Imperial Family would generously grant prize money in addition to the dukedom.

It was obvious that the capital’s nobles, no matter how great his achievements were, would harbor a subtle animosity toward a ‘Duke of commoner origin.’

Marquis Diarmuid decided to dig into that very gap.

[If you want to save your child, do exactly as I say.] 

He took me as a hostage and forced Mom to get engaged to Duke Brian.