Looking for the Villainess’s Contract Husband
Chapter 2
And so, my mother had no choice but to follow the Marquis’s orders and become Duke Brian’s fiancée because of me.
From this point on, the situation begins to spiral toward the worst possible outcome.
‘First of all, I die.’
I die not long after being separated from my mother, and the Marquis uses my death as leverage, hiding it under various excuses to keep exploiting her.
The Marquis eventually grows extremely anxious as the female lead, the Imperial Princess, approaches Patrick Brian to secure her succession to the throne. To counter her, he incites my mother to sabotage the Imperial Princess.
‘At the beginning, the male and female leads were truly just business partners. Does that man even realize it was his harassment that caused feelings to sprout between them?’
Of course he wouldn’t. If he knew, he wouldn’t have done something so stupid. Honestly.
Whether it was a stroke of luck or not, the male lead, Patrick Brian, was practically the personification of ‘goodness.’
Even as he felt an attraction to the Imperial Princess, he never forgot he had a fiancée and struggled to suppress his feelings.
In the novel, it was written that my mother… also felt a faint attraction to Patrick.
She felt that the kind and gentle Patrick resembled my biological father in many ways.
‘…That probably made it even more painful for her. Since Patrick’s heart was leaning more and more toward the Imperial Princess as time went on.’
In the midst of all that, my mother accidentally learns of my death and completely loses her mind.
She becomes the Marquis’s puppet and goes as far as spiking the Imperial Princess’s drink with poison.
Since it’s a novel, the attempt is naturally discovered by Patrick immediately, and both the Marquis and my mother lose their lives on the guillotine.
I had a faint memory of everyone being horrified by these circumstances, which were only revealed in the side stories from the perspective of the ‘villainess Gretel Diarmuid’ after the conclusion.
I was one of those people.
But to think I’m the daughter of that villainess, destined for an early grave.
I can’t even manage a hollow laugh. Dammit.
“Cough.”
…Anyway, now is not the time for this.
In reality, my condition had rapidly deteriorated from the moment I regained my past life’s memories.
Even in the novel, it was said that I didn’t have any specific illness but simply wasted away until I drew my last breath.
This meant the day Patrick Brian would return to the Capital, and the day the Marquis—coveting him—would summon my mother and me, was not far off.
‘I can’t let Mom be used by the Marquis.’
My life is short anyway.
If so, it’s only right to use what little time I have to save the mother who allowed me to enjoy life, even briefly, and taught me emotions like love and happiness.
Now, let’s think.
‘The Marquis wants to become in-laws with a Ducal house to gain a successor he can manipulate.’
If so, does that ‘Duke’ necessarily…
‘Have to be Patrick Brian?’
A quiet afternoon.
“Cough…”
I covered my mouth with my sleeve and scurried down the stairs.
Through a palm-sized window in the stairwell, the world outside was nothing but a field of snow.
‘I have no idea where this even is. Mom said she doesn’t know anything either, other than it being the Marquis’s fief.’
I glared at the white snow and woods outside before cautiously moving further down the stairs.
This Stone Tower where Mom and I stayed was sturdy, with no way out except for the entrance on the first floor.
There were three knights guarding the tower entrance in total.
One of them took turns once a week to report our status to the Marquis’s estate in the Capital and bring back supplies like food and daily necessities.
‘I can’t let us be dragged to the Capital like this.’
I have to escape their hands first to either contact ‘that person’ or offer a deal.
They won’t let us send a single letter here, except for the ones Mom writes to the Marquis.
So, while Mom was busy sewing, I sneaked down to scope out the first floor.
I wanted to see if there were any secret passages known only to the knights.
‘Huh? The door is…’
It’s open?
My eyes widened in surprise when I saw the first-floor door standing open.
My heart dropped for a moment. Looking at the brightly glowing doorway, I swallowed hard.
If I called Mom right now and we ran out together…
“…Dammit, it’s cold! I said it’s cold!”
“Hey! Stop kicking! You’re splashing snow!”
However, my hope deflated like one of Mom’s pancakes the very next second.
I watched the silhouettes of two sturdy young men flickering beyond the door with cold eyes and clicked my tongue.
‘Got my hopes up for nothing.’
The knights had something like a dormitory on the first floor. It seemed they had left the door open to air the place out.
‘Come to think of it, the Imperial Princess in the novel worked hard to win people over regardless of gender—smiling at them, giving them gifts—if she needed them. Should I do that too?’
But I’m still too shy to even express my affection to Mom properly.
To think I might have to win over our captors just to escape this place.
I briefly imagined myself performing what they call ‘aegyo’ for those knights.
“…….”
For some reason, a wave of futility washed over me. I considered going back up to the top floor, but then I decided to crouch on the stairs and eavesdrop, hoping to catch even a small clue for an escape from their conversation.
‘It might be helpful to know their shift changes or the guard rotation.’
As I stopped moving and held my breath, their voices became much clearer.
Two knights were standing by the door. The voice of the younger one reached me.
“Seriously, I was so happy when I finally became a knight for the Marquis’s family, but what is this? Isn’t this a complete demotion?”
“Demotion? Paul, don’t you know this is a job the Marquis only gives to his most trusted knights?”
“Huh? Really?”
“I’m lying, you idiot.”
“Ah! Seriously!”
the older knight chuckled.
The young knight called Paul spent the next while fuming over being teased.
‘…They’re noisy and useless.’
I was just about to give up, thinking this conversation wouldn’t help my escape at all, when—
“…Honestly, she has high status and her family has plenty of money. If she had just listened to the Marquis, her life would have been smooth sailing. Why did she have to go and fall for some random guy, get on the Marquis’s bad side, and make us suffer too?”
At Paul’s continuing grumbles, my fingertips resting on my knees twitched.
I unconsciously gripped the fabric covering my knees tightly.
Meanwhile, Paul continued.
“And that daughter she cherishes so much is sickly, right? I wish she’d just hurry up and die. Then we could finally go back to the Capital.”
At those words, the thread of my patience, which had been fraying, snapped completely.
The stairs happened to face the wide-open door directly. And Paul was leaning against the doorway with his back turned.
I bolted up from my seat, skipped down the stairs two at a time, and rammed my head into Paul’s waist with all my might.
Thump!
“Ugh!”
Crash!
A dull impact rang through my head as a loud noise erupted.
Paul and I tumbled onto the snow in different directions.
“Ugh…”
The recoil was stronger than I expected. My body rolled quite a distance from the tower entrance before I finally came to a stop.
I could faintly hear the older knight stammering in shock.
“Wh-what is this…”
“Livi?!”
Then, a high-pitched voice, almost a scream, pierced my ears.
As I managed to push my aching body up, I saw Mom rushing down the stairs with a terrified face in the distance.
’Oops.’
Well, Paul’s scream was loud enough. There was no way she wouldn’t have heard it.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and brushed the snow off my clothes.
Fortunately, aside from a few stinging scrapes, I didn’t seem to be hurt.
Meanwhile, as Mom ran toward me, Paul, who had also regained his senses and staggered to his feet, whipped around to look at me.
He took menacing, long strides to close the distance.
“You, what do you think you’re doing—!”
His face was twisted in a terrifying scowl.
Just as I was about to flinch back a step at his momentum—
“And what do you think you are doing right now?”
A chilling voice and a black skirt stepped between Paul and me.
I blinked blankly, unfamiliar with the voice I just heard.
‘Wait, was that… Mom’s voice?’
The mother I knew had a voice that was infinitely warm and calm, reminiscent of a cozy armchair in front of a fireplace.
Even when she scolded me occasionally, there was warmth infused in her tone.
But the voice I just heard was cold enough to belong to a different person altogether.
Colder than the wind that numbed my nose, colder than the snow that froze my toes.
While I was reeling in confusion, a flustered Paul raised his voice.
“No, I mean. It was the young lady who suddenly rammed into me! Sir, you saw it too, didn’t you?”
