The Baddest Villainess Is Back
Chapter 3
Such cosmetics and flashy jewelry were luxuries she hadn’t been able to afford once a bounty was placed on her head and she became a full-fledged fugitive.
A sharp, bridge-high nose and distinct features.
Flowing, silk-like white hair.
Eyes a shade redder than even the finest rubies.
And transparent skin, so pale it looked devoid of blood, appearing even whiter and clearer.
‘I don’t look very healthy.’
Even compared to the seventeen-year-old self she remembered.
After finishing her brief assessment in the mirror, Roselyn headed straight for the dining hall where the formal dinner was being held.
When Roselyn appeared, an attendant gaped, seemingly forgetting to even bow.
“Open the door.”
“Ah, excuse me. Lady… Roselyn?”
Roselyn frowned for a moment, then nodded once, understanding the person’s reaction.
The attendant hurriedly bowed in embarrassment and flung the dining hall doors wide open.
Click, clack.
As Roselyn stepped into the dining hall, the gazes of those seated at the table snapped toward her.
Their expressions varied slightly, but every pair of eyes was filled with shock.
It was only natural, as Roselyn—dressed in a pitch-black dress with crimson lipstick and red eyes—looked subtly decadent and sensual.
“…….”
Amidst those who couldn’t tear their eyes away, Roselyn also observed them intently.
This was because the Bellion Ducal House she remembered had already fallen into a great decline and was on the path to ruin five years ago.
The people before her were all those who had already died in her past.
‘I suppose it’s a long time before those events happen here.’
Realizing that the sensation of her heart tightening slightly was a faint sense of familiarity, Roselyn slowly closed and opened her eyes.
‘……I was planning to say I’d leave the mansion.’
Thinking that it might not be so bad to see their faces for a few more days, she sat in a vacant seat at the round table.
As she sat at the quiet table and reached for her cutlery, she realized belatedly that her grandfather, the Duke of Bellion, was attending this dinner and looked up.
“……You, what on earth is that appearance? How can you come to a meal with your elders dressed like that…….”
“What’s wrong with my appearance?”
There were two reasons Roselyn had joined this dinner.
First, to keep her word regarding the foolishness of her prospective stepmother, who had dared to ignore her warning.
Second, to declare that she was leaving this house.
“Who wears such vulgar clothes that expose their entire arms!? I have told you time and again. One must always be refined to be worthy of a lady…….”
“Pfft.”
Roselyn let out a small laugh despite herself. At that, Lady Carmel’s face stiffened slightly.
“That’s strange.”
She tilted her head slightly.
“……What is?”
“I am the one who has lived as a lady for seventeen years. So why is it that Lady Carmel—who was born a commoner’s child, was lucky enough to be adopted into a Count’s family, killed her former husband, and even took the position of acting Count in place of the young Little Count—is lecturing me on how a lady should behave?”
As Roselyn spoke in a voice laced with amusement, the atmosphere at the table sank into a chilling silence.
It wasn’t a pleasant topic to discuss over a meal, and it was also a rather shocking story.
“What……? You, you, how could you……! No matter how much you hate me……! Heugh. Father, Cherti. How, how much harder must I try…….”
While watching Carmel weep and appeal to the Duke of Bellion and Roselyn’s father, Cherti Bellion, Roselyn leisurely sliced her steak.
The eyes of the burly old man sitting directly across from her narrowed.
‘He looks like a villain, no matter when I see him.’
Thinking calmly, Roselyn elegantly tilted her wine glass.
The old man was wearing a flamboyant red suit, and the fact that his eyes were different colors was particularly striking.
With his hair swept back and a tattoo visible on the back of his hand, he was a man sophisticated beyond his years.
He was also a man who had died standing up, fighting until the very end.
“I believe you’re past the age of appealing to emotions, but it seems you’re still quite sentimental.”
Roselyn chuckled and slowly raised her head to meet the eyes of the old man, the Duke of Bellion.
She put a piece of steak dripping with red juices into her mouth, chewed once, and then paused.
As a deep furrow appeared between Roselyn’s brows, the Duke of Bellion’s eyes narrowed slightly.
She soon smoothed her frown, slowly chewed and swallowed the meat, and wore an ecstatic expression.
“It’s delicious,” Roselyn said with a bright smile.
With a look full of mirth, she cut a large piece of steak and slowly opened her mouth.
“Mine is exceptionally delicious, so I’d like to share. Would anyone like a bite?”
At Roselyn’s unexpected behavior, the faces of the maids who had been standing behind them, laughing silently, froze.
“What do you think? Uncle, Father?”
At Roselyn’s call, the gazes of the two men landed on her.
A red-haired man with a jovial impression, his hair swept back like the Duke’s and the front of his flamboyant shirt completely unbuttoned.
And exactly opposite him, a man with black hair and a gloomy impression, his buttons fastened all the way to his neck, both looked at her simultaneously.
Both of them looked quite surprised.
The red-haired man, Aegis Bellion, lightly rubbed the corner of his lip with his thumb and grinned.
“Fine, since it’s the first request our niece has ever made.”
He spoke as he rose from his seat.
“Roselyn! Just how much more rudeness must you display? Giving your uncle food you were already eating…… how could you…….”
“Ah, enough.”
Aegis replied to Lady Carmel instead and waved his hand dismissively as he approached Roselyn.
“Ah—.”
“…….”
Roselyn, who had been about to hand over the well-cut steak on an unused fork, hesitated when she saw Aegis lean down, revealing his prominent abdominal muscles, and open his mouth.
“Hurry.”
“Brother-in-law! If you keep indulging her like that……!”
“What? Look here, since when did you get to meddle in my business? And you’re not even married yet, so what’s with this ‘brother-in-law’…….”
He snorted, showing his displeasure.
After muttering with a sour face, he turned his head back to Roselyn, his eyes crinkling into a smile.
‘His aura changes completely depending on his expression.’
Despite her fascination, Roselyn couldn’t ignore the urging, open-mouthed Aegis any longer and put the cut meat into his mouth.
For the eldest son of a Ducal House, he was a rather light, rough, and blunt man.
‘He was like that before, too.’
The man who had abandoned the freedom he so desired and bowed his head everywhere to try and save the ruined Ducal House until the very end.
Even so, the Ducal House had fallen.
Roselyn thought as she watched Aegis’s expression change by the second after the meat entered his mouth.
Gulp.
Finally, his Adam’s apple moved with effort, and he grinned with a fierce face.
“Ho, it’s delicious.”
He spoke as he quickly picked up Roselyn’s plate.
“It’s so delicious that Father and my younger brother simply must try it.”
Regardless, Roselyn quickly washed away the terrible saltiness remaining in her mouth by pouring wine down her throat.
They say things can be so salty they become nauseating. Her mouth felt tingly as if something had broken out inside.
“Here, Chain. You eat too.”
Aegis roughly shoved the meat into the mouth of his brother, Cherti.
“Do not act rashly, Aegis.”
“It’s your son’s wish.”
“Just how many wishes do you have…….”
The Duke, his eyes sharp, could not finish his sentence.
This was because Aegis had shoved the fork with the meat into his mouth.
“…….”
The Duke stared at Aegis with a face contorted as fiercely as a demon’s, then paused and slowly chewed the meat.
However, he couldn’t chew more than three or four times before spitting the meat into a napkin and slowly closing his eyes while wordlessly drinking wine.
Aegis had already abandoned his nonchalant act and was chugging water straight from the pitcher.
“……Which bastard wants to die?”
The Duke slowly opened his eyes, letting out a heavy, rasping voice as if suppressing a rising rage.
His two eyes—one red and one golden, holding different colors—pointed straight at Roselyn.
“Who else could it be, Grandfather?”
Roselyn’s gaze, as she muttered nonchalantly, turned toward the three maids standing behind Carmel with faces pale as ghosts.
The Duke glanced at the three maids, then slammed his glass down and spoke with a fierce expression.
“Get rid of them.”
