The Villainess Enjoys Her Married Life
Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Episode 17. Yuri in Tatters
2023.12.17.
Crash— Clatter!
The clamor of Yuri tumbling down the stairs echoed loudly.
Emilia, who had just stepped onto the landing, looked down in shock at Yuri sprawled at the very bottom of the staircase after tumbling all the way down.
“Head Maid!”
A few passing maids froze in place, staring at Yuri in sheer bewilderment.
“……Ugh…… Ah…….”
Having hurled herself down the stairs without hesitation, Yuri was in a wretched state.
Blood trickled from her head where she had struck it, and……
“……Ah, Head Maid!”
One maid smothered a gasp with her hand.
Seeing the expressions on their faces, Yuri knew her plan had succeeded.
“What on earth happened!? Did you lose your footing?”
Fixing her gaze on the horrified Emilia, Yuri raised a hand and wiped her nose.
As she wiped the wetness away, thick blood smeared all over her fingers.
“The Head Maid has a double nosebleed……!”
A clueless servant shouted out.
“What? A double nosebleed?”
“The Head Maid’s face is covered in blood?!”
Though Yuri wanted nothing more than to bash their skulls in right then and there, she held back.
Instead, she wept in apparent agony.
“Ugh…… sniff…… ow…… it hurts so much……! Help me!”
Drawn by Yuri’s cries, servants began gathering one by one.
Flustered, Emilia hurried over to help her up, but Yuri refused to rise, wailing piteously instead.
Then, suddenly, she pointed an accusing finger straight at Emilia and shrieked.
“You…… you wicked wench!”
**
“This makes no sense, Grand Duchess. I…… I would never do such a thing.”
“Emilia pushed me down the stairs! It was because I found out that she was the one who slipped stomach medicine into your drink, Grand Duchess!”
Bandages wrapped thickly around her head, Yuri’s words carried far more persuasive weight than the untouched Emilia standing before them.
No matter how venomous a woman might be, would anyone really reduce themselves to such a battered state just to tell a lie?
Riona looked back and forth between the two kneeling before her.
“The Head Maid is lying! That’s right—she’s the one who must have given you the stomach medicine, Grand Duchess……”
“I have already instructed the other maids to search Emilia’s room.”
“What good will searching my room do?! You witch!”
Before long, however, the maids returned, their faces pale as they presented an empty medicine vial.
A triumphant look swept across Yuri’s face as she addressed Riona.
“See for yourself. If you examine the residue inside, you will know who dared harbor such malice toward you, Grand Duchess.”
Riona’s expression turned sullen.
“Grand Duchess! It is all a lie! You know what a conniving snake Yuri is……”
“Silence.”
Riona’s voice fell, calm and cutting.
“Grand Duchess…… I have served you faithfully for ten years.”
“Whether this is truth or falsehood, I am not so careless as to cultivate seeds of suspicion by my side.”
“Grand Duchess!”
Emilia turned deathly pale, her entire body trembling violently.
“Drag her out.”
At the Grand Duchess’s merciless decree, several maids stepped in from the hallway.
“Grand Duchess! It wasn’t me! Yuri…… that wretched Yuri did this……!”
“Do not believe a word Emilia says. How many times has she cursed you to me, complaining that you grabbed her by the hair and struck her? You two heard it as well, did you not?”
Yuri fixed the two maids with a piercing glare.
Having shared their own complaints about the Grand Duchess behind closed doors, they could only nod in fearful agreement.
Emilia was dragged away, screaming all the while.
From this day forward, no one would ever see Emilia within the Klaus estate again.
“It is true. Emilia…… she spoke ill of the Grand Duchess behind her back.”
“The Head Maid is right.”
Listening to the other maids, Riona leaned back and closed her eyes.
The sharp arch of her brows remained haughtily drawn.
The culprit behind her mysterious stomach ailment had been uncovered. How dare that lowly wretch Emilia!
Yet something still left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Ideally, she would have forced Yuri Anesis to confess to poisoning the drink, pinning the instigation on Eshika…….
That would have been the most advantageous move for Riona.
The actual culprit, Emilia, could have been dealt with quietly in secret.
Instead, Yuri had raised a massive ruckus, turning the entire household upside down.
Now, everyone in the manor knew Emilia was the culprit behind the poisoning.
The grander scheme had gone entirely up in smoke.
‘Could she have……’
Could she have read that far ahead and thrown herself down the stairs on purpose?
Riona slit her eyes open and scrutinized Yuri.
The bandages binding Yuri’s forehead were stained with grime and dried blood.
Riona’s brow furrowed in deep distaste.
“I have always remained loyal to you, Grand Duchess, and to root out those who dare bring harm to you……”
“Be quiet.”
Yuri flinched at Riona’s cold snap.
The maids standing frozen nearby stiffened even further.
“I have no desire to look upon such an unsightly state. Begone to your quarters.”
At Riona’s command, Yuri bowed her head deeply.
It was done.
At the very least, she had avoided Riona’s design—being framed as the culprit alongside Eshika and dragged straight into the abyss.
Had that happened, even if Riona later granted her pardon, she would have lost Kalian’s favor for good.
Yuri was willing to throw herself down far steeper stairs if it meant securing her ambition.
“……Understood, Grand Duchess. I shall take my leave.”
After offering her respects, Yuri turned and limped out.
Naturally, not a shred of guilt toward Emilia crossed her mind.
Only relief at having navigated the crisis, paired with a desperate, burning hunger to achieve her goals by any means necessary, blazed within her.
‘Damn it, that hurts like hell……. Eshika, this is all your fault!’
Every muscle in her battered body screamed in protest.
**
A spirit elixir concocted from freshly picked golden fruits, frog extract, and seven lizard tails significantly accelerated the accumulation of inner energy.
‘I may look like this, but I am well-versed in the craft of compounding elixirs.’
Having received direct instruction from the old devils of the Demonic Cult in her youth, she had mastered the secret arts of blending various spirit medicines.
The essence lay not in the outward form, but in the active properties; discerning which ingredients in this world shared similar properties with those of the Murim was hardly a challenge for someone with her keen eye.
As long as Hemos didn’t haphazardly mix the ingredients or ruin the batch with arbitrary substitutes as he had before…… it yielded a remarkably potent elixir.
‘For the time being, this will suffice to cultivate my martial arts without hindrance.’
Sitting cross-legged in her room, Eshika circulated her qi in deep cultivation meditation.
Compared to before she drank the elixir, the flow of inner energy coursed far more smoothly through her meridians.
“Just what kind of effect does this have…… to make such a thing out of such rare and bizarre ingredients?”
Though Hemos had looked dubious, he now prepared the remedies with utmost devotion exactly as Eshika instructed.
His loyalty now belonged entirely to her.
Knock, knock.
In the middle of her deep focus, a knock came from outside.
It was a heavier, duller sound than Sella’s usual light tap.
Frowning, Eshika rose and turned toward the door just as someone pushed it open.
“…….”
It was the Duke of Klaus, clad in his crisp white uniform. His tall frame cast a towering shadow into the room, the dim light carving his sharp features in stark relief.
The draft flowing through the open window stirred his brown hair.
Only his violet eyes, deep as the midnight sky, gleamed with piercing intensity.
He was hardly a welcome sight.
“What brings you here?”
The moment their eyes met, her heart turned frigid.
It was the exact reaction one had when looking upon an unwelcome intruder.
“…….”
Step, step.
Without a word, Kalian closed the distance between them.
He stopped directly before Eshika, staring down at her.
‘The smell of alcohol.’
Noticing Kalian’s stiffly set brow, the slight twist of his lips, and the fierce edge in his gaze, Eshika’s expression hardened faintly as she spoke.
“If you have nothing to say, perhaps you should take your leave. I wish to rest.”
Just then, Kalian reached out and seized her wrist.
Meeting Eshika’s icy glare, Kalian ground his teeth together.
Then, in a voice cold yet trembling with suppressed heat, he asked:
“……So you are angry with me, is that it?”
Eshika found his abrupt, confrontational tone utterly absurd.
“I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“……I am asking if you are doing this to me on purpose.”
“…….”
Seeing Eshika knit her brows and look at him as though he were mad, Kalian felt his temper flare.
There had never been a single day when Eshika Klaus did not pursue him.
No matter how cruelly his words wounded her, she would shed a few tears only to reappear the next day with that heedlessly bright smile.
Yet now, she avoided him at every turn.
Transformed into someone who looked upon him with utter indifference, wearing nothing but that freezing gaze……
Furthermore—
Slap.
As if his grip on her wrist had tightened too uncomfortably, Eshika twisted her wrist with a sharp motion, shedding his hold entirely.
Watching that decisive rejection—a gesture entirely devoid of lingering attachment—a tempest raged within Kalian’s eyes.
“It is I who cannot fathom why you are acting this way toward me, Your Grace.”
“……What?”
“You never held the slightest interest in me to begin with. Yet to come all the way to my secluded room just to pick a petty quarrel……”
Watching her red lips part and move, Kalian’s throat suddenly went dry.
“Could it be that you have developed feelings for me?”
