Translator: Nox

While Others Became Female Leads In Romantic Fantasy Novels, I Became A Closet Monster

Chapter 18

Since the Grand Duchess’s favorability toward Dedrick only rose the more she attacked him, she chose to simply shut her mouth.

‘That feels so refreshing.’

I snorted and glanced sideways at the Grand Duchess, only to see her gaze shift elsewhere for a split second.

Following Delaney’s lead, I turned my head and saw a maid nod before slipping away from the spot.

‘As expected, she’s aiming for this timing.’

Just like in the novel.

And as if on cue, another servant approached Dedrick.

“Youngest Master, it is time for your reading.”

I hurriedly opened my mouth.

“Didi, don’t answer, just get up! Say you’re going right now!”

I saw this in the novel!

The moment Dedrick hesitates here, wondering, ‘Reading time?’, the servant puts on a performance of being utterly terrified.

‘Y-youngest Master, didn’t you say you always read at this hour…? Y-you said if we ever broke that rule, you would whip us….’

Then they would act coy, as if they couldn’t even finish the sentence.

Naturally, it was one of the Grand Duchess’s pathetic little schemes.

Since Dedrick knew nothing, she found pleasure in watching him suffer through such low-level tricks.

‘Just to show him that even something this small is enough to crush him.’

Hearing my words, Dedrick stood up quietly. Then he bowed politely.

“I apologize. I always read at this hour…. May I be excused?”

The Grand Duchess scanned him strangely, but her lips curled into a gentle smile.

“Of course. Go ahead.”

“Your Highness the 2nd Prince, I ask for your understanding.”

“Hmm, reading, is it?”

Perez smiled brightly and stood up from his seat.

“I happened to be feeling a bit bored myself. May I accompany you?”

In an instant, Somerset’s face crumpled.

At the same time, my face lit up.

Just seeing Somerset’s distorted expression made me feel like all my pent-up frustration had vanished.

“I’ll go ahead and check things out! Take your time talking and come along.”

Dedrick instinctively tried to grab me before hesitating.

“Is something the matter?”

“Didi can do it.”

“……No, it is nothing.”

I waved my hand to cheer him on and hurried toward Dedrick’s room.

Sure enough, one of Delaney’s people was already inside the room.

In fact, it was a guy I knew well.

‘Isn’t that him?’

The minor villain who frequently tripped Dedrick and made him skin his knees!

In the novel, this guy does Delaney’s dirty work and commits all sorts of misdeeds before eventually being discarded and killed by her.

In short, he was a man who would reap exactly what he sowed.

“I’m glad I ran into you.”

Are you here to get your own knees skinned?

He seemed to have just finished the setup to frame Dedrick as a thief.

Swallowing my rising anger, I shot a sharp glare toward the bookshelf.

Because the 2nd Prince’s belongings should be on display there as if they belonged.

However.

‘They’re not here?’

“……This isn’t how the story goes.”

I was quite flustered that things were moving in a different direction from the novel.

In the original story, Perez has his valuables stolen at the Grand Duke’s Castle and searches all over the castle for them.

That’s when the Grand Duchess suggests searching Dedrick’s room.

She subtly lets it slip that Dedrick has a habit of stealing.

And naturally, the valuables are found in his room.

Dedrick is so flustered he can’t say a single word….

Of course, his first meeting with Perez becomes the worst.

‘It was definitely like that….’

While I was confused by the different development, the servant checked the clock and moved toward the door to listen.

“Is it still a long way off?”

He looked as if he were waiting for someone.

If he finished the job, he should have slipped out immediately without a trace, so why was he doing this? What if he ran into someone?

“……Ah!”

A sudden realization struck me.

Right now, this guy is waiting for Didi and Perez. He’s planning to get caught pretending to steal because Didi ordered him to!

In other words, he’s trying to show the Prince directly that Dedrick is a wicked child who makes servants steal for him.

“They really are doing everything!”

I hurriedly inspected the servant. His pants pocket was bulging.

Soon after, the sound of footsteps approached. The servant’s Adam’s apple bobbed heavily in sync with the sound.

The servant began to move. He quickly placed the item he took from his pocket into Dedrick’s desk drawer and headed for the door.

Then he pressed his ear to the door again, concentrating on the sounds outside.

‘I definitely have to frame this guy as the thief.’

Actually, I could frame Axel or Somerset, but that was a bit hasty.

It wasn’t good to stand out too much in the Grand Duchess’s eyes. Being just moderately annoying, like now, was perfect.

If the Prince’s items were placed in Dedrick’s room but ended up in Somerset’s or Axel’s room, she would surely think someone was helping Dedrick.

‘Or she’d think Didi has that kind of ability.’

Then the surveillance would become even more intense than it is now.

So, this incident had to look as if the servant had been blinded by the jewels and ruined the entire plan.

‘And I’ll take this chance to get revenge on that bastard too.’

Since the scars on Dedrick’s knees were all his doing.

I looked around and took a jewel from the box containing Dedrick’s mother’s keepsakes and held it in my hand.

He was so focused on the outside that he didn’t know what was happening in this room.

“You mean you’ve read all of that?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“My mother would be surprised if she heard that! That book is quite thick and difficult, isn’t it?”

“I read it over several sittings as well.”

The sound of their conversation reached all the way here.

At the same time, the servant creaked the door open.

‘Now!’

I slipped one of the small brooches from the keepsakes into his pocket.

Because he was rushing out as he pushed the door, the servant didn’t notice.

‘Honestly, I didn’t want to touch the keepsakes, but…… our Didi doesn’t have any jewels.’

And rather than checking the situation outside, I hurriedly flung the drawer open.

“You put so many in here, you wicked man!”

The drawer was filled with the Prince’s valuables.

I quickly took those items out, grabbed a few more keepsakes, and then stepped into the Wardrobe and closed the door.

“Now, let’s go!”

To that guy’s room!

I stepped out of the Wardrobe immediately and stuffed all the items under his bed.

‘This is the only way to avoid suspicion.’

As soon as the job was done, I returned to Dedrick’s room.

In the hallway outside the door, the Grand Duchess had already appeared with knights in tow and was cornering him.

“I-It was all done on the Young Master’s orders! I-I don’t know anything!”

“Dedrick, haven’t I told you time and again not to cause trouble, at least for today?”

I heard the Grand Duchess’s voice. I could see the corners of her mouth curling up behind her fan.

“Dedrick.”

Perez was asking Dedrick about the situation first, rather than the Grand Duchess.

‘That’s a good sign.’

It meant he was going to listen to Dedrick’s side before judging.

Knowing it was the Grand Duchess’s trap, Dedrick couldn’t answer hastily.

I rushed over to him.

“It’s okay, Didi! I took care of everything. It’s that servant’s crime now. And…… I’m sorry. I needed something expensive to frame that guy as a thief, so I put Didi’s mother’s brooch in his pocket. I hid other keepsakes in his room too…. You can scold me later.”

Dedrick, whose eyes had widened in surprise, soon gazed at me with soft eyes as I rambled through my excuses.

I shook my head.

“Don’t look at me. I know that servant has been tripping Didi for a long time. I know that’s why you have scars on your knees. Let’s get revenge this time.”

Above all, that servant was the type who would go on to do even worse things if left alone.

The fact that he bullies a child makes him ’out’ in my book.

When Perez called him once more, Dedrick replied politely.

“I know nothing of this, Your Highness.”

Then, as if he had been waiting, the servant put on a pathetic act and feigned injustice.

“H-How can you pretend not to know me, Young Master! I am the Young Master’s……!”

I was suppressing my anger while watching the servant’s punch-worthy performance when Dedrick rolled up his pants to reveal his knees.

Small scars were visible.

“You are the one who made these scars.”

Dedrick continued calmly.

“They happened because you often tripped me. There is no way I would order someone who treats me like that to do such a thing.”

As Dedrick countered him calmly, it was the servant who became flustered.

“T-T-That is……!”

“Dedrick, do you have proof that the servant did such a thing to you?”

When the Grand Duchess took the servant’s side, he nodded vigorously in agreement.

“T-That’s right! I never did that!”

“Should I stomp on his foot? He’s so annoying I could die.”

While I was huffing with rage.

“There is no proof that he didn’t, either.”

Perez followed up by taking Dedrick’s side.