I’m A Villainess, Can I Die? - Chapter 29

“How about this dress? I think it goes well with your hair color!”

“It’s not good. I like something more colorful.”

As expected. When Mia spoke, everyone turned their eyes towards her.

‘I mean, where did you learn to be such a jerk…?’ I was sure the mind spoke for the heart.

At the realization that Selena was even worse than her came to mind, my heart became quiet.

‘Still, our Selena never sexually harassed anyone.’ Yeah. Of course, still, it didn’t change the fact that Selena was a jerk, too.

“OMG! I think this will go well with Lady Selena.”

Vivian, who had been looking for an opportunity to speak the whole time, pointed to a light pink dress.

“I don’t know. I think this one more! Won’t it suit you better?”

As if she didn’t want to lose to Vivian, Mia stretched out her finger and pointed to a passionate red dress, which was the opposite of what Vivian had pointed to.

‘Oh, both of you are too burdensome.’ Neither light pink nor red were familiar colors to me. Upon entering Selena’s body, most of the clothes I wore were light and comfortable indoor one-piece dresses, and the blue dress I wore on the engagement day was just an A-line dress that fell smoothly.

But suddenly, I was shown a light pink dress with a cancan design and one of an intensely red color… Perhaps because of the unfamiliarity, I got goosebumps on my arm and swept it several times.

“My lady.”

Aiden, who was standing at a distance, came closer to me and called to me in a low voice.

“What, Aiden?”

All eyes in the room turned in this direction. As the catalog flipped into the unwanted perspective, everyone’s attention was on it. Fortunately, they were all quick-witted foxes.

“Are you still sick from a cold?”

‘Cold…?’

Oh, come to think of it, since a few days ago, my body felt sore here and there. I felt a little better today, but my arms and legs were still numb…

I had caught a cold.

I nodded at the sudden realization. It was funny that I didn’t even realize I was sick. Well, I may have forgotten the concept of ‘I caught a cold’ because in my previous life, I hated catching a cold, so I had to put up with myself and pretend that nothing happened.

‘By the way, how did Aiden notice it?’

However, I decided to put aside the questions that came to mind at the moment. No, I didn’t really want to know the answer. There was no need to ask questions because I knew well how the eyes of people under stressful situations developed.

[tl/n: the idiom here was kind of difficult and since I didn’t find a proper translation I used something similar. The meaning is- when you’re under a stressful situation/environment you learn to read the room and be quick-witted]

Yes, a better idea came to me instead of asking such a question.

“Aiden.”

“Yes?”

“I feel like my body has gotten worse so… Can you buy me some medicine?”

It would be smart to keep Aiden away from me.

“Medicine? If it’s cold medicine that you need, I brought it in advance.”

Aiden wasn’t easy to shake off. He had to cater to Selena for about 10 years… I was sure it was difficult.

He took a paper envelope from his pocket and handed it to me. Inside the small paper bag was a round, green ring.

“No. Other than this, I want to drink a potion…”

“Potion…? If it’s a potion, I don’t have anything right now… But, with this drug…”

“No, a potion.”

“But…”

Aiden blurred his words and looked at the others. Apparently, I was grown enough to stay out with just Aiden, and yet, he seemed reluctant to leave me alone and go to another place. I grabbed Aiden by the sleeve, pulled him down, and whispered.

“Don’t worry. Anyway, I’ll be staying here with Young Lady Vivian and Young Lady Mia, what could happen when you’re out? Those who Lady Mia brought over there seem to be in charge of security…”

Aiden, who glanced back at the two reliable men, sighed a little and raised the corners of his lips. Anyway, no matter what Aiden said, if I insisted, he would have had to go.

Originally, I had to run away from Aiden’s eyes, but it was a great solution to be able to get him out of here.

“Yes, My Lady. Then I will get back to you as soon as possible.”

Aiden added an unhelpful remark. Coming back quickly was something I didn’t really want.

“Aiden, strawberry flavor for me.”

As I added one more condition, Aiden awkwardly opened his mouth and smiled. After bowing he left.

I got up from my seat shortly after Aiden left. Everyone looked puzzled at the door Aiden had left from, and then looked towards me.

“I want to try on some clothes. Is that okay, Madam?”

“Of course, Miss. But at first glance, it seems like you’re not feeling well…”

“My body is fine. Other than that—can I try on that dress?”

What I pointed at was a plain dress, with a pale beige gradation going towards the end of the skirt in white, at the corner of the catalog.

“Of course. But Miss, it’s not a dress you’d usually wear to a garden party. It’s an outing dress.”

“I like it regardless of the garden party. Can’t I…?”

“It’s alright! Of course you can. Come on, follow me.”

Mia and Vivian got up from their seats as if it was uncomfortable for only the two of them to be left in this space.

“No, you two wait here. I’ll just try it on quickly.”

The two of them, who had stood up awkwardly, sat back awkwardly. The expression on their faces was gloomy, but that was none of my business. I had other fish to fry.

[tl/n: idiom: I have more important things to attend to]

“Yes! Then, Young Lady Selena. I will be here looking for a garden party dress that suits you.”

As Vivian spoke with shining eyes, Mia looked into the air and pouted her lips.

“…You’ll really do all sorts of things…”

As I murmured those words to myself… I realized something—I was pretty loud when I talked to myself, so everyone could hear it.

Vivian’s neck, whose eyes were shining as they looked towards me, turned stiffly. The end of the line was in Mia’s direction.

“Different things… Lady Mia…?”

“Oh my, why are you eavesdropping? Young Lady Vivian Jonas.”

The war between the two seemed to begin in earnest. I couldn’t tell how many times it had started already.

‘Thanks to you, even if I ran away, no one would even know.’

I closed the door and walked as if I had turned on a noisy drama channel to listen to in the background. Madam, who went out first, was at the front already with the clothes I had chosen and led the way.

“May I help you put it on, Miss?”

“No. Rather, is there any back door in this store?”

“Back door? Why the back door…”

“I just got interested in this salon.”

Madam’s face brightened. It seemed that she was dreaming of a bright future with the Duke’s sponsorship connected due to my interest.

“Yes. The back door is behind the hanger over there.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you. I’ll change my clothes and go to the drawing-room, so can you go ahead and mediate those two? When I came out, it looked like they were going to fight again… It would be troublesome if there were rumors about a fight between young ladies.”

“Oh my! That’s… right. Then… I…”

Madame wrung her hands and rolled her eyes. Rumors about a fight between nobles wouldn’t be good for the reputation of shops dealing with high-class nobles. Still, she seemed to be contemplating whether it was the right thing to ask a customer to change clothes by herself.

“I’m fine. You won’t think I’m a dummy who can’t even change clothes on my own.”

‘Do you think I can’t even change clothes by myself?’ As I said so and turned around, Madam shook her hands.

“Oh no! Absolutely! Miss. Uh… Then I’ll go first! If you have any inconvenience while wearing it, please pull the string over there.”

When I nodded, Madam smiled broadly and hurriedly walked towards the living room. She was very busy today in many ways. Somehow she got entangled with the villains… On top of that, I was going to disappear soon. Sometimes some days are especially unlucky…

I opened the changing room door and went inside to change clothes. Because of the simple design, it was more comfortable to put on and take off than others. I also removed the pearl pin from my hair and placed it on top of the blue dress that was well laid out on the floor. If the maids ever saw how I folded that dress, they’d shed tears of grief. ‘Even in this tense time, it was funny to think of useless thoughts.’

In the full-length mirror, I stood in the form of an unfamiliar and unripe Selena in a white dress.

“It’s like a burial shroud.”

It was really the end.

I opened the door to the changing room as quietly as possible, walked over to the hanger that Madam had pointed to earlier, and threw back my clothes.

This… It was a luxurious salon, but the back door was very poor. That couldn’t be. ‘Security is fundamental to self-employment.’

I roughly unlocked the lock and turned the doorknob…

Creak—

The sound of a wooden door that had not been used for a long time was louder than I expected.

“You’re the one who occupied the seat…!”

However, attention-seeker Mia’s voice from the reception room was louder than the sound of the door.

‘Wow, her voice is so loud that even if I went into the room with a newborn baby crying, people passing by would feel calm next to the baby.’

I thanked the stinging sound and opened the door. Since the back door was on the side alley, as soon as I opened it, I faced the alley wall. I quietly closed the door and looked around as I did when I opened it.

‘It feels like I have fallen into an unfamiliar street…’

But it was fine. Because the milestones were set.

I started walking towards the clock tower towering high above the unfamiliar street.