Survive As the Villain’s Cousin - Chapter 5

Brillian was a foreign language that nobles learned.

Although it was voluntary, it’s the easiest way for arrogant nobles to show off their skills.

I gave up on Brillian while learning with the twins.

“I’ll find a teacher who can speak Eastern languages.”

“Thank you. I like Lehen.”

The Duke glanced at me after Ariel finished speaking.

She mentioned Lehen, which was the country my mother was from. It was said to be the easternmost on the eastern continent.

“I got it.”

A brief silence passed and the duke turned away.

“Erial.”

“Yes!”

Erial answered loudly.

Ariel suddenly stared at Erial in surprise at his outburst, but he didn’t care and just stared at the Duke.

“Did you break the vase while running in the hallway?”

“Pfft.”

Ariel burst into laughter at the Duke’s words.

I quickly tried to school my expression in case I was also careless and exploded in laughter, but I couldn’t hide the slight trembling in the corners of my mouth.

“Well, that’s….”

“There is no need for excuses. Be careful of your actions in the future.”

“Yes….”

Erial became sullen as if he hadn’t expected to be scolded.

I patted Erial on the back.

“And become a great swordmaster.”

“Yes!”

“You worked hard. But don’t be arrogant. To be worthy of the Ardentines, you must be at the peak of swordsmanship.”

“I’ll keep that in mind!”

The Ardentine family had produced swordmasters for generations.

The current duke was also a swordmaster; so Erial, who will succeed the duke, must also be at that level.

The Ardentine family is the only family that protects the empire, so they could maintain an army they were allowed more knights than other families.

‘But Erial rebelled.’

The cooled Earl Grey tea suddenly turned bitter. I should have added sugar.

I took another bite of Mont Blanc cake to soothe the bitter taste.

The sweetness of the cake spread in my mouth, soothing my bitter feelings.

‘But it’s different now. It’ll be alright.’

It’s going to be okay. The reason why Erial took up the sword has changed.

The cause will no longer be to fulfill a twisted love but to protect his family.

So, Ariel won’t cause a curse, and Erial won’t rebel.

“Sernia.”

“Yes?”

The Duke rarely called me.

It’s even worse now since I haven’t taken any classes lately!

I was nervous because I had gained weight, but the door opened suddenly without a knock.

“Duke, you’re in big trouble!”

It was Chelsea, my maid of honor.

The Duke was not pleased with Chelsea, who entered rudely without knocking, and put pressure on her.

“I told you not to disturb us at tea time.”

The air in the room froze.

The atmosphere became suffocating, and it was difficult to breathe under the pressure of the Duke.

Chelsea’s face turned white, but she continued to talk while trembling to fulfill her duty.

“I’m sorry… But, I was in a hurry. You should know….”

“What is it?”

You couldn’t tell it was a big deal from his expression, but he was moments away from drawing his sword.

I was closest to the Duke in a terrible atmosphere and grabbed the edge of his sleeve lightly.

Erial looked fine, but Ariel looked scared, so she couldn’t stay still.

He looked at the child with such cold eyes that seemed to crave mana.

It was only then that I could breathe better.

I heaved out a breath and held Ariel’s cold hand tightly.

Chelsea glanced at me and the twins and approached the duke and whispered in a small voice.

The Duke’s expression was still blank, but I could tell.

His fine eyebrows twitched.

“I’m coming myself.”

When the Duke stood up from his seat, I naturally followed him.

It must be related to me since Chelsea came.

In addition, I could be sure that the Duke’s eyes stayed on me for a while.

“Okay, stay here.”

“I’ll go as well if it’s about me.”

“…do as you please.”

When I showed my willingness to follow him unconditionally, the duke easily backed down.

Rather, it was Chelsea who didn’t look good.

‘Is it really a big deal to surprise Chelsea with his usual expressionless face?’

The twins were on standby and I and the Duke moved along with Chelsea.

At the end of the quiet hallway, I began to hear people mumbling.

Servants working for the duke gathered, so I could immediately figure out where the incident took place.

It was my room.

“Stand back.”

He spoke in a low voice, but no one could hear it.

When they noticed the presence of the duke, they greeted him and backed off in a hurry.

As the servants disappeared, my room came into view through the wide-open door.

Until this morning, the bed I was asleep on was red.

Ivory-colored, warm-looking, fluffy blankets and pillows were torn with feathers blown and a human-shaped cotton doll in the center of the bed, which was stained red with the blood of an unknown person.

Chelsea, who came behind me before I knew it, whispered that it would be okay, putting a shaky hand on my shoulder.

‘A cursed doll!’

I could recognize it at a glance.

It was part of the foreign war that I once read before.

“Why? Who?”

I thought it would be okay if I didn’t follow the original plot.

Novels are novels, but I believed that I could change the future.

‘But why the hell is this happening in the novel? Is it like a fiction’s deterrent or something?’

There were more strange parts.

Why did I wake up four years before the original?’

If there was such a thing as deterrence or fate, it would have happened four years ago.

In the novel, when the twins were about 10 years old, Sernia found a cursed doll in the nanny’s room.

The nanny cursed the twins. Sernia said it was a felony to curse aristocrats and without listening to the nanny’s excuses she executed her on the spot.

The duke, who heard the news later, ordered a thorough investigation even though the criminal was dead, so the knights and Dane re-investigated the nanny’s room.

However, they found Sernia’s hair and pearl earrings that she often used in the nanny’s room.

The case got bigger when the duke searched the room because he was suspicious of Sernia and a diary of Sernia’s jealousy of the twins was found. The twins did not believe that the nanny cursed them, and even when Sernia was named the culprit, they were confused and did nothing.

At first, Sernia made excuses for being unjustly accused, but soon she smiled like she was mad and took out a dagger and committed suicide.

The twins looked at her with shaking eyes, they were put in shackles that wouldn’t be released.

“What happened?”

The Duke’s cold voice awakened me from my thoughts.

“Well, I came in to clean up… it was…”

“Was that when you first found it?”

“Yes.”

The young maid bowed her head and answered the Duke’s questions.

“She told me right away, and I checked the room myself before running to the Duke.”

Chelsea, who was next to him, spoke up.

At the end of her speech, the room was engulfed in a heavy silence.

The Duke, who was still watching, walked in front of the bed.

His actions were surprising for those who couldn’t even think of approaching the unpleasant scene.

The Duke picked up the cotton doll without hesitation.

‘What are you doing?’

Everyone watched the duke blankly, thinking the same thing.

The duke instilled mana into the cotton doll he raised.

Of course, I don’t know how to see mana.

However, I had felt the mana he used to put pressure on Chelsea which pressed on my skin differently, and now I can see it from the doll in front of me.

The cotton doll caught in the duke’s hand began to bubble like a liquid, and it soon burst open.

“Gasp!”

“Duke!”

At the startling sight, Chelsea took a breath and Dane tried to approach the Duke.

“Not a curse.”

During the chaos, the duke calmly said what he had to say.

I approached the bed when the Duke said it was not a curse. There’s nothing to be afraid of if it’s not a curse.

I was strong during horror movies and haunted houses, but I didn’t like gore.

“It’s not a curse. So it’s just simple bullying?’

I was treated as a direct descendant while growing up with twins even though I was not from the current main family.

If another cousin saw my treatment they would definitely be jealous.

‘But I don’t have any cousins who could be jealous of me. Or is it one of the families that serve the Ardentines?’

I stood next to the duke with many guesses.

He seemed to be trying to tell me something, but he was interrupted by Dane who asked the Duke with an uneasy look.

“It’s not a curse, Duke?”

“Yes, curses are a form of contractual magic, and when you use other spells, they cause a violent reaction to protect the contract.”

Oh, so that’s how the curse works.

I imprinted the new knowledge in my head.

There’s nothing special on the bed. My gaze moved past the red bed to the Duke’s hand.

“Uh!”

“What is it?”

When I saw the remains of the doll in the duke’s hand, I screamed unconsciously.

When I suddenly screamed, the Duke looked down at me and questioned me.

But I couldn’t answer his question. I just blinked my eyes several times, doubting what I saw.

‘It doesn’t make sense.’

That’s ridiculous!

I got goosebumps for the first time while in this room. I approached him with a pale face to look closely at the scraps in the Duke’s hand.

Even if you look closely, the contents have not changed at all.

‘My hair and the one earring I lost before.’

“Lady, are you all right?”

Chelsea, who was near the door, asked, looking at my face.

I couldn’t answer her this time again.

It was impossible to think normally because of what was going through my head.

“Is it yours?

“…yes.”

The duke also found hair and earrings stuck between the cotton doll.

My hair and pearl earrings.

Wait a minute. Was Sernia really innocent in the previous storyline?

I took a deep breath.

You have to stay calm. Calm down. I closed my eyes to clear my head.

‘In the novel, Sernia was jealous of the twins, but she did not curse them. The nanny tried to curse Sernia, not the twins.’

Again. The novel cleverly obscured these two facts.

Narrative tricks?

It was a method that made the writer intentionally give biased information to deceive the reader and influence them.

‘It’s not a mystery novel, so why are there tricks in a romance fantasy? Are you kidding me?!’

I calmly organized the information, but I still blamed the writer.

It’s not a novel genre where the author’s intention is unknown rather than clear.

‘In mystery novels, even when the culprit was found, when I read it, I realized the author’s intentions.’

When I opened my eyes after I finished organizing my thoughts, the first thing I encountered was the Duke’s green eyes.

I was surprised. He was staring at my face.

“Is there any one of whom you can guess?”

“Well….”

I couldn’t open my mouth hastily.

Because there was no evidence to say, “The nanny!”

‘In the novel, did Sernia choose to commit suicide because the twins didn’t trust her?’

I knew the truth, but I don’t know the whole truth.

Why did Sernia kill herself? Why did the nanny want to curse Sernia?

I was at a loss for how to find the reasons because I only knew the answer.

I have to think out of the box and solve the problem, but the answer sheet has only the correct answer, so I don’t know what method to use!

‘What? The killer is the nanny?’

No. Wouldn’t it be that much more thoroughly planned?

Well, I crossed my arms together and thought seriously.

I wanted to ask, “Author, did you use a narrative trick to hide the improbable things that would make the nanny curse Sernia?”

“If you can’t think of anyone, that’s fine. Gather everyone, Dane. Everyone from squires to knights.”

“Okay.”

“Stay with the twins.”

“Yes.”

I answered gently.

There’s nothing I can do if I step forward here.

‘Science, why aren’t you developing? It would be over after fingerprinting.’

If science were involved it would have been unfair, but I blamed the author and science because of my frustration.

“My Lady, the Duke will surely find the culprit.”

“Yes, Chelsea, I’m fine.”

The Duke and Dane left the room first, and Chelsea, who was worried about me until the end, took heavy steps when leaving.

I was left alone, but I didn’t go to where the twins were.

‘When was the last time I saw the nanny today?’

As children, the three of us were together, but as we grew up, we took different classes, and the time for the nanny to spend with Ariel increased.

Erial was with Dane normally except for when he had his swordsmanship class, and I was mostly with Chelsea because I read books or took walks.

Tea time was always at 3 o’clock when the duke had nothing special to do.

‘Was the last time I saw Ariel in the dining room at lunch?’

I know that the nanny usually checks the dessert before, so she was in the dining room before tea time.

Then the time of the crime would be between 1 p.m. and 3:10 p.m.

Should I ask the nanny for an alibi during that time?

“I’m not a detective, I’m not doing this.”

Now even the genre of the novel that I reincarnated was confusing.

Come to think of it, this red doll wasn’t in the novel.

It looked like blood at first glance, but it wasn’t blood, given that it didn’t turn brown over time.

At first, I thought she sprayed animal blood.

‘Let’s figure out the killer’s mentality.’

Why did the nanny curse me? No, the Duke said it wasn’t a curse, so is she simply scaring me? Bullying? If not…