The Male Lead’s Fake Sister - Chapter 24
Chapter 24
1STKISSNOVEL. DO NOT STEAL MY TRANSLATION!
Ever since Ravia learnt about the novel’s storyline and decided to run away, Herod was not the only secret she had up her sleeve.
She just wanted to hide it as much as possible so she could use it for her best interest later.
Because she was a cautious and meticulous person.
As a character who was destined to die long before the story even began, the course of the story in the novel may not have an immediate significance to the current events, but any information was always helpful.
Ravia recalled how the contact between the heroine, Leticia, and Tidwell occured.
They met under the guise of the relationship between Primadonna and her sponsor, when in reality, both of them had their own agenda.
‘The current Tidwell doesn’t know about the aristocrat who poisoned his family, but he’ll eventually learn about it.’
And that aristocrat was a fan of Primadonna Laricia.
Of course, it was because of the effect of spring power, but Tidwell also approached the heroine because that aristocrat was Laricia’s fan.
However, the heroine also had her side of the story.
She was struggling with her family’s debt, and the reason for that debt was quite unusual.
As it was stated before, Leticia was the only daughter of Count Rose, and it’s not like the county only owned a small piece of land.
If not for this problem, Leticia would have lived well as the daughter of Count Rose.
If only Count Rose hadn’t become addicted to a certain drug.
Count Rose, who got a taste of a relaxing drug, became addicted to that drug. He ended up squandering his entire assets and even carried a huge amount of debt because of it.
And because of that debt, Leticia joined the opera and secretly looked for a cure for his drug addiction.
In fact, Leticia’s father was poisoned by Tidwell’s drug. And Tidwell, the dark flower of the underworld himself, was the only one who had the cure.
From the beginning, the two had been entangled in a terrible thread of love and hatred.
‘I paid for Leticia’s debt, but Leticia’s father is still addicted to the drug.’
Leticia, who loves her father dearly, was bound to find Tidwell someday.
And that was another secret that Ravia had. The plan goes like this:
First, Ravia gave Leticia a check under the name of Leontine. Of course, it was done out of kindness to some extent, but it was also a way for her to engage with Leticia further.
‘The more lives I can save, the better.’
To Leticia, Ravia was her benefactor. That being the case, she could send secret letters to her.
[There’s a man who has the antidote for dark flower. If you want to meet him, come to the fountain in the Opeletta Hall by 10 P.M.]
She purposely didn’t make it clear who the man with the antidote was. When she meets her benefactor, Ravia, Leticia will surely greet her.
This way, Leticia and Tidwell’s meeting would be fulfilled in a more favorable condition.
That was enough.
In fact, it’d still take a long time for the two to meet according to the plot, but Ravia had no obligation to follow the original story.
Since everyone was destined to suffer greatly inside this tragic novel anyway, wouldn’t it be good to twist the story a little so the other characters could find their happy ending?
The most important occurrence was Leticia and Tidwell’s fateful encounter.
If Ravia could become a valuable person to Leticia, it would help Leticia avoid suffering under Tidwell’s evil hands.
‘Actually, I want to avoid altering the original story as much as possible.’
But she couldn’t help it. She needed to escape from Tidwell’s surveillance.
Tidwell and Leticia were meant for each other. That was the fate of the male lead and the heroine.
‘Crow Tit just informed me that Leticia is here.’
They just need to meet. While Tidwell is attracted and confused by Leticia, Ravia would take the chance to finalize her contract with Herod safely.
‘I hope this will work.’
At that time, Ravia unwittingly tightened her grip.
“Sister.”
“Uh, yes?”
“Is it uncomfortable to walk using your heels?”
It was only then did Ravia realize that she squeezed the arm she was holding a little too hard. An escort would wonder if it was a sign that she had difficulty walking.
But if Ravia staggered now, all her hard work in the past would amount to nothing.
“My heels are fine…I’ve been thinking about something else for a while.”
“Your mind seems to wander all the time.”
Tidwell put on his harmless and docile expression as always. It was also the only expression that Ravia saw from Tidwell.
Tidwell was skilled at acting. If Ravia hadn’t read the novel, she might have considered Tidwell as a gentle brother.
Due to that, Ravia suddenly asked, “Are you worried about me?”
That was the same question she asked Duke Leontine. A question that he left unanswered.
What would be your answer to the question that even my father had avoided? Are you going to stick with your good brother act and say you are worried about me? Or are you going to evade the question?
Seeing as the fountain was close by, and Leticia was probably already there…
It was foolish to ask such a question here.
I knew that. But sometimes things are too unbearable for it to be left unsaid. There are times where the sorrow I’ve been trying so hard to swallow somehow comes out of my throat.
Such as the sudden change in my father’s attitude, and the fact that I’m spending most of my days with my brother, a ticking time bomb and a certain someone whose true intentions I’m not aware of.
There was also a limit in Ravia’s patience for enduring all that. The papers that she had to secretly eat were about to come out of her throat.
But Ravia knew. The fact that she would only be even more upset if she heard the answer.
He has been acting as a good brother towards me ever since, so he’d most likely say he was worried.
Ravia looked at Tidwell, who gave her no answer, and sneered as she turned away.
In the meantime, her agitation had subsided.
“Forget it. There’s no way you’re not worried about me. You’re a nice brother after all.”
“What would you do if I said I’m not worried?”
At that time, a deep voice swept over Ravia. The wrist Tidwell kissed before leaving the banquet hall was caught.
Their eyes met.
The man with the moonlight shone behind him smiled so eerily that it gave her goosebumps.
“What if I’m expecting you to fall and be unable to walk without my help?”
What will you do, sister? Tidwell whispered into her ears.
In the first place, what caught Tidwell’s eyes when he first entered the residence was Ravia’s exposed white ankles when she turned her back on him and climbed the stairs.
Messy hair as if she had just woken up. A plain one-piece pajama that looked like a fabric hanging loose from her chest to her calves without a waistband that could define her body shape.
She turned her back on him and walked away. In that state.
Why was I looking at her?
But isn’t it natural for my eyes to look in that direction because she was going up the stairs?
He keeps making a lot of excuses. But Tidwell knew that among the desires he might’ve had at that time, the one he really wished to do was to grab those ankles of hers.
The first rule of confinement was to cut the ligaments in the ankle. For that reason, Tidwell has broken many human ankles.
A man with an amputated ankle could still walk, but he cannot run as he pleases. Therefore, cutting off their ankles meant making them powerless and tying them down completely.
If Ravia had wings, he wanted to rip off her wings so that she wouldn’t turn her back on him again.
It was a cruel possessiveness that was born the moment Ravia turned her back on Tidwell.
Even in this moment, when Ravia staggered on top of her heels.
“What did you say just now?”
At the end of her words, her voice trembled and her fingertips slightly twitched. In addition, the eyes that looked into Tidwell’s shook anxiously.
And so, Ravia’s glass mask, which was once unbreakable, became as fragile as thin ice that was on the verge of breaking.
Tidwell was filled with mixed emotions. He felt as if he were a child who was making butterfly specimens.
As though this was a breathless moment in which you have to carefully pick up an extremely fragile butterfly with a tweezer. In such a way that a satisfaction similar to one that is felt after successfully placing a butterfly specimen in a frame was felt.
‘I’m a human with a wretched nature.’
He was well aware that he was a villainous man with an indescribable level of selfishness.
He knew he must not act impulsively, but he couldn’t help but want to put his lips against her wrist where he felt her weak pulse.
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