A Third-Rate Villain Tries Her Best Today 173

Chapter 173: Woo Acrea Ire’s Story

Sue Byron.

Sue Byron.

A girl, covered in mud, collapsed in the pouring rain, and she was Sue Byron, a noble of the capital.

At first, he thought he had seen wrong.

Until he saw the red hair of the girl wearing the academy uniform, the uniform he had glimpsed for a moment as she walked by.

Sue Byron was even stranger that day. She had smiled brightly, her smile chilling, as she backed away from him, even though he had approached her with an umbrella.

And then, she had put on her mask, pretending to be fine, as usual, and said,

“Master Acrea, do you… pity me?”

Her pale skin and blue lips had perfectly masked her true feelings as she said, “I’m okay,” and his thoughts about her had started to pile up.

“You shouldn’t.”

Did he pity her?

Did he feel sorry for her?

As she had said, she wasn’t worth pitying. He didn’t know anything about her true feelings. The only thing he knew was that she liked masquerade balls.

Their connection was that shallow.

It was wrong for the second son of the Acrea family, who valued integrity, to pity Sue Byron without knowing her circumstances.

Around that time, his family had intensified their search for the intruders who had infiltrated the capital. Thanks to a report from someone involved.

The person involved was Young Master Raines Noel Delpheman of the Noel count family.

After hearing the full story from Marquis Yuna, his captain in the Knights, he realized that Raines Noel wasn’t just “someone involved.”

“Damon Keron trying to kill Lady Sue Byron? Even if she’s a Byron, this is unacceptable.”

Reeves had scoffed at the pathetic plot Damon Keron and Raines Noel had cooked up.

A plan to kill Sue Byron? He thought of her serene face as he read through the documents outlining their plan.

But the bigger problem was that no one had noticed their pathetic plan until Raines Noel had confessed.

It was a mystery how the former Skia, who had been thrown into the trash dump, had even managed to return, and Damon Keron’s survival was also a mystery.

Plans to capture the intruders had been exchanged between Reeves and Marquis Yuna for weeks.

He had sent out search parties to find clues about Damon Keron, who had set fire to the Noel count mansion and escaped, but surprisingly, they hadn’t found a single clue.

According to Raines Noel, he was using “powerful magic,” so it was possible.

“Let’s use Sue Byron Chiqmefriar as bait.”

Reeves, not even curious about his powerful magic, had easily solved the puzzle.

Sue Byron Chiqmefriar.

Her name had come up again.

‘Bait… Bait.’

Was it okay to do that?

Really?

But he hadn’t questioned Reeves’s words and had agreed. His plan was logical and efficient.

Everyone involved, except for Sue, knew that she was the bait. Reeves, him, Yuna, Raines Noel, Melaine, Enzhe. The only exception was Shina, who had nothing to do with Sue Byron or Damon Keron.

And Reeves had insisted that Shina shouldn’t be told, as he should always live in a world of sunshine and rainbows.

But Shina had sincerely apologized to Sue Byron, who had miraculously survived. Even though he hadn’t planned it, and even though he had nothing to do with her. He had gone to see Sue Byron solely out of his sense of responsibility as the “next head of the Fritz family.”

‘Report to me in detail what Shina said.’

He had followed Shina to Sue Byron’s townhouse, under Reeves’s orders. She seemed to be living apart from her parents.

“Hmm… It’s okay. I expected it.”

She had reacted calmly, as if she had known.

As if it was only natural for her to be used as bait.

The more she said those words with that expression, the more a heavy, bitter feeling grew inside him.

“Byron, you shouldn’t get used to that.”

*Ah, I see.*

She was used to it.

She took it for granted that she would sacrifice herself and be used as bait.

The man who had never been considered in the plan was the one who had seen through Sue Byron’s true nature, and he envied his boldness, his ability to speak his mind so casually.

The Damon Keron search and capture operation had ended, and he had thought that his insignificant connection with Sue Byron would also end there.

“How is the trial of… Raines Noel and his family progressing?”

So he had never imagined she would ask him that, her voice filled with a boldness he had never heard from her before.

She had asked about the well-being of the man who had tried to kill her, her voice laced with concern, her wounds still unhealed.

The moment he met her gaze, her empty eyes, he vaguely realized the nature of the heavy, bitter feeling that had been growing inside him.

“Are you… trying to help Raines Noel?”

The vague sympathy and pity that had started to form within him since the day he had met her at the training ground was still connecting him to Sue Byron, like a thin thread.

“…Can you help him?”

Perhaps that was why Sue Byron was also seeing him as a lifeline, a beacon of hope. The problem was whether he needed to be her savior, whether he was even qualified to be.

“If that’s what you want, I’ll help you.”

But he had decided to throw her a lifeline, an old, worn-out rope.

‘What? You want to help Sue Byron at the tribunal…? Hmm, I see. We did use her as bait without any warning, so we have to pay the price… Woo… Okay, I understand. You handle the rest.’

She had been the only actress who had agreed to his cheap play at the September Festival, and she had been a valuable bait that had allowed his family to take credit for the Damon Keron incident.

So this was a deal. A deal that exchanged her sense of entitlement for his pity.

He had repeated that thought throughout the trial.

But pathetically, he hadn’t been able to shake off his sense of superiority, the feeling that he was a god, until the moment Sue Byron stepped onto the witness stand and clasped her hands together, as if praying to God.

“I ask for leniency for Raines Noel and the Noel count family.”

He could throw Sue Byron a lifeline.

“Please… forgive him.”

His arrogant, lazy delusion had shattered at that moment.

She was crying, her face full of anguish, begging for the salvation of the man who had pushed her into the abyss.

He felt a sharp pain in his head, as if he had been struck, seeing the teardrops falling onto the floor.

‘Selfish, petty Sue Byron.’

‘A girl who would be kicked out in 10 years, not worth his time.’

Selfish people didn’t cry for others, as if they were willing to die for them. Petty people didn’t tremble with guilt.

That was what he had been taught.

***

The marriage talks between Reeves and Melaine Vava had accelerated after the Damon Keron incident.

‘Reeves, marry Yuna’s sister. Now that Enzhe and Shina are getting married, we need to gain a similar level of power, don’t you think?’

That was the first thing his father, who had retired, had said when he had visited the capital.

It was a valid suggestion, but Reeves hadn’t been keen on marrying Melaine Vava, even after all this time.

His stubbornness had waned after Marquis Yuna had bowed her head and begged him to “let me leave the Lopetrefer alliance,” but he still wasn’t happy about it.

‘Yuna is just choosing the lesser of two evils. Is it for her family? For her sister? …Anyway, I don’t like it.’

Yuna was hoping to reduce her reliance on the Lopetrefer family by marrying Melaine off to Reeves, and more importantly, to prevent her sister from being Enzhe’s lackey.

But contrary to Yuna’s expectations, Reeves had eventually broken off the engagement, and as a result, he had ended up arguing with Melaine Vava in Crimea.

“Why are you doing this to me?! Did I look that pathetic to you? Was I that unsuitable as Reeves’s wife?! Was I that worthless…?!”

She had poured out her frustrations, even though she wouldn’t get a satisfactory answer from him.

Melaine Vava had cried in front of the weathered statue of the goddess, her face contorted with humiliation, but he had just repeated, “I’m sorry,” like a doll. He had even felt a sense of relief, thinking that he would have one less thing to worry about.

But things had only gotten more complicated.

But before he could even talk about Melaine Vava’s outburst, he had to bring up Sue Byron, who had tripped him up again.

“We’re on the same team, I see.”

“Hello, Master Acrea.”

He had felt an unconscious sense of relief seeing her enter the team meeting room, her appearance impeccable.

She was doing well.

He had rarely seen her face properly since their encounter at the Vava mansion.

He would occasionally visit the Golden Lion classroom to see Shina, but she would always be hunched over her magic theory book, her head bowed, so he couldn’t see her expression.

He had been worried.

So he had sat next to her, despite knowing that all eyes would be on them, and after the meeting, he had made up an excuse and walked with her to the classroom.

He hadn’t had anything to discuss with Shina.

“Master Acrea, do you think Master Fritz’s team will win again this year?”

Sue Byron, walking down the hallway, had brought up a question he had heard before.

Everyone expected Shina’s team to win every year. And it was only natural, as there were hardly any other students who took the Athletics Festival seriously, except for Shina.

Effort was rewarded. It was a truth that had been ingrained in Shina Fritz, who had never experienced failure.

“Do you think there will ever be a day when Shina loses?”

He had always hoped that Shina would continue to win, to bask in his own truth, but Sue Byron’s hesitant voice had shaken him.