A Third-Rate Villain Tries Her Best Today 176

Chapter 176: Woo Acrea Ire’s Story 

“Woo Acrea, why did you suddenly become Lady Azette Delondariwood’s partner?”

Reeves, without his usual playful demeanor, was scarier than their father. He hadn’t been beaten by them, but he couldn’t disobey them, so he hoped they would be kind to him.

“Under the circumstances, I couldn’t disgrace her.”

He could feel Reeves’s questioning gaze, but he hesitated. No matter how he tried to spin it, he couldn’t come up with an excuse that would satisfy Reeves.

…No, he knew the perfect words to get out of this situation. But…

“Woo Acrea, convince me.”

“…There was someone watching our encounter with Lady Delondariwood.”

A wave of nausea, accompanied by a dry mouth, washed over him.

“It was Lady Sue Byron. …As you know, Lady Byron… has a loose tongue. If I had refused Lady Delondariwood’s request right there and then, rumors about both of us would have spread like wildfire.”

“Is that what you meant by ‘I couldn’t disgrace Lady Delondariwood’?”

“Yes.”

He had disobeyed Reeves, and to prove that he hadn’t disobeyed him, he had used Sue Byron’s name and made up a lie.

For the first time in his life, he wanted to strangle himself. He later realized that it was self-loathing.

He didn’t know why he had accepted Lady Delondariwood’s request, why he had to make up excuses to Reeves. He didn’t want to know, so he averted his gaze.

“Woo, are you interested in Lady Azette Delondariwood?”

“No.”

“…Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then… Hmm, could it be…”

Reeves trailed off, deep in thought.

He couldn’t focus on anything until the Imperial Ball. He was overwhelmed by regret.

He shouldn’t have gone to the art room. He shouldn’t have found that painting in the art room, the one with Sue Byron’s name neatly written on it.

A simple landscape painting of the sky, the sea, the sun, and a dirt road, and he shouldn’t have realized that she wasn’t in it.

The bitter, heavy feeling continued to torment him. It was definitely a byproduct of his sympathy and pity for her.

But was it normal to feel suffocated just by thinking about someone you pitied and sympathized with?

“Master Acrea, that day… it was actually a coincidence.”

His worries vanished the moment he saw her face.

She was more beautiful than she had been at the Lopetrefer mansion or the academy ballroom, her neck flushed as she awkwardly explained the incident in the art room.

He had stared at her for a long time, but he couldn’t remember what he had said.

“Byron, aren’t you going to dance anymore?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to.”

“Then will you dance with me?”

He just wanted to dance with Sue Byron at the Imperial Ball. The desire was overwhelming.

But God, as if he found him despicable, wouldn’t even allow him to dance with her.

She had collapsed in front of him again, as if she were dead.

He had to be relieved that she was alive, seeing her gasping for breath.

He didn’t remember the details of what had happened then.

He had desperately tried to stay by Sue Byron’s side, and her maids had reluctantly allowed him to stay in the infirmary.

‘…Why?’

He pondered the question that was nagging at him, as he watched Sue Byron, asleep as if she had fainted from pain.

He touched her forehead, but she wasn’t running a fever. He tried using white magic, but it didn’t seem to work.

‘It’s a rare disease. It doesn’t even have a name yet…’

Was there really a disease in this world that couldn’t be cured by Acrea’s magic?

Unlike in the infirmary, she didn’t wake up, no matter how long he waited. He sat on the sofa, hoping that Sue Byron’s red eyes would open.

‘…Pity.’

What was he pitying her for? What did he even know about Sue Byron? She was just a textbook example of a selfish, petty person.

“…Ah.”

When he woke up, there was no one in the bed. He, who had been hoping for her to wake up, had fallen asleep.

He rushed out of the empty room. Her maids, who had been guarding the door, were startled.

“…Where’s Byron?”

“The Miss went to the terrace at the end of the hallway. She said she wanted some fresh air…”

“Why are you here instead of on the terrace? Did Byron tell you to watch me?”

“What?! No, sir! The Miss likes to spend time alone sometimes. She said she would be back soon, so we were just waiting here.”

He left before they could even finish answering.

As the maids had said, she was on the terrace, gazing at the night sky.

“I heard singing. I wanted to hear it closer…”

The special recruit, Soran Halo, had apparently sung at the Imperial Ball, for some reason. He hadn’t heard it, as he had fallen asleep while tending to Sue Byron. She had expressed regret that he hadn’t heard it, but he wasn’t particularly interested in the special recruit’s singing.

“Thank you for helping me, Master Acrea. You’ve helped me again.”

Her red hair, swaying in the wind on the terrace under the starry night sky, reminded him of this time last year. She hadn’t noticed him back then.

“Well… I owe you a debt.”

“Hehe, but you’ve helped me much more, Master Acrea.”

Was this a selfish, petty Sue Byron trying to deceive him with her acting?

She was a good liar.

She would always look at the world with her deceitful eyes, her face a picture of innocence, as if she was begging for sympathy and pity.

She wanted pity, but she didn’t want pity, she begged for forgiveness, but she didn’t want to be forgiven.

Even if all this was just an act to deceive him, it was too late. He had already fallen for her, pitying and sympathizing with the wicked her, and…

“Then will you sing for me?”

She had called out his name in her clear, pleasant voice, and then she had sung, and he, seeing her third smile, had finally succumbed to his emotions.

***

Accepting his feelings and figuring out how to act on them were two different matters.

Shina had reached his limit after the Imperial Ball.

“I’m breaking up with Enzhe.”

He had told him about his decision to break up with Enzhe in a calm voice. He had also imagined how Reeves’s plan would be revised.

Reeves had said it was fine if Shina and Enzhe got married, but he couldn’t imagine them getting married, not after spending so much time with them.

Maybe if Shina had just compromised a little, but that wasn’t going to happen, and it seemed like he had already broken up with Enzhe.

“Shina, why are you so against marrying Enzhe?”

It was a pointless question now, but he had asked it anyway. He had never gotten an answer to that question before, but Shina, perhaps thinking it was the end, had mumbled a short reply,

“Because I’m scared.”

Scared?

He had thought Shina knew about Enzhe’s basement. But if he had known, he would have confronted her, not avoided her out of fear. He had pressed him further, but he couldn’t get any details.

“Something must have happened. You don’t need to know, it’s over now.”

Reeves, after hearing his report, had casually changed the subject.

“Things have turned out like this, Woo, so don’t pay any more attention to Enzhe. Let her do whatever she wants. If she goes on a rampage, that’s the best-case scenario.”

“Okay.”

He had nodded indifferently, then his mind had gone blank at Reeves’s next words.

“And… no matter who you like, you have to marry whoever I choose for you. Don’t ruin my plans, Woo Acrea.”

“…I know. Why are you suddenly saying this?”

He had quickly masked his surprise, but Reeves had smiled faintly, as if he had noticed something.

“Don’t ruin my plans, Woo Acrea.”

He had understood his brother’s words a few days later.

Enzhe, heartbroken, had started visiting the basement frequently. She was mainly targeting the sixth-year students, not the Graduation Building students, who were fewer in number.

She had even declared herself to be Shina’s fiancée at the Imperial Family Observation Ceremony and participated in the magic duel, only to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of a special recruit.

‘Let her do whatever she wants.’

He had let Enzhe do whatever she wanted, as Reeves had ordered. But he couldn’t ignore her. It was impossible. The girl who was always clinging to her like a cicada was bothering him.

Sue had returned to her true self after Enzhe had started her rampage. A selfish, petty, wicked dog of Enzhe.

He would feel a hollow emptiness in his head, watching Sue leave the glass garden through the academy window.

Could he really pity, sympathize with, and… have those feelings for someone like that?

He had known from the beginning that he was pitying the wrong person. But there was no going back. He knew that too.

‘And… no matter who you like, you have to marry whoever I choose for you. Don’t ruin my plans, Woo Acrea.’

That he had to obey Reeves’s orders.

He knew it all.

“It’s time to stop this.”

So he had tried to fix her. He had tried to fix her selfish habits and wicked behavior, while ignoring Enzhe Lopetrefer.

That day, she had looked at him with a haunted expression.

If it had been something that could be fixed, Sue Byron wouldn’t have been making that face. She wouldn’t have been begging for forgiveness or pity.

He had realized his folly, seeing her empty eyes.

“Is this Grand Duke Reeves’s order?”

When her cold voice, her icy words, filled with a brazen defiance he had never heard from her before, were directed at him, his first thought had been that Sue Byron hated him. And sadly, he wanted to strangle himself for the second time.