How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

After hanging out at the library, they returned to the mansion around evening. The road leading from the library to the mansion was a corridor lined with gray pillars. Sleet, like sugar flakes, flew between the rows of stone pillars. Fluffy white snowflakes dotted the cold winter sky and colored the gray winter garden white. After eating a quick dinner, we hung out in the boudoir until 9 o’clock.

 

She looked through some more books she brought from the library, but still couldn’t find the scented candle in question.

 

‘Is it really rare?’

 

When she first saw the vision, she felt like she smelled that scent somewhere. But she couldn’t remember where it was. Then the promised time came.

 

“I’ll go upstairs for a moment.”

 

She put her books away and headed to the place Terence mentioned. She definitely said it was a room on the 5th floor. She went up the stairs to the 5th floor. There were no people wandering around the 5th floor hallway, so it had a quiet atmosphere. Come to think of it, she hadn’t been here much.

 

There were rooms here mainly for ordinary guests staying at the mansion or for tutors. She opened the door at the end and went inside. The moment she opened the door, a warm energy seeped out, unlike the cold air in the hallway. A warm fireplace was burning in the room. In front of it was a table decorated with a bouquet of flowers, and there were tea cups, a teapot, and a three-tiered tray with various desserts on it. Cozy light in the fireplace and flowers decorating the table. And a tea set with steaming black tea and sweet desserts. It was like an intimate tea time between lovers.

 

This… What on earth was this?

 

She saw a small note stuck on top of the flower bouquet. She picked it up, opened it, and found letters written in elegant handwriting inside.

 

[Can you please forgive my mistake?]

 

She read and reread that short sentence over and over again. She wondered if she was dyslexic or had lost her language skills and misunderstood this short sentence. Otherwise, it was incomprehensible.

 

“What…”

 

…What was he apologizing for? She became very confused. Even though she was on the receiving end of the apology, she didn’t understand this situation.

 

‘Hey. What did you do wrong to me? Why did Terence send me this?’

 

No matter how much she thought about it, she didn’t know what he’s apologizing for doing to her. Until a few hours ago, they went to the duke’s residence together and parted ways without any incident? Why was he making such a sincere apology? In fact, did Terence do something really wrong without her knowledge? While she was in confusion and thinking deeply, the door suddenly opened behind her. She turned around in surprise and saw Terence standing in front of the door.

 

He also looked very embarrassed.

 

“Did you receive the note I sent?”

 

“Yes, I received it.”

 

She picked up the note from the bouquet and showed it to him.

 

“Why are you suddenly apologizing to me?”

 

It just worked out well. Since she didn’t understand at all, it would be better to ask the person involved. But instead of answering, Terence looked at her as if he was shocked.

 

“That’s not the message I sent.”

 

“What?”

 

Terence also took out a small folded note from his pocket. Inside the light pink paper was written beautiful, flowing handwriting. There was a similar phrase there too.

 

[Please forgive my mistake.]

 

What kind of mistakes was he talking about?

 

“I also received a note. The princess sent it to me as if she had written it. It also came with chocolate and wine.”

 

What did you get?

 

“I’ve never sent anything like that.”

 

Terence said it as if it were obvious.

 

“Of course, it is not a letter from the princess. The handwriting was completely different.”

 

At his confident answer, she looked at the note with a puzzled face.

 

‘So someone sent apology letters and gifts to both sides?’

 

Who did this to them? 

 

“I also received a note telling me to come here at this time. Then this wasn’t sent by Terence either.”

 

Terence took the note she showed him, looked at it, and then asked:

 

“Who brought this note?”

 

“A servant of the manor.”

 

She remembered the young servant who brought her the note. Where did he work? As she quickly recalled her memories, she realized something later.

 

“Oh, that’s right. That man was Lot’s servant.”

 

When she remembered that, another confusion came. No, so you’re saying that Lot did this now? He sent Terence an apology letter along with chocolates, just like he sent her. For her, he prepared tea and dessert along with an apology letter like the one Terence sent. It was a plan too grandiose and strange to have come from Lot’s head. All preparations must have been done by servants, but it was unbelievable that Lot did it all by himself.

 

Terence sighed.

 

“I think Lot and Diane were playing around.”

 

After listening to him, the situation made sense.

 

“Oh, I see. The two of you met today.”

 

When she thought about it, chocolate and flowers, tea and desserts. It all seemed to be Diane’s taste. Did Lot tell Diane about us and they set this up? Thinking about it that way, she now understood this situation.

 

“I guess the rumor that we don’t get along has spread within the mansion. Everyone is worried.”

 

Displeasure appeared in the corners of Terence’s neat eyes.

 

“I can’t believe something like this happens even though we have banned the servants.”

 

Even those servants participated in Lot and Diane’s plan to reconcile them. Once again, she thought it looked that serious. So much so that everyone joined in and planned this. But as she was looking at Terence, a question suddenly occurred to her. She had no idea, but as soon as Terrence saw it, he knew it wasn’t her.

 

‘Then why did you come here if you knew I didn’t send it?’

 

“But why did you come here? I hope you know that it wasn’t a message I sent.”

 

Terence frowned as if asking something obvious.

 

“After receiving the note, I went to the inner room to find the princess, and she said she had already left.”

 

‘Ah, I see.’

 

But suddenly, the way Terence looked at her was strange. It was a look in his eyes that seemed absurd.

 

“Why are you doing this?”

 

“Can’t you tell it’s not my handwriting?”

 

“…yes.”

 

No, they were not pen pals who have been exchanging letters for months. How do you memorize handwriting? The reason she was able to speak the language here and read and write in the first place was thanks to the memories left in Eve’s body. Even though she couldn’t remember her life as Eve, she was glad she still had memories of language. She wondered if this wasn’t a memory but something closer to instinct.

 

Terence looked at her for a moment and then answered calmly.

 

“I see.”

 

It was a tone that seemed hurt enough to make it sound like, ‘You’re not that interested in me.’ You’ve never exchanged enough letters to memorize handwriting, right? But Terence actually had nothing to say when he said he was memorizing my handwriting.

 

“It’s late. I will tell the servants to clean up this place, so please go back.”

 

Terence still had an indifferent attitude, but she felt uncomfortable and sorry inside. When she glanced at the table, it was still full of warm tea and cute desserts. She prepared it with so much care, but she thought it was a waste. As she was looking at the table, Terence turned his attention to her again.

 

“Why are you doing that?”

 

After thinking about it, she proposed.

 

“Shall we go and have some tea?”

 

Seeing the puzzlement on Terence’s expression, she quickly gave a clear reason.

 

“If we go our separate ways like this, Lot will think we haven’t reconciled. All the servants in the mansion will think the same way and be worried.”

 

Then he could do something like this again. There was a possibility that the scale would be bigger next time.

 

“It certainly is.”

 

Eventually they sat across from each other at the table. When she tilted the teapot, warm black tea filled the white teacup. There was a fragrant tea scent resembling the scent of flowers. This was her favorite car.

 

She laughed because she felt like he had prepared really carefully. Terence accepted the tea cup she handed him and drank the tea in silence. Now that she thought about it, it seemed like the first time since the wedding that she had sat down, drank tea, and spent time leisurely. 

 

As she was looking at him, she suddenly thought, why not make this suggestion?

 

‘Would you like to come and sleep in my bedroom sometimes from now on? No, it’s not that strange… I’m afraid people will continue to worry.’

 

…But it would be really strange to say something like this. She confessed to him, but he didn’t accept it and asked her to come to the bedroom. No matter how much he was joking, she thought it’s too much.

 

She was sipping a cup of tea while thinking about that. A calm voice broke the silence in the room.

 

“If you don’t mind, I would like to go to the princess’s bedroom sometime and spend the night.”

 

“Yes… yes?”

 

The shocking sound that came out of nowhere made her raise her voice without realizing it. She was planning to suggest it first, but she was embarrassed when they said it first. Regardless, Terence continued speaking with a grave expression.

 

“Don’t worry. I just imitate it to show others.”

 

What followed was an even more shocking story.

 

“There is a secret passage in the wall behind the princess’s dressing room closet. If you use that, you can act like you’re spending the night…”

 

“What do you have?”

 

It was such a shocking story that she cut him off without realizing it and shouted out a question. The dressing room was right next to her bedroom.

 

‘What’s in my room? Secret passage?’

 

No, why didn’t he tell her that before?

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

 

But Terence didn’t look sorry at all.

 

“It was completely closed off years ago by blocking the walls with lime.”

 

“Ah…”

 

It was blocked. Then there was no need to say anything. When she thought about it, she heard that the mansions of nobles had secret passages in important rooms. If something happens suddenly, the owner and his wife must be able to escape. Since the place where she stayed was the hostess’s living room, there must of course be an emergency evacuation route. In fact, such a passage would also exist in the imperial palace.

 

It’s because she didn’t know but it must have been in the princess’s palace where Eve was staying.

 

“The passage leads to the lounge next to my study. If you don’t mind, we will construct the passage and reopen it.”

 

Terence put down his teacup and tried to persuade her.

 

“If the servants think we keep sharing separate rooms, rumors will spread outside the mansion someday.”

 

“That’s right. Good idea. It would be better to restore the passage.”

 

It may come in handy later if needed. Because her life was going to be in danger within a year. It would be nice to have at least one more safety device. As she thought about that, a question arose.

 

“Why did you block that passage? There might be a time when you need it later.”

 

If it had been stopped years ago, it meant that Terence had ordered it directly.

 

“I’m in a bad mood.”

 

‘Just because you feel bad?’

 

Why… Why did she feel bad? It’s just a secret passage. As she looked at him quizzically, Terence looked at the teacup and spoke in a low voice. A bitter smile appeared on his good-looking mouth.

 

“It’s because of my late father. My father would leave my weak mother to sleep and meet his lover in the passage.”

 

“…”

 

It was a reason she could not have imagined. Put her sick wife to bed and then sneak out to meet her lover? Are there people like that? It was mentioned in the original work that the previous Grand Duke was such a libertine, but I never thought it would be to that extent. She discovered another truth from his words.

 

“Then his lover…”

 

If you met inside a passage rather than going out, that means your lover also lived in the mansion.

 

“Yes, one of my mother’s maids.”

 

Wow, that looked like trash. She was dumbfounded and looked at him blankly. A calm voice continued.

 

“My father liked her very much. Even after she discovered his lover’s identity, he forced his maid to escape by making it seem like he was threatening her. To avoid my mother’s eyes, he hid their hats and met them.”

 

The moment she heard that, a great realization came to her. Wait a minute, hat…?

 

“They have hidden it so tightly that even the emperor does not know the identity of their hats. On the night he died, he went out to see her.”

 

“No way…”

 

A story about Mikhail and his mother?

 

She looked at him in shock. Terence smiled bitterly, as if shaking off the ashes of the past, and apologized to her again.

 

“I admit that I have often lost my temper when it comes to Lord Sheldon. I was late last time in the garden, but I apologize again.”

 

“…”

 

In the original, Mikhail’s mother appeared as a victim who was blackmailed by the Grand Duke into having his child. She knew this world was a little different from the original, but she didn’t know there was such a hidden backstory. For some reason, she felt that if this man became involved with Mikhail, he would react sharply. She understood if that was the case.

 

“So something like that happened.”

 

A quiet, heavy silence fell between them for a moment. She looked back on the contents of the original work. When the young archduke in power suddenly dies, the new Grand Duke and his mother were thrown into political crisis. And some time later, while Terence’s mother, the Grand Duchess, was trying to protect her family line, her illness worsened and she died. He was so distracted by her lover that he turned his back on her family, putting her wife and children in danger. He was a truly terrible father.

 

“I would never do that.”

 

The first thing to break the silence was Terence’s quiet voice. He looked at her with eyes as deep as the sea and calmly promised.

 

“Even if you don’t accept my feelings, I will protect the princess as long as our contract lasts. She leaves behind the princess… I wouldn’t do something so irresponsible.”

 

She couldn’t say anything for a moment. In fact, it’s not he who’s leaving… Suddenly she felt like she was doing something stupid. Instead of telling the man who says these things about his important future, he was hiding his feelings and making him suffer and fret for no reason.

 

“I have something to tell you.”

 

She continued speaking without avoiding his gaze.

 

“Actually, I saw a vision on the wedding night. Our…”

 

She wondered for a moment whether she should even mention their son, but she decided to talk about the most important thing first.

 

“It was about the future of the two of us.”

 

A serious light appeared in Terence’s eyes at the mention of their future. If you suddenly say something like this, it probably isn’t about an ordinary future.

 

“What kind of future was it?”

 

She looked at him for a moment and then confessed honestly.

 

“It was a future where I would die.”

 

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Translator Note: