“She’s the duke’s daughter, Idel.”
No.
“Sister? What did you just say…?”
“I’m sorry, Rowena. That day, at my pre-wedding party, I spent the night with the Duke.”
That’s a lie, too.
Idel blinked slowly as she heard Melissa’s blatant lies.
The shocked expressions of Duke Clementine and his wife were clear.
The expression of the novel’s heroine beside them was one of unease.
“Lies! That day, Count Lopez also… He… He…”
“Yes, do you remember it now? He left for the count’s first, and the three of us kept drinking. I thought it was my last chance, my last chance to be honest with my ‘true’ love.”
“No way, sister… That can’t be true, right?”
Even in her sister’s wavering eyes, she staunchly denied the affair.
“Yes. I mixed stronger drinks. Strong enough to knock out both you and the duke. And once you two were completely out of it…”
“…I don’t believe it. There’s no resemblance between that child and me from the start.”
“Ha, I knew you wouldn’t believe it easily. If that’s the case, it might be a good idea to do a paternity test yourself.”
“Then the reason you never showed me the child all this time…”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
In the bewildered space, Melissa put her hand on Idel’s shoulder and spoke in a captivatingly low voice. Her red hair, just like hers, fluttered elegantly.
“If my husband hadn’t passed away, I would have kept this secret for you until the very end, but now that he’s gone and his brother holds the power in the county, I can’t help but worry about Idel’s future,”
“…….”
“So, Duke. I know it’s burdensome for you to accept me as your wife’s sister, but please take her in. After all, Idel is your daughter, isn’t she?”
You have to take care of your own blood.
As the Duchess struggled to breathe under her deceitful sister’s whisper, she finally collapsed.
“Ah, ah…….”
“Rowena!”
“M, Mom!”
The Duke urgently called for the doctor as the Duchess collapsed at his side, pale and nauseous.
The heroine, shedding tears by her side, held onto her mother, while the villain pulled her red-painted lips into a smile and watched the three without anyone noticing.
Watching the scene unfold before her eyes, reminiscent of a drama, Idel inwardly clicked her tongue.
So typical that she even imagined rough background music playing in her ears.
– Tantara, tantarantantara! Tantara, tantarantantara!
Idel, who was poking her ear with her pinky to the tune of a famous melody playing in her mind, paused for a moment. It was because she felt the sharp gazes of the servants directed toward her.
Hearing a faint chuckle nearby, it seemed that poking her ear with her finger was a peculiar action… Was there a problem?
“Idel, say hello. He’s Vincent Clementine, the Duke. The owner of this estate we’re standing in, and your ‘real’ father.”
“Hello, I’m Idel. Um…F, Father.”
She knew she was in for a rough ride from the moment Melissa, the daughter of the villainess, brought her here—or rather, from the moment she ignited this situation.
‘Even though, technically, I’m just a little girl who said hello because I was told to,’
Idel ignored the uncomfortable stares and clicked her tongue inwardly once more.
Why, of all things, was I born into a ridiculous novel that my sister enjoyed? Why is it that as soon as I hold my mother’s hand and enter the Duke’s estate, memories come flooding back?”
This place is like a ridiculous novel filled with betrayal, deceit, and irrational developments.
Idel was one of the characters responsible for the betrayal.
The Duke, who took her in and raised her, claimed that she was innocent and that he had to take responsibility, but she returned their kindness by killing him.
After marrying as if she were being sold to an old nobleman, she became the ultimate betrayer, blinded by jealousy towards the heroine.
Of course, in the latter part of the novel, it’s revealed that her villainous actions were due to Melissa’s manipulation, but so what?
By then, Idel’s throat had already been slit.
And with a mark, the Duchess, who turned to the dark side, returned.
‘Duchess…? You, you’re alive… No, how are you here?’
‘Why, Idel. Are you surprised that I, who has always supported you as ‘Lady Vale,’ am here? How does it feel to be betrayed by someone you trusted?”
‘I, I’m…….’
‘Oh, and I’m the one who should say ‘how’. Even if you resented your sister, I raised you like my own daughter, so how could you…”
‘Save me, save me. Please!’
‘Save you? It’s too late, child; you should have said that before you touched my daughter.’
Idel’s gaze fell once more on the distraught Duchess and Melissa, who stood by her side.
‘So you’re saying that the Duchess over there is the ‘future Queen of the Darkness’ who drove Idel to her death in the original, and this woman over here is the ‘villainess’ who uses her daughter as a tool for her misdeeds?’
But now I’ve become ‘that’ Idel Clementine, the Idel Clementine who will face hatred from everyone in the future and endure a difficult path.
Idel secretly kicked the leg of the table, thinking of a predetermined future. Anger surged within her.
‘What did I do wrong in my previous life……!’
She had been a good girl, never even killing a single ant.
“Hurry, check on the Duchess! And the child… separate her from her mother and take her to a different room.”
“Yes. Miss, please come with me.”
As she watched the reluctant gaze of the Duke and the polite yet cold actions of the servants, Idel bit her lower lip.
The more she contemplated her situation, the more she felt a rush of emotions bubbling up inside her.
‘No, objectively speaking, who’s the most confused here? Isn’t it the children?’
Anyway, what a crazy drama!
In the splendid reception room of the Duke of Clementine’s mansion, Idel quickly came to a conclusion.
‘No way. I need to step out of this damn original story as soon as possible.’
Maybe if her past-life sister heard her resolution, she would’ve said that in stories like this, especially childcare ones, one has to captivate the original protagonists with charm, wit, and cuteness. But would that work?
Besides, this isn’t just any childcare story; it’s a complete mess with no sense of coherence.
‘No matter how much I think about it, stepping out is the best solution.’
Idel ruffled her hair, hoping that the memories from her past life, which had just surfaced, would offer some help.
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
In her past life, Idel had never enjoyed watching soap operas.
The nonsensical unfolding of events like secret births, affairs, conspiracies, and melodrama always baffled her, and she found it strange that people watched it while criticizing it. For example…….
“This is insane!”
Yes, just like her own sister. On the television screen that her sister was fixated on, the climax of the drama was unfolding.
‘Tell me, why! Why can’t it be me? Just because I’m 30 years younger than you?! Age… Ha, what does that have to do with our love!?’
‘No, Hwihyeol, sniff! It’s not that! The reason we can’t be together is because you’re… the lost son of my deceased sister! I’m, I’m your aunt! Sob!’
‘What, what? I’m… your nephew?’
With a thud sound effect, the shocked man’s face and the sobbing woman’s face alternated on the screen.
My sister, who had been holding her breath with the two protagonists, finally breathed out after a dramatic music filled with tension played and the production support logo appeared.
“The writer is seriously out of their mind! What’s next after a 30-year age gap? An aunt? Is a hidden child going to suddenly appear next week? Ah, for heaven’s sake. Have they lost their mind?”
“Yeah, why stress over something you bought?”
Seriously.
As she watched stories like this, she believed it was more beneficial to close her eyes and conserve her emotions rather than waste them.
However, whenever she said something like this, her self-proclaimed “melodrama maniac” sister would open her eyes wide and counter as follows:
“Sis, melodramas are the ultimate stress relievers. If you detach your brain and watch, the protagonist will give you a crazy catharsis in the end. It’s a dopamine party!”
“…….”
“In that sense, could you please read the book review I wrote for <Pathetic Life>? I really have to win this ‘Devoted Reader Book Review Contest.’ It’s my chance to meet the author face-to-face!”
Although she called it a book review, her sister’s review was almost the thickness of a thesis.
So, if someone had to be reincarnated, wouldn’t her sister be perfect for it if she were to reincarnate in a melodramatic novel like <My Pathetic Life>?
‘Not me who reads my sister’s book review.’
As she was thinking about her sister, who had been searching for various survival methods for possible reincarnation or possession, might be suitable for such a role, a stern and composed voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
“Ms. Idel, you can use this room for the time being.”
Regardless of how it happened, she was the one who experienced this ridiculous reincarnation, and the spicy taste of melodrama was now her reality.
I’m here for this.