Chapter 4
“I’m sorry, I’ll kneel down and beg until my hands become feet, admitting my mistake and repenting. If I do that much, they’ll surely forgive me.”
The targets I seek forgiveness from are Duke Croft and Ethan Croft.
Those two might forgive me, Bella, if they see me genuinely repenting.
Why?
“Well, I spent nine years with Bella and her family. Surely they must have developed some affection for Bella.”
Kind father. Kind brother.
If those two condemned Bella in the original work, it’s because Bella committed heinous acts until the end.
But if Bella has changed, they would embrace her. I believe so.
I quickened my pace again.
Let’s go! Let’s surrender fiercely and become the villain of the X!
“Why can’t I get furious…?”
Why!
How come!
I want to get furious right now! The world is making me lukewarm…!
“The timing is fantastic.”
The sunlight hit my forehead. My forehead got a bit heated. I sighed as I sat at the sponsored table.
“Of all days, the Duke and Ethan decided to go out this morning.”
I even heard it would take them days to return.
“Where on earth did they go?”
I was curious where the Duke and Ethan went since this morning. But I couldn’t ask anyone about their whereabouts.
Because the maid who told me that the Croft family was absent gave me a puzzled look.
“It seemed like she was wondering why I didn’t know.”
After seeing the maid’s expression, I couldn’t say anything more.
It would seem strange to overlook facts that I should naturally know.
I’ve done many strange things since possessing this body. It couldn’t get any stranger than this.
A monastery won’t do. It’s out of the question.
“Becoming a repentant villain isn’t as easy as I thought.”
Just as I decided to surrender, the target, the Duke, vanished.
Of course, there’s still someone named Kylid Croft in the mansion.
“But surrendering in front of Kylid would be suicidal.”
I stared at the tea in front of me with a heavy gaze.
It’s not that I dislike tea, but thinking about Kylid made me feel somewhat uneasy.
…Since the situation is like this, let me talk about Kylid a bit.
The second son of Duke Croft, Kylid Croft, is a beast of a man.
“Well, first of all, he looks like a beast.”
Tall stature with well-developed muscles, relatively sharp features.
As I thought of Kylid’s appearance, I lowered my head.
Kylid may have a somewhat beastly appearance, but in truth, what makes him truly seem like an animal isn’t his looks.
Then is it his character? Unfortunately, that’s not it either.
Kylid Croft… his instincts are highly developed.
Truly like that of an animal.
The reason Kylid calls me, or rather Bella, a ‘fake’ is because of that.
When Kylid first appeared at the mansion at the age of twelve and saw Bella, he immediately recognized that she wasn’t the real Elysa.
The problem was that no one in the mansion, not even the people in the aristocracy, including the Marquess and Ethan, accepted Kylid’s claim that Bella was fake.
“It makes sense. There were multiple pieces of evidence indicating that Bella was Elysa, but there was no evidence to the contrary.”
Kylid’s ‘instincts’ weren’t enough to convince others.
Instead, the people in the mansion tried to convince Kylid.
“It’s understandable that meeting your long-lost sister feels unfamiliar, but it’s still wrong to be hostile towards her.”
…The above dialogue is what Ethan said to Kylid at the time..
So, Kylid, who became an immature older brother who played tricks on his younger sister, started trembling whenever he saw Bella from that time onwards.
Bella also disliked Kylid. She smiled on the outside, but I remember she always cursed him in her heart.
Seeing Kylid still strong now, it seems those curses had no effect, but…
Well, anyway, since the first time they met until now, for a whopping nine years, Bella and Kylid have maintained a relationship of ‘utter dislike’ for each other.
And that’s precisely why I have a reason to not give in to Kylid Croft unlike with other people.
If Kylid, who has been steadfastly convinced of Bella’s fakeness since he was twelve years old and openly showed hostility towards her, were to find out Bella’s true identity, he would undoubtedly not hesitate to tear her apart without delay
.
Of course, I don’t mean he would literally tear her apart. In other words, Kylid is the kind of person who would kill me the moment he is given justification, and yet still call himself human.
Suddenly, chills ran down my spine, and I swept my arm across.
“If you think about it, in the original story, it’s ultimately Kylid who kills Bella.’’
Ugh, that damn Kylid Croft.
“Anyway, I guess I’ll just have to wait quietly until the Duke and Ethan come back.”
What should I do in the meantime?
“Well, I guess I could at least extend Bella’s lifespan and then maybe I can relax and do something…?”
I muttered, reaching for the teacup in front of me.
As I was about to bring the cup to my lips, I suddenly remembered.
Should I write a letter to Mom?
…But writing the letter wouldn’t make sense if I couldn’t take it home, right?
Since they only brought back my soul when they came back….
“La!”
Even if they only brought back my soul when they came back, the letter…
“Sarah!”
The letter is to Sarah… Huh?
I instinctively turned my head towards the unfamiliar voice.
Immediately, my eyes widened.
“There, stand there!”
“You! That won’t work!”
…What’s going on?
Someone is urgently being chased by the Duke’s knights.
And that someone is –
“Come over here.”
They’re running towards me.
Why are they coming this way? Are they planning to take me hostage to escape the pursuit?
What should I do? Should I run away? But it seems too late already. What should I do in a situation like this…
Suddenly, a thought occurred to me about something in my hand.
I threw the teacup, which was half full of water, at the face of the villain rushing towards me.
“Crack!”
Direct hit!
“What…!”
…But it seems like it wasn’t as effective as I thought! What should I do now?
At that moment, a certain image came to mind.
I immediately threw myself off the chair and onto the floor.
I saw the villain, who had tried to grab me even after being hit by the teacup, fumble around on the chair.
I lay down on the floor.
Alright. What’s next…
“Yaaah!”
While lying down, I kicked wildly towards the sky. As I hoped, the villain couldn’t approach me and staggered.
“This bastard!”
And then, in the brief moment when the villain hesitated, the knights who had finally arrived nearby rushed to attack the villain.
I stopped kicking with relief after seeing a muscular knight crushing the villain.
“….Miss, are you okay?”
I was lying down, catching my breath, when a young knight approached and offered his hand—why?—to me.
I took the knight’s hand and sat up, nodding instead of saying I was fine.
‘Experts are truly different.’
As my astonishment settled, that was the thought that came to mind.
A while ago, what came to mind was an 11-minute video I stumbled upon while aimlessly browsing through video sites in my hospital bed titled ‘What if a Stranger Tries to Grab You? Do This!’
In the video, an expert appeared. I can’t quite recall what field of expertise they were in. Perhaps it was related to crime.
Anyway, the expert in the video demonstrated and explained in detail how to evade being caught by a stranger who is bigger and stronger than you.
Lying on the ground with your back against it and kicking upwards toward the sky were both techniques shown in the video.
By the way, there wasn’t any instruction to scream ‘Yaaa’ like I did… but that wasn’t intentional on my part, so let’s just move past that.
‘Thank you, expert.’
The expert wouldn’t know, would they? That thanks to the video they uploaded, someone in the world of fiction managed to overcome a crisis.
Although I won’t hear the greetings sent from here, I’m truly grateful…
“Miss!”
The blackout came very suddenly. It wasn’t until I regained consciousness in my bedroom that I realized I had fainted during the ordeal.
