A Painting of the Villainess as a Young Lady

“Brother, calm yourself a little…”

After the duke spoke up against Mikhail’s outcry, Roen, who was sitting next to the eldest son, also tried to pacify him.

Ever since Roen visited Violet the last time, his attitude seemed to have mellowed out somewhat, and he spoke out carefully.

“You shouldn’t persecute someone without any solid evidence. It’s not like Father summoned us here for no reason.”

“Evidence? What evidence is even needed?! Is there anyone in this residence who doesn’t already know that the culprit is Violet?”

The seething Mikhail was like a hot-headed bull right now. A bull that’s rushing into everything in its sight.

Roen’s words made Violet smirk. It’s hilariously ironic how Roen himself—someone who’s quite adept at persecuting people without clear evidence to back up his claims—was saying a fact such as this.

True enough, she had plenty of ways to prove her innocence. But you wouldn’t have to be a genius to know that nobody would believe her.

“I already told you to stop, Mikhail.”

The duke’s stern voice reverberated throughout the hall. He spoke in a sharp, dangerous tone, and at this, Mikhail flinched and sat back down on his seat.

“Violet, speak.”

“I am not the culprit behind this poisoning incident.”

“……”

Violet spoke simply without a single word of excuse.

Even if she were to try and make excuses, she didn’t even know the whole story. She hated hearing even the slightest mention of anything regarding the main mansion, so the employees of the annex only talked about small things here and there that were unrelated to this place.

Violet couldn’t have known about the current situation because she had distanced herself so much from the rumors inside the residence, and she didn’t really pay attention to them either.

Quite literally, she knew nothing about the incident.

“…Then how do you explain this?”

Mikhail gnashed his molars. He asked the duke for permission to let someone in.

‘Hm…’

Violet grimaced slightly as she saw the fairly familiar face. On the other hand, a sense of triumph entered Mikhail’s features.

“…Her Ladyship has been going out regularly, about twice a week.”

It was Ozen, the knight who the duke appointed as her escort knight to replace Alec, who got demoted.

“How do you explain that, huh? You can’t even refute this at all. You went out as you pleased, but have you forgotten that you’ve been confined? It’s obvious that you used this opportunity to instigate the poisoning.”

Mikhail let out an impassioned speech. Violet sighed as she felt a throbbing migraine pounding at her head.

The duke and Roen’s eyes also turned to her. Three pairs of green eyes were now fixed upon her.

Without meeting anyone’s gaze, Violet answered.

“It’s true that I snuck out, but I did not instigate the poisoning.”

“Hmm…”

“You still insist on lying?! Every time you open your mouth, you just spew lies! It’s been like this ever since you were a child, and nothing has changed!”

At the same time, someone hummed to himself and another one answered with rage. Sweeping a hand down his face, the duke gestured towards Mikhail once again to calm him down.

“…Have you forgotten your situation, Violet?”

“I apologize deeply.”

“I shall hand down a separate punishment for this.”

“…I understand.”

“FATHER!”

Seeing as the duke showed no signs of treating Violet as a criminal, Mikhail shouted directly at the duke. From Violet to the duke, Mikhail’s wrath was redirected.

“Father, it is your lenient attitude that has caused this situation.”

“Do not behave rashly.”

“……”

Violet watched the scene unfold before her. She was quite surprised.

Under normal circumstances, she would have been immediately accused. Above all, what bothered her was that Roen was being calm.

Glancing sideways at him, Violet knew just what kind of snake-like craftiness Roen possessed.

While skimming through the documents in front of him, Roen frowned slightly.

“…Isn’t it possible that she’s not lying?”

“Roen, even you now—!”

“I’m talking about a mere possibility, Brother. If you look at the reports, you can see that Violet only bought a few things at a general store, ate at a restaurant, and opened a stall by the fountain.”

“…How do you know that?”

“You seriously believe that drivel right now?!”

Violet and Mikhail answered at the same time.

Displeased, Violet scowled openly. Roen shrugged and handed the documents to her.

As she read through the documents, Violet felt her energy waning.

“Departed the annex at 1100 hours, accompanied by Zylo Bendel as escort…”

The report contained Violet’s whereabouts, which even she couldn’t fully recall. Her bewildered gaze turned to the duke.

The duke, as ever, remained expressionless.

“Did you really think that I wouldn’t have attached someone to you with how often you go out.”

“…I, I apologize.”

“Though you have been confined, do not forget that your surname is Everett.”

“…I understand.”

In other words, the duke already knew about Violet’s outings, he was just letting them slide. He even secretly had people following her.

Was this what it felt like to be trapped in a large cage? It was so enormous that she didn’t even know that she was, in fact, inside a cage.

Only now realizing that escort knights had been following her from the shadows for her safety, Violet withered.

t/n: just gotta say, complaining in the comments section does nothing to boost my motivation to update more. rather, it would just achieve the opposite effect. this chapter has been posted soon after the last one only because i’m following the novel’s internally established schedule, not because of a single comment.