A Painting of the Villainess as a Young Lady

With his head slightly ringing, Duke Everett pressed down on his temples.

His daughter’s matters were giving him a headache. It had always been like this, but recently, even more so.

She nearly drowned to death in the lake. Then, when she woke up after the incident, she had such a sudden change in attitude—enough to flip the entire ducal household upside down.

The servants made a lot of noise about how crazy the ducal lady had become, but whenever the duke passed by, they would fall into a hush.

No matter how indifferent he was to the household’s internal affairs, he was given no choice but to pay attention to them this time.

The position of the ‘lady of the house’ had continued to be empty ever since the duchess had passed away. She was supposed to be the one taking care of the household’s internal affairs.

Duke Everett did not pay much attention to those matters because there was a designated custodian to take care of them.

And it all boiled down to this—the present situation.

His own daughter was harassing her younger sister. And his sons…

On the day that Violet asked him to imprison her, the duke ordered someone to make a report about his daughter. And, in the report that he received subsequently, all of Violet’s misdeeds were written in full detail.

Violet had often been witnessed to rebuke Aileen during dinner, among other things.

Nevertheless, the questions continued to overflow.

Her request for self-imprisonment. The question she asked him, whether he truly considered her to be his daughter. Those empty eyes, as deep as a bottomless lake.

Her voice, sounding as if she was about to burst into tears.

‘…Do you care for me?’

When she asked him whether he cared about her.

The duke granted Violet’s request to be confined, but he did not intend to keep her at the annex for life.

If all Violet wanted was to not get married, then so be it. If there’s anything at all that she wanted, then he would listen to her wishes.

However, the only request that she asked of him was for her to live in captivity for the rest of her life. He could not understand this.

He was expecting her to come back right away.

‘Umm… That is, I mean, Milady… U-Um! Milady, she, uh, s-she said that she would like to request for the Young Masters and the other Ducal Lady to be barred entry…’

When Violet sent a young, newcomer maid, the duke thought that the message he would be hearing was about how she couldn’t stand it there anymore, and that she wishes to come back.

The young maid’s wide eyes were full of fright, just like a rabbit. It seemed like she never really expected that she would actually face the duke.

Still, despite the little girl’s stuttering, she delivered Violet’s request accurately. And the moment she received permission to leave, she ran away immediately.

Truly, it was strange.

This was no one else but Violet, who had tormented Aileen like that.

Violet, who had committed many nefarious acts all of her own volition, shook up the entire ducal household with her vicious deeds, and as a result, became what the servants feared the most.

Why, then, would someone like her reject everyone else like that?

‘Did I not care for her enough…’

While reading the report written about Violet, the duke grimaced.

After entrusting a part of his paperwork to his aide, the duke stood up.

* * *

When the duke suddenly visited, all the servants of the annex silently screamed inside.

In the morning, it had been the duchy’s eldest son, Mikhail. This time, in the afternoon, it was Duke Everett himself, the lord of the ducal household.

No other schedule would have made them so distraught like this.

Violet, who slept through both breakfast and lunch, had to be wrenched away from her bed again because of the duke’s visit. Duke Everett was someone she couldn’t face in just her nightgown, so she had no choice but to change into decent clothes.

Mary, the newcomer maid, didn’t know how to attend to Violet properly when changing her clothes. Thanks to this, the duke had to wait for Violet for a long time. A notice was not sent to him about her tardiness.

He sat in the annex’s sparsely adorned drawing room, and when he finally met his daughter after a long time of waiting, he faced her without any change to his expression.

Violet also sat right in front of him without any superfluous fanfare.

One shabby-looking ducal lady and one luxuriously-dressed duke sat face-to-face. But neither one of them felt any different.

“……”

“……”

Silence ensued. Both Violet and the duke did not open their mouths to speak, and so the cold air inside that room sharpened like a blade. All the other people there could do nothing but hold their breaths.

Tea had been served to them, but the only one who ever brought a cup to their lips a few times was Violet. The duke did not touch his tea.

At this moment, some people realized that humans could also drown in silence, huh. The employees—on standby so that they may serve their employers—were careful not to make a sound. They couldn’t even gulp.

“I heard that you want to ban Mikhail, Roen and Aileen from entering the annex.”

“Cairn as well.”

“…Right. May I ask why?”

“Because I don’t want to meet them anymore.”

“I’m asking the reason behind that now.”

“……”

The silence was enough to suffocate those people, and every word spoken were like sharp blades.

Violet set her teacup down at that moment. If she hadn’t, there certainly would have been one employee who would have made a sound borne out of distress.

The duke and the ducal lady’s conversation was frighteningly business-like. It was such a succinct conversation that, if people did not know that they were related, they would have thought that they were true strangers.