The Villainess With A Heroine Harem

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Although neither Emilia nor Noelle had expected things to go this way, they weren't particularly upset about the turn of events, and just continued watching the 'show' calmly.

While the conversation between the people on the screen wasn't audible, it was possible for them to more or less guess what was being said based on the combination of lip movements and expressions.

Noelle's enraged 'father' continued demanding an explanation from his wife to no avail, and soon started getting more and more violent, slamming her head against the wall in frustration.

Naturally, the woman who managed to replace Noelle's biological mother despite her 'lowly' initial position was naturally not someone who lacked situational awareness.

Emilia chuckled. "She probably knows she'll suffer way more if she just told him the truth, right?"

Noelle hummed thoughtfully. "I thought she would be able to come up with a lie that could fool him somehow, but I guess that's overestimating her real ability."

If Dolores knew that there were people watching her misery and joking about how the success she had obtained after so much struggle relied more on her being vicious and ruthless than it did on her intelligence and wit, she would probably have a stroke and die on the spot.

Of course, even without such a blow to her ego, her situation wasn't looking good.

The impact of the back of her head repeatedly slamming against the wall had already left her with a severe concussion, and she couldn't even think straight anymore. And to make matters worse, her husband was showing no signs of stopping!

Dolores knew that now wasn't the time to confess to her crimes or regret not being more thoughtful about the possibility of her husband's return. If she wanted to guarantee her survival, she had to be ruthless!

"K-Kill me then, k-kill me, b-but I'll never tell you the truth, my love!" She squeaked out painfully.

The woman did her best to appear even more delirious and out of focus than she actually was, and luckily her words seemed to have had just enough of an impact to fool her idiot husband, whose hold on her neck finally loosened a little more in shock.

"I-It's better for us mother and son to be gone if it means you can be safe and happy for the rest of your life. It's okay if you forget about us, it's okay…" She mumbled as she 'spaced out' while inwardly crossing her fingers.

Obviously, it was impossible to deny that she'd tried to kill her son. Her intent and actions were too clear, and GIldroy had witnessed it all with his own eyes.

But wouldn't it be all fine if she made him believe that she was going to 'sacrifice' not only the boy, but also herself, all for his sake?

Fortunately for her, it somehow seemed to have actually worked.

"Y-You… you did it all for me?!" Gildroy jumped back in shock, completely letting go of his wife.

Although his words seemed to be questioning her, the woman on the ground knew better than to answer him. After all, if she started defending herself knowingly, it would only make her husband more suspicious.

As it was, it was much better to just 'faint' and leave everything else to her husband's deeply rooted love and belief in his family.

Noelle and Emilia watched as the now distraught man clung on to his 'unconscious' wife and cried. "I-It's all my fault! If I hadn't been so powerless, neither of you would have had to suffer like this today…"

Clearly, the thought of his beloved wife, who in his mind cherished their son more than anything else in the world, being driven to the point of making such an extreme decision nearly drove him mad.

Noelle chuckled. "For him to believe such absurd reasoning so easily… I guess his ego must have been quite stoked to be considered more 'important' in his wife's heart than the other two combined."

Emilia didn't think it was so simple, but she didn't refute her girlfriend. After all, she had neither the interest nor the motivation to seek out the 'real truth', and as far as she was concerned, the 'reality' here might as well be whatever made Noelle happier.

Those who agreed could continue to exist within the Nightingale clan as before, and those who didn't were welcome to promptly 'take their leave' at the earliest opportunity.

Given that they believed in the rule of strength above all, she believed that they shouldn't be too unhappy about it considering she was far stronger than any of them, right?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 𝘧𝑟𝘦𝒆w𝚎𝙗nov𝘦𝗹.𝐜o𝓶

Although Noelle's so-called father had clearly had a change of heart after the incident with his wife, he still didn't hesitate to seek them out to beg Emilia for his son and wife's treatment.

Naturally, since they already knew about what happened, it didn't come as much of a surprise, and Emilia readily agreed as long as the man continued to uphold his end of the bargain.

Gildroy showed no signs of obvious dissent, and repeatedly assured them that he would follow Emilia's orders to the letter, his expression being the essence of gratefulness for the favor and resignation towards his fate.

His acting was so convincing that if the two of them hadn't already analyzed the situation in detail, maybe he could have really fooled them for a while.

Of course, as it was, he looked no different from a poorly prepared circus clown trying his best to put on a show without any makeup or props.

Noelle couldn't help but raise a brow as soon as the man had left. "Think he's gonna try backstabbing us?"

Emilia grinned. "Obviously. But I don't think you're going to give him the chance, right?"

The gray-haired girl couldn't help but chuckle. "Maybe a certain someone has been a bad influence on me, but whenever I see such annoying little bugs... instead of giving them the chance to crawl up my leg, I've started to prefer thoroughly crushing them beneath my heel."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━