A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 17.2
‘Was it… just to show him off at social gatherings?’
I couldn’t remember exactly, but at the time, Edith had only been what, twelve? Thirteen years old?
‘Seriously, a brat is a brat, no matter what.’
Since they were the same age, Edith gave her new attendant a new name: ‘Dylan’. She’d taken it from the most popular male singer at the time. But unfortunately, the young Edith had no idea that singer was actually a gigolo for noblewomen.
Later, after the previous count died, Dylan awakened and dramatically rose in status, but he felt deep shame about his name and resented Edith for it for a long time.
As I recalled all this, I suddenly frowned.
‘If he hated it so much, he could’ve just changed his name. But to stand by and let me die?!’
Still, wasn’t he someone who once served closely by her side? If Edith hadn’t taken him in, he would have spent his whole childhood begging on the streets!
“…How ungrateful.”
“Huh? W-What, me?!”
Did I accidentally say that out loud instead of just thinking it? Eston flinched and pointed to herself in shock. When I shook my head, she cautiously asked,
“…Do you remember a little bit?”
“Not everything, just vaguely.”
“Still, it seems like your memory is coming back bit by bit. Amnesia caused by psychological trauma often returns quickly.”
Luckily, Eston didn’t seem too suspicious of my answer. The reason I hadn’t tried to bluff like with Ethan or Vincent was because of how the novel described Dylan’s appearance.
「 Fiery red hair like blazing flames, and ash-colored eyes dusted as if with the remains of something burned. 」
Red hair symbolized the Frederick family, known for awakening fire abilities. That’s how they’d so easily found the count’s illegitimate child, even while he was working as another family’s servant.
‘Or maybe they knew and pretended not to, who knows… If Dylan hadn’t awakened his fire ability, would they have ever made him the next count?’
In any case, the novel set up that the ‘red-haired hero’ was so famous that every citizen of the Empire knew who he was.
‘If I mess up pretending not to know, and things go wrong, I’ll be in big trouble.’
As I thought that, a new question popped into my head. Why did Edith cry after fighting with Dylan, not Vincent?
“When he was my attendant, was I close with Count Frederick?”
I asked Eston right away. But she shook her head.
“I’m not sure either. I’d only just started working for the duke’s house at the time…”
“Then how do you know about the count’s past?”
“Oh, that’s just… It’s a famous story. When I came to work at the duke’s house and realized it was true, not just a rumor, I was so shocked.”
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any more information from Eston. Since the novel mostly follows the female lead’s perspective, there’s nothing about what happened between Edith and Dylan in the past, just that he finds his past extremely shameful and hates Edith for it.
‘Edith liked Vincent, so it wasn’t romantic rivalry… Did he demand she deny the rumors about him having been her servant or something?’
Not that it mattered. None of it was actually useful to me anyway.
Transmigrating as a villainous extra is a real pain in the ass!
‘Come to think of it… Weren’t most of these guys once pretty close with Edith, except for one?’
I felt like I finally understood why Edith resented the female lead so much and was so obsessed with the male leads. Whether you’re close in the past or not, nothing hurts more than having what was once yours taken away.
‘Should I study up on Male Lead #4 in advance, too?’
I briefly thought of the last male lead who appears in the story, but shook my head. My mind was already overflowing with Dylan, and thankfully, Male Lead #4 had no real connection to Edith. She died before his story truly began.
‘So I just have to be careful not to run into those three.’
It was a relief to have at least one fewer enemy to deal with. It should have been a relief…
But for some reason, I still felt uneasy.
‘Am I forgetting something?’
As I tilted my head, a voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
“We’ll arrive in about thirty minutes.”
Eston, looking out the window, brought good news. I looked at her for a moment, then suddenly asked,
“By the way, where did you originally work before this?”
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