A World Where You All Are The Villains

“Oh, Milady! I just brought refreshments— Where are you going…?”

“……”

But I ignored him too, brushing right past.

Maybe because I’d already been here once, I didn’t need the butler to find my way back.

Bang!

Practically running, I returned to my room and, as soon as I shut the door, I slid to the floor.

“Haa, ha…”

Short, ragged breaths kept escaping my lips.

I couldn’t tell if it was from moving so suddenly, or because I’d been confronted with my trauma all over again.

“What is wrong with me, again…”

As soon as I regained a bit of composure, a wave of self-loathing crashed over me.

“Why do I still flinch like that? It’s been years since then…”

I thought I was over it.

‘Am I really still trapped in the past?’

For the past few days since I transmigrated into this cursed world, I thought I’d adapted pretty well.

Sure, dealing with the male leads and all the extras who seemed to find fault with everything I did was annoying…

But at least here, there were no step-siblings who would smack me every time they saw me, and no birth father who looked at me like dirt just because I was a non-Awakener.

And yet…

‘Not at all. I’m not okay.’

I’d been far too arrogant.

This place was not livable at all.

This mansion was packed, in every corner, with things that could trigger my trauma.

This mansion, of all places, was like poison to my mental state.

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* * *

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Right after Edith bolted from the study.

The Duke, still wearing a sour expression, sat back down on the sofa and brooded over where his daughter had stood.

Whirr—

Just then, the aide came in, pushing a tray.

The Duke frowned when he saw him.

“Did you go pick and dry the tea leaves yourself?”

“It wasn’t the tea. I was baking some cookies the Lady likes… But she left already. Did you argue again?”

“Argue? At her age? Tsk.”

Clucking his tongue disapprovingly, the Duke finally spoke in a subdued voice.

“Langdon.”

“Yes?”

“Has Edith… ever been hit by someone before?”

“You mean, did Her Ladyship hit someone?”

As he moved cups and the tray onto the table, Langdon replied nonchalantly,

“Well, not that I know of recently… I’m sure if I checked somewhere, there’s a list of settlements for damages.”

“No, not that…”

Perhaps feeling embarrassed by his own line of questioning, the Duke fell silent.

But the doubt gnawed at him, and he couldn’t just brush it off.

“I mean Edith. Has she ever been struck by anyone else?”

“What?!”

Langdon looked horrified, as if he’d heard something absurd.

“What are you talking about, Duke? Do you think Her Ladyship is the type to let herself be hit by anyone?”

“That’s true. But still…”

Even as he agreed, the Duke recalled Edith just moments ago.

He’d only tried to brush an eyelash off her cheek.

But her reaction lingered in his mind. She had shut her eyes tight and recoiled as if she expected to be hit.

It was the classic reflex of someone who’d suffered serious abuse.

Tap, tap.

The Duke drummed his fingers on the armrest and muttered to himself,

“…Did something happen in Tollen?”

“Fortunately, we haven’t yet received any letter of complaint from the Frederick County.”

“That’s not the point.”

The Duke cut off his aide, who still didn’t quite understand, and gave an order.

“Go to the Security Bureau and fetch the report on the Tollen Gate incident.”

“What for? Our own investigative report shouldn’t be much different…”

“Yes. Now that you mention it… I never actually asked her.”

Langdon looked at the Duke, puzzled at how impossible he was to follow.

“Asked her what?”

“What happened at the Gate site.”

“Well, we didn’t have a chance to ask since Her Ladyship was unconscious at the time… and now she’s lost her memory, hasn’t she?”

So there was no way to hear Edith’s side until she got her memory back.

Besides, the testimonies of the Purifier and the others all lined up, so the incident was quickly wrapped up.

They’d concluded that Edith Blake had brought it on herself by not following safety instructions and running wild on her own.

“…Something’s off.”

At the time, it had seemed reasonable enough.

In truth, between the bombshell that Edith had nearly harmed the Purifier and died, and the rushed funeral preparations that followed, there’d been no time to think too deeply.

“There were three S-Class Awakeners there…”

“……”

“So why couldn’t even one of them stop her from being devoured by a monster?”

His daughter’s strange behavior after all this time and the belated doubts about her death darkened the Duke’s gaze as he stared into the air.