A World Where You All Are The Villains

“…Brother?”

Recognizing him, I quickly sat upright.

“What are you doing here…”

“I went to your room, but you weren’t there.”

“…Is something the matter?”

“I wanted to talk.”

His reply left me speechless.

‘You, with me? Why?’

I’d barely ever had one-on-one conversations with Ethan before, and wasn’t it just two days ago that we practically shouted at each other?

― …Who did you fight with this time?

Recalling what had happened at the Imperial Palace made my blood boil again.

‘What now? I have nothing to say to you.’

I wanted to sneer and throw in a sarcastic quip.

Honestly, being alone with him in an enclosed space felt awkward.

But I didn’t coldly turn him away was because of one thing.

70%

Because the rampage meter had ticked up again.

‘Well, I need to ask him about it anyway.’

On the day of the banquet, Ethan had left early to ask Llewellyn to be his partner.

Maybe he knew something about her disappearance.

I got up completely and led him to the table set at one end of the greenhouse.

“Please, have a seat.”

Unlike me, who was visibly hesitant, he sat across from me with an indifferent attitude.

“Would you like some tea?”

“No.”

I gestured toward the call bell on the table as I asked, but he shook his head. Then added,

“How’s your condition… any better?”

I didn’t think he’d care whether I lived or died, so it caught me off guard.

I glanced at him and nodded.

“Yes. A Healer looked after me.”

“……”

A short silence fell between us.

‘I can’t breathe. This is so uncomfortable…!’

Whatever it was he wanted to say, I wished he’d just get it over with and leave.

Unable to endure the heavy silence, I opened my mouth first.

“Were you asking because of that—”

“At the palace the other day—”

But, of all things, we spoke at the same time.

The timing couldn’t have been worse, and it only made the atmosphere more awkward.

I glanced at him and gave a stiff, awkward smile.

“Go ahead.”

“…At the Imperial Palace.”

He hesitated for a moment, then finally said something that nearly made me fall out of my seat.

“I misspoke.”

“…What?”

“When I saw you hurt, I was worried and asked out of concern. I wasn’t trying to criticize you.”

“……”

My mouth fell open.

‘So… he came here to apologize to me?’

As I stared blankly at Ethan, for some reason he flinched, turned his head, and avoided my gaze.

In doing so, the tips of his ears, faintly flushed, came into view.

‘Is he… embarrassed?’

Even seeing it with my own eyes, I couldn’t believe it.

That he would feel embarrassed.

The cold and arrogant Ethan Blake…?

It felt incredibly strange.

I looked at him with a peculiar expression and cautiously probed.

“…So, did you find the person I fought with?”

“Of course not.”

I’d been half-serious, but he frowned and snapped back irritably.

“…I noticed flowers all around the banquet hall. When you have an allergic reaction, your nerves tend to get frayed.”

“……”

“I had some emergency medicine on me and was looking for you when I happened to see you like that.”

“……”

“…Then I saw you and misunderstood. I don’t know if you remember, but you’ve had more than one incident getting into it with noble daughters at banquets before…”

“……”

“I didn’t investigate or anything. I asked just to confirm. It’s not that I didn’t believe you.”

It was honestly such a shocking confession that I found myself at a loss for words.

‘That’s your idea of believing someone…?’

― Tell me now. Don’t make things worse later.

― …Are you trying to make sure Father hears about this?

He had practically threatened to tell the Duke, and now he was claiming he’d just wanted to check?

Talk about shameless.

I was just about to click my tongue at his audacity and swallow my annoyance when he added,

“Either way… if I upset you by being needlessly suspicious, I apologize.”

“……”

“I’m sorry, Edith.”

Unlike all the long-winded excuses that came before, Ethan’s apology was surprisingly clean-cut.

Suspicious he might be plotting something, I gave him a once-over, but his expression was nothing but serious.

‘Is it because he got chewed out by Vincent too much?’

At this point, even apologies from the male leads sounded dubious to me.

“…Thank you for bringing it up first.”

I didn’t exactly like it, but I decided to accept Ethan’s apology.

It was surprising enough that someone I thought would always be arrogant and rude actually apologized first.

And realistically, we were going to keep seeing each other under the same roof—there was no point staying on bad terms and making things more uncomfortable.

‘He’s not completely unreasonable, at least.’

In a house full of lunatics, this was about as close to a rational person as one could hope for.