A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 5.2
The next day.
Unfortunately, my desperate wish did not come true.
Even when I opened my eyes again, I was still inside this damned novel.
What’s more…
“…It’s already been a week since the funeral?!”
Thanks to the maid who came to attend to me, I was able to correct a major misconception.
To my horror, today marked the seventh day since I’d transmigrated into this body.
After waking up in the coffin and fainting with a scream, it hadn’t just been a day, but a whole week!
“So I’ve been asleep this entire time?”
“Yes. But I woke you up occasionally to give you medicine and thin porridge.”
I had absolutely no memory of it.
I’m not a hibernating bear. How could I have slept for a whole week and not remembered a thing?
According to the doctor, it was because my stamina had been so depleted that my body needed time to recover.
‘Well, I guess that makes sense. You don’t just get up as good as new after coming back from cardiac arrest…’
Come to think of it, after talking with Ethan yesterday, I’d collapsed and only woke up again this morning.
Remembering that, I was suddenly furious.
‘So those damn people went off on me like that to someone who just woke up after a week?!’
Sure, Edith had brought it on herself, digging her own grave and all.
But still, family is family.
‘Did they really have to be so obvious about not being sad or worried at all?’
The more I thought about how ridiculous the treatment was, the more I wanted to curse. But soon, I let out a hollow laugh.
‘Family? Who am I to talk?’
There are plenty of parents in the world who don’t care if their own child lives or dies.
Having learned that lesson early on, it was funny to be upset over Edith’s situation now.
Quickly shaking off such useless emotions, I spoke to the maid.
“More importantly, thank you.”
“Pardon? For what…?”
“For taking care of me all this time.”
“Oh, no! It’s just my duty!”
At my words, the maid frantically waved her hands.
“What’s your name?”
“N-Nancy.”
“Nancy.”
“I don’t know if you remember, but… I actually used to work at your villa, and five years ago, you brought me here to the ducal residence.”
Nancy glanced at me, gauging my reaction, and quietly added that extra bit.
‘Did she? That’s unexpected.’
In the novel, it was said that none of the maids volunteered to attend Edith out of fear of her cruelty.
But Nancy seemed somewhat fond of me.
With a faint, practiced smile, I spoke warmly.
“I see. I’m glad I brought you here.”
Nancy’s eyes grew wide in surprise.
Soon, her young, freckled face was turning red.
“Um, I’ll go get your meal ready!”
Perhaps embarrassed, Nancy quickly got up and hurried out of the room.
After a while, Nancy returned, wheeling in a tray and setting the food out on the table.
Everything tasted delicious.
There was a wide variety, and all the dishes seemed easy to digest, showing careful thought.
‘I was half-expecting to be starved, or just left to die…’
Considering how cold the duke was yesterday, this treatment was much better than I’d braced myself for.
I’d worried that the servants might ignore me, but thankfully things weren’t that bad.
I relaxed a little and asked Nancy a few questions.
“Has anything happened since the funeral?”
“No! There was a bit of a commotion, but… everyone left wishing you a speedy recovery.”
“And… my father?”
“His Grace went to the palace, and Young Master went to Ezenia.”
I had meant to ask how the duke reacted after I woke up, but got an unrelated answer instead.
‘Like I care what those people are doing.’
Feeling a bit disinterested, I halfheartedly asked,
“Ezenia?”
“Yes. It’s the region where Your Ladyship’s villa is located. There was a Gate outbreak near there…”
That was quite interesting news.
‘Did that guy really run off to meet the female lead that quickly?’
Thanks to my amnesia excuse, Nancy told me various things without much suspicion.
Ezenia was a small town near the capital, described in the novel as ‘Ethan’s summer villa’.
But according to Nancy, the villa actually belonged to Edith.
It was an inheritance from the late Duchess, Edith’s paternal grandmother, to her only granddaughter.
‘If it’s the late Duchess… wasn’t she the one who spoiled Edith and let her grow up so reckless?’
― Hmph! Grandma said I didn’t need to have an ability. I’m the empire’s only ducal lady anyway.
― If Grandma were still alive, it would have been nothing to bury someone like you…
I recalled Edith’s lines, always bringing up her grandmother at every turn.
When I read the novel, I used to wonder just how much she’d been coddled to still cling to a dead grandmother after growing up.
Unfortunately, after Edith’s death, the villa apparently ended up in Ethan’s hands.
In the novel, Ethan brings Llewellyn there to enjoy a secret rendezvous.
In other words, it was nothing more than a date spot for the female lead and one of the male leads…
“I remember you went there every year for vacation, Milady. When the late Duchess was alive, there were festivals, and you’d go watch them together…”
But Nancy continued, chatting about Edith’s past in ways that never appeared in the novel.
How much Edith loved the place, how many memories she made, and how dearly she missed her grandmother.
Through Nancy’s chatter, I realized something that made my heart ache a little.
‘…So that’s why she brought Llewellyn there.’
― What were you thinking, dragging a Purifier all the way to a Gate outbreak?
She hadn’t been heading to the Gate site.
She’d been heading to Ezenia.
She wanted to protect her villa from being swallowed by the miasma.
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