The Villainess Is Shy In Receiving Affection

Melody’s expression while she was standing behind Isaiah and rolling the catalog, was scary even to Ronnie. Moreover, the way she swung her arm viciously and smacked Isaiah with a calm look on her face looked very unyielding.

Pang! After a ringing blow sounded throughout the room, Isiah lay flat on the floor clutching onto his head for dear life.

“It doesn’t hurt that much, so don’t pretend it hurts, Isaiah!”

I don’t think he was pretending though. Ronnie thought but he couldn’t put it into words because he didn’t want to be next.

What Isaiah said was true. Melody, while she was rolling up the catalog, was really scary.

* * *

However, no matter how terrifying Melody looked, the boys continued on with their bet.

This time, Isaiah brought the June record of last year. Soon after, Ronnie brought the record of the year earlier than that. After repeating it a few times, the records piled up inside Melody’s room one by one but it still felt quite frivolous.

Then it was Isaiah’s turn again. He was now accustomed to going to Higgins’ office with his eyes closed. He squatted down in front of the bookshelf shortly after and looked for the record of June from five years ago.

“September, August and….”

He went down one by one, scouring the back of the books with his fingertips. The word ‘May’ appeared right after July.

“May?”

That’s weird. Isaiah tilted his head slightly and looked again at the records around him. Maybe someone put it on the shelf the wrong way. However, there was no record of June from five years ago no matter how much he scoured through the books.

“Isaiah.”

Was she worried that I was taking too long? The door to the office carefully opened and Melody poked her head in.

“Is there any problem?”

“What luck. Come here, Mel.”

He beckoned for her, but Melody shook her head with a worried face. Entering the office felt the same as betraying the Duke’s grace that she had received.

“There’s something strange about this specific year”

“Something… strange?”

“Yes, I guess there was an actual thief here.”

Melody didn’t have any choice, so she approached Isaiah and squatted next to him. Of course, she didn’t forget to keep the door of the office closed.

“Thief?”

“Look at this.”

Isaiah pointed at the densely packed bookshelf he was looking at earlier. Melody soon realized that the record for June five years ago was missing.

“See, isn’t it strange? It must have been stolen. Or maybe someone took it to read?”

“If they did, I don’t think they took it for only a short while.”

If someone had borrowed it to check the records, the bookshelves could not have been this densely packed. They would have deliberately left an empty spot so that they could put it back quickly.

It wasn’t probable that the record had been stolen either. They would have added a lock on this room if that had happened.

Then, there was only one conclusion.

‘The records of June five years ago are not kept here.’

Then, she remembered what Ronnie told her in the evening.

「If it was a record that was really valuable and no one should see, it would have been well hidden.」

She thought he was being unreasonable and overly imaginative, but this was making her think that maybe he was right after all.

‘I see….’

Melody fiddled with her sleeve as she recalled the original story.

People knew that there was friction between the Duke and the Duchess and that’s the reason why they were living separately, but the truth was different. There was an agreement between the two of them.

They initially got married as their families wished for them to and they planned to go back to their own lives after a few years. However, just as a contract marriage in a novel usually progresses, the two developed romantic feelings and a strong fondness for each other. They eventually fell in love with each other deeply.

Nevertheless, the two had to keep up with their initial agreement of ‘living apart after some time’. That was five years ago in the summer.

‘Was it June?’

Then it was understandable that the record wasn’t here. It must have been hidden in a place that only the Duke knows about.

‘Then, did Young Master Ronnie start this bet to investigate… what happened five years ago?’

If they excuse this as children’s ‘playing,’ then it can possibly hide the fact that he was aiming for a record of a specific time.

“What? Why is it taking so long?”

Just then, the door of the office opened, and Ronnie came in. He seemed to come here following Isaiah like Melody did because he was worried when he didn’t return after a long time.

Melody carefully observed Ronnie’s expression while she was holding up a small lamp.

“What’s the matter?”

But she didn’t feel any strange change in his expression. So it might only be a coincidence that he chose the records of June for the bet.

“I mean, don’t flirt here if nothing special is happening. This is a fair match between me and that guy.”

Ronnie grunted and opened the office door a little wider. Perhaps he was asking Melody to go out into the hallway immediately.

“Ah.”

At that moment, Melody’s expression hardened slightly.

“What are you doing with your mouth open like that? Do you want to help this guy find that record that much?”

Even when Ronnie was grumbling and speaking, Melody’s expression was still strange.

“… What’s the matter?” Ronnie asked, suppressing his anxiety. But in fact, he seemed to know the answer somehow.

Melody’s gaze over his shoulder made him even more convinced. Ronnie glanced back. Of course, Ronnie is a good boy who believes in God, so even in that brief moment, he prayed for Melody, Isaiah and himself.

‘Please, please let it be a generous servant behind me.’

In particular, he was grateful that every time Mrs. Higgins scolded him, she always regarded him as a pitiful young master.

“… !”

But God did not hear his prayers. No, on the contrary, he punished him.

Behind Ronnie stood Grandma Higgins, her eyes gleaming. When faced with her very angry expression, Ronnie, who was embarrassed, begged with a desperate voice without realizing it.

“I don’t want to eat carrots.”

Of course, it didn’t work.

(T/N: It seems that Ronnie dislikes to eat carrots, so he was begging Grandma Higgins to not force him to eat many carrots hahaha)

* * *

Ronnie and Isaiah neatly returned the records they had secretly brought out under Grandma Higgins’ supervision. Because Grandma Higgins was standing in the distance, she didn’t seem to notice which ones of the records they had brought out.

The futile bet between the two boys ended like this completely without a proper resolution. They couldn’t even make another appointment to finish it, and it was all thanks to Grandma Higgins.

「If you make such a worthless bet again, I will tell the Duke and he will split your asses into four pairs. 」

The next day.

Ronnie couldn’t even open his sleepy eyes yet but he already had to eat a bunch of carrots. Melody felt sorry for him after seeing him attempting not to focus on their taste as much as he could. Moreover after that, they had to rub Grandma Higgins’ shoulder for an hour in exchange for not telling the Duke.

Fortunately, Melody wasn’t punished in any of these cases. It was thanks to Ronnie and Isaiah’s unanimous claim that Melody was not guilty of any sin. Even so, of course, Melody couldn’t escape the feeling of being punished.

That same afternoon, in Claude’s room, she was tasked with transcribing records.

“It’s strange.”

Claude suddenly said to Melody, who was focused on transcribing without saying a word.

“What is?”

“Miss Melody is helping me so docilely today.”

That’s right, because Melody was afraid to talk to him.

When she talked to Ronnie yesterday about Jeremiah, her mood plummeted as she knew it would go that way because this was Claude….

‘If Young Master Ronnie talked about what happened yesterday to Young Master Claude….’

Claude is a careful and thoughtful person. He won’t listen to silly excuses and get over it.

“I just got used to this.”

Melody answered coyly and pretended to focus on transcribing the record again. Holding the pen tightly in her hand, she waited for Claude’s gaze on her to turn away.

“Oh, I see.”

Fortunately, he quickly nodded and lowered his gaze. Melody barely managed to hold back the sigh that was about to come out unconsciously.

“I thought you were doing this because you were afraid after using me as an excuse to get information.”

Flinch.

“I must have misunderstood you.”

Melody raised her head carefully with a tearful expression. He was constantly writing down something in his notebook.

“Th-that was a misunderstanding that Young Master Ronnie had.”

Melody started making excuses without really having any other choice. She thought that he would be more persistent and suspicious if she continued on pretending that she didn’t know what he meant.

“Hmm, a misunderstanding.”

“Yes. Young Master Ronnie thought that it was Young Master Claude who told me about that. I was going to tell him that it wasn’t the case….”

Perhaps because of her voice getting smaller, Claude raised his head. She expected him to look angry, but he was surprisingly smiling brightly.

“Ronnie got excited and continued on about his story, right?”

“H, how did you know?”

“It’s about my brother so of course, I know. He gets a little bit excited when it comes to family.”

“He wasn’t just a little bit excited!”

“I know, I know.”

It went wonderfully well. Melody was a little relieved that she wasn’t falsely accused and ended up in a terribly uncomfortable predicament.

“That’s because he rarely gets the chance to talk about Jeremiah. No wonder Ronnie was excited.”

“He bragged about him a lot to me.”

“That’s because he’s a proud brother, but Miss Melody.”

She momentarily turned stiff when Claude called her name.

“… Yes?”

Of course, the moment Melody responded with surprise, he returned to his usual soft expression.

“You might want to think about why Ronnie didn’t get a chance to tell Jeremiah’s story.”

Does that indicate that there are implicit rules that exist inside the mansion?

“Simple words used to tell the truth can sometimes hurt a person.”

That ‘person’ was probably the Duke. She knew even without considering the original story. Isn’t it obvious that this whole mansion would promise silence for only one person?