Reforming the Villain Family (5 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 10
“I heard a strange sound.”
The child replied with clear, innocent eyes.
Not avoiding eye contact, their demeanor seemed utterly devoid of even a shred of deceit.
At that sight, Kyleius narrowed his eyes. Undeterred by the child’s suspicious, scrutiny-filled gaze, the child continued.
“So I came out to look, and I saw a suspicious person go into Duke’s room. But there was nobody else around…”
Tears welled up in their large eyes, as if they might burst into sobs at any moment.
“Did it never occur to you that you might be in danger? How dare you act so fearlessly.”
“I was scared too! But Duke was in danger, so…”
Finally, the child sniffled back tears. Seeing the big, droplet-like tears fall one by one, Philen beside them wore a pitying expression.
“Our young master must have been so frightened…”
Not stopping there, he even pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to the child.
“Hic, thank you, Philen.”
“You’re very welcome.”
Kyleius narrowed his eyes, observing the child carefully.
‘Another lie.’
Kyleius easily saw through the child’s falsehood. It was just like the other morning when the child claimed they’d come to give him cookies.
The child was lying to hide something.
Kyleius rolled his eyes.
No matter how much he pressed further, that clever child would surely keep dodging questions like this.
Moreover, though he’d felt nothing when he saw the child burst into tears upon first meeting him, for some reason it now grated on his nerves terribly to see them cry.
After sending the crying child back to their room, Kyleius thought,
‘There’s definitely something they’re hiding.’
Yet, no obvious clue came to mind easily. At that moment, Philen murmured beside him,
“My lord, I’ll reinforce the mansion’s security further. Even if we allow them to continue their schemes, it would be disastrous if our young master witnesses something like this again.”
“…Again?”
“Yes, didn’t they attempt poisoning last time as well? Fortunately, our young master was in the room then, so it ended well.”
Suddenly, a memory he’d dismissed lightly came to mind.
“Ah.”
He’d found the thread. Kyleius let out a dry chuckle.
[This is the timeline separator]It was another peaceful morning as usual. Having stayed awake for several nights yet failing to escape, I wearily opened my eyes.
‘Trying to run away right now would be impossible.’
After last night’s assassin incident, knights had been stationed throughout the mansion, and security around the Duke’s household had tightened further. Sneaking out unnoticed in such circumstances was out of the question.
So, I ultimately decided to postpone any escape attempts for now.
‘If I get caught trying to run away, things could get even worse.’
Especially since the Duke had already summoned me separately for questioning.
Fortunately, I was quite good at lying, so I’d managed to get through yesterday’s incident unscathed.
Judging by Philen’s reaction beside me, my acting must have been convincing enough.
Unlike Philen, however, the Duke hadn’t blinked an eye.
That slightly bothered me, but I decided to let it slide, considering the Duke rarely showed any change in expression anyway.
Burrowed under the covers, I wriggled slightly as I mentally planned out my day.
‘I’ll save up more emergency money, eat lots of snacks, and have proper meals.’
Since I’d decided to stay longer, I intended to make the most of my time.
However, regardless of my plans, overwhelming sleepiness kept washing over me.
‘It’s all because I saw that scene last night.’
Truthfully, I hadn’t stayed up all night just worrying.
Because I’d witnessed the assassin’s intrusion myself, I couldn’t easily close my eyes. The memory of that night kept replaying before my eyes.
‘Yaaawn…’
“Young master, it’s time to get up.”
Sophia had just entered. Seeing Delma follow right behind her, I quickly burrowed back under the covers and squirmed.
“Are you very sleepy? Even so, you shouldn’t get up too late.”
“Mm-hmm.”
I sluggishly sat up. When I yawned widely, Sophia beside me giggled softly.
‘My eyes look swollen too.’
Maybe because I hadn’t slept at all—today, especially, my eyes were crusted with sleep.
As I wobbled upright and followed Sophia toward the bathroom, a huge silhouette suddenly came into view behind her.
‘Who’s that?’
I assumed it must be Delma, but it wasn’t. Delma wasn’t that tall.
“Sophia.”
“Yes?”
“Who’s that over there?”
“He’s the knight assigned to guard you for now.”
Guard?
“Because of what happened yesterday, Duke was very worried. He said he’ll assign you a guard until the full recruitment is over.”
The Duke worried about me? That sounded highly suspicious. And a guard, no less.
‘But I’m just staying inside the house…’
Anyway, that silhouette somehow felt familiar.
As I carelessly yawned and lifted my head, my body instantly stiffened.
The knight, meeting my gaze, approached and greeted me.
“Good morning. I’m Yan Bayholt, assigned as your guard starting today.”
“…”
“It’s an honor to serve as your lady’s guard.”
Yan gave me a gentle smile. Sophia beside him added cheerfully,
“Come to think of it, weren’t you the knight who brought our young master here on the first day? How wonderful, isn’t it, young master?”
“…”
Without a word, I slipped into the bathroom and quietly shut the door.
“Oh dear, why’s that?”
[This is the timeline separator]A faint smile briefly touched Kyleius’s lips as he handled his duties. Seeing it, Philen was startled.
“D-Do you mean you’ve finally made your decision?”
At Philen’s words, Kyleius’s brow instantly knit together.
His expression turned icy, as if he’d never smiled at all.
“What are you talking about?”
“Aren’t you finally going to deal with that insolent brat who doesn’t even know their place…?”
Kyleius’s gaze toward Philen turned sharply cold.
After a long moment of Philen realizing he’d clearly misunderstood something, he asked again, somewhat awkwardly,
“Then… why are you in such a good mood?”
“Me?”
“Yes, you, my lord.”
Puzzled, Philen tilted his head. Somehow, this conversation wasn’t going normally.
“You must’ve seen wrong.”
Kyleius replied curtly.
Phiphen was perceptive.
He knew Kyleius had no desire to continue this conversation.
Yet, he wasn’t the type to pretend he hadn’t clearly seen what he’d seen.
“No, my lord definitely smiled just now like this.”
To demonstrate, Philen even lifted the corners of his own mouth.
Well, to be more precise, his lord hadn’t exactly smiled—his lips had merely twitched upward slightly.
But to Philen, it was as good as a beaming grin.
Kyleius narrowed his eyes and lifted his head. A tense silence fell.
Quick-witted Philen hastily snatched up the approved documents.
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
Before Kyleius could even speak, Philen dashed out in a hurry. The door clicked shut behind him.
Kyleius’s displeased gaze remained fixed on the door for a while, as if debating whether to call him back or not.
Had his workload not been piled as high as a mountain, he surely would’ve summoned that infuriating fellow back.
Instead, Kyleius let out a short sigh and resumed reviewing his documents.
A few minutes passed, and against his will, the corners of his lips twitched upward again.
‘Well… it was somewhat amusing.’
He never imagined it—but that sound turned out to be from that child.
A few days ago, while dealing with the assassin who’d attempted to poison him, he’d heard faint footsteps outside the door.
At the time, the presence had seemed so insignificant that he’d simply ignored it.
Even if he’d known then that the footsteps belonged to someone other than Philen or the servants, he never would’ve suspected that child right away.
After all, the child was merely four years old.
An ordinary four-year-old wouldn’t be able to pretend ignorance after witnessing such a scene. Normally, they’d collapse on the spot, wailing uncontrollably.
But that child was different.
With feigned indifference, they pretended not to see or know anything, deceiving him and everyone else in the mansion.
Now that he understood the child’s intent, everything fit together like puzzle pieces.
From wandering around the mansion as if exploring it during the day to encountering him at the main gate each morning—
‘They were trying to leave the house.’
Most likely, the child had decided this place was dangerous and tried to escape on their own.
He’d brought them here intending to use them conveniently, but now they weren’t acting as he wished—and that was becoming rather troublesome. If the child had been obedient enough to listen when told not to leave, they wouldn’t have even considered escaping in the first place.
Precisely because they were clever, direct threats might actually work.
The problem was, he wasn’t particularly fond of using that approach with this child.
Yet, doing nothing about it wouldn’t be like him either.
Thus, he decided instead to warn the child in another way.
The guard assigned to Diane today carried precisely that meaning.
Go ahead—try doing things your way.
‘Now, let’s see how my dear daughter responds.’
A faint, pleased curve appeared on Kyleius’s lips.
Plain joy was evident on his face.
[This is the timeline separator]‘Duke, you evil villain!’
When the blocks I’d carefully stacked suddenly collapsed, Delma beside me jumped in surprise and hurried over.
“Young master, are you tired of block play? Shall we do puzzles instead?”
“…No, it’s fun.”
I muttered with an expression that clearly showed I found it anything but fun.
Though puzzled, Delma sat beside me and helped me rebuild the blocks.
I’d deliberately chosen block play—something requiring concentration—to calm myself, but it wasn’t helping at all. My mind remained unsettled, boiling with anger.
‘What a rotten villain! And among all villains, Duke is the worst!’
“Oh dear, young master. If you press the blocks like that, they’ll collapse right away.”
Delma spoke as I aggressively stacked the blocks again. I took a deep, calming breath, trying to steady myself.
Still, the fact that Duke was evil hadn’t changed one bit.
‘He did it on purpose—definitely on purpose!’
Even as I rebuilt the blocks, my thoughts were consumed entirely by one thing:
the reason Duke had assigned me a guard.
‘He figured it out—there’s no doubt.’
I should’ve realized something was off even earlier—especially when he let me off so easily yesterday. He must’ve discovered my repeated attempts to run away.
He’d even assigned me a guard, as if to prove his point.
Sophia and Delma claimed Duke did it out of concern for me, but I didn’t believe that at all.
‘He’s just trying to keep me under surveillance.’
Anyway, he’d brought me here because he needed me.
He’d probably keep me under his control as long as I still held some usefulness to him.
Since I had no intention of leaving for now anyway, that wasn’t a huge problem.
But I had a far bigger issue right in front of me.
‘This never happens on other days!’
Normally, I always got up before Sophia or Delma arrived. Also, although my face sometimes swelled slightly in the mornings, it was never this bad.
And I always went straight to wash my face the moment I woke up!
So why did Yan have to be there of all times?!
‘Ugh, everything’s ruined.’
Unable to hide my gloom, I buried my face fully in both hands.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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MANGA DISCUSSION
1 Comment
Chapter Comments (109)
Why is he angry? When will they tell us her name? It’s so boring.
Hahaha, the Duke is very jealous! What, you’re not a child?
What’s this, Diane? Finally you have a name! It’s very beautiful and suits our little one, but you’re stranger than the duke.
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Miioo
How childish the Duke is! Why is he doing this to our little one?