Reforming the Villain Family (5 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 5
“What’s the Duke doing over there?”
The person standing in the corridor was the Duke.
Without turning his head toward me, he walked straight into the room.
“That must be the Duke’s private chamber.”
Since my first day at the Duke’s estate, I hadn’t encountered him even once.
He never came to see me first, and neither did I go to see him.
Moreover, the mansion was so vast that even wandering around rarely led to crossing paths with him.
“I need to pass through, though…”
My destination was the back staircase at the far end of the second floor.
Each floor had a service staircase for staff, and that particular one often yielded things worth picking up, especially since many servants frequented it.
“Maybe I should just take another route?”
I hesitated for a moment, but quickly changed my mind.
“Anyway, I can’t keep avoiding him forever.”
Since I had to stay here for another four years, it was impossible to never see the Duke again.
Besides, for the sake of my goal—my independence in four years—it would be better to stay on his good side.
“He is the master of this house, after all.”
If he favored me, saving up emergency funds might become easier.
I steeled myself and began stepping forward, already planning what to do once I met the Duke.
As I passed by the corridor, I’d politely greet the Duke if we happened to meet by chance, then simply move on!
“If I behave respectfully, maybe he’ll think well of me.”
Perhaps, even if the young masters harassed me later, he might offer me a little protection.
I stopped right in front of the door the Duke had entered. Since it stood wide open, I could immediately peer inside.
And there, I came face-to-face with a scene I never could have imagined. My entire body froze stiff.
The first thing I noticed was the shattered teacup sprawled across the floor. The luxurious rug just beyond the doorway was stained deep red.
Collapsed face-down on the rug lay a person, completely motionless.
In the center of the room, the Duke stood, casually brushing off his sleeves.
An involuntary scream nearly escaped my lips, but at that exact moment, the Duke turned his head.
“Huh!”
I quickly ducked to the side. Only silence filled the air afterward.
My mind was in chaos, yet one thought alone surfaced clearly.
“I can’t get caught.”
No one must ever find out I’d just witnessed that scene. I held my breath as quietly as possible.
“I’ll go to my room.”
Without another thought, I went straight upstairs.
[This is the timeline separator]Light footsteps echoed down the corridor. Just as I wondered who it might be, Philen appeared before the door.
“My lord! No, what on earth has happened here!”
Though the footsteps belonged to a grown man, they sounded slightly lighter than expected—but Kyleius didn’t dwell on it.
Indeed, few people would be aimlessly wandering the second-floor corridor at this hour.
After taking in the room’s condition, Philen hurriedly summoned several servants and instructed them to clean up.
The servants Philen brought were already fairly accustomed to such incidents.
Having spent their entire lives serving in the Duke’s household, they clicked their tongues in familiar resignation but silently set about tidying the room.
“Are you all right?”
Kyleius gave a dismissive nod toward the corpse.
“Go check it yourself.”
Pheilen briefly examined the teapot, then pulled out a pen he kept in his pocket and dipped it into the tea.
It was a pen wrapped in dyed lambskin. The moment the tea touched the leather, its color instantly faded to white.
“Hydra?”
Hydra was a colorless poison with a faintly sweet scent, so it was usually mixed into strongly fragranced tea.
Since Hydra was a recently discovered toxin, they likely wouldn’t have known about it if not for Grand Duke Constar.
Hydra didn’t tarnish silverware, and the only reliable way to detect it in strongly scented tea was through dyed animal hide.
When dyed leather was dipped into liquid containing Hydra, its color would immediately bleed out, leaving the hide stark white.
That’s precisely why Philen had promptly replaced all carpets in the mansion with lambskin upon learning this detail from Grand Duke Constar.
A tiny section of the carpet on the floor now appeared faintly whitened.
Most likely, Kyleius had spilled some tea to test whether poison was present.
“That’s probably it.”
“What happened to this man?”
“Check inside his mouth—he probably ingested poison.”
Upon inspection, a burst capsule was found in the man’s mouth. It seemed he’d chosen suicide to avoid capture once his identity was exposed.
After verifying the corpse’s state, Philen quickly stood up.
Though a more thorough investigation was needed, within the entire Empire, only one group would go so far as to risk their lives on an assignment like this.
“If someone this well-trained was involved, it must be them.”
“So they’ve hired assassins.”
Unlike Kyleius, who seemed unconcerned, Philen took this very seriously.
Identifying which organization’s assassin this was wouldn’t be difficult.
And that was precisely the problem.
If it truly was that organization, even Philen’s intelligence network would struggle to catch the culprit.
“I’ll narrow down the suspect noble houses and plant spies within them.”
Meanwhile, the dead servant’s body was carried out. Kyleius’s gaze briefly drifted toward the deep red stain on the rug before returning straight ahead.
“No, leave it for now.”
Pheilen was startled by those words.
“Leave it? They’ve already made one attempt—if the contract isn’t canceled, they’ll keep trying!”
“We need to observe the situation first. There’s nothing more to gain from this man anyway.”
Pheilen, about to protest, fell silent. Kyleius was right—searching the assassin’s body wouldn’t yield useful information.
Perhaps it truly was better to watch and wait before acting, as the Duke suggested.
“Aren’t you curious how far they’ll go to fight back?”
At those words, Philen suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
For some reason, in that moment, the would-be assassin seemed far more endangered than Kyleius, who had nearly been poisoned.
Out of basic human decency, Philen silently thought to himself,
“If they want to die peacefully, they’d better stop right here.”
Truthfully, this wasn’t the first time such an incident had occurred.
Pheilen agreed with Kyleius’s judgment that leaving matters as they were for now was better than immediately exposing everything.
After all, from Kyleius’s perspective, the current threat barely registered as more than a worm wriggling beneath his notice.
Still, as Kyleius’s loyal attendant responsible for his safety, Philen believed Kyleius should exercise a bit more caution.
“Even so, my lord—you’re no longer alone anymore. If anything were to happen to you, the young masters would be in danger.”
Though Philen chose his words carefully, a faint smile flickered at the corner of Kyleius’s lips.
“Those children?”
“Yes. Naturally, they would—”
Pheilen stopped mid-sentence. Upon reflection, even if Kyleius were in danger, those young masters certainly wouldn’t cower in fear and submit.
“They’d probably make a ruckus, at the very least.”
In fact, the enemy would be better off hoping Kyleius didn’t fall easily—lest they incur the wrath of those young masters.
Clearing his throat, Philen continued,
“In any case, the young masters are at a crucial age for their development. Right now, they should be raised gently under their guardian’s protection.”
“Yes, I suppose I must keep an eye on them so they don’t cause trouble.”
“Exactly, my lord. Whatever you say.”
Though he’d issued a warning, Philen well knew Kyleius wasn’t someone who’d be easily taken down.
Sighing, Philen began tidying the area. Suddenly, the child recently brought into the mansion popped into his mind.
“Now that I think about it… the infant could be in real danger too, couldn’t he?”
Pheilen muttered absentmindedly. At that, Kyleius’s eyebrow twitched slightly.
“Though it hasn’t spread beyond the estate yet, the servants already know—so rumors will spread instantly. If they discover the infant’s existence, what do you plan to do?”
“Well, I doubt they’d take that much interest in the child.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because I don’t intend to show much interest myself.”
Kyleius continued coldly,
“I’m only keeping the child temporarily. Soon, I’ll send him to the Rosian monastery.”
“Oh, so you never intended to keep him long-term?”
Kyleius’s indifferent gaze fixed on Philen, as if the question were obvious. Philen asked, his tone tinged with discomfort,
“But wouldn’t the infant’s presence here benefit Young Master Clemens? You brought him precisely because of the succession issue.”
Kyleius simply nodded at Philen’s words.
“I’ll only show him to the retainers briefly before sending him off. The children will return home soon anyway—I must send him away before then.”
“True, the retainers won’t stay quiet once they hear the news.”
“Exactly, so it’s better to show him first. I’d rather avoid any suspicions that could cause headaches.”
Pheilen recalled the infant, whose skin had grown fair and plump thanks to Sophia’s devoted care these past few days.
His once-matted black hair, so tangled on the first day it looked like a broom, had transformed into soft, lustrous locks through daily applications of aromatic oils.
Any retainer who saw the infant in person would find it hard to doubt the blood relation between them.
Then, suddenly, Philen’s eyes drifted to Kyleius’s own black hair.
“…Could it really not be true?”
The brief doubt vanished instantly, as Kyleius immediately added, his tone edged with warning,
“Until then, you’d better keep him properly restrained and prevent any foolishness.”
[This is the timeline separator]“Someone’s dead.”
Only after returning to my room did I finally exhale my held breath slowly. The scene from moments ago kept replaying blankly in my mind.
Someone died. The Duke killed someone.
“Why?”
I asked myself, though there was no real need to think deeply. He was Duke Crustel. He felt no remorse for taking lives.
In the original story, hadn’t he callously discarded the lives of even his most loyal followers, claiming useless pawns held no value?
“This must be the same.”
Now that I thought about it, the Duke had adopted three heirs for the very same reason—their abilities were useful.
Clemens could decipher ancient languages, and the twins Michael and Dayban possessed exceptional talent in wielding magic. And then I realized a horrifying truth.
“I have nothing.”
Unlike the princes, I possessed no special talent whatsoever.
The Duke might have brought me here out of immediate need, but once I became useless, I’d be discarded without a second thought.
The princes, with their valuable abilities, wouldn’t be so easily cast aside—but I was merely a child he’d feel no regret in abandoning.
Suddenly, a terrifying image flashed through my mind—I saw myself superimposed over the servant who’d collapsed on the floor moments ago.
I had no choice but to completely revise all my previous plans.
“I need to leave.”
I don’t think I can last here for four years.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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MANGA DISCUSSION
1 Comment
Chapter Comments (114)
What is this? Why didn’t she run away when she saw them? And why didn’t she mention her name?
Oh, how pitiful our little one is! She was easily exposed, but where is her name? Why isn’t her name mentioned?
Why does the Duke always appear before her? Our little girl is no ordinary girl; she’s very intelligent, kind, and truly beautiful.
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Miioo
Yes, yes, you have to leave. You cannot stay with a crazy person trying to kill you, but that’s a stranger whose name you never said.