Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Clearing Misunderstandings
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“Ru, Rubette. What kind of way is that to talk to your oppa? Don’t do this. I don’t want to be the reason things get strained between you and your oppa.”
Lillia jumped in place of the two speechless oppas.
‘Ugh, what a pain. That tiny little thing.’
That girl, who had been cunning since childhood just like her mother, grew up to torment Rubette her whole life.
‘But if I let her get me again in my second life, I’d feel a bit wronged.’
Playing the good girl, the innocent one, the victim like Lillia does isn’t the right move now. That kind of acting only works when you have an audience who’ll believe you no matter what you do.
So, my role right now is ‘the sister who flipped 180 degrees after nearly dying in the pond.’
No acting required.
These are the things Rubette, who’d kept her mouth shut her whole life, always wanted to say.
‘I’ll say them all.’
“I’ll clear up every single misunderstanding you oppas have.”
I raised both hands in surrender as I smiled and spoke.
“First, you said Head Butler Rob was fired?”
“…….”
“Half right. I did go to Father and whisper in his ear.”
As I admitted it with a smile, Viego’s eyes narrowed.
“But there’s a misunderstanding. I had no personal grudge at all. He was just acting arrogant for a mere servant, so I reported his poor attitude.”
“What? Do you know how long Rob has served our family…….”
“What does how long he’s served have to do with anything?”
I cut Viego off with a displeased look.
“I hadn’t seen Father in ages, so I went to visit, and that butler had the nerve to order me—the young lady of the house—to stay confined in my room?”
“What? For real?”
Victor scowled deeply and asked, so I nodded.
“The servants in this house must think they get the right to act arrogant toward the young lady once they rack up enough years.”
“…….”
“If I’d just let that slide, that would’ve been the real problem. Is firing a head butler who’s thrown all hierarchy out the window something I deserve to get yelled at by my oppa for?”
“Rob…….”
He looked confused, but as expected, he didn’t believe me. Viego let out a sigh and shook his head.
“Don’t believe me if you don’t want to. I’m not explaining this thinking you’ll believe me anyway, Oppa.”
“What? You—”
“But the definite fact is, I didn’t fire Rob myself. Father made the decision. And where in the world is a father…….”
I turned to Victor, who was listening intently, and asked.
“Who would heed a child throwing a tantrum and fire a servant for her?”
“No way.”
Victor quickly agreed and added.
“For Father to get personally involved in the first place is huge, isn’t it? You don’t get personally fired by him unless you’ve done something major. What did that guy do?”
“See? Even Victor Oppa knows, so you do too, right, Oppa? Father wouldn’t even pretend to listen if the situation was baseless. You know that.”
“…….”
“The head butler had more than one or two problems, and Father judged him worthy of dismissal, so he got fired. So if you have complaints, Oppa.”
I subtly pointed to the still-open door and smiled brightly.
“Go complain to Father, not me.”
Viego stared at me blankly before bursting into a hollow laugh, his face a mix of confusion and anger.
I casually shrugged and continued.
“And rushing over here based on one side’s story to yell at your three-years-younger sister? It makes you look really pathetic, so please have some dignity from now on.”
At that moment, everyone froze.
“Do I really need to spell it out painfully that the head of the house’s image is the family’s image? You’re not a three-year-old kid?”
I threw Viego’s words right back at him with a sneer.
“Hey, hey. Ruby…….”
The shocked Victor grabbed my shoulder to stop me, but
“Ah, let go. I’ve got more to say.”
I shook off his arm and stepped forward.
“Eep.”
Victor pulled back, turtling his neck.
The unimaginable standoff between the always scary, strict older brother and the meek, obedient younger sister. Even Victor seemed quite flustered in the middle.
“Easy, easy…….”
But maybe because Victor had just as much pent-up frustration with Viego? His attempts to intervene lacked sincerity, like he was secretly enjoying it.
I curled my lips in a mocking smile and kept going.
“Well, if you’re going to keep thinking I deliberately jumped in the pond till the end, go ahead. No point begging you to believe me when your ears only hear what you want to hear, Oppa.”
“…….”
“Still, just one request. I get that you want to believe and heed everything Lillia says, Oppa, but at least…….”
I smiled and tapped my temple a couple times.
“……do some thinking before you act. Promise?”
Viego was speechless and frozen, while Lillia beside him looked utterly flustered.
This counterattack from the idiot who should’ve just been stammering “Sorry……” endlessly must’ve been quite the shock to Viego.
“Okay, last one. What’s left? Oh, right—that I slapped Riki?”
“Y-Yeah, that’s right. I saw it myself. You hit Riki. We came to check on you after you fell in the pond because we were worried…….”
Feeling like she had to do something, Lillia suddenly sniffled and tugged at Viego’s sleeve.
“Rubette definitely hates me. That’s why she treated Riki so roughly.”
“……Yeah, right. You slapped Riki’s cheek. Is that true?”
Unlike before, Viego’s dazed question now came with a request to confirm the fact again.
‘Finally coming to his senses, huh.’
I swallowed a laugh and asked Lillia.
“You saw it yourself? You were there too, right? That’s what you just said.”
“Yeah!”
I nodded and admitted it straightforwardly.
“That’s right too, Oppa. I did slap Riki’s cheek.”
“Why?”
“You’re asking because you know I’m not the type to do that without reason, right?”
When I asked back, Viego fell silent. That was affirmation.
Honestly, he probably found this whole series of events hard to believe deep down. He knew his little sister as kind, timid, and too awkward to even express her own opinions properly.
I strode toward the two of them—more precisely, toward Lillia—and said.
“Ugh, if I were you, I’d rather just die than live all fat and flabby like that.”
Then I pinched Lillia’s side hard.
“Ow!”
“Oh my, gross. Look at all this greasy oil.”
“Rubette? What are you doing right now……!”
Lillia was shocked by the unexpected attack, and Viego even more so.
Ignoring them, I pinched the back of Lillia’s neck this time.
“Hey, where’s your neck even at? Let’s see, shall we search for our lost little Lillia’s neck?”
“Aaack! Ack! It hurts, it huuurts!”
Not even pinching that hard, yet she overreacted.
“Stop it!”
Smack!
Viego roughly shook off my hand. My knuckles, flung away with real force, quickly turned red.
The startled Lillia burst into loud wails and clung to Viego, who comforted her.
“Waaah…… O-Oppa. Hic! Waaah!”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
“Wasn’t it deserved?”
I held up my swollen red hand and asked.
“You call that talking?”
“That’s why I slapped him. Riki’s cheek.”
“……What?”
“All the things I just did and said to Lillia. That’s exactly what Riki did—the one who supposedly came to check on me after I nearly died because he was worried.”
Viego’s eyes wavered.
After staring into my eyes for a long time to gauge if this was really true, he gently pulled away the sobbing Lillia and asked.
“Did Riki really do that?”
“Hic, no, he didn’t. Riki, Riki was…… j-just joking, j-just a joke, hic!”
Shocked by my unforeseen attack, Lillia made the dumb mistake of admitting it.
‘Is she an idiot? She should’ve denied it to the end. Well, Viego would’ve doubted anyway since I’m not the type to slap someone without reason.’
Either way, Lillia had just vouched for Riki’s misdeeds herself. Thanks to her.
I shrugged nonchalantly.
“If the victim doesn’t see it as a joke, does calling it a joke make it okay? Then it was just a joke too, Lillia.”
“Y-You, you’re different! It wasn’t a joke for you!”
“Lillia. Enough.”
Viego stopped the sniffling Lillia and roughly wiped her tears with his hand.
“Go to your room for now.”
“Sniff. Sob…….”
Lillia, who’d been crying pitifully, pouted and trembled, glared at me once, then left the room.
Lillia, who would grow from sly to a full-fledged demon, still had some childish lapses because she was young. Lucky for me, I guess.
‘No way I’d lose to an elementary schooler.’
Satisfied, I said to the confused-looking Viego.
“Explanation over. In summary: I fell in the pond by accident, Rob got fired because he deserved it, and Riki got slapped because he deserved it. That good enough now?”