The Secret Passage
The news that Idel had been granted the Clementine surname, along with the fact that the former Countess Lopez had been permitted to stay at the ducal residence, spread through the household with remarkable speed.
At the same time, unpleasant rumors about Idel began to take on a life of their own.
“Good heavens, they say she called the Duke ‘Father’ as if she had been waiting for the chance! And she even snapped at the Duchess, asking how they could possibly be family!”
“What’s more, the child is already treating the servants with contempt. It’s positively chilling!”
For Idel, who had been struggling to accumulate misdeeds within reasonable bounds, the development was rather thrilling.
Everything is going according to plan.
In recent days, the ducal servants had begun to avoid her with increasing obviousness.
It seemed the constant summoning of the maid she had once given ointment to—Diane—had only made matters worse.
Ah, I should thank the Duke as well.
A few days earlier, Melisa had signaled for Idel to spill soup during a meal. The Duke had punished her by confining her to the annex, which had granted Idel an unexpectedly peaceful routine.
He even ordered that no one was to meet her except the servants.
In other words, the Duke had not only responded exactly as Melisa wished, but had also given Idel a kind of holiday.
I’ll repay this debt with your life, Your Grace.
Idel sat beneath a tree with the contented air of a squirrel hoarding acorns and opened her notebook.
They said that if one wished hard enough, even the heavens would take one’s side. Thanks to a few lines her younger sister had written in a book report the day they moved to the annex, Idel now had a lead.
[The scene where the heroine, Jayana, slips out through a hole in the garden wall of the annex to meet the hero, Dante……]
[Author-nim. You’re a real pervert! I thought Melisa was the final boss, but you left a separate ultimate villain just to torment the heroine? And that villain turns out to be the crown prince from Crow’s Nest with a tragic backstory who’s also the disciple of a black mage? Isn’t that setting overload? I thought he’d reform after falling for the heroine, but then “that incident” drives him mad and he goes berserk……]
The disciple of a black mage. And Crow’s Nest.
Phrases she had once skimmed over now carried an entirely different weight.
The back-alley district nicknamed Crow’s Nest is famous for its black-magic ghost stories.
Idel tapped her chin in thought.
Jayana, the heroine, is still only eight. That means the villain and his master are probably still in Crow’s Nest. A black mage would certainly know something about curses.
She couldn’t be certain, but right now those two were the only straws Idel could grasp to break her curse. Her situation was far too precarious to start searching for an entirely new method from scratch.
A new method, my foot. I can’t even find a hole in the wall to escape this house.
Idel was still rubbing her chin when her gaze sharpened on a likely spot for such a hole.
At that moment—
“Wow, found it!”
“Kyaa!”
A small head popped out of the bushes. Idel let out an involuntary shriek, then clapped both hands over her mouth and stared at the intruder.
The person who had appeared so suddenly was none other than the original heroine of this disastrous world.
“Hic!”
“Oh no, I’m sorry! Was it because of me? Did I startle you?”
Jayana’s eyes widened at the sight of Idel’s hiccups and she hurried closer.
Soft brown hair like a golden field and sky-blue eyes filled Idel’s vision, along with cheeks flushed like peaches.
Seeing Jayana up close for the first time, Idel finally understood why her younger sister had praised the heroine so lavishly in her book report.
…Though I have no idea why she looks like this.
Idel studied the girl before her. Jayana looked as though she had been rolling around in the woods.
Her hair, which the servants must have neatly brushed that morning, was now a bird’s nest. The dress she wore was so grubby at the cuffs that it hardly seemed fit for a ducal daughter.
Actually, forget the clothes. She was here when I first arrived at the ducal residence. She must have seen everything—how Mother and Father were struggling because of me and Melisa……
Why had she really come? To punish Idel herself?
Yet the heroine’s smile was far too radiant for that.
“You—hic! Don’t you know who I am? Hic!”
Idel asked sharply, flustered. Her hands were still clamped over her mouth, muffling her words, but they were still intelligible.
“Hm? Of course I do! You’re my little sister. They said we could meet after a few days of rest, but you never came, so I decided to find you myself. Anyway, your hiccups are pretty bad. What should we do? Does it hurt?”
“Hic!”
Jayana’s eyes held not a trace of malice—only genuine concern. Idel pressed her lips tightly together.
Seeing Idel’s bewildered expression, Jayana scrunched her nose and gave a bashful smile.
“You don’t have to feel bad. I was upset at first, too, but before I went to sleep, the stars gave me an answer. They said you might be my present. I’ve always wanted a little sister, you know.”
The way she whispered it like a secret was so endearing that Idel’s eyes rolled helplessly.
As expected, her worries had not been unfounded. Jayana was exactly the type who could soften her heart without limit—the same sort as that nameless person from her past life to whom she had owed her life, someone who always tried to believe in the good in others.
…No. That’s exactly why I need to keep my distance.
Even if she planned to save the Duke and reveal the truth later, until then the only role she could play was that of the villain.
Besides, what if Melisa harmed Jayana simply for being near her?
Idel frowned and snapped in a sulky tone.
“Who said I wanted to be your sister? Hic! Don’t come any closer—it’s filthy. And don’t touch me.”
“Oh, right, sorry! I must look pretty dirty, huh? I lied and said I was going to play in the glass greenhouse, then swapped clothes with Jacob.”
“What? Then he……”
“Mm……”
Jayana didn’t answer, but her playful smile and the way her nose scrunched again said everything.
The image of a boy wearing the ducal daughter’s dress almost made Idel laugh. She barely managed to suppress it and hardened her expression.
“Pfft… Ahem!”
“Ah, your hiccups stopped!”
Jayana’s eyes sparkled as she quickly changed the subject.
“Anyway, since I didn’t come the normal way, I got a little messy. If you go straight from here, you’ll see some statues. Behind the sixth one, if you push through the berry bushes, there’s a hidden path!”
Wait a second. Could this be……
“A hidden path?”
“Yeah. It connects to the mountain behind the ducal residence. It’s my secret hideout.”
Found it—the hole in the wall from the book report!
“Oh, wait, that’s not what I meant to say! I just wanted to tell you that the stuff on me is only dirt and leaves. It probably doesn’t smell. Um… does it smell? No, right?”
Smell? What did a little smell matter when she had solved in one stroke a problem that might have taken days?
Idel barely managed to swallow her rising excitement and cleared her throat.
Then, with a deliberately curt expression, she shot Jayana a glare.
“You think dirt isn’t dirty? There are twigs and leaves stuck in your hair… What if there are bugs? I’m leaving.”
“Wait, wait! I’ll clean up right away. So don’t go, okay?”
Jayana looked so flustered that she forgot Idel’s warning not to touch her and grabbed Idel’s wrist with both hands.
Idel twisted her wrist free, and only then did Jayana notice. She quickly tried to brush the debris from her own hair with her other hand.
Of course, a few shakes weren’t going to dislodge twigs and leaves. Her hair only became more tangled.
Idel watched her in silence, conflicted.
This is the perfect moment to be cold and heartless……
But the small hand that refused to let go, and the eyes that kept checking on her, made it impossible.
……Pushing her away would be too much. I’ll just pretend to be exasperated instead.
If she complained enough, she could at least buy time to fix Jayana’s hair.
Idel let out an exaggerated sigh and scolded her in a sharp tone.
“Are you an idiot? Hey, stay still.”
“Huh? O-okay!”
Idel rose onto her tiptoes to pluck the bits clinging to Jayana’s hair.
The problem was that even then, she still couldn’t reach the leaves near the crown of Jayana’s head.
It was a matter of height. Giving up, Idel raised one eyebrow, set her notebook on the ground, and stepped onto it.
“Haa…… How troublesome.”
“Sorry……”
Ignoring Jayana’s apology, Idel reached out again.
Just as she leaned forward, certain she could almost reach, her foot slipped on the smooth cover of the notebook. There must have been dirt on the sole.
“Aah!”
“Kyaa!”
In the instant she cried out, Idel toppled forward onto Jayana. Unable to support Idel’s weight, Jayana fell backward with her.
Two short screams and a dull thud echoed through the garden.
“Ugh……”
Idel was the first to regain her senses.
She quickly pushed herself up at the faint groan beneath her and grabbed Jayana’s shoulders.
“Hey, hey, are you okay?”
Their bodies were still tangled, but Idel didn’t have time to think about that.
Her mind was filled with the fear that Jayana might have hit her head.
The ground was only soil and grass, but she had fallen straight onto the back of her head.
“Ouch…… Mm, I’m, I’m fine.”
“Really? Your head? You’re not dizzy or anything?”
Idel, having forgotten she was supposed to act heartless, reached out to check the back of Jayana’s head.
“Lady Jayana!”
Footsteps approached from one side of the garden. Both girls turned toward the sound at the same time.
Leading a group of servants was the head maid, Sylvia. Every face was pale with sweat.
“What in the world is going on here?”