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Chapter 02
If I Don’t Become a Problem Child, There’s Only Death
The shocking incident that had taken place in the dining room that day quickly spread throughout the ducal residence. Whenever the servants met, it was all they talked about.
The same was true for the maids gathered in the kitchen, preparing the ingredients for the next morning’s breakfast.
“Hey, did you hear?”
“You mean the thing about Lady Reriel comforting the maid who broke a glass?”
“Yeah! Instead of getting angry, she even stopped the bleeding herself with her own handkerchief!”
One of the maids, chatting as she peeled potatoes, shook her head as if it were impossible.
Of all people, that villainess Reriel Tenebris? She would sooner believe the moon had risen in the daytime.
“She’s replaced dozens of maids just because they displeased her. The rumor must’ve gotten twisted somewhere.”
“I’m telling you it’s true! She even went to find that maid later and gave her some ointment. There are people who actually saw it!”
The maid who had brought up the story first protested indignantly, waving her potato knife around.
The other maids nearby had no choice but to scoot one seat away from her.
“No, but why? Did she hit her head or something?”
“Even if she went crazy, that’d still be strange. Everything else is normal, but only her personality got nice?”
“Come on, you must’ve seen it wrong. People don’t change that easily. And this is the House of Tenebris. Who’d really want to work here? They only endure it because the pay’s so good.”
“Ah…”
At those words, everyone fell silent. They all knew exactly what she meant—painfully so.
The ducal House of Tenebris.
A family famous for holding the real power in the Kingdom of Trian.
With a history stretching back over two hundred years, the family had always had ruthless and cruel villains at its core.
“Have this trash cleared from my sight at once.”
Anwen Tenebris, the eighth head of the house, was a cold and calculating man.
If something brought him no benefit, he would sever ties without hesitation—even with close friends he had known for over ten years.
So dry and emotionless that it went beyond mere bluntness, the servants confidently claimed there would never be a woman willing to marry him.
Yet when he held a grand wedding and introduced the bride who would spend her life with him, the world could not deny that the two were a perfectly matched pair.
“You need to crush them thoroughly, so they don’t even dare think of climbing up.”
Back when Robrin Tenebris was still a young lady of House Mapleria, she was a notorious schemer and villainess in high society.
With a single word from her, someone could be socially ruined. A few malicious rumors were enough to drag an entire family’s honor into the dirt, leaving them unable to recover.
And all the while, she would elegantly hide her lips behind a fan and smile, saying that if they had behaved properly in the first place, none of this would have happened.
“I’m truly proud of you, Reriel.”
“Our daughter will make a splendid head of the house. Just look—she already knows how to handle the servants.”
Born as the child of those two, Reriel Tenebris was exceptional from the very start.
She inherited Anwen’s coldness and Robrin’s cunning in full—and on top of that, she was dazzlingly beautiful.
“Do you still not know what you did wrong?”
She was on a completely different level from third-rate villains who simply shouted when displeased. The way she precisely seized on a person’s weaknesses, suffocating them with her words while wearing a lofty smile—
She possessed qualities of a villain so outstanding they ranked among the best in the history of House Tenebris.
Over the twenty years she grew up in the ducal residence, countless servants lost their jobs and were driven out onto the streets. The entire territory lived in fear, and high society constantly watched her mood.
In the end, even the royal family indirectly acknowledged the power of House Tenebris.
When her engagement to the crown prince was all but forced through, Reriel merely smiled gracefully, as though all of this were only natural.
“And you expect me to believe that kind of person pulled out a handkerchief over a maid cutting her finger? At least make it sound plausible.”
With a snort, the maid resumed peeling potatoes. The scraping sound echoed through the kitchen.
She had been working busily when, a few seconds later, she realized something was wrong. The maids who had been chatting animatedly with her moments ago were now stiff with fear.
What’s wrong with everyone? Did something happen?
She was just about to ask—
“L-Lady Reriel…”
The maid across from her muttered this while staring past another maid.
Only then did she understand the situation and turn her head to look over her shoulder.
There stood the very subject of their gossip—Reriel, the young duchess of House Tenebris.
She looked down at them with cold eyes. The air around her felt icy, as though a blade of frost had pierced their hearts.
“……”
Thud. Roll, roll.
The maid who had been gaping dropped the potato she was holding. It rolled across the floor and, of all places, came to a stop at Reriel’s feet, bumping against the toe of her shoe.
After standing still for a moment, Reriel bent down and picked up the potato.
The maid bit her lip hard at the same time. Any moment now, that potato would be flying straight at her face.
If it ended with nothing more than a large bruise, she’d be lucky. More likely, it wouldn’t.
“You’ve all worked hard, even late into the night.”
“…Huh?”
But once again, a miracle occurred.
“Don’t overdo it, all right?”
She didn’t get angry. She didn’t slap anyone. She didn’t hurl insults. Instead, she placed the fallen potato back into the maid’s hand and lightly patted the back of it.
Far from disproving the rumors, her actions seemed to confirm them—and then some. The maids stared at Reriel with wide, rabbit-like eyes.
By any measure, even this could be considered rude, yet Reriel didn’t mind at all.
With a gentle smile, she turned and left the kitchen.
Even without looking back, she could feel countless gazes following her from behind. Exactly the reaction she wanted.
Good. It’s going just as planned.
Now those maids would be even more eager to spread the story far and wide.
If possible, she wanted the rumor to spread not just through the territory, but throughout the entire kingdom.
Murmuring to herself, she walked down the corridor and into her room.
Only after closing the door did a hint of awkwardness flicker across her once-proud face.
It was an expression Reriel Tenebris—the legendary villainess—had never worn in her life.
If only I could fall out of the duke’s favor like this…
That’s right. Reriel Tenebris was not, in fact, Reriel Tenebris.
More precisely, the exterior was the same—but the person inside was someone entirely different.
Her true identity was an ordinary second-year university student from South Korea: Han Gyeo-ul.
Wearing Reriel’s face, she trudged over to the bed and flopped down onto it.
“Haa…”
A sigh naturally slipped from her lips.
How on earth did I end up like this…
She pressed her face into the pillow and began to lament.
The start seemed to be going fairly well, but the road ahead was still long—very long.
Even so, there was no other choice.
Becoming a kind Reriel.
That was the only way to survive in this novel.
If she didn’t become the problem child of a villainous ducal house, there would be only death.
Turning that cold reality over in her mind, Han Gyeo-ul—or rather, Reriel—closed her eyes.
Where is this place? Who am I?
There was no need for such clichéd questions.
When Han Gyeo-ul opened her eyes, a massive mirror stood before her.
She had come to her senses at the vanity in a dressing room.
The moment her eyes met those of the beautiful woman in the mirror—her features cold, as if carved from ice—Han Gyeo-ul understood her situation.
Reriel Tenebris…?
Orange-tinged red hair swayed with her movements.
Dark green eyes, deep and shadowed like a sunless forest, blinked rapidly, unable to hide their confusion.
Tracing the mirror with long, slender fingers that revealed her bone structure, Han Gyeo-ul eventually touched the small beauty mark beneath her pink lips.
There was no doubt about it. The face reflected in the mirror was that of Reriel Tenebris, the villainess from the novel The Saint Doesn’t Go Easy—also known as TSGE. She remembered seeing her in the illustrations.
This can’t be happening…
The moment she realized the truth, despair washed over her. Because Reriel was a villainess destined for ruin in the story.
If it had been a typical villainess downfall, that would’ve been fine.
The problem was that the novel she had transmigrated into was famous—even among romance fantasy—for its shockingly extreme plot developments.
