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Chapter 14
“So, who came looking for me?”
To spare her frightened younger brother, Leriel quickly got to the point.
She asked as if she didn’t know, but in truth there was only one person who might reasonably come to see her.
“Well, um…”
“Shall I guess? Someone devastatingly handsome, right?”
“!”
It was meant as a joke, but shock spread across Habel’s face. So she was right after all.
Leriel curved her eyes into a light smile and rested her chin on her hand. Her long, slender fingers tapped her cheek at a steady rhythm.
Your Highness, do you really have that little to do?
Well, after making such a fuss about volunteering and then ending up confined as punishment, it was understandable that he might be concerned. She had figured he’d show up around now anyway.
“He’s waiting in the reception room, right?”
“Ah, yes…”
“Alright. I’ll go down in a moment. Habel, bring some tea.”
“W-What? M-me, Sister?”
Habel shook his head repeatedly, his face pale. In his entire life, he had never once served tea. That was a servant’s job.
Of course, that excuse didn’t work on Leriel.
“Then who else would do it? The servants say they’re scared of me.”
“But…”
“Come on now. Be a good little brother who listens to his sister, hm?”
She smiled sweetly—yet sharply.
At this point, it was no longer a request but a threat. For a moment, she looked just like her original self, the infamous wicked sister known for her cruelty.
Unable to resist any further, Habel headed for the kitchen. If being born the younger brother of a villainess was a sin, then it was indeed a heavy one.
Now then, shall I get ready to receive His Highness?
After dumping all the troublesome work on her brother, Leriel hurried off to the dressing room.
Even if he was her fiancé—soon to be an ex-fiancé—she couldn’t very well greet him looking like she’d been lazing about the house.
She changed into a dress, brushed her hair, and finally rummaged through the box where her jewelry was kept.
Picking up a pair of emerald earrings that matched her eye color particularly well, Leriel smiled faintly.
Since I’m seeing him anyway, maybe I should ask if he has no intention of breaking off the engagement.
The beauty in the mirror mirrored her movements as she put on the earrings.
Right side, then the other.
As she did, the engagement ring on the fourth finger of her left hand glinted in the mirror.
She’d seen this scene somewhere before.
…I won’t be wearing this for much longer now.
Before she knew it, Leriel was staring blankly at the engagement ring.
Every time she looked at it, her chest felt tight, so she had always pretended not to notice it.
But lately, that hadn’t been the case.
No—if anything, during her confinement, she’d found herself looking at it whenever she felt bored.
Because whenever she did, Ferrick came to mind.
“….”
The sleeves rolled up to his forearms at the orphanage.
His bangs, slightly clumped together with sweat.
Those crimson eyes that had watched her in silence for so long.
Even the low voice that had called her name—Leriel—so clearly.
Haha… I guess I really am weak to handsome men.
Before the longing could swell any further, Leriel hurriedly pushed the engagement ring out of her sight.
Her cheeks had grown warm before she realized it.
Perhaps because there was a mirror right in front of her, it was all the more obvious.
I can’t go out like this.
She had no choice but to wait until the flush subsided.
Only after about five more minutes could she finally head to the reception room. Feeling guilty for having made her guest wait, her steps unconsciously quickened.
Without even thinking to knock, she flung the door open and blurted out an apology that hardly suited a villainess.
“I’m sorry! You must have waited—”
“Lady Leriel!”
But the person who greeted her was not Ferrick.
The man who sprang up from the sofa with a sunshine-bright smile had tousled straw-colored hair instead of neatly groomed faded blond.
His clear gray eyes held only her—filled not with hatred, suspicion, or fear, but with pure anticipation.
“At last, I finally meet you! I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep properly last night!”
“…Pardon?”
With a shy yet vivid smile, he stepped forward first, closing the distance between them.
Clasp.
Her hands were caught in both of his.
Leriel looked up at the man before her with a bewildered expression.
He wasn’t quite on Ferrick’s level, but he was handsome enough to have stolen many hearts. If Ferrick was a dazzling beauty, then this man was more of a naturally likable type.
In any case, it meant Habel hadn’t lied.
He is handsome, sure, but…
The problem was that this man was not the guest Leriel had been expecting.
She had never seen him before. The curly straw-colored hair, the clear gray eyes—none of it rang a bell.
Tilting her head in confusion, Leriel asked the man holding her hands,
“And you… are?”
“Ah, my apologies. I was so excited that I committed such a discourtesy…”
Even the way he carefully released her hands and smiled bashfully felt unfamiliar.
Could he be someone Leriel knew before I possessed her?
If someone this handsome had been involved with her, she would surely remember. She searched her memories thoroughly, but found nothing.
No, he’s a stranger…
He really was someone she was meeting for the first time.
And yet, he’d lost sleep over anticipating their meeting and had grabbed her hands without hesitation.
The hands of a woman known as a villainess.
The hands of a problem child who had disgraced her family and been confined as punishment.
“My introduction is overdue. My name is Julian.”
Reading her uncertain expression, the man smiled and added his introduction.
Only after hearing the name did Leriel realize who he was.
“Julian… as in the White Wings…?”
“Yes, that’s right. I’m the current head of the relief organization, White Wings. …Though I’m probably better known as the eldest son of the disgraced House of Count Fisher.”
Even as he spoke of being expelled from his family, he merely scratched the back of his head awkwardly, as though embarrassed to lay bare his own shame.
But Leriel didn’t mind at all.
After blinking her wide eyes a few times in surprise, she suddenly grabbed his retreating hand again and cried out,
“My goodness! You’re really Julian?!”
Startled by her sudden enthusiasm after moments of caution, Julian blinked in confusion.
“I didn’t expect such a warm welcome from you, my lady…”
“Of course I’d welcome you!”
Leriel’s eyes sparkled.
The blush she had just barely calmed flared up again, and she chattered on with an openly excited expression, as though she’d met someone straight out of her dreams. Her lips—clear and lightly tinted as if touched by rouge just once—parted slightly.
Rather than a villainess, she looked like a pure, innocent girl confessing to her first love.
How could I not know you, when you’re just as infamous for your cruelty as Leriel herself in 〈The Saint Who Doesn’t See〉!*
Julian, the head of the kingdom’s largest relief organization, White Wings, was a textbook example of the “seemed good but was actually bad” type of character.
“Saintess! Please let me help you with your good deeds too!”
A handsome man with a gentle face and a personality so kind it bordered on foolishness.
At first glance, he seemed like nothing more than a puppy-like secondary male lead who followed the unruly saintess around everywhere.
“Saintess, do you really think I helped you without thinking? There’s no money in it.”
Barely two chapters later, he revealed his true colors—and readers everywhere clutched the backs of their necks in shock.
The relief organization was only virtuous on the surface. In reality, it was involved in money laundering, human rights exploitation, and every other evil imaginable. All the while, he used the saintess to maintain a pristine public image.
In the end, he even colluded with Leriel to corner the main couple—so masterfully, in fact, that it was almost artistic.
In the villain popularity polls for 〈The Saint Who Doesn’t See〉, he was neck and neck with Leriel herself.
Well, Leriel did win by a narrow margin in the end.
“I didn’t expect such a warm welcome from you, my lady…”
“Of course I’d welcome you!”
Why would she welcome such a villain with open arms?
There was only one reason.
“How could I not know such a noble person, who gave up his title and founded a relief organization for the sake of good deeds!”
Just as he had used the saintess to rehabilitate the organization’s image, Leriel, too, coveted him and his relief organization for the sake of improving her own reputation.
What a windfall!
She had half given up, thinking they would never accept a woman infamous as a villainess as a member—yet here he was, visiting her in person.
Suppressing the thrill rising in her chest, Leriel took a deep breath to calm her pounding heart.
Calm down, calm down. If I get too excited, he might find it strange.
Struggling to maintain her composure, Leriel carefully probed Julian.
“Then, may I ask the reason you came to see me today…?”
