🔊 TTS Settings
~Chapter 50~
The brutal sound of flesh striking flesh made the servants freeze with their mouths wide open.
The head maid, who had been slapped, stared at Camilla with eyes full of disbelief.
“What in the world is this—!”
Slap!
Camilla swung her hand again and struck the head maid’s other cheek.
Then she grabbed the shocked head maid by the chin.
“That’s what I should be asking. What did you do to my person?”
Camilla narrowed her eyes in a smile and tilted her chin toward Sonya behind her.
Sonya looked completely flustered.
The head maid was someone who boasted great power under the baron’s trust—never someone to be taken lightly.
But Camilla’s actions, sharp as frost, showed no hesitation.
“Miss, what do you think you’re doing?!”
“So you do think of me as ‘miss’? You treated me like a joke so often, I thought you’d forgotten.”
The head maid, who controlled the servants, had openly touched Camilla’s personal maid.
That was the same as announcing to everyone that Sonya could be openly disrespected.
And that meant Camilla herself could be ignored as well.
When Camilla snapped back, the head maid’s eyebrow twitched.
‘Ha. She’s lost the baron’s favor, the whole city knows she’s a bastard, and now she wants to be treated like a lady?’
In the corrupt Mowin family, the servants followed only one rule.
The law of the strong.
So the servants acted like wolves.
Even if someone carried the baron’s blood, only those acknowledged by the head of the family were worth serving.
Countless branch members had fallen that way, and Camilla—whatever she once was—was now nothing more than useless baggage.
Since the Grand Duke’s birthday banquet, she hadn’t made medicine at all and had stayed locked in her room!
“Well, I am aware that you have not been fulfilling your duties lately, miss.”
“Oh, really?”
Camilla shrugged, grabbed a valuable porcelain vase behind the head maid—
And threw it to the floor.
Crash!
A scream burst from the surrounding servants.
“T-this is madness…!”
“Your duty is to keep the mansion clean, yet you failed to stop me. That means you aren’t fulfilling your duty either, doesn’t it?”
That wasn’t all.
Camilla shoved the furniture beside her. It tilted and smashed into the floor.
Everyone around them turned pale.
“And you’re still failing at your duty right now.”
Sonya and several servants covered their mouths and ran off somewhere.
“…Miss. If you keep this up, only you will suffer. Do you really think the Mowin family will tolerate this kind of behavior?”
Camilla smiled brightly.
Then, with graceful movements, she walked to the next piece of furniture and threw the candlestick on top of it.
Clang!
“Miss?!”
The precious silver candlestick rolled across the floor with a sharp sound.
“Yes. I think they will tolerate it.”
As she spoke, Camilla pushed over the ivory ornaments and silver decorations behind it, one after another.
Yet her movements were too elegant to be called mere violence.
More than that—Camilla was smiling happily.
Overwhelmed by her strange presence, no one dared to stop her.
Then someone grabbed her wrist.
It was Ares, who had just rushed in.
“Hey, are you insane?!”
At those words, Camilla leaned in close to his face. Ares flinched and tried to pull back, his face reddening.
Camilla smiled faintly.
“If you don’t want to collapse again like before, you’d better handle this properly.”
“What?!”
Just as Ares flared up and tried to shove her away, Nina’s voice came from behind.
“S-sister?! Ares! What’s going on?!”
Nina shouted with a pale face.
And behind her—
When Camilla saw Baron Mowin following, she smiled brightly.
“Let go.”
Camilla brushed Ares’s hand away as if swatting a fly.
Then she stepped forward confidently.
“What is all this? I heard there was a disturbance—was this your doing?”
In the middle of the wrecked hallway, Camilla stood neatly and smiled widely.
“Yes. I did it.”
Unlike the days she stayed hidden away, she now spread her arms boldly.
“Father. Do you think the medicine I’ve made so far is worth less than those decorations?”
With dark circles under her eyes, Camilla slowly lifted her thin arm and pointed at the shattered ornaments.
“And do you think the countless medicines I will make in the future, bringing glory to our family, are worth less than these things?”
Every medicine and cosmetic Camilla had made so far was revolutionary.
And the medicines she would make in the future were something the baron would never let go.
‘Now he’ll demand drugs he can freely use for the dark business.’
Camilla lifted her head, her eyes flashing.
“I am Father’s loyal daughter—and a servant of this family.”
Those words were her answer to the day the baron had exposed the truth of the family’s dark business to her.
She was declaring that she would actively support him and help with the family’s crimes.
She felt Sonya, who had returned, staring at her in shock.
But Camilla chose to stand proudly.
If she could neither die nor escape—
‘Then I have no choice but to step closer to the heart of it and wait for my chance.’
For that, she was willing to become the villain of the novel.
She would make countless evil drugs for the Mowin family, rise alongside them, and dig out their deepest secrets.
‘That way, I can protect my people.’
Understanding her answer at last, Baron Mowin burst into laughter.
“That’s right! You suit the Mowin name better than anyone!”
The baron walked up to Camilla and placed his hands on her shoulders.
There was no scolding for destroying valuable decorations.
No punishment for striking a servant.
“Isn’t that right, my daughter?”
Those words meant that the baron now acknowledged Camilla as a true member of the Mowin family—and would continue to favor her.
“Yes, Father.”
Ignoring Nina’s blank face and Ares biting his lip, Camilla replied calmly.
The surrounding servants began to watch Camilla carefully, now that she had regained the baron’s approval.
Seeing that, Camilla simply smiled.
‘And through Sonya, I’ll send everything I learn to Everett—and bring the Mowin family crashing down.’
That day, Camilla decided to destroy the family.
Even if it meant throwing herself into the abyss.
“I will allow you to register under a branch family. As long as you do not touch Nina’s position, you will keep that status forever.”
Inside the baron’s office.
The baron patted Camilla’s shoulder as he spoke, then pulled out a parchment scroll with a sly smile.
“Now then, I think it would be good for you to design medicines like these.”
“…Yes, Father.”
Camilla accepted the parchment, densely filled with descriptions of vicious drugs, and bowed her head.
But the gaze lowered to the floor held neither submission nor resignation.
Leaving the office, Camilla ran into Nina standing in the hallway.
“U-um, sister… can we talk for a bit?”
“Why? I’m busy making medicine right now.”
Nina grew anxious. She wasn’t stupid.
“Sister… the Grand Duke’s son has returned.”
Step.
Camilla stopped walking.
“I—I want to help you meet him again.”
The sister who had suddenly grown cold.
The sister who wouldn’t look at her.
It hurt, as if she were seeing her old self again. All of this had started after the forced engagement.
“S-so—!”
As Nina tried to help, Camilla’s cold gaze pierced her.
“Nina. Your engagement was Father’s decision. And I hate you—for becoming engaged to the Grand Duke’s son instead of me.”
“…What?”
Nina felt the ground crumble beneath her feet.
“Why didn’t you say you didn’t want it?”
“I—I…”
“You could have run away from the engagement ceremony. And now you say you want to help me?”
Camilla snapped coldly at Nina, whose eyes were filling with tears.
“I don’t want to see your face. Go back.”
Nina lowered her head deeply and turned away.
“…I’m sorry, sister.”
As Nina hurried off, Camilla crossed the hallway and stopped at the corner.
A black-haired servant stood there.
They were alone.
The servant—Dicky—whispered.
“…Was it really necessary to say all that?”
“Be quiet. So you finally feel like talking?”
“…Yes.”
“Then follow me.”
Camilla walked away, leaving Dicky—no, Drake, the heir of the Everett family—behind her.
Her green eyes stared straight ahead without wavering.
There was no resignation in them.
Only a small flame burning alone at the bottom of the abyss.
Five years later—the day the original story would begin.
A flame of resolve, determined to destroy everything this family had built.
