Becoming the Villain’s Family - Chapter 299

Chapter 299

He sighed deeply and muttered.

“I hate sweet things.”

“Still, if it’s really hard to resist, maybe give it a try.”

Aria recalled offering star candies to Tristan during her childhood and asked the maids for some candy. She took one from the jar she received and held it out to him.

“Try this.”

“Siren, have you always been like this?”

“Probably. Before my return, I never had a chance to show my personality.”

Aria smiled with her eyes curving. She pushed the candy between his slightly parted lips.

Grand Duke Valentine, who couldn’t remember ever having candy even as a child, reluctantly rolled it in his mouth and sighed. It was overly sweet. So much so that it was tingling for his palate.

Watching him grimace at the unwelcome sweetness, Aria thought.

‘I can’t believe he never had to restrain his desires?’

She pondered whether the Grand Duke from her past life had always been so unrestrained. She only knew of him through rampant rumors and had only had a meaningful conversation with him once, right before her death.

‘It really shows how different Lloyd and Grand Duke are.’

Ah, that’s why.

She realized why he had said that even if the Valentines were alive, they wouldn’t be the ones he knew. Just as she distinguished between Grand Duke Valentine and Lloyd, he likely did the same.

‘So, even if the Grand Duke comes to this world, he’s still alone.’

Should she be relieved that he harbors no vain hopes, or is it tragic that he can’t even dream?

At least the family won’t be deeply hurt, which was somewhat comforting.

‘Eventually, he has to go back to his destroyed world.’

Once she finds a way to send the Grand Duke and get Lloyd back, she’d have to persuade him to return.

“How does it feel to restrain your desires for the first time, Grand Duke?”

“A cheap sweetness.”

Her laughter burst out at his brutally honest feedback.

The Grand Duke was taken aback, seeing her burst into loud laughter for the first time. The Siren he knew only ever gave a faint smile or a sorrowful laugh, her eyes often void of light.

But now she was…

“I hope whatever you see from now on, it doesn’t dishearten you too much.”

“…”

“There must be a way to redeem your world. We’ll find it, somehow. I’ll help you.”

Such a method couldn’t possibly exist. Just as the dead cannot be revived, everything he had destroyed was irreversible.

Yet, the Grand Duke found himself speechless before Aria’s absurd optimism, to the point where he couldn’t even taste the overpowering sweetness on his tongue anymore.

“How can you say that when I’m the one who brought the world to ruin?”

“It’s not your fault but the corrupted evil within you that’s to blame. As you know, this world is in an endless cycle. As long as it hasn’t completely vanished, there will be a way.”

“…”

“There must be a reason the Grand Duke came to my world.”

The Siren has changed, just like the dazzling world before its destruction, she is too bright to look at directly. The light that seemed to dim now blazed with life, shining more intensely than anything else.

‘You, who endured all injustices.’

Now she seemed strong enough to embrace even his despair.

He told her to fall to hell together.

Instead of falling together, she was reaching out to him who was stuck at the very bottom of it. The Grand Duke found himself utterly captivated by her, unable to look away as if someone had forcefully held him in place.

“I think I should go back because of that.”

Aria expressed her regret to her family.

The head of the Angelo family, no, the King of Garcia, looked as if the world had crumbled before him. His daughter had just arrived, and now she was about to leave again after barely exchanging greetings, all because her husband’s soul had been swapped?

‘Not that the soul seems to have actually…. changed.’

Martin looked at Lloyd with a look full of confusion, trying to comprehend the possibility of a soul swap. Although his eyes and atmosphere seemed a bit rougher around the edges, accepting the idea that the soul was swapped was difficult.

“Is that even possible?”

Martin turned to his son Winter, who seemed to know everything.

Winter nodded.

“I have heard of such cases.”

“Really?”

“Yes, it’s often referred to as possession.”

Winter seemed to be telling a story out of a novel with a serious face.

‘Well, the kind of story that happens only in novels is unfolding right here.’

Aria asked seriously.

“Is there a way to solve this?”

“Should we call an exorcist?”

“…”

Winter appeared to have no clear solution as well.

It was hard to imagine a more plausible solution to such an absurd situation than summoning an exorcist. Grand Duke Valentine scoffed at the idea, as if daring them to try.

“Your Grace, do you feel another soul within you by any chance?”

Aria asked cautiously. Deep down, she hoped he might say yes.

However, after a moment of silence, Grand Duke Valentine replied.

“I can’t really tell.”

So, had Lloyd crossed over to the world before the return…?

‘Even if the exorcism works, it wouldn’t solve the problem.’

There was a risk that Lloyd’s body could end up soulless, equivalent to being dead. Moreover, there was no guarantee that Grand Duke Valentine’s soul could be sent back to his original world.

Aria was torn. She needed Lloyd to be safe but also did not want Grand Duke Valentine’s soul to vanish.

“Perhaps it’s best to return to Valentine first. I need to inform the family about Lloyd’s condition.”

Thus, Aria, Lloyd—or rather, Grand Duke Valentine—set off for Valentine just a day after arriving in Garcia. Ah, of course the all-purpose solver Winter came to solve this unprecedented problem.

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