I Reincarnated As A Villainess, But Why Did I Become A Cat Butler Instead? - Chapter 3

Chapter 2.1

‘I can’t believe he saw through me right away.’

The hands that rested on my shoulders were strong. He put more strength into the grasp.

I tried to look at him confidently without flinching in pain.

“Is this how the Count conducts business? Changing goods like this is unforgivable.”

He was truly insensitive, going as far as calling people mere commodities.

“I didn’t mean to deceive you, Duke Blois,” I said, conceding immediately before he’d break my shoulder like it’s a toy. “As you can see, I’m not Renée. I am her sister, Rowaine.”

“Why are you here?”

He was a villain described as very capricious, cruel and cold-hearted. Knowing that he never hesitated to kill or destroy people as he pleased, I chose my next words carefully.

“I thought that it doesn’t matter who the bride is. I hear you’re looking for a woman of the right family… isn’t this the case?”

His head tilted to one side. Maybe it’s because what I said wasn’t wrong, so the hand over my shoulder relaxed a bit.

It was as though he was a cat playing with prey without any intention of eating it.

Depending on its mood, a cat would either let go of the game when it wasn’t hungry or would keep playing with it until it stopped breathing. Whereafter, the cat would throw it away without devouring it.

“I heard that abusing shapeshifters like me is a hobby of yours.”< He laughed quietly as if he were having fun. Unable to grasp the meaning of that laughter, I swallowed to wet my dry throat and spoke a little brazenly.

“When you discussed the matter with my father and my sister, from what I understand, there was no such condition that a woman who mistreats shapeshifters could never be the Duke’s marriage partner. The rest of the conditions are things that I also meet, so there shouldn’t be any problem.”

His emerald eyes gleamed dangerously. Somehow, as I tried to get out of this crisis, I felt as if I walked into another one instead.

I quickly added before he could say anything else.

“If my hobby will pose a problem, then I promise that I will never play with the Duke.”

“Ha?”

Laughter erupted from the Duke of Blois.

̊ · : * ✧ * : · ̊

The Duke let out a laugh, and I wasn’t sure whether it was a ridicule or not.

Without saying anything, he shooed me off to the butler.

The butler then took me to the annex, sternly explaining that the Duke would never allow first-time guests to stay in the main building.

‘If he were going to accept me as a bride, he wouldn’t have given me a room in the annex.’

In the novel, Renée was guided to a bedroom on the fourth floor, which could only be used by the Duke’s family. This was during the first day she entered the Duke’s residence. On the other hand, I was driven away to the annex building.

Even if I didn’t ask what the Duke planned to do with me, I knew what was going on.

Still, I decided not to jump the gun.

‘I did come up with a plan, after all.’

He would need me soon because I knew what Renée saw in the Duke’s room on the first day.

According to the novel, the same thing would ensue around midnight later.

“If you need anything, you may pull the rope.”

And at the butler’s remark, I was left alone in the cold room.

“Is there any good excuse to somehow be in front of the Duke’s room later…”

It wasn’t long before midnight.

̊ · : * ✧ * : · ̊

At the Duke’s Office—

After Rowaine left, Dimitri sat down in front of his desk, fingers pressing over his temples.

Someone knocked and opened the door before entering the room. He was a man with sharp eyes and dark blue hair.

“What are you going to do with her?” the man asked and handed him a glass of wine placed on a tray.

“Who knows.”

Dimitri took a large sip of the wine. As the pungent liquid flowed down his throat, warmth spread inside his chest.

“If it’s Rowaine Larscel… Isn’t that the woman the Emperor is coveting? At the last banquet at the Imperial Palace, she was caught kissing Count Hermann Herth by the Emperor.”

Trying to suppress his throbbing headache, Dimitri recalled the woman who had just looked up at him. She looked daring, but it didn’t seem like she was any special.

As if it wasn’t enough to steal the Emperor’s heart, she even had a rendezvous with another man right under the Emperor’s nose in the palace. If he weren’t a ferocious playboy, that would have been enough to provoke the Emperor’s jealousy.

‘Either way, she must have that much confidence to keep the Emperor’s attention like that.’

Why would such a woman suddenly abandon the emperor and say that she came to become my bride?

“From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like Count Larscel forced her to come. What the hell is she up to?”

Was Count Larscel involved? Dimitri didn’t know for certain, but it didn’t seem like this was the case. Count Larscel was a businessman—his eyes lit up at the opportunity of selling his daughters to anyone who could pay the highest bid.

‘Although, I must say…’

Dimitri leaned back languidly on his chair.< ‘She smelled good, that girl.’

The scent was so good that he could forget this terrible headache for a moment. It was one that he had never smelled before. It was like a fresh incense from dried bark or ground grass, but Dimitri had to be careful not to get drunk by it and bury his nose into Rowaine’s nape.

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