I May Be A Villainess, But I Won't Live My Life That Way - Chapter 56

Chapter 56

I pointed to the word ‘tea.

But it wasn’t just ordinary tea. The name of a very premium tea was written there.

“Here, it says ‘tea.’ Are you sure about this? Aren’t all teas similar?”

“No, they’re not. They might all be tea, but don’t they all taste different? So, scientifically analyzing it can reveal the type of tea.”

The hospital director boasted as if he had figured it out.

“Director, there’s something I need to confirm.”

“Confirmation?”

“Do you serve tea to patients at the hospital?”

“Yes. We provide it during meal or snack times.”

“And at the monastery? I heard that Megi had interacted with the nuns at the monastery before.”

“We use the same tea there.”

“I’d like to see what kind it is.”

“The tea?”

“Yes. The tea.”

The tea I had at the orphanage was of a very poor quality. It was a terrible experience that taught me what cheap tea tasted like.

This hospital, as well as the monastery, would probably serve better tea than the Sprendo Orphanage, but it wouldn’t be at the level of drinking this high-end tea found in the Megi’s stomach.

“It’s not difficult to confirm, but…”

The hospital director looked at me as if asking why.

“I’ll let you know after confirming it.”

After a while, when I confirmed the tea brought by the hospital staff, I realized that my guess was correct. Although the hospital offered three types of tea depending on the patient’s preference or menu, there was no high-end tea.

“Um… Why is that?”

The hospital director asked with a puzzled expression, perhaps feeling anxious if there was a problem with the tea served at the hospital.

“Do you know what this is, Director?”

I pointed to where the tea’s name was written.

“Yes, I do. It’s tea, isn’t it? I’ve tried it occasionally at home too.”

The hospital director revealed himself as a noble who also drank such high-end tea.

“It’s not just tea, it’s a very premium brand. It’s not something a commoner like Megi would drink.”

“Ah…”

As if just realizing it, the hospital director let out a short exclamation.

Well, he might not have noticed. After all, it was a tea he had heard of before. Maybe, apart from the tea served at the hospital or the monastery, the hospital director had his own separate supply of tea.

If I hadn’t drunk tea at the Sprendo Orphanage, I wouldn’t have known. I would have just passed it off as the tea I usually drank.

Not knowing that high-end tea and cheap tea were completely different.

“I have other places to go, so I should leave first.”

I needed to confirm other things too.

“So, that means the tea is not used at all in making cupcakes, right?”

“Yeah. We do have a black tea pound in one of our cupcakes, and there’s some pretty good quality black tea in there, but it’s not quite as high end as this, and we use a different type of tea leaf.”

I smiled broadly at the words of the head pastry chef at Angelica’s Bakery. For the first time, I had evidence in my favor.

I didn’t drink tea with Megi. I only gave her the cupcakes as a gift but didn’t consume them together. Megi did invite me to have tea and eat cupcakes with her, but I declined.

I wanted to quickly return home to order a cake to share with my parents.

After I left, someone else drank the tea that someone else brought, along with the cupcakes I gave.

And they poured the tea into that cupcake, whether it was Megi or someone else who drank tea with her.

This hypothesis was the only explanation for both the poison and tea ingredients being found in the cupcakes.

And it must have been someone from the Wensbury Estate.

“Thank you for taking the time. I’m sure your shop is busy.”

“No, thank you for supporting our shop, Miss. We were really struggling at first because we had no reservations due to the high prices, but thanks to the large order from Croft’s afternoon tea, we survived. And since then, our orders have increased tremendously.”

In fact, when I first discovered this shop, there were no customers despite the talk of reservations.

But I liked that it was a clean shop without a speck of dust, despite being empty and accepting only reservations to make fresh pastries.

So, I tried it out, and it was indeed delicious. The ingredients were fresh, and I felt they spared no expense using top-quality ingredients.

“I just bought it because it was delicious.”

I didn’t think about making it a trend or cheering for such a shop to do well.

I just bought and ate it because it was delicious, and I ordered a large quantity because I thought this kind of pastry was necessary for the afternoon tea I hosted. It was the guests who made it trendy that day.

“Still, if it wasn’t for you, Bianca, our patisserie would have failed long ago.”

He smiled broadly as if he were no longer worried about failure.

“Well, it might be a bit off-topic, but may I ask…?”

He paused a little, as if unsure of what to say.

“Go ahead.”

“I know this might be a bit presumptuous, but… could I make the wedding cake for Miss Bianca’s wedding?”

“…What?”

“I won’t accept money for it. Well, Miss Bianca wouldn’t be someone who cares about money, so of course, she won’t mind. I just want to give a small gift at Miss Bianca’s wedding.”

The middle-aged man said shyly. He wanted to make my wedding cake.

“I’d be grateful for your kind offer.”

“Ah… I see. It seems you have a dedicated pastry chef in mind. Well, we’re known now, but we’re not specializing in wedding cakes.”

“It’s not like that.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t have a pastry chef in mind, it was that I hadn’t been thinking about a wedding at all.

For some reason, I had forgotten about marriage and duchesses.

After that, I thought more and more about divorce than marriage, and I was so urgent to save my life and clear my name that I had no time to think about such things.

I used to live like that was my sole purpose.

“I simply don’t want to pre-decide anything for a wedding that might happen at any time.”

And perhaps it wasn’t a matter of when it would happen but whether it would happen at all. Unless it was a soul wedding performed after my death.

The idea of a wedding between the dead and the corpses they left behind was dreadful. Should I revise my will just in case?

Even if I were to die a virgin, please don’t perform a soul wedding.

Oh, wait. Why am I even thinking about dying? I must survive no matter what!

“But according to the rumors I’ve heard…”

He hastily stopped himself from saying whatever he was about to.

“What rumors?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“What rumors?”

“I misspoke.”

“What rumors?”

“…That Lady Croft and Lord Winkaiser are planning to hold a wedding soon…”

As he was pressed again, he seemed unable to resist speaking.

“Such rumors are circulating?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“There’s a rumor that the Winkaiser family is looking into the necessary things for the wedding… So I mentioned it. I want to give Lady Croft a wedding cake as a gift.”

Ricardo seemed determined to act on his own words.

There would be absolutely no breakup; he would marry me.

“I’ll graciously accept your offer. And thank you again for your time.”

Gathering unexpected information, I rose from my seat.

“Panya, do you know where I usually buy my tea?”

“Yes. You mean the high-end import store, right?”

“I need to go there.”

“Now? At this hour? Hasn’t it already closed?”

Panya spoke with concern. Only then did I realize that the sun had already set.

“What time is it now?”

“It’s eight thirty.”

It was not just after sunset; it was quite late.

If it was this time, the shop would have already closed. Of course, they might open the door if I presented my status and demanded it. And I could ask what I wanted to ask.

But I didn’t want to impose such a thing on the shop owner who had been working hard all day and would have to open the store again early tomorrow morning.

“All right. Then I’ll go as soon as the shop opens tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, miss. Shall we go home now?”

“Yes.”

I took Panya’s hand and got into the carriage. A half moon hung softly beyond the window of the running carriage.

As I gazed at the moon, instead of searching for high-end imports, I began to organize the facts I had learned today in my mind.

What if I went to see Maria with just these facts? With this amount of circumstantial evidence, wouldn’t Maria believe me?

It could be possible, or it could not.

However, at least I was sure that Maria didn’t orchestrate Megi’s death.

Maria, being of common birth, wouldn’t know the difference in tea. She even drank the tasteless tea at the orphanage very well.

Moreover, Lady Wensbury, who was reluctant to spend money on Maria, didn’t make sense for Maria, who didn’t have much money, to buy an expensive tea.

A wealthy, arrogant, self-centered aristocrat who would kill someone at the hospital and still drink luxury tea that suited their taste to the bone.

That’s the murderer who killed Meggie.

‘Come to think of it…’

Suddenly, I realized that it wasn’t just me, but nobles were also visiting the Sprendo Orphanage. Ricardo had been there before I visited.

As a patron, Ricardo must have gone into the director’s office at least once, and it’s unlikely that the director never recommended tea to Ricardo.

Did Ricardo drink that tasteless tea?

Suddenly, I imagined Ricardo grimacing while drinking the tea. Or perhaps he put down the teacup without any expression.

“Ugh!”

As I imagined Ricardo putting down the teacup with a stiff expression, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

No, upon second thought, he wouldn’t do that.

Ricardo would probably finish the tea.

Even if it tasted awful and made him want to vomit, if it was a cup of tea poured by a kind and righteous person sitting in front of him, he would silently finish the tea.

And then he would probably say it was delicious.

The Ricardo I recently learned about was that kind of person.

“Smile Love”