When the Villains Unite - Chapter 1; Part 1
The ‘clinking’ sound of silverware echoed through the dining room. The family atmosphere, created by the Duke and Duchess, was somewhat disconcerting.
It was because of my presence.
In the midst of the Ducal couple laughing and talking, two boys emanate artificial smiles that don’t match their age. They were my two brothers according to the family registry. Naturally, neither of the boys was pleased to see the strange girl who had replaced their dead sister.
I knew that well. I was an impurity to them.
Their occasional, cold stares were more than I could endure. It wasn’t simply because I could feel their unadulterated hatred, but because I knew they would kill me within eight years.
I am destined to become a spy who works against them. This novel will continue as written unless something changes.
The Cage of the Canary.
This is a psychological, fiction novel set in medieval times.
The heroine of the novel is Aria von Euassis. The woman who becomes the Empress of the Empire after I am killed by the Orca brothers.
She was the perfect canary in a cage. A beautiful face, voice, and a good heart. As is the stereotypical reverse harem novel, most of the men in the story fall for her. The brothers of my adopted family, the Duke of Orca, are no exception.
In the end, it’s Crown Prince Kane who becomes the male lead.
The Orca brothers are the main villains in this novel. They play an important role in the story as they keep the canary in a cage and torture her to their liking.
Even if they were villains, I couldn’t hate them after reading the novel several times. Throughout the story, confinement and violence are their routines, but their blackness may be due to childhood abuse by relatives.
Bellamy von Orca and Damian von Orca.
The Duke and Duchess of Orca are parents who dearly love their children. They may have shown fragility by replacing one child in the absence of another, but they love them just the same.
The parents who gave them such love were taken from them in an instant.
The Duke was obligated to carry out the affairs of the Imperial Court, as well as govern his own land. The problem was that the Duchy was on another continent across the ocean.
Once every two years, the Duke and Duchess go to inspect the land. Unfortunately, when the Orca children are less than ten years old, they end up shipwrecked due to a huge wave and die. When the siblings hear the news, their relatives imprison the Orca children during a power struggle at the Ducal estate.
Rose von Orca plays a vital role in this. Yes, that’s me.
The Duke’s relatives secretly hope that the Orca children die of a disease or accident, but the presence of the Emperor, the Duke’s best friend, prevents them from doing so.
All the Emperor and the child could do was pray that they would grow up to be geniuses, as they were denied the education of heirs to the dukedom: the liberal arts, and swordsmanship.
Along the way, Rose becomes a spy for Count Wright, a relative of the Duke.
In the novel, Rose is a quick-thinking, but a greedy child.
The meals provided to the imprisoned Orca siblings were scanty and tasteless. To be precise, there were only ingredients laid out in the dining room of the annex. Unsurprisingly, the food was terrible for children who couldn’t cook.
The impatient Rose fell for Count Wright’s candy-coated words. His orders were simple: report on the boys’ every move.
If there was something she wanted, the Count would go out of his way to give it to her, but that didn’t last long.
As time went on, their relatives became less and less interested in her, and Rose gave fewer and fewer updates. With the decreased frequency, Rose became restless and hysterical.
The original Rose didn’t know that her brothers knew she was a spy. It was only a matter of time before they, who blackened, killed her. The brothers killed her and hid her in a small room before the remaining family could discover her. The body remained there until the end of the novel.
I couldn’t help but feel terrified to possess her body.
Before entering the novel, I had complained that my life was unhappy. Now that I was in a body that was destined to suffer such a miserable fate, I felt nostalgia for my previous life.
“Rose, if you eat a lot, you’ll be as big as Belle and Dami.”
As the Duchess happily chatted, I found myself munching on a sesame seed salad. I must have been chewing nonstop because of my grim thoughts about the future.
I can eat all I want, but I’ll never be bigger than those two.
Indeed, when the brothers escape the annex, they receive the sub-male lead buff and their height exceeds 180 cm.1 ~5’11 for my fellow Americans
It isn’t just their height that is impressive, but also their appearance.
With eyes and hair as deep as the navy blue sky at night, Bellamy was a gentle, handsome man.
On the other hand, Damian, who inherited the features of the Imperial Family, has blonde hair and golden eyes that outshine the bright moon in the night sky and is catlike and cold.
In fact, the coldness of his personality was outmatched by Bellamy, but it was masked by his gentle appearance.
Who knew those cute kids would grow up to be the villains who kidnap and imprison the heroine?
The Duchess’s words drew their attention to me. I’d been in this house for over a month, but I wasn’t used to being the center of attention among the beautiful family.
I smiled and awkwardly waved her off.
“I’m just not in the mood today…”
At my words, both the Duke and the Duchess turned towards me, their faces full of concern.
“If she says she doesn’t have an appetite, we’ll have to prepare some medicine, my dear.”
“As if she wasn’t thin enough, but now she doesn’t have an appetite.”
I hadn’t expected them to be so concerned about my lack of appetite for a day or so. I could see how much their daughter, whom I had replaced, was loved here. While the Ducal couple’s eyes focused on me, Bellamy’s and Damian’s faces turned grim. One must wonder how many masks they have.
“No, I’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep,” I tell them, smiling with childlike innocence. Honestly, the attention was just uncomfortable.
“Mom, mom! I got first place in the math test at the academy today!”
I wondered what to say to change the subject, but that thought was cut short by Damian’s cry for attention from his parents.
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Translator
