When the Villains Unite - Chapter 1; Part 3
My day begins at dawn. It’s been 47 days since I’ve transmigrated into this book.
I don’t know the exact day that the Duke and Duchess die. The novel never explains that. I do know that they die when Bellamy is nine years old. Therefore, there isn’t much time left.
It was 45 days ago that I realized I was in a novel, and I’ve been moving supplies into the Duke’s annex. If it all goes according to plan, I will be trapped in the annex with Bellamy and Damian.
The annex was primarily used to receive outside guests and, in very rare cases, imprison members of the ducal family. For example, as a place to punish a crazy duchess or an unruly child.
Well, I don’t think the current Duke and Duchess are the type to associate with child abusers, but with the passage of time, there are bound to be some crazy people. The Orca brothers alone are destined to be blackened…
It wasn’t as if I didn’t think about running off alone, but that only remained a thought.
Rose was one of the most beautiful girls in the Empire. As handsome as the Orca brothers were, this was not surprising, as she was similar in appearance to their sister, Ceria.
Her navy blue hair, like Bellamy’s, cascaded to her waist, and her eyes were the same golden color as Damian’s.
At the very least, if a girl like this was wandering the streets alone, she would have been kidnapped and sold into slavery.
Even if she had been saved by a benevolent benefactor, it was only a matter of time before she was murdered by the Orca brothers who escaped the annex. They were almost insane by the time they broke out of the building.
It’s not just me, either. The Orca brothers will kill all their relatives, children, and adults alike.
I just have to live with them and get along with them…
By the way, aren’t I bending over backward for them?
It was dawn. Everyone was asleep, but I was trudging to the Duke’s basement, carrying a large bag full of soap with both hands.
The house has secret passageways that only the head of the family and his heirs know about. An old shelf in the manor’s cellar leads to a passageway to the annex. It was built primarily in case of attack.
Three years later, the passage is discovered by a relative, emptied, then closed. The annex’s supplies run out after two years, and the only thing they’ll be left with is ingredients.
For nearly a year, the water will be dirty. Cleanliness is essential for children with weak immune systems. Exposure to germs is like poison.
Three years later, Damian suffers from an inexplicable high fever. As Damian’s health rapidly deteriorates, Bellamy tries to steal food and medicine for him through a secret underground passage but is discovered. He is nearly beaten to death by a trusted relative, Count Wright. Eventually, he too becomes infected due to the wounds.
The upshot of this is that Damian and Bellamy both severely suffer from the disease to the point they almost die, but they become immune.
Count Wright, the first name on their kill list, was exterminated shortly after the Orca brothers escaped from the annex.
I’ll have to bring antibiotics. This place could never be too stocked because we’ll be locked up for nine years.
Still, we had plenty. After filling and padlocking two rooms in the annex, I started to stock a third room. It was worth ten or more trips back and forth at dawn.
I stacked the soap in one corner, then grabbed the empty bags and headed back through the secret passage.
This place was eerie, to say the least. Even in my previous life, I hadn’t seen many ghost movies that could compare.
Suddenly, the thought of ghosts gave me goosebumps. I can’t wait to leave. Next time, I should carry a magic flashlight.
I walked through the narrow passageway that led into the main house and out of the basement. While my bag got lighter, my heart became heavier. No matter how much I carried, it would be depleted by the years.
I was in a depressed mood and about to rob the medicine cabinet when I felt a slight stirring behind me. I felt goosebumps all over my body again because I was just thinking about ghosts.
When I watched horror movies, I always wanted the main character to run away when the ghost was behind them. However, more often than not, the main character will look behind them.
Only now do I realize that it’s a natural reaction. I twitch, almost like a person in a trance, and look at what’s behind me. Just like a protagonist in a third-rate horror movie.
After turning around and confirming someone’s presence, I breathed a sigh of relief.
So yes, there aren’t ghosts in this world.
But his presence is just as unwelcome to me right now.
“I thought we had simply taken in a beggar, but I realize now that you are a thief.”
Bellamy crossed his arms and looked down at me, furrowing his eyebrows.
When he realizes what I’ve done for them, he’ll weep tears of joy day and night. Dick.1 her little comments like this are ALL through the story she’s so funny
“What do you mean a ‘thief?’”
I knew he’d be suspicious of me moving around in the middle of the night with a bag in each hand, but I went along anyway.
“Don’t be silly. Our clothes and books went missing this week, and Damian’s wooden sword last week. Who else would steal it if not you?”
Oh dear, was I that careless?
Well, I was in a hurry, so I grabbed a few things. I even had the audacity to break into their room and steal things while they were sleeping.
“You’re so predictable. What did you sell those things for?”
“I didn’t sell them!”
This is a bit unfair. All I did was move them around for their own good, but now I’m being treated like a lowly beggar.
He doesn’t understand my behavior right now. It’s no wonder because the mansion is full of jewelry, yet I’m taking things that are worthless.
His words stabbed me in my heart, and I answered in the affirmative. As I became younger, I grew younger in my thinking as well.
“Ha, then why did you steal it?”
“It’s…”
“…”
“It’s just because I’m a kleptomaniac, hehe!”
What an idiot. I stole it, and now I’m proudly boasting about kleptomania.
I brushed past him in his moment of disbelief and stormed up to my room. When I glanced back, Bellamy was staring at me, his eyes like navy opal jewels, viciously gleaming. Moving the antibiotics will have to wait.
I foolishly thought that I’d rather be haunted and went to bed, hiding the bag. I hadn’t slept past dawn in a month, so I easily dozed off.
That night, I dreamed of being killed by Bellamy and Damian.
After my encounter with Bellamy that night, the way he looked at me began to hold a glimmer of contempt, not just hatred.
After being treated this way, I can see why Rose easily divulged their information to Count Wright in the novel.
She had no love for them in the first place. If I were an ignorant child, I would have hated them too. I wouldn’t have liked to be so blatantly disliked. But as a grown-up, I can understand. It must be awful to share your parental affection with a stranger. And in his eyes, I’m a beggar and a thief.
This is so unfair. I’m not doing this because I want to, I’m just trying to live!
I’m only being glared at by Bellamy, but Damian has been bullying me in his own way.
I had to have my left ankle wrapped again due to the stairs, courtesy of Damian. I screamed as I felt my ankle snap and the Duchess came running out. I accidentally triggered the Duchess’s trauma and witnessed her having a seizure.
I was currently on bed rest by order of the Duchess’s physician. Even Damian seemed surprised by his mother’s seizure. He’s been placed on probation by the Duke. It wasn’t hard to believe that this child, just a boy, would become a murderer like Bellamy.
There were many events, large and small, and time passed quickly. As I had expected, the Duke and Duchess informed us that they were going to inspect an estate across the ocean on the continent of Raikal, and I pulled out all the stops to dissuade them from going.
“Father, mother, did you know about the Bermuda Triangle?”
There is no such thing in this world, so I eagerly explained. The Duke and Duchess declared me the genius of the century and said they would send me to the academy.
“Father, mother, they say if a bird flies low, the weather is bad!”
Once again, I unintentionally reinforced the theory that Rose von Orca is a genius.
No matter how I tried to convince them, it didn’t work. But I had one more trick up my sleeve.
It was the last thing I wanted to do.
Two days before the Duke and Duchess set out, I sneaked into an underground passage at dawn and lifted a glass bottle of white liquid. This was milk that was two weeks past its expiration date.
Ugh, I really don’t want to do this.
I closed my eyes and quickly gulped it down. As an indescribable taste pervaded, nausea took over. It was enough to give me food poisoning.
Predictably, I spent the next day in and out of bed with a high fever, diarrhea, and dehydration. I also tried crying and making a scene with the ducal couple at this age.
My efforts managed to postpone their departure for a few days, but once I felt better, they left the ducal residence in the early morning hours. So, the dark period for the Duke of Orca began, despite hoping it would never come.
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Translator
