A Painting of the Villainess as a Young Lady

ed again.

“Anyway, have you thought about holding an exhibition for your art?”

“…I can’t keep up with the flow of this conversation, Young Lord.”

“It’s a waste to keep your paintings here in the annex.
An opportunity will surely come in due time.”

“……”

Violet decided to give up on responding to Roen at all.

* * *

While Violet was truly quite fed up, the situation in the main mansion was slowly changing.
Even so, things couldn’t possibly change that much overnight.

Many things did not change in an instant because of the firmly established impressions that have remained in place until now.

This was especially true for the angelic image that Aileen had manufactured for herself.

Duke Everett was just the kind of man who’s impossible to read.
It was like that even for his own children.

What kind of emotions he harbored, what kind of thoughts he had, and what kind of attitude he’d convey—everything was a mystery.
Nevertheless, he was a prominent duke brimming with respectability.

After what had happened during their dinner together the other day, Roen had given up all hope that their father would resolve the situation.

Mikhail kept insisting that the duke was playing favorites and that his favorite was Violet, but in Roen’s eyes, this was not the case.

The further he investigated, the more it was revealed just how much of a spectacle the truth was.

Since the duchess’s passing, there had been no one managing House Everett’s internal affairs. 

This had been going on for more than a decade.

Amidst this mess, the fox proclaimed herself to be king, but the biggest problem was actually the head maid, who had been reigning over the residence as though she were king.

That person had originally been Aileen’s nanny, and she was an outsider who followed Aileen into the duchy when the girl had been adopted.
Throughout the years, she helped Aileen, then she finally took the position of head maid for herself.

In the end, no matter how much the weak Aileen acted like a fox, she was just a kid.
There’s a limit to the number of tricks that a child could think of.

It’s a wonder how all this came to be, but there was apparently someone pulling the strings from behind.

What a spectacle it was—truly a spectacle—just how much the head maid so thoroughly schemed to ostracize one single child.

There was once a time when Violet had cried and asked Roen for help.
As he recalled that time, Roen couldn’t help but ruffle his hair haphazardly.

Sometimes, oftentimes… such memories resurfaced and caused him pain.

He thought about how he should slowly cut off the head maid… But the people who served as her hands and feet were a problem, too.

Clicking his tongue, Roen soon sighed.
There’s already been a change of hands in the personnel, but there’s still quite a few filthy rats left.

If those people had been affiliated with the family’s enemies, House Everett would have already fallen to ruin.

Father, have you always been so terribly incompetent?

Lost in thought as he was gauging the situation, Roen eventually stood up from his seat.

Since he had already made up his mind, it was best to finish it right away.