The Villain is Being Suspiciously Kind

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“To be honest, I was curious to hear that the Duke Pietro had pioneered an overland route between the two empires.”
“What are you curious about?”
“The thing is…did Desian do it?”
“That…I think it’s better if you ask him directly, all of it.”
Aaron blurted out the end of the sentence.
It was a vague response.
She thought it was too direct to ask, ‘Did Desian Pietro become the duke?’.
Later… should she ask him again when they met in person?
“Citrina, focus on me.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t you have any questions for me?”
“Lots.
The difficulty is that I have too many.”
Citrina laughed low.
Soon after, Aaron brought something up out of the blue.
“Citrina.”
“Yeah?”
“Is your ideal type is still a sweet and kind man?”
‘My ideal type?’
Now that she thought about it, she remembered them asking her about her ideal type long ago.
She didn’t remember clearly, but….
‘Why is Aaron acting so serious?’
Citrina nodded her head slowly at him.
It would be awkward to say she lied at the time and it would also be awkward to talk about it again.
“Yeah.
That’s right.
By the way….”
She answered reasonably.
“Aaron, will you give me your sword? I think I can fix it.”
“….Thank you, Citrina.”
Aaron slowly handed her the sword.
His innocent face that was shifting from boy to man, gleamed brightly.
“I also want to give you a lot of things.”
“Yeah.
When I come back to the empire after becoming an adult, please give them to me.”
“Yeah.
I will definitely give it to you.
Because we’re family.”
He still used the word family.
Even though he had grown into a young man, he had kept the innocent outlook of a boy.
However, for now, Citrina took Aaron’s words as a compliment.
It was a long time since they had met, and they still had so much more to share.
-knock knock-
Then, someone knocked on the door of the reception room.
“Citrina nim, the sun is about to set.”
The escort who accompanied her whispered.
She still had a lot to ask him.
Citrina rose slowly.
She had to leave now after the brief meeting.

“It’s sad that our meeting was so short.”
“I know.
But we’ll meet again soon.”
At Aaron’s bright smile, Citrina nodded.
Citrina followed her escort along the same path she had taken when entering the academy.
Aaron saw her off outside of the academy.
“Then take care, Aaron.”
After hearing Aaron’s simple reply, Citrina headed to the carriage.
But Citrina could not board the carriage.
She found a familiar woman standing in front on her carriage.
It was her younger sister, Elaina Foluin.
“Older sister.”
Elaina restrained Citrina from entering the carriage with a light touch.
When Citrina didn’t get into the carriage, an embarrassed Aaron came to stand closer to her.
“Aaron, you can step back.”
“…are you ok?”
“I can take care of it.”
The anxiety was apparent on Aaron’s face, but he followed Citrina’s direction.
He slowly took a few steps back.
Elaina watched the situation between them with her arms folded, not making a sound.
“Ha! Did you meet privately with Prince Aaron?”
“Yeah.”
“Older sister, you look happy alone.”
Without replying, Citrina passed Elaina.
Elaina grabbed her arm with a nonsensical look on her face.
“Are you not worried about the duke’s curse?”
“That’s right.
I have already been cursed to work hard.”
Elaina and Aaron didn’t seem to have a cordial relationship.
In the novel she read in her past life, Elaina had never cared about curses.
“Do you have anything more to say?”
Citrina didn’t want to spend time on useless feelings.
Oslo’s guards moved closer bit by bit, noticing the atmosphere.
Elaina saw the guards movements and laughed with a stunned face.
“Anything to say? Of course I do.
We’re family, aren’t we?”
“Family?”
“It sounds completely different from when those words came out of Aaron’s mouth a few minutes ago.”
The way Aaron said family made it sound sweet and lovely, while Elaina’s tone was devoid of those sweet sentiments.
Citrina laughed under her breath.
It was these people called her family that had obviously exploited her.
“Don’t talk in such a roundabout way.
Say it straight to my face.”
Citrina answered bluntly.
Elaina’s face turned red.
“I keep hearing about my older sister, the student of the dwarf Oslo nim.
My family’s life has been ruined.
I’m so jealous, and mom said not to say anything to older sister even if someone dies, but I have to say this.”
Elaina clenched her teeth.
Citrina stared at her.
Elaina’s anger was eating away at her.
“You ruined my life.
You abandoned me! I’m at the point where I might need to drop out of the academy.
What do you think of that?”
“Really? That’s a pity.”
“Citrina Foluin!”
“Why don’t you find a sponsor?”
There were plenty of people who would sponsor a knight.
It wasn’t as if Elaina didn’t know that.
But she couldn’t sacrifice her pride, so she preferred use Citrina as her cash cow.
“Do I look like the kind of person who could bow down to another?”
Unlike Citrina’s composed voice, Elaina’s vicious words sounded especially loud.
“Elaina Foluin, was your shallow pride so important? To the point where I had to mortgage my life?”
Citrina replied in a low voice.
A speechless Elaina bit her lip.
“Thanks to you, I worked more than twelve hours every day.
I kept going, thinking of you when insults were thrown at me while acting as a maid as well as a playmate.
I kept thinking that I had to do better for you, and that if Elaina succeeded, our whole family would succeed.
That’s how I used to think.
Did you know that?”
Everything had become clear when she remembered her past life.
Elaina never thought of Citrina as she was succeeding.
This was the most obvious thing now.
Elaina nervously chewed on her lip until it bled.
Citrina spoke monotonously again.
“Once day, everybody started to avoid me.
They told me I was covered in wastewater and not to come out anymore.
The only option I was left with was to go to the duke’s place, which was said to be cursed.”
Citrina sighed deeply and whispered.
“I left because I didn’t want to live like that anymore.
Well, what did you sacrifice?”
“My, my, my pride! It’s because of you that my pride was destroyed! It was you, Citrina Foluin.
You’ve forced me to drop out of the academy! I can’t give up anything.
Everything that I can possess, I’ll take it.”
She was sure Elaina understood on the inside.
However, for Elaina, pride was the most important thing.
Therefore, she could never, ever give up on her pride.
“You should feel guilty for ruining my life.
Understand? It’s because of you that I can’t sign up for the next semester.”
The person who had made Citrina’s life up until now miserable told her to feel guilty.
Even though she was born a noble, she had to work hard and wear raggedy old clothes everyday.
She had barely managed to survive out there on her own.
“I can’t stand it.”
As she finished speaking, Citrina raised her hand.
-smack-!
Citrina slapped Elaina’s left cheek.
Elaina cheek swelled quickly and became red.
“Guilt is something you should feel towards me.”
-smack-!
This time it was the other cheek.
“Don’t be presumptuous, Elaina Foluin.”
Elaina stumbled with a perplexed expression.
But it was only for a bit.
Elaina’s eyes were blazing with fury.
“How dare you!”
Elaina’s hand curled into a fist.
She wasn’t going to slap her, but punch her instead.
Elaina was a strong knight.
However, Aaron appeared first.
Aaron appeared like a bolt of lightening and gripped Elaina’s fist.
“Lady Elaina, who were you doing to hit?”
For a moment, an expressionless look flashed across Aaron’s face that looked just like Desian.
“… Prince Aaron.”
“I remember clearly warning you last time.”
Elaina gritted her teeth as she looked at Aaron.
Citrina looked at Elaina with cold eyes.
“As you know, I’m busy being famous, so I need to get going.”
Oslo guards came forward again to follow her.
“Citrina Foluin!”
Elaina began to scream.
Aaron still held Elaina’s upper body firmly so that she could not move at all.
“You ignored my request to hold on a little more, so I’ll make you regret your decision to ruin my life.
Citrina Foluin, you’re not my family anymore! Understand? Do you get it!”
Citrina ignored her words and got into the carriage.
Then she opened the carriage window.
Elaina was looking at Citrina with bloodshot eyes.
Citrina smiled at her beautifully.
“I’ll look forward to that regret”
Citrina responded.
The carriage set off, leaving Aaron and an angry Elaina behind.