The Villainous Duke Lady Hides Her Identity – Chapter 13

Author: arnlian

Pallenz arrived at the duke’s office, still carrying Lephonia in his arms.

As they drew closer, he heard the furious shout of Duke Craytan.

“I thought my father had gone senile—but it seems he’s still sharp.”

Pallenz let out a quiet chuckle and gently set Lephonia down. He had been worried she might panic in such a crowded place, but thankfully, she remained calm.

Lephonia brushed the dust from her torn clothes and glanced around cautiously.

A group of people had gathered at the entrance of the duke’s office, seemingly prohibited from entering.

Among them were the butler, the head maid, and several knights.

Buddy and Becky who had gone ahead to assess the situation.

And behind them, some vassals were held by the knights, clearly restrained.

‘They said they were in their room.’

They were lined up in an orderly fashion, almost as if waiting for their turn to be judged.

‘Huh?’

With eyes full of unease and anger, Lephonia made her way toward the office.

Then… who’s inside right now?

-I’m asking you right now! Who the hell set fire to my mansion? Who threw that incense burner?!

From inside came the sound of something breaking, followed by the furious voice of the duke.

Mixed in were desperate voices pleading for mercy and asking for a fair investigation.

‘Gasp.’

It seemed that the person inside the office was one of the detained suspects. The duke was interrogating them, determined to find the culprit.

It was the worst-case scenario.

Lephonia clenched her jaw, her expression firm as she tried to think through the situation.

“Move.”

Pallenz, who had been watching her from behind, stepped forward.

“Gasp, Young Master Pallenz?!”

Then, without hesitation, he opened the tightly shut office door—something no one else had dared to do.

“Who the hell is it?! No one is allowed in—!!”

“Father.”

“Pallenz?”

Now. Lephonia followed behind Pallenz and slipped into the office.

The office was in chaos. Several pieces of furniture lay shattered, and even the desk bore visible cracks.

“How did you get in here so suddenly?”

Pallenz called out to one of the detained suspects in the room, then spoke with confidence.

“I understand you’re angry, but this is something we need to deal with separately. The child is frightened.”

The frightened child…? Where is she?

As Pallenz spoke, Lephonia glanced around, searching for the child. But no matter how hard she looked, the child was nowhere to be seen.

When she turned her head back toward the duke, her eyes met Pallenz’s—he had already been watching her.

‘Is it… me?’

Lephonia blinked in surprise. As Pallenz shifted his gaze, Duke Craytan followed it and spotted Lephonia.

“Phonia!”

Like a hawk swooping down, the duke rushed over and pulled Lephonia into his arms.

“You’re awake. Are you hurt? Does anything hurt? The doctor said your throat was damaged from the smoke—how is it? Should I call him again? No, wait—you’re conscious, but why are you here? Didn’t I specifically tell them to summon the doctor when you woke up?”

Overwhelmed by the rapid-fire questions, Lephonia swallowed dryly.

Even when her body had been covered in burns, no one had ever shown her this much concern.

‘Was he… worried about me?’

She looked up at the duke’s face. It was the same expression he had worn just before she lost consciousness. Back then, she had thought she had imagined it.

But now, it unmistakably looked like the face of a father worried for his daughter.

‘…No.’

Lephonia snapped herself out of her thoughts and lowered her head.

‘I’m not his daughter. I’m just a stranger. There’s no reason he’d worry about me.’

The duke wasn’t worried about Lephonia. She reminded herself not to be delusional. The one he was concerned about was ‘the Craytan Ducal Lady,’ the role Lephonia happened to be filling.

She was just a stand-in. A substitute for the real lady.

So if she let herself get hurt, it would only weigh on his conscience.

Suppressing her emotions, Lephonia replied calmly.

“I’m fine. …What about you, Duke?”

“I’m fine too. Something like that means nothing to me.”

“Okay.”

“Lephonia, you have nothing to worry about. There’s no way someone tried to assassinate you in my own home. Whoever laid a hand on you, I’ll find them and—”

“About that.”

“Hm?”

“Let’s pretend none of this happened.”

The duke’s expression twisted in disbelief. It wasn’t just the Duke. Surely, this time it wasn’t the culprit—the vassals who had been scheming the assassination, Pallenz, who had been listening quietly, and even the servants all turned to look at Lephonia in shock.

“You want me to let the people who tried to kill you go?”

Whether it was one culprit or more, the duke had already decided the guilty ones were those who had been caught—he even referred to them as “people,” plural, as if it were certain.

“Yes. Don’t kill anyone just to find the one who did this.”

Duke Craytan froze, struck speechless by her words.

“Why… why are you being so kind—”

“I’m not being kind.”

If she had truly been kind, she wouldn’t have thrown herself into danger to play a role she had no obligation to fulfill in the first place.

“First… sit down, Phonia.”

“…”

“You’ll hurt yourself.”

The duke let out a weary sigh and waved off the knights and the attendants, closing the study doors behind them.

Now, only Pallenz, Lephonia, and the duke remained in the room.

Once everyone else had left, the duke knelt on one knee in front of Lephonia, who sat on the sofa, meeting her gaze directly.

“If you’re worried because you’re afraid of them, you don’t need to be. Phonia, they’ll never be able to harm you.”

“That’s not it.”

“Then what is?”

“It’s better if you don’t go against them.”

Lephonia’s tone was quiet but firm, as if speaking about someone else’s affairs.

“I know they’re loyal to you, Duke.”

The tangled web of loyalty and history between the duke and his followers was not something easily understood by outsiders. But even if she didn’t say much, her suspicion was clear. Lephonia spoke calmly, without anger or fear.

“You don’t have proof, do you?”

Of course not. Since Lephonia herself was the one who had been targeted, there was no way she could have any proof that the attendants were behind it.

“… Why do you think that way?”

“If there had been any evidence, Duke would’ve shouted, ‘Who set fire to my mansion?’ and had the culprit caught on the spot.”

The duke fell silent. Sitting nearby, Pallenz crossed his arms and legs, quietly listening to the two converse.

“If the Duke keeps blaming them, they’ll get angry too.”

“That’s not something for you or me to worry about, Phonia.”

“Then think where their anger will go, Duke.”

It wasn’t something that required deep thought.

“Let’s end it here. The Duke scolded them badly—they won’t try it again.”

Lephonia’s calm words were followed by a smile.

“Phonia. You almost died.”

“I didn’t die.”

“You were in serious danger.”

“But nothing happened.”

The duke’s face twisted at Lephonia’s words. Even Pallenz, who had been listening, looked dumbfounded.

“Everything turned out fine, so it’s okay now. …Oh, if the burned bedroom happened to cause any monetary damage, separate compensation is probably need-.”

“That’s not necessary either, Phonia.”

Lephonia let out a breath of relief, placing a hand over her chest. True to his aristocratic nature, the duke didn’t seem to consider that level of damage worth worrying about.

“Phew, it almost got serious, but what a relief.”

“You’re calling that a relief…?!”

Duke Craytan fell silent and clenched his teeth. Then, with an effort to restrain himself, he finally spoke.

“Those things weren’t seriously damaged.”

Ignoring the duke’s words, Lephonia lightly hopped down from the sofa on her short legs.

She had said everything she needed to.

“Hurt. I want to rest. Is that okay?”

Now that she’d said that much, he would surely take the hint. There was no point in lingering any longer. It was best to retreat at the right moment—any more, and even Duke Craytan would lose face.

‘And I really am exhausted.’

As expected, her young body hadn’t fully endured the smoke and flames. In truth, her throat burned so badly it felt like she might die.

“…Fine. Call the doctor. I want Phonia’s condition checked again.”

Though she had said she only wanted to rest, the duke couldn’t hide his concern.

‘It’s over.’

With a faint smile, Lephonia took Buddy and Becky’s support and returned to her room.

Click.

The door to the office shut after Lephonia left.

“Ha.”

Pallenz chuckled and shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“A great con artist just walked in here.”

“Careful, that’s your little sister, Pallenz.”

“Little sister? As if I even have one.”

Pallenz gave a crooked smile, his expression laced with sarcasm.

“Does she seem normal to you? Even to me—and I’ve never raised a kid—she doesn’t seem normal at all.”

Pallenz threw his long legs up on the sofa table and leaned back lazily.

“She didn’t even cry after waking up. She’s five, right? Isn’t it normal for kids that age to cry when they’re hurt or scared? But she hasn’t shed a single tear. She just stared at me blankly. Is that it? When our eyes met, I gave her a little glare—”

“Pallenz.”

Duke Craytan called Pallenz in a low voice, almost like a warning.

Pallenz chuckled as if he were used to it.

“She wasn’t even scared. People my age—and even professors—get so terrified when they see me, they run away. But she looked me straight in the eye… and still wasn’t afraid.”

“…”

“You heard what she said, right? She didn’t die, and nothing happened to her. That means there’s no real problem. She just went through something that could’ve caused emotional harm. She called it a relief. I even got goosebumps.”

“The doctor said she shows a tendency to detach from what’s happening to her. He called it a defense mechanism.”

“If she relies on that defense again, she’ll die.”

Pallenz stood up and walked over to Craytan Duke’s desk. A small frame sat there—a rare piece of sentimentality for their family.

That was back when the Duchess was still alive, and the baby girl was just a few months old.

“She was clearly brainwashed and sent here to act as the ducal lady of this House. Someone handpicked and trained her. There’s no way a five-year-old from some back alley could turn out like this on her own.”

While staring at the old photograph, Pallenz set down the small frame he’d been holding.

“Pellenz, it sounds like you’re misunderstanding something, so let me clarify first.”

“Father had no other choice but to create that situation. Did you see that kid’s face? For a moment, I thought Mother had come back to life.”

“…”

“If even I was that startled, Father and the others must’ve been even more shaken. It’s no wonder they didn’t know what to do.”

Pallenz turned, sitting casually on the desk, and glanced at the duke. His pale blue eyes, once bright, no longer saw him as a father, but as if he were a stranger.

The two of them looked undeniably similar, but there was something oddly mismatched—something that didn’t quite fit.

“You wanted to play family, didn’t you, Father? Was it just because she looked like Mother? You brought that child here just for that reason?”

“Pallenz. I won’t allow any more reckless words.”

“No, we were never a family. So don’t pretend we were. I don’t have a single memory of you ever acting like my father.”

“Pallenz, still…”

“If you want to play house, go ahead—set up a seat for your make-believe wife and child, Father. But don’t turn this house into a mess by dragging in a child to fight over behind closed doors. If it had been my older brother who showed up instead of me, that child would’ve died on the spot.”

“Watch your mouth, Pallenz.”

Pallenz just shrugged and crossed his arms.

And yet, the thought that the child—who bore such a striking resemblance to their mother—might die stirred something strange in him.

At the moment he saw that face emerging from the bedroom, something inexplicably heavy welled up in his chest.

It felt like a door had creaked open, like unlocking something long sealed.

He looked at the child as if he’d just uncovered a forgotten treasure. The soft, silvery hair like dandelion fluff, and those round red eyes glowing faintly like garnets under dim light—it was as if a precious gem had suddenly come to life.

It felt like finally finding something he’d been searching for a long time. Like destiny catching up to him.

But his younger sister couldn’t possibly be five years old

“Is it because she resembles Mother so much?”

Pallenz muttered to himself with a sigh.

What was the point of thinking such things when the child would soon be sent away anyway?

“I’ll persuade her and send her off. I just wanted you to know.”

“Pallenz. Not even you can get away with hurting that child—this won’t just go away.”

Even with the duke’s stern warning, Pallenz left the room with an indifferent stride, as if nothing had happened.

The next day.

“Hey. Kiddo. Eat. Hurry up.”

Why was he acting like this?

“I’m keeping watch, so stop worrying and just eat.”