Valtraus’s gaze seemed to follow the tip of my finger toward the Confession Villain, but then brushed past and fixed on his brother sitting next to him.
On Valtraus’s face, displeasure and contempt were clearly visible.
From that expression, I could guess.
Because the older villain had lied to his family that he had become friends with Valtraus.
It seemed the younger villain had taken that as fact and run his mouth carelessly.
‘So those two really weren’t friends after all!’
I thought so.
Since Valtraus was aiming for the position of heir to the ducal family, he couldn’t just hand out the status of “friend” to anyone.
And the Book of Names I received right after possession had no information about the Confession Villain either.
Nevertheless, I included the word “friend” in the letter purely to provoke Valtraus.
If he received a letter from the younger brother he usually hated and looked down on, implying he should choose his friends carefully.
He would be enraged at the thought of his image being tarnished and wouldn’t be able to stay silent.
That’s all there was to it.
I planned to just say I misunderstood if Valtraus later corrected that he wasn’t friends with the eldest son of the Offrausi family.
In short, I had no intention of causing discord like this.
‘But what can I do? They keep trying to sow discord…’
No matter how I looked at it, these villain brothers must really love stirring up trouble.
So I decided to treat them to a dose of their own medicine.
And incidentally, to provoke Valtraus, who had been sitting there acting all high and mighty as if he were a judge.
“W-Well… I mean…”
The older villain, receiving Valtraus’s gaze, fidgeted with a troubled expression.
His pupils darted around as if he had “guilty” written on his forehead.
It seemed this guy had blabbed about being friends with the eldest young lord of House Austri to earn his younger brother’s respect.
‘Maybe he even lied about being friends with the First Prince?’
That wasn’t my concern, so I let it slide.
The important thing now was that seeing the older villain’s reaction, Valtraus had become certain of his deduction.
“How dare you, without knowing your place, impersonate my friend?”
“N-No, sir…! I only said that I had dined with Young Lord Valtraus a few times and exchanged conversation…”
Could it be he felt a sense of crisis facing Valtraus’s icy expression?
The older villain stammered out excuses in embarrassment, then suddenly raised his voice at his younger brother.
“Drembi! Why on earth did you tell such a lie to Young Lord Karbaldr?!”
“Wh-what…? L-lie…? N-no… I never mentioned anything about you and Young Lord Valtraus’s relationship to Young Lord Karbaldr!”
The Confession Villain briefly showed confusion but soon buried it and focused on the immediate problem.
Though merely a trivial villain prepared for a heroine capture event.
He seemed to have at least a minimal sense of social cues.
But that “minimal” was practically negligible.
“Then are you saying that I am lying now?”
I said this with a straight face.
In reality, the Confession Villain had never even mentioned Valtraus’s footsteps, so I was indeed lying.
But that didn’t matter.
No one present could prove my words false.
And from the conversation in the previous chapter, the other side had already been branded a “liar.”
“No matter how embarrassed you are, how dare you…! How could you frame Young Lord Karbaldr as a liar?!”
The older villain, startled, pressed his younger brother.
Just minutes ago, he had maintained that as the older brother, he fully trusted his younger brother’s words.
But now he couldn’t believe the “truth” flowing from his younger brother’s mouth and treated it as a “lie to escape the crisis.”
“I never imagined that even your words about us becoming close because your brother and mine were friends were all lies… And now you deny even saying that…”
I twisted my face into a scowl, clenched both hands on the table, and trembled slightly.
To appear genuinely angry.
Acting like this, I couldn’t turn my head to check Valtraus’s expression.
So I couldn’t confirm Valtraus’s reaction.
But I could still see the faces of the two sitting across from me.
“W-what the hell…?”
The Confession Villain muttered this, his mouth agape in disbelief.
His older brother glared at him with a twisted expression.
“To think you were such a liar who wouldn’t admit your fault… Drembi, I’m truly disappointed in you.”
“Bro-Brother…?”
“If you had just admitted your mistake and apologized from the start, this could have ended! Why do you keep lying and making things awkward for me? Don’t you know it’s not good for you to earn the displeasure of the two young lords here?!”
“I… I…”
As his brother, who had trusted him, showed distrust and raised his voice, the younger villain, as if shocked, made a crying face and his lips quivered.
He wanted to say he was wronged, but he couldn’t spit it out, fearing his brother would get angrier.
“Apologize now.”
The older villain urged his younger brother to apologize in a somewhat coercive tone.
Then the younger one, with a sorrowful expression, looked at his brother for a moment and then dropped his head.
He seemed to realize that to get past the immediate crisis and calm his brother’s anger, he had no choice but to comply.
“I’m sorry.”
Finally, an apology flowed from the Confession Villain’s mouth.
But this wasn’t enough to close this chapter.
The person who should receive his apology was Hailga, not me.
‘Because the original author likely cannot capture this situation in her work!’
Among those present.
The only main character from 《Nas-e》 here was “Karbaldr,” and since I possessed Karbaldr’s body, I wasn’t a character created by Author Senna.
So she probably couldn’t even observe this.
“If you just say that, how am I supposed to know what you’re apologizing for?”
“I exaggerated something you said without meaning… and not only did I claim that my brother and your brother were friends, but I also denied doing so… I apologize for that.”
“Are you apologizing because you truly think you did wrong? Or are you just doing it reluctantly because your brother told you to?”
I propped my chin on one hand and tapped the table with the index finger of the other, looking displeased.
Then the other person seemed to get upset and lifted his head, which had been bowed low.
The villain’s face, thus revealed, was plastered with a sense of unfairness.
‘It’s not like he has anything to be unfair about, but his act of being wronged kept irritating me…’
At least now his expression matches the situation.
“I really… I sincerely apologize. I’m sorry…”
He bowed his head so deeply I thought he might end up with his nose in the teacup.
It was an incredibly humble posture.
Considering how he had ignored my reaction and run his mouth carelessly in Chapter 260, this was unthinkable.
‘Did he only realize that he couldn’t match up to Karbaldr after seeing his brother groveling and watching Valtraus and me?’
That thought made me laugh dryly.
But I hardened my expression again and continued the conversation.
“You’ve admitted one mistake, so you should be able to admit another.”
“I’m also sorry about mentioning remarriage. Everyone knows the great reputation of the Austri Ducal Family, and I am well aware that His Grace did not remarry not because he couldn’t, but because he chose not to. I never meant it about him!! But still, I am truly sorry…”
“You’re speaking out of turn again. Who are you to keep spouting off about my father’s remarriage?”
“W-Well… I was afraid the two young lords might misunderstand…”
“Don’t bother adding useless excuses.”
“Y-yes…”
“If you’ve done wrong, you should apologize.”
“I’m sorry. I added excuses without knowing my place…”
The moment the Confession Villain closed his mouth, I could see his jaw clench tightly.
He was clearly swallowing his anger.
Which meant he wasn’t truly repentant.
‘I suppose there’s no helping it? He’s not like Karbaldr, who did bad things because of some backstory; he’s just a villain set up as a naturally low-grade person!’
From the start, I only forced an apology by using the duke family’s power to crush him.
There was no way I could get sincere remorse and repentance out of him.
The only fortunate thing was that in creative works, a low-grade villain character like this is more satisfying not when he repents and turns over a new leaf.
But when he is forced to apologize, feeling humiliated, it feels more cathartic.
Especially since Senna’s readers tended to prefer such endings.
“Now that you know it’s wrong to speak carelessly about someone’s remarriage, shouldn’t you also apologize to the people who heard it directly?”
“S-Surely you don’t mean…! You want me to apologize to a mere baron and his daughter?!”
“Even if he’s a baron, he is still a noble with a title recognized by His Imperial Majesty, and also a professor at your academy. Is there any reason you can’t do that?”
“That’s… but… no, still… how could I apologize to a mere baron…”
He was only the child of a count, and he himself didn’t even hold the rank of baron, let alone viscount or knight.
After apologizing for not knowing his place, he still failed to grasp it.
Instead of saying more to such a guy.
– tap, tap, tap, tap.
I moved my index finger and tapped the table again.
Then the Confession Villain, watching my expression, quietly said this.
“We have to pay duel compensation to that family anyway, so there’s no need to apologize, is there?”
That compensation would come from his father’s coffers, not his own pocket.
He was not only unfilial but also shameless.
So I gave him a look that said “Do you call that a valid point?” and let out a dry laugh.
“I just can’t understand why Young Lord Karbaldr cares not only about Hailga but also about her father. Perhaps Young Lord likes Hailga?”
\-This kind of nonsense spewed from the Confession Villain’s mouth.
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