The Reason I Have To Be A Villain

[Renée’s POV]

Eaugh!

A kiss on the back of the hand, at that moment I screamed inwardly in astonishment, I could feel everyone around me whispering.

Either that or not, I cursed violently inwardly.

What’s this crazy guy? Why are you kissing me!

By the time I could clearly feel the stiffness from the back of my hand to my back, Anastasia, who was by my side, intervened.

She was a woman who had spoken harshly to Diwen just a moment ago, but now she had a completely different attitude.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Anastasia Solen. It’s an honor to meet the Bradley brothers.”

Bradley…?

Bradley brothers?

I didn’t know there were two Bradleys, who I naturally thought would be one person, so I opened my mouth for a moment. I immediately closed my eyes and organized my thoughts.

This is Bradley. Somehow I wondered why he was kissing Renée Blair, the loony of the age.

So this guy is the only one who favors Renée Blair?

No. The invitation only had a last name, not a first name. So the one who is friendly enough to call me muse may not be this guy, but the guy next to him.

I saw another Bradley next to the man who kissed me. I immediately abandoned the idea that he might be friendly toward me.

It was because the eyes that looked at me were very dull…….

I’m sure. The friendly person who sent the letter to Renée Blair is this goddamn man who kissed the back of my hand.

“It’s an honor for me too. I didn’t expect the royal wizard to come to our concert. And……”

Bradley, who had kissed the back of my hand, looked away in response to Anastasia’s words. Soft chestnut eyes looked behind me.

“The Hugo Knights……. No, now we should call it the Royal Knights. I can’t believe the famous leader is here. I should pay special attention to this concert.”

I was wondering who he was talking to, it was Diwen. When I turned my head slightly, Diwen approached with a friendly smile on his face.

“Waaa, do you even know who I am? It’s just a knight.”

“A mere knight, if a dragon slayer said that, true mediocre knights would not even be able to straighten their shoulders. You’re modest.”

“More than that…”

Huh? Anastasia interjected with a smile and took my hand back from the man’s.

“Unfortunately, Renée is not feeling well and is planning to go back.”

“……Are you not feeling well?”

Huuuh? I just looked at Anastasia’s sudden lie and the man’s question, wondering what to do. No, of course I know Anastasia was trying to send me home.

But did you want to let me go to go as far as lying like this?

“But what do we do?”

As I searched through my complicated mind for what to say, the man with the worried expression smiled. It seemed to say that it was a pity with the drooping eyes and eyebrows.

“Once you enter, you are not allowed to leave until the concert is over.”

“……What?”

“Because today is such a meaningful day… ….”

The man rubbed his chin and smiled a little more. The curved eyes and mouth somehow evoked familiar feelings.

What?

I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. What? Why is my heart suddenly beating like this… … 

Feeling puzzled by the unknown reaction, I pressed down my chest with the hand Anastasia was not holding. The dull heartbeat clearly came through my hand.

“But if it’s a doctor, it’s also in the House. May I guide you?”

“No……”

It was me who answered the man’s question. It was a very quiet answer that one wouldn’t even know if they didn’t listen, but everyone seemed to have heard it. Feeling the gaze pinned on me, I raised my head.

“It’s not serious, but Anastasia has a lot of worries…….”

“Yes, because she has a lot of worries?”

The chestnut eyes gently urged me to answer, but I could not speak easily. I couldn’t imagine how Renée Blair would have spoken to this man in the original novel.

Normally, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to such things, but now I’m more aware of what tone and expression I should use when dealing with this man. What if, like Susan, he finds out I’m not Renée Blair.

So when I was speechless, something came into my field of vision.

“Brooch…”

It was a brooch worn on the man’s chest. The brooch with a large oval red jewel did not look glamorous. It was simple. To the extent that it hadn’t caught my eye at all until now.

But once I saw it, I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

I feel like this has happened once… …

As soon as I whispered into my mouth, a certain scene hit my head as violently as a wave.

Just two months ago, at the banquet hall, I was on the verge of being beaten by a staff with a black jewel.

That’s right, even then I couldn’t take my eyes off it. As if possessed… …

In the thoughts that followed blankly, a soft but somewhat lowered voice brought me to reality.

“Miss Renée?”

Huk.

I faltered back in breathless surprise. If Diwen hadn’t supported my back, I might have stepped on the wrong heel and fallen.

Before that, this man… That brooch this man has…

Only then did I realize why Anastasia was trying to get me out of here. Why did Diwen want to come to this concert. Also, why did Reden tell me not to go to Horrenne House!

“Where did you get that brooch?”

As soon as I realized that, my mouth moved on its own, and I asked something so out of the blue that could be said it was out of nowhere. At least to the person concerned, it would feel like an absurd question.

Isn’t it? If you know what kind of brooch that is, you might know that my question has meaning.

“Hey, Renée is suddenly asking me something weird. You must have liked the brooch quite a bit.”

Diwen grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me aside. It was a touch that didn’t hurt, but I could tell that it meant why I was suddenly asking about it.

“Well, that could be the case. It isn’t the first time that Renée has been interested in jewelry. “

“…….”

“It’s not a difficult question, so I’ll answer it. This brooch…….”

Huh? You’re going to tell me this?

If I’m not mistaken, that brooch is a dragon bone. Dragon bones were stolen from the Hugo Knights one day.

And they were looking for the culprit who stole the dragon bones. Although it was hidden from the royal family.

However, after being caught, they must have started collecting dragon bones and trying to find the culprit. That must be why Diwen was so desperate to come to this concert.

I still don’t know why Anastasia came here, but I understood the situation roughly.

But the other person tells me where he got that brooch, no, that dragon bone. In other words, now you can easily identify the culprit!

As if Diwen hadn’t expected it, his hand wrapped around his shoulder slightly tightened. At the same time, the words that flowed out of the other person’s mouth.

“It’s from my muse.”

TL/N: oh oh oh noooo

“Muse?”

Anastasia, who had been silent, asked back as if she had heard a strange word. And I was dumbfounded and stared blankly at the man.

Muse?

Muse? If it’s a muse, it’s what’s written in the letter I received?

… … Wasn’t that referring to Renée Blair, which is to say me?

The chestnut eyes were soon hidden by the folding eyes and disappeared.

“It’s already been this long. We should get going now. It’s been three years since we had a concert, so I have a lot to prepare.”

“…I see.”

“It was a pleasure to meet you. And……”

After briefly shaking hands with Daiwen, he looked at me again.

“See you later.”

With those short words, he walked away with his twin.

I tried to clear my confused head as I watched the back of him receding.

Dragon bones, I……. Renée Blair gave it to him……?

Unfortunately, cleanup won’t come anytime soon.*

TL/N: My guess is cleaning up old Renée’s mess.

***

After learning what the situation was due to Anastasia’s explanation, I fiercely approached Diwen with the momentum to pursue him to the end of the world.

Diwen backed away, and the ridiculous confrontation ended with Diwen bumping his back into a dead end.

Kwang.

A huge sound rang out when I hit the wall with my palm as if it was empty beyond the wall. Diwen flinched a little, glanced at my hand, then looked down at me.

”Bend your knees.”

“Yes.”

At my words, Diwen slightly bent his knees straight away, and thanks to that, our eyes were level with him.

TL/N: Looks cute in my imagination ngl!

“Was it that hard to tell me that the reason for going to the concert was because of the dragon bones?”

“Because collecting dragon bones is a top-secret… …”

“But?”

“But…”

As he tried to follow my words, he wrinkled his eyebrows as if he felt something strange.

“No, but what’s the deal with that? I shut up because I shouldn’t tell ordinary people like you what we’re doing for what purpose.”

“Hey, I was the one who knocked down that half-dragon two months ago. I’m the one who got caught up in it. And yet I’m an ordinary person?”

“You’re asking something obvious. Do you want me to correct it as an ordinary person who was unfortunately caught up in bad luck?”

I bit my lip while staring at Diwen who was scratching my insides.

So this is the situation. I don’t know the details, but not only the Hugo Knights but also the royal wizard cooperated in collecting the dragon bones, and Diwen and Anastasia were in charge of collecting the bones this time.

TL/N:  Tada! Anastasia WAS THE WOMAN OF MY CONFUSION IN CHAPTER 36! Aka, she’s the woman that’s working with Diwen in this Bradley case.

But the bearer of the bone he finally found was the Bradley brothers, and the only way to meet them was at this concert.

He tried to get a ticket quickly, but it was difficult to get it. Until he saw the invitation sent to me!

So, you punk! Taking advantage of me to come here……!

…No, that’s not it. It’s not to the point of using me. He asked me for a ticket from the beginning…….

I didn’t give him a ticket because I didn’t know why he asked for it so much.

And, besides, I was going to the concert because of Bradley’s letter……. In a way, it was my will that I came here and it was something I brought on myself.

But…

“But don’t you still have to tell me? Let’s say I’m a normal person as you say. But if you think about it the other way around, the blood* that was caught up in bad luck……!”

TL/N: Her life-threatening injury.

I thought my voice was getting louder because of resentment, so I turned around and looked at people’s faces, then turned my head again and stuck my face close to him. With the voice all the down.

“I am a victim… … ! You should have at least told me, the victim, that it was dangerous here!”

“Oh…… really? That’s a bummer. I’m not good at being considerate.”

He shook his head slightly and replied in a tone that was not at all sad. I was dumbfounded for a moment at the sight.

Do my words sound like a joke?

No, I genuinely hated being in the same space as the holder of the dragon bones.

It was scary, to be exact. What happened two months ago passed in a blink of an eye and I couldn’t reveal it because I didn’t have time to confide in someone as I was getting a penalty, but then I was scared.

That half-dragon existence is awful.

But it’s as if nothing happened……. You’re acting like it’s nothing serious about me being like this.

When I thought that far, my anger boiled, and I got closer to his face.

“Why are they hosting this concert in the first place? You belong to the royal family now. Can’t you cancel this concert with the authority of the royal family?”

“More than that, I can hear you even if you don’t speak up close, so keep your face away.”

“Just answer me. Can’t you cancel it?”

He kept his eyes elsewhere with his head up, then smiled a little and turned his head back to normal. Then I was startled.

It wasn’t until he turned his head that I realized that it was quite close.

I was just about to get away from him, when he straightened out his bent knees and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck, and pulled me tight.

TL/N: CHOKING. SCREAMING. AHHHHHHHH

ARE WE SEEING SOME SIGNS OF DIWEN BEING A ML??! The cliffhanger is killing me but it’s 2.30am as I finish this chapter LMAO.

I’m still pretty interested in Zion cause he seemed really nice from the mirror mission, but we haven’t seen many interactions between him or Renée yet.

But the dynamics between Diwen and Renée feels so fun!!! Ahhhhhhhh it’s a tough life with tough choices!