The Villainess Hides Her Wealth

“This is the last generosity I give you.”

My father poisoned me. As I shook my head and clung to him, he forced me to swallow the poison.
Even though his daughter was vomiting blood and struggling in pain, he had no sympathy or regret.

Being so cold and indifferent, the man I had been following as my brother was the same.

“Father, you’re too merciful for killing her this easily. Considering what this b*tch has done…”
“Be quiet, Jiksen. She was once your sister.”
“No, from the beginning to now, I only have one sister, Lilika.”

The eyes of the same color as mine were filled with contempt.
Disgust and all sorts of negative emotions poured out on me, worse than looking at the rubbish on the side of the road.

“From today on, our family name will no longer be tarnished.”

I had been squirming, and as I heard those words, the trembling on my fingertips subsided.

Betrayal, regret?
A massive, undefined emotion swirled around.

‘I… What have I been living for?’

Who knew that at the end of my life, I would be abandoned by my family?
Maybe I should have guessed from the moment the man who was my fiancé dragged me as I was running away.

There was no one in this world who loved me.

‘No, there was one…’

My mother, who had passed away. The love she gave was as real as it could be.
Even as I closed my eyes, I could dimly picture her in my mind, worrying about me.
In her arms, when I was young, I knew nothing and was only happy.

Lilika.
It certainly was like that, until that child showed up.

“From today on, she will be your younger sister.”

It was certainly from that moment that my peaceful life was in turmoil.
The more the child adapted, the more I was ostracized within the duchy and the social world, and the more I felt out of place.

My father and brother, who used to treat me like family even though we weren’t very close, gave me a sharp look.
My fiancé, who used to be polite even though he didn’t love me, requested our engagement to be broken off.

The ritual of endlessly looking back on the past in dizzying memories went back to before I was born and shone a light on my previous life.

“Have you read this novel? It’s a new childcare story.

I could see myself in my previous life accepting a novel on the recommendation of a friend.

“The title is “Please Love the Poor Princess”. It’s about the main character, Lilika, who melts her father and brother’s hearts with her cuteness and loveliness…”

The brilliant life of Lilika, who became the esteemed daughter of the duke’s family overnight.
Although she was ignored because she was an illegitimate child, she is loved by her father and brother, and defeats her half-sister, who is a villainess.

The process was so kindly detailed that I couldn’t pretend not to know.

‘Yeah, that’s right.’

Yuria Primrose.
The half-sister who tormented the protagonist.
That was me.

Lilika was the protagonist, and I was the villainess in a supporting role. By doing evil deeds, everyone felt sorry for that child and loved her.
The reason I was dying was because, as of today, I had fulfilled my duty. Now, everyone in the world loved Lilika.

‘Mother.’

I wanted to see her appearance one last time.
Even if I was a villainess, to her, I was the most precious treasure in the world.

Cough.

I vomited black blood for the last time. I was losing consciousness and close to death, but I could still smile.
If I died like this, I would be able to see my mother again…

At that moment, something warm enveloped my whole body.
Someone looked at me and smiled innocently. Like a spirit from a fairy tale I read as a child.

***

“Yuria!”

It was a voice different from the cold one I had been hearing until now. A cozy and sweet voice, so familiar even though I hadn’t heard it in a long time…

“M-mother…?”
“Yes, I am here. Are you awake now?”

My mother, who died a few years ago, was looking at me with a worried expression.

“Let’s see, your fever is…”
“Mother, Mother… I…”

I desperately grabbed the hand that was reaching out to me and didn’t let go. My mother looked surprised, but she didn’t push me away.

“Mommy isn’t going anywhere. Are you still in pain? Did you have a nightmare?”

The hands that wrapped around my extended hand were extremely warm. The feeling was too vivid to be a dream.

“The doctor said you would be fine as long as the fever went down…”

I was sure I was killed by my father. The horrible pain that felt like my organs were burning was too vivid to be called a dream.

“Mother… Was I not poisoned? Didn’t I meet you after death?”
“Yuria, you must have been in a lot of pain. But why would you die when you’re only nineteen? You will meet the person you love and live happier than your mother.”

No, I died shortly after reaching adulthood.
And by the hands of my father and brother.

But there was something else that caught my attention first.

“I am… nineteen?”

When I heard that, I got up immediately. And looked for the mirror in my room.
A clean and clear face, with no sign of having vomited blood after being poisoned and no sign of growing thin due to having run away.

“What on earth…”

Then, as I was mumbling, there were a few knocks on the door, and then it opened without permission.

“Mother, we are here.”
“Sister, you’re awake! That’s a relief!”

It was my brother and Lilika.
My mother looked at the two of them and stood up as if it was a good thing.

“You came just in time. I’m going to call the doctor, so watch Yuria for me. I didn’t expect her to regain consciousness while the maid was away!”
“Don’t worry, Mother. We will take good care of her.”

Lilika replied with the face of a polite daughter.
But as soon as my mother left, my brother made an openly dissatisfied expression.

“You look fine for someone who is sick.”

His cold expression overlapped with his appearance of looking down on me as I was dying.

That’s right. It certainly wasn’t just a dream I had.

“I thought you were going to skip Lilika’s birthday banquet using the excuse of resting quietly.”
“Brother, what do you mean?!”
“It’s not something I can’t say, is it? It’s not the first time she has tormented you. It would be easy to fake being sick.”
“…”

I didn’t say anything, I just stared at my brother.

According to what my mother said, I was 19 years old right now, and it was the year 363 of the imperial calendar.

‘My brother hated me openly even then…’

I believed that even if not as much as Lilika, he would think of me as family.
But I was the only one who thought so.
My only real family was my late mother…

“Sister, don’t pay attention to what Brother says. I’m really glad you’re awake.”

She was glad.

Lilika was smiling kindly, unlike my older brother, who openly expressed his dislike for me.

“L-Lilika. This is a false charge…”
“Are you pretending you don’t know, or are you really stupid? How could I not know it’s a false charge? I was the one who made it up.”
“What did you say?”

But I remembered. Lilika, smiling with a cunning face. Something I had never seen before in my life.

“I didn’t like you from the beginning, Sister.”

On the other hand, I wasn’t hostile to Lilika from the beginning. Of course, I was wary of Lilika as she suddenly appeared, but I was not a villainess who openly and viciously attacked her younger sister.

“… You’re good at embroidery.”

And I remembered clearly how at some point, Lilika used me as a scapegoat and took my place.

“Because I’m constantly learning how to embroider from my teacher.”

That day, I felt frustrated and tried to help because she mended the precious handkerchief that was left by her late mother with crude sewing.

“That’s enough. Give it back.”
“Wait, I’m not done with the embroidery yet.”
“You’re just pretending to be a noble lady now!”
“What? It’s not like that!”

How can I forget the memory of my goodwill being returned as a betrayal?

“Oh!”

Like the handkerchief that had been clearly ripped apart, our relationship had become estranged beyond repair.
Lilika, who had held out the handkerchief gently, suddenly tried to snatch it away. When she pulled it in a still unfinished state, I only applied strength reflexively.

“Yuria, how could you rip apart the handkerchief, the only thing Mother left for Lilika!”
“It’s not like that, I was in the middle of sewing it.”

I looked at Lilika in frustration.

“Lilika, tell the truth!”
“B-because of you, the only thing my mother left me was ruined!”

Instead of explaining what happened, Lilika just cried.
Was it a reflexive child’s behavior to avoid a difficult situation?

“It’s a pity, she lost her biological mother’s only relic.”
“Even if the mother is different, she is also the Duke’s child. Poor thing.”

However, after that, as the gazes of the people who used to point their finger at her for being an illegitimate child softened with sympathy and compassion… Lilika began to make up things more and more deliberately.
She just touched what I wanted to have and the things I cherished.

“Sister, Madam Tiller is going to teach me!”
“What?”

When Lilika told me directly that our father had given her the tutor who was supposed to be assigned to me as ‘punishment’, provoking my anger, she cried sadly as if the spite of when we first met had disappeared.

“You became an older sister, and yet you make this much trouble because you can’t give up your tutor to your younger sister?”

Even though I was born first, we were born in the same year, and there was only a couple of months difference between our birthdays.
It was around that time that she started calling me her older sister even though we were the same age, used honorifics, and claimed to be weak.

‘I… I was the villainess Lilika needed to become a saint.’

Turning my eyes away from the pretentious-looking Lilika, I saw a red dress hanging in the room.
It was the outfit that had been prepared for me to wear at Lilika’s birthday banquet in a few days.

‘If I was really given a chance, if I really came back in time…’

In this life, I want to be happy with my mother for a long time.
I just needed to leave this duchy.

“Fake being sick? It’s disappointing to hear you say that. Is it because I, as an older sister, can’t attend my younger sister’s birthday banquet?”

But there was something I had to do first before I could do that.

“Happy birthday in advance, Lilika. I hope it will be a day you never forget.”

Because I’ll make it that way.