Chapter 5

I quickly racked my brain.

Had there been anything like this in Save the Villainous Brother?

‘I don’t remember a thing.’

It couldn’t be helped. No matter how popular Save the Villainous Brother had been, I’d only read it once and moved on, just like all the other novels.

“Melissa.”

The Grand Duke of Cardicha called Melissa without offering any further explanation.

“You mustn’t trouble Deputy Director Harrington any more.”

I swallowed hard.

There was one thing I knew for certain.

The Grand Duke of Cardicha didn’t hate Melissa, nor was he indifferent to her.

If he had been, his entire face wouldn’t have twisted with relief the moment he saw her.

‘But…’

Good intentions didn’t necessarily lead to good results.

It was true that the Grand Duke of Cardicha cared for his younger sister as family, but Melissa was so frightened of her brother that she had spent the entire time hiding behind me—a stranger she’d met for the first time today—instead of going to him.

And that curt way he spoke to her.

‘There really is a problem here.’

If things continued like this, the future of their relationship was painfully obvious.

Considering their age difference and circumstances, it would only spiral toward disaster.

‘I can’t let them go like this.’

Even if the Grand Duke of Cardicha weren’t the mastermind who would eventually plunge the Empire into flames, I still wouldn’t have been able to turn my back on Melissa.

Melissa had awakened one morning in a completely different body, in a completely different world.

She had lost her mother, her father, and Choco all at once.

She would never be able to return again.

‘This child needs me.’

I gently pried Melissa’s right hand away from my skirt, where she’d been clutching the fabric so tightly it hurt, and took her hand in mine instead.

The little girl’s palm was drenched in cold sweat.

‘…What are the adults doing to this poor child?’

I looked straight at the Grand Duke of Cardicha and opened my mouth.

“I happened to encounter Lady Melissa by chance. And for reasons I don’t know, she seems to feel very close to me.”

“…Let’s talk outside.”

I barely managed to calm Melissa down when she began tearing up again, then obediently followed the Grand Duke of Cardicha outside.

The Grand Duke slammed the door shut before fixing me with a piercing stare.

“What exactly did you do?”

I’d expected a question like this, but even so, his presence was far more threatening than I’d imagined.

“Lady Melissa is going through a very difficult time. So although it may be presumptuous of me, I found myself concerned about her. I only acted out of consideration for Lady Melissa, so I hope you’ll be understanding.”

“That is a completely different answer from what I asked. I asked what you did.”

“I simply listened to Lady Melissa.”

I had done my absolute best to politely convey, If you’d bothered to properly listen to your own sister even once, things wouldn’t have gotten this bad, you bastard.

Naturally, it went right over his head.

“There is no way it could be something as simple as that.”

The Grand Duke blatantly dismissed my answer.

“All this time, I’ve brought in the finest nannies, tutors, even academy professors the Empire has to offer. I’ve tried every sort of person imaginable. Yet not one of them managed to earn Melissa’s heart.”

He strode toward me.

“And yet some commoner who knows who-knows-where she came from, who couldn’t even afford a proper dress for a duke’s ball… managed to win Melissa over?”

Cold marble touched my back.

Before I’d even realized it, the Grand Duke had slowly backed me into a corner, leaving me pressed against the wall as I looked up at him from only inches away.

A strange scent brushed against the tip of my nose.

A cold, unfamiliar metallic smell, as though it had seeped into him from years of handling metal.

My stomach churned.

From excitement?

No.

From instinctive fear!

Every instinct I had was screaming at me to run, but that wasn’t an option right now.

‘Wait… don’t tell me.’

Had I unknowingly planted a death flag?

Wasn’t one of the basic qualifications for a villainous mastermind in a romance-fantasy novel the ability to casually cut down extras?

And I was the ultimate extra among extras!

If he sliced me up right here, who would even care?

Director McGuffin would probably just go, Tsk.

My former colleagues at the Ministry of Finance would probably cheer.

By now, the Grand Duke had completely closed the distance between us, and his shadow swallowed me whole.

As my eyes darted around desperately, I caught sight of the hand he’d braced against the wall in the corner of my vision.

Pale and bloodless, with every muscle tensed.

If he used even a fraction too much of that strength, my life could disappear in an instant.

I was in a truly life-or-death situation.

I clearly ought to have been begging for my life, but…

‘This is so unfair!’

Why the hell did I have to be threatened like this!?

I’d comforted a crying little girl. Shouldn’t he at least be grateful instead of radiating such murderous intent?

In the end, the words I’d only been thinking burst out of my mouth.

“Have you ever actually taken the time to listen to your sister, Your Grace?”

“…?”

For the first time, a trace of bewilderment flickered through the Grand Duke’s eyes, which until then had been filled with nothing but murderous intent.

…It was extremely faint, but it was there.

‘Did that… actually work?’

I felt like I was beginning to understand the Grand Duke of Cardicha, at least a little.

Without showing any sign of fear or confusion, I continued.

“Lady Melissa is lonely. Even though everyone treats her with the utmost care, there isn’t a single person who genuinely listens to her.”

“…Don’t act so smugly as though you know everything just because you’ve exchanged a few words with my sister.”

I smiled.

Broadly.

With all the smugness I could muster.

“Then do you know Lady Melissa well, Your Grace? Well enough to be certain that I’m wrong?”

“Hah.”

The Grand Duke of Cardicha took a step back, but his sharp gaze, as though it could see straight through me, never left my face.

For several seconds.

A silence that felt like an eternity passed.

The first one to break eye contact was the Grand Duke of Cardicha.

He stared toward the door for a moment, where Melissa was waiting outside, then looked back at me.

His eyes had softened ever so slightly.

“I’ll give you a chance. If you truly know Melissa, and if you truly care about her…”

Strangely, I should have been afraid.

But I wasn’t.

Because his threatening voice somehow sounded like the voice of someone desperately asking for help.

“Prove it.”

“Y-You’re really going to make fried rice?”

“Of course.”

I grinned at Melissa.

It was the first weekend after the ball.

I was staying with Melissa at the Grand Duke’s villa in the capital.

Fortunately, the Grand Duke had agreed to my request to send all the servants away and leave just Melissa and me alone.

He still looked suspicious, but when Melissa earnestly asked him to allow it, he seemed unable to refuse her.

“You went to all this trouble to bring so much precious rice. We have to make proper use of it.”

“B-But… I tried to explain it. Nobody could make it. They just scolded me for asking them to make some weird food…”

Of course they couldn’t.

Rice was considered an extremely luxurious ingredient in this world and was generally consumed only in the form of rice pudding.

No one would have been able to imagine the form of food Melissa was referring to as “rice.”

“There’s no rice cooker, though. How are you going to make it?”

“We can use a pot.”

‘Come to think of it, it’s been ages since I last cooked rice.’

My homesickness and longing for Korean food had driven me to make all sorts of similar dishes during my first year or two after transmigrating.

After that, I became too busy simply trying to survive, and I stopped cooking altogether.

Even back when I cooked regularly, I’d never actually made fried rice.

I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to produce anything resembling proper fried rice, but…

‘Well, we’ll figure it out somehow.’

The important thing was becoming closer to Melissa.

To be honest, even though Melissa had desperately clung to me that day, it was still difficult to call us close.

Melissa was trying far too hard to win my approval.

She kept making promises she couldn’t possibly keep.

Just like now.

“I’ll really be good. I promise… I’ll study hard, too.”

“You don’t have to study hard. And you don’t have to become ‘good,’ either.”

I replied while vigorously chopping green onions.

The fact that the sound of my knife hitting the cutting board seemed to grow louder was purely my imagination.

“But…”

Melissa glanced nervously at me.

“If I don’t become good, you’ll leave me too, won’t you? Like all the other unnis, oppas, ladies, and gentlemen…”

“Unnis and oppas?”

“Mm-hmm. There was this count’s daughter unnie… She said she’d never seen a strange child like me before, and then she left. The professor who came after her did the same thing… He called me an idiot.”

…The hand holding the knife trembled involuntarily.

Tap. Rat-a-tat-tat. Tap.

Unable to bring myself to hug the child, I simply chopped the green onions more violently against the cutting board.

…All the while convincing myself that the redness around my eyes was entirely because of the onions.

Finally, the fried rice was finished, and Melissa’s eyes went wide.

“It’s really fried rice.”

“What, did you think it was fake?”

Melissa continued staring at the fried rice with her round eyes before beginning to chatter.

“I… really, really love fried rice. Even at Chinese restaurants, I always order fried rice. Dad used to tease me because I’d always try to steal his shrimp…”

Melissa lowered her head and took a spoonful of fried rice, chewing slowly.

After a long while, she suddenly spoke.

“But Dad always gave me more shrimp from his fried rice.”

“…”

My throat tightened.

The child hadn’t really been longing for fried rice.

She’d been longing for the memories she had made with her family.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have made this.’

We should have just eaten something ordinary, like pasta or stew, then played by drawing pictures or putting together puzzles.

Come to think of it, that would have been a better way to grow closer.

‘…I shouldn’t have made food that would bring back memories of a place she can never return to.’

Then—

“B-But…”

Melissa spoke through trembling tears.

“Your fried rice tastes better. Really…”