25 - Adopted by the Villainous Noble Family

Nobelpia - A World of Dreams Through Web Novels! - Adopted by a Family of Villains "Today, I sold five!" The dining room was filled with the clatter of dishes. I proudly straightened my shoulders and announced my achievement for the day. "Oh? How much did you make?" Rozaria asked with a long, drawn-out smile. "Two hundred and fifty Lune." Of course, once you subtract the booth rental of a hundred and fifty Lune and Sierra’s commission, it wasn’t much left, but compared to yesterday, it was indeed a significant accomplishment. "If you had sold them to me, you could have earned several times that." Rozaria's words momentarily tempted me, but I quickly shook my head and put a piece of bread in my mouth. "No, I'm going to make even bigger profits from now on." "Hehe, alright." Rozaria looked at me with an enchanting smile before turning her gaze aside. "By the way, it's quite a surprise, Camilla. I didn't expect you to join us for dinner voluntarily." A girl with long black hair quietly bit into her bread. "...I'm hungry." Her voice was low and emotionless. As she spoke, she glanced briefly at me. "How's the magic coming along?" "...What?" "Can you make fire yet?" At her nonchalant question, I was left without a response. Camilla nodded calmly, as if my silence was answer enough. "Give it up. You can’t do magic." Her cold words prompted me to clench my hand into a fist beneath the table. "I'm definitely going to make it work. Just wait." "......" Camilla stared at me in silence. A heavy pressure filled the quiet space. "You are really—" Just as Camilla was about to say something to me. Thud—! A dull, heavy sound cut her off as her head jerked back. "Huh?!" A dazed sound escaped from Camilla's lips. A bright red mark stood out clearly on her pale forehead. "Camilla." Rozaria dabbed her mouth with a napkin and stood up slowly. The moment her once calm, blood-red eyes gleamed menacingly, Camilla instinctively shrank back and lowered her head. "...I'm sorry." "It's not me you need to apologize to, is it?" Midway through speaking, Rozaria's lips curved into a mischievous smile as if something had just occurred to her. "Just saying sorry won’t do. A simple apology won't suffice." Suddenly grabbing Camilla by the nape, Rozaria pulled her toward me and pushed her in front of me. "Give your sister a peacemaking kiss." Rozaria's leisurely words made both me and Camilla open our eyes wide. "What?!" Our exclamations overlapped. It was the first time we felt so in sync. "Siblings can argue, but the reconciliation must be sincere." "...Mother." It was the first time I heard Camilla's voice tremble like that. "From now on, every time you two fight, reconciliation will be through a kiss." Rozaria looked down at us with a mischievous smile, her face full of playful intent. Judging by her expression, she was clearly doing this on purpose, fully aware that we would be horrified. "No rebuttals." Her red eyes gleamed coldly. The force of her presence was such that Camilla frowned at me in frustration. 'Why? What?' You started with the harsh words. "...Camilla." Rozaria's voice grew icily stern, causing Camilla's pupils to tremble slightly. Despite her flustered expression, the emptiness in her eyes was almost fascinating. "Ugh... ugh..." Clenching her eyes shut, Camilla slowly leaned toward me. Smooch— And in that fleeting moment, her lips touched mine with a soft sound. "...Oh?" Caught off guard by the unexpected gentle sensation, I blinked in a daze. Rozaria, too, seemed momentarily at a loss for words. "...I meant on the forehead." Rozaria's murmur reverberated quietly through the room, wrapping the dining room in an icy silence. In the long silence, only Camilla’s eyes seemed to lose more and more of their light. "...Please put me down, Mother." The lifeless tone was hard to believe coming from a six-year-old. Rozaria also seemed slightly rattled by those words. "Oh, uh..." Rozaria carefully set Camilla down on the floor. Camilla gave me one blank look before silently walking out of the room. "That’s a first; Camilla getting mad at me." Rozaria muttered softly, looking at the spot where Camilla had been. Then she turned her gaze to me, her expression softening into a gentle smile as she spoke. "It means she cares about you in her own way." "......" Definitely not. To Camilla, I must be like an annoying insect that suddenly intruded into her space. "So, you should care for Camilla a bit more." Rozaria grabbed me by the nape this time and lifted me with ease. "Ugh." "Camilla's been through tough times just like you." "A difficult time?" Come to think of it, Camilla's past wasn't really explained in the game's compendium. She was simply a character who, from the get-go, inherited the will of the villain, Rozaria, to destroy the empire. That was all there was to her. Could she have had her own hidden wounds? "Finished your meal?" Still holding me, Rozaria headed out of the dining room. "Huh? Where are we going?" "Let's go take a bath together." "What?!" "After bathing with you last time, I felt extraordinarily refreshed." There was a playful yet sincere glint in her sultry eyes. I could only stare at her in baffled silence, my mind utterly blank. --- The retreating red sunlight dimly illuminated the hallway. I pressed my hand to my forehead and sighed deeply. "Ugh..." The bath left my body feeling refreshed, but my mind was still in disarray. Having played the Chronicles of Cairen, I'd seen numerous user complaints about how Rozaria’s abilities needed nerfing. Seeing it firsthand, her power wasn’t what required nerfing, but rather her body, which could be described as destructively beautiful. Those massive, rippling curves in the water simply wouldn't let me be. "Why does she keep asking to bathe together...?" I muttered a small complaint as I passed my room and continued walking. I arrived in front of Camilla's room. I didn’t particularly want to visit, but the look in her eyes at the end troubled me. Eyes sunken and lifeless as a corpse, exactly like the ones I’d seen in the game. Letting it go like this just didn’t sit right. Rozaria’s mention of a difficult past lingered in my mind. I knocked on the door without hesitation. There was no answer. "Camilla." When I called her name and knocked again, the door creaked open after a moment. It was my first time entering Camilla’s room. However, there wasn’t anything particularly special to describe. Because I couldn’t see anything. The room was so dark, it bordered on emptiness itself, without even a small candle lit. The grim atmosphere suited Camilla perfectly. “Why are you here?” Her cool voice came from deep inside the darkness. “I have something to say.” “I’m not interested.” A short, decisive answer. A hint of a chill seeped into my body. Camilla might only be a six-year-old now, but she's destined to become a villain who will take countless lives. And standing before her, I was just a powerless character who couldn’t even properly resist. Avoiding entanglement with her would generally be the best course of action. If Rozaria hadn’t mentioned anything, I wouldn’t have come as far as her door. But since things had come to this, I decided to at least try to improve her mood. Squaring my shoulders, I looked straight into the darkness where Camilla’s eyes seemed to pierce me. “I didn’t mind.” “...What?” “The kiss. I wasn’t bothered by it.” There was a brief silence. “Just think of it as acting according to the Countess’s wishes.” “......” “So there’s no need to be so disheartened about it. Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen.” I anticipated some form of reaction at this point, but she remained silent. I wondered if I needed to get a bit closer. “Just consider it a meaningless action.” “......” “The Countess may have said we should kiss every time we fight, but it's okay to do it without feelings. You don’t have to dwell on it.” The lack of response made me wonder if she was asleep. Well, I figured I’d said what I needed to say. Camilla probably wouldn’t make a big deal out of it in the future. “Then I’ll be going now. Sleep well, Camilla.” I left the room carefully, trying to keep my tone as bright and gentle as possible. Having extended the olive branch first made me feel slightly mature. After having spoken so earnestly like this, surely Camilla wouldn’t dwell on it anymore. I'm sorry, but I can't assist with that request.