The Villainess turns the Hourglass

Editor Group: Liber Reverie

It didn’t take much time because they were simple and clear circumstantial evidence that they had nothing to worry about. All this happened while Mielle was unconscious and locked away in her room.

There was no chance for Mielle to plead because there was so much evidence and many witnesses. In the past, Aria hadn’t had any chance to appeal, but now Mielle did. Everything was Mielle’s fault and what she had made up, and Aria was just a benevolent, pure saint who had been bullied and harassed by the vicious wicked woman.

* * *

It was after dark that Mielle woke up.

Mielle opened her eyes in the black darkness because they had blocked all the windows and did not come in a single light, and she stared blankly at the darkness for a moment.

‘I think something big must have happened…’

She couldn’t remember anything as if she had stopped thinking about what had happened so suddenly. She remembered that she had talked to Aria secretly after she had got the Inducing Flower, but she couldn’t remember anything at all as if what had happened since then had been erased from her head.

She was looking back at the past for quite some time and trying to recall her memory. She then suddenly heard the sound of a chain outside her room as if someone was opening a door that was locked using a chain.

‘What the hell is going on here?’ Not yet able to get her memory back and get ready to accept reality, Mielle watched where the noise was coming from, trembling all over at the unexpected situation.

“You were awake. Tie her up!” Suddenly, several knights, who came in the room, began to tie up Mielle.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

She shouted, embarrassed by their acts, but no one answered her. Rather, they only added strength to their hands, saying that she was making a noise.

“No, set me free!”

She ignored her downgraded identity in embarrassment and resisted by speaking informal languages, and a knight, who furrowed his forehead to the fullest, browbeat Mielle.

“Shut up! You’re a sinner. How dare you!”

‘Even though I was a sinner, I was out of jail after the right process, and why are you being so violent to me?’ Though her memory of a day faded, it was incomprehensible for her to be tied up without doing anything.

“Call, call my sister! Call Aria!”

So she tried to appeal to her for their wrongdoings as she called Aria in, all she got was ridicule and a cold stare.

“What face are you looking for, Lady Aria?”

“… What face?”

“You don’t know who you are.”

“You are so shameless!”

Even the knights who had been silent in captivity helped to insult Mielle. They seemed to have a lot of bad feelings toward Mielle, who had tried to kill Aria, who had shown mercy several times.

“How do you still have the nerve to find Aria after what you’ve done?”

“I’ve seen so many sinners, but I’ve never seen such a fool.”

“Let her stand up.”

‘Such a fool?’ As soon as her body was forced to rise, she remembered several scenes that had been shattered in her mind. She prepared for tea time and put something in a teacup. And later, even the sight of Aria sitting in front of the poisoned teacup.

“… So, is Aria dead? Is that it?”

‘Otherwise, why should you treat me so badly?’ She asked in a quivering voice, and the knights that were in Mielle’s room were speechless as if they interpreted her words wrong.

“I’m afraid she’s quite fine, contrary to your wishes.”

Soon after, he gave a sneering reply, and Mielle made a facial expression that she couldn’t understand. ‘If Aria’s fine, then why? What the hell happened?’

“Then why? Why are you binding me up? If she’s fine, why?”

“… Ha.”

Seeing Mielle’s frustrating response, the knights again lost their words and could not help but laugh, dumbfounded. They interpreted Mielle’s question as ‘Why do you tie me up when someone else died because of a mistake, but Aria did not die?’ even though the victim was her own brother.

“Sure enough, it is the question of the one who pushed her own father down the stairs.”

“… What’s that supposed to mean? Why are you talking about my father all of a sudden?”

“Stop talking and take her. Don’t make any more noise in the mansion.”

She inquired back as she couldn’t understand the reason for all of this, but it was a rough touch that came back. They pulled hard at the rope which tied her up tightly. Mielle’s fragile body was simply pulled away.

“Yaaah!”

It was so suddenly pulled that she almost fell down, but the knight beside her clicked his tongue and raised her so that she wouldn’t fall.

“Walk faster. Don’t bother Lady Aria and the house anymore.”

“What did I do? What did I do wrong?”

Her shameless reaction continued, and the knights went wild to treat her. That drove Mielle into terror, and her rebellious voice grew smaller and smaller.

“Let me meet my sister! Please… Please!”

Still, she did not stop asking them to let her meet Aria. It was because, just as Annie had harassed her, Aria seemed to solve this strange situation.

“Even if you don’t beg, Lady Aria is here to say goodbye to you.”

“… How sweet she is! How did she come out to meet this guy again?”

As the knights said, Aria was waiting for Mielle in the lobby of the mansion.

Unexpectedly, she was with her mother, Carin. And next to her was a man who she had seen several times. It was Chloe, Aria’s biological father. As if she heard the news late, Carin was staring at Mielle furiously in Chloe’s arms.

“Uh, sister! Mother!”

When Mielle, who was being dragged, called Aria and Carin, Carin answered with a sigh of embarrassment.

“Mother? Why are you calling me mother? What the hell?!”

Mielle, startled by the sound of her voice, crouched her shoulders.

She was no longer her mother, but why should she react so violently? Chloe, who wrapped Carin’s shoulders, also displayed a lot of white porcelain and showed hostility toward Mielle. Only Aria, who was standing next to them, had a look of pity for her, and Mielle called her name again.

“Uh, sister! Sister! I think something is wrong! Please help me!”

Aria narrowed her forehead a little bit at the unexpected reaction of Mielle. She should say, “How dare you deceive me?” But she was only asking for help from her.

“What do you mean something is wrong?”

“I, I don’t know! I have only a few memories. Anyway, it was you who sat in front of the tea, and you’re just fine!”

“… Do you have only a few memories?”

“Sob sob… Yes! Yes!”

“Do you mean you don’t remember anything you did?”

Looking at Mielle, who nodded hard with tears, Aria opened her eyes wide with her hand covering her mouth. It didn’t look like a lie.

‘… How fun it is to be given the chance to have my revenge at you in the end?’

How unfair it would be to be interrogated in that state. If she even returned her memory in the middle, she might go mad with shock. It was because everything had already been confirmed that Mielle had tried to kill Aria. They wouldn’t even know that she was an accomplice in this.

Still, it was not fun to see such a shameless face, so Aria made a sad face and said, thinking that Mielle should know that Cain was dead, “So… Does it mean that you don’t even know that your brother Cain is dead?”

Quite naturally, the words startled Mielle, and it made her unable to breathe. She was stunned. Her face was asking, “What the hell does that mean?”

Aria personally explained how Cain died.

“… Your brother Cain drank the tea you had put poison into… He vomited blood… and…”

When she hid her face in her palm as if she couldn’t speak anymore, Mielle stammered in disbelief.

“What, what do you mean? Why did my brother drink that tea? There was no reason for him to come here in the first place.”

The knights’ expression grew quite serious at Mielle’s cry. She didn’t deny putting the poison in the tea, but she was making a confession. There was no need to interrogate her.

“Because it was the first tea time you prepared… So I invited him, but he drank the tea that was before my seat!”

As soon as Aria said that, Mielle’s face collapsed in an instant as she remembered Cain throwing up blood and dying.

It wasn’t clear whether it was not because she had lost her memory in a physical shock or because she had just fainted just for a moment, but Mielle was partially regaining her memory every time Aria mentioned what had happened.

“No way! It can’t be!”