Chapter 4
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How to Survive as the Villain's Younger Sister
Episode 4
She became a duchess by bearing me.
Julia despised me from the moment I was younger than I am now.
She treated me as though I were some child she'd picked up off the street.
"I spent so much money trying to make the Duke look favorably upon us. How foolish!"
Dreiny erupted in anger as well.
To the siblings, I was nothing but a means to an end.
Roel, who had been observing them, opened his mouth.
"Please do not reproach Miss Cyrilia so harshly. I presented the Duke with different grades."
"Different grades, you say...?"
"I swapped the scores of Miss Alexis and Miss Cyrilia when I submitted the report."
"Ah, I cannot thank you enough!"
"I merely took measures to spare the Duchess any distress."
Roel had elegantly glossed over the fact that he'd falsified the grade report.
I stood there slack-jawed, utterly flabbergasted.
'I deliberately failed the exam, and he altered the scores?'
Of course, the Duke showed no interest in either my grades or Alexis's.
'The Duke was never the doting father type after all.'
He merely poked at my cheeks occasionally, muttering "How odd. So soft," without offering any genuine affection.
Too preoccupied with matters abroad, he allowed Julia and Dreiny to run the family as they pleased.
When I thought about it, the Duke's indifference was the genesis of all this tragedy.
"You've worked hard, Roel. Please accept this token of my gratitude. It's modest, but do take it."
Julia withdrew a purse from her bosom and extended it to Roel.
Upon receiving the weighty purse, Roel's brow furrowed slightly.
"Forgive my candor, but it is rather modest, is it not?"
"What, what did you say?"
"It seems insufficient for handling the Duke's various affairs."
"Surely this amount is adequate, is it not?"
"As you know, in a few days' time, I shall journey to the Capital to pay respects to His Imperial Majesty on behalf of the Duke. Such an undertaking requires considerable expense."
Julia and Dreiny were taken aback.
They believed Roel to be merely their subordinate, but they were mistaken.
'Roel is the true villain here.'
If Julia and Dreiny were D-rank villains, Roel was S-rank.
He too was undoubtedly targeting the Parkision Family.
And he was far more meticulous about it.
'There is only one family, yet so many wish to devour it.'
I exhaled a long sigh through pursed lips.
"But this was procured by embezzling from the kitchen budget..."
"Julia! It's not 'embezzlement'—you merely borrowed it temporarily."
Dreiny hastily covered his younger sister's mouth.
Roel lifted only the corner of his mouth in a sneer and spoke.
"My, my. So your funds are depleted to the point of needing to borrow from the kitchen budget? In that case, my father would be happy to lend you money."
Roel's father.
In other words, the Duke of Parkision's younger brother served as the Archbishop of the Parkision Territory Diocese.
'Of course, that's merely his official position. In reality, he's a loan shark.'
A loan shark—and the Duke's own brother, no less.
Embarrassed by the scandal, the Duke had purchased the Archbishop's position with money.
"Should you require funds, please contact me anytime. For now, I shall take my leave with this."
Roel bowed respectfully and withdrew from the room.
The moment he left, Julia fixed me with a glare.
"This is all your fault! Humiliated by some mere administrator! You'll go without supper tonight!"
Julia shoved me roughly.
The force sent me sprawling to the floor once more.
It was then that the closed door opened again.
"Roel, what now—!"
"Here you are."
A voice as calm and composed as the depths of the ocean.
I lifted my head.
A girl with blazing scarlet hair and cold blue eyes stood before me like the sun itself.
"Ah, Sister Alexis...."
Alexis, whose cynical gaze had been fixed on Julia and Dreiny, now turned her eyes toward me.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"What happened?"
Julia stepped in front of me and spoke.
Alexis regarded her stepmother with an expressionless face.
Only nine years old.
Her frame was considerably smaller than Julia's or Dreiny's.
Yet standing before them, Alexis emanated a presence as commanding as the head of a household.
Julia and Dreiny tensed, swallowing hard.
"...I went to the kitchen and asked for some chocolate chip cookies, but they said there were no extras."
However, at her next words, both of them exhaled in relief, as if finding the situation absurd.
'Well, of course. She's just a child, after all.'
Such was their reaction.
"They must have eaten them all."
"How strange. A household as prestigious as the Parkision Family would surely keep extra desserts on hand."
"The servants are lazy, that's why."
"No. It must be a shortage of ingredients."
Alexis spoke with sharp precision.
"Mother handles the kitchen budget, doesn't she?"
Julia and Dreiny, who had been embezzling from the kitchen budget, felt a chill run down their spines.
"W-what are you trying to say!"
"Please keep a close watch on the servants. I wanted to ensure no one is 'embezzling' funds while evading the Duchess's notice."
At Alexis's words, Julia froze solid.
It was Dreiny who spoke instead.
"Alexis, that's not your concern. We'll handle it ourselves. So if you happen to tell the Duke..."
"I've already informed Father on my way here."
Dreiny, who had been about to threaten the young girl, went as pale as his sister.
"Father has gone to find Mother because of this matter. It seems you should hurry to her."
"W-what!"
Julia and Dreiny scrambled out of the room.
"..."
Thanks to that, only Alexis and I remained in the room.
Alexis stared intently at me, sitting there alone.
I awkwardly got to my feet and rubbed my aching bottom.
"Um, big sister..."
"I didn't come just now to save you."
Without me even asking, Alexis quickly denied it.
'You don't have to deny it so much... I already know...'
I pouted, my lips jutting out in disappointment.
Seeing my expression, Alexis's brow furrowed slightly.
"I only went to the kitchen because you said something strange."
"Something strange? Did Cyrilia say something strange?"
"You did. You said the head chef told you there were only a few cookies left."
"Yeah, that's right."
"If the Parkision Family's head chef would say such a thing to the youngest lady, it must mean the ingredients are truly scarce. Someone must be stealing the money meant for supplies."
"Oh, I see..."
I tilted my head as if I didn't understand what she meant.
'Though I actually let that slip on purpose.'
I thought that clever Alexis would read 'Julia's embezzlement' from my words.
Then Alexis would gain one weakness over Julia.
'I still have one more gift left to give Alexis.'
I grabbed the hem of Alexis's clothes as she turned to leave.
"Big sister! I know where Mother's secret diary is!"
Julia's secret diary.
It was precisely her embezzlement ledger.
But Alexis brushed off my hand with an uninterested expression.
"Huh?"
"A child shouldn't be interested in such things."
Then she whispered sternly to me.
Her voice was as sharp and biting as a winter wind.
"B-but...."
"Don't you dare say such things anywhere else. Do you understand?"
"...."
A chilling warning.
My legs trembled.
'This information would clearly help Alexis, so why....'
Terrified, I looked up at Alexis.
Alexis sighed, then handed me the pouch at her waist.
Inside were chocolate chip cookies.
"I picked them up."
"Y-you picked them up?"
"They're the last cookies left in the kitchen. I brought them because it seemed wasteful to throw them away."
"S-so you're giving these to me and Cyrilia?"
I made no effort to hide my amazement.
Alexis averted her gaze as she spoke.
"Just eat these and stay away."
Then she swiftly left the room.
"W-wait, big sister...."
It was the first gift Alexis had ever given me!
The cookies were so precious that I carefully preserved them in my room.
Though in the end, they spoiled before I could eat them.
'That was the last gift I ever received from Alexis.'
After that day, Alexis never paid me any attention again.
So receiving those cookies felt like nothing more than a dream.
* * *
After the incident that day, Julia could no longer embezzle funds.
So instead, she borrowed money from Roel's father, Jenin.
With that money, she indulged in luxury and bribed the retainers.
Her plan was to win them over and make me the successor.
Julia's dream seemed on the verge of coming true.
That is, until that incident occurred.
* * *
The sky was overcast.
It was hardly ideal weather to bid farewell to someone's final moments.
"Kanan Parkision and Julia Parkision, who were obedient to the Divine, now return to Your embrace."
Before the Parkision Family Tomb.
Archbishop Jenin Parkision's prayer echoed through the air.
As two coffins were carried into the family tomb, he firmly closed the door.
Those dressed in mourning lowered their heads.
"The Duke and Duchess drowned while boating, didn't they?"
"Apparently the boat capsized suddenly. On that placid Lake, no less."
"Do you think it was truly an accident?"
The whispers of the crowd turned their gaze toward the deceased's only blood relatives.
Alexis stood motionless, her eyes as fathomless as the deep ocean, her expression utterly blank.
At seventeen, Alexis was already taller than most boys her age.
Her natural presence had matured further, lending her an aura that discouraged casual approach.
Meanwhile, I—still round-cheeked and childlike—stood in a daze.
I knew.
That Kanan and Julia would meet an early death.
But—
'It's far too soon compared to the original story.'
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