Chapter – 08
Luciena spent the entire afternoon sitting on her bed, reading Reshuna’s diary.
‘Just as I expected. There are so many entries blaming me.’
The diary recorded even the smallest things. Complaints about receiving one fewer snack than Luciena, and countless tiny incidents that Luciena herself could barely remember.
‘When she was little, I suppose every one of those things could have become a wound and stayed with her. Even so…’
No matter how she looked at it, there was nothing in the diary severe enough to justify placing a curse that forced someone to die over and over again.
‘If there’s anything unusual… it’s that when she was young, she wrote about Mother constantly, but as she got older, those entries gradually disappeared.’
I miss Mom…
The ink on those words had run, as if the page had once been soaked with water.
‘She saw Mother every day, yet she still wrote that she missed her… I really don’t understand her.’
Just as Luciena’s thoughts became increasingly tangled, a knock sounded at the door.
“Miss! I’m back.”
It was Fioda. While Luciena had been meeting Erteo and reading Reshuna’s diary, Fioda had been running the errand Luciena had assigned her.
“Well? Did you find out anything about that novel?”
During her previous regression, Luciena had asked Fioda to investigate the villainess novel that she suspected Reshuna had written.
However, Luciena had died less than half a day later, forcing her to ask again this time.
“You mean The Life of the Villainess Luciena? I’m sorry, Miss, but no matter where I searched, I couldn’t find any novel with a protagonist who shares your name. I even asked the library librarian and several friends who read popular novels all the time, but none of them had even heard of the title.”
It was the result she had expected, yet she couldn’t hide her disappointment. Just as Luciena let out a quiet sigh—
“But I did find something called the ‘Villainess Series.'”
Luciena’s ears perked up instantly.
Back then, the person who had first shown her that book had said the same thing—that The Life of the Villainess Luciena was the most popular novel in the Villainess Series.
“I managed to get a few of them. That’s all I have to report.”
“You’ve worked hard. Thank you.”
The cover of one of the books read:
The Tragedy of the Villainess Gratteling.
Villainess Gratteling…
It was a name she’d never heard before, but thinking that this heroine had probably been slandered through fabricated stories just like herself filled Luciena with a strange sense of kinship.
‘I need to investigate both the protagonist of this novel and its author as soon as possible.’
Having finally discovered her first clue in this era, Luciena’s heart tightened with nervous anticipation.
“Miss, now’s our chance. Miss Reshuna left the mansion about two hours ago.”
Fioda spoke in a solemn voice.
“Fioda… you’ll help me again this time, won’t you?”
“Of course, Miss!”
After waiting for several days, today’s opportunity was too important to miss.
Luciena’s plan was simple:
To secretly take all of Reshuna’s old diaries.
The diaries Luciena had read numbered only three. They were merely a fraction of the dozens that had been lined up on the bookshelf, making it impossible to uncover the true source of Reshuna’s deep hatred.
She needed more clues.
By the time Fioda finished explaining that she had prepared a whistle as a warning signal, they had already arrived outside Reshuna’s room.
Taking a deep breath as if steeling herself, Luciena opened the door and stepped inside.
‘I never thought I’d end up here again…’
Reshuna’s room looked almost exactly the same as before.
Since this was her second visit, Luciena didn’t hesitate.
She walked straight to the bookshelf where the diaries were stored.
Without wasting a second, she removed Reshuna’s diaries and packed them into her bag, then filled the empty spaces on the shelf with blank notebooks.
The moment Luciena stood up with the bag full of diaries—
Fweeeeeet!
Fioda’s whistle echoed from outside.
“She’s back already?”
Reshuna had returned much sooner than expected.
Panicking, Luciena hurried toward the door—
Only to step on a loose sheet of paper lying on the floor and slip.
There wasn’t even time to feel the pain.
She sprang back to her feet and reached the door in an instant.
But even with her hand inches from the doorknob…
She couldn’t open it.
‘Ah, damn it…’
She heard the unmistakable sound of a key turning on the other side.
Reshuna and her maid had already arrived.
There was no chance of escaping now.
She needed to hide immediately.
Luciena dashed toward the window and quickly slipped behind the heavy blackout curtains.
The instant she concealed herself, the door opened.
Her heart began pounding like mad.
“Who cancels a business deal just because of the weather?”
“I know, right?”
The voices of Reshuna and her maid, Chelin, drifted through the room.
Luciena’s heartbeat seemed even louder than the thunder rumbling outside.
“By the way, Miss… when we stopped by the magic shop earlier. What were you talking about with that red-haired woman? I’ve never seen you stand that close and chat with a stranger before.”
“It was nothing. She noticed something stuck in my hair and removed it for me.”
“Oh, I see. I thought…”
Completely unaware that Luciena was in the same room, the two continued talking about everything that had happened during their outing.
“Huh? Why is this…”
“What’s wrong, Miss?”
The conversation, which had gone on for quite some time, suddenly stopped.
“Wait… Miss.”
“What?”
“Don’t you feel like something’s been off for a while now?”
“…!”
Luciena’s heart started pounding even faster.
It beat so violently that she worried they might actually hear it through the curtain.
“What do you mean? I don’t notice anything.”
“The cat…”
Thinking they had discovered her, Luciena silently breathed a sigh of relief.
“…There’s a stray cat in here.”
At that very moment—
The curtains were pulled wide open.
“You’re absolutely terrible at hiding. If you’re going to steal something, dressing like that is…”
Chelin narrowed her eyes as she examined Luciena’s appearance.
The jewels decorating the hem of her dress reflected the light, glittering brightly even in the darkness.
Reshuna’s gaze instantly turned sharp.
“Stealing? Come to think of it… what’s in your hands, Luciena? Hand it over.”
As Reshuna strode toward her, Luciena instinctively stepped backward.
But the wall beneath the window blocked her retreat.
There was nowhere left to go.
Reshuna planted one arm against the wall and glared at Luciena.
“The bag you’re holding.
Are the things inside stolen from my room?
Before I lose my patience…”
At that very moment, Luciena thought it would be less humiliating to throw herself out the window and die than to be caught trying to steal the diaries.
“AAAH!”
A sharp pain stabbed the back of her neck.
Screaming, Luciena dropped the bag from both hands.
She frantically slapped at her neck.
Thud.
Something fell to the floor.
Following the sound, Luciena looked down.
A palm-sized black creature wriggled across the floor.
“What… is that…?”
“It’s the poisonous spider Miss Reshuna keeps. We’d been wondering where it went after it disappeared from its enclosure a few days ago.”
The moment she heard those words, Luciena’s face turned deathly pale.
“Wait…
A poisonous spider?”
She tried to sound calm, but her trembling voice betrayed her.
Chelin answered indifferently.
“If it bites you, you’ll die within a few minutes. It’s an extremely venomous spider.”
It was a sudden death sentence.
While Luciena’s voice shook uncontrollably with panic, Chelin’s remained calm—cold, even.
As they spoke, Reshuna paid no attention to them.
She was too busy checking the contents of the bag Luciena had dropped.
“Why do you have my diaries?”
“I… I…
Haa…”
By then, the spider’s venom had already spread through Luciena’s bloodstream.
Her breathing became increasingly labored.
Her neck swelled bright red, and a burning fever climbed into her head.
“Tell me why.
Why were you trying to steal my diaries?”
“Fioda… no…
Anyone…
Please call… someone…”
Darkness clouded Luciena’s vision.
She staggered forward and collapsed against Reshuna’s arm.
“It won’t matter who you call.
It would take at least an hour to retrieve the antidote.
The venom only needs ten minutes to spread throughout the entire body.”
“…!”
Still leaning against Reshuna for support, Luciena finally lost all strength.
She slid helplessly to the floor.
Leaving Luciena collapsed there, Reshuna gently picked up the poisonous spider crawling across the floor, letting it rest on the back of her hand as she stroked it.
“I raised this little one because I needed its venom for making and testing magic potions.
I didn’t raise it so it could bite you to death while you were stealing from my room.”
Reshuna’s figure blurred before Luciena’s eyes, splitting into several overlapping images.
“The fact that you’re dying now is entirely your own doing.
So don’t resent anyone, Luciena.”
Reshuna looked down at the fallen Luciena with icy eyes.
There wasn’t the slightest trace of sympathy or pity in her gaze.
“Goodbye.”
By then, the spider’s venom had spread throughout Luciena’s entire body.
Her death from respiratory failure and cardiac arrest was only a matter of time.
It was agonizing.
It was unbearable.
But even greater than the pain…
…was the humiliation.
For only a brief moment she writhed in shame.
Then, as the deadly poison consumed every part of her body, Luciena’s consciousness slowly faded away.
