When the Guide Stopped Playing a Villainess, the Obsession Began - Chapter 16
“Mother! It burdens me to say it, but this time Jesse’s right. Of course we should hold a grand banquet!”
“Tsk, you still know only one thing and not the other.”
‘No, I know exactly what you want—better than anyone.’
You’re planning to disgrace Calix again with your vulgar schemes at this banquet.
“Pardon? What do you mean by that…”
Lea didn’t hide her startled expression. As her face turned red with embarrassment and she quickly lowered her head, Bianca’s expression twisted with disgust.
“I risked my life to protect something like that and call it a daughter.”
“Mother…”
“You’re not even a capable Guide like I am… If only you were a useful daughter.”
She’d heard these words before, so they didn’t strike her too deeply, but the old wounds still stung faintly.
“Your Majesty the Empress, Lady Haisley is still young, that’s all.”
When Jesse murmured this, Bianca shot back immediately.
“What kind of older sister acts like this? How will the imperial family’s discipline be upheld?”
To hear her mother speak of Calix—someone with not even a drop of shared blood—as if he were her true family filled Lea with seething rage.
‘Someone like you has no right to decide the place of someone more noble than anyone else.’
Her mother, who always indulged in luxury from the safest place, would never understand.
That true nobility blooms from the mud.
Lea thought of Calix charging into the heart of the battlefield without a hint of hesitation, amidst flying blood.
His very existence changed the tide for their side. Everyone had instinctively acknowledged it— ‘This man is the emperor we will serve.’
And to hear someone who didn’t even consider her own daughter family speak as if Calix were her child… It was laughable.
Lea felt something stir deep inside, like still waters being shaken into waves, and bit her lip hard.
She felt bitter pity for Calix, who had once endured this hellish palace.
How had he survived all of it back then?
Even though she knew it was shameless to only wonder now, she couldn’t stop the thoughts.
Suppressing her anger, Lea forced a blank expression. At the same time, she didn’t forget to act the part, biting her lip as if upset.
“Tsk. Lea.”
“…Yes, Mother.”
“When a younger sibling makes a mistake, the older sister must cover for them. And she should scold them properly, too.”
Mentioning a mistake that hadn’t even happened yet, it was clear she was telling her to frame Calix for something at the banquet.
But her mother knew very well that Lea had never been particularly clever.
So to still speak this way meant: Do whatever you must. Tarnish the Crown Prince’s reputation, no matter what.
Feigning ignorance of the true meaning, Lea responded with a bright smile.
“Of course. Cal is still young, after all.”
Though fifteen was an age at which one could be treated as an adult, Bianca only smiled faintly when Lea spoke as if he were still a ten-year-old child.
“Yes. Especially since it’s your mother’s birthday banquet. I hope you’ll take extra care with things.”
“Yes, I’ll look after my little brother well!”
Lea’s energetic reply, paired with her darting eyes, gave Bianca both irritation and strange satisfaction at once.
“But Mother…”
Lea couldn’t walk away from this empty-handed.
She planned to use this opportunity to wring some funds from Bianca’s private treasury.
That never-drying cornucopia of hers—surely even a generous portion wouldn’t make a dent.
As Lea pondered how to bring it up, a rough sound of doors flinging open rang through the hall.
Startled, Lea turned to find the Emperor, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time, entering the room. She quickly bowed her head.
“Hoho, I hope I haven’t interrupted an intimate mother-daughter moment?”
Ah, right. The Emperor did show up at this point.
It had been so long ago that she couldn’t remember the details clearly.
Most likely, he’d come without any real purpose, perhaps hoping to receive guiding from Bianca.
“Your Majesty, you startled us.”
“Was there something going on worth being startled over?”
The Emperor, who had been smiling kindly just moments ago, narrowed his eyes as he scanned the room—then fixed his gaze on Lea.
“Lea.”
The way he stared at her was anything but ordinary.
In the past, he hadn’t spared her even a glance, so she couldn’t understand this sudden attention.
Then the Emperor spoke.
“That wound. Who did that to you?”
