The villainess will survive!

Part 81: Drug distribution

The huge crowd of arrogant nobles and their children fell into an uncomfortable silence once more. 

Count Castria was nervously fidgeting and sweating tensely, knowing that his status was barely anything compared to that of the man standing in front of him. 

My father stared with an indiscernible expression, neither warm nor cold, at Count Castria before turning to Albert. 

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, I don't mean to be rude, but could we please get to the point?" 

When my father said that, it wasn't a suggestion, but an order. 

Even if Albert was the Crown Prince, he had to sate my father's impatience due to him being the Duke. 

Albert glanced sideways at the Count, and sighed before putting on a gentle but formal smile once more. 

"I understand your impatience on this case, Duke Villinie, but I will not disappoint you nor your daughter." 

I flinched at the mention of myself, and immediately knew that Albert was hinting that I would not walk out of this ball without involving myself. 

Albert knew of my father's anger at his relationship with Ivy, and had promised that my father wouldn't be too unsatisfied at the end of this. 

I wonder what the intelligent Crown Prince was planning to make sure the Villinie Dukedom got their piece of gain?

Or was this just to hold down the Duke for the time being, while not acting on his words later on?

"I hope his Highness justifiably acts on his words, and doesn't go back on them." 

My father smiled, but his words were a warning to the Crown Prince. 

If there was anybody Albert couldn't afford to offend in this room, it was his own father and the Duke. 

Albert's mouth twitched slightly, a small change on his face that you couldn't have noticed unless you were closely watching him like I warily was. 

If I were him, I too would be offended at my father's cutting straight-to-the-point words, considering that Albert was the clear-cut heir to the throne. 

Having to still act all nice and courteous to someone who didn't bother to show any back was a very frustrating thing to do. 

But my father was the sole Duke of this country, not to mention the whole Villinie Dukedom was offended and challenged with the rumours of this lover going around. 

My father was in the right to get this pissed, which he usually didn't. 

Albert looked at the crowd and opened his mouth to speak, loud and clear. 

"To answer all of your questions and concerns, Count Castria is the one who orchestrated and supported the drug distribution." 

                                                                   ***

Loud gasps ran across the room, as everybody soon turned their head to the shocked Count. 

I had to say, I myself dropped my jaw at this statement. 

Where did the charms of the heroine go, down the trash?

A sense of victory filled my heart as I thought of Ivy failing to seduce a single male lead as I noticed none of the male leads were interested in protecting her father. 

"Y-Y-Your Highness!", Count Castria nervously yelled. "Please take another look at your evidence! You must have seen or calculated something wrongly! I w-would most definitely not partake in such evil actions!" 

Everybody didn't know what to say, nobody knew who was telling the truth. 

This still didn't explain why there was still a certain period where Albert and Ivy got along pretty well. 

Looking at Ivy's equally stupefied expression, it seems she knows nothing of this either. 

So she couldn't have told Albert herself, maybe dropping some hints she herself was clueless about?

Was Albert using her back then for his own gain, or was it just my imagination?

But the secret seems spilled out, and I could no longer see Ivy's father in the same light as before. 

Come to think of it, the heroine's view on this world was too hopeful and filtered. 

You really couldn't point out these small facts unless you lived in it straight in the flesh. 

Were her love conquests really that smooth, without having the male leads sacrifice something behind the scenes?

The downfall of this country wasn't listed at all, nor were the players informed that the Villinies and Royals no longer getting along affected the Country in big time. 

'Love conquers all' was a very romantic quote, but not very realistic at all, not in any kind of society. 

My expectations for this world at first was that kind of thing, but if this were true, noble hierarchy wouldn't exist in the beginning. 

If the otome game Ivy only saw things through her own purified perspective, then I could no longer trust whoever she thought as 'kind' such as her father. 

The reason why I had always and firmly believed that her father was the loving person he was was mainly because of the fact that he treated and spoiled his daughter well, even if she was the illegitimate child of the family. 

Although I may not trust the heroine's dialogue from the otome game much, that did not immediately put her father as a good person. 

Plus, from his former words when Albert first called him to the front, to use your own daughter and her relationship with the crown prince as a shield made you look a bit cheap. 

I had a few suspicions that the Count did not treat an illegitimate child like most were treated was because Ivy was born having better looks than average. 

To use your own child as a marriage weapon to climb up the ladder yourself was a bit against morals but overall not surprising in this kind of civilisation. 

But I put off any suspicions on Ivy's father's true intentions to the side, because somewhere in me I genuinely hoped that this was not the case, and he was honestly a good father but not a good person. 

But before I could finish my thoughts, a scream rang out that distracted everybody's attention that was originally placed on the Count and Crown Prince. 

"T-that's impossible! My father would never do such a thing!"