I’m a Villainess but So Popular

Editor : Aru

We were on our way out of the banquet hall and headed for the dormitory.

Erica, whose room is on the first floor, broke up with us a while ago, meanwhile, I, Astra, and Rachel, who had our room on the third floor, were walking down the hall together.

They were children with a heavy burden of being the successors of the seven families, but Astra and Rachel were also humans, so even after the banquet, they couldn’t easily calm down their excitement.

‘Yes, they’re already an adult, but 17 is definitely still young.’

Shouldn’t children have time to relax?

Although my body is like this, I am in my mid-20s, at least in my mind, and have lived a tired living in the Republic of Korea. But Rachel and Astra didn’t.

“So I guess Yerine didn’t dance with anyone today.”

I unconsciously asked back to Rachel’s muttering voice with my fingers at the corners of my mouth.

“Huh?”

“That’s right. Erica and the Prince and Eugene fought over you, but……… come to think of it, the dance just failed.”

“Oh, right. That was what happened.”

No one would want to dance after all that fuss.

If I said I would dance there, wouldn’t it be obvious that the other three would growl again?

“It seemed like the prince really wanted to dance with you.”

“Re, really?”

I replied, stuttering at Rachel’s words.

For some reason, it seemed to remind me of the warm touch of lips that touched the back of my frozen hands in the middle of the night breeze.

“I was so surprised to see the prince running out in a hurry during the banquet. Of course, I knew he would have gone out because of you.”

Astra talked, stroking her red hair tied up with a blue ribbon with her hands.

When I heard her words, I felt my face suddenly burning, so I tried to cool off by fanning myself with my hands.

But even though the heat could be cooling down, it could not erase the afterimage that unfolded before my eyes.

Under the mistletoe gently swaying in the wind, the touch that touched me as if dealing with something really precious, and the dark hair that gently scattered. The golden eyes that were shining as if swallowing everything.

“Well, it’s not like it’s happened once or twice, is it?”

Rachel replied with a peculiar mischievous smile.

Then she folded her arms and spoke to me in a low voice.

“Come on, talk to us a little bit. Where did you go with the prince in the middle of the banquet?”

This is the situation of induced interrogation by friends, which is common in the ropan novels.

Of course, I wasn’t the type to talk about my neighbourhood live to Rachel or Astra, so it’s even harder to tell them what happened with Cassius.

More than that, I was ashamed to recall the memory, so I couldn’t have said it in front of these kids.

“Oh, I didn’t go anywhere. Nothing really happened.”

Then Astra said, crossed her arm and nodded.

“Oh, I see. You haven’t gone anywhere, you say? So you missed the banquet for an hour and a half because you didn’t go anywhere and nothing happened. Yes, that can happen.”

Then she looked at me with a look on her face, ‘Yes, I know everything, baby.’

“No, really nothing happened!”

“Yes, I do. I believe everything Yerine says. So does Rachel, right?”

“Of course. How could Yerine lie to us? If nothing happened to Yerine, then it means nothing happened. That’s right.”

I sighed as I saw Rachel not believing what I was saying and getting in tune with Astra’s rhythm. They laughed and patted me friendly on my shoulder.

“Oh, it was fun.”

When Rachel spoke in a refreshing voice, Astra added a word.

“That’s right. I’ve never played this freely.”

Even though she must have been quite tired after the banquet, Astra looked no different from her appearance shortly after the party began.

No wonder, she danced with her best friend, Rayl, several times, and when she wasn’t dancing, she went with him to see other friends or play tricks on Eugene.

Even Erica looked at her and kicked her tongue saying, “She’s amazing.”

“But isn’t winter vacation coming up? The exams are over.”

Rachel smiled and nodded at my words.

“That’s true. It feels weird to be going back home soon.”

“Isn’t Rachel’s mansion still close from here? It takes me a whole half-day to go home.”

Astra sighed, pouting her lips and grumbling.

“You’re going back to the territory, aren’t you, Yerine? Or are you going to stay at school?”

I answered Astra’s question, shaking my head.

“I need to go back to the territory. I left the management to the butler, but I have to see the state of the territory myself.”

“You are diligent, too.”

“No, I’m the one who wants to manage the house and territory, so I don’t have such a big complaint.”

Then Rachel patted both ends of her fingers and said in an unconfident voice.

“I don’t know if I can do a good job like my mother or you. It’s still amazing that one person takes care of everything in the house.”

“Ay, Rachel can do it, don’t worry. You’ll probably do better if you do it yourself.”

I patted Rachel on the shoulder and shouted, “Don’t worry.”

Certainly, she was remarkably calm among our peers, and she had good judgement.

Actually, I thought it would have been okay if she became the class president, not Eugene or me.

“Your mother’s doing a really good job of managing the house, and I’m not that good.”

The Ale Club’s territory was smaller in size than the Spade’s, but the commercial area was as developed as the capital.

Naturally, the Duke of Ale Club would be doing all the officials work there. Besides, she would be doing all the management of the Ale Club mansion and the family vasals.

By comparison, I had been asking around for several days and had found the former butler, had barely been in contact with him, and had entrusted him with the care of the mansion and territory. In fact, I only had to manage the salaries of the butler and the newly hired servant, so I didn’t have much to manage my own property in the Academy.

“Hey, Yerine, you’re younger than the rest of the Housekeeper, and you just started working. You’re doing a great job compared to that, aren’t you?”

Rachel nodded at Astra’s question.

“That’s right. You haven’t had the appointment ceremony yet, but it’s virtually no different from that, right.”

“So, when does Yerine become the Housekeeper? Won’t you be appointed soon?”

Astra was right.

I couldn’t keep the head position of the Spades vacant forever.

Now that I’m an adult, I’ve had enough qualifications to become the Housekeeper. Knowing that I’ve requested to be promoted to the Housekeeper immediately after the engagement breakup process, but for some reason, the request was not accepted for months.

There was no problem in dealing with practical tasks such as asset or land management, but it was quite painful not to be able to participate in the family meeting.

The status of the seven families is affected by the ability and magic power of the individual household, the circumstances of the territory, and the implicit pecking order determined through the family meeting.

The Spade family, which had been vacant for many years, had a lower status than the family with the least magic power, and at present, its status was considered low compared to the extent of the revival of the territory or the amount of magic power.

That’s why it’s urgent to become the Housekeeper quickly and attend meetings and raise the rank.

“Yes, I’m a little impatient now. I wish I could be promoted quickly.”

Scratching my cheek, pouting my lips and complaining.

At that remark, Astra wrinkled her brows in the middle of her forehead and frowned, and spoke to me with a serious look.

“Well, personally, I don’t think it’s going to be easy to postpone the appointment any longer. A month or two to put it off?”

Rachel nodded.

“I agree with Astra. They can’t continue the meeting with six family members forever. So don’t worry too much, Yerine.”

“Rachel’s right.”

I smiled slightly at the two girls who tried to reassure me.

“Thank you both. Actually, I was worried that I couldn’t–”

At that moment I stopped talking to the mysterious sight that lay before my eyes.

“Huh? Yerine?”

Rachel asked back with a surprised look at me who stopped walking.

But I ran straight to my room without answering her.

‘What is this?’

There was a large chest wrapped in a red veil, which I had never seen before.

The chest itself was not only incredibly colourful, but also looked very large and heavy, so I was surprised, looking at it still unable to open my mouth.

‘Who the hell put this big thing in front of my door?’

“What, Yerine, what’s wrong?”

Astra and Rachel followed me in front of the door and asked.

The two were looking at me with a look on their faces that showed as if they still didn’t know why I was doing this. The eyes of the two girls were directed at me, not at the big box.

‘Is it normal for these kids to receive these weird stuff without contacting them?’

But for that matter, the two seemed to care nothing about the chest.

Even if it’s a routine gift like winter socks from your hometown, you’ll be like ‘what’s that?’ It was going to be the same reaction.

“What’s wrong with you? If you look here…”

But I couldn’t finish what I wanted to say again.

For as soon as I opened my mouth, a golden letter appeared on the chest covered with a red veil.

<He who is qualified should not be angry with his mouth.>

I looked at the handwriting, without shutting my mouth for a while.

‘Does it want me to shut up?

As time went by, I was really curious about who sent me this strange chest which can read my thoughts.

What does that usually mean, the one who qualified?

Then the golden letters were soon erased, and after a while, another one appeared again.

<Only those who see what others can’t see qualify.>

“Huh?”

When Rachel saw me who inadvertently made a sound, she opened her eyes roundly and asked.

“Yerine?”

Only then did I wake up to her voice, and I began to settle the situation with a clear voice.

“Oh, yeah. Nothing.”

“Oh, nothing, what do you mean? You suddenly got dazed and ran in front of the door.”

Astra spoke with a confused look as if I were strange.

‘How do I get out of this? I don’t think I should say it.’

While I was looking for other excuses, I sweated and came up with a suitable excuse.

“Oh, that, I saw a huge bug in front of the door…….”

“Huh?”

Rachel and Astra’s facial expressions changed at once.

“But I’m afraid I’m going into the room……… it’s hard to go in there. It looked really big. About this much?”

“Oh, please tell me it’s not real, it’s an illusion. It’s horrible just to hear it.”

Rachel talked disgustedly.

Seeing that the faces of the two changed to look like they saw a wheel bug at their bedside, fortunately, they seemed to believe me.

“First of all, I can’t see it now. I don’t know where it is. I think it went somewhere else. Or maybe I saw it wrong.”

“Please be the latter.”

Feeling guilty of terrorizing the two with a bug that didn’t exist, I sweated out and reassured them.

Only after the two girls returned to their separate rooms did I confirm that there was no one around, and then I brought the chest into the room and took off the insignia.

When I opened the chest of redwood, I saw an envelope with a golden rim.

“Wow…….”

On the front of the envelope was a phrase written in gold, with my name.

The phrase ‘I appoint you as the Housekeeper among the 7 Imperial Family.’

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