When the waiting Duke and Duchess Arman saw me, their eyes flickered into a piercing glare.

My half-brother, Izar, looked at me with his mouth slightly agape.

Izar Arman.

He was Scarlett's older half-brother.

He was the brother who used to bicker fiercely and hang out with her when they were young, but then became a reserved person after he got older.

But, of course, they still got into a war of insults whenever they met, without fail.

"Shut your mouth. Or a fly might get in."

"...."

How on earth was he being so obedient?

Ignoring his incredulous eyes, I hopped into the carriage with ease.

As expected from a wealthy family... the cushion was very satisfying.

The whole way there, their gazes were fixed on me.

And, naturally, I was also glaring back at them in an impudent manner.

'What? Why? Huh? So what?'

I didn't put up with it until now because I was scared, you know?

'But it was because I was disgusted that I tried to avoid you all*.'

(*TN: This comes from a famous korean proverb, "You don't avoid poop because you're scared of it, but because it's dirty.")

It goes without saying that I did talk back to them every time, though.

The past month and a week had been hell.

It was impossible to see the duke and his wife in a positive way, so I watched them with cold eyes.

'Hmph.'

The first time I had entered this body, I explored every corner of this mansion. 

So, obviously, I ran into Scarlett's parents a few times.

And on all these encounters, they would flood me with venomous warnings ㅡ or whatever the hell they meant.

'A duke who treats his daughter like trash, and the wife who tries to unnerve her at all costs...'

Every time they stumbled across me, they would attack me with their tongues.

Right now, although the duke was sending a death glare this way, he was probably not saying anything to me because he was too dumbfounded by all this.

But soon enough, he would blow up, for sure.

'Is he going to slap me again?'

Ignorant scumbag.

However, that bastard refrained from using violence in front of the duchess.

Out of consideration for his wife?

No.

It was due to the shame he felt whenever he used violence and received back her scornful glare.

'That's why he won't be reckless enough to hit me while we're in the carriage.'

Though he might scream at me.

But nothing more than that.

A piercing silence fell between them.

However, the first one to break the ice was... an unexpected person.

"Did you eat something wrong?"

Izar Arman.

He always kept his mouth tightly shut in the presence of the duke and the duchess, so what had gotten into him?

I squinted my eyes and stared at him.

To be honest, he was the only family member who I was somewhat comfortable with.

Because the first person I saw on the day I got into this body had been him.

'Besides... he was still somehow friendly with Scarlett.'

In the original novel, when Scarlett had been sentenced to death and got imprisoned, he had also been the only person who tried to help her escape.

'Now that I think about it, Scarlett was about to take her life when I had transmigrated into her body.'

I didn't know the reason why, though, since this had never been revealed in the novel.

It was Izar who discovered her before anyone else and saved her.

When I woke up in this body, he stood staring at me in silence for a long time, and then he left after uttering a single word.

"......Rest."

.

.

Maybe that's why, but I didn't necessarily hate him. Instead, I just felt a bit awkward with him.

So I decided to reply to his question.

"What about me?"

"What do you think? Your dress..."

When the duke heard the word 'dress' so openly being spoken out, his face filled up with anger as though he had come back to his senses.

He was on the verge of bursting.

"Dress?"

I feigned ignorance and answered back Izar.

"Why? Isn't it pretty?"

I grinned with a carefree expression.

There was a moment of silence in the carriage.

"You've gone cra..."

Izar stopped midway, looking at me a little melancholically with a disbelieving expression.

"Why? It's true."

"For...get it."

Then, after casting a glance at the duke's face, he frowned hard and turned his head away from me.

What's wrong with him?

He had been subtly talking to me in a soft way these days.

However, according to my memories, this was not how their conversation had flowed...

Like that, I was taking a closer look at Izar when–

"Scarlett Arman!"

Ah. As though he had finally blown up, the duke let out an ear-deafening angry scream.

"You! Don't you dare get off this carriage! Just go back like this! There's a limit on how much you disgrace our family!"

"Disgrace?"

When I asked him back in a nonchalant way, without cowering at all unlike my past self, the duke flinched.

"That's right!"

"Hm. Why?

The duke blinked for a moment, as if he had witnessed a very strange sight.

He didn't seem to get used to my retorts at all. Just how low was his IQ?

"Are you saying this is not a disgrace, then?"

At his question, I tilted my head calmly and said.

"Last time you slapped me for buying a lot of fancy clothes, so what's wrong this time?"

I purposely looked back at my outfit.

"Doesn't this dress look very unfancy?"

"What?! You...!"

Ah. You're spitting on me...

I pretended to straighten my back and kept my face away from him.

Izar peeked at me through my reflection on the window.

"You didn't think at all about what others would say behind your back after they saw the way you're dressed?!"

He started to puff out as if his rage had reached a fever pitch.

I gave him an innocent smile.

'What can I do? I don't wanna die, after all.'

When I got inside this body, I was trying to take in the current situation, so to not do anything conspicuous, I kept myself as low-key as possible.

But now, things were different.

"Sheesh. Honestly, no matter how they gossip around about me, it won't be something worse than 'She came wearing some plain clothes.' "

In fact, wouldn't they make more of a fuss about how the Scarlett Arman they had seen in the party after such a long time had changed and not thrown a fit, instead?

"Besides, it's not like my engagement would be at risk just because I wore something like this."

The duke cringed in surprise.

As though I had hit the bull's eye.

"And even if I did put in my best efforts to dress myself up, it's not like it would make my reputation get that much better either, don't you think so?"

Nor would it make the quality of this dress get any worse too.

Albeit it was striking.

So, it certainly wasn't something that would greatly damage the prestige of the family.

Nevertheless, all the nobles of this world would still choose to make a show of their power by dressing themselves in all their splendor even if they were aware of it all....

"Moreover, if it's about the family prestige.... why are you speaking about it only to me, father?"

"What....?"

I'll do some crazy stuffs starting today, so I cannot care about trifle things like you.

'Which also means that I don't have to put up with this.'

Seeing how calmly 'Scarlett' retorted to him, the duke eventually raised his hand.

At this, the duchess who had just been staring at me with cold eyes, turned her head towards him.

When his eyes met his wife's, the duke winced.

Geez.

Not backing away at all, I continued speaking without hesitation.

"Your son over there, who's staring transfixed out the window, has come back home completely wasted yesterday too, you know?"

"What?"

"......"

Hearing my words, Izar looked my way with unfathomable eyes.

'Eh? I thought he would get mad.'

Somehow, he even looked a bit curious.

"The news that he got drunk and was singing in the streets must have already spread all over the city, you know?"

Perhaps it was because this was an old noble family? They were the talk of the town.

"Aren't you worried about...the family's prestige?"

"You! T-This bitch!"

"Enough."

At that moment, a cold voice cut in between the overly emotional duke and me.

Looking back, I saw the duke's wife glaring at me with cold eyes.

Right. It was due time you stepped in.

"What a reckless and foolish behavior."

I gave her a sweet smile, without getting the slightest bit unsettled, while looking back at her ㅡ straight in her deep blue eyes.

The duchess' gaze became even more fierce.

'Oh, so scary.'

In the beginning, that icy stare of hers made me very apprehensive, because I couldn't understand the reason behind that gaze.

'But now I know.'

Because there was also some backstory about the duke's wife in The Villainess Scarlett's Side Story.

'In fact, I can understand her hatred for me.'

Scarlett was the daughter of the duke and his deceased former wife.

'But as soon as his former wife died...'

The duke brought in a woman he had dated before marriage and a son he had had with her.

What's worse, this son was older than Scarlett...

So, this was indeed a 'bean powder family.'

However, if you looked into the actual story, the current duchess was a victim.

'Because the duke had betrayed her.'

In his young days, the duke had promised to marry the current duchess, but he was a scumbag who dumped her after she got pregnant with his child.

Then, as soon as his former wife had died, he offered the now vacant duchess' position to her, who was going through a hard time, as though he was doing a good deed.

And in the original story, the reason behind why he had done that had been disclosed.

As I recalled it, a frown settled on my face.