The Duke's Daughter Is A Villainess (25)

In just another few days, Dahlia's reputation jumped to even greater lengths. Alice, of course, was not exempt from hearing about it. Though she was glad that nothing happened to Noah and that he was safe, she couldn't help but feel a little bitter at the thought of Dahlia. It seemed that everywhere she went, all she heard about was Dahlia. She could never escape.

The duke, meanwhile, had put Dahlia under a temporary ban from leaving the house. Hearing that she almost died in a fire had worried him so much he couldn't bear to let her leave the estate for a while. Dahlia was fully planning on lying to the duke and telling him that it hadn't actually been that serious and she was no where close to dying, but his mind was made up.

Then, while she was stuck in the house with nothing to do, she realised that the strange man who saved her during the fire must have been Zeke, her shadow guard and the secret third love interest. He must've told the duke about everything that happened too... how unlucky. Though Dahlia was thankful he actually did his job and saved her, rather than deciding to leave her in there to burn, at the same time she was annoyed that he spilled all the details to the duke and made it so that she couldn't go outside.

The one upside to spending all that time indoors and not having anything to do was that Dahlia managed to build up a good amount of points with the tasks Buddy would give to her everyday. And with nothing to do, she had more time to flesh out her plan more.

~I think I'm going to need to really get things started now...

[What do you mean?]

~I've been so bored lately. I'm going to need some real action once I can go back to the palace.

[.... Host, what are you planning?]

~You'd love to watch a dramatic scene, won't you, Buddy?

[.... Why do I have a bad feeling about this....]

~Don't be so worried, I'm just planning on treating you to a good scene.

Buddy, who didn't have a body, swore that they could feel chills all of a sudden. Dahlia only smirked, keeping her plans mostly hidden from Buddy.

Eventually two weeks passed by like a flash, and the duke finally allowed for Dahlia to leave the estate. At this time, she giddily climbed onto the carriage with Stella, and the both of them chattered excitedly as they headed to the familiar gates of the royal palace.

Dahlia didn't hesitate at all. Once Stella was gone, she headed straight for the garden. She'd never actually gone to visit before, seeing as the main characters were never there much themselves, but she was looking for someone different all together this time.

There! Almost immediately Dahlia spotted exactly who she was looking for. She took a small breath before shifting her expression from a predator hunting for its prey to an innocent girl who was lost and confused. Then she took a few steps forwards and pretended to be shocked when she discovered there was someone else there.

"Oh!" Dahlia gasped. "Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm afraid I'm a bit lost..."

In the middle of a field of roses, a middle-aged woman turned around and regarded Dahlia with a polite, if indifferent look.

Dahlia's first thought upon seeing the woman's face was that she was beautiful. She could really see how a woman this pretty could be the female lead's mother.