The Villainess Wants to Make Her Husband Slim Down

CHAPTER 67

4 (2) – 8

In the end, Camilla returned with Alois to the Lörrich family mansion.

Despite it ostensibly being an extension of their hospitality, the dinner they had with the Lörrich family was a thoroughly awkward affair. Not to mention her discomfort with sitting at the same table as Gerda, the barely disguised hostility between the members of the Lörrich family made it even more uncomfortable for Camilla as an outsider.

But above all, the one she felt the most awkward being near was Alois. At the dinner party, they barely talked to one another, only exchanging words when they had to. She didn't know whether or not she was keeping up in these conversations at all, either. Was Camilla even properly answering their questions anymore? Just what kind of expression did she make while sitting next to Alois? Just what did they all think of her appearance right now?

– Why did this have to happen?

When that awkward dinner party finally came to an end, everyone retired to their rooms. Camilla, alone, stood exposed in the night air.

She stood on the balcony of the mansion's second floor. The white balustrade that ringed it was nearly buried in snow and the chilly wind numbed the skin on her face. Even though she wore her shawl, it did little to keep out the biting cold.

Going outside on a blustery winter night like this was a ridiculous idea... If she wanted to wallow away in her own sentiments, why couldn't she have done it in front of the hearth? Even as she thought so, the cold air helped in cooling down Camilla's heart. She regained a little of the calm she had lost during the day.

– It is true that I may have gone too far.

Those two girls were just ignorant commoners. All they knew of Camilla was the figure peddled in the rumours.

They didn't know her face, nor her true self. For them, Camilla was merely a villainess, a wicked woman who had stepped out from the fairy tales and into the real world.

They didn't know that the Camilla they giggled about had been standing right in front of them. Perhaps because he leaned more towards human than toad nowadays, they didn't realize Lord Alois was there either. They had no intentions of insulting the people who stood in front of them like that.

What's more, the fact that Camilla fought against Liselotte wasn't fiction. It's true that if one considered the love between Liselotte and Prince Julian to be a fact, Camilla, who opposed it, did play the role of the villainess. Camilla must also have looked unsightly as she chased after the Prince, desperately averting her eyes from the defeat looking her square in the face. As for the face she made when she cursed and scorned Liselotte in hatred, what could one call it but ugly?

– And yet...

"Even so, I didn't do anything wrong."

But those young musicians weren't really at fault. If Camilla hadn't been the subject of them, she probably would have laughed and gossiped with her friends about the rumours as well.

However, Camilla wasn't wrong either. Thus, it was only natural that she would get angry.

According to him, the words that Camilla said had wounded Alois as well, but in saying so, Alois hadn't done anything wrong.

Then, just who was at fault?

"Ah, jeeeeeez, what am I supposed to even do!?"

Walking over to the edge of the balcony, she grasped the railing. As her fingers were buried in that freezing snow, they became so numb she could barely feel them anymore. All she could see in front of her was the dark courtyard and the faint lights of the town below. At the horizon's edge, the trace remains of the crimson sunset bled into the hues of a darkened sky. She looked south, towards the royal capital, but she couldn't see it from here.