Chapter 8
The next day.
Beneath a high, clear blue sky, vividly colored autumn leaves drifted down.
I stood before the grand and luxurious Ludovici estate, the kind befitting a great noble.
“This is urgent. Come to the estate at once.”
At last, I had been summoned by my father, who had caught wind of the enormous scandal.
“Well, I can’t live as a freeloader in a rich household forever.”
There was no helping it. I needed financial independence to commit my misdeeds without consequences. Besides, I would need my father’s help to decipher Prince Dominique’s suspicious coded letter.
I’ve got plenty of disfavor points—might as well use them as efficiently as possible.
Perhaps thanks to the scandal, I’d woken up to find a considerable amount of unexplained disfavor accumulated overnight.
Brushing the fallen leaves off my shoulders, I headed toward the place I most wanted to avoid—my father’s study.
Richard Ludovici, the head of the family, was the type of father who was blunt, indifferent, and consumed entirely by work—destined to grow lonely in old age. After his wife’s death, he had buried himself in work, leaving young Octavia emotionally neglected.
Octavia believed her mother’s death was her fault, and because of that, she thought her father hated her.
That must be why the rift between them grew so deep.
Standing before the study door, I took several deep breaths, my face tense.
“…Father?”
After my knock, a cold, emotionless voice came from beyond the door.
“Why are you so late? I told you to come at once.”
At that moment, my pupils trembled—not because of his cold tone, but because of something else.
♥ Affection Increased ♥ [+2,000]
“Gah—!”
I broke into a cold sweat as I watched the disfavor points drop sharply just from saying “Father.”
The man responsible for twisting Octavia through his indifference—my father—was actually a tsundere.
If the Admiral was a machine that generated disfavor to prolong my life, then my father was an express train to a death ending.
That was precisely why I feared him the most.
Ever since this ridiculous disfavor system had appeared—until Admiral Kelsedny became my reliable source—I had never once tried to improve my relationships, not even with the protagonist or the people around me.
Of course, there had been a time when I tried to reconcile with my father, following the usual trope of villainess possession stories, hoping to benefit from his magical engineering business.
After all, becoming a corrupt CEO was the perfect job for automatically generating disfavor.
Back then, I had grown complacent, thinking that I had plenty of disfavor saved up and that any losses could simply be offset by committing more evil deeds.
“Dad, maybe we could have a meal together toda—”
“Did you just call me ‘Dad’? And who said you could take my hand?”
♥ Affection Increased ♥ [+1,000]
“…Just thinking about it makes me want to die.”
If I hadn’t swerved immediately, I might have lost all my disfavor points and died on the spot.
Ironically, family—who offered overwhelming affection—were the most dangerous people to me.
Thanks to Admiral Kelsedny and my uncle’s household, I had managed to accumulate quite a bit, but the margin was still perilously thin.
If I walked through that door and apologized… it might very well become my last words.
Still, it’s something I have to do eventually.
Having made up my mind, I stared at the firmly shut door.
“I came to apologize and to say that I will take full responsibility for the unfortunate incident and resolve it myself, and additionally I require your assistance, so I would be grateful if you could spare me a moment of your time.”
I fired off the entire sentence at the door in one breath.
♥ Affection Increased ♥ [+1,500]
Cold sweat trickled down my back as if I were watching my life force being drained.
At last, my father’s voice, somewhat softened, responded.
“…Come in.”
I had expected to be turned away at least three times, but surprisingly, permission came easily.
And the moment I opened the door, I encountered someone I never expected.
I stood frozen at the doorway, my face full of confusion.
“…?”
Seated in the center of the study on a guest sofa, legs crossed, was a black-haired man in a sharp suit, turning to look at me.
It was Admiral Kelsedny Descartes, dressed impeccably as though he had made a special effort.
…What am I even looking at right now?
Beside him stood my father, stiffly holding a bouquet of flowers.
I couldn’t process this absurd situation.
When a scandal breaks, isn’t the usual response to issue a correction immediately or summon the person for a reprimand?
“Admiral? What brings you to my house… and why the flowers?”
“A gift.”
Kelsedny casually replied as he lifted his teacup.
No, I meant—why are you giving them to my father?
I already knew he was insane enough to pour alcohol into a teacup and drink it like tea, but I never imagined he’d be this creatively unhinged.
My father, still holding the bouquet, looked at me with visible discomfort.
“…Octavia. The Admiral says he wishes to take responsibility for the scandal involving you.”
Not only had he previously told me he wouldn’t take responsibility, but why was he saying this while handing flowers to my father?
The Admiral turned to my father with a solemn expression.
“Father, I will take responsibility.”
“…I see.”
My father looked slightly relieved that I had given up on Prince Dominique, yet simultaneously troubled that I had become entangled with an uncontrollable madman.
Clearly wanting to escape, my father spoke politely to the Admiral.
“I’ll leave you two to talk. Please speak comfortably with my daughter.”
“This isn’t something to discuss here.”
Well, it wasn’t something you should’ve come all the way to my father’s study to say in the first place.
After downing the remaining alcohol in his teacup, he stood up.
“Let’s go to your room. If it still exists.”
He spoke as though he knew perfectly well that I had been kicked out of the house.
In the end, I headed to the annex where I used to stay, accompanied by the Admiral.
As we walked, I could feel the bewildered gazes of the servants and butlers.
Upon entering my room in the annex, the Admiral sat down on his own without even being invited.
His gaze swept over me meticulously, as if inspecting every detail, before stopping at the bandage wrapped around the back of my hand.
“Are you hurt? Or perhaps… were you on the verge of death?”
“I burned myself playing with fire. Are you worried about me?”
“I’m just wondering why you didn’t die.”
What kind of insane thing was that to say?
After that bizarre greeting, he got straight to the point.
“I didn’t expect you to go as far as causing a scandal.”
Had he come all the way to the Ludovici estate to pressure me by involving my family?
Since he seemed to know the truth behind the scandal, I decided not to lie.
“Well, it’s not entirely false.”
The moment I casually sat beside him, he immediately stood up and moved to the opposite side.
Disfavor Increased [+100]
At least it was clear that he hadn’t developed any interest or affection for me after that night.
“I don’t remember much, but thinking back, it seems I might have done something. I came to confirm.”
Confirm what, exactly?
Holding a delicate teacup decorated with small floral patterns, the Admiral continued with a sigh.
“If it’s true, then I’ll have no choice but to marry you.”
“…What?”
Even though he disliked me?
My face turned pale.
No matter how much I valued efficiency and profit, I intended to marry someone who could prove their love for me.
The kind of relationship I wanted was one where we’d somehow keep running into each other, finding each other annoying and bothersome—occasionally ending up holding hands by accident.
“It was just a mistake. Please don’t concern yourself with it.”
“You don’t want to marry me?”
“Marrying just because we spent one night together… isn’t that a bit of an outdated way of thinking?”
A faint shadow crossed the Admiral’s composed brow.
“You have a truly trashy set of values.”
It was consensual in the first place!
Why was I suddenly being painted as the villain here?
As I stared at him in disbelief, he added,
“To be honest, I have no desire to suffer the disaster of marrying you either—but I can’t exactly kill you.”
With a sigh, he looked genuinely resigned.
“It’s my principle.”
Wait… was he seriously some kind of abstinence-obsessed virgin?
I never imagined the cliché of one night equals marriage would play out like this.
“But that day—you clearly said it was a mistake and told me to get lost—”
“I thought you were lying. I’m not a shameless piece of trash who uses someone’s body and then discards them like you.”
He emphasized the word trash while shamelessly changing his stance.
“But you don’t even like me, do you?”
At my question, he nodded without hesitation.
“That’s why I want to ask you something.”
His low voice, somewhere between a sigh and a lament, sank heavily.
“Do you want to sleep with a man who hates you?”
What kind of bizarre question was that?
I suddenly felt like I was being treated as some kind of deviant.
“…Why are you asking that?”
In response, he pulled something from his coat and held a neatly folded letter in front of me.
The moment I recognized it as the letter the original Octavia had sent, I squeezed my eyes shut.
I’d been waiting for a chance to steal it back… but in the end, he must have picked it up and read it after I dropped it.
But why is he showing it to me now?
As I wondered, the Admiral dropped a shocking remark.
“I was curious whether you’re desperate enough to propose a night together to someone who hates you… or if you’re simply a pervert who gets excited by that kind of situation.”
My eyes widened in shock.
Octavia proposed… sleeping together with him?
Something I had long forgotten suddenly resurfaced.
The original novel had been rated 19+.
I had gone into it expecting something intensely explicit, only to find it was practically false advertising with just a single such scene—so I’d forgotten all about that detail.
And the Admiral actually accepted that proposal?
The one and only explicit event in the original story… carried out between villains, behind the readers’ backs?
