I'm Being Raised by Villains - Chapter 2
<Chapter 2>
When I got to the library, the door was wide open.
It was strange. There were hardly any visitors here, so it was always left unattended with white dust.
‘Huh…?’
I’m pretty sure I left it closed a few days ago though?
As I entered the library with a bewildered face, I saw a stranger looking around the bookshelf.
‘…Who is it?’
The fact that he has black hair and is here, means that he’s either someone from the branch family or the main family.
‘It’s my first time seeing him.’
This annex could be used by anyone, both from the branch family and the main family.
However, there was no need for the main family to use the annex. The library in their mansion was much better, and the rooms and facilities were incomparable.
The man slowly turned his head as if he felt my gaze.
He also tilted his head slightly, as if he was trying to identify me.
“Do you happen to know where the books on divine magic are?”
It was a sweet and gentle voice. The smile on the corner of his mouth seemed to be quite friendly.
I was even entranced for a moment.
When I was too stiffened and unable to answer, he quickly turned around indifferently, as if he had lost interest.
Oopsie!
I should give him an answer.
“Excuse me, it’s placed on the second shelf of the bookshelf in the first block,” I belatedly came to my senses and answered.
His gaze turned towards me again, but I had to go back quickly before Myla returned, so I decided to go my way.
Suddenly, some verses of the novel came to my mind.
<Erno Etam has facial features that are clear and beautiful. His golden eyes sparkled like honey, and his beautiful black hair that seemed to absorb all the darkness in the world fluttered so much that it made you want to touch it.
He was someone so beautiful that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he was made by the heavenly God himself with the finest materials. However, no one approached him recklessly.
“Come to think of it, did you receive the cut well? I know you like it a lot so I stabbed it all over its body and hoped you’d like it.”
A friendly smile and a soft tone that made it hard to tell if he was angry or not, was the signature feature of the villain, ‘Erno Etam’, the last heir candidate of the Etam family.>
When I got to that point, my eyes widened and I stopped in my steps.
Erno Etam!
He was said to be a rare genius in the Etam family despite being the youngest. He was one of the villains in the Etam family, and is considered to be the most likely heir
candidate.
Truthfully, there was another reason as to why he was famous.
<He was a vicious hedonist. He never made a move unless he was interested. He did whatever he wanted to get whatever he wanted. All those who showed hostility towards him were always punished.
His only exceptions are his two sons.
The terrible side of Erno Etam was that whenever he got tired of playing with whatever he had, he would destroy it so that no one else came into possession of it.
The world used to attribute his fickleness and cruelty to him having been born with the purest dragon blood.>
At first glance in the novel, ‘Adopted’, he looked the most gentle. But he was, in fact, the most fickle and cruel psychopath.
And because his blood was the purest, he suffered the most from the chronic disease of the Etam family, ‘mania’.
It was to the extent that he had to wear several accessories to suppress his magic power.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter to me.’
I don’t know why he came all the way here, but I’ll be kicked out tomorrow anyway.
I trailed my finger down the list of orphanages.
‘Ah, found it!’
The moment my eyes twinkled, a long shadow was suddenly seen over the book.
“What are you looking at?”
It was Erno Etam’s.
He had two books by his waist, looking as if he had found what he was searching for.
I swallowed my saliva in high tension.
“It’s… a book.”
I stammered an answer, so in turn, I smiled broadly so as to appear unfrightened.
Because he hated people who trembled in front of him the most.
Erno Etam’s eyes slowly narrowed as if looking for prey.
“List of orphanages?”
At his justifiable question and gaze full of suspicion, I quickly shook my head.
“W-what is an ‘orphanage’…? I was just practising my syllables!”
Firstly, let’s go with the plan to pretend to be oblivious. Since I was fumbling as I pointed my finger at the letters, it won’t be unreasonable.
“Is that so? Thanks to you, I was able to find the book easily. Although the library is quite spacious, you seem to be familiar with it.”
“I come here often.”
“Is that so?”
Fortunately, he didn’t pursue or prolong it any further.
‘He’s probably not interested in me.’
If he was not interested in someone, he wouldn’t even save them, even if they were dying right before his eyes.
“Yes, I come here often.”
At my boring reply, he smiled like a doll and turned around, as if he had lost interest.
Click.
At the sound of the door closing, I buried my face in the book.
“Ahhh…”
I guess I was very tense.
It felt as if my heart had dropped.
I tore the page with the orphanage’s address into pieces with a deep sigh and put it in my pocket. After that, I folded the book close again.
The name of the orphanage was
‘Blossom Orphanage’.
…It was a name which seemed to make your hands shrink and feet cringe.
Upon looking at the name of the orphanage, information about the place came to mind.
‘Now that I think about it, did the orphanage hold the future owner of the magic tower…?’
And that future magic tower owner was a lost child from a certain noble family.
“Who was it…?”
Hmm, I don’t know.
Now is not the time to be concerned about other people’s circumstances in a situation where I might lose my neck tomorrow.
I was just about to leave the library after organising the books.
Clink-!
Roll.
It was a ring with luxurious engravings and a small red gemstone embedded. This meant that it was not cheap in the slightest.
‘This is…’
Suddenly, the face of Erno Etam, who had just been here a while ago, came to mind.
‘Is this perhaps…’
a ring to suppress mania?
It was said that he wore a few accessories, including earrings, which suppressed the mania.
Sweat dripped down my back.
‘Isn’t this… a little dangerous?’
I quickly grabbed the ring and left the library. Fortunately, he was walking away at a slow pace, so he wasn’t too far.
“Excuse me, here…”
Fearing that he might go mad, I ran over and handed the ring to him in a hurry.
“Oh, I was looking for it.”
“It was under the desk.”
“Is that so?”
Erno Etam smiled and reached out to me.
I carefully placed the ring down so as to not touch his fingertips and withdrew my hand.
This was because he had a fickle temper and considerable mysophobia. He found being touched without permission very unpleasant.
He lightly clutched the ring and halted without turning around. Suddenly, he frowned and glared at the ring I had given him.
‘I-Is it that dirty…?’
I wiped it with the hem of my clothes so that there were no fingerprints left though…
“Then I’ll be taking my leave… Have a nice day…”
I bowed my head at him, who was staring at the ring soundlessly, and slowly moved away.
“Haha, how interesting.”
I heard a low pitched laughter come from behind the moment I had thought I was far away from him.
I really had to clench my teeth in the hallway so as not to come out running.
‘If you run away from a beast, it will chase after you…’
‘If you run away from a beast, it will chase after you…’
‘If you run away from a beast, it will chase after you…’
I grit my teeth so hard that when I got to my room, my teeth were prickling.
And the next day, the long-awaited New Year’s meeting came.
* * *
‘I’m sleepy…’
I rubbed my eyes since morning with the back of my hand.
Because I had stayed up all night, I was blinking repeatedly.
I had been busy all night looking for things which could help me earn money, trying my hardest to avoid the eyes of the maid on duty as I wandered around the annex.
Although it was an annex, it wasn’t difficult to find something worth money. After all, it was such a family.
‘Still, the preparation is perfect.’
Even if something goes according to the plot, all the simulations have been completed.
As I said before, I’m a lizard beast who’s still young.
A young lizard beast often becomes more dehumanized when their emotions are intensified.
It wasn’t described in detail even in the novel for it was the story of a mere extra. But the novel said I would return to my original form here.
Anyway, I had a plan for every possible situation.
The first, which is the best one, is that I won’t return to my original form, thus allowing me to live my life.
The second is in the case where I do return to my original form, look for an escape route in advance and just run. Pack my belongings and run away from this house.
The third plan, directly tell them that I’ll leave on my own and ask them to give me a day.
Number one is the best, but number two and number three are not bad either.
“My Lady, shall we go?”
“Yep…!”
I followed Myla and headed to the large meeting room I had seen in the main mansion.
When she arrived in front of the meeting room, she squatted down and matched my eye level.
“My Lady, I can’t go in here. Go to the seat with your name on it, sit down, do what you’re told, and you’ll be able to leave. I taught you how to give a greeting, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright, I’ll wait for you. My lady, please be careful and get back safe.”
“See you later, Myla!”
If I’m still able to.
With Myla’s support, I clenched my fists and went inside.
As I took a step inside, I had no choice but to halt.
<To be continued>