The Villainous Family Loves Me Too Much!

“Aaaaarrrggghhhh! It hurts! Stop!”

Liam jolted upright, clutching his head and screaming in agony.

“You, get out of here right now! Immediately!”

Jonathan and I were shoved out of the Crown Prince’s palace by the palace servants.

“Sister, that was way too strange back there,” Jonathan muttered to me in a low voice, shaking his head.

“What was strange?”

Could Jonathan have also seen the same markings on Liam’s body that I noticed?

“That Crown Prince… he’s not human.”

That was something I had anticipated as well, since Gebino had seen the humanoid Great Demon Beast in his dream, which was likely Liam.

But what was even more surprising was what Jonathan said next.

“The servants in the Crown Prince’s palace – they’re all demon beasts.”

I stopped in my tracks and observed the Crown Prince’s palace servants through the large glass windows.

‘The Crown Prince’s palace servants are all demons?’

They appeared completely normal, unlike Liam who clearly wasn’t.

They laughed and spoke comfortably like ordinary people, with no outward signs of being inhuman.

“Jonathan.”

I stopped Jonathan who was walking ahead.

“Could you perhaps do the same thing you just did, if I asked, when we go to the Princess’s palace?”

Without any hesitation, Jonathan’s eyes sparkled as he nodded vigorously.

“Of course!”

The next item was to discuss decorations for the wedding venue with Beatrice at the Crown Princess’s palace.

After the two-hour meeting ended, I suggested a physical examination to Beatrice as a premium service.

“Your Highness, we have a premium service to offer starting today. Would you care to try it?”

“Oh, that sounds wonderful! But what is it?”

“It’s a massage service to relieve fatigue.”

Just as with Liam, I had Beatrice lie down on the sofa and Jonathan began massaging her.

Fortunately, though Beatrice usually disliked others’ touch, she didn’t seem too averse to Jonathan’s soft hands as he was still a child.

A white glow began emanating from Jonathan’s hands as he kneaded her head.

Starting from the head, then the neck, shoulders, back, waist… and down to the legs.

Unlike Liam, Beatrice showed no particular reaction during Jonathan’s examination.

Behind her back, Jonathan shook his head, indicating he had not detected anything unusual.

“You know, Lord Roati?”

Contrary to Liam’s agonized response to Jonathan’s divine power, Beatrice seemed to find it soothing instead.

“You remind me a lot of a friend I know very well, Lord Roati.”

I was momentarily startled. Could she be referring to me? There was no way Beatrice could have recognized me.

“But that one is just… unpleasant to look at, whereas I quite like you, Lord.”

“Thank you.”

I automatically replied with a nonchalant expression of gratitude.

“What can I say? The Lord seems to know their place well. That one absolutely doesn’t know theirs.”

Fortunately, it didn’t seem she had recognized me.

But if I were an ordinary commoner merchant, those words could have been quite hurtful.

‘That I don’t know my place.’

Yes, perhaps that had been me when I was blinded by Gabriel and Beatrice’s happy ending.

But those were actions wishing for their happiness.

Could such motivations really be considered so wrong, so ignorant of my place?

While I was devoid of ill intent or good, her words were still lined with piercing thorns.

With an emotionless expression, I curtly responded in a businesslike tone.

“Thank you for the compliment.”

Beatrice cackled loudly at my curt reaction.

“See, the Lord takes that as a compliment. Oh, don’t misunderstand. I meant it as a compliment.”

After the massage, Beatrice handed Jonathan a 1 tium bill as a service tip.

No matter how politely I explained our staff don’t accept tips, it was no use.

“So adorable when the little one pouts like that.”

In the end, Jonathan reluctantly accepted the bill and bowed his head.

On the way back to the Roati Manor.

“Was the Crown Princess always like that?”

“I don’t really know. The Beatrice I knew wasn’t like that.”

“She seems like a bad person. Someone like that shouldn’t be given divine power by God.”

I’m sorry, Jonathan.

A part of the author you call God dwells within her.

“Anyway, it seems the Crown Princess has no particular issues.”

Jonathan reconfirmed that Beatrice showed no abnormalities.

‘I’ve confirmed Liam is a demon, and Beatrice still has divine power. But…’

There remained one person we hadn’t verified.

‘Where is Colin, I wonder?’

* * *

For Colin Piaget, learning about the existence of the ‘piece of God’ – one of the three fragments the author’s soul split into upon reincarnating into this world – was a recent discovery.

-You, stay far away from the imperial capital until my wedding is over.

Expelled under the pretext of being a wanted criminal, Colin had been staying at an abandoned house in a remote imperial outskirt with few inhabitants.

Up until then, Colin had only intended to temporarily lay low there.

But upon finding parchment and a pen in that barren house, one memory she had forgotten resurfaced.

‘Gebino Augusto’s original character setting was an extra imperial knight with a one-sided crush on the female lead.’

But now he’s a priest. Moreover, his supposed twin brother Conrad Augusto is a Felosite knight.

‘Didn’t Gebino not originally have a twin brother?’

And so Colin’s questions about Gebino began piling up one after another.

The decisive moment when she learned about the third soul was… through an unfortunate priest she encountered at the Julius Altar’s shrine while investigating Gebino.

“When did Gebino Augusto awaken his divine power?”

“Fif… fifteen.”

Colin coiled her arm in black smoke resembling a serpent around the priest, who immediately groaned in pain.

“Three years ago. Nor… normally it manifests around eighteen, but-“

Three years ago when Gebino Augusto awakened his divine power, Colin had been appointed as Princess Karena’s maid.

She had heard the Princess had lost her memories and behaved strangely for a time back then.

‘Wait, so could Princess Karena be a reincarnator like me?’

What Colin could infer was that when Princess Karena reincarnated, Gebino awakened his divine power.

A characteristic of the author’s soul reincarnating into a character:

‘The power the character originally possessed is amplified, be it divine power or his own mana.’

This was proven through Beatrice and her own reincarnations.

‘But what if it’s not reincarnation, and the soul is absorbed into the body in some other way?’

As Colin rose from her crouched position, the priest’s entire body was enveloped in black smoke.

‘I need to find Gebino Augusto.’

* * *

Colin was like a relentless hunting hound.

Though she managed to grasp the soul fragment from Gebino, she ultimately lost it again.

Frantically chasing the fleeing soul led her to the bustling imperial capital streets before she knew it.

-You, stay far away from the imperial capital until my wedding is over.

Beatrice’s insistent warning resurfaced in her mind.

However, Colin had no intention of abandoning that soul fragment.

She wouldn’t hand it over to Beatrice, who had temporarily expelled her, even briefly.

Then, Colin’s ears picked up the chatter of some noblewomen as she walked down the street.

“That shopkeeper over there is supposedly from Felosite.”

“Roati? I’ve heard a lot about them. Isn’t that the place specializing in weddings, opening a branch in the imperial capital too?”

“They’re handling the Crown Prince’s wedding this time, can you believe it? A Felosite alum at the academy told me the wedding will be extravagant beyond imagination.”

“I wonder what kind of wedding our rustic Princess will have.”

Though mere gossip, noblewomen’s rumors tended to be quite accurate more often than not.

Wasn’t their obsession weddings, parties, dresses, and jewels?

‘Beatrice is entrusting her wedding to a Felosite company?’

Suddenly, the person who came to Colin’s mind was Princess Karena.

She had prepared the most magnificent wedding in the Empire, more so than anyone.

‘A company specializing in weddings… this smells fishy.’

Concealing her face, Colin melted into the crowd to observe the Roati Company building.