The weak scholar, despite not having been trained as a knight, aimed his decorative sword at his older brother.

Mikhail did not care.

A large, thick hand seized Violet by her shoulder. Violet glared up at the man who she once called ‘Brother’.

“Countless times— Countless. I tried to tell you, but each and every time you said that you didn’t want to hear it… Yet now, you’re curious about my reasons? Ah, but let me get this straight. Half of the things you told me I ‘shouldn’t do’ were things I didn’t even do. Why don’t you try and go look for that mysterious person who’s oh so jealous of this household’s adopted ducal lady?”

“YOU!”

Without listening to her at all, Mikhail raised his voice once again at Violet. The hand on her shoulder continuously crushed down at her, and she winced at the pain.

Roen’s sword touched Mikhail’s neck. But still, the man did not care.

“No matter! You— You should have given a proper explanation! If you truly had been falsely accused… Right, if you were actually wronged, then how could you continue to be so cruel to that child! You shouldn’t have let yourself be swept away by your emotions!”

You shouldn’t have acted on your own!

As Mikhail continued to yell at the top of his lungs, the look in his eyes spiraled, truly like a madman.

Violet took a step back. When Mikhail’s hand finally loosened its grip and let go, she lightly brushed off her shoulder.

“Fine. Yes, since I had been so wronged, I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have gotten furious, I shouldn’t have taken out my anger in that manner, I shouldn’t have screamed out…”

Violet laughed.

Roen drew his sword and lowered his gaze to the ground. The knights, on the other hand, overpowered Mikhail and made him kneel.

“Then, Brother, you’re trying to say that what I did was bad, right?”

Violet’s voice was quiet and soft, entirely different from how she always screamed bitterly.

“I was completely evil. Violet S. Everett was a villainess to the core. That’s what you’re saying.”

The darker the smile on her face became, the more grim the people’s expressions around her grew.

Violet was not unaware of this fact.

Mikhail’s words could not be refuted. Regardless of how wronged she had been, she shouldn’t have acted in that way.

However.

“You know, I was only eight years old.”

“……”

“I don’t know what great things you’re trying to expect from an eight-year-old child.”

Violet had been only eight years old back then.

She was merely a child, completely lost and taken aback by the sudden malice pouring down on her.

Those people refused to listen to that eight-year-old child, and all she could do was try to cling to them, to cry.

Yet she was abandoned and left alone.

At a period of her life when mature values had yet to be properly formed, it’s only natural for a child to act like a child. She couldn’t have thought deeply about how she should have acted.

She was just a child, clumsy in her attempts to be loved.

“I was only eight years old when you told me I was evil, that I was wrong… You did not listen to my side. All you did was curse at me.”

As everyone heard Violet’s bitter words, the heavy silence blanketing the vicinity deepened even more.

“It’s true that I had tormented Aileen. It’s true that I made a mess of her.”

No one had listened to that eight-year-old girl, even when she turned nine, and then ten, and then…

Each year, Violet was ostracized and isolated further. And, as time marched on, no one was there to ask why she was so angry. They all disappeared.

Violet S. Everett is a villainess, they thought. She need not any reason to be so vicious.

All those who stayed behind contributed to Violet’s living nightmare. Not only Mikhail, but everyone who talked behind her back and mocked her.

Roen, too, pretended to listen to her side. But in the end, he always only blamed Violet.

And Mikhail continued to insist that Violet was evil.

Ta-dak.

As Violet stepped forward and drew closer to Mikhail, no one stopped her.

If she was called Everett’s wicked woman, then everyone present here was a sinner to her.

Amongst everyone, Mikhail was the most heinous criminal, yet he failed to admit his sins. No, he couldn’t admit it at all, so he came out here and tried to accuse Violet of being the evil one to the bitter end.

“But you know what? I don’t really feel any remorse for all the people I had tormented. I don’t regret any of my actions. Yes, I admit that what I did was foolish. But rather than regretting it… Those people broke me first. The people I had tormented were the ones who ruined me.”

Retaliating that much was not unfair.

Instead of trying to get rid of the label and stigma of being a villainess, she stepped forward and lived up to those expectations.

Everett’s wicked woman, vilified through and through mostly for the things she allegedly did but did not do rather than the other way around, laughed arrogantly.

“That’s right, I hate you all. I’m sick and tired of the name ‘Everett’, sick and tired of all the damn people in this household…”

SLAP!

The stark sound echoed deafeningly.

This was the older brother who hated her the most, but all that time, she couldn’t give up on him just because he was her family.

How powerful could Violet’s strength be?

Violet mustered all her pent-up resentment from all these years into this singular slap.

Yet it was endlessly weak compared to how she truly felt.