It didn’t take long after walking through the gate for us to start seeing other students milling about.
And while such meetings were inconsequential to us, to them we must have made quite the spectacle. The moment we came into view, they all started whispering fiercely amongst themselves.
Rather unsightly manners if you ask me. Why is it that these supposedly dignified aristocratic students love to lower their voice and badmouth others right in front of their face?
And, as Gilles had warned, their gazes on us are nothing like two years ago. While they hadn’t been exactly friendly back then, they were nowhere near this cutting and cold.
“Hey, look over there. Isn’t that Alicia Williams?” I hear a shrill, high-pitched voice saying a little too loudly to be considered a whisper.
Oh? It seems that my name has already become well-known even among those whom I am not yet acquainted. Doesn’t this mean I’ve already become a big shot within the academy?
…..No, stop that. Don’t get too excited now and get carried away!
I do my best to stamp down my growing pride and anticipation so I can retain my calm, indifferent façade.
“Oh my goodness. Do you see that? She’s wearing an eye patch!”
“How gaudy. As a girl, to wear such a thing….!”
“I wonder what could have happened. Goodness, do you think she could have gotten in a fight? How unruly.”
“It completely spoils that pretty face of hers! Such a pity.”
“Ugh, somehow it looks makes her look all creepy and gruesome.”
“I’ll bet she was cursed! Underneath, her eye’s probably rotting away.”
Suddenly, a loud chorusing of snickering and giggling voices can be heard.
Wow. The effect of the eye patch is beyond anything I could have imagined.
Thanks to my new accessory, I’m probably receiving twice the amount of abusive gossip than I normally would. What a fortuitous benefit for giving Grandpa Will one of my eyes! I’m so grateful I got the chance to wear an eye patch.
I glance over at Gilles and see that he’s walking around with an expression that is cold enough to make hell freeze over. Could this be part of his new acting skills that he mentioned earlier?
“Ugh, she’s such an eyesore, walking around like she’s all that.”
“Yeah, who cares if she’s pretty on the outside when her heart’s all disgusting and black on the inside.”
“So true! Who cares what you look like if your insides are rotten!”
“Besides, I think Liz-Sama is way more beautiful than her.”
“She can’t even compare to Liz-Sama!”
“Ahh! Liz-Sama has the most beautiful soul of any person that I’ve ever met!”
“That girl can’t even hold a candle to Liz-Sama in inner nor outer beauty.”
Although they are likely talking while thinking that the person in question can’t hear them, I can distinctly hear every word.
The more they talk, the lighter my steps seem to become and I’m sure my expression is turning more and more satisfied as well. Gilles’s expression on the other hand is becoming more murderous by the moment though.
But I’m just so happy! To think that my notoriety would spread to this point! I feel like I’m being rewarded for Liz-san’s own hard work.
“It would have been so great if she had just quit school permanently.”
“Can’t she just hurry up and leave again?”
“Albert-Sama and Alan-Sama and Henry-Sama are all such perfect gentleman….. How could she even come from the same family as them!?”
“Right? She’s the only failure in the family! I guess even the Williams household has something they deserve to be pitied for.”
“Even if her face isn’t bad, she’s just a good-for-nothing…. Since she can’t do anything, she’ll just be a hindrance to her own family.”
I’m so thankful that these heathens have such bad breeding as to badmouth a person within such easy listening range.
I glance over in the direction of those gossip-mongers and as our eyes meet, the smiles on their faces fall off instantly. Stiff, uncomfortable expressions replace their lost mirth.
Although I wasn’t even glaring at them, the atmosphere grows tense and strained. All in that one moment, silence descends.
To think that with only one eye I’d be able to petrify people this easily…. I truly must be a prodigy of absolute villainy!
Though, I wouldn’t have minded if they had continued to badmouth me. I had been quite enjoying myself listening to their flippant insults.
“….What? What are you looking at?”
“We’re not scared of the likes of you!”
As a general rule, the academy does not require its students to uphold the typical social niceties that our varying statuses would demand, so I usually let minor slips in etiquette go. But to be addressed as ‘the likes of you’ upon our first meeting…. what happened to their manners as members of the nobility? Have they no sense of common decency?
I have the desire to lash out at them, to call them out on their obviously low upbringing. Since I haven’t spoken to anyone in so long, I feel like it’s only natural that my tongue would have gotten that much sharper over the years.
…..But I don’t. They’re simply not worth my time. So I ignore them entirely and stride past them without so much as a second glance.
Since the academy’s grounds are so uselessly spacious, even after walking all this time we are still quite a distance from the school building.
“Why is she here!? I heard she was suspended for forcing her way into Duke-Sama’s bedroom!”
“I heard that too! And I’m sure she’s spent these last two years playing around with as many men as she could sink her claws into.”
“What a shameless harlot!”
Crass voices squawk out from behind me.
At that, I stop walking.
From that tone and those words, I can tell that the ones who spoke must be staring me down with tremendous disdain in their eyes.
Since when was I suspended from school? Rumors are quite the terrifying thing. And to think it would be for that sort of reason…. just like a true villainess!!
Just today alone, how many points have my villainess stock increased by?
Staying secluded in that little cabin for two whole years may have been rough, but it certainly was not without benefit!
Just look at all the dastardly things that are now floating around about me.
“You don’t suit Duke-Sama at all!”
Well, I can’t deny that.
“I’m sure she’s just stringing that little boy along with her in order to curry favor. She must think having a cute little kid around will soften her image or something.”
“Yeah. She’s all, ‘Look at me! Look at how nice I am! I took this poor little orphan child under my wing. Aren’t I a saint?’ How repulsive.”
“What a poor, pitiable child. He’s just being used as a tool to help her catch men.”
“I’m sure Duke-Sama will see right through those shallow, pathetic lies.”
….What are those airheads even talking about? Am I hearing them wrong? So, their prejudice and misconceptions about me have even influenced their impression of Gilles as well now?
The look in Gilles’s eyes has become like a madman out for blood. He looks as if he could snap at any second.
“Aww, it would have been so great if he would have gotten engaged with Liz-Sama.”
“I know! Why did Duke-Sama have to get engaged to her of all people!?”
“He must be lamenting that decision so much right about now!”
…..Wait wait wait…..
I quickly look questioningly at Gilles.
He must be able to see what I want to say just from my expression, since he gives a slight nod of his head.
Since when did I get engaged!？
“Um, there’s something that I’d like to say…..”
Abruptly, a sweet, lovely voice rings out off to my side.
T/N: Wow, the gossip is flying~ So, who’s ready to go beat some obviously lowborn nobles in their pompous faces??
And, what..? She’s ENGAGED!? I didn’t see that coming. In hindsight, I feel like I should have! But I didn’t. At all lol.
And now a sweet, lovely voice appears? That can only be Liz, right? What do you think she has to say??
With this chapter, I finished my five for the week! Phew. I hope you enjoyed the binge! Let me know in the comments if you preferred reading the chapters this way, or if you liked reading them as they come out more or less daily! At the end of the day, I’m going to do whatever is easiest for me, but I will take your opinions into account if you have any!!
Carnation Scans 
Thank you for the updates❤
If they are engaged that means Duke was working hard so he doesn’t have to marry Liz. But that’s probably the reason for the rumors about Alicia climbing into his bed….
What I find hilarious is that even though they were trying to insult her, they couldn’t help but compliment her appearance. Alicia’s so pretty that even your badmouthing ends up praising how beautiful she looks.
And just the irony of how they call her a good-for-nothing, even though she’s literally considered a national security threat LOL. I can’t wait for them to get their faces slapped when they realize that they’re just gum stuck on the bottom of someone’s shoe compared to her.
Thank you for the awesome translations!
These girls really out here running their mouths b/c their beloved idol Duke is never gonna even breathe the same air as them. Y’all he’s taken, and he’s been taken since they were like ten y’know.
I feel like this is eluding to the notion that this was a prequel to the typical scenario of the “villainous” being engaged to the male lead and at some point the cult of shit and her holiness of shit will probably try to pull the old “condemn the villainous” scenario for her “crimes” but since duke not only loves her but is more importantly, not an idiot, he will probably pull an “uno reverse card” on that shit and hopefully overthrow the whole incompetent regime while he’s at it
Thank you so much for your hard work! That was amazing! Can’t wait to see what’s going on next)) Hope Duke appears in the next chapter too) And what would he and the others of her family says about her eye?
About chapters… I’d like to read as they come out, but the decision is up to you)
Translate as it’s easiest for you, please and thank you. While I like reading everything at once, I am also not against reading a chapter per day~ish as you’d been doing before, but I will enjoy this regardless of when it comes out (easier than monthly releases anyway 😌).
Also, aren’t Duke’s eyes blue? I feel like they’re of the family, anyway, so gold + blue = green and therefore fuck Liz. 😌
I enjoyed the binge because it was right after the timeskip so a lot of info at once
Duke got them engaged without asking her? Oh my.
Wait, a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD climbs into the bed of an EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD MAN and the CHILD is the problem?? Their head got serious issue innit?
I doubt they have the concept of pedophilia
They run by a feudal system, she’s deemed a young lady as soon as puberty kicks in and I’m surprised the gossips stopped at her being away merely for gallivanting, instead of hiding a royal bastard pregnancy or smth.
…Good job, King. Your Academy is full of brainwashed, flower-headed idiots because you won’t educate, discipline, or do anything with Liz at all…instead you rely on a girl 5 (?) years younger than Liz to be her monitor and sat on your ass with your thumb up your butt the last two years when she wasn’t around.
But, glad to see that my first impulse to just execute Liz if I was in the King’s position two years ago was correct. What a mess. If I was a rival King I’d be drawing up invasion plans right about now.
They still have the magic of the saintess tho, not to mention multiple high-magic individuals. Invading wouldn’t be a good idea tbh
Saintess has a problem with killing though. She’d be of no help.
Well, not everyone who is powerful and matters is on the king’s side, just saying…remember Duke laughing and admitting that his father’s an incompetent dumbass?
Hmm. I feel like the point of the story would be undermined if Liz was actually complicit in these rumors, but that seems to be where the story is heading. I hope I’m wrong and she’s just somehow dumb enough not to realize how the people around her actually think. That would pretty effectively undermine her world view.
I’d actually bet on her being dumb. Her IQ is like 20, she’d be harmless if not for her cheat stats and cheat brainwashing.
I hope so. I don’t mind her eventually trying to slander Alicia but it’s way too soon for her to be genuinely malicious. Plus, there’s just juicier drama to be had from Liz being able to win over everyone except the guy she actually likes by genuinely being miss sunshine and rainbows.
Liz has a flower field in her head but her followers must have flower fields.
Why they gotta diss the eyepatch though? I just be thinking Alicia’s like female Majima.
IKR?! Man, I hope this gets an anime, Alicia with an eyepatch would look so badass!
Many thanks
Uh.. well. Hm. That’s quite a shocked. To get engaged without your knowledge lol
And what? Forced herself into his bedroom?? LOL he was the one who sneakily put her there… While half stripping himself. Pft
Five for the last week or for this week? As in the first week of February? And boy, that was a treat! So fun to read Though I would have rather gotten less details about the gossip because I’m just so impatient to see her meet Duke. Auuuuugh, so excited. But that’s on the author, not on you, oh gracious translator.
Five for the last week of January! (Since I hadn’t been putting them up for the last week.) The first week of February starts another round!
I’m also excited to see her meet Duke ☺ But I don’t know how quickly that’s going to happen haha. It at least isn’t going to be in the next chapter 😅
I just.. want more I keep tapping the button but it denies me so coldly.
I feel the presence of a brother from the glorious F5 Army here !
Wonder how The Not Braindead Brother (can’t remember his name) feels hearing his national-security-threat of a little sister is considered a failure and a harlot after being isolated from the world for 2 years.
Will he be pissed or be super-ultra-mega pissed? Take your bets!
can you pick up this novel https://www.novelupdates.com/series/somehow-the-villainess-who-regressed-in-time-lost-her-magic-power-so-she-turned-into-a-secluded-maiden/ ?
Are you sure this novel has been dropped? It’s only been two months since the last update it looks like! Also, I could consider picking it up, but the releases would be pretty slow considering I spend most of my time working on Become a Villainess….
Thankyou so much for the translation! It was the best part of my day! I can’t wait to see the duke react to her loosing an eye!
Imagine how Liz feels; losing your crush to someone who wasn’t even there. Shame
No one is purety good on this earth, Liz is probably quite hurt about Alice, dark feelings that she can not supress, but hide them and close her heart, and with her heart closed she see, talk,laugh, with everyone but trully accept no one.
Liz is back and I’m about to get annoyed.
Non-consensual marriage, huh.
I know right. Who wouldnt be surprised that they were engaged to someone (especially to the ML) without their consent :0
evry single person reading this who has an eyepatch: offended
The image of Alicia – complete with eyepatch – radiating happiness as the increasingly ridiculous and outright malicious insults just bounce right off her is kind of hilarious. With that said, it says a lot about Liz that these devotees of hers feel free to do so: she really is the incarnation of all talk but no action. Even after what happened during the kidnapping incident, does she feel no responsibility to curb this kind of behaviour?
Also, Duke is as single-mindedly efficient as ever, huh?
Liz is weak and cann`t accept her own weakness.
Sooooooooo good! Thank you for the updates!!!
Thank you very much ( /^ω^)/♪♪
Tyvm for the updates, I’m grateful for the chapters no matter the pace you decide to share them at, 5 or so per week already make a feast!
Can’t wait for the Duke scenes, they’re going to be so much fun! Especially since there’s a slight misunderstanding in there somewhere, one good enough to get him bummed. And determined to work even harder.😂 Guess this is the one upside to the fact that her magic runs low rn, or else we’d be witnessing some early domestic violence.
Also, gonna have to say that there’s a slight wind bringing some common traits with Bakarina in about now. Should be obvious since her looks are getting more and more praise.
thank you for the translations!
uh oh
Thanks a kiloton! awesome chapter!
please hurry and bring alicia back…homework is not sparing my sanity
I’m trying! I’ll probably have the next chapter translated before work, but I won’t have enough time to upload T-T
Hang in there~ I remember just how much homework sucks
Thanks for the chapter!
I’m hoping the sweet lovely voice is Duke… even though it won’t happen lol
Thank you for the chapter!
Well, I get that they don’t like Alicia because she’s “mean”, but to say that she’s a good for nothing and a failure? It seems like they forgot that Alicia began to attend the academy at 10 years old. She wouldn’t have been able to attend the academy at 10 years old if she was a failure lol.
Honestly I thought nothing could’ve shocked me anymore, but the engagement took me by surprise