I'm a Villainess, Can I Die?-Chapter 60

For a moment, silence filled the room.

The anger that had flushed my mother’s face gradually drained away, turning her pale. It seemed to be a common trait of people in this world—they had a remarkable ability to change facial colors in an instant.

As I watched her face turn white, I glanced at my doll.

Sensing my movement, Mother flinched.

Oh dear, I hadn’t meant to make her feel pressured.

“Well, um... I was planning to send someone to praise Jane! Yes, that’s right! Praise her! For giving you such a unique and... striking doll as a gift!”

“You just called it a cursed doll...”

I muttered quietly, and Mother faltered again. She was probably trying to come up with her next excuse.

I hadn’t meant to put her on the spot, but honestly, her reaction was more entertaining than I had expected.

“A cursed... no, but it’s a good curse now! Oh! Like a ‘be happy!’ kind of curse? A benevolent curse, just like a noble lie.”

She was desperately trying to piece together nonsense, and the sight of it was almost pitiful. And at the same time... I felt a little grateful.

Despite the fact that my teacher had cried upon seeing my creation and my mother had screamed at the sight of it, she was still trying her best to cover for me.

Mother kept sneaking glances at me, fidgeting with her fingers nervously.

“I’m glad to hear that,” I said nonchalantly. “I was worried you might not like it.”

The moment I pretended not to notice her struggle, she exhaled a long breath, visibly relieved, and smiled.

“How could that be, Selina? No matter what it is, if it’s a gift from you, I could only be happy.”

Mother stretched out her palm toward me, her hand wide open—asking for the doll.

Today really was a strange day.

No, to be honest, I had been strange for a long time.

Ever since that day, my life had been filled with nothing but strange days. One moment, I would think that maybe I could be happy, just like Eunji said... but the next, the shadows of the past would grab me by the throat and drag me into the abyss. Everything wavered, flickering between extremes.

Even now—the weather, the doll, that outstretched hand—everything was pulling my past back to the surface.

In my previous life, my mother had also reached out her palm toward me like that. But her hand had never stopped in front of me. It had always struck me instead.

The bruises lingered long after the slaps faded. But more than ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the sting, what hurt the most was the look in her eyes as she gazed down at me.

I placed the messily crafted doll into my mother’s waiting hand.

She took it and examined it with warm, gentle eyes. Her expression was devoid of any falsehood.

She looked at the doll as if it were truly something precious.

It was probably the same expression I had worn as a child when I received my first teddy bear.

And just like that, the lingering shadows of my past vanished once more.

Honestly, was I Jekyll and Hyde or something?

The next day, Mother proudly brought the doll to the dinner table to show it off to the rest of the family.

At first, my father and Aaron looked at it as if it were some bizarre artifact. But the moment they heard that I had made it and gifted it to her, their eyes lit up as they turned to me.

...Yeah, no.

I wasn’t making any more. That cursed doll had taken way too long to finish.

And now they expected me to make two more? Absolutely not.

Ignoring their hopeful stares, I focused solely on my plate, quietly eating my meal.

I needed to find a new hobby.

There was nothing to do until the Founding Festival three weeks from now, so I might as well spend my time searching for something worthwhile.

As I rolled around on my bed, contemplating what to try next, I heard a voice.

“Wow! Young Lady, you roll quite gracefully!”

Unlike Aiden, who had gotten up and clapped in awe, Jane simply smiled and watched with amusement.

“...I think I’ll have to give up on making dolls.”

Jane didn’t say anything at first. She had smiled even when I did a ridiculous forward roll just now, but the moment I mentioned dolls, her expression slowly stiffened.

And then, with an awkward nod, she replied, “Yes, Young Lady. Giving up isn’t always a bad thing.”

...Why did that make me want to try again?

But no. I wasn’t the type to push myself into something I had no talent for.

“Maybe I should go see my brother this time.”

Since I wasn’t familiar with hobbies in this world, I decided to observe what the people around me did for fun.

After a bit more rolling around, I set off to find Aaron—this time with Jane following behind me.

Aaron greeted me with a bright smile.

He kept sneaking glances at my hands, as if hoping I had brought him a doll.

...Unfortunately, I hadn’t.

“Aaron.”

“Yeah?”

As soon as I called him, he stopped eyeing my hands and met my gaze.

“What’s your hobby?”

Aaron and I sat facing each other with a chessboard between us.

“I don’t remember ever playing chess.”

“That’s okay. I’ll teach you. You used to be quite good at it.”

...Just because past me was good at it, didn’t mean present me would be.

I was skeptical of my own abilities.

Aaron gave me a quick rundown of the rules, but none of it made sense. White pieces were white, black pieces were black, and... that was about all I understood.

So, if I threw my black piece and hit that big white piece, I’d win?

Read 𝓁atest chapters at fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm Only.

As I contemplated my completely incorrect understanding of chess, a knock sounded at the door.

Oh no. I recognized that sound.

“What is it?”

“I heard my dear friend’s dear little sister was here.”

“My dear friend, how about you turn around and leave?”

“Oh, chess, huh?”

Lucas completely ignored Aaron’s words and casually sat in an empty chair. Aaron shook his head, glaring at him, but Lucas only grinned back.

Sigh. Teen boys.

I fidgeted with a chess piece, trying to recall the rules again.

Nope, still nothing.

In the end, I lost four games in a row.

Aaron looked at me apologetically, while Lucas sat there chuckling.

Even Jane, who had been watching at first, had moved to the window, gazing off into the distance as if unable to bear witnessing my humiliation.

“It’s okay, Selina. Everyone has things they’re good at. For example, instead of chess, you might be good at making dolls—”

Lucas, laughing as he spoke, was attempting to comfort me. But his choice of example was far from ideal.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

I followed Jane’s lead and looked out the window.

Yeah, chess wasn’t going to be my hobby either.

But I didn’t want to end on such a bitter note.

Wait. Black and white pieces...

“Aaron, do you have more chess pieces?”

Aaron, looking a bit wary, nodded and brought out another set. The pieces had a different design, making them easy to distinguish.

Perfect.

I took a large sheet of paper and drew a grid.

Lucas and Aaron both stared at me in confusion.

A few moments later, Jane, who had returned to watch, went back to gazing at the scenery.

I switched from chess to Gomoku.

Finally, a game I could win.

Since Eunji spent most of her time bedridden, she quickly grew bored of everything.

One day, I had to read her a novel. The next, we had to watch TV. The day after that, we played bingo. And when she tired of that, we played gomoku.

That cycle repeated itself over and over.

Among all those activities, the one we played most frequently was gomoku. We would lower her hospital bed, grab a notebook or a spare sheet of paper, draw a grid with a pen, and start the game.

Most of the time, I won.

“Ugh, at least let me win once!”

Whenever I beat her, Eunji would grumble like that. And in my head, I secretly called her Whiny.

With that much experience under my belt, of course, I was confident.

I explained the rules to Aaron. Unlike chess, it took only 30 seconds to explain. That’s why gomoku was such a superior game.

For the first few rounds, I won easily. As I started gaining momentum, Jane crept closer to watch.

But I had overlooked something.

I had always known Selina was short-tempered. But she had become even more ruthless than before.

Aaron wasn’t just a regular noble—he was the top student at his academy. He had even graduated early as valedictorian.

In other words, he was a certified genius.

Before I knew it, I was losing again. And as my losses piled up, Jane slowly backed away and returned to staring out the window.

Even Aaron, who was winning, didn’t seem entirely at ease. He kept sneaking nervous glances at me.

“Should I step in?”

Lucas, who had been watching me suffer through my twelfth consecutive loss, raised a hand with a smirk.

Aaron hesitated, then glanced at me before nodding and standing up.

“Selina, my hands are getting a bit tired.”

“Oh, right.”

Winning so many rounds in a row could definitely be exhausting.

It wasn’t a particularly convincing excuse, but I wasn’t going to stop him.

Lucas took Aaron’s seat beside me, spinning a chess piece between his fingers.

“How about we raise the stakes and bet a wish on this match?”

He looked at me with that same villainous grin.

Hearing his voice alone felt like the devil whispering temptations into my ear.

And as everyone knows, you always listen when the devil whispers.

Lucas was a genius, but his specialty was swordsmanship. There was no way I would lose to him in gomoku.

I nodded in agreement. Lucas’ grin widened, and the game began.

But human greed knows no bounds, and history repeats itself.

The mistake I made this time? Forgetting that Lucas was the male lead.

“Checkmate.”

This wasn’t even chess, but Lucas still used a chess term as he placed his winning piece. Then he raised both hands in victory.

“I lost.”

“And I won.”

The match ended with a decisive victory for Lucas—the kind of flawless win you’d expect from a protagonist defeating a villain.

“...What’s your wish?”

“Hm, I don’t have anything in mind for now. I’ll save it for later.”

His relaxed, playful expression gave me a bad feeling.

But a loser had no right to complain.

I nodded reluctantly, and Lucas’ smirk deepened.

Lesson learned—never listen to the devil’s whisper.

With a bitter taste in my mouth, a string of losses behind me, and a future favor hanging over my head, I left Aaron’s room.

Aaron fidgeted as he saw me off, looking uneasy.

To reassure him that I could separate business from personal matters, I simply bowed politely before turning away.

For some reason, that made him even more anxious. The last glimpse I caught of his face before I turned fully around—he looked absolutely pale.

“You’re not going to say goodbye to me?”

Lucas called out as I was leaving.

“...Is that your wish?”

“Nope. Just go without saying goodbye.”

I didn’t even need to turn around to know he was grinning.

“Should I prepare some snacks, Young Lady?”

Jane spoke up as we walked down the hallway.

She probably thought I was upset over losing.

But I wasn’t that petty.

It was just chess. Just gomoku. Losing a few rounds was no big deal.

I shrugged at her and kept walking.

“Yes. Two strawberry cheesecake slices and two cups of hot chocolate.”

The quiet corridor echoed with the sound of our footsteps and my voice.