I Raised the Villain's Daughter Too Well-Chapter 26: Didn’t Know! -

The Hero’s Family, Paltis.

Even in an era where heroic tales had become outdated,

They still lived in the past.

"Come here, Lea."

"Yes."

On a dark night, in the training grounds of the Paltis family.

Lea let out a sigh inwardly and hurled her sword, aiming for her father’s nape.

She had never actually slit a throat before, but she knew it in theory.

When a person’s neck is cut, they instinctively grab at their throat.

However, nine times out of ten, they can’t stop the blood gushing out and die within ten seconds.

Those who are lucky enough to press down on the wound with their hands... can survive for about ten more seconds, only to meet the same fate.

Lea knew all of this and aimed her sword at her father's neck with precision to achieve that exact result.

The trajectory she had practiced thousands of times struck the throat as soon as the sword was thrown —

Clang! — But the family head, Corsia, deflected it with the flat of his sword, sending it flying.

That took up one move.

One move — enough time for Lea’s swiftness to take two lives.

In the blink of an eye, Lea disappeared and reappeared, her dagger aimed at Corsia’s waist —

Thud!

"Urgh..."

The next moment, Lea was vomiting and rolling on the ground repeatedly.

"So soft."

"..."

Lea suppressed her nausea, staggering as she got to her feet.

Corsia lowered the foot that had just kicked her ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ in the side and began his critique with a stern look.

"Did you think this father wouldn’t anticipate your move after the throw?"

"No."

"Then why attempt such a shallow tactic?"

"Because I am faster than you, Father."

"...Excellent."

Corsia’s grin deepened as he pulled the second dagger out of his foot.

Blood trickled down, but Corsia showed no sign of pain.

Instead, he seemed proud as he asked,

"I didn’t see it. Where did you hide it?"

"Under my skirt. I knew you’d use your feet, so I dropped it simultaneously with my dash and caught it with my toes to strike."

"A bold plan and the ability to execute it. You truly are the most splendid flower our family has ever produced. That’s enough for today."

"Yes."

Lea swallowed back the blood rising in her throat and let out a sigh without making a sound.

She was used to it by now, but it still felt wrong.

Lea was eight years old. At an age when other families would read fairy tales and kiss their children goodnight, she was being kicked by her father’s boot.

Had it been mere violence, she could have numbed her heart and endured it.

But it wasn’t.

Every punch, every slash that left her vomiting, bruised, and bleeding was filled with deep, earnest love.

In the end, Lea couldn’t escape. She could only accept it.

Even now, when she could easily kill her father.

Corsia murmured as if in regret,

"...What a waste. With your skills, there’s no need for you to attend the Academy."

"No, no, no! That’s not true!"

"I... I see."

But there was one thing.

One thing she would never compromise on.

Seeing Lea’s eyes burning with determination, Corsia, who knew she would run away if he really tried to stop her, let out a sigh and smiled softly.

"It’s late today. Go to your room and get some rest. You have to be ready for tomorrow’s entrance ceremony."

"Yes!"

Lea, uncharacteristically excited, ran up to her room quickly, fearing her father might change his mind.

Tap tap tap...

Watching her retreating figure, Corsia clicked his tongue.

"She has the talent to reach our ancestors..."

Corsia thought to himself that the heavens were indeed fair.

They granted two geniuses, but not without a price.

****

The day of the entrance ceremony.

The Paltis sisters had just finished their morning preparations.

"Sis!! You took my clothes again!!!!!"

"Well, you stole my chocolate cookies!!"

"That’s not the same! Those get eaten up, but I saved up my allowance to buy those clothes! Do you want to die?!"

"One ginseng root I fed you is worth hundreds of those clothes!"

"I never asked you to feed me that!"

"You... you ungrateful brat...!"

After the morning scuffle, the sisters barely made it onto the carriage.

While Lea was fixing her appearance in the mirror, Armeria grumbled with a sulky tone.

"Your makeup is too thick."

"Hmph, mind your own business. And you, sis..."

Lea pouted, glancing at Armeria, but then fell silent.

That jade-like skin. Despite only washing with water, she looked like she had just applied the highest-grade cosmetics.

Even with her hair roughly tied back, her silky strands, sharp nose, and clear eyes shone radiantly.

It was a scam.

"..."

"What?! Do you want to die?"

Instead of responding, Lea clenched her lips and threw her powder puff at Armeria.

'I’m not bad-looking either, but...'

Her beauty was the result of effort, whereas Armeria was just naturally stunning.

Feeling gloomy, Lea opened her book to distract herself.

She had read it so many times that the pages were frayed and crumpled.

The novel was about a poor noblewoman who suffered under a wicked young lady but eventually won the love of a sharp-tongued prince.

That story was what had kept Lea going through tough times.

"How many times are you going to read that?"

"Sis. Shut up."

"..."

Lea had no desire to become a hero as powerful as her ancestors, as her father wished.

The Demon King was now just a fairy tale. Where would she even use that power?

If she could, she’d rip it off and stick it onto her sister.

Because of her strength, she couldn’t even indulge in her fantasies of screaming 'Kyaa~' and hiding behind a prince when a bear appeared in the forest.

Instead, she was more likely to instinctively cut the bear into six pieces, only for the prince to look horrified and tell her they should break up.

But if she were weak... the prince would heroically defeat the bear, then hold her trembling form and ask, 'Were you scared?' and console her by...

"Ehehe..."

Armeria, who had been watching her sister get lost in her delusions while reading the book, shook her head in disbelief and then got off as the carriage stopped.

"Hurry up. We’ll be late."

Lea, unusually nervous, stepped through the academy gates.

"Wow..."

The Academy was... the Academy.

It wasn’t just an educational institution. It was a sacred ground where only the Empire’s most elite noble children, the future glory of the Empire, were allowed.

The main building complex was not of a single architectural style.

Instead, it was a harmonious blend of various periods, reflecting the Empire’s glorious history.

As Lea jumped up and down, pointing excitedly at the Gothic spire that looked exactly like the one in the books, she called out to Armeria.

"Sis! Sis! That’s the Hall of Glory!"

"Ooh..."

Even Armeria, who thought she was already familiar with everything, couldn’t help but feel awed.

Lea quickly composed herself, cleared her throat, and stiffened her posture, taking on a weird gait.

"What are you doing?"

"You should do it too, Sis. We can’t get looked down on."

Students were starting to gather.

Lea, her heart pounding, got in line with the other students.

At the end of the line, a librarian was handing something out.

"Paltis Family’s Lea and Armeria?"

"Yes, y-yes!"

"Here’s your entry order."

When Lea saw the number tag handed to her, she beamed.

"Sis, we’re entering the ceremony in 179th place!"

"Is that good?"

"There are 218 students in this cohort, so we’re entering really late!"

"Huh? Isn’t that bad?"

"Are you joking?"

Armeria’s serious expression as she said, “What’s the joke?” made Lea lower her evaluation of her sister from a truffle-hunting pig to a slug.

“Sis... Of course, we need to enter late. If we go in early, there won’t be many people inside. The fewer people when we enter, the quieter the applause will be.”

“So what?”

“This is how they determine our cohort’s hierarchy! It’s not random — they decide the order based on family achievements and status. The later you enter, the more everyone will think highly of you.”

“Oh, there was something like that? That’s interesting.”

Lea grabbed Armeria’s shoulders and shook her violently.

“How do you not know this? Are you really that stupid? Why did you even come to the Academy? Just drop out now. You’re going to ruin my beautiful Academy life by pulling some stupid stunt!”

“C-Calm down, I know the Academy well.”

“No, you don’t! You don’t even know the order of the entrance ceremony! What do you know, then?”

“Um...”

Armeria, overflowing with her baseless confidence, jerked her chin toward a student chatting nearby.

“Do you know who that is?”

“...Hm? Yeah. That’s Ladan from the Rotious family. Not a very high-ranking family. Why?”

“He’s going to be ‘forced’ to drop out today.”

“What? Why?”

“You’ll see.”

“...”

Lea watched Armeria’s cryptic smile, then kicked her in the shin and distanced herself as far away as possible.

She didn’t want to be seen with a lunatic.

Clang!

The grand iron doors of the ceremony hall opened.

“Now, please enter according to the order of your number tags.”

“Aaah...”

Lea trembled in excitement as she scanned the surrounding male students.

‘Hmm... They’re all pretty average.’

While some of them passed in terms of height and physique, none of their faces quite made the cut.

But she wasn’t disappointed. The Academy life was just beginning.

The prince was bound to appear someday.

Calming her pounding heart, thirty minutes flew by in the blink of an eye.

“S-Sis, it’s our turn. Don’t get nervous. Walk gracefully, got it?”

“...You’re the one trembling the most right now.”

Armeria sighed, looking at Lea.

Thanks to the Paltis family’s martial supremacy ideology, Lea had never properly attended a social gathering.

Now, she looked like a recluse with an overactive imagination.

A tragic consequence of a disastrous upbringing.

‘But that recluse is probably the strongest one here...’

Not only was her natural talent unparalleled, but she’d also been fed every elixir under the sun.

At this point, she was undoubtedly the strongest among the new students.

Armeria ruffled Lea’s hair and walked into the hall.

Inside, the ceremony hall looked more like a ballroom than a place for a formal entrance ceremony.

Delicacies and soft music filled the room, and it was already noisy with the chatter of the students.

“Now entering! The young ladies of the great Hero’s Family, Lea and Armeria of House Paltis!”

As soon as they set foot inside, the attendants blew trumpets and announced their entry.

Armeria grimaced, while Lea’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Ugh, what is this? This is so annoying.”

“Wowww...”

Clap, clap, clap —

Sparse and unenthusiastic applause echoed throughout the hall.

Naturally, due to the family’s secluded nature, most students didn’t know much about Armeria or Lea.

The students whispered among themselves, stealing glances at the Paltis sisters.

“Are they the new heroes of this generation? But why are there two of them?”

“I heard the older sister was supposedly sick last year and refused to attend...”

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to get close to them.”

At the Academy, quick networking could determine one’s future connections.

Several students swiftly approached the sisters, surrounding them with friendly smiles.

“Lady Lea, you look absolutely stunning. May I have the honor of a dance?”

“L-Lady? No, no, I’m not anything like that...”

“I’m fine, thanks.”

While Lea pretended to dislike the attention but secretly enjoyed it, Armeria cheerfully rejected every single approach.

And with a hawk’s gaze, she scanned the hall.

‘They must be here somewhere.’

While the sisters were each preoccupied in their own way —

Ding—!

The attendant struck a bell that had been used to announce each new entry.

The music changed, and so did the atmosphere.

The students who had been chatting among themselves immediately fell silent and turned their tense gazes toward the entrance.

“The sole ruler of the vast North, Lady Amica of House Celotipia is entering!”

Ten students remained.

From this point forward, the remaining entries were the aristocrats among aristocrats.

“The Conqueror who expanded the Empire’s territory by half, Lady Olvesia of House Senphenesia is entering!”

These were the families that would lead this cohort.

The students were already calculating which line they should align themselves with.

The last to enter would be the Crown Prince.

It was already widely known that he had decided to attend the Academy this year.

However, he was too noble to form any personal faction.

So, who would enter second to last?

The one who would effectively wield the most power over the other students —

It didn’t take long to find out.

“The ruler of a thousand mountains, a hundred territories, ten knight orders...”

The clicking of heels echoed through the now silent hall.

“The heart of the Empire, Lady Firnea of House Seriratus is entering.”

But there was another sound — a softer, lighter set of footsteps accompanying her.

The attendant, who had double-checked the list multiple times in disbelief, hastily added,

“A-And accompanying her is her butler, Lord Virdem of House Serbus.”

...?

At that, the entire hall tilted their heads in confusion.

Who the hell is that?