I Won't Clear Up the Misunderstanding. I Don't Mind Being the Villainess. - Chapter 5

Madam Marvella is the classic antagonist who kicks off “A Single Flower Melts the Ice.”
Despite being hired as a private tutor, she completely doted on Leo, spoiling him more like an indulgent grandmother than a teacher.
She’s determined to push Erica out, convinced she’s unfit to be the Duchess or Leo’s new mother.
The reason Leo was so openly hostile to Erica? It was Marvella, his tutor, who’d been poisoning his mind with nasty rumors and outright lies.
In short, Madam Marvella was acting like the clichéd mother-in-law trying to get rid of the new wife.
However, her position started to crumble the moment Leo was won over by Erica’s baking and began warming up to her.
Talking with the genuinely kind and pure Erica, Leo began to realize she was nothing like the villainess Madam Marvella had described.
As a result, Leo started questioning whether Madam Marvella was truly in the right, and for the very first time, he stood up to her.
Shocked by the defiance of the grandson she adored, Madam Marvella slapped his cheek.
Erica, seeing this, flew into a furious rage at Madam Marvella, and Leo finally accepted Erica as his mother because she got angry on his behalf.
With her standing increasingly unstable, Madam Marvella tried to murder Erica by shoving her down the stairs.
But Kevin arrived just in time to save Erica and delivered Madam Marvella’s immediate, cold dismissal.
That covers her dramatic entrance and exit in the comic.
She was always glued to Leo in the story, so I had no idea she was tutoring Ron, too.
It was truly shocking that she treated Ron, Leo’s younger brother, so terribly, especially considering how utterly devoted she was to Leo.
(…Though I do remember a panel where she pulled the two of them aside to fill their heads with spiteful remarks about Erica.)
I also remember her constantly flattering Leo as the future heir and bragging that she was the tutor for the Avenius Ducal family for generations.
While she claims “generations,” her service only began with Kevin’s time—hardly the sweeping lineage she pretends. She’s simply a pretentious woman who loves to puff up her own importance.
The term eldest son worship, which I’d seen in a magazine in my previous life, came to mind.
Simply put, it’s treating the eldest son like royalty while considering all other siblings inferior, creating a sharp imbalance.
This kind of thinking existed in my past life, and given that most noble and royal families here grant the eldest son the title and power, this discrimination is actually quite common.
But surely there’s a limit.
I personally despise that ideology.
It’s completely wrong to spoil one child simply because he’s the eldest and treat another roughly simply because he isn’t. Distinction and discrimination are not the same thing.
And the idea of an eldest son being a king while his younger brother is a slave is utterly absurd.
I grabbed Ron’s shoulders with both hands to stop Mrs. Marvella from taking him.
“Oh, what a terrifying woman to look at me with such venom. I suppose the rumors about you being a villainess are true after all.”
Madam Marvella noticed my hostility and spoke with a weary exasperation. It was completely obvious she was looking down on Erica, even as she called her “terrifying.”
It was clear as day that she was labelling Erica a villainess while simultaneously mocking her as a weak, insignificant girl.
I matched her sneer with a retort of my own.
“You call me a villainess just for glaring? Is that the level of simplistic thought appropriate for someone claiming to be a teacher?”
“Wha—!”
“You seem to enjoy calling people incompetent or villainous, but frankly, it sounds more like a description of yourself.”
I told her, smiling sweetly.
The truth is, Madam Marvella is an incompetent tutor, and in the original story, she was the villainess who tried to kill Erica by throwing her down the stairs.
While it’s possible her personality might have changed, like mine, Madam Marvella is probably exactly the same. In fact, she might even be worse.
No, maybe she was always like this, but the comic just didn’t show it. There were hardly any scenes where she interacted with Ron.
Except for that time she gathered the boys to plant negative impressions of Erica, she only ever smiled and spoke to Leo.
It’s clear now that Madam Marvella completely dismissed Ron’s existence, treating him as though he simply didn’t matter.
“Be quiet, you utterly worthless girl, born of a common maid!”
Madam Marvella’s frantic scream echoed through the garden.
Ron tightly closed his eyes in fear, but the next second he looked up at me in shock.
“Wait, a maid…?”
“Young Master Ron, this woman was conceived because a maid seduced the head of the Olson Count house!”
“That’s a lie.”
“And what exactly is a lie?”
Madam Marvella demanded when I spoke up. Her smug little smile couldn’t be completely hidden behind her fan.
I felt a surge of cold fury rise within me.
Erica’s mother was a young and beautiful maid. That’s why the head of the Olson Count house had taken advantage of her.
Even after he aggressively made her his mistress, she never had a comfortable life and was quickly carried away by an epidemic. She was barely given any medical care.
“I won’t discuss it here, in front of a child. Unlike you, I have decency.”
“How dare a baseborn daughter speak to me, the private tutor of the Avenius Ducal house, with such insolence!”
“…So what if you’re a private tutor?”
I’m the type of person whose heart chills and face hardens the angrier I get. Madam Marvella, clearly, is the opposite.
Red-faced and flying into a rage, she was completely failing to distinguish between appropriate and offensive language. Then again, maybe she never could.
But most importantly, if she was going to use her rank and status like a weapon, she’d picked the wrong target.
“I am currently the Duchess of Avenius. Who do you think you’re speaking to like this, hired tutor Marvella?”
So what if Erica’s mother was a maid?
Kevin knew that, and he still married me. Not as a mistress, but as his lawful wife.
I know it’s not because he loves me.
But the fact remains: I am the Duchess. Until I’m divorced, I am the woman with the highest status in the Avenius Ducal house.
I stared at Madam Marvella, who had been carrying on like royalty, with eyes as cold as ice.