Reincarnated as a Villainous Aristocrat in an Otome Game, So I Bought the Main Heroine with Money - Chapter 05: Learning About the Lonely Villain Noble’s Past

Chapter 05: Learning About the Lonely Villain Noble’s Past

The first step—buying Liese with money—had been a success.

Honestly, I hadn’t thought much beyond that. For now, if I could keep her and her mother from falling into misfortune and ensure their happiness, I should be able to avoid the doomed ending where I’m condemned.

“Lord Cerios, lately we’ve been receiving words of gratitude from the citizens. Lowering the taxes has also brought more merchants to the territory, revitalizing the area. I believe your parents would be proud of your growth, Lord Cerios… Oh, I’m so moved…”

Arnaud, being advanced in age, had a tendency to get teary-eyed.

Standing in the vast gardens of the Egrid estate, I found myself listening to the silence that seemed to envelop the mansion.

There were plenty of servants living here, and the usual sounds of daily life were certainly present. Yet, somehow, the entire estate felt eerily quiet.

It was something I’d noticed ever since I reincarnated into this world.

“Lord Cerios, is something on your mind?”

Arnaud, the butler, had served the Egrid family for many years. As the estate’s most senior servant, his gaze carried a calm gentleness. But somewhere deep in his eyes, I thought I glimpsed a shadow of sorrow.

“…From your perspective, what kind of master was I before?”

It was a straightforward question. Arnaud’s eyes widened slightly in surprise before he answered quietly.

“Lord Cerios… you became the head of the family at a very young age. It must have been a great burden for you.”

His words made me furrow my brows slightly. Cerios von Egrid—this body’s original owner—wasn’t always the arrogant and cruel noble he came to be known as.

The previous heads of the Egrid family, Cerios’s parents, died suddenly in an unexpected accident when he was just a child. Their deaths threw the household into immediate chaos.

“Young master, please, don’t cry…”

The young Cerios wailed in front of his mother’s casket, inconsolable despite the efforts of the butlers and maids to comfort him. His grief was overwhelming.

The pain of losing both parents at once… even now, I could feel a pang in my heart just thinking about it. It reminded me of my own life—struggling to survive with my younger sister after losing everything.

At least I lived long enough to see my sister come of age before I died. But for Cerios, there was no reprieve. The weight of such loss must have been unbearable for a child.

Yet, what awaited him wasn’t “time to mourn.”

As the sole heir of the prestigious Egrid family, young Cerios was immediately installed as the head of the household.

Though a mere child, he was burdened with countless responsibilities—running the estate, managing the territory, fulfilling noble duties.

None of it made sense to someone his age, but the household staff had no choice but to treat him as the “lord” of the house.

“Young master, these are the documents for the next meeting.”

“Lord Cerios, we need your decision regarding the tax revenues for the territory.”

Every word spoken to the young Cerios was directed at him as the “head of the household.” No one ever treated him as just a child.

Alone in his grief, he struggled desperately to keep up, but over time, his heart began to harden.

In his effort to fulfill the role of the “perfect head of the house” demanded by those around him, Cerios gradually adopted a demeanor that kept others at arm’s length.

By the time he reached adolescence, he had stopped expressing his loneliness entirely. It was also the moment his personality began to shift—toward arrogance and cruelty.

“Hurry up! Don’t keep me waiting!”

“If you can’t follow my orders, you have no place in this house!”

His words toward others became increasingly harsh, and his reputation solidified as that of a “cold, arrogant noble.”

But beneath it all lay the sadness and isolation of someone who couldn’t trust anyone.

The burden of being the “head of the household” had been thrust upon him as a child, and the weight of it crushed him over time.

Forced to bear it alone, he eventually rejected everything and everyone around him.

While he had guardians during that period, they weren’t the kind of people who could truly support him.

Perhaps it should have been the servants—people like Arnaud—who corrected his path during those years. But none of them, including Arnaud, dared to admonish him.

“Lord Cerios… must have endured so much pain.”

Arnaud’s voice carried a note of regret.

“If only we had been more attuned to your loneliness, Lord Cerios, perhaps you wouldn’t have turned out the way you did. But… the idea of ‘reprimanding’ our master, you, Lord Cerios, never even crossed our minds.”

Cerios chose to reign as the head of the family, even as he bore the weight of his solitude.

And the servants, in turn, could do nothing more than treat him as the head of the family.

As a result, Cerios’s loneliness only deepened, leaving arrogance as the sole mask to shield his pain.

But a subtle change had begun to take root within the estate.

It started with my actions and the arrival of Liese and Maria.

“Lord Cerios seems to have become just a little more gentle recently.”

Arnaud spoke softly, almost as if to himself, and I nodded quietly in response.

“I just thought it was necessary to change. That’s all there is to it.”

If I didn’t change, there would be no future—not for Cerios, and not for anyone.

“Do you think I’ve managed to become… at least a slightly better master?”

The words slipped out as a quiet murmur, meant more for myself than anyone else.

But one thing had become clear to me—I had begun to feel an undeniable desire to save Cerios, to help him find the peace he had long been denied.