Page 9 of The Villainess Chose Naps Over Death Flags

"That's awful," Carol said. She looked at the soft golden glow emanating from the tiny sprite. "How about Lumi? Short for luminous?"

The sprite's eyes went wide with delight. "You're giving me a NAME? A real name?"

"Of course! You deserve a name."

"Lumi," the sprite whispered, testing it out. Fresh tears spilled down her tiny cheeks, but this time they looked like happy tears. "I love it. Thank you! You actually named me! You see me as a person, not just an annoying voice!" She did a little loop in the air. "I'm Lumi now! Officially!"

Carol smiled. "So, Lumi, I need your help. I'm completely lost here. I need you to tell me everything about what's been happening. Especially the last two months since the marriage."

Lumi wiped her eyes and nodded eagerly, floating up to sit on Carol's shoulder. "Oh absolutely! Finally someone who'll actually LISTEN to proper guidance!"

Behind them, Missy made a disgusted noise.

"Ugh, seriously? You're LISTENING to her now?" The devil sprite examined Carol with narrowed eyes. "This is so weird. Caroline loved me. We had such a good thing going—chaos, drama, schemes! And now you want to ruin it by being... responsible?"

"Missy—" Lumi started.

"Don't 'Missy' me!" The devil sprite crossed her tiny arms. "I LIKED the old arrangement! Caroline was FUN! She followed my advice! She caused problems! This one"—she gestured at Carol—"wants to play it SAFE." She said 'safe' like it was a dirty word.

Carol raised an eyebrow. "I want to NOT GET EXECUTED. Is that really so boring?"

Missy huffed. "It's very boring. But fine. I guess you get to make your own stupid survival-focused choices." She settled on the bedpost, clearly sulking. "Just so you know, I'm still the Chaos Sprite. If you make boring decisions, I'm going to complain about it."

"Noted," Carol said dryly. She turned back to Lumi. "Okay, so catch me up. What exactly did NPC Caroline do in the last two months? I need to know what I'm working with here."

Lumi took a breath, her expression turning serious. "The last two months have been... bad. Really bad."

"How bad are we talking?"

"Well..." Lumi twisted her tiny hands together. "After the forced marriage, Caroline was brought here to Frostholme—that's the Duke's northern estate. She was extremely unhappy about leaving the capital and being separated from Percival. She cried for three days straight."

Carol winced. "Okay..."

"She's been writing bitter letters to her parents about being 'exiled to the frozen north.' She refuses to explore the estate. She spends most of her time in her rooms, either crying over Percival Sinclair or..." Lumi hesitated.

"Or what?"

"Or plotting ways to make the Duke miserable," Lumi finished quietly. "That's what she chose to do—be the trapped, vindictive wife."

Carol closed her eyes. "Of course. What kind of plotting?"

"Well, there was the time she tried to poison his wine at dinner."

"She WHAT?"

"It was three weeks ago," Lumi said. "One of the rare times they both had dinner together. She slipped something into his wine glass when she thought he wasn't looking."

Carol felt sick. "And? What happened?"

"He took a sip," Lumi said quietly. "Paused. Said 'This wine tastes odd.' And then..." She paused dramatically.

"Then he realized she poisoned him?" Carol guessed.

"No," Lumi said. "He just... kept drinking it. Finished the entire glass. Didn't even seem bothered."

Carol stared at her. "I'm sorry, WHAT?"

"He drank the whole thing," Lumi confirmed. "The poison she used would have killed a normal person in minutes. He just said it tasted odd and kept drinking. Then he asked for more wine."