A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 12】

I may have been pointed at and called a villainess wherever I went, but I was never a mage who was looked down upon for lack of skill.

“Yeah, it’ll be a complete waste of time and mana.”

I burned with passion for a task no one had asked me to do.

All night long.

Sensory amplification magic.

In the past, it was an improvement on existing sensory magic for efficient torture of family traitors and spies.

“Ahhhhh! S-save me! Please save me… Ahhh!”

“I-I’ll tell you everything…! Everything!”

As you can see, the effect was so good that anyone subjected to this magic could feel the pain of having their finger cut off from just a light prick of a needle on their fingertip.

The magic circle I’m drawing right now is exactly that.

‘It’s a new version that amplifies taste and smell.’

The result of working all night, driven by stubbornness and postponing sleep.

The magic circle drawn with mana as ink glowed softly in the air. The morning sun that had just risen also shone.

This is the highest place in Winter Castle.

Right on top of the castle wall where the Duke enjoys his contemplation.

“I’ve finished drawing it, and if I just charge it with mana… Ugh.”

I could feel the mana circuits in my heart burning hot. My head felt a little dizzy.

‘Maybe I was a bit too ambitious making the entire main castle the range.’

I steadied my breathing, then floated the magic circle high in the sky and closed my eyes.

The characteristic of magical alchemy is transformation.

If pure magic creates something new with mana, magical alchemy transforms mana to interfere with certain phenomena.

So the approach is inevitably more complex, and mages like me who pursue extreme efficiency twist the calculation methods even further to reduce mana consumption.

In other words, it gives you a headache.

“…Ugh.”

The sensation of mana being released outward from my heart. The sensation of the magic circle surrounding the castle like a barrier.

A lightning-like brief wave occurred from the magic circle that was completed after sucking up all my remaining mana.

Flash!

And when I opened my eyes again, what was in front of me was.

“Kyaaah!”

“You’re reacting as if you saw something you shouldn’t have.”

A talking statue—no, it was the Duke.

He had appeared like a ghost without any warning or presence, looking at me with his unchanging expressionless face.

Bathed in the pale morning sunlight like a halo, his handsome face sparkled even more than yesterday.

“Y-you startled me. Cough! Can’t you give some warning?”

“Must I announce myself while moving around my own castle?”

“Didn’t we have this exact conversation before? Cough! Fine. Your status cheat key is really unfair.”

It was my fault for seeking out this high place. I chose it because it was good for taking in the magic circle’s range at a glance.

I didn’t know the Duke would come out for a morning stroll in the dawn breeze.

“Your technique is excessively efficient.”

Then, after briefly glancing at the magic circle dissolved in the air, he approached me closely.

His eyelids were slightly covered by his hair as he lowered his head.

The wind blew.

His short, straight silver hair fluttered like snowflakes.

“You have a bad habit.”

“…What?”

What is he talking about all of a sudden?

I can’t get used to this man’s way of speaking at all.

‘More importantly, isn’t he too close?’

Tap. The Duke pressed his forehead against mine.

The touch felt cold as if touching ice, but somehow my skin seemed to grow warm…?

The contact happened so suddenly that I couldn’t react and just stood there dazed, thinking. Was it a chill?

“It’s depletion fever.”

“…”

“Quite chronic, I’d say. You have a habit of not considering your body’s condition when manifesting magic.”

He diagnosed me like a doctor and then stepped back matter-of-factly.

I thought he was checking my temperature, but he had detected my circuits. Though he shouldn’t have been able to reach them, the area around my heart where the circuits were located felt itchy as if dust had settled there.

It took a while before my tongue could move.

“…What kind of fever? I feel a bit nauseous and like I might collapse, but I’m fine.”

It’s really nothing serious.

When mana is depleted, the circuits heat up and temporarily show symptoms similar to heat stroke. You just need to rest and it gets better.

I’ve been like this often since childhood, and that’s how I learned techniques for handling mana limits. It’s never been a problem before.

“Depletion fever. Fix that habit.”

But why is this man acting like this? So bewildering.

I’ve received countless teachings and even more evaluations in my life, but this was advice of a form I’d never heard before.

‘Is it because he’s a former Mage Tower master?’

Even though I can only sense magi from him now, not even mana, he can still detect others’ circuit conditions like a ghost.

I fidgeted a bit and finally retorted somewhat defiantly.

“I understand my own body well enough.”

“So it seems. As long as your body can endure it, whether your circuits are strained or not doesn’t matter.”

“…Since I can endure it, it’s fine. There’s been no problem so far.”

Why do I feel like I’m making excuses?

“Isn’t it that you couldn’t think of it as a problem?”

Why is this man being so unusually talkative?

“It would be good to fix it.”

“…”

“If you don’t want to regret it later.”

Those eyes that made me feel like my insides were being examined when I faced them. From that unreadable expression, I read regret.

Then, before I could think, words spilled out.

“Is that from experience?”

Instead of answering that slightly impertinent question, the Duke showed off knowledge befitting a former Mage Tower master.

“When depletion fever repeats, circuits become prone to wear.”

“…I’ve never heard that before. Is that knowledge from a hundred years ago?”

“It was quite rare even in the Mage Towers of the past.”

Whether it was because my concentration had hit rock bottom along with my mana, or because of this depletion fever thing he mentioned.

The aftermath of staying up all night rushed in suddenly like a bursting dam.

“Yawn. I’ll be careful from now on…”

I gave an answer I didn’t mean while nodding off.

I became too lazy to argue further. It’s absolutely not because I was overwhelmed by his logic and knowledge.

After a brief silence.

“Go get some sleep, Irene Baltres.”

The Duke issued an order of banishment.

“You’re calling me that again, honestly… How long are you going to keep attaching that abandoned surname…”

The castle’s owner lightly ignored his guest’s complaint.

“You don’t want to groan even louder, do you?”

“Tch, fine. Then enjoy your solitude…”

Having finished what I needed to do, I was planning to do that anyway. With my eyes half-closed, I swayed as I left.

I managed to enter my room without falling and lay down on the bed, when I heard a commotion beyond my fading consciousness.

“Holy shit, I thought it was a ghost. Why the hell are you lying on the carpet?”

“Is Irenne dead?”

“Irenne! You can’t die yet!”

So noisy, you trio of idiots.

* * *

Irenne was not dead.

She had been staggering in the corridor just a few steps from her room, then suddenly lay down using the carpet as a blanket.

However, her face was excessively pale and her breathing was weak, so it was enough to cause momentary confusion.

A maid who had been searching for her since early morning when her whereabouts became mysterious, and two men who were idly killing time, happened to discover her in that state and moved her to the bed.

‘Decreased consciousness… it must be hypothermia!’

Most of their senses except sight and hearing had deteriorated, making them insensitive to temperature. However, they were somewhat aware that the castle was bone-chillingly cold.

Therefore, Ally, who had very logically diagnosed Irenne’s symptoms, steeled herself with determination.

“Forgive me. If Irenne dies, Master will fall asleep again and Belmayer will have no future.”

Her kind attempt to slap her cheek to wake her up was blocked by Nishe.

“Are you crazy? If you hit her, she’ll really die.”

“Ah.”

“And she’s just sleeping.”

“Ah.”

Ally and Jepi, having gained enlightenment, exclaimed in unison.

Watching them, who resembled siblings more than actual siblings in both personality and expression, Nishe let out a sigh.

“She does look like she’s about to die though. She probably overused her magic power doing something pointless.”

“How would a crazy dog know?”

“Think a little. Master used to be like this often too.”

“Oh.”

Indeed, befitting the sole brain of the Black Sea Knights, intelligence could be felt between his words.

If he knew that Irenne considered them a trio of idiots, Nishe would be indignant about being lumped together with thugs.

Belmayer’s First Knights’ Order, commonly known as the Black Sea’s commander.

Having risen to the most glorious position as a knight, he used his head as well as his body. In other words, he was an elite.

‘So what? There are only those two as members anyway.’

His subordinates had long since died in war and time. It had been long since he stopped being treated as a commander.

The Black Sea was now too embarrassing to even call a knights’ order.

Moreover, Ally was in a somewhat unique position, being part of the knights’ order while acting as a maid for 360 days of the year.

The undercover maid, whose assassination was her service, covered Irenne up to her head with a white blanket and said.

“Still, it would be better to add more firewood.”

Her touch was like that of a mortician arranging the dead.

The intention was to keep her as warm as possible since the air was cold, but the appearance looked very strange.

“Hey. Is this right?”

“Irenne must be cold.”

“That’s not the problem. Ah, forget it.”

“Where are you going? Bring some firewood while you’re at it.”

“Make the thug do it! I’m leaving because I feel like stupidity might be contagious.”

Nishe quietly left the room, leaving behind the two noisy idiots.

Irenne’s bedroom, which had been a dusty guest room for decades, now seemed like the most livable place in the castle.

Was that all?

Since Irenne’s appearance, Winter Castle had transformed quite a bit.

A little more light came in, it became a little cleaner, a little warmer, and a little noisier.

And.

“Hii, hiiek.”

On the way to the dining room. Nishe spoke bluntly to Coco, who got scared the moment they met.

“Did you see a ghost or something?”

“N-no! I’m sorry!”

“What are you sorry for? Don’t make apologizing a habit.”

“Yes… I’m sorry for being sorry…”

He endured his irritation while looking at her hunched head.

Just an ordinary girl who couldn’t become an ‘exception’, brought in by Irenne, who was an ‘exception’ allowed to stay in Winter Castle.

It wasn’t simply that he disliked Coco or that he hated having people in the castle.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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