A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 17

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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 17】

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“Why is she acting like this?”

“Don’t touch her. Irene seems to be having her lady’s day right now.”

“Huh? What’s that? And why are you holding her?”

“According to 【How to Survive as a Willful Lady’s Maid】, ladies often go through sensitive and melancholic periods. That’s when a capable maid like me should tactfully embrace her.”

“…Crazy. That’s just an old popular romance novel. Don’t tell me you crammed maid training from that?”

“So what if I did? Is there a problem? It taught me in detail how to serve a noble lady.”

So that’s why she kept trying to sleep in the same bed.

She learned maid work from that kind of novel.

I was about to point out the absurd service I’d been receiving but held back. In fact, my head was so foggy like I was dreaming that I couldn’t even do that.

“Hey! Go throw that book away right now!”

“I don’t want to.”

“Hah… Nobody’s normal here, nobody.”

Nishe clicked his tongue in disgust and continued moving his fork. His portion of food was disappearing in the blink of an eye.

“Pig.”

I muttered that unconsciously and cut my steak in front of me.

Though my eyes couldn’t focus properly, the hands of a noble lady who had received harsh etiquette training moved habitually well.

My mind and body seemed to be operating separately.

If not for that, I wouldn’t have obediently followed Ally’s amazing maid knowledge, nor would I be sitting on her lap like this now.

“Hey. If you’re just gonna keep cutting it up like that and not eat it, give it to me.”

“Nishe. Please show some refinement.”

“…Please, I’m begging you, just be quiet.”

“Did you hear that? He’s telling you to shut up.”

The maid who wasn’t competent but was earnest didn’t understand and scolded the pig… no, Nishe.

Then Nishe, who couldn’t act like an adult, got angry.

“I was talking about you! You don’t even act like a maid but get so absorbed in the maid role, chattering away.”

“…Don’t even act like one? You just said everything, didn’t you? How about we spar for old times’ sake.”

Ally gripped her knife in reverse and revealed killing intent.

“Sure, I was bored anyway, perfect timing.”

Nishe, who had quickly finished eating while bickering, stood up rotating his arms. He looked ready to draw the sword at his waist immediately.

None of those sitting around this dining table even pretended to stop them.

‘They won’t even give me time to be troubled in peace.’

Stab!

I stabbed a piece of finely cut meat with the fork I was holding and stood up abruptly with a long sigh.

Then I kindly suggested to Nishe, who looked ready to cause a scene in the dining room.

“You eat it, Nishe.”

“Huh? Huuuh…”

“I’m going to sleep now, so don’t come to my room.”

“Me too?”

“I’m talking to you, Jepi. Ally too.”

Right now I needed time alone.

Perhaps because of the day’s events, I had no appetite, and even the dinner Coco made for me wouldn’t go down properly.

I went straight to lock my room door and lay down on the bed. When I closed my eyes, Emma’s face floated around.

With the smiling expression I once loved most about her, but in an unprecedentedly cold tone, she had advised me.

[Don’t depend on people.]

[You know how futile that is.]

‘Yes, I know well.’

I don’t believe in things like people’s hearts or emotions. Hearts change and emotions cool.

What I believe in is my value and necessity. Yet on that subject, I’ve made numerous painful mistakes.

Emma, Baltres, Chessier.

I believed three times, and was betrayed three times.

Three times is enough for such experiences in life, isn’t it?

The villainess who wished for revenge or destruction no longer exists, but who knows. If I’m betrayed a fourth time, she might be reborn.

So I still hate it.

I won’t let anyone but myself into my heart.

* * *

After Irene left as if fleeing.

Nishe, who sat in her place holding the fork that had been savagely stabbed into the piece of meat, broke the brief silence.

“She’s still… like that, right?”

Giselle, wiping the corners of her mouth with a napkin, agreed.

“Yeah. She definitely hasn’t forgotten the Crown Prince yet.”

“No, Irene said she doesn’t like him anymore.”

“Idiot, do you believe that? Of course it’s a lie.”

Jepi, who had believed Irene’s words at face value, protested but was immediately blocked by Nishe.

Jepi scratched his curly pink hair while thinking of the black-haired woman who had left this place.

“Is that so?”

“Didn’t you see her expression earlier? The moment you brought up the Crown Prince, she froze like she’d seen Medusa.”

Now that he heard it, it did seem that way.

This time Jepi believed Nishe’s words.

Ally, who only spoke informally to Jepi since they were the same age, scolded him in a sharp tone.

“Dummy. Why did you bring that up so tactlessly?”

“I was curious. I don’t know about it.”

All he knew about Irene’s past was that she was a princess and the Crown Prince’s fiancée, and that she had tormented the saint who received his love.

Even that was just knowledge he had gained incidentally right before receiving the mission to kidnap the saint and go to the Empire.

Giselle, who had informed him of this, had told him to be careful not to encounter the noble lady with black hair and red eyes. It would unnecessarily complicate the mission.

Jepi had kept that advice. He had tried to keep it.

However, that day, at that time.

The first color he detected from Irene when they met in the mountain range wasn’t her black hair disheveled and fluttering messily in the wind, nor her bright red eyes, but…

‘…A beautiful sea.’

It was the color of a soul that resembled the emerald sea in his old memories, so Giselle’s warning didn’t even come to mind.

It really was inevitable.

It was the first time he had seen such a soul.

It wasn’t even a situation where he could think properly.

He was hungry from starving for so long, had no stamina so it was hard to manifest his abilities, and a horde of monsters was chasing him from behind.

It was Irene who had saved him when he was in a weakened state.

Jepi didn’t really understand complicated things like seeing people’s essence through soul colors. He just developed a liking for Irene at an almost instinctive level.

Just.

Because she was pretty. Because she gave him food when he was hungry.

That was all. He wasn’t even curious about Irene’s past.

By nature, he originally had no interest in his surroundings. Much less things that happened in the Empire, which wasn’t even his surroundings.

But strangely, he became increasingly curious.

About Irene in that place. About Irene’s past life.

“…Why though. He’s ugly.”

Jepi, who had muttered carelessly, thought about the Crown Prince that Irene supposedly couldn’t forget. The blonde man came to mind only vaguely.

He was a person he had no feelings about, but somehow now he was more annoyed than when he lost to Ally in a sparring match.

“Tsk. How uncharacteristically romantic of her.”

Ally snorted at Nishe’s words.

“It’s not uncharacteristic, Nishe. I’m sure all those ridiculous rumors are lies too. Irene is… a pushover.”

“I agree with that.”

Juansi, who had quietly finished his meal, stood up from his seat. He was deeply empathizing with the feelings of a primitive man who had recently discovered fire.

Now that his senses had returned, meals became enjoyable, and when he said he was cold, he was gifted with spring. It was natural to feel grateful.

“There’s no way someone who thinks of others this much could have done what the rumors say.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Given Irene’s overly kind personality, such things are impossible. It seems like she was used by the Crown Prince.”

Ally, who had been ‘serving’ Irene until her loyalty had bent inward and completely broken, rapidly fired off her speculations.

“I’m sure they’re malicious rumors spread by the Crown Prince to break his engagement with Irene.”

“That’s just like those Hilbarsia bastards. Being petty and cowardly is their specialty.”

Nishe, who held strong prejudices against the Empire due to border confrontation issues, criticized harshly.

“Irene is so compassionate that she wouldn’t hurt anyone, let alone kill even a single ant.”

Then even the Witch chimed in.

“It seems like she’s been forced to make sacrifices. That would explain her devoted and defensive attitude.”

Soon, speculative stories that would horrify Irene herself if she knew began circulating as if they were facts.

Some of it was truth, and some of it was misunderstanding.

Since Irene Baltres was the type to hit back twice when hit once, some items on her notorious list of misdeeds were actually true.

For example, it was true that she had rendered the eldest son of a certain count’s family impotent.

“Since your brain seems to be located down there, I’ll personally relocate it for you. No need to thank me.”

“Ugh… Aaaaah!”

Reason: He had made crude remarks about taking her as his mistress if she was abandoned by the Crown Prince.

It was also true that she had terrorized and shut down the renowned madam’s dress shop in the Citadel.

[Madam, I shall send a return gift for your recent present.

Wishing for your business’s eternal ruin, Irene Baltres.]

Reason: They had tampered with her commissioned dress using chemicals that caused skin rashes.

And that wasn’t all? It was also true that she had turned the Temple upside down during the Saint’s consecration ceremony.

“Is that what God calls me? Fine. They say if you’re cursed without reason, give them a reason.”

“You… you… crazy evil spirit!”

Reason: The priests had interfered, saying they “couldn’t bestow the Saint’s blessing upon a villainess.”

Of course, these justified reasons for revenge weren’t included in the rumors. In those stories, Irene was always portrayed as the malicious aggressor.

But in Belmayer, where they had already begun to firmly misunderstand, all those things were just fabricated false rumors.

Jepi asked sullenly.

“Then how long will Irene keep liking the Crown Prince?”

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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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