A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 22

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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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【Episode 22】

“…’Why are you here’?”

The bewilderment in his eyes lasted only a moment.

Having quickly assessed the situation, Noaren spoke with a frighteningly hardened expression.

“That’s what I want to ask, Irene. Surely you won’t answer that you’re in Belmayer of your own will.”

From the moment I shielded Ally, he had already reached his conclusion. That the missing Princess of Baltres was standing here of her own accord.

Even if I denied it, he wouldn’t believe me anyway, so why ask? Should I say his nature is wicked?

I deliberately smiled brightly and asked back.

“Do you know the saying ‘assumptions can kill a person’?”

“Irene Baltres!”

Blazing anger shot toward me like a piercing blade. My skin tingled from his leaked magical power.

Unlike me, Noaren had an overflow of magical power that was rather problematic, and he often released uncontrolled magic externally.

He was more emotional than he appeared, and his magical power was greatly influenced by that. There was no greater nuisance to those around him.

‘In an agitated state like now… he’s a ticking time bomb.’

Whoosh!

Having made my judgment, I sent magical power like wind behind me to push Ally far away.

Then Noaren let out a sharp, bitter laugh.

“Are you playing house? In Belmayer of all places? Do you know how much danger you’re in? How could you run away from home like this—”

“That’s funny. Noah, why are you saying that? It makes it seem like I’m your family or something.”

“Irene Baltres! How can you call that…!”

“Don’t call me that.”

The family name that I had carried heavier than my own name throughout my life was something I had discarded with my own hands.

I am sufficient as just Irene, and I am perfect on my own.

I can be.

“I’m no longer a Baltres. We’re strangers now.”

The gaze looking down at me coldly was sharp, as if finding this absurd or pathetic.

This situation was just as absurd for me. I hurriedly changed the subject.

“It’s my turn to ask. Why did you come?”

Since he had received orders from the Emperor to manage the border dispute, Noaren’s appearance here wasn’t unexpected.

The Young Duke of Baltres was, simply put, the Emperor’s dog.

In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say the entire family was like that.

Being representatives of the noble faction was all a story of the past. Imperial power was stronger than ever at this time, and the Emperor was wielding Baltres with the Mage Tower reconstruction rights.

Noaren glared at me so intensely it seemed like he might bore a hole through my face, then answered like a sigh.

“…I’m pursuing Eshe Karte. It seems he passed through the Contaminated Region toward Drens. Did you encounter him?”

“….”

“You did encounter him.”

How is that bastard unhelpful even in death?

For Noaren to move personally instead of the guards, he must have caused some major incident before coming this way.

‘Did he become a demon right in the middle of the Citadel?’

I roughly guessed and answered.

“If you mean the demon, it was just subjugated.”

What crossed the border was a demon, not an Imperial Knight. So there’s no problem at all.

“Then where is the corpse?”

“Use your brain. Would we have preserved a demon’s corpse?”

“Ha….”

Things must have gotten quite tangled, as his already murderous expression became even more ominous.

“If you understand, then go back. What you’re looking for isn’t here.”

‘Please, quietly, just turn around and leave like this.’

Then Noaren, who didn’t understand even half of my dismissal, rubbed his brow with his knuckles and replied like an order.

“Right… Irene. If you come along quietly, I won’t question your foolish escapade any further.”

What a truly ridiculous act of mercy.

What was he considering? The feelings of a sister who became twisted and ran away after being rejected? The family that would be troubled if the missing princess’s location became known?

“I’m not going.”

“Don’t make me use forceful means.”

With those words, I felt like the thread of sanity I had barely been holding onto snapped.

I ended up saying something I didn’t need to say.

“Even if I told you I was the one who stabbed the Crown Prince, you’d still want to take me back that badly?”

“…What?”

“You seem to be mistaken, Noah. I didn’t run away that day because I was devastated by the news of the broken engagement. I stabbed the Crown Prince and fled.”

“That’s a nasty joke. Stop it. No matter what nonsense you spout, I’m taking you from here.”

“I didn’t know you thought of me that way.”

Since you always looked at me like I was a pest, I wondered if I really was some parasite living off the family.

My heart pounded loudly, and magical power spread quickly and hotly through my body from the circuit.

Calculations began in one corner of my mind.

“Your only sister is Lishie. Just stop caring about me. It’s not that difficult a request.”

“Irene Baltres.”

How tiresome.

Both the surname attached to my name and those eyes that saw me as a troublesome burden—family property that couldn’t be killed.

Perhaps that’s why. I wanted to make him very angry. So angry he couldn’t control himself.

Just like I had been that day.

“Ah, excuse me. You weren’t seeing her as a sister, were you?”

“…Shut that mouth.”

“Whimpering like a dog in heat in front of Lishie is honestly disgusting. Well, that’s probably why Father wants to send her to Chessier as soon as possible—”

“Irene Baltres!”

Bang!

A magic bullet barely grazed past the left side of my face.

Knowing it was probably just for intimidation, I didn’t even pretend to dodge, but suddenly my body was lifted.

Ominous black smoke wrapped around my waist.

The next moment, chains extending from Noaren left red trajectories as they pierced the ground where I had been standing.

Thud!

“….”

He had used the magic bullet as a feint to prevent me from properly reading the flow. I had almost been disgracefully bound by restraint magic.

The magi set me down and dispersed. When I quickly turned around, my eyes met the Duke’s as if he had been waiting.

A gaze that seemed somehow shaken. Why?

“Irene!”

It was Ally who called me. Without any explanation, I understood what she wanted to say.

If I nodded, Jepi would immediately pick me up and run. Then Ally would take up that sword and fight in my place.

…Why?

“No one… interfere. This is my fight.”

In fact, thinking about the three people here, and probably Giselle who would be ‘watching’ all this and Juansi who would be ‘listening,’ made my face burn with shame.

A family disgrace being broadcast live—this was the worst.

I was deeply embarrassed, and I didn’t want to involve the already noisy Belmayer in my problems.

“…Do you know how many people were expended searching for you?”

Noaren’s magical power surged like a torrent.

Bang!

Restraint magic flew toward me once more. This time I fired a magic bullet along its trajectory to break it.

“And the damage you’ve caused the family through that?”

“Do I need to know? How persistent!”

“You… Ha, regarding that nasty joke, I’ll take you back and interrogate you directly.”

“Why don’t you just send her to the execution block? Don’t want any stains on your precious family? Don’t worry, it won’t be complete annihilation.”

Because Baltres has a saint.

Saint Lishie will become the empress, and the emperor will be reluctant to leave a blemish on the empress’s family of origin.

Baltres can avoid her wrath to some extent by cutting me off. That’s how it was in the original story where Chessier survived safely.

Though I’m not sure if it’ll still apply now that everything’s gone wrong.

Noaren’s sunken eyes twisted into a sneer.

“…If it’s truly fact, you certainly ran away well.”

He’s right. I did run away.

From the original story, from the Empire, from those who discarded me like a broken object, from meaningless contempt.

“I wanted to die… but somehow I started wanting to live.”

I admit it.

Being betrayed by those I loved was certainly painful enough to make me want to die, and it ultimately became a scar that will never fade.

But a scar is just a scar. It might throb and hurt sometimes, but it can’t kill me.

The villainess who despaired beyond recovery died that day, in that place anyway.

I will live.

For a long, long time, happily. Until the scar becomes very faint.

“So, Noah. Stop interfering with my life and get lost.”

The calculation was complete.

The circuits heated like lava and the mana spread like a fuse throughout my body finally ignited. Now it was unstoppable.

I sprang toward Noaren and grabbed his arm so hard it seemed I might tear it off.

“What are you, doing…!”

His eyes widened in shock. His reaction speed was ghostly fast, but I was still faster.

‘This is the first time I’m using this much mana at once.’

It truly lived up to being teleportation magic that only mana monsters could use.

Having exceeded my usable limit, the area around my heart hurt as if it would truly shatter. I put on a pretense of composure and gave Noaren my final farewell.

“Tell your father. That I abandoned you. That it wasn’t you who abandoned me, but I who abandoned the family.”

Whoooosh!

The moment mana erupted from my entire body, a fierce storm swept through and Noaren’s figure disappeared in an instant.

He had been moved to the coordinates I sent him to.

“Wow… To actually succeed, my lady…”

…! Irene…!

…

A sensation as if gravity had flipped upside down.

I definitely seemed to have crashed head-first into the floor, but strangely it didn’t hurt at all.

It seemed like I could hear my name from very far away, and in my darkening vision, I thought I saw a man pale as plaster.

I felt a little embarrassed and mumbled.

“Sorry, really… this is the la, st time…”

That habit, I’ll fix it starting tomorrow…

And then blackout.

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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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