A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 30

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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 30】

 

Davuer, who had recently turned eleven after his birthday, was stunned by the blunt words he had never heard before.

 

The child didn’t give Davuer time to calm his agitation. Brushing aside his bangs, the child placed a palm against his forehead as if checking for fever.

 

“Excuse me for a moment.”

 

“….”

 

“Hmm, as I thought, cough. You’re under a brainwashing spell.”

 

“….”

 

“It’s completely severe. It’ll take some time to break, right? But we don’t have time, cough. I’ll break it for you after we get out of here.”

 

The child, who had been leaning close to his face, stepped back only after making a clear diagnosis like a doctor.

 

Only then did Davuer realize that while the child harbored magi, there was also an enormous and active magical power within their heart.

 

The young mage introduced themselves cheerfully.

 

“My name is …. What’s yours?”

 

“…Davuer.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Davuer. Let’s survive and get out of here together.”

 

That was their first meeting.

 

The child claimed to be the youngest mage of the Mage Tower.

 

They had participated in a monster subjugation as an apprentice, but were kidnapped while carelessly drinking monster bodily fluids.

 

So they needed to escape together before becoming a monster.

 

Davuer couldn’t bring himself to say that even if they escaped, without purification by divine power, the child would become a monster and be killed.

 

Instead, he pointed out something else.

 

“But you can’t use magic right now.”

 

“I’m not using it, idiot.”

 

It wasn’t a convincing rebuttal.

 

While tremendous magical power could definitely be felt from the child’s heart, magi was also coexisting there.

 

“Magi becomes stronger the stronger its parasitic host is. If you use magic, you’ll quickly be devoured by the magi. So you really can’t use it.”

 

“Cough! Why do you keep saying things that are right? It’s annoying.”

 

“Your condition is already deteriorating rapidly.”

 

It had been several days since they were imprisoned together in the penance chamber.

 

Perhaps because of the magical power they possessed, the child was more vulnerable to magi. Their fingernails were already turning black.

 

Maybe it was because of the experiments over the past few days.

 

The clerics focused on the correlation between magi, magical power, and divine power. They seemed to think that uncovering this would lead to success in forcibly awakening divine power.

 

The child, who had become more haggard than during their first meeting, muttered.

 

“Why are all temples so rotten?”

 

“‘All’?”

 

“Aren’t there any good temples? I thought I’d really hit the jackpot in this life.”

 

The child, who had been talking incomprehensibly to the air, finally turned their gaze to Davuer.

 

Then, taking his hand, they grinned mischievously.

 

“Don’t worry, I’m a talent destined to become an archmage.”

 

It was as if they were trying to reassure him.

 

Though he himself wasn’t particularly afraid.

 

Perhaps something was broken in him—while the penance was difficult, he had never thought of it as frightening.

 

Perhaps that was why.

 

Over these past months, while other candidates who underwent the same penance continued to break down, he remained intact. He was able to avoid being disposed of and disappearing.

 

This was what “I won’t die” meant.

 

“It’ll work out somehow. Davuer, have you ever read a novel where the protagonist dies? No, right?”

 

“….”

 

“Trust me. We’ll definitely get out of here.”

 

The penance chamber was cold as always, and the small hand trembling faintly was hot as if burned by a torch.

 

Davuer’s wish was slightly different from the child’s.

 

He hoped he could awaken divine power soon.

 

So he could save this child.

 

So this warmth wouldn’t grow cold.

 

A week later.

 

“Cough!”

 

The intensity of the experiments increased.

 

The child, now blackened up to their chest, continuously vomited dark red liquid mixed with blood and magi.

 

With this level of progression, they should have lost their reason. It wouldn’t be strange if they became a monster in the next few seconds.

 

Yet the child’s eyes remained clear.

 

“Sainthood candidate, please save us.”

 

As always, this time too.

 

Davuer still couldn’t awaken divine power.

 

They say you hear God’s voice when awakening divine power, but he still hadn’t heard it. God didn’t answer his efforts. If so.

 

Wasn’t all the past penance meaningless?

 

“…Oh! Davuer, keep doing that!”

 

The child, who had seemed about to die, suddenly sprang up and grabbed both of Davuer’s cheeks, shouting.

 

With black hands hidden by sleeves, with a pale face wet with cold sweat, with bright golden eyes.

 

“Right now, you’re breaking the brainwashing spell yourself!”

 

“….”

 

“Wow! This is possible too, I’ve never seen this before!”

 

The child was genuinely amazed. They showed no concern for themselves whatsoever.

 

Davuer slowly moved his lips.

 

“…You.”

 

You’re going to die. You might die.

 

No. He couldn’t say such words.

 

“Are you okay with me not awakening divine power?”

 

So after choosing his words carefully, he ended up asking a stupid question. Without even knowing what answer he wanted to hear.

 

The golden eyes blinked several times.

 

“Actually, I.”

 

Finally, the child began to speak in a tone that seemed either embarrassed or apologetic.

 

“I’ve been hearing God’s voice lately.”

 

“…What?”

 

“If I fully awaken divine power, this ‘illness’ will be completely cured. Probably I’ll… become the Countess.”

 

It was impossible.

 

A being without divine power awakening divine power?

 

Why did the temple gather and raise only children with strong divine power? Because cases of those without it awakening were extremely rare.

 

But for a mage, moreover one harboring magi, to be ‘chosen’ by God.

 

He had never heard of such a case even in strange rumors.

 

He didn’t feel betrayed. No question of how such a thing was possible came out.

 

The child simply whispered to the frozen Davuer.

 

“I’ve come up with a brilliant plan. Let’s get out of here tonight.”

 

“…If awakening divine power is really true. You can get out of here alive without doing that.”

 

“Then you’ll be disposed of.”

 

The child’s answer was devastatingly clear.

 

If a Countess was born from an unexpected place, the failures of the awakening experiments would be disposed of. It was natural logic.

 

But they wouldn’t let that happen. Davuer felt a queasy sensation as if his stomach was upset.

 

In the dark underground, the child shouted brightly.

 

“Listen. I’ll give you my magical power!”

 

“…What?”

 

“You’re going to become a mage and enter the Mage Tower. The Mage Tower protects its mages. They can even cleanse your identity.”

 

“That’s not possible… is it.”

 

“It’s possible. But you’ll lose your holy power in exchange.”

 

Perhaps it was because I wanted to believe The Child, who shamelessly claimed all these impossible things were possible.

 

Ridiculous as it was, it truly seemed like she would make it happen.

 

“You… said you’d become an archmage someday.”

 

“Yeah. You’ll achieve that for me instead.”

 

Saying this, The Child took out a necklace she had been hiding perfectly in her clothes and placed it around Davuer’s neck.

 

A silver necklace chain and an unadorned ring.

 

Since the clerics confiscated all possessions without exception whenever he was confined to the penance chamber, Davuer realized this was no ordinary object.

 

“This is my grandmother’s keepsake. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s actually a one-of-a-kind supreme magical artifact. It’s called Deus Ex Machina.”

 

“…What about you?”

 

“Take this and go to the Mage Tower. And if anyone asks about me, tell them that I….”

 

The Child seemed to think for a moment, then smiled brightly.

 

“Tell them I become a truly great saint. Not right away, but in about ten years!”

 

“…You.”

 

Thump.

 

‘Why are you doing all this for me?’, ‘What will you do?’, ‘Are you okay with becoming a saint?’….

 

Davuer couldn’t complete any of those questions.

 

Thump, thump.

 

Intense, heavy vibrations felt from his heart.

 

Before he knew it, his hand was clasped with The Child’s, and his forehead was touching hers.

 

But he could barely feel any sensations outside his heart.

 

Thump, thump.

 

What he could see were golden eyes brilliant like dawn, The Child’s lips moving as if whispering.

 

Sorry, it might hurt a little.

 

Let’s meet again next time, alive.

 

Thump.

 

Gasp!

 

When Davuer painfully opened his eyes again from the piercing pain in his heart and the burning sensation dominating his entire body, The Child was already gone.

 

He was lying in some remote thicket.

 

The high, dark blue night sky and the early spring night air felt like a dream since it had been so long since he’d experienced them.

 

It was as if the entire world had been turned upside down.

 

“…This can’t be, Davuer!”

 

Then his older sister appeared in his vision with a shocked expression.

 

How she had found him, where this place was, what had happened, no, more than that.

 

He needed to know what had become of The Child.

 

Since no voice came out, he raised his hand.

 

It was covered in blood.

 

Only then did he realize that a foul stench was emanating from him. And one fragmentary memory that pierced his brain.

 

“Salvation… I must use divine power….”

 

“No, Davuer! You need to stay rational, snap out of it!”

 

Ah.

 

The Child’s magic was half successful and half failed.

 

Davuer had certainly gained magical power from The Child, but for some reason couldn’t control it and went berserk.

 

He had killed the priest who came sensing the disturbance.

 

Perhaps continuously, or many of them.

 

The Child must have been flustered. His magical rampage was probably an accident not accounted for in the plan.

 

And…

 

“It’s okay, they were bad enough to deserve death. Forget all of this. Let’s just think about escaping.”

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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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