A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 36
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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 36】
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“You’re saying that abilities were powers possessed by a god?”
I asked back, feeling my head becoming complicated.
We had just arrived at Winter Castle aboard the Jepi Express and were crossing the corridor to enter the castle.
Davuer had resumed his lessons without warning right after calling Jepi from the Mamut Mountain Range.
He explained the true nature of abilities that I hadn’t been able to hear due to the rampaging trees, in a manner that seemed unkind yet kind.
“When I planted the source of magi within my body, the powers left behind by a dead god also mixed in. Though it wasn’t complete.”
“….”
“It was too vast for a human body to contain in its entirety. In the end, I divided and transferred that power. That became the form of abilities you know.”
“I am a leg.”
Jepi, who had been quietly listening, suddenly interjected.
“What leg?”
“God’s leg.”
What kind of strange talk is this now.
Instead of asking Jepi, I looked up at Davuer. Then my teacher provided the answer.
“The god’s powers were in his body parts.”
…Ah.
Should I think of it as a concept of body part specialization? Seeing the future, hearing spiders speak… so Giselle is the eyes and Juansi is the ears?
Then what are Nishe and Ally?
Wait. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen those two use abilities. Fighting and brawling, maybe, but not that.
But, for now.
“I roughly understand, teacher. So what’s the method for artificially increasing magical power?”
What did I endure all that homework for.
Wasn’t it all to learn this one thing? That magical power prohibition might also have some meaningful correlation with this method.
“Teacher?”
“Davuer.”
Good grief. These days he was being so sensitive about titles that I wondered how he had endured it until now.
Only after I called his name directly, despite feeling absurd, did he readily answer.
“Magical power is in circuits, and circuits are in the heart.”
“Right, right.”
“So if you want to increase your magical power, you can eat another mage’s heart.”
“Oh, I see… wait, no!”
Is he telling me this as a method right now?
I was so dumbfounded that I ended up shouting, and Davuer raised an eyebrow as if asking what the problem was.
“That’s a method I can’t use!”
“I merely answered your question. Whether you use this knowledge or not is up to you.”
“No, that’s… hah… You said you were a late-awakened magical power user. How did you awaken?”
He stopped under the bright lights of the lobby.
Though there was no particular change in his indifferent expression, for some reason he looked exactly like someone whose weakness had been struck.
Davuer stared at me intently, then answered with a question.
“What do you think I did?”
“You ate it? No way.”
“….”
“…Really?”
A silence that felt like a second lasting a thousand years passed.
Neither he nor I broke that silence.
Crash!
Giselle came tumbling down the central staircase of the lobby precariously. Jepi caught her as she was about to fall and safely moved her to the bottom of the stairs.
Blood was pooled in both of Giselle’s eyes.
“Giselle!”
I was startled and ran to her.
With her eyes closed, she spoke with a strangely calm attitude, regardless of the blood flowing from her eyes.
“Irene, don’t be too shocked when you hear this.”
“Nothing could be more shocking than your eyes right now!”
Why is she hurt? Wait, is there still a physician in the castle?
While I was thinking I should give her emergency treatment first, Giselle hesitantly moved her lips.
Suddenly, an ominous premonition rose like goosebumps.
No way.
No way….
“The Prince has awakened.”
* * *
“And he’s putting out a warrant for you.”
Giselle added with a somewhat dismayed heart.
For some reason, a butterfly had suddenly died, so she couldn’t see the moment the Prince woke up.
However, she had sent a new clone right after sensing the anomaly, so she could see the chaotic scene in the Imperial Capital.
The Prince rising from his sickbed after several months.
A warrant issued for the missing princess.
Duke Baltres rushing to have an audience with the Emperor.
This was as far as Giselle could sense.
Her eyes had temporarily broken due to the aftereffects of forcibly using her ability right after losing her clone.
However, predicting what would happen next was easy.
“Your location will probably be revealed soon.”
Just because Noaren Baltres had been quiet until now didn’t mean he would remain silent even in the current situation where a warrant had been issued.
His silence was presumably for the sake of the family Irene belonged to, not for Irene herself.
Eventually, being discovered was just a matter of time. Depending on the circumstances, the ceasefire between Hilbarsia and Belmayer could also become precarious.
Giselle pressed her still stinging eyes tightly and this time spoke toward her master.
“The Prince has awakened just as my previous prophecy foretold.”
This made it certain once again.
The future she sees doesn’t change.
“Do you remember when I said I would devise a plan? I just finished it.”
“…What is it.”
Giselle recalled a scene that ‘hadn’t happened yet.’
The future where Irene would free her master from magi.
In other words, this also meant that both of them wouldn’t die until that moment.
At least they had to be alive until that miracle occurred for things to flow according to the future she had seen.
Then let’s gamble.
“Irene will go to the Empire.”
A gamble that could only be made by believing in the immutability of the future.
“And there, Irene will―”
“I understand. I’ll become the bait.”
Irene, who hadn’t moved a muscle since hearing the news, suddenly cut off Giselle’s words with a refreshing tone.
She took out a handkerchief from her bosom and dabbed at Giselle’s blood-stained eyes while adding.
“If my presence in the Empire is shown on a large scale, Belmayer will probably be safe.”
“….”
“The Emperor won’t make the reckless move of breaking the ceasefire agreement with Belmayer without justifiable cause. He’s someone who doesn’t do things with little gain.”
There wasn’t the slightest hint of reluctance in Irene’s attitude as she declared she would walk into danger herself.
Because of this, even though her words were exactly what Giselle had intended to say, she found herself at a loss for words.
“…Irene.”
“I’ll go to the Citadel and reveal myself.”
Irene’s words right now sounded as if she was more worried about Belmayer than her own safety, which was strange.
Irene had fled from the Empire. Yet she showed no resistance to heading back into danger.
Even knowing full well what it meant to return to the Empire on her own feet now that a bounty had been placed on her head.
Even Jepi asked as if finding it strange.
“Irene, you came here to avoid the Empire.”
“That’s right.”
“Then why go back again?”
The draft of this plan had actually been somewhat formed from the moment she saw the future where the Prince would awaken.
The reason it hadn’t been properly completed until now was because Irene had to be the bait. Giselle didn’t want to force sacrifice upon her.
But no matter how much she pondered, she couldn’t devise a better strategy than this.
So Giselle decided to believe.
That the future wouldn’t change, and therefore Irene wouldn’t die even if she went to the Empire.
However, Irene couldn’t trust as much as she did.
Giselle’s faith was accumulated over a hundred years. She could have it because her foresight had never once gone astray during that time.
Yet Irene declaring she would become bait herself without a single word of persuasion was beyond Giselle’s expectations.
“Yes, that’s true, but… it’s more dangerous to stay here now. We can’t have a war break out because of me.”
“…”
“This matter is something I should handle alone.”
Irene was kind.
And as kind as she was, her barriers were solid, sometimes feeling like an insurmountable wall.
Because she always tried to solve everything by herself.
For Irene, options like relying on someone or sharing responsibility simply didn’t exist. While stubbornly accomplishing the opposite.
‘…Who does she take after.’
Giselle suddenly thought this, but then fell into confusion when she couldn’t recall who that ‘someone’ was.
“Giselle.”
Only when her master urged her with a frozen voice did Giselle come to her senses and finally speak after a long while.
“…Irene. You’re missing the most important part.”
It was truly so.
First of all, she had no intention of sending Irene to the Empire alone, and even less intention of letting the Empire continue to pursue her.
“Your matter is soon to be Belmayer’s matter.”
“…Huh?”
“And you’re going to ‘die’ once in the Empire.”
That Prince whose lifeline was as tenacious as a cockroach… omitting the rest, the reason he tried to find Irene was because she was alive.
In other words.
“They don’t make dead people pay for their crimes.”
They say to treat crisis as opportunity.
Giselle wiped her eyes with a handkerchief, revealing bloodshot green eyes, and turned her head toward Jepi.
There was one mission her younger brother had failed a few months ago.
“Jepi, you also need to follow Irene to the Empire with Ally. This time, make sure to bring back the Countess.”
Precisely the mission to kidnap the Countess.
Giselle hadn’t given up on the card called the Countess yet.
Separate from seeing and believing in the ‘future’, she couldn’t know how Irene would liberate her master’s magi in that future.
So the Countess’s divine power was still necessary.
Giselle looked at her master.
“Master. Which would be less dangerous – falling asleep due to Irene’s absence, or going to the Empire together with Irene?”
In truth, the real gamble was this.
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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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