A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 44

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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 44】

 

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“My magical power is what she gave me back then.”

 

“Then that acquired magical awakening…”

 

“I don’t know how she gave me magical power. I don’t even remember how I got out of the Temple that day.”

 

Davuer closed his mouth briefly after finishing those words.

 

During the silence that lasted about a minute, we reached the last staircase underground.

 

The full view of the dim yet elegant vault came into sight at once, though it didn’t quite register in my eyes.

 

And for good reason.

 

“However, I’m certain the experiment failed. What’s here must be the legacy of that experiment.”

 

The voice that concluded the recollection was the heaviest I’d ever heard from him, so I couldn’t voice any of the questions that came to mind.

 

While listening to his terribly dry story of the past, I suddenly realized something.

 

‘…He likes that Countess. Even now.’

 

I couldn’t help but know.

 

The expression when he pronounced ‘her’ was so clearly tender that I couldn’t dismiss it as my imagination.

 

I realized it without deliberately digging deeper. About his heart. About the fact that a person from the past still lived within him.

 

The more I thought about it, the stranger I felt somehow.

 

It was strange that I felt strange too.

 

‘What does his heart have to do with me anyway.’

 

I glanced sideways at Davuer.

 

Even though he had just revealed childhood experiences that felt sufficiently horrific despite being told in such a monotone way, he wore his usual emotionless expression.

 

A man full of secrets, with the unexpected past of having been a Sainthood Candidate at the Temple.

 

Unknowable, and just when I think I understand him a little, he immediately throws me a new mystery. Will the day ever come when I completely know him?

 

While thinking such thoughts, our eyes suddenly met directly.

 

“What are you thinking about so intently.”

 

A playful answer came out for no reason.

 

“I was thinking that if I were God, I would have struck the Temple with lightning immediately. Like crack-boom!”

 

He chuckled softly.

 

“That would be quite a sight to see.”

 

“…You know. Didn’t you take revenge on the Temple?”

 

I suddenly remembered him mentioning making a priest bald once. Surely he wouldn’t call that revenge.

 

Even if he had ground the location of the Grand Temple to powder, it wouldn’t have been enough, yet it still stood there intact. And how splendid it looked too.

 

Shouldn’t a temple be a place made of integrity, compassion, and goodness? Not fraud, corruption, and hypocrisy.

 

‘Of course, temples in novels are usually rotten behind the scenes.’

 

At least that was the trend during my days as a reader. Nine times out of ten, when a temple appeared, it was corrupt.

 

But I didn’t know our Temple would be this bad. To think they would even conduct inhumane experiments.

 

The victim himself spoke about it with utmost composure.

 

“The Temple already collapsed and changed once. It was made so by the Countess of that time.”

 

The more I heard, the more impressive her achievements were.

 

So, she was the youngest mage at the Mage Tower but awakened divinity, used some mysterious technique to help Davuer escape from the experiment, became a Countess and reformed the Temple, and even fought God and won?

 

What kind of fantasy protagonist-like woman was she?

 

I could understand not being able to forget her for a hundred years.

 

“But then and now are not the same. That’s natural since so much time has passed.”

 

“Now it’s a den of corruption and graft…”

 

I was grumbling about those money-crazed bastards when Davuer’s gaze turned toward the center of the vault.

 

“More importantly, Irene.”

 

This underground vault was a place to display valuable treasures owned by the family, including heirlooms.

 

And the yellow, round metal sphere placed elegantly in the center was precisely the orb-shaped sacred object I had intended to steal.

 

In the dim underground space, that sacred object was glowing brightly on its own, even without any magic cast on it.

 

“Do you need the sacred power of that thing?”

 

It was a question asking if ‘I’ needed it.

 

According to him, sacred power didn’t help calm Magi, but it could heal injuries, so it still had considerable value.

 

But still.

 

“How could I use it after hearing such a story? You also said something ghost-like was in it.”

 

I immediately showed my distaste.

 

Of course. A legacy left by a mad experiment should rightfully disappear from this world.

 

“So you don’t need it. Then I can dispose of it?”

 

“Please do. But you said it was like some ghost. Should we help it find peace?”

 

Davuer didn’t reply and let go of my hand, then picked up the orb without hesitation.

 

Rattle, rattle.

 

The orb immediately reacted as if convulsing.

 

“I thought they were all gone, but some still remain.”

 

Rattle! Rattle!

 

The orb shook more and more violently, bursting with pale golden light. It seemed to be releasing the sacred power contained within.

 

Davuer just watched quietly without showing any signs of using Magi.

 

He spoke as if presenting a thesis.

 

“The experiment wasn’t entirely fruitless. Do you know that the source of divinity is life force? The sacred power derived from it is the same.”

 

“…”

 

“Perhaps because of that, those with sacred power could live longer than others. If they didn’t use that sacred power properly.”

 

“…After learning that, they must have been reluctant to use sacred power? Since they’d want to live long.”

 

“So they created substitutes like this.”

 

Rattle! Rattle!

 

Davuer’s eyes looking at the orb sank deeply.

 

“They put the failures of the awakening experiment to good use.”

 

In other words, the clerics had been using this object to wield sacred power as if it were their own.

 

“What I called a soul is more like remnants than an actual soul.”

 

“…Then why is this thing shaking like this?”

 

The orb in his hand, despite being clearly an inanimate object, looked as if it was afraid of him.

 

“Because it’s dying.”

 

Davuer looked down at what he held with a gaze that seemed to see somewhere far away and explained.

 

“Sacred power cannot purify Magi. However, I was forced to use sacred power on half-Vermin every day. It was a test to confirm whether I had divine awakening.”

 

“How brutally ignorant.”

 

“That experience from back then remains even after becoming an object like this, so when it touches something with Magi, it pours out sacred power like this. And when all the sacred power is exhausted.”

 

Rattle!

 

The orb that had been rattling vigorously suddenly went dark and stopped moving without warning.

 

“It’s dead.”

 

Just as he said, not even a trace of energy could be felt from it anymore. Davuer held out the orb to me and said.

 

“Now it’s nothing, so dispose of it as you wish.”

 

“Then I’ll break it… No. I’ll just take it with me.”

 

The thought suddenly struck me that since it looked like a precious sacred object, it might have some utility value.

 

‘…I hope it went to a good place.’

 

I silently prayed for the soul of whatever ghost or entity it was and put the orb in my robe’s inner pocket.

 

With more items in my pocket, it became quite heavy.

 

It was time to go back. But.

 

“…It’s rather disappointing. Isn’t there anything else?”

 

Having come all the way down here, I had no proper harvest.

 

Since this was a vault directly managed by the Baltres direct line, there were precious treasures here, even if not quite worthy of being treated as heirlooms.

 

Unable to give up my lingering attachment and looking around, Davuer took my hand again and rested his chin on my shoulder.

 

“That’s an item from the Mage Tower.”

 

Where he pointed with his raised hand, there was a book.

 

Among all the splendid treasures scattered throughout the storage room, one particularly plain and simple book that looked shabby in comparison.

 

“…Why is that here now?”

 

It was a family heirloom that should have been stored in the Duke’s Mansion.

 

It has no title and can’t even be opened to see inside, yet they treat it so preciously, calling it a relic of the Mage Tower.

 

Come to think of it, I had a former Mage Tower master with me.

 

“Do you know what kind of book this is? No, you do know, right?”

 

I first picked up the book and lightly poked his side. Davuer just rolled his eyes to look this way and replied.

 

“A research journal on magic to annihilate the Magi.”

 

“Gasp!”

 

I immediately stuffed the book into my arms.

 

Davuer, who was pushed away from me in the process, added.

 

“That research failed anyway.”

 

“There might be some ingenious clue in it. Don’t you know the saying about checking even extinguished embers again?”

 

“I don’t think that’s the right saying to use here.”

 

Regardless of what he said, I was determined to take this book. After all, shouldn’t I grasp at straws?

 

I was hugging the book tightly, thinking this was quite a good harvest, when he snatched it away.

 

“If you’re done with your business, let’s go. Don’t get your hopes up too much.”

 

Then he dragged me along as he walked with shuffling steps.

 

Climbing all the way up the underground stairs took less time than coming down while listening to Davuer’s old stories.

 

‘Let’s see. Now it’s probably… around midnight.’

 

I was getting sleepy. Just as I was thinking about lying down immediately when I got back, the moment I tried to open the door leading to the surface.

 

“…!”

 

My withdrawing my hand that I had extended toward the door and Davuer grabbing me to stop me happened almost simultaneously.

 

I could sense the flow of mana from outside.

 

Mana like a restrained torrent.

 

In this house, there was only one person who possessed and wielded such mana. From beyond the closed door, a deep, aged voice could be heard.

 

“You’re going to the Imperial Capital looking like that, Noaren!”

 

Oh no.

 

It seemed the Duke had returned home.

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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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