A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 6

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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 6】

2. What Changed, What’s Changing, What Remains Unchanged

One month later.

“Are you guys some kind of children of darkness?”

“Here we go with the nonsense again.”

It was a serious question on my part, but Nishe, with his rather cute way of speaking, treated it as his usual nonsense.

I didn’t back down and kept talking.

“How can you live for a hundred years like this?”

“Are you picking a fight?”

“It’s admiration. You’re cool, like vampires.”

It was just random words that didn’t go through my brain, but this castle really did feel like a vampire den. If you looked at it favorably.

This Belmayer Duchy Castle, called Winter Castle.

This place had been neglected for over a hundred years. There’s no abandoned house as massive as this one.

The only decent places were the castle owner’s bedroom and a few other spots. Most places, the moment you opened the door, a dust pit that even ghosts would avoid came rushing like a tsunami.

Here, the dining room was also one of those rare decent places.

“There are no windows so it’s gloomy even in broad daylight, and it looks like spiders and mice might come out, but it’s clean enough.”

Saying that, I glared at the dining table.

A long, antique dining table with only a bread basket and water glasses placed bleakly on top, without any proper tableware.

This was Winter Castle’s staple food.

Staple food. They lived on nothing but so-called potato bread made from potatoes and wheat, northern specialties, and water for three meals a day.

What’s more terrible is the fact that these non-humans in this castle had been living on only those things for nearly a hundred years.

“Even Imperial prisoners probably eat better than this…”

“Why do you keep muttering? If you’re not going to eat it, give it to me.”

I looked at Nishe with bread crumbs on his lips, then slowly chewed my portion of bread. His smooth eyebrows shot up sharply.

I was too hungry to go on a hunger strike over food complaints.

‘If I keep living like this… I might die from malnutrition.’

Things I learned while staying at Winter Castle.

Excluding me, only six people live here: the Duke and his subordinates—a butler, a witch, one maid, and two knights.

And all of them are over a hundred years old.

What I mean is, for some reason in the past, their physical time stopped along with the Duke.

But in that process, they awakened a third type of special ability—neither a mage’s magic power nor a knight’s aura—called supernatural powers.

So I thought.

‘They said demons, but they’re psychics? Espers, something like that?’

Going through a reincarnator’s way of thinking.

‘This seems pretty classified, but they’re telling me everything.’

Being bewildered as a person of common sense, I finally reached the conclusion.

‘The state of the country… The national power…’

That Belmayer was not okay.

To summarize Belmayer’s current situation:

1. Barren winter all year round (That’s how the north is)

2. Poor living conditions (That’s understandable)

3. The Duke’s Castle is the poorest place in Belmayer (Huh?)

4. The country’s leadership consists of only six people (Is this even possible?)

‘How did they even face off against the Empire?’

The more I dug into it, the more I thought ‘Is this even a country? Even as a territory it would be problematic,’ yet this Belmayer was actually a target of concern for the continental bully, the Empire.

On this continent, Hilbarsia is the only ‘Empire.’

Belmayer is a duchy, but that’s just nominal—in reality, it’s closer to an independent nation.

‘They say the ducal family is a branch of the Imperial Court.’

Well, various interests seem to be intertwined.

Whether these supernatural powers are incredibly overpowered, or the Duke is some kind of deus ex machina.

In the original work, Belmayer was never seriously attacked or occupied by the Empire.

But when I looked at the reality, it was this chaotic. I couldn’t help but worry unnecessarily.

Because Belmayer’s safety is now my safety!

“This won’t do.”

“What won’t?”

Jepi, who appeared like the wind at my muttering, asked plainly.

I had long since built immunity to his sudden appearances, so I wasn’t surprised no matter when or where he spoke to me.

“Leave her alone, she seems sick.”

“Nishe, are you going to live as a knight eating only potato bread?”

“Damn it. Look at this.”

“Irene has been out of it lately.”

Ally, who had been sitting quietly next to me, added her comment.

She, characterized by her honey-brown bob cut, was the castle’s only maid and had been serving me since the day after I entered the castle.

‘She is serving me… I suppose…’

Like helping me bathe as if doing laundry, or wrapping me up to my head in blankets because she thought I’d be cold while sleeping.

This maid who only did bizarre things offered me her half-eaten bread.

“Are you hungry? Would you like mine too?”

“Bread.”

“Irene?”

“I need to deal with this crazy bread first.”

I made up my mind.

‘Ah, damn it. I was trying to stay quiet.’

Even though we were now bound by fate, I didn’t want to take on work that nobody asked me to do. But.

“You need to eat well and live well to fight well.”

I bid farewell to this insanely harsh environment.

I had reached the point where just seeing the silhouette of potato bread made me nauseous, so starting a food revolution was absolutely not… the reason.

Probably.

* * *

The past month.

Actually, I had been idly lounging around all this time.

It was funny to end up unemployed after acting so high and mighty to the Duke, but I had valid reasons.

The Duke really didn’t give me any work to do.

Not only that. No one in the castle demanded usefulness from me, didn’t particularly restrict my actions, and didn’t even look at me unfavorably.

I learned the reason for this after some time passed.

“Didn’t you know? The master staying awake until now is thanks to Irene.”

“But I haven’t done anything?”

“Everyone thinks so. Your very existence is, well, a kind of good fortune for us.”

That was it.

The Duke, who had been sleeping almost constantly due to his terrifying magi, amazingly hadn’t fallen asleep again since I arrived.

He was setting a new record for staying awake.

Meanwhile, the witch with the supernatural power to see the future made some prophecy, and it all became my credit.

Though I’m in a ‘?’ state myself.

I can only guess that I belatedly received some kind of passive skill like a luck totem as a reincarnator buff.

Anyway, it’s incredibly effective(?).

If the prophecy goes well, there won’t be a world-ending catastrophe caused by the Duke’s magi going berserk.

Because of that, I felt considerably more relaxed.

‘…I was thinking too conveniently.’

Since I’ve already twisted the original story, there’s plenty of possibility I could get caught up in events that didn’t exist in the original due to the butterfly effect!

Moreover, I had already experienced the butterfly effect firsthand.

“Lishie is still treating Chessier, the Crown Prince?”

“Yes. The Crown Prince is still unconscious.”

“That can’t be. Divine power can even make severed limbs grow back… it’s a miracle bestowed by God.”

“Maybe the Saintess’s divine power has faded, or perhaps she’s deliberately not providing complete healing.”

“…Ha.”

“Isn’t that good? Thanks to that, the identity of the assailant who stabbed the Crown Prince and fled still hasn’t been revealed.”

Witch Giselle delivered this as Empire news she thought I’d like, but I couldn’t smile.

It meant that Lishie wasn’t reporting me as the assassin, nor was she saving him or letting him die.

What a choice that properly chose none of the options.

‘And I’m the one who caused that unexpected choice.’

Maybe because the villainess who should have exited long ago avoided her execution ending. Things were increasingly diverging from the original.

Once I realized it, I felt newly unsettled.

‘…Then could the ceasefire really be broken?’

This country that has no answers from one to ten.

I want to think “surely not,” but they say “surely not” kills people, so what if we actually end up clashing with the Empire?

…No way.

Living like this, even things that could work out won’t!

“Your Grace, may I interrupt you for a moment?”

And so, right now.

I had come to find Belmayer’s highest authority.

I didn’t know much about the Duke, but finding him wasn’t difficult. I just had to go where that tremendous magi could be sensed.

On the castle walls that surrounded Winter Castle like an embrace.

In a place with a clear view of the White Kingdom’s entire landscape, there was a pale man who blended into the scenery like a painting.

“Your Grace?”

“…”

The Duke, sitting on the edge of the castle wall, glanced at me briefly, then turned his head toward the snow-capped mountains visible in the distance without any response.

The snow-white man’s fine silver hair fluttered in the wind. My long black hair also fluttered together like a flag planted on the castle wall.

‘Why is the Northern Duke so white.’

His gaze was still directed toward somewhere far away. It seemed like he wasn’t looking at something, but swimming through somewhere in his memories.

“Ahem. Anyway, the reason I came to find you is.”

“…”

“I want to improve the meal standards. Eating like this will cause malnutrition, you know? Of course, this castle only has inhuman beings who’ve been fine eating just potato bread for a hundred years, and Your Grace who’s fine not eating anything at all.”

Maybe because I had just eaten potato bread to fill my stomach. I spoke as if pouring out words like someone with deep resentment.

“Humans need to eat carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in a balanced way. Everyone seems fine even when not eating well, but even so, we should have proper meals. At least I’ll die if I only eat this kind of bread.”

“…”

“I’m saying we should eat at least average food. You may be called demons, but in the end, if you don’t eat, you die just like humans.”

From what I observed while staying nearby, they were just long-lived people with superpowers. If they were really demons, then the demons of this world must be quite pathetic.

Moreover.

I heard in passing that unlike the people in the castle, the duchy’s citizens are ordinary humans and eat much better than these people.

Good grief. What kind of Duke’s Castle lives worse than its own people.

Where in the world are there demons like 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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