A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 60

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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 60】

“…I won’t do it. I won’t!”

I jumped up as if I’d been struck on the back and shouted.

If I stayed still like this, I might really end up becoming a Duke before I knew it. Just look at this now. Those words from back then had snowballed and come back, hadn’t they.

From staying at Winter Castle, I’d realized that Davuer was truly a man who did what he said he’d do. And sometimes, or more often than sometimes, he had no brakes.

He asked back calmly.

“Why?”

“You don’t know why you’re asking that… you must be asking because you don’t know.”

“It’s the pinnacle of power that you like.”

“It’s not exactly like that… No, first of all, I’m not obsessed with power or anything…”

Sure, money and power are better the more you have, the higher the better. Ask a hundred people and they’d give the same answer.

But I didn’t want to have it this way. It was too sudden… too sudden!

Moreover, being a Duke in this castle didn’t feel much like being a person in power. It might be because the hierarchical relationships here were less vertical compared to the Empire.

‘Wait a minute… isn’t this just passing the buck?’

I drew a reasonable suspicion and looked at Davuer suspiciously. There was still nothing easily readable in his leisurely expression.

But I know now.

“You don’t want to be Duke?”

Don’t try to deduce from expressions, just ask outright. He might stay silent, but he never lies.

Sure enough, he answered immediately.

“I don’t have the temperament suited for a leader, and it wasn’t my position to begin with. It’s just a position I received temporarily.”

“…Who stays Duke temporarily for that long?”

“Me.”

I was completely speechless…

Davuer spoke shamelessly while maintaining his lounging position stretched out on the couch.

“But I’m the only Belmayer alive in this world now, so I can do as I please. So I’ll give it to you.”

“…”

“You’re more interested in this country than I am anyway, aren’t you?”

If I stayed like this, I might get swept away by that absurd talk. In fact, I was already halfway to thinking ‘That might be true?’ and almost going along with it.

…But no matter what, wrong was wrong.

“Forget it. We’re not even engaged, so passing on a title like this is a bit much.”

Then he countered as if it were no big deal.

“Then would you accept it if we got married?”

“…What? No, no.”

“You’d still refuse, Irene?”

Why would he say something like that so casually?

It was out of nowhere and had even less mood. While I was stiffly frozen, Giselle covered her mouth with her hand and let out an exclamation.

“Oh my.”

When I looked at her with eyes that said ‘say something to object,’ Giselle quietly got up and grabbed the door handle.

“The intruder should excuse herself.”

Then she disappeared outside the study with a chuckle. Before I could even catch her.

‘…Giselle!’

An awkward silence flowed through the space that was suddenly left with just the two of us. Of course, I was probably the only one who felt that stillness uncomfortable.

“Irene.”

He sat up and pressed for an answer.

A smooth face and unwavering eyes that were hard to believe belonged to a man who had just said something ‘like’ a proposal. There wasn’t even a trace of the agitation he’d shown on the street before.

I thought it would be nice to open up that head of his just once, but I also wondered if there was really a need to open it.

If I asked, he’d tell me his true feelings right away.

And I already knew a little about why he acted this way toward me. It was just because I resembled that first love he still couldn’t forget.

“…I’ll refuse.”

My relationship with Davuer was good just as it was now.

I probably couldn’t deny that I was swaying like a small boat caught in a storm because of him, but that’s exactly why I didn’t want it to get any deeper.

I didn’t want to be someone’s substitute.

“So Davuer, you be Duke for life!”

Then I quickly turned my back on him.

His monotone voice followed from behind.

“Where are you going?”

“To study!”

“Perfect. Then let’s go together.”

Damn it…

I’d tried to naturally shake him off but failed. I went to his study with Davuer in tow and calmly opened a book as if nothing had happened.

Specifically, ‘Research Journal on Magic to Annihilate Magi.’

That would be the treasure I’d stolen from the Duke’s mansion the day before.

The content of magic to annihilate Magi… or annihilation magic for short, was very long and tedious.

The species called mages generally fell into three categories: one was the intuitive genius type who went ‘I just went swoosh and it went boom, you know?’, another was the computational engineering student type obsessed with calculations, and the last was.

“The professor type who spouts alien language…”

The person who wrote this research journal unfortunately belonged to the last category. Since it was closer to a diary than a thesis, there were too many digressions.

For example, like this.

[…First, I defined the essence of Magi as something indescribable and established a hypothesis.

First, that something is divine punishment as those various idiots claim. The level of thinking is crude and the evidence is weak. The priests of the Grand Temple must surely be selected in order of stupidity…]

From then on, refined curses about the Temple were written over about ten pages. Perhaps this was a book most valuable when closed.

“Ah… this part is useless too.”

“Didn’t I tell you that research failed?”

Davuer chimed in. He didn’t click his tongue, but his tone clearly indicated he thought it was a waste of time.

“I don’t have anything urgent to do anyway. Something helpful might come up if I keep reading.”

I glared at him and buried my eyes in the book again to read. Failed experiment content and digressions alternated.

By the way, the method to open the tightly locked book was relatively simple – when Davuer spilled a drop of blood, it opened with a whoosh.

The reason it was locked was also surprisingly trivial. All grimoires in the Mage Tower only opened outside the tower when blood was used to verify one’s identity as a mage of the tower.

“Irene. There’s no need to be impatient.”

Davuer, who had his head tilted against the desk, said while habitually taking the ends of my hair to play with.

“It’s not like God will answer just because you try hard.”

The Duke’s study was certainly spacious, but everything including the furniture was made for one person. In other words, the desk I was sitting at was also not suitable for two people to share.

Nevertheless, Davuer unavoidably stuck close and sat here, poking at me and making his presence known.

In fact, these days he was almost always by my side except when I was sleeping and eating. Even when he closed his eyes and lay down, he always did it near me.

Whether it was simply because of his role as a Magi totem, or because he was observing me. It was clearly different from his initial attitude of enjoying solitude at the edge of the castle wall.

“I wasn’t… being particularly impatient.”

I slowly replied while newly pondering that fact.

I pretended otherwise, but it was true that I felt restless. Since Lishie kept sleeping continuously, and Davuer looked tired too, it was natural to some extent.

‘That’s why I’m poring over this book.’

Since coming to Belmayer, I’d been absorbed in this book whenever I had time. Because of the thought that there might be something, just maybe.

“When you have something you want to hide, it shows quite clearly.”

He looked at me without even blinking.

Soon his cold finger touched near my eye.

“The corners of your eyes droop.”

“…”

“When you’re hit where it hurts, you avoid eye contact, and when you encounter a problem you can’t accept, you furrow from the bridge of your nose first.”

“…I have habits like that?”

“And then, after about as much time as it takes for a second hand to make one full rotation, you act as if nothing happened at all.”

Classes had been temporarily suspended due to the series of events, yet he explained everything in detail like a teacher or scholar. Not about magic, but about me.

“You seem bold, but you think a lot. It’s gotten even worse since you returned from the Empire.”

“…Davuer. You know me quite well, don’t you?”

“Well. There’s so much I don’t know. Sometimes I think I’d like to open up your head and take a look.”

Davuer lowered his finger and rested his chin on his hand. Even though there wasn’t a trace of laughter, I somehow felt like he was smiling.

“I just wanted to know, so I watched you a lot.”

Even as he said this, his gaze remained fixed on me.

Looking at him carefully, this man seemed to only say pleasant things or things I wanted to hear. With that excessively direct way of speaking that made me embarrassed.

Suddenly he asks.

“Do you believe in reincarnation?”

For a question that came up at this timing, it sounded rather like grasping at clouds. I didn’t bother to argue and lightly agreed.

“I believe in it.”

Since I was the proof of it, I couldn’t not believe.

I was living my second life as ‘Irene.’ My first life wasn’t even lived in this world. I died in an accident and then woke up…

‘…Come to think of it, what kind of accident was it?’

A question I’d never had before suddenly flashed through my mind.

My previous life definitely existed, but the more I tried to think about it in detail, the more it felt like fog was settling in my head.

‘Before… What was my name in my previous life?’

“Good that you believe.”

Then Davuer spoke as if cutting off my thoughts. His pronunciation sounded like he was groping for something in a distant place.

“There’s also a story that mages are reborn as mages even when they’re reborn.”

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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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