A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 68

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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 68】

7. Sacred Inviolable Territory

Mel thought.

“Am I dreaming right now?”

Correction. She didn’t just think it, she said it out loud.

Name: Mel. Her real name from childhood was Merdi. A thief and con artist who plunged the Empire into worry, and an Information Guild master.

After being betrayed by her vice guild leader, not only was her identity exposed to the Royal Guard, but she was also branded as an accomplice in the Countess’s kidnapping. If caught, she would inevitably be tortured to death.

But as they say, when you seek death, you find life.

Fleeing to avoid pursuit, Mel decided to cross the notoriously dangerous mountain range instead… and as a result, she ended up settling in Belmayer by chance.

Though she had lost all her past glory(?) and was in the ambiguous position of a temporary maid, she had at least successfully naturalized.

It was her third day since somehow finding re-employment.

“Why did the young lady become a Countess…?”

Mel muttered in bewilderment. The scene unfolding before her eyes felt so unreal that she rubbed her eyes for no reason.

And for good reason.

“Is it better now?”

As the white light blooming from Irene’s fingertips slowly receded, the sickly pallor clinging to the other woman disappeared.

Her cloudy eyes became clear and color returned to her gaunt complexion, the before-and-after transformation as stark as an actor removing stage makeup.

The woman, as if unable to believe her own change, fumbled around her chest as if to confirm it.

The girl who had been watching this scene with clenched fists ran over and grasped the woman’s hands.

“…Mom, does it not hurt anymore?”

“Coco… Mom doesn’t hurt anymore…”

The identical mother and daughter embraced each other. The woman continuously stroked her daughter’s head while murmuring.

“I’m sorry Mom was sick all this time. So very…”

Then Coco burst into tears with a wailing sound. Her sobbing response was so choked up that the pronunciation was garbled and barely audible.

‘Wow. Really touching.’

Mel thought dryly as she observed.

That Coco was nagging me yesterday, acting timid while saying I couldn’t even peel onions properly. She’s just a kid after all?

But what is this really? What kind of phenomenon is this?

“I, I don’t know how to thank you for this… Even the doctor said it was malignant and incurable…”

If she hadn’t been holding her daughter, she would have prostrated herself immediately, continuously expressing her gratitude.

“What. I’m gaining experience too, so it’s mutually beneficial.”

Irene answered with incomprehensible words and dragged Mel out of the reception room, saying she wouldn’t disturb the mother-daughter time.

Just then, wind came through an open corridor window. Her black hair tied in a ponytail flew like a horse’s tail and slapped Mel’s cheek.

Only after getting hit did Mel snap back to her senses.

“…Miss. If I really saw a hallucination, please tell me quickly. I’ll bang my forehead against the wall.”

“It’s reality.”

“I see. It’s some kind of magical trick, right? Miss, you looked exactly like a Countess just now. Light just went flash! from your hands and the person who was ailing went whoosh! and got better.”

“Well, what I used was divine power.”

That’s impossible.

That ‘that’ Irene awakened divine power overnight?

“But Miss, you’re the most notorious villainess in the world…?”

“Mel. If you don’t want to get fired, keep that tongue of yours in check.”

Whether she meant firing or cutting out her tongue, either way it was scary, so Mel reflexively started flattering.

“Oh my. Miss is too amazing and wonderful for me to serve! When exactly did you awaken? It was my first day here, right? Something chaotic happened.”

“Right? I don’t really want to be served by you either. Instead of asking questions, think about how you’ll earn your keep.”

“Ahem…”

Due to Irene’s words that she should work if she wanted to stay, Mel was relegated to wandering between the kitchen and laundry room as of yesterday.

And she was kicked out of everywhere for being terrible at work.

“Listen. What if I set up an amazing Information Guild in Belmayer!”

“What information. There are already two superior versions of you here.”

“Ugh. Just make me your bedroom maid? Personal maid? I want to take it easy a bit… Huh.”

Mel couldn’t finish her sentence and froze.

Ally, who had appeared soundlessly from the opposite corridor, flashed her bright blue eyes and muttered ominously.

“I told you that’s my position…”

Right. That maid I saw at the Citadel.

She didn’t seem like an ordinary maid, but Mel never knew her true identity was a hundred-year-old monster. If she had known, Mel would have been obedient to her from their first meeting.

But it was too late, and she was already marked as a thorn in the eye.

“The moment I look away, you’re clinging like a bedbug again…?”

From the moment Mel entered the Duke’s Castle, Ally had been glaring at her with triangular eyes.

“Won’t you get lost?”

“No, you can do all the personal maid work…! But I need to cling somewhere to survive too!”

“Right. I’ll fix that attitude of yours first.”

It was already a strange place, she had little information, and her only connection was Irene, her long-time employer.

With the senior maid’s murderous rivalry added to this situation, life in a foreign country was difficult. Mel felt her hair stand on end in terror at Ally’s gaze and shouted.

“Miss! No wait, Countess? Please calm her down!”

But Irene had already disappeared.

* * *

Three days had passed since the Phantom Library incident.

The first thing I did after getting some rest was to work on purifying Davuer’s magi with my awakened divine power.

However, I failed spectacularly.

“Ugh…”

The top floor study that finally got another desk.

Two desks were arranged in an L-shape, and at the newly acquired desk, Davuer was handling the Duke’s work no less.

“Is he really human? How is he still alive?”

I glanced at him and muttered to myself.

Perhaps due to awakening divine power, my senses had become extremely sharp, like a walking magi detector. So I could clearly feel his magi.

It was dozens, hundreds of times larger and more tremendous than the divine power I could currently handle. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t even make a dent, let alone purify it.

The man with the world’s greatest magi kept his eyes fixed on documents and replied with an absurd comment.

“Through willpower.”

Since it was probably serious, I couldn’t even laugh.

“To begin with, calling me human would be inaccurate. I’d probably be fine for about half a year without breathing.”

“…That’s quite the setting?”

“It’s not a setting, it’s fact.”

Since he was already living without eating or sleeping, it wasn’t really surprising news. Come to think of it, this man’s heart beat very slowly too.

I guessed that his threshold for ‘being okay’ was different from others, and collapsed on my desk with a sigh.

‘At least the healing was successful though.’

It was good that I casually brought up whether Coco’s sick mother was feeling better. I had just healed her, Marisa’s illness with divine power.

With ‘my’ divine power.

This is completely different from before.

To begin with, there were no previous cases of having both divine power and magic simultaneously. But not only did I achieve that, I could even use divine magic that mixed both powers.

Originally, divine power is a force ‘borrowed’ from the god who is its source. That’s why one awakens while hearing the god’s voice, but I had no such phenomenon.

Though I call it divine power for convenience, this power is closer to sacred power in both source and operation method.

Because it’s life force dwelling in my very soul.

Therefore, my method of awakening divine power was like breaking out of an egg myself, which means.

‘There’s a new god-like existence in my soul. Or it might be my soul itself.’

But here’s the problem. While the soul’s potential is infinite, the power I can actually draw out is limited.

I needed to spend time and effort growing the level of my Sanctum. Awakening it wasn’t the end.

‘It seems to have risen slightly after healing Marisa.’

From level 1 to about 1.05.

“At this rate, when will I ever purify anything.”

As I grumbled, Davuer briefly set down his pen and looked at me. Frowning as if displeased.

“You could rest a bit more.”

“Why do you respond so diligently to my muttering? You look incredibly busy. Just let it go in one ear and out the other.”

“You’re the one who said it.”

Giving up a perfectly good study to Giselle and settling himself in this library felt like a protest asking to be talked to, honestly.

After all, since receiving the key from Juansi, this library had become practically my personal space.

Thanks to that, I was buried daily in research among magic books and scriptures I’d gathered from the library. If only the uninvited guest wasn’t breaking my concentration.

“…Well then, you know. I want to try purifying that Vermin, so could I go to the mountain once?”

This was the conclusion I’d reached after careful consideration.

My immediate goal was to level up my Sanctum enough to purify him. To do that, I needed to dive in and accumulate experience first.

He was about to part his lips to respond when—

“Lady Irene!”

The library door burst open, and Coco appeared urgently, her eyes red and swollen, shouting.

“P-please help me. Something’s wrong with Mom…!”

I jumped up in shock at those words.

What? Why? Don’t tell me the healing went wrong?

I was about to ask what on earth had happened, feeling somewhat tense, when Coco added tremblingly:

“Mom has… become too strong…!”

…Huh?

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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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