A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 79

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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 79】

【Tsk tsk. The world has come to an end! No, it was already ending before… Ugh! Nothing has improved in a hundred years. Isn’t this all proof that the contractor has been living carelessly?】

“Listen here. I don’t want to be scolded by someone who was trapped in an egg and didn’t know anything…”

【…D-didn’t know, you say. I was aware of the passage of time.】

“Sure you were. You seem good at counting time.”

You even knew it was a hundred years, not a hundred nights.

【…I had no choice! If you had returned on time in the first place, contractor!】

Look at how it changes the subject when things get unfavorable.

My eyes naturally began to close at the dragon’s lengthy nagging. Though that probably wasn’t the only reason.

Actually, this was a body that should have collapsed long ago, but I’d been holding on through sheer stubbornness. Now that I finally felt somewhat relieved, all my strength seemed to drain away at once.

“Irene?”

I was so confused I couldn’t even tell whose voice it was.

With my eyes half-closed, I introduced the dragon.

“Yeah, so this one isn’t a vermin but a dragon divine beast, and I used to…”

Wait. If I mention my previous life, where should I start explaining?

Even as I pondered this, the dragon kept talking to me without rest.

Since the drowsiness I’d been holding back was already washing over me, I roughly mumbled through a yawn.

“…It’s the dragon that was inside the egg we saw. I purified the vermin so it could be born safely. Please accept it as a new member of our castle.”

“A dragon…? This little thing is the legendary divine beast?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Let’s raise it well and form a Black Flame Dragon Knight Order.”

“…What?”

Spouting random nonsense was just a bonus.

“Sorry, I’m a bit…”

【Contractor! You can’t sleep like this! How can you feel sleepy after irresponsibly abandoning me among these stupid half-wit humans? Wake up!】

‘This one really talks harshly.’

With that thought, I fell completely asleep.

* * *

“What’s a dragon doing here?”

Nishe looked once at Irene who had fallen asleep instantly, then once at the baby dragon that barely reached his shins, and let out a hollow laugh.

“Isn’t it just a lizard with wings?”

“Agreed.”

At their whispering, the dragon flicked its tail in displeasure. It looked exactly like it understood their words.

Davuer, who had been staring at the dragon, suddenly spoke up.

“Why do I sense the same aura as Irene from you?”

Should he call it ‘the same,’ or perhaps ‘derived’?

Either way, it was a very similar aura. Even the pure white soul color he’d never seen before was peculiar.

Then the dragon shook off Ally’s hand that was holding its neck, and smoothly wrote letters in the snow with its small front paws.

As if it would communicate this way for those who couldn’t hear its voice.

[She is this one’s contractor.]

[What are you?]

“Contractor?”

While his subordinates exclaimed in amazement at the small dragon’s skill, Davuer remained motionless and only asked that question.

At this, the dragon shook its head as if finding them pathetic, then kindly wrote out the meaning of the contract.

[Through a soul contract, she granted this one new life. From a human perspective, she would be like my birth mother.]

“Birth, mother.”

The problem was that the analogy was so kind that it ended up distorting the meaning instead.

At that shocking sentence, the mouths of the fool trio fell wide open. Soon horrified screams covered the entire mountain range.

Ally pointed at the baby dragon with trembling fingers.

“Gasp…! It must be Irene’s ch-child! That’s why their auras are strangely similar! No wonder it felt familiar!”

“But it’s not human. Was Irene actually a dragon?”

“…Th-there’s no way that’s true, right? It must be some misunderstanding. It has to be, of course it does.”

Nishe stammered while gauging his lord’s reaction.

He couldn’t deny it for certain, because now that he was aware and looked again, the baby dragon before his eyes really was identical to Irene in an uncanny way.

It wasn’t about species or appearance. It was about the essence of life that they sensed from the soul colors they could see.

“What should we call that lizard? Young master?”

“Ugh. Don’t say such creepy things!”

The dragon, watching that commotion as if it were absurd, wrote a new sentence.

[You at least won’t be that stupid. What are you?]

[How are you harboring that magi? Is it in your heart? I sense the contractor’s aura from there.]

“…I see. So you’re that sick dragon.”

Davuer muttered while searching through old memories.

Two days before the final operation began. The Countess suddenly disappeared from the unit at dawn and only returned after a full day had passed.

When he pressed her about what she had done, the answer that came back was:

“I treated a sick dragon.”

Those incomprehensible words, he finally understood them now.

Treatment? How ridiculous. Who would call scraping off part of one’s own soul to give to another ‘treatment’?

That dragon was reborn by receiving a part of her soul. Otherwise, there was no way their auras could be this identical.

Had she even considered her own safety in that ‘treatment’?

Davuer stiffened his entire body coldly, not even noticing the strength entering his grip.

The woman who often spoke as if she could see things only visible to her eyes, and sometimes acted like she could foresee the future.

Every time she did that.

Every time she regarded herself as merely useful material.

Every time she made him realize that he couldn’t and shouldn’t dare to stop such a person.

An indescribable sense of powerlessness resonated throughout his entire being.

If he had succumbed to desire, he would have imprisoned her so she couldn’t move a single step by her own will. So she couldn’t do anything alone.

Eating, dressing, even breathing—everything, her entire life would depend on him.

But that was a delusion, and reality was the opposite.

“A sick dragon? It looks pretty healthy to me.”

“…”

“Master? Is something wrong?”

Davuer slowly came to his senses at his subordinate’s voice breaking through his thoughts. When he raised his gaze, Ally tilted her head.

This assassin cherished Irene particularly, yet remembered nothing about her past.

She probably couldn’t even dream that their first meeting long ago was when she held a blade to her throat.

“…It’s nothing.”

“What? That’s so unfair.”

Whether she complained or not, he didn’t bother explaining and carefully lifted the exhausted, sleeping Irene.

It wasn’t just Ally. Everyone in the castle didn’t remember her. Even though there must be unnatural gaps in their memories, they didn’t find it questionable.

He was the only one in this place who reminisced about the past. He couldn’t tell if this was a blessing or a curse.

However…

Has Irene’s memory returned now?

Has she remembered a past that even she couldn’t recall? Is that why she saved that dragon?

…Whether she remembers or not doesn’t matter.

Because he himself remembers even her share.

“Master, so what shall we do now?”

“No sense, no understanding of hierarchy. Don’t you know the saying that keeping your mouth shut gets you halfway there?”

“Nishe, the reason you’re not talking is probably because you’re hungry.”

“I’m hungry too.”

Davuer watched that boisterous scene from a step away and suddenly thought.

Perhaps the reason they had quickly opened their hearts to her was because they were drawn by the longing that remained unconsciously, even though their memories had been erased.

Just like himself, who had been captivated by ghosts of the past without any proper reason the moment he first encountered her.

The wind left by the blizzard roughly tousled his hair. Davuer surveyed the landscape of the snow-capped mountains where the magi had disappeared, and commanded like a sigh.

“Return to the castle.”

【…What. That, that thing completely ignored my question to the end?! Let go of this! You stupid and rude things!】

Unfortunately, the angry dragon’s voice reached no one. It was merely grabbed by the scruff again by some maid’s strong hands.

* * *

“My, the north wind coming from the mountain range is tremendous.”

Northern Empire, temporary quarters of the Countess search party.

The man dressed neatly in white priest robes entered the Prince’s workspace while arranging his hair tangled by the wind.

“I greet the little sun of Hilbarsia.”

Then he offered his respects with a gentle smile.

High Priest Ezekiel.

His light brown hair that reached down to his collarbone scattered softly with that movement.

Ezekiel spoke without minding the Prince’s lack of response as he leaned against the couch in disheveled appearance.

“This is the first time I see you since the consecration day. Have you been well in the meantime? Your Highness. You look a bit thinner.”

“…That’s quite a carefree greeting coming from the owner of a temple where the Countess has disappeared.”

“What do you mean. The owner of the temple is the Countess.”

“Ha. Let’s say that’s true.”

His locked voice was sharp.

Chessier didn’t even pretend to offer his visitor a seat. He merely swept up his eye-piercing blonde hair and sat up with just his upper body.

Having not slept for several days, his already sensitive nerves had become so thin they seemed ready to snap at the slightest touch.

“So, High Priest. What do you want to say to me? I don’t like wasting time.”

“Straight to the point then. Good.”

Gently drooping eyes. Light green pupils so pale they appeared golden under sunlight.

The man with the most benevolent face, yet more greedy than anyone. Ezekiel smiled as if painted and asked.

“Your Highness, in exchange for finding your former fiancée alive, what would you be willing to do?”

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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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