A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 81

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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 81】

“…Me, me too? Don’t you need me?”

Lishie asked with a shocked expression at the order to leave.

When she looks at me with those teary eyes, it makes me feel like I said something really mean, doesn’t it? But I’m just worried about her.

“Yeah. You haven’t been sleeping well all this time. Go rest.”

During the two days I was out, Lishie had been clinging to me like an earthbound spirit, staying up all night devoted to nursing me.

She said something about how she could do nursing better than anyone. It was certainly a valid point, but what would be the point if the number of patients doubled?

Lishie was already overexerting herself. The dark circles under her eyes were so deep they’d put a butler to shame.

“But Older Sister, if no one’s by your side when you’re sick—”

“Right. Everyone get out, please.”

Nishe cut off her words and interjected grumpily, placing a mug on the bedside table. A sweet wine scent wafted from it.

Come to think of it, he’d been carrying it along with medicine since he first entered the room. Before I could ask where it came from, he explained first.

“Vin chaud that Marisa told me to bring you.”

Ah. Just like Coco’s mother, the finest chef.

“…Tell her I’ll drink it gratefully. How is Marisa doing with the Knight’s Order these days?”

“She’s not flying around, but running around well.”

What’s that supposed to mean?

Anyway, the fact that no complaints were bursting from his mouth meant she was adapting well even without her superhuman strength, which was fortunate.

Nishe gathered up Lishie and Ally and left the room briskly, adding just this:

“Get up tomorrow.”

Click.

As the three left, the room instantly became quiet. All that could be heard was breathing.

With my head dizzy from fever, I thought:

‘Why am I still not better? It’s taking longer than expected.’

The organ damage I’d received as the price for forcibly growing my sanctum had already finished healing long ago.

But the aftereffects that became a fever wouldn’t disappear easily. Even when my mana was depleted, it wasn’t this bad.

“…I’m already busy to death as it is.”

The Vermin incident that occurred in the mountain range.

If it wasn’t a coincidence caused by magi but reflected someone’s intention, which would the purpose be—threatening Belmayer or giving birth to an evil dragon?

The Mamut Mountain Range also borders the Empire. If that place had been occupied by Vermin, the Empire would have suffered great damage too.

So someone wants the birth of an evil dragon…?

【Contractor! What is this? It’s truly delicious!】

“…”

The baby dragon that had just woken up dipped its tongue in the vin chaud and exclaimed in admiration. It had been sleeping curled up on the blanket, but when did it wake up?

The sight of the black dragon wagging its tail while sipping warm wine was truly dignified.

“What would they use you for after turning you into an evil dragon…”

【What? Are you looking down on me right now?】

“Stop drinking mine. Newborn dragons shouldn’t drink alcohol.”

Leaning against the headboard, I flicked the dragon’s forehead and snatched away the mug.

Then the dragon’s lips jutted out a foot.

【I may look like this, but my mental age is easily thousands of years old!】

“Then tell me according to the five W’s and one H how that parasitic Vermin attached to you.”

【That was…! It was about half a year ago…】

“Yeah, so?”

【It was very nasty…】

Translating dragon language, that means it doesn’t know anything else.

While inside the egg, the dragon didn’t know what was happening to itself, let alone the outside world. And if you ask whether it knows other things well, that’s not the case either.

“Are you really on your second dragon life? You always say you don’t know anything.”

For example, it didn’t know any core information like the secrets of God, the source of corruption, or anything like that.

For me, who could only ask the dragon questions intermittently while lying sick, this was truly an unavoidably disappointing situation.

【It’s because you keep asking only those kinds of things! I am…!】

The dragon flapped its wings and flew onto my lap, sitting cross-armed and confessing in a slow tone.

Deep melancholy could be felt in its young voice.

【…I was abandoned by God. I spent a very long time buried under the World Tree. Until corruption came to find me, continuously sleeping.】

In this world, dragons were legendary divine beasts whose actual existence no one had seen for a long time.

The legendary ones from the tale of how, on the day God planted the World Tree on the surface, a dragon carried him down flying from the sky.

While there may be religiously exaggerated aspects, this legend was written based on historical facts. To some extent, it was something that really happened once.

【When I awakened from that sleep, the God I knew no longer existed. Your questions are the same as mine, so I cannot answer them.】

This was the most sincere and lonely-sounding thing the dragon had said so far.

Well, when I don’t have memories of my past life either, what’s the point of pestering the dragon? We’re in the same boat.

When I put down the vin chaud I was drinking and stroked the dragon’s head, the dragon’s golden eyes shone brightly as it spoke.

【Contractor. The reason you’re sick now might be because cracks form in the vessel the more you grow abilities drawn from your soul.】

“…Cracks forming?”

【Probably so. Your soul is high-ranking enough to grant new life to me. However, your body is merely human, so there must be limits to digesting such abilities.】

The increase in sanctum I could handle meant expanding the size of the vessel. However, it seemed closer to forced expansion rather than a particularly peaceful method.

Then are these aftereffects a warning from my body? To pay the price for using abilities too difficult to handle.

“Ugh, I don’t know… It’s hard. I want to sleep again for now.”

My head was already dizzy from the fever, making my thoughts break off. I was about to lie down, putting the wet cloth that had slipped from my forehead back on.

【Tsk tsk. It would be better if you reclaimed the heart you gave to that man, but how foolish.】

The dragon clicked its tongue like an old man. I turned to look at it in an awkward position and immediately became serious.

“…What? How do you know about that?”

I haven’t told anyone about it.

It’s not that I was trying to hide it, but I’d never brought up that topic even to Davuer himself. Well, because I didn’t know how to talk about it.

【I can tell just by looking.】

The dragon replied with great arrogance.

【Contractor, the reason your heart is weak now is all because of that. It’s karma from your past life.】

“Weak… that can’t be.”

I’d been healthy since childhood and never had heart disease. It’s just that my innate mana was noticeably low for a direct descendant of Valtrès…

‘…Low mana?’

What if it wasn’t just bad luck that I was born that way, but I was affected because of what my past self did? Since mana circuits are in the heart.

【Since the most important heart of all things was separated, your body, which is already at human level, has no choice but to have even more difficulty accepting the rank of your soul.】

“No, what is this…”

【Don’t you think about getting your heart back?】

That’s nonsense…

You want me to give it and then take it back?

Having lost the breakwater that is his heart, he would instantly be stained with magi. Then, then naturally.

【That man would die as a Vermin, but Contractor, think carefully. Will the aftereffects only be fever later too? Your body might break apart.】

“No.”

A denial that came faster than expected rushed out urgently.

If his magi went berserk, presumably the worst disaster-causing Vermin since records began would be born.

Let’s say I somehow purify and stop that.

But if I did such a thing, he would die without even leaving a corpse. I would be killing him with my own hands.

【Previously, you must have died without a heart. Because of that, though you were reborn, your heart couldn’t be properly restored—】

“I said no. Don’t suggest it ever again.”

【Hmph. I clearly warned you.】

The dragon then flew off to drink the vin chaud I’d left behind. Watching the dragon’s appearance, looking carefree despite having made me anxious, drained all my energy.

‘The aftereffects are severe because of my heart…’

What I need to ‘purify’ in the future is magi worse than that parasitic Vermin. I became uncertain whether my body could endure it then.

…However, no matter what happens.

I will not take back the heart.

I stared at the reddish ring mark still remaining on my right index finger, chewing over my thoughts.

If the past I couldn’t remember had led me this far, perhaps the reason the ring made through transformation was my first magic was because I had exchanged hearts long ago.

Just as stone turns to gold and water to wine, I am using the heart as a medium to transform his death into life.

His very existence is no different from my magic. It would be troublesome to break that magic midway.

‘Well, to me, magic is…’

My most reliable ally that will never betray me.

I don’t know when I came to trust him this much, but since things have come to this, he’ll have to live a long life. His contribution to my happiness will be quite significant, after all.

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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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