A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 9

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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 9】

“I don’t know. Maybe she has some terrible scar on her face.”

“It’s giving me chills for no reason. Doesn’t it feel like the air is strangely heavy just around there?”

Whisper whisper.

‘This is so uncomfortable I could go crazy.’

At this rate, there would be no progress until sunset.

I clenched my fists tightly and spoke with grim determination.

“I came out to find out why no one is applying for the Winter Castle cook position.”

Then I pointed directly at the restaurant with the most people gathered in this area.

“First, let’s have a meal for market research.”

The life of nobility without worrying about food was all in the past now.

Having chewed on tasteless jerky scraps and hard potato bread for a month, I was having a warm meal for the first time in ages.

Spicy meat stew.

It came in a rough bowl with humble ingredients, but to me right now, this was better than the imperial chef’s cooking.

“It’s delicious…”

I should have come out to buy food earlier.

But I couldn’t eat out every day. I needed to find out the cause of this ridiculous hiring difficulty.

“There is. Later at the plaza… huh.”

For the first time since the food arrived, I put down my spoon and only then noticed that the stew across from me was in the same state as when it first came.

“Aren’t you eating your stew?”

“You’re quick to ask.”

“…I’m just hungry.”

While I had cleanly emptied my bowl, the Duke hadn’t taken a single spoonful. He was sitting leaning back with his arms crossed.

“I don’t need to eat. You should know that.”

Of course, I knew since I had never seen the Duke eat or anyone prepare meals for him during the entire month.

Since the master doesn’t eat, the meal standards would be like that.

“But I can’t just make you watch while I eat.”

“Whatever your intention, I only watched.”

“…You’re more stubborn than you look.”

I pulled the stew bowl that was in front of the Duke toward me.

“If you’re not going to eat it, I’ll have it. Or… would you like to try it if I cast a sensory spell for you?”

‘The Duke has completely lost his senses.’

So he can’t feel taste or cold. His subordinates are similar, though they’re better off than their master.

Despite my kind offer, the Duke curtly refused.

“You, on me? Don’t waste your mana unnecessarily.”

“Ah, yes. Then I’ll enjoy it instead.”

He accepted me without much questioning, and the way his subordinates treated him suggested the Duke had an easygoing nature, but…

‘Yet he’s also subtly prickly.’

He was truly an unpredictable man.

“Excuse me…”

Just then, a girl in a white apron approached me hesitantly.

Aside from ordering at the restaurant, this was the first time I had spoken with someone outside.

“The stew… has gotten cold, so… should I warm it up for you?”

“That would be appreciated. You’re a kind girl.”

“Oh, no…! Please wait just a moment!”

The waitress carefully took the bowl and hurried off to the kitchen.

As I glanced around the bustling restaurant scene, I caught a conversation at just the right timing.

“Didn’t you say you were going to apply for that? What was it, cooking something?”

“Cook? You don’t mean that five hundred gold Winter Castle cook position?”

“Yeah, that one. Last night you were completely drunk and making a fuss about going there to earn money.”

“Hey, that was drunk talk! I have absolutely no intention of doing that, Aesir. No matter how desperate I am for money, I’m not desperate enough to go looking for a grave.”

“Haha! Right, if you’re dead, no amount of wealth matters.”

“Good grief. Five hundred gold a month! It’s definitely not ordinary cooking, right?”

…I suppose it could be interpreted that way.

But it seemed the problem wasn’t just that offering a lot of money looked suspicious.

‘Why is Winter Castle a grave? I live there quite well.’

I subtly turned toward the direction of the voices.

“It’s creepy. Winter Castle is where monsters live, after all.”

“There are even wicked rumors about achieving immortality through pure human blood.”

What?

So this was why we couldn’t hire a cook even with a fortune?

“Pure! Ahaha, you don’t need to worry about that particularly.”

“Whatever the rumors, we should still be grateful to those monsters for protecting us from invasion. Just thinking about those Empire bastards makes my blood boil.”

“Damn those Empire bastards. I wish they’d drop dead instead of lurking around the border.”

‘Huh? Why did the conversation shift like this?’

I guess this is what they mean by blood being thicker than water.

Their loud conversation was clearly audible to the Duke as well, but he remained still, just watching me as if he hadn’t heard anything.

Our eyes met in the air, his pale moon-like pupils.

‘What… is he staring at me so intently for?’

Come to think of it, the Duke had been looking at me like that constantly. As if trying to find something in me, as if trying to see into my very depths.

Thud.

“P-please enjoy your meal!”

“…Ah, yes. Thank you.”

The steaming hot stew was placed back on the table. The waitress bowed and hurried back with busy steps.

“…”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the table with the suspicious duo in robes.

Maybe because I was conscious of it now. The Duke’s gaze made me feel like I might get indigestion.

* * *

“Sigh.”

Plaza at District 3 where the cook recruitment notice was posted.

After casually probing other people just in case, I understood why money couldn’t solve this problem.

‘They’re scared.’

Everyone spouted nonsense about going crazy if you make eye contact, or becoming a demon if you go to Winter Castle.

It was a cycle where baseless rumors created by vague fears born from ignorance bred more fear.

For a whole hundred years, they had lived completely cut off from each other.

‘I can’t just tear down their perceptions overnight.’

Such deep-rooted perceptions are hard to improve in a day. Take it from a former villainess who’s experienced it all.

I came looking for a solution but ended up with an even bigger problem. I looked at the sky where dusk was beginning to fall and let out a sigh.

“The sun is setting, so let’s head back.”

“Are you done with your business?”

“Yes. I still don’t understand why you followed me, but thank you anyway.”

When I get back, I need to confront Giselle about why she did that.

Just then, the Duke suddenly stopped at a corner of the plaza where the fountain was frozen white.

In a low voice, with a tone as if ruminating.

“Irene Baltres.”

He calls my name. My stubborn full name.

“So please drop the honorifics when addressing me.”

“Why did you become a mage?”

It wasn’t a question seeking obvious answers like being born with mana, or coming from the Valtrès family which had been mages for generations.

So I answered honestly.

“Because there was someone I wanted to save.”

It’s a story from when I was very young.

When I learned that my mother had died giving birth to me. When I read fairy tales about princesses brought back to life through magic.

Young me believed that if I just became a mage, I could even revive my mother who would have already decayed underground.

It wasn’t because I missed a mother I’d never seen. Though perhaps it was because I wanted to be loved by that revived mother, by my cold family.

“But it was impossible. Unless one becomes an Archmage, it’s beyond my capabilities.”

The Duke spoke as if letting out a held breath.

“…It was impossible for me as well.”

From him, I could only sense magi, not even a trace of mana.

I could tell without asking. The once-great Archmage, the last Master of the Mage Tower, could no longer use magic.

A life without magic. It’s something I don’t want to imagine for myself.

“Well. Only a god could do such a thing.”

I laughed it off casually and continued.

“After I realized that, I just… continued because I loved magic. Magic doesn’t lie to me, and if you work hard, you can see the answer.”

That was indeed true.

Though it was also true that I clung to it because it was the value my family prized above all else. As long as I had that value, even if I wasn’t loved, I thought I wouldn’t be abandoned either.

It’s an emotion that has grown dim now.

Magic to me now is…

My driving force and something that will never betray me, my own thing, perhaps the only unique thing I possess.

“You are—”

Crack!

Suddenly, a sharp splitting sound cut off the Duke’s words.

Reflexively turning my head, I saw two silhouettes in the alley behind the square, hidden in the building’s shadow.

“You vermin! You can eat and live here all thanks to me!”

“B-but… this money won’t do. I need to buy medicine for mother…!”

“Want to get kicked out to the streets with your mom? Stop talking back and hand it over quickly! If this round hits big, I’ll give you double!”

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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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