A Strange But Effective Villainess Life - Chapter 113

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 113
A splash of water echoed through the air, followed by a frivolous voice.
【Yes, Eli! Come on, help me out! I feel like I’m dying soon anyway? Besides, Ed can’t live more than fifty years longer than you at most… Wait.】
The frivolous voice suddenly deepened.
【…Who exactly are you two? You smell similar, but you’re not Eli and Ed?】
Overwhelmed by the intense pressure, I unconsciously faltered and gripped the Crown Prince’s arm tightly with both hands.
It was an aura I could never have imagined. I instinctively felt that the being before me was not human, that it possessed truly tremendous power. Despite my nature of rarely losing my nerve, my arms trembled uncontrollably.
But the Crown Prince stood perfectly upright as if unbothered, speaking in a low voice.
“We are the descendants of Elika Prelai and Edmund Tailyes. The two of you ultimately never came together, but instead….”
【Ahahahahahahaha!】
Before the Crown Prince could even finish speaking, the Spirit began laughing in a clear, ringing voice. Despite this, the oppressive atmosphere that refused to dissipate forced me to swallow hard without uttering a word.
【Ah, right. You said Prelai and Tailyes, not Eli and Ed? Ahahahahaha, this is fun? You summoned me like this? Ahahahahaha!】
From within the thick mist, a Spirit resembling a seal sat perched upon a rock.
【Good judgment.】
The eerie sensation that echoed to the depths of my soul made me shudder once more.
【If you had lied before me using that name, you would not have survived.】
Then it struck the rock with its tail with a sharp tap.
【So what about Eli and Ed?】
“…They passed away approximately 1,200 years ago.”
The Spirit’s mouth fell open in complete shock.
【1,200 years have passed? Since then?】
A moment of silence fell.
The Spirit seemed somewhat sad, yet it appeared to be accepting the death of the humans it had cherished. Instead, it lamented in a somber voice.
【And so the world has truly fallen to ruin! Looking at how the sky has turned this hazy white…. Are you two the last humans remaining in the world? Is that why your eyes finally met?】
“No. Nothing has been ruined yet… and we didn’t meet because we were the last ones left in the world.”
At the Crown Prince’s words, the Spirit tilted its head and asked.
【Then why did your eyes meet without any particular reason? You two didn’t defeat a dark sorcerer together like Eli and Ed did, right?】
“Even without any particular reason, every single day we saw each other, I fell for him bit by bit.”
The intonation was somewhat artificial, yet the voice remained unwavering.
“Not all humans love in the same way, after all.”
At those words, the oppressive aura the Spirit had been emanating vanished completely. And the frivolous atmosphere from our first meeting returned.
【Ooooooooh! Oh my, I absolutely love this!】
The Spirit clapped its flippers together, its voice brimming with delight.
I could only blink awkwardly. Because from the letters we had exchanged over the past few days, I had vaguely sensed that he had liked me since childhood. I had no idea why he developed such peculiar tastes, but… in any case, every word the Crown Prince spoke seemed not like he was merely ‘pretending to be in love,’ but genuinely sincere.
Now that I thought about it, I had continued holding onto his arm ever since I became frightened of the Spirit. I slowly released my hand from his arm with embarrassment.
“In any case, my lover is from Prelai and had her Summoned Beast stolen, and I am from Tailyes and fell victim to poison.”
【A Summoned Beast stolen? Is that even possible? Originally, once the true Owner is born, the Summoned Beast is determined at that very moment.】
As the Spirit tilted its head in confusion, I quickly added an explanation.
“To be precise, before I could summon my Summoned Beast, my Uncle apparently transferred my Summoned Beast to my Cousin. My Cousin’s birthday comes a few months before mine.”
As I provided the supplementary explanation, the Spirit struck its forehead with its front paw.
“Ah! I think I understand now! Then it must be because of dark magic!”
I saw the Crown Prince’s hand tense as he stood half a step ahead.
The Spirit spoke as if it were nothing at all.
“Eli and Edgar divided the heart of the dark sorcerer Ortson into three pieces and sealed them in Arun, you see? I told them to kiss back then, but they didn’t.”
Three pieces? That meant dark magic could be performed a maximum of three times.
‘Aside from that, I have the feeling something very unimportant was just added to the conversation….’
“Each time one of those heart fragments is activated, dark magic will manifest once. Elika left the Prelai Duchy in that cold Northern Region to have her descendants guard it, you know? But I told them to kiss back then, and they didn’t.”
And that unimportant remark continued to be added. The Crown Prince deliberately ignored the trailing comment and asked quietly.
“How do you activate the heart fragments?”
“You draw a dark magic circle on the scroll wrapping the heart fragment and offer gold.”
“Pardon?”
“Even when Ortson was alive, his heart only responded to gold. You’d need about… 400,000 Pelots?”
At the mention of 400,000 Pelots in gold, my eyes nearly bulged out of my head.
Among the Empire’s currency, there are gold coins. In other words, while it was called gold, it ultimately meant money.
‘And 400,000 Pelots… just how much money is that? I doubt we could scrape together that much even if we stripped the Duke’s household bare.’
“Presumably, if you destroy the activated heart fragment, that distorted power will return to its owner. So if you’ve already been hit by dark magic once, you just need to destroy it. Sigh, in the end, when Eli and Edgar tore that heart into three pieces, they didn’t even kiss once….”
“What is the method to destroy it?”
“Just destroy it. But the person who had their power stolen must do it directly. Only the person involved can destroy it. That’s why Ed and Eli only sealed it with a scroll and couldn’t actually destroy it. They were so disappointed back then, but if you’re disappointed, at least kiss….”
The power returns to its owner… I furrowed my brow in thought.
“If Piyak is truly the Princess’s summoned creature… then perhaps all the power that has been sealed until now could be released at once. A very, extremely powerful force.”
“When?”
“…Perhaps when a true summoning takes place… I’m not entirely certain. I don’t know much more than that.”
Was this what Kailon had said back then?
“Those heart fragments… I can feel their presence. They’re in Arun right now. Just go to Arun and destroy them. Then it’s over.”
The Spirit tilted its head and continued speaking.
“Ah, are you unable to enter Arun because of the monsters? No one can really go there now. When only I could see from Arun, wouldn’t it have been nice if Eli and Ed had at least kissed?”
Arun… that was precisely where Father had followed Roki and never returned.
It was only a hypothesis so far, but I could roughly piece together what had happened.
Roki had been able to enter Arun using the power of a summoned creature that digs tunnels to retrieve the scroll wrapping the heart fragment, but without money, he couldn’t activate the dark magic circle. If that were the case, he must have negotiated with whoever wanted to neutralize Tailizes’s power using the remaining heart fragments.
‘Roki joined hands with Dolores.’
Then, could it be that Mother as well….
The reason no one had suspected dark magic regarding my inability to summon a creature was actually because of Mother’s denial. The hypothesis that ‘I am not a child of Prelai’ was more plausible than dark magic written in some obscure history book.
‘Then… could they be the ones behind unjustly killing Mother? Because they wanted to hide that they had used dark magic?’
And I could now understand why the timing of when I lost my summoned creature differed from when the Crown Prince was poisoned.
‘I used the first dark magic when I was five years old, and by the time I was sixteen, I had accumulated enough money to activate the second heart fragment… In the end, one piece still remains….’
It was even more worrying because there was a high probability that Roki had given the remaining scroll to Dolores as well.
Now that the Crown Prince had been poisoned and that position was vacant, it would have been easier to accumulate money. Because once Hiton became the real power and took control of the Guards, criminal organizations increased. It would have been very easy to gather money by looking the other way, just like with the Club House.
‘Then the next dark magic could happen even faster….’
“It seems your enemies also entered Arun, so why wouldn’t you be able to enter? Try hard to get in. Ah, Eli and Ed really should have kissed in Arun. Because they couldn’t kiss back then, it ultimately never came to pass.”
“Understood.”
The Crown Prince maintained his composure even as the Spirit rambled on about kissing, responding in a low voice.
“I suppose I’ll need to visit Arun first.”
His tone was so matter-of-fact, as if he were merely planning a casual visit to a neighbor’s house. Wait, what? Arun isn’t exactly a place humans can visit so easily, is it?
“Then we shall take our leave. Thank you.”
The mist was gradually thinning, so we really did need to go soon.
That was when it happened.
【What? With your bare mouth?】
The Spirit struck a rock with its tail with a threatening gesture and spoke.
【If you’ve woken me from my peaceful slumber, shouldn’t you pay the price for that?】
“A price?”
No, we should have negotiated the terms beforehand.
No matter how much the Crown Prince had instructed me to keep my mouth shut, I simply couldn’t tolerate this. Just as I was about to open my mouth to teach the Spirit some basic business ethics—
【Humans kiss when they love each other, don’t they?】
The Spirit splashed the water excitedly with its tail, speaking in an excited voice. It sounded just like a child throwing a tantrum.
【I really wanted to see that, but I didn’t get to watch Eli and Ed do it. Can’t you two show me instead? I’m really curious, you know.】

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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