A Strange But Effective Villainess Life - Chapter 139
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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 139
Hitten threw a tantrum, his voice dripping with indignation.
“Don’t call me brother! If you were truly Ed, you should have been poisoned! You should have proven that the direct bloodline of Tailizes is immune to toxins!”
It was a baseless accusation, yet he possessed his own twisted logic.
“The fact that you dodged my final test proves you’re not the real Ed!”
The nobles remained silent, merely observing the spectacle unfold.
Hitten’s words weren’t entirely wrong. Yet that didn’t necessarily mean Sezare wasn’t Edmund either.
Politics had always been this way. Every situation was interpreted from the victor’s perspective, and typically the one with the advantage was deemed the winner. Since they couldn’t hastily side with Sezare, most of the nobles were pretending to be “too shocked to speak.”
“This is infuriating.”
Only Alex voiced his frustrations to the knights standing beside him.
“With this atmosphere, we won’t even get a proper apology for that nonsense about our Kiana being a fake.”
“Wow.”
The knight marveled.
“You certainly aren’t one to miss the mood of a room.”
While everyone gazed at Alex with expressions of admiration, he crossed his arms and grumbled.
“This is so unfair. I don’t care how drawn-out this pathetic standoff between the imperial fools becomes, but seeing our Kiana treated like this by the Capital’s nobility really gets my blood boiling.”
“Of course, you remain hopelessly self-centered even in this situation….”
Alex wanted nothing more than to stand up right now and shout, “Actually, Kiana is the real one!” He had heard everything about what happened with Melissa. However, before his family left the Capital, they had instructed him to keep his mouth shut until Kiana revealed the truth herself, as there were larger matters at stake.
But to Alex’s mind, no matter how he thought about it, Kiana suddenly declaring out of nowhere with no context, “I was the real one all along,” seemed odd. Everyone would probably react with something like, “Oh, you two coordinated your story again,” or “Why should we care about your family’s affairs?”
“After all, it’s a family matter. Most people have no interest in it. They simply treat it as amusing gossip.”
The perceptive knight stated the obvious truth.
“Besides, the Guards are actually praising Lady Kiana’s magical artifacts… No one truly cares about Prelai’s summoned creatures as if it were their own business.”
In conclusion, the gossip about “Kiana being fake” was entertaining, but the complicated circumstances were not. Alex clicked his tongue and muttered.
“Then I wish an opportunity would come where Kiana could prove to everyone’s eyes that she’s the real one, naturally and inevitably….”
Of course, while they whispered among themselves, events continued to unfold. Sezare had pulled the poison dart from the wall and promptly drove it into Hitten’s wrist.
“No!”
In that instant, Dolores shot to her feet and cried out.
“Hitten! No! No!”
“Why?”
Sezare asked leisurely.
“You yourself said that the Tailizes bloodline is immune to poison, didn’t you?”
In truth, when Sezare came to the Nobility Council, he had considered the possibility that the dark magic might have been completed, yet he felt no tension whatsoever. Back then, he had trusted them and consumed the poison, and he had trusted Lord Rodrigo enough to fall from the cliff.
In a state of full preparedness, there was no way he could be caught off guard. Among Sword Masters, there was hardly anyone worthy of facing him in combat. In fact, from the moment he entered the council chamber, he could have killed Hitten without any weapon at all, but he had waited for this moment. And there was something he wanted to confirm….
Hitten stared at his wrist with a look of despair and let out a scream.
“Ahhhhhhh! You murderer!”
And Sezare spoke at his leisure.
“Seeing how terrified you are of the poison, it must be one of two things. Either you’ve been impersonating the imperial family all this time, or you’ve discovered a poison that works on the imperial bloodline.”
The nobles, who had been feigning shock and panic, stopped their commotion and held their breath, staring at Hitten. The logic was flawless. Yet judging by how Hitten and Dolores reacted, it didn’t seem like Hitten wasn’t of imperial blood.
Hitten screamed for his life. Even Alex stared at Hitten with his mouth agape, as if entranced.
Time passed a little longer. Hitten continued screaming desperately. The moments stretched on, filled only with his cries.
Unable to contain himself any longer, Alex muttered in disbelief.
“…What is it, is she dying or not?”
The Imperial Knight standing beside him answered calmly.
“It’s a situation where it’s problematic either way, whether she dies or doesn’t.”
That was when it happened.
With a loud crash, someone fell from thin air directly onto the House of Prelai’s reserved seating. Alex had been sitting there just moments before, but due to the sudden brawl, the seat happened to be empty now.
“Ah, no….”
“What is this?”
“What’s going on?”
“K-Kiana? Lady Kiana?”
And everyone couldn’t help but witness that absurd scene.
A person suddenly appearing in mid-air and falling! Moreover, Kiana was dressed in the thick gowns worn in the Northern Region with a shawl draped over her shoulders. But it wasn’t even winter here yet…. Had she truly teleported from the north? Yet I’d never heard of such magic existing. Even Alex, and even Hitten, stopped screaming in shock.
“Uh….”
Kiana blinked her eyes in bewilderment. Above Kiana’s head, Piyak shrieked sharply.
【Kiana! I’m sorry! Now that I’ve achieved a true summoning, I can’t control my power!】
Kiana’s expression was somewhat dazed. And no wonder—she hadn’t been thinking about anything when she suddenly appeared before so many people.
And at the same time, Alex pushed past the knights he’d been chatting with and rushed toward Kiana.
“Kiana, what is this? How did this happen? You’re supposed to be in the Northern Region, so why are you suddenly….”
【Can’t you see? Or what, are you going to keep using those bloodshot eyes for?】
Piyak, already in a foul mood, answered sharply.
【Kiana has successfully completed my full summoning! Melissa stole me from Kiana in the first place anyway! So I’m currently releasing all the power I couldn’t use until now, which is why the situation is unstable! That’s fourteen years of accumulated power!】
Everyone blinked their eyes with a sound of awe.
A person moving instantaneously was certainly an ability that couldn’t be manifested unless it was the summoned beast of House of Prelai. No matter how excellent a magical artifact was, it couldn’t move objects. Alex’s wish to prove that Kiana wasn’t a fake before so many people had been fulfilled far too quickly.
In any case, Alex’s wish was just a wish, and Kiana’s situation wasn’t very good. Just as Piyak had warned about the instability, her consciousness began to fade. Before she knew it, Kiana felt her body being held in Alex’s arms.
“Kiana!”
Through her fading consciousness, she heard Alex’s voice.
“What’s wrong, Kiana. What’s wrong….”
Alex’s arms trembled as he caught Kiana as she collapsed.
“We were supposed to talk that day….”
Kiana blinked, unsure for a moment which day he meant. After thinking for a bit, she realized he was referring to the day when Alex came home and caught her as she performed falling exercises with air resistance.
“Let’s go home. Let’s go home and… talk, okay? It kept getting ×, no, postponed, but anyway I ×, no, I really practiced a lot. Normal words, you know.”
It was certainly a manner of speech unimaginable from Alex.
“If I’d known you’d do this, I wouldn’t have gone to the Academy or messed with those Purbs bastards… so come to your senses….”
And far in the distance, Sezare was running over. His face was filled with shock. Fear filled the face that was always so composed.
‘What is this, Piyak seems to have explained the situation completely, so why does he have that expression….’
Well… he was someone who didn’t know what to do if he missed even a single meal. So what must he be feeling seeing her collapse like this.
“Brother….”
Through her fading consciousness, Kiana desperately tried to say something. First was Alex.
“Don’t talk such nonsense so earnestly. Skipping the Academy and messing with those Purbs bastards was the right call.”
And toward Sezare, who wore the expression of having lost everything on the day she’d regained everything, she spoke.
“Our hypothesis… the sixty-fifth one was correct.”
I wanted to speak of the truth I’d discovered the moment I saw the third heart fragment after coming all this way.
“The final scroll… Roki deceived us. That poison doesn’t work on Tailizes. The dark magic would never have activated.”
At those words, Dolores cried out in fury.
“That wretched bastard dared to swindle me!”
My consciousness was fading rapidly now. As I collapsed like a sheet of paper, I desperately forced my lips open.
“Thanks to that wretched bastard’s deception, your pathetic son lived.”
Even in that moment, I wanted to reveal the truth to Dolores.
“The same worthless trash dares to speak without knowing its place. That’s exactly why our father despised you.”
And then I lost consciousness.
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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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