A Strange But Effective Villainess Life - Chapter 145

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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 145
Mayer laughed with an air of exasperation.
【If my summoned beast possessed the same power as I do… then it would require tremendous restraint to live well. I… found that incredibly difficult. That’s why I hoped my descendants would never learn of my summoned beast’s true abilities.】
Now that I thought about it, we had never truly understood what abilities Elika Prelai’s summoned beast possessed. It seemed she had deliberately left no records behind.
He sighed and continued speaking.
【It’s not purely a blessing, you see. That’s why I feel sorry for you.】
Then he spoke again in a gentler tone.
【In any case, Roki was a man overflowing with inferiority toward Edmund, yet brimming with greed besides. His heart was equally covetous, so I believed it would seek out a soul and body possessed of the same inferiority and desire as his own.】
“Hmm.”
I could roughly piece together what had happened. The heart fragment, left in a remote place with potential for resurrection, had been approached by someone harboring inferiority and greed—Roki.
That Roki harbored inferiority toward Father was evident even from the Hunting Competition alone. And naturally… that heart would have resonated with Roki’s soul and body, merging with him.
【That’s why I placed it in the Arun Region so it wouldn’t fall into the hands of Empire citizens, but that rootless bastard…】
“Pardon? But his roots are Elika Prelai’s lineage, aren’t they?”
【…】
It was a fair point, yet Mayer offered no response. In any case, I was pressed for time, so I asked directly.
“Say… Ancestor, do you have any strength left?”
【Uh, what?】
“I’d like you to spare the energy for grieving and show me something instead. Where is the remaining heart fragment at this point in time?”
I asked Mayer seriously, my arms crossed.
“That heart fragment didn’t exist in reality, you see. If Roki’s ability was spatial-temporal movement, then the ‘real’ one must be wandering through some past, just like me, right? If you have any strength left, show me where it is.”
As I pressed him, recalling the semi-transparent final heart fragment, Mayer sighed with a bewildered expression.
【Why are my descendants all in such a state…】
“It would be similar regardless of who came anyway. Fortunately, I’m the smartest, so consider it lucky.”
Mayer’s face twisted in despair. I quickly encouraged my ancestor wearing Mayer’s form to hang in there.
“Anyway, squeeze out whatever strength you have left and show me where that heart fragment is. I need to take revenge on Uncle Roki.”
【…Y, yes.】
Mayer approached and grabbed my hand firmly. Just as I reflexively tried to step back because I found him unpleasant, a vision unfolded before my eyes like a film.
“Wha…”
“I’m going to steal your youngest daughter’s summoned beast, Hyde.”
A vision of Young Father and young Roki played out before my eyes.
“I may not have surpassed you, but our Melissa will become far more magnificent than your children!”
“What are you saying right now…”
“Especially that youngest daughter you cherished so much—I’ll make sure she lives in endless misery.”
Roki’s mole summoned beast began digging tunnels, and Father rushed in shouting, “No, don’t touch Kiki!” At the same moment, the tunnel entrance sealed shut, preventing anyone from entering.
And when the two brothers arrived in Arun in terrible condition, Roki quickly gathered the scrolls that had been wrapping the sealed heart fragments. Then, with a sneer, he turned to Father, who had belatedly pursued him.
“This time I won, Brother.”
Father had no chance to respond, rushing instead toward the stone tablet Roki had thrown. Despite the true treasure being the scroll, he lacked the knowledge to recognize it and headed for what appeared immediately valuable.
And Roki sneered, digging tunnels through his mole summoned beast again and disappeared. Unlike before, the tunnel entrance sealed instantly. He had deliberately closed it slowly on the way to Arun to lure Father in.
【Now, look carefully here.】
And Mayer pointed to a corner of the vision.
【Here, there is a heart fragment with Roki’s soul fused into it. The body is dead, only the soul remains.】
Just as Mayer pointed, a heart fragment was hidden among the stones like a hidden picture puzzle.
“Good heavens. He’s making friends with pebbles.”
So Roki’s soul was in the past like me, sustained by the power of the heart fragment.
【Over there, he continues to repeat that memory—the one where he deceived Hyde and imprisoned him in Arun.】
I let out a deep sigh without realizing it. I understood that feeling all too well. After all, I had been wandering through my mother’s memories until now. This moment was probably the happiest and most thrilling memory of Roki’s entire life—the first time he ever defeated his father—and that’s why he couldn’t escape from within it.
‘Really… truly pathetic.’
I clicked my tongue in thought.
‘Not the time he spent with his daughter and wife, but trapped in the memory of just getting one over on his older brother… Is that the happiest moment of his life?’
When I went to the Forest of Spirits with Sezare before, the Spirit had said something like this.
【Those heart fragments… I can sense their energy is in Arun right now. Just go to Arun and destroy them. Then it’s over.】
Everything the Spirit said back then turned out to be true. The third heart fragment was in ‘the Arun of the past.’
【Right now, without a body, he’s stuck like this, but if he ever encounters a body with similar inferiority complexes and greed, Ortson’s heart will truly dream of resurrection. That’s the eternal life Ortson dreamed of. To endlessly parasitize on inferiority and greed!】
Mayer shook his head with a trembling breath, as if horrified.
【Really… I don’t know what to do. Because Ortson crosses through spacetime like that, Ed and I had an incredibly hard time capturing him.】
“Then how did you catch him back then? If Quack was similar to Piyak, we can also move through spacetime, but we can’t physically intervene at all, right?”
【That’s why we needed the Spirit’s help.】
Mayer spoke with a nostalgic smile.
【Quack could transport not just me, but also Ed and the Spirit to the past. And once the Spirit moved, it could exert physical influence at any point in time. It could even recognize me and Ortson as we time traveled.】
That was new information. That Spirit who only talked about kissing apparently wasn’t just any Spirit.
【Anyway, the Spirit caught Ortson from the past and brought him to the present, and Ed dealt with him.】
“Ah.”
I was lost in thought for a moment before realizing Mayer was still holding my hand. I flinched and pulled away.
【…Anyway… we can’t ask him to suffer through dark magic again just to destroy that last heart fragment, and it’s truly troublesome. If we leave it as is, it will definitely become a source of disaster.】
“That’s right. Especially if a body with similar greed and inferiority complexes approaches near the heart fragment in reality, they could merge with it.”
As I furrowed my brow in thought, Mayer’s form began to fade gradually. It seemed he had truly exhausted all his remaining power. So I told him not to worry.
“But I think I’m smart enough to handle it. I’m roughly forming a plan.”
【So you’re saying we weren’t smart enough to dispose of it… Surely not?】
Mayer clutched his forehead with a shocked expression. I was about to answer that it wasn’t quite like that, just a difference in circumstances, when Mayer’s expression subtly changed.
“Ahem.”
His tone changed too. It was clearly the drunk Grand Cleric I had encountered before. Mayer declared in a completely different voice.
“The final power of Elika Prelai has dissipated.”
“Uh….”
“Though we could not end beautifully… hmm….”
“That’s true. We didn’t even get to say a proper goodbye.”
Unintentionally, the ancestor dissipated with the descendant’s unfilial remark as the final words. What am I to do… I was truly quite troubled.
But there was nothing to be done. The ancestor wouldn’t come back to life just because I was troubled. So I quickly composed my emotions. Anyway, thanks to the power Elika Prelai used at the end, I roughly understood what to do going forward.
The wavering Mayer greeted me belatedly in the hoarse voice I already knew.
“We meet for the second time, young lady.”
“Indeed. The Grand Cleric with outstanding abilities who has become unemployed after all.”
Since this was somewhat more familiar territory, I conversed without difficulty.
“Did you know we would meet again? Or rather, did you know how everything was unfolding from the start?”
When I first met Mayer, he had spoken in riddles.
“Reversing time through divine power is not something a mere priestess can accomplish.”
Yet those words proved true. The one who actually reversed time was Tailizes’s power returning to Sezare. Of course, Elika Prelai had lent a slight hand to grant that wish.
At my question, Mayer burst into hearty laughter. Then he said something entirely different.
“You should hurry back. Time in the Otherworld always flows swiftly.”
“Yes, that’s what worries me.”
I sighed and responded immediately.
“What if too much time has passed? How am I even supposed to return….”
But there was no need to worry. Suddenly, sleep crashed over me, and I couldn’t even finish my words. With Mayer’s laughter—huheuheuheu—echoing in my ears, I truly lost consciousness.
And so the dream ended.

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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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