A Strange But Effective Villainess Life - Chapter 152

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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 152
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In the dark confines of a prison cell.
Dolores and Hitten had to remain confined until the official trial date that would soon arrive. They had been caught red-handed at the nobility assembly. For Dolores, who had lived a life of luxury her entire existence, these were unbearably painful hours.
Born as Duchess Lucia, she had lived without want. The first thing she had ever truly desired was Hyde Prelai. Yet Hyde paid her no attention, his mind consumed by a woman who could not even compare to her.
So when marriage proposals came to the Emperor for diplomatic purposes, she threw a tantrum, insisting she become the Third Queen instead of her sister. After all, she craved more power than Enerys. Even a Duke’s wife had to bow her head to a Queen.
‘Eventually, I’ll become Empress. That fool from the Solar Kingdom will be cast out soon enough anyway.’
When the Emperor foolishly elevated the weak princess of the Solar Kingdom to Empress, the other Queens felt little resentment. They knew she was merely a puppet. Indeed, Dolores bore Prince Hitten first, and at that time, she had been thrilled at becoming the highest-ranking woman in the empire, eager to torment Enerys.
But years later, the Empress gave birth to Crown Prince Edmund, a legitimate heir far too magnificent for her station, and thus secured her position.
And the Emperor… that cunning man loved no woman. Dolores was no exception, which strangely restricted her actions considerably.
Despising all of it so intensely, she had resorted to dark magic to reach this point, and success had been within her grasp…
“Damn those Prelai bastards. Even Roki Prelai turned his back on me?”
For some time now, incomprehensible rage and desire had swept through her mind. It had always been there, but far more intensely. She would sell her very soul if only she could escape this place and destroy every last Prelai.
And truly wondering if she had lost her mind, she seemed to hear seductive whispers from somewhere. She barely held on by clinging to the thought: ‘I am the noble Duchess Lucia. I won’t sell my soul.’
That was when it happened.
“Hello.”
Dolores lifted her head at a voice that irritated her just to hear. It was none other than Kiana Prelai, who bore a striking resemblance to Enerys Prelai. Just as she had seen at the nobility assembly, the yellow lark was now perched with her, apparently her summoned creature.
With the yellow lark balanced on her shoulder, Kiana stood with her arms crossed, looking down at Dolores in the cell. Though she had a cute appearance with her small stature and round eyes, there was something oddly arrogant and coldly aloof emanating from her face.
“You look pathetic.”
Dolores ground her teeth. To make matters worse, behind Kiana stood Crown Prince Edmund, the very person she despised most, holding some sort of seal pup.
Edmund…
‘If only you had never been born, Hitten could have been the Crown Prince.’
In the end, she faced the people she hated most in their most miserable state.
“Did you come to mock me?”
Dolores smirked, looking first at Edmund.
“Well, poor Ed. If you had never been born, your foolish mother would have been happier. Your mother was suited only to be a puppet Empress, secretly sending tributes to the Solar Kingdom—nothing more. But when you were born… it only made her position more difficult.”
Then she turned her gaze to Kiana, sneering once more. Seeing the two people she had most wanted to destroy standing perfectly intact before her, she wanted to wound them.
“Your mother is the same. That Enerys girl trembled before me, crushed by power, writing those foolish letters like some provincial orphan. That’s why commoners don’t work out. In the end, she couldn’t control that base blood and brought tragedy upon herself, didn’t she?”
A murderous glint began to flash in Edmund’s eyes as he endured the insults to his mother and his own existence. If Kiana had not grabbed his arm to restrain him, he would have killed her on the spot.
“If you came to mock us, leave now. We’re fundamentally different, so I don’t even want to have a final conversation with you.”
“What did you say?”
Kiana raised her eyebrows as she spoke.
“It’s not that we’re different—it’s that we’re on different levels.”
She quickly decided to treat Dolores as casually as Dolores treated her, and with her own hand, she unlocked the prison door with a click. Then, entering the cell, she stepped on the hem of Dolores’s skirt with her checkered-ribbon-adorned high heel and spoke coldly.
“And no matter what, only someone like you would push your own child into prison.”
“What?”
And with that, her high heel tore through Dolores’s filthy skirt with a ripping sound.
“You dreamed of becoming the Duke’s wife or Empress—ridiculous fantasies—and that’s why everything fell apart like this. A mother who went mad with greed and threw her own innocent child into prison has no right to speak.”
Kiana smiled with a completely unbothered expression.
“Say what you will, but you and your son will rot in this prison. Oh, did you know our father has returned? I regret what happened to our mother, but we will live happily. Everyone you despised will live brilliantly and joyfully right before your eyes.”
‘…Hyde has returned?’
A glimmer of madness began to dance in Dolores’s eyes. That man she could never forget—the most beautiful and noble in all the world….
‘That man locked away in Arun is coming back to become Duke Prelai? And Edmund becomes Emperor?’
“Do you understand?”
Kiana spoke with confident laughter.
“Either way, we get our happy ending. Whatever you did and however you did it—that’s all in the past, already finished.”
“I… I….”
“While you and your son rot here drinking stagnant water and gnawing on pathetic scraps of bread, we’ll be enjoying a grand banquet. And when the final judgment is rendered, we’ll throw a celebration and enjoy the most glorious night of all.”
The seal nestled in Edmund’s arms added, “And we’ll kiss too!”
“Everyone in the world will gossip about Dolores and Hitten’s wickedness and failure, and Edmund will even take revenge on the Duchy of Lucia, making everyone despise Dolores.”
Kiana’s words that followed were quite detailed.
“For generations to come, forever, all the citizens of the Grand Duchy will unite and cry out, ‘Dolores is the shame of the Grand Duchy!’ And through it all, Edmund and I will be perfectly happy. It’s all because of your excessive greed.”
Though she vaguely knew of her failure, seeing Kiana and Edmund happy right before her eyes made her blood boil with rage.
“Greed, you say!”
Finally, Dolores snorted and leaped to her feet to strangle Kiana’s neck.
“I am more noble than you wretches, and therefore have the right to wield power! Even if I must sell my very soul, I will never let you….”
【Now!】
At that moment, Piyak cried out in a sharp voice.
【The heart fragment has returned!】
And Dolores didn’t even manage to grab Kiana’s neck—she tumbled onto the stone floor instead. Edmund, who had drawn near to Kiana in an instant, had easily swatted Dolores away.
“You mustn’t sully our Kiana with filth.”
Clear contempt gleamed in Edmund’s eyes.
“I shall even purchase new shoes to replace the ones soiled by contact with that filthy hem.”
And in the corner of the prison, the seal that Edmund was holding suddenly seized a strangely shaped stone tablet and wagged its tail.
【Got it! What do we do now? Hurry and finish so we can kiss!】
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Just as I had predicted.
I had Piyak hide the final heart fragment on the stone tablet in the corner of Dolores’s prison. The heart fragment bearing Tailizes’s pattern, which hadn’t been completely destroyed yet, I left at the Duke Prelai’s residence as it was.
Of course, this was to lure the “real” heart fragment—Roki’s soul—spending time in the past. Since the final heart fragment currently had no physical form and couldn’t be grasped, I had to summon it to reality by any means necessary.
The moment Dolores resolved to “sell even her soul to gain power,” the semi-transparent heart fragment began to find substance. Dolores was also an ugly human consumed by inferiority and greed—the perfect conditions for what Roki’s soul and Otson’s heart desired.
However, since Dolores didn’t seem likely to give in easily, I deliberately appeared before her.
“I tried to scratch at her insides gently, the way Melissa does. How was it? Did I do well?”
【Hmm.】
Piyak gave an objective assessment.
【Kiana has no talent for gentle scratching. From what I saw, you completely turned her insides out.】
Well, as long as it succeeded, that was what mattered. Not everyone could do everything well.
Just as the heart found substance and began to consume Dolores’s body, Edmund threw the Spirit toward the tablet.
The Spirit swiftly seized the heart. Only a Spirit in this world could prevent this heart fragment’s movement. Now that the gods had vanished, the Spirit was the only sacred being capable of suppressing dark magic.
【Wow, this is fun!】
The Spirit laughed with delight.
Reminiscing like this brings back old memories! Back then, I grabbed Otson like this and brought him to the present too. Though Ed and Eli didn’t kiss in the end. But…
Then Piyak asked with a puzzled tone.
What’s the point of grabbing it like this? This can’t even be destroyed. You can’t destroy it even with a kiss?
“I’m going to handle it the old way. Well, the order is a bit reversed this time.”
I nodded once while looking at Piyak.
Enveloped in light, we moved forward.

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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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