Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 93

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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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#93. Echoes of the Past (2)

“If you’re going to throw away that cookie, give it to me. I’m curious what love-infused cookie tastes like.”
She decided to shelve the seduction line she’d prepared for now.
She’d realized he was the type to destroy not just what he couldn’t possess, but even what he already had.
Kelsedny Admiral handed her the cookie box that had been precariously balanced on the railing.
“Are you a beggar?”
The words were insulting, yet delivered with surprising gentleness.
“I’m simply curious about the taste of love.”
Octavia opened the box and tried one of the cookies.
“It’s excellent, as befits a cookie from a noble running a confectionery company, but there’s nothing particularly special about it beyond that.”
“Wait, who are you? I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere.”
Kelsedny Admiral tilted his head slightly and examined her more carefully.
“Octavia Ludovski.”
Octavia set down the cookie she’d been eating and looked up.
The two fell silent for a moment, regarding each other.
Her lilac eyes reflected in his golden gaze like light on water.
His irises appeared golden at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they were rimmed with black.
He studied her quietly before asking.
“Have you seen me before?”
“You must have seen me. The previous Emperor frequently summoned me to the Imperial Palace.”
“I don’t remember names or faces well.”
From fifteen onward, drifting across the seas of war, the only relationships he’d forged were distinctions between enemy and ally.
“I’m Kelsedny Decart. And you?”
‘I just told you! Does this man have absolutely no interest in people?’
Octavia internally protested and let out an exasperated cough.
“That’s a difficult name to remember. I’ll call you Keldi from now on. I’m Octavia Ludovski. Remember it or don’t.”
Without question, there was not a single person in the Kingdom who would speak to him in such a manner.
“Who gave you permission to call me that?”
“My prerogative. My status is ‘a superior being from an advanced future civilization,’ so you should speak respectfully to me.”
Since he seemed indifferent to everything, she figured he wouldn’t go around telling others or pestering her to advance their stagnant technology, so she revealed her identity outright.
His lips parted slightly as he fell silent.
He then straightened his posture, which had been bent as he peered down at her face.
“You like formal speech. Understood.”
“Then I’ll speak formally to you too. But why don’t you use a military tone? You’re wearing the uniform.”
“The way my adjutants speak to me? I’ve never used it.”
After exchanging a few more words, just as he seemed about to turn away indifferently, he posed an unexpected question.
“Can I call you Bia?”
“Will you remember it?”
“Yes. I’ve already memorized your face.”
He brushed dust from his sleeves and adjusted his uniform before looking down at her again.
“So, why did you chase me all the way here? Really just to mooch cookies?”
“I wanted to get acquainted.”
Octavia smiled brightly.
“And to learn about the Admiral’s preferences.”
“I’ve never given it much thought.”
He answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“Has the Admiral never experienced romance?”
“I have no interest in it.”
Indeed, what could be expected from a man who burned the gifts he received and couldn’t even remember people’s faces?
He tucked the cigar he’d been about to light back into his pocket.
“Many people have asked me like you do, but none of them particularly appealed to me.”
In other words, he’d received countless advances. Octavia approached him with a knowing smile in her eyes.
“I’m the same way. But perhaps the Admiral might be the kind of man who matches my level as a refined, advanced civilization?”
“I’ve never met anyone who speaks like you do.”
The man, still awkward with formal speech, added with a slight smirk at the corners of his mouth.
“Aren’t you afraid of me?”
His counterpart was a human kraken who had drowned countless people beneath the waves.
But a woman who had spent her entire previous life researching weapons of mass destruction had no reason to fear him.
“No. With your black hair, uniform, and muscular build, you’re exactly my type aesthetically. Your facial symmetry is perfect too.”
“I see.”
He regarded her as one might observe a peculiar specimen, then walked past her indifferently onto the terrace.
Octavia already knew that royal marriages existed solely for the purpose of producing heirs—romance and love were not part of the equation.
“So it’s true then—you can’t perceive those subtle nuances between men and women?”
There was nothing to feel excited about, but having directly confirmed his nature, she shifted her thinking once more.
“Then I just need to feel it for both of us, don’t I?”
After all, among all the men she’d seen across the Empire and Kingdom, he was the one she liked most.
Romantic feelings had a shelf life of three months anyway.
Whether it was unrequited love or infatuation, the mere fact that she could experience something special through this man was a significant achievement.
‘To give one’s sincerity to a complete stranger, rather than to family who gives unconditional affection.’
That was the subject of her anthropological research.

Some time later, around the time Admiral Kelsedny had completely forgotten his brief encounter with Octavia.
He received a letter from her.

「Unfortunately, I understand that unlike ordinary humans, you lack much emotion. However, physical union is still possible for you, is it not?
If so, I wish to experience romantic feelings myself. Could you help me?
I would appreciate your assistance for my personal anthropological research.
In exchange, I will give you whatever you desire.」

***

As the Prince’s betrothed, Octavia Ludovisi had frequented the Royal Palace since childhood and maintained a rather close relationship with the Princesses.
When Lady Roxan, the King’s favored mistress, seized control of High Society, numerous incidents had unfolded within the palace walls.
There were subtle attempts to exclude the young Princesses who steadfastly sided with their Mother, the Queen Regent, or to arrange marriages with elderly foreign royalty to force them from the palace.
Because the Ludovisi Family, backed by the Imperial Court, had stepped forward to protect these Princesses, May and April regarded her as a trustworthy friend.
Currently, Octavia was attending a Blessing Prayer Ceremony held in the Royal Palace Garden.
Octavia posed a question to the Princesses seated beside her—whether they had ever harbored romantic feelings for anyone.
At this, Princess May’s cheeks flushed crimson.
“Romance? Well, there is a man who’s caught my attention recently… but since he’s a Priest, I feel a certain delicious guilt about it. I suppose I do enjoy forbidden love.”
She spoke of a guilt tinged with pleasure.
“Could you mean Kimihee or perhaps the Bishop?”
Both clergymen were practically idols to the faithful.
Princess May shook her head and gestured for Octavia to lend her an ear.
“It’s a secret, but when the Admiral entered the country, he brought a captive—a Priest of exceptional beauty.”
“That ventures beyond the forbidden into the truly transgressive, does it not?”
“I’ve realized I’m drawn to men with a melancholic beauty. He was like a pitiful deer.”
As they whispered, she noticed Dominic and Chloe entering together from a distance.
Regardless, Octavia remained absorbed in her conversation with Princess May.
“But… Bia, are you alright?”
“I’m dizzy, so please continue with the story of that pitiful deer man who stirs such delicious guilt.”
The tale of forbidden love mattered far more than watching a man she’d already broken her engagement with appear alongside another woman.
Meanwhile, Kelsedny Admiral also arrived at the Blessing Prayer Ceremony.
She locked eyes with the Admiral, then refocused her attention on Princess May.
To observers, Octavia appeared perfectly composed, and they whispered gossip among themselves.
“I heard she was broken off with the Prince?”
“Once her knowledge ability vanished, there was no reason for her to become part of the Royal Family. Her social ascension is finished.”
News of Octavia and the Prince’s broken engagement had already spread.
With the reason for the break unclear, and the Prince’s particular attention to another woman, endless speculation swirled.
“Well, that commoner lady will probably just marry some noble with a high title but empty coffers, won’t she?”
Then, seeing Kelsedny Admiral approach her, they fell silent.
He was offering her a cookie tin.
“Please, have some.”
He even used formal speech.
“Are these cookies baked with love, like last time?”
“Not identical, but similar.”
To Octavia’s question, he answered with nothing but the truth.
Since the Adjutant had carefully selected it for the cookie beggar, there was nothing false about his words.
Yet those who interpreted this entirely differently suddenly dropped their jaws.
Everyone held their breath in rapt attention, but Kelsedny Admiral’s face remained expressionless.
“I’m interested.”
It was his response to the letter she had sent.
The moment his words ended, someone’s forgotten teacup clattered against the saucer with a sharp ring.
A simple statement that sent shockwaves through the room.
His measured tone and gaze were aimed with precision directly at Octavia.

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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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