Don’t Look for the Resurrected Villainess - Chapter 1
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1
The story was over.
The sky was clear without a single cloud, and the wind was cool.
Those who wished for my death screamed with mad fervor, and the executioner waited for me before the eerie execution platform. Though the distance was not far, each step felt so arduous because I had refused food for several days.
Under the dazzling sunlight, I could see a woman adorned with brilliantly shining jewelry. Lilia, beautiful with her radiant golden hair and warm green eyes.
Standing beside her were people with cold eyes. All of them had once been precious to me, or my close friends, but now we had become worse than strangers.
Lilia had captured their hearts, eyes, and ears, and thus they all turned their backs on me.
It began with a terminal diagnosis that struck like a bolt from the blue. The young lady destined to be the Crown Princess was terminally ill!
The entire nation was thrown into chaos, and meetings continued day after day. The engagement between the Imperial House and our family involved intricate political purposes, making it difficult to resolve.
Lilia appeared through that confusion and made each of my shining possessions her own, one by one. So methodically, as if it had been predetermined from the beginning.
Of course, I was devastated at first. It was humiliating, frustrating, and infuriating, so I struggled even more desperately. Unlike me, who was dying and sensitive, I hated Lilia for being kind and healthy.
Not knowing that my disgraceful behavior only made Lilia shine brighter, I threw jealous tantrums. I threw fits and cried, saying everything had been mine, but it was all stolen from me.
Not knowing that all that would remain in the end was shameful expulsion. Not anticipating that even my family would turn their backs on me, fearing I might bring disgrace upon the house.
Ah, foolish Anelli Roam. Your stupidity has ruined your life.
Someone’s mockery came to mind. Those words were true. My foolishness had burned my honor, sent away my people, and destroyed my love.
“Bring the criminal here!”
Dragged by soldiers holding both my arms, I arrived at the execution platform. Directly in front, I could see the man I had loved.
It was Maxel, my fiancé and the Crown Prince beloved by the empire’s people. He stood looking down at me with one arm wrapped around Lilia’s shoulder.
Though the distance was too far to see clearly anyway, I felt as if our eyes met. He was probably feeling relieved.
He had fallen into fresh love while finding his increasingly sensitive fiancée tiresome day by day.
Maxel had initially pitied his fiancée, who needed great resolve even for a garden stroll and often collapsed midway, but eventually came to despise her. That’s why I wanted to become healthy. I thought if I did, I could restore everything I had lost.
Would anything have been different if I had known from the beginning that it was all a lie?
Maxel, will you ever learn that the doctor who gave me the terminal diagnosis was acting on Lilia’s orders?
Will my family, who took Lilia as an adopted daughter and erased my name from the family registry, ever regret it?
Will my former close friends, who ultimately took Lilia’s side and reproached me, find that friendship eternal?
“God’s final mercy is granted to this foolish creature. Do you have any last words?”
At the priest’s words, I didn’t respond but gazed steadily at Maxel. He didn’t avoid my gaze. At this moment, why? I seemed to taste the sweetness of cookies I used to eat often.
I must finally be going mad. As I drew a faint smile with my parched lips, I felt a sting where the scab tore.
“…God, have mercy.”
I simply wanted to rest.
So on this clear and bright day, I would gladly accept an early death.
* * *
This place was not heaven.
Nor was it hell.
My lungs filled completely with breath. Ah, this cannot be. A sigh full of despair blocked my throat. Though my stiffened tongue could not utter any words, I knew.
I was alive. Someone had brought me back to life.
It was an unwanted resurrection.
* * *
《Evil runs rampant, so I send you a resurrected one. Stand firm against it.》
With the divine oracle, the world turned upside down. The world turning upside down meant my life was turned upside down as well.
When I opened my eyes, I was in a temple. To me, who couldn’t comprehend the situation, the priests uniformly spoke nonsense, calling me precious savior, resurrected one, or saint, while bowing at the waist.
The last memory remaining in my mind was of the crowd throwing stones and pouring malicious curses, and acquaintances waiting for my death with cold gazes.
A savior? What ridiculous nonsense was that?
I holed up in a room and confronted the priests for a month. Initially trying to persuade me with pious devotion, they frantically changed tactics to all kinds of delicacies and gold and silver treasures. Naturally, I scoffed at their efforts.
Meanwhile, I investigated this absurd miracle that had happened to me. I learned about the oracle’s content then too.
Evil running rampant? Evil had been rampant long ago. When Lilia interfered in my life with her lovely face, when Maxel fell for her and despised me, when even my family turned away from me and instead joined others in criticism, trying to avoid disgrace.
If God wanted to choose me, why didn’t He save me from that pain then? Why did He resurrect me in this monstrous form only after I had experienced everything and given up?
“Resurrected One, Priest Morico has obtained precious fruit for the Saint.”
“You didn’t eat much breakfast, so please try at least a little.”
I had become skilled at brushing off the bothersome novice priests. Having experience causing trouble to those around me before my death, it wasn’t difficult.
After I harmed myself a few times, the novice priests would shut their mouths whenever I picked up anything. This time too, when I irritably picked up a book, I could see them tactfully retreating.
Through the process of self-harm, I realized I had gained monstrous recovery abilities. Though scars would remain if not properly treated, my natural healing power itself had become remarkably enhanced.
My stamina was also much better than before my death, and my five senses had developed. But the decisive change was that I had become able to communicate with non-human beings.
I didn’t tell the priests what abilities I had. Seeing my recovery power, they seemed to think I possessed tremendous divine power. I heard that believers flocked daily to the front of the temple where I was staying.
Also, recently, the Imperial House and nobles were constantly requesting audiences. They said some of my acquaintances were among them, and they would arrange meetings if I wished.
But all of that no longer had anything to do with me. The most important thing to me was the single fact that I had not died.
They said my beheaded corpse had certainly been abandoned. Since I had been expelled from the family, no one claimed the body, and it had been left unattended for days.
But strangely, it didn’t rot, and rather than being devoured by animals, the creatures protected the corpse. Finding this strange, the divine oracle came down.
It was Morico, a high priest, who recovered the body with a “what if” mindset. He placed the corpse in a clean coffin, and one day, casually looking, he discovered the neck and body had reattached and immediately moved me to the Grand Temple in shock.
I couldn’t even suspect they were all lying to me, because a vivid scar remained on my neck. It was proof of the beheading. When I unconsciously touched my nape, I could feel the rough marks.
“Ha…”
It was truly maddening.
“I suppose You thought that if You reattached the separated neck and body, I’d be grateful and diligently fight evil.”
The beheading was humiliating, but it turned out well enough.
I pulled out a bag I had secretly hidden away. A month was sufficient to understand the movements and schedules of the clergy within the temple.
“Thank you. This time I’ll try dying more elegantly.”
I planned to leave for anywhere and hide. To a place that didn’t know Anelli Roam. There, I would cheer for the evil rampant in this world while eating cookies.
* * *
The House of Roam was a founding contributor family of the empire. As they were intimate political partners and friends with the House of Siriard, the prenatal engagement was also naturally arranged.
I was the prince’s fiancée from birth. The Imperial House had four sons, and when the second prince, Maxel, was appointed Crown Prince, my fiancé was confirmed as him as well.
Educated from birth as a member of the Imperial House, I came to love Maxel without particular resistance.
As for Maxel, I’m not sure about Maxel’s heart.
But at least I remember that our relationship wasn’t bad ‘when I was healthy.’
Prisian Sister, who had postponed the promise between families for my sake and became a duchess herself, often told me. That the Crown Prince loved me, and I loved the Crown Prince too, so only happiness remained.
Looking back now, I think Sister was just worried I might say I didn’t want to become Crown Princess. If I stubbornly refused, the obligation of that promise might fall to Sister.
Sister was the first among family members to turn cold when I received the terminal diagnosis. It was also Prisian Sister who strongly advocated taking Lilia as an adopted daughter.
Even if Sister became Crown Princess instead of me, there was youngest sister Seiri, so there were no worries about the family succession. Sister naturally would have been wary.
I have no intention of condemning her ambition, which I had observed closer than anyone. Father and Mother also abandoned one terminally ill child to protect two healthy children, so it wasn’t just Sister to blame.
Roam was that kind of family. A family where each person’s dignity and pride came first, and to maintain authority, they would cut away useless parts when necessary.
I too am a child of Roam, so I’m not unable to understand their thinking.
However, just because I understand the circumstances of their betrayal doesn’t mean I have to forgive them. Especially when my name has been erased from the registry.
“The Duchess of Roam has collapsed.”
“My word, she won’t even meet them when her parents have collapsed? They say she’s at the Grand Temple.”
I glanced to the side. Those gathered at the city’s central bulletin board were citizens who knew nothing.
People who had only encountered the noble and magnificent facade created by Roam. Since these were words from such people, I wasn’t even angry.
“With such a notorious reputation in life, what could be different just because she’s been resurrected?”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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