Don’t Look for the Resurrected Villainess - Chapter 168

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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 168

“Lady Anelli!”

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Jeon holding me up as if embracing me.

I quickly put strength into my body that had been swaying as if about to collapse and regained my balance. Fortunately, with Jeon and Samuel’s support, I didn’t fall disgracefully.

‘At most a few minutes.’

Perhaps a few dozen seconds.

It wasn’t difficult to realize that I had lost consciousness for only a brief moment. But if I had been caught by that dream…

After straightening my posture, I shook off their support and strode toward the lakeside.

Lusaka, who had walked quite far onto land with half her body exposed, was looking at me in confusion.

“How… did… you…?”

Not caring whether my pants got wet or not, I strode right up to her and swung my fist without hesitation.

Thwack!

Lusaka’s jaw, who had been standing there with a stupid expression, snapped to the side. My clumsy punch wasn’t enough to knock Lusaka down.

However, thinking I could definitely hit Lusaka who was standing defenseless, I struck the same spot with my fist again.

Thwack!

Perhaps because I had struck with all my might while gritting my teeth, this time Lusaka fell backward.

“…”

I pressed my foot down on the chest of Lusaka who had fallen backward with a splash, and looked down coldly at its face.

If it had at least taken the Crown Prince’s form, or if it hadn’t shown any face at all, I wouldn’t have been this angry.

But the illusion from earlier was unbearably excessive.

“How insolent.”

At my cold muttering, Palides, who had been frozen, came to his senses first.

[C-Captain?]

Palides rushed to my side urgently. I drew the heavy sword that was hanging at Palides’ waist.

“How dare… ugh…?”

Perhaps because of the rippling lake water, Lusaka’s face lying in the water looked distorted. Since it was speaking underwater, I couldn’t hear it properly either.

I readjusted my grip on the sword, aiming at Lusaka’s body.

“W-wait! Lady Anelli!”

“What’s this all of a sudden!”

Just as I was about to plunge the sword straight down, Jeon and Samuel clung to my arms in shock.

Mori, who had belatedly come to his senses, also crawled over whimpering and wrapped around my ankle.

[W-wait a moment! Captain!]

The Dura’han, who had frozen in confusion not knowing what was happening, weren’t directly stopping me, but they looked equally surprised.

Bound and unable to move while holding the sword, I let out a long sigh.

“This thing took Maxel’s face in my illusion earlier and called me his beloved Empress.”

Why do those who receive Lusaka’s attack never wake up?

Having experienced it myself, I could understand immediately. Lusaka’s mental manipulation worked by showing the victim’s most desperately desired future as a dream.

So they wouldn’t want to wake up from the dream themselves.

However, for some reason, my dream reflected desires from before my head was cut off, so it gave me no inspiration at all. Rather, it only aroused anger.

Especially Maxel becoming Emperor!

I absolutely couldn’t tolerate that. It was truly the worst dream, nauseating enough to make me sick.

Having heard my calm answer, the strength drained from Samuel and Jeon’s hands that had been firmly gripping my arms.

“I’ll amputate its limbs.”

Samuel pointed his sword at Lusaka.

“Do curses work on monsters too? We can’t kill it quickly. We need to make it suffer.”

Jeon also spoke irritably while his mana rippled.

As the two reacted even more intensely, my surging anger actually subsided.

I lowered the sword I had raised with all my strength and looked down at my palm. It was the palm that had absorbed the pendant in the dream.

This isn’t everything. This was really just a part of it.

“Let it go for now. I need to retrieve the pendant first.”

It seemed like the pendant containing the power of Death was what made Lusaka’s illusions so powerful.

The power of Death originally intended to give rest to life, and what that monster offered to its opponents were illusions they didn’t want to break, so they mixed in a similar context to produce a powerful effect.

After returning the sword to Palides, I grabbed the collar of Lusaka lying in the water and lifted it up.

Surprisingly, Lusaka was just as small and light. Light enough for me to lift with one hand.

Judging by weight alone, one might mistake it for a bundle of straw.

When I lifted Lusaka to my eye level, hair tangled like seaweed hung down long.

The hair was so long that it far exceeded her height, with the ends floating on the water surface.

Seeing the short stature and build with disgustingly long hair, Jeon made a disgusted sound.

But there was only one thing important to me right now.

“Speak. Where are the rest of the pendants?”

If this thing had the pendant, there definitely would have been light emanating from its body. But no matter how I looked, I couldn’t find anything that could be presumed to be the light of power.

I’ll quickly retrieve the pendant, wake the Empress from her sleep, and then get rid of this disgusting thing.

Having made that firm resolution, I called to Lusaka in an ominous voice.

“Hey.”

“Sp… are…”

“What?”

“Spare… me…”

As I listened to Lusaka’s words with a frown, Lusaka gasped and struggled to make sounds that wouldn’t come out.

Although the latter words were closer to the sound of exhaling air, I could roughly understand what it was trying to say.

Samuel and Jeon, who had been listening to Lusaka’s words with suspicious faces, opened their mouths without delay.

“I’ll just kill it.”

“You said they’d wake from dreams if killed, so let’s just kill it as the Knight said.”

It was a rare moment when the two agreed.

At that murderous intent, Lusaka’s emaciated body trembled.

[C-Captain! You can’t! It’s a precious life…]

Mori called to me pitifully with eyes that looked ready to cry.

[You said the nature of life is good! That even if betrayed ten times, we shouldn’t lose trust, Captain…!]

“First of all, I wasn’t the one who said that.”

Come to think of it, Ganic had said something like that when he was being deceived and used by humans.

What should I do about the previous captain who instilled this misguided ideology?

I brushed back my bangs and spoke to Mori with a sigh-laden voice.

“What I told you was to hate or not hate as you please.”

Mori, who seemed to be troubled while making a tearful face, answered hesitantly.

[Doing as I please means sympathizing with what I want to sympathize with, right?]

…That’s true too.

I hesitated at Mori’s unexpectedly persuasive rebuttal. Realizing that his words were working, Mori spoke with even more conviction.

[Maybe someone lured this child. It’s a monster that can speak human language!]

Indeed, given the precedent of the Young Lizardman, the assumption that humans might have lured a monster to harm the Empress wasn’t entirely absurd.

But that depends on the monster, doesn’t it?

“Mori.”

I sighed and glanced at Lusaka who was grabbed by the collar. Lusaka was breathing heavily as if in pain.

Though it looked bizarre, its small and thin build seemed to make it easy to gain sympathy.

How pitiful it must look to Mori, who had sympathized with Lusaka just from hearing it say it wanted rest.

But it didn’t look that way to me.

“Everything has what’s called potential.”

In those empty sockets without eyeballs, the strangely glinting darkness looked sufficiently cunning.

Most importantly, there had been a sound constantly grating on my ears.

“Mori. I won’t stop you from sympathizing, but you need to learn how to weed out bad potential first.”

A quiet pond but not quiet – those squishy sounds gradually moving in the depths of that water surface.

They had been docile at first, but now they were waiting in the deep water, ready to spring up at any moment.

The waves gently lapping against my legs proved their movements writhing beneath the water.

“Is this really the same thing you encountered?”

At my question, Mori’s eyes widened in shock. Mori, who had been blindly defending Lusarca, seemed to belatedly notice something strange.

Staring at Lusarca with surprised eyes, Mori answered slowly in a bewildered tone.

[…No.]

I tightened my grip on Lusarca’s collar.

It felt like wringing out laundry soaked with water.

Lusarca’s body, which had been moving like swaying tree branches, went completely limp.

When I released my grip, Lusarca’s body plummeted downward, creating a splash. After confirming Lusarca’s body sinking to the bottom, I raised my gaze straight ahead.

“Can Dura’han swim?”

At my calm question, Palides was the first to readily confess.

[Sorry, Captain.]

Following him, Jigore and Minte also showed rare lack of confidence when it came to swimming.

[Should we just call Ganic?]

At Jigore’s irresponsible suggestion that since he transforms into a sea turtle he should naturally know how to swim, Minte retorted, ‘Then do you still fly around after becoming a Dura’han?’

In any case, it meant they were all hopeless at swimming.

What if I told them to transform into Dura’han instead and destroy some nearby trees to create a clearing suitable for fighting?

‘Those things probably won’t wait for them to prepare a battleground.’

Round heads began emerging one by one from the quiet, calm water surface.

At first they appeared sporadically, but their numbers were gradually increasing.

Though I had roughly expected it, there were more than anticipated.

‘I have to find it among all these?’

And in this pond where fighting would be so difficult.

Rather than being afraid of Lusarca, my chest felt stuffy knowing how troublesome this would obviously be.

I muttered as if lamenting.

“I didn’t know Lusarca lived in groups.”

They said it was a rare monster, but I guess this area has good territory.

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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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