Don’t Look for the Resurrected Villainess - Chapter 27
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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 27
“The search parties will keep growing from now on, so we’ll have to deal with them appropriately while escaping.”
“Deal with them by herding the search parties into a narrow space and roasting them all with fire magic? And Anelli will deploy shield magic from within?”
“Right. How many times do I have to explain?”
“…If you’re asking for my opinion, absolutely not. Shields also have attributes, so to block fire-type magic, you need to cast a shield of opposing attributes. This shield is for defending against physical attacks. So please don’t even think about such ridiculous actions.”
What’s so complicated about this? The palace mages just deployed shields whenever they wanted.
As I looked down at the thread bracelet with a sour expression, Jeon spoke with a very serious and grave face.
“From what I can see, Anelli has something to study before learning how to use magical tools.”
“Study? Is it essential?”
“Yes.”
Jeon, whom I’d always considered easygoing and manageable, was somehow so intimidating at this moment that I unconsciously pulled my head back slightly. Was it because magic was Jeon’s area of expertise? His eyes, filled with intensity, even showed an inexplicable determination.
If it’s essential knowledge I need to learn, I’m willing to study it…
“What is it.”
When I asked suspiciously, he answered in a solemn and firm tone.
“Safety education.”
Through the safety education that began, I realized for the first time since traveling with Jeon that he was truly a mage from the Mage Tower.
Really, very clearly and accurately.
Moreover, I began to seriously question the undisclosed mage education methods of the Mage Tower, wondering just how persistently they must educate people to make them like this.
Since the Mage Tower is a closed place, could they be brainwashing study material through inhumane abuse and torture?
“…Jeon.”
“Yes. Have you memorized everything?”
“Did you perhaps study while getting beaten?”
At my question, Jeon looked at me with bewildered eyes.
“Anyone listening would think I’m making Anelli study while beating her.”
“But for someone as unreliable as you to recite this much information fluently, unless they used extreme educational methods…”
“If you’ve memorized everything, we’ll start the quiz right away.”
No matter how I think about it, my conclusion is a reasonable deduction.
While tilting my head in puzzlement, I obediently wrote down the answers to the problems he gave me.
For me, who had grown up memorizing all sorts of palace regulations from a very young age, this wasn’t particularly difficult. Jeon, who glanced at my answer sheet as I wrote smoothly, muttered with a dejected expression.
“Did God also give you an excellent brain?”
“I was always good at studying.”
“Even so, that’s too much. You remember all of that after just a few hours of explanation?”
“I always had to be special.”
When I replied calmly, Jeon hesitated. Lost in thought, he no longer seemed inclined to persist with safety education or anything else.
“…”
As I organized the papers and glanced outside, the day had already grown dark. No wonder I was hungry. Was there a decent restaurant nearby?
“Was Anelli the one who learned while getting beaten?”
“I memorized well without getting beaten.”
“But the atmosphere was such that you’d get beaten if you didn’t memorize?”
I’ve never been beaten, so I wouldn’t know for sure…
“I was designated as the next empress from birth. So my excellence was natural.”
“But I heard the woman who newly became the Crown Prince’s fiancée is very different from Anelli. …She’s also the next empress, in a way.”
I’d heard that Lilia’s rumors had spread everywhere just like my infamy, but to think Jeon knew about it too.
It really has spread throughout the entire region. I smiled lightly and nodded.
“She’s very different from me. Excellent in a different way.”
When I showed signs of leaving, Nesi, who was maintaining the appearance of an ordinary dog, got up to follow.
I petted Nesi and then approached the door. When I glanced back, I saw Jeon hurriedly getting up.
He frowned and looked somewhat displeased. He seemed to disagree with my words.
I couldn’t tell whether he disagreed with my excellence or Lilia’s excellence.
“Wouldn’t it be fine as long as either is excellent?”
What do I care. I should go eat.
* * *
Certainly, compared to camping on the road or dozing in a moving carriage, sleeping at lodging was truly like heaven.
I dismissed Jeon’s ridiculous suggestion that we should stay a few more days to rest, and informed him of the destination I’d decided on the night before. And as expected, he was horrified.
“Do you know how treacherous this place is!”
“Yeah, I know.”
“It’s where the Wyvern Habitat is! Not only that, but it’s cliffs that nearby residents don’t even go near because of all sorts of birds of prey!”
“I know that too.”
“Hah…”
Jeon grabbed the back of his neck and sighed repeatedly. Nesi looked at such Jeon and sighed deeply, calling him a ‘weak male.’
Yet she also subtly tried to dissuade me, so it seemed she was equally worried.
However, I had no intention of changing the destination. Nadab had said he remembered his colleague riding a wyvern.
Whether it meant the Dura’han rode wyverns, or that he rode wyverns before becoming Dura’han, he couldn’t explain precisely, but I guessed it was probably the latter.
I wondered if riding wyverns was even possible in the first place…
Since I also had a history of escaping once with a wyvern’s help, I thought there might have been someone in the distant past who rode wyverns like horses.
“Even so, you don’t know how scary monsters are…”
“Do you want to terminate the deal because it’s dangerous?”
“Why do you always start with talk of parting ways? You’re the one who actually wants to quit the deal, aren’t you?”
“Your nagging is worse than I thought, so it’s occasionally annoying.”
At my answer, Jeon’s mouth fell open. Then he looked at me with the hurt expression he often showed. Well… but it’s the truth.
“But so far, I feel more regret. Unless there’s a special reason, I can tolerate the annoyance because I like your cooking skills that much.”
Thinking about it again, the culinary world lost a tremendous talent to the magical world.
At my words, Jeon’s expression became complicated. Looking at me with a face that seemed neither crying nor laughing, he adjusted his bag with a sullen expression.
“I should hurry up and unseal this damn magic restriction.”
“You can’t break the seal during the trial period, right?”
“I applied for unsealing permission. Just wait and see. When the magic seal is lifted, I’ll double my wages.”
He was making threats as if intimidating me, but it wasn’t particularly scary. If the method of threat was money, there was nothing less frightening to me.
But what he said means this.
“That’s asking me to keep employing you, isn’t it?”
When I asked indifferently, Jeon, who had been boldly shouting about raising his wages, shut his mouth tight.
He blinked in bewilderment as if struck from behind, then showed a horrified expression. Then he gradually moved away from me and turned his back.
His family’s financial situation must be quite difficult, right?
“…Nesi, let’s depart quickly.”
Seeing his ears turn red, he seemed quite embarrassed about being caught in his poor circumstances.
I should give him a bonus occasionally. Whatever you’re managing, timely additional compensation boosts work motivation.
Feeling satisfied that my sense as an employer hadn’t died, I started walking.
* * *
I’m not familiar with dense thickets or mountain paths.
Throughout my life before death, I lived traveling between dazzling mansions, the Imperial Palace, and beautiful territories. Even the bedroom where I was confined all day after receiving a terminal diagnosis was spacious and splendid.
Of course, I had some experience moving around in disguise while bustling about to reclaim my position, but since I had plenty of people to command around me, my body didn’t suffer.
After my resurrection, as my life on the run began in earnest, the scenery I encountered was shock after shock.
I still haven’t gotten used to shabby and dirty rural villages. Though I thought I’d become quite familiar with mountain ranges, this was yet another new landscape.
As I looked around with a sense of novelty, Jeon made a whimpering sound.
“Must you really go? It’s not too late yet.”
[Take this opportunity to build courage, you fool!]
Even with Nesi’s scolding, Jeon’s hunched shoulders wouldn’t straighten at all. With such protection from the Righteous Wolf, what could he have so much to fear, really.
“That’s why I told you to wait in the Lower Village.”
Looking at the scenery, the ominous rumors were understandable. The deeper we went, the more the giant trees swayed gauntly, and crows sat in a row on the long branches, crying lengthily. This was the path we had to take to reach the cliffs.
Someone we met in the small village below the mountain range tried to dissuade us, saying strange things frequently happened in this forest.
From what I roughly heard, there seemed to be many missing people. The talk was long about some resentful bachelor ghost, some bloody child ghost, the sound of a woman crying, and so on.
“No matter what, people should have loyalty. With all the ominous rumors going around, how could I let you go alone?”
Does Jeon really think that his accompaniment would be a tremendous boost in strength?
“Nadab is stronger than you.”
[Thank you for acknowledging that, Captain!]
Nadab purred and shouted loudly. Jeon, who had been looking back and forth between me and Nadab with a dumbfounded expression, seemed to forget his fear as he muttered.
“…If only my mana seal could be released…”
[If you’re going to be weak, you should at least be humble. I have no idea when this male will ever grow up.]
Nesi growled and nudged Jeon from behind. Even though he couldn’t understand her words, he seemed to grasp that she meant for him to walk confidently, so Jeon forced himself to straighten his back a little.
Of course, it was such a minuscule effort that no visible improvement could be seen.
“Actually, I absolutely hate unrealistic and supernatural beings.”
Jeon, who had been walking slightly ahead, started mumbling excuses again.
“I also came back to life unrealistically.”
“But Lady Anelli is human, at least.”
My goodness, it seems I appear human in Jeon’s eyes. An exclamation escaped me at this unexpected fact.
“Where in the world is there a human who dies with their head cut off and then comes back to life with it reattached?”
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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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