For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 113

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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 113

“An investigation into the Second Empress Consort? Where should I begin and end?”
“Everything. From her origins to her death.”

Kevenriak’s command to Deyel Maverick to investigate the Second Empress Consort stemmed from his belief that the perpetrator shared a deep connection with his mother.
The Second Empress Consort of two generations past in the Betuzhenia Empire—Raphatel Heteroven.
The Dark Mage who sought to annihilate the Heteroven Royal Family for killing her. The box bearing the Shaatan tribal crest discovered in the Grand Cathedral where Raina’s coffin rested.

Kevenriak believed the perpetrator was likely someone who had been present twenty-two years ago when Raphatel came as a dancer with the Traveling Troupe.

– Simona Asperada is the culprit!

Maverick’s urgent report.
Simona Asperada. The one who stopped Raina’s heart.

“….”

Kevenriak recalled the dream once more. The person she had called her sister with broken wings—

‘It must be my mother.’

It was not a dream but reality. Simona Asperada had come to find him when he was seven years old. While pretending to tell a story to the princess, she had spoken directly to him hiding in the tree.
You will devour the Imperial Palace.

‘Was I a monster in her eyes?’

Like the future Raina had foreseen through her premonition. A tyrant who devoured the Imperial Palace and met his end at the hands of the Rebel Forces.

‘She said she had returned. Standing before the end.’

As this thought reached him, Kevenriak’s blue eyes grew cold and distant.
Whether Simona Asperada had turned back time, or was his mother’s sister, meant nothing to him.
The perpetrator who murdered Raina. If she had returned from the future having committed the same act, tearing her apart alive would not be sufficient.

‘Blood means nothing to me.’

The blood flowing through him ran cold—both the blood of Heteroven and that of his mother.
Not a speck of warmth existed in his life from familial bonds or affection. Every ounce of warmth coursing through him came from Raina Hart.

“Keri!”

Just then, as if her conversation with the Dragon had concluded, Raina Hart emerged from beyond the vines. When I obliged her request to dispel the vines, the liberated Dragon came bounding toward us with eager hops.
Kevenriak narrowed his eyes at the Dragon’s appearance, so different from what he remembered.
Stubby little legs, fluttering wings, two adorable horns, a protruding belly, and an overall round, golden form…

“It’s a Hatchling. The duration of its existence as a thought-form exceeded calculations, so it’s been maintaining its juvenile form to minimize mana consumption.”
“Quite adorable, wouldn’t you say? This is the most efficient form for minimizing mana expenditure.”
“Raina Hart, have you finished your conversation?”

A body no larger than a bear cub. It seemed to pose no threat whatsoever to Raina Hart.
When Kevenriak ignored me, the Dragon stared at him in disbelief. Just thousands of years ago, humans would kneel merely to touch him. His descendants did the same, as did that Emperor. Why wasn’t his cuteness working?
Why wasn’t his charm taking effect?
While the Dragon grew dejected, Raina Hart could no longer contain her restless energy and threw her arms around Kevenriak in a tight embrace.

“R-Raina Hart?”

Caught off guard by the sudden physical contact, Kevenriak’s face flushed crimson. But Raina Hart didn’t notice. Her mind was entirely consumed by other thoughts.

“I’ve found a way to stop the Rebel Forces!”

Raina Hart cried out brightly.
She had found a way to fundamentally prevent Kevenriak’s death. And if she could afford to consider the lives of others, she could also prevent the innocent deaths that would be swept up in the rebellion.

“Raina Hart…?”

Kevenriak gazed at her, pleased by her joy but uncertain of its cause.
Raina Hart buried her face in his chest, closing her eyes for a moment. The clear sound of his heartbeat was pleasant to hear.
I need to reclaim my body soon. And—

“I’m going to awaken the Dragon sleeping beneath Tunchar. Until now, I thought we could only wait passively for it to awaken. I believed that when the time came, the rebellion would already have begun, so there was nothing we could do about it.”

I’ll share my life with you. We’ll live the same time together.

“If we awaken the Dragon and return Tunchar from the Dimensional Space to the Rebel Forces as a condition for stopping the rebellion, that should work. Their purpose is to reclaim their lost empire, after all. If we move first, the Rebel Forces will agree to negotiate.”

I can save you.
For the first time in a long while, hope had found me.

***

「No Visitors Allowed」

Tiernan Fargan stood before the entrance of Vivian’s House. The neat, unadorned handwriting on the white paper affixed to the door felt oddly familiar.
For some reason, my mood had soured, though I attributed it to my concern for Vivian.

‘How quiet it is.’

Around three in the afternoon. Everyone had gathered in the Village Square to prepare for the banquet, leaving no one remaining in the nearby homes.
After hesitating for some time, I grasped the door knocker at the center of the door and knocked, but no response came. She must be quite ill.

“I’ve returned.”

I murmured toward the closed door. Perhaps it was better not to see Vivian right now.

‘Just as you said, Tunchar was indeed suspended in the Frozen Realm.’

I turned over in my mind the words I would need to say when I saw Vivian. At the part about receiving help from a suspicious monster, she might not believe me. In the end, I hadn’t found the monster.
But no matter what I said, in the end I could not give her the words she wanted to hear.
That if the time came when the Emperor of Betuzhenia’s command rested in my hands, I would have no choice but to sever that command.

….

Today, my sense of responsibility weighed heavily. Being hated by you would surely hurt, but hadn’t I trained the Rebel Forces this way? To prioritize reclaiming their homeland over personal feelings.
As I stood with my head bowed, I grasped the hilt of the sword at my waist. An aura wrapped around the blade as it was drawn into the air. The sword cut through Vivian’s House door.
Or more precisely, the shadow it cast upon it.

Crack.
The door split in two. The hinges turned as the severed door below the handle moved slowly. The severed shadow melted like thick tar, seeking its opposite side.

“Who are you.”

My sword, wreathed in aura, pointed toward the shadow. Something was hiding within my own shadow, watching me.
A woman’s laughter sounded—from behind, not from the shadow. I quickly turned my body, and beyond the small garden at the gate stood a woman. She wore modest clothing with a long outer robe. She was beautiful, yet her features were strangely indistinct, as though if asked to draw her face from memory, I could render nothing at all.
The neck of a stringed instrument slung across her back was visible above her right shoulder.

“As it happens, there is a skilled musician in the village suitable for performing at the banquet.”

A wandering musician staying in the village, then.
The woman spoke to Tiernan Fargan with a smile playing at her lips.

“To recognize a shadow—you have keen instincts.”
“…Was it you who was watching me?”
“Watching? I was leaving Vivian’s House when you were there. Tiernan Fargan.”

She knows me. And she says she was leaving Vivian’s House. Had that ominous shadow been searching through the interior of Vivian’s House?
Tiernan Fargan turned his body fully, raised his sword, and watched the woman warily. Yet something was strange. She was merely a wandering musician standing there, yet I could find no opening through which to attack.

“But it seems we were both too late. Vivian wasn’t home.”
“….”
“Isn’t that odd? Vivian was the one whose future never wavered, yet starting this summer, even that child has changed. You were supposed to leave her house in autumn.”

The woman sighed and muttered to herself.

“This is troublesome. I was using that child as my reference point.”

Though I could not fathom what she was saying, Tiernan Fargan felt his skin crawl. From somewhere came a grinding sound—a sound like teeth gnashing.

“Derailed again after two years. And I had eliminated the two largest variables.”
“….”
“What should I do? Will I have to move directly this time?”

In that moment, the shadow cast upon the door reconnected its severed form and opened its maw wide behind Tiernan Fargan’s back, but his blade, sensing the danger, cut it down.
Even after dispatching one shadow, shock flickered in Tiernan Fargan’s green eyes as he beheld the sight before him. Now he understood why he could find no opening in the woman. The shadow cast long from the gate across the garden was slowly rising to its feet. The aura it emanated was incomparably more sinister than what he had just severed.

“…You’re a monster.”
“That’s right.”

Simona twisted her lips into a smile.

“I am a monster.”

***

“Ah, take it. Take it all. Take what’s inside there as well.”

Raina Hart held the mana stone in her hand, watching the Hatchling’s short tail wag as it moved about busily.
The Dragon that had opened the dimensional space it once used in life was emptying everything inside. It claimed this was its reward for awakening its dear friend. For a thought-form, fulfilling its desire was everything. I understood its joy, but still.
Piles of gold coins, diamonds, rare gemstones, precious ancient artifacts….
Even for Raina Hart, watching the Gold Dragon strip away its treasure-island fortune made my conscience twinge slightly.

“Isn’t that too much to give?”
“Hah, this much will last a hundred years. What good are piles of gold coins anyway? Descendant, if you have a dimensional space pouch, open it. It’ll be faster to just pour it in.”
“I have one, but I can’t use it in this form.”
“Listen here, descendant’s husband.”
….

At the Dragon’s call, Kevenriak readily produced his dimensional space pouch.

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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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