For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 119

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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 119

Eight-year-old Vivian watched the dancing woman with rapt attention, utterly mesmerized.
When the dance ended, the woman sat beside the applauding Vivian and began to converse.

– A butterfly? Hehe. That butterfly isn’t borrowing your body, is it?
– Borrowing my body?
– My sister shattered the vessel that held my soul. Until I find a new one, she’s planning to place me inside your body.
– Oh no. Are you alright?
– …Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You’re quite peculiar, you know. I rather like people like you.

The woman found Vivian endearing and stroked her hair with a cheerful laugh.

– The dance is payment for borrowing your body. It may be modest, but there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s the only skill I possess.
– So you’ll keep dancing for me? That’s wonderful!
– You really are peculiar.

The woman, who had placed her hands on her hips as if to scold herself, quietly lowered them at Vivian’s delighted response.

– Very well. For the sake of my little landlord, I shall dedicate this body to dancing for you. Even if I say so myself, this is the skill that once caught the Emperor’s eye—a performance you couldn’t see even if you paid for it.
– Wow.

A contract between the little landlord and the great lodger had been concluded.
When Vivian awoke, she forgot the dream. Not until she dreamed of meeting the woman again.

– Raphael. That’s my name. I was an Empress Consort, believe it or not.
– You were an Empress Consort? I visited the Imperial Palace when I was young too!
– When you were young? When was that?
– When I was seven years old!
– I see. So Vivian is already a big sister. You’re eight now, after all.
– That’s right!
– …Vivian, do you know what year you were born?

Raphael, who had been giggling, grew melancholy upon hearing Vivian’s birth year and age.

– That’s exactly like my son.
– The Empress Consort has a son?
– Yes. He’s very cute, kind, and handsome.
– Oh, what a beautiful child you have.
– Where do you learn such expressions?

Raphael spoke while gently stroking Vivian’s cheek.

– …Yes. A beautiful son. But he seems lonely. People avoid our boy. If only I could have been by his side, perhaps my child wouldn’t have felt so alone.

Raphael’s blue eyes looked sorrowful as she spoke. Vivian felt that she resembled a butterfly drenched in rain, huddled and trembling.
But a butterfly that folded its wings in the rain was only sad while the rain fell. When the sun emerged, it would dry its wings and soar into the blue sky.
And Vivian sensed she dimly understood how to bring forth that sun.

– Hmm. Would Vivian become my friend?
– Vivian…?
– Yes! I will!

Vivian smiled brightly.
She had promised Raphael that she would become friends with the Fourth Prince, but such a thing never came to pass. When Vivian awoke, she forgot the dream, and Raphael departed from Vivian’s body once she found a new vessel.
Yet she continued to visit Vivian’s dreams often, as if searching for a place to escape.

– Hello, Vivian.
– My sister swallowed me. That’s my vessel.

With each visit, the butterfly became a monster.

– I think I… I devoured a person…. Ah, ahhh….
– Where is my son? Heteroven will kill my son.
– Poor boy. I must be by your side. Kevenriak. If I swallow you, you won’t be lonely….
– I…am….

The beautiful dream transformed into a nightmare. Raphael, with her black hair, became a massive black monster.
Still, Vivian forgot the dream she had witnessed. In less than a year, Raphael’s spirit could no longer even escape into Vivian’s dreams.

It was the year Vivian turned fifteen. Simona Asperada saw her off as she departed on a carriage journey.
Simona’s shadow spoke to her.

– Run away, child.

The shadow—having forgotten even the child’s name—issued a warning.
In that instant, a terrible dread crashed over me. Fear flickered in Vivian’s eyes as she sat in the carriage. Simona’s smiling face vanished beyond the closing carriage door.
News that the carriage departing from the Duke’s Castle had met with an accident reached us late that night. After that, Vivian slept for seven years.

***

Creak. Creak.

“Raphael. Stop crying.”

Simona was trapped in Raina Hart’s Subspace.
Two years ago, the hole I had torn open during my escape had been repaired with time. It was because Raina Hart had embedded her own healing incantations into the Subspace.
Within the Subspace lay scattered dark magic artifacts that had been teleported and caught by Jenia’s barrier over these two years. There was also the dagger I had crafted—the one Hazel had tried to remove to the outside world only to be caught by the barrier.
Unfortunately, Raina Hart’s blood had already been meticulously wiped clean.
I hurled the dagger I had been holding and vented my frustration toward the shadow standing beside me.

“Is it my fault I’m trapped again? You should have noticed first!”

Creak. Creak.
The blamed shadow convulsed wildly. I seized the shadow with my hand. As my mana flowed into it, the shadow let out a anguished shriek. Watching the rippling venom, I clicked my tongue.

“Stop. My power has limits in suppressing the venom. And that’s not all—this is Raina Hart’s Subspace, which I despise. Mana manipulation is difficult here.”

Even knowing the shadow couldn’t comprehend my complicated words, I spoke to it anyway.

“If only you had been infused with Raina Hart’s blood two years ago, your soul wouldn’t have deteriorated to this extent.”

A soul that should have vanished had been seized by dark magic. The soul consumed by venom could no longer dance, no longer speak, could no longer even recognize its own existence.
What remained was only a terrible monster seeking other lives to fill its emptiness.

“There’s nothing to be done about it.”

I embraced the shadow that resembled me so closely and spoke.

“Don’t grieve so, Raphael. I will take revenge for you.”

Creak. Creak.
Meaningless sounds flowed from the shadow as its movements grew still.

***

Maya was holding a piece of paper in the room where she’d discovered the communication device.

“A box and… a doll…?”

She had been searching for the communication device she’d hidden to give to Vivian when she returned. Just like before, paper suddenly fell from the wall. She unfolded the palm-sized sheet.
Seven people trapped in a rectangular space. That was supposed to be the answer the Disciples intended.

“Ah! A doll storage box?”
“….”

Hearing Maya’s words, the Disciples sighed and retreated from the wall.

It had happened moments earlier. Before the sunlight streaming into the room completely disappeared, the maid returned. It was time to make up for the earlier failure.

“Since she doesn’t seem to know letters, let’s try with pictures.”

So they drew pictures on paper and threw them through the wall.
They intended to make their existence known and recruit the maid to learn about the Duke’s Castle situation in real time.
But the result was the same as now. The maid couldn’t understand their meaning through pictures.

“Maybe the drawing is just bad? Who drew it?”
“Stale did.”
“Haha…. The drawing is fine.”

An angry Quaite identified the culprit, Max reported him, and Stale laughed while claiming innocence.
No one was rampaging yet, but the Disciples’ stress was gradually reaching its limit.

“Let’s just break it.”
“That size is the limit. We’ve kept hitting it, but it won’t get any bigger.”

At Din’s cold response, Ban quietly rolled down the sleeves she’d pushed up. Even the tiger-human Harp couldn’t do anything against his sister’s words.
Clearing his throat, Harp looked around and noticed two people still at the wall. It was Jasmine and Liam.
Both were pressed right against the hole with no intention of leaving.

“…But what are those two looking at so intently?”

At Ban’s question, Jasmine answered while keeping one eye fixed on the hole.

“The Seventh Circle has arrived.”
“What?!”

My matter-of-fact statement sent the Disciples leaping to their feet. The remaining five scrambled toward the wall in a rush.

“The Seventh Circle is here?”
“Our Seventh Circle?”

Seven heads crowded around a hole barely larger than a fist, jostling fiercely for position until the Disciples spotted lustrous black hair. It was the Emperor himself.
Which meant….

“M-Master? Is that Vivian Asperada?”
“Ban, is that woman Vivian Asperada?”

Only Ban had ever seen Vivian’s true appearance. The Disciples reluctantly stepped back. Ban monopolized the hole with a satisfied smile, her eyes gleaming.
The barrier obscured the view, but a woman with chestnut hair stood beside the Emperor.
Damn it, why did the Emperor bring the lady here? Making Master suffer….
While the Disciples behind her pressed for confirmation about whether the lady was really there, Ban was grumbling to herself.

“Miss! You’ve come with your lover?”

At Maya’s words, Ban stumbled backward.
Lover? Vivian Asperada’s lover? But the figure beside her was unmistakably my Master’s first Disciple. Blue eyes fixed on the wall.
For some reason, it felt as though the Emperor was smiling at me. No, his expression was as impassive as always, but still….

“….”

As Ban’s massive frame retreated, the Disciples were pushed back with her. Their gazes, which had been fixed on Ban’s back, gradually rose higher.
Ban’s body swelled larger as her tiger humanization progressed.

“…A lover?!”

A tiger’s roar filled the Subspace.
Yet the wall of the Duke’s Castle remained silent.

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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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