For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 17

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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 17

“Right now, this very moment?”
“Yes. Prepare yourself—”

A glint of light.
In that instant, a sword materialized from the air, its blade catching the sunlight and blinding Dresherd’s eyes.
The moment he narrowed his gaze, the blade descended toward him with vicious intent.

Clang!
The airborne sword clashed against the blade Dresherd had drawn.
A black-haired boy.

“Lightning.”
“…!”

Sparks erupted across the ground.
As his startled horse reared, Dresherd leaped from its back.
As he parried the child’s blade once more, admiration bloomed within his mind.

‘What a formidable blade!’

It was both heavy and razor-sharp.
Only then did he meet the gaze beneath the flowing black hair—eyes of brilliant blue that burned with unmistakable hostility toward me.
A strikingly handsome boy. Likely in his early teens.

‘So the lightning just now was this boy’s magic. Could Raina Hart have hidden such talent at her side?’

It never occurred to Dresherd that this black-haired boy crossing swords with him might be the Fourth Prince.
The Fourth Prince in his mind was a frail, pitiful child who couldn’t even manage a proper voice.

“Are you my teacher’s enemy?”

The boy’s gaze was not that of a child.
His warrior’s blood, honed across countless battlefields, stirred at the clarity of intent radiating from the youth before him.
An attitude that promised swift execution without hesitation if he were deemed a foe.

‘A disciple of Raina Hart. So that’s why she rejected the order to come to Jedia so adamantly.’

There was no need to deliberate further.
In five or six years, once he reached an adult’s physique, he would grow incomprehensibly strong just like his master, potentially becoming a threat to the Imperial Household itself.

‘Better to act now—.’

Fortunately, the justification lay with Dresherd.
The boy had struck first, after all.

‘I should disguise it as an accident and cripple some part of his body permanently.’

Dresherd had made his decision.
The moment he tightened his grip on the sword’s hilt—

“That’s quite all right.”

A single word fell from Raina Hart’s lips.

“Your Highness.”

In this rural backwater, there was only one person she would address that way.
Which meant the boy standing before him with sword drawn, eyeing him as though ready to kill—

“….”
‘The Fourth Prince?!’

A chill ran down Dresherd’s spine.

***

Kevenriak’s sudden appearance had startled me as well.
I’d thought my disciple had settled into the life of a house cat, yet here he was displaying such ferocity.

‘Street origins truly are different.’

Even in a moment like this, I felt pride in my disciple.
I was becoming quite the doting master, it seemed.

“Your Highness, the Fourth Prince. He is no suspicious character. He is the Commander of the Knights Order.”

Raina Hart called Kevenriak by his title, conscious of the knights surrounding them.

“Is he not your master’s enemy?”
“Not at the moment.”

Kevenriak sheathed his sword without hesitation and walked to Raina Hart’s side.
Yet despite mentioning his status as the Fourth Prince twice, the knights merely stared at him blankly.
As if they couldn’t believe the Fourth Prince they knew was standing before them.

“But then.”

That bothered me.
Just moments ago, Dresherd had attacked Kevenriak with the same intent.

‘He was willing to take off a limb or two.’

I wanted to step forward and kick him squarely in the rear, but I restrained myself.
If I did that, the attention Kin deserved would be overshadowed by my magic.

“It seems you haven’t met the First Knights Order here before today.”
“…?”

Raina Hart’s cryptic words left me puzzled.
About a dozen knights leaned in to listen.

“We’ve just met for the first time.”

Kevenriak answered Raina Hart’s statement.

“Is that so? Well then.”

Raina Hart lifted her face, which had been smiling warmly at Kevenriak.
Toward the knights, her expression turned cold and expressionless.

“Since you haven’t even offered a greeting to the Heteroven Royal Family, I thought you must have already met.”

The knights who heard Raina Hart’s words flinched and exchanged glances with one another.
The Fourth Prince.
Though he appeared dignified now, they all remembered that filthy beast.

‘Toward that beast….’
‘Should we kneel?’

They couldn’t fathom whether this was a being worthy of reverence—one that would soil their proud white uniforms with dirt.
Among the knights consumed by reluctance, Dresherd moved first.

“We greet the Fourth Little Sun of Heteroven.”

Dresherd knelt on one knee and bowed with proper courtesy.
Only then did the remaining knights exchange glances, dismount, and follow their commander in unison, kneeling as they spoke in concert.

“We greet the Fourth Little Sun of Heteroven.”
“…Master?”

Knights kneeling in unison before me.
Kevenriak, witnessing this for the first time, looked up at Raina Hart in bewilderment.

‘The commander of the knights is quick-witted. If he’d delayed any longer, I would have hurled him to the opposite end of the continent.’

The hesitation was somewhat unforgivable.
Yet it seemed to have concluded peacefully enough.
Raina Hart reached to pat Kevenriak’s head, but conscious of watching eyes, she patted his back instead and whispered in his ear.

“This is the salutation owed to the Fourth Prince of the Betuzhenia Empire. It’s a greeting that must be offered to His Highness, so you need not worry.”

Simply because she had taken him as her disciple, she had no intention of relinquishing the treatment Kevenriak received as a prince.

‘What is owed must be claimed.’

Kevenriak would be treated with the same regard as princes and princesses.
It was a war hero’s reward wrested from the Emperor himself.

‘…The Emperor’s health is in peril?’

In the original story, Kevenriak beheads the Emperor eight years from now.
It’s far too early for him to die at this moment.

‘That Emperor’s words shouldn’t be taken entirely at face value, but I should verify them.’

I spoke toward the knight commander, who still knelt on one knee.

“How are you planning to reach the Imperial Palace?”

***

“With Baroness Hart’s teleportation—”
“That many people would be too much. I’ll act separately.”

I cut off the knight commander’s proposal immediately.
It wasn’t impossible, but why would I waste my mana escorting them just for the sake of it?
I returned to the village where we’d accepted the commission, bringing the survivors and Kevenriak with me.
At the village entrance, the villagers who had been waiting for them gathered together.

“Children!”
“Mom! Dad!”
“You… you’re alive!”
“Sob… Grandfather.”

The villagers reunited with their children through tears of joy.
Beneath my expressionless face, I concealed my satisfaction.
Kevenriak stood quietly beside me, following what his teacher observed.
The Village Chief approached the two of us.

“Thank you so much. I never expected Baroness Hart to take on this task personally.”
“My disciple here did all the work. I didn’t lift a finger.”
“What? Your disciple? But he looks so young?”
….

The Village Chief looked at Kevenriak in surprise.
The beautiful boy standing beside the Archmage looked to be about the same age as his own grandchild. He must have been around twelve or thirteen.

‘He cleared out a lizardman den by himself?’

Kevenriak averted his gaze from the Village Chief’s eyes.
Judging by how he opened his mouth only to greet and nothing more, he seemed to be a rather taciturn person.

“For one so young, isn’t that remarkable? I didn’t lift a finger.”
“Y-yes, it is.”

Was it my imagination that the expressionless Archmage seemed unusually pleased with himself?
The Village Chief offered his gratitude and handed over the compensation to the two of them.
A heavy pouch of coin was placed into Kevenriak’s palm.

“Will you and your apprentice be heading straight to Hibei, Baroness Hart?”
“We should.”

After answering the Village Chief, I whispered to Kevenriak.

“Shall we teleport to the hilltop? Let’s take a walk.”

Kevenriak nodded.
Moments later, the figures of a harmonious master and apprentice appeared on the hilltop overlooking the Lord’s Castle of Hibei.
I asked my apprentice, who held the pouch of coin in his hand.

“How does it feel to receive your first compensation?”
“I’m not quite sure.”

Kevenriak replied.
My apprentice, being free of greed, seemed unmoved even by receiving money.

‘My child has earned money.’

I felt an irresistible urge to do something for such a praiseworthy apprentice.

“Shall I buy you a safe for your master? Cultivating the habit of saving is important, after all.”

Kevenriak smiled softly as he watched me speak with such brightness, his eyes crinkling warmly.
It was hard to believe this was the same person who had treated the Imperial Third Knights Order so coldly.

‘My master is kind.’

Though it was a shame that such kindness wasn’t directed solely at me.

‘I mustn’t be greedy.’

Kevenriak made a silent vow to himself.
His master’s affection could not belong to him alone.
Simply remaining at Raina Hart’s side as her first disciple was enough to make him happy.
The real problem was his own strength.

‘My mana heart still lies dormant.’

At this rate, he was far from being able to truly support his master.
How could he become stronger?

[…me….]
[…soul….]
[…I am…in the Imperial Palace….]

A voice that had echoed faintly for the past two years.
Kevenriak asked his master, who was seriously contemplating the types of safes.

“Master, are you going to the Imperial Palace?”

At those words, Raina Hart turned her gaze toward Kevenriak.

‘Should I tell Keri about the Imperial Palace?’

A moment of hesitation arose, but Raina Hart decided to be honest.
It seemed better to act naturally about it.
She hoped Kevenriak wouldn’t feel intimidated by the mention of the Imperial Palace.

“Yes. I’ll be away for about four days.”
“Should I go with you?”
“Only if you want to, Keri.”

Raina Hart’s lips tightened as she spoke.
Four years was not enough time to forget such a past.

“I can handle it alone.”

The Emperor claimed to be ill, but.
when I thought carefully about his instruction to bring the Fourth Prince along as well.

‘It doesn’t seem like a fatal illness after all.’

There must be another motive behind this.
However, the fact that he’d dispatched the Imperial First Knights Order—directly under the Emperor’s command—was surely a warning of sorts.
A warning directed at me, Raina Hart, who had dodged every summons to the Imperial Palace with endless excuses.

‘Do I really have to engage in another battle of wits with the Emperor?’

I was already exhausted.
It was then that Kevenriak posed a question to me.

“Master, didn’t you once make a wish to a fairy near the Separate Palace?”
“Yes, that’s right.”

Those days when I’d performed magic to provide food for the wild cats.
Why was he bringing up that memory all of a sudden?

“Do fairies really live in the Imperial Palace?”
“Fairies…?”

Looking at Kevenriak’s innocent face as he asked, I found myself in deep contemplation.
If I said fairies lived here, I would be lying to my disciple as his master.
But if I said they didn’t.

‘Then I’d be admitting that all those wishes I made under the guise of fairies were nothing but my own doing.’

I made my decision.
I nodded shamelessly.

“Of course they do.”

What I chose without a shred of conscience was to preserve my dignity as a master.

***

A few days later.
The Betuzhenia Empire.
Jedia and Jenia—lands where brilliant civilization had flourished.

“We’ve finally reached Jedia!”

Fontepon and Shukal, both members of the Imperial Third Knights Order, cried out in elation as they set foot on the soil of Jenia for the first time in ages.
Person offered them a casual warning before turning to glance at his side.

“….”

There stood Raina Hart, and beside her, the Fourth Prince wore an expression of evident displeasure.

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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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