For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 19

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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 19

“Thank you for making the journey, Raina Hart.”

Raina Hart and her entourage had arrived at the Imperial Palace.
Shortly after, an Attendant sent by the Emperor came to greet them.

“But the Fourth Prince didn’t come with—”
“Beside me.”
“Pardon?”
“Is he not standing beside me?”

The Attendant looked in the direction Raina Hart pointed and was startled.
That refined boy was the Fourth Prince he knew?
A beautiful youth standing with perfect posture beside the Archmage.
His attire was so impeccably dressed in expensive clothing that he had assumed he was a young nobleman from some distinguished house.

‘How could such a dignified young master be that beast?’

He looked far more like a prince than the First Prince, who was closest to the Crown Prince position.
It was as if the Archmage had switched him out for someone else entirely.
Raina Hart spoke to the bewildered Attendant.

“Do you not show proper respect to a prince you haven’t seen in so long?”

A pointed remark directed at the Fourth Prince, yet delivered to me.
A prince you haven’t seen in so long.

‘If you don’t greet him with proper courtesy, I won’t let you off easily.’

The true meaning hidden beneath the Archmage’s words.
Survival in the Imperial Palace required keen perception.
The Attendant bowed deeply at the waist and lowered his head toward Kevenriak Heteroven.

“I greet the Fourth Radiant Sun of Heteroven.”
“….”

And then came silence.
Normally, at this point, I should have heard a command to lift my head.

“….”

For some reason, the Fourth Prince seemed to be staring blankly at me.
The crown of my head tingled uncomfortably under his gaze.

‘Now that I think about it.’

The Fourth Prince had not been treated well while growing up in the Imperial Palace, had he?
Among the servants working in the Imperial Palace, there were quite a few who had used the young Fourth Prince to relieve the stress accumulated by the imperial family.
Now that the Fourth Prince, having grown up that way, was receiving the same treatment as other direct imperial relatives according to the Emperor’s decree.

‘Is this intentional? Does he think I, who work in the Imperial Palace, am the same as those who abused him?’

It was merely a bow made out of fear of the Archmage.
Yet my fear had somehow shifted toward the Fourth Prince, whom I had thought of as a beast.
The Archmage and the Fourth Prince exchanged words I could not hear. It seemed they were discussing how to handle my treatment.

“Lift your head.”

Fortunately, it seemed he did not intend to kill me immediately, as the Fourth Prince’s command fell.
The Attendant quickly lifted his head.
Raina Hart observed the pensive Attendant.

“Master, why isn’t that person lifting his head?”
“Ah, because Keri needs to give permission. Tell him to lift his head.”

I had forgotten.

“R-Raina Hart, please follow me.”
“Just me?”
“His Majesty said he will call for you separately after the Fourth Prince. I will visit the Fourth Prince later.”

It seemed the Emperor had something he wanted to discuss with me first.

‘But why is he calling the child separately? I should mention that I’ll enter with him as his master when the Emperor calls for Keri. I have no idea what the Emperor might do to him.’

The Attendant’s words were not entirely to my liking, yet there was a satisfying aspect to what I heard.
The Attendant’s demeanor toward Kevenriak Heteroven had become more respectful.
Having inadvertently kept his head bowed for so long, the blood had returned to his mind, and he seemed to have regained his senses.

“Master.”
“You heard, didn’t you? I’ll be back shortly. If you grow bored, you can spend time with the three of them.”

The Attendant quietly marveled at the affectionate exchange between master and disciple.
Had he ever seen that Archmage smile at someone before?
Then, at the mention of “three of them,” he recalled the existence of the Imperial First Knights.
Those who had been sent on the Emperor’s orders to fetch Raina Hart were certainly from the First Knights.
Yet the knights who had come with her wore navy uniforms and black eagle brooches.
The symbols of the Imperial Third Knights Order.
As the Attendant guided her to her destination, he inquired about the whereabouts of those absent from Raina’s company.

“By the way, Lady Raina Hart, did you not arrive with the knights of the First Knights? I heard that Commander Dresherd also descended to Hibei.”
“Ah, those fellows.”

Raina Hart spoke in a rather magnanimous tone.

“They said their work has been grueling lately, so I directed them to a fine recuperation facility.”
“….”

Desertion during a mission.

“The weather is quite pleasant, isn’t it? Will Hibei have a bountiful harvest this year as well?”

The Attendant decided to erase what he had just heard from his mind.
Until the Imperial Army learned of it, he knew nothing.

***

“I’m off.”

At Kevenriak Heteroven’s words, Person, Shukal, and Fontepon flinched.
The three members of the Imperial Third Knights Order had sworn an oath to Raina Hart just days ago upon coming to the Imperial Palace.
An oath that they would not reveal to the outside world anything they saw and heard in Hibei.
Whether through writing, speech, or gesture.
It was a type of magic that would temporarily paralyze their bodies if the information was something Raina Hart did not wish disclosed.
Yet there were reasons compelling all three of them to come to the Imperial Palace despite such restrictions.

‘Return to duty!’
‘Promotion!’
‘…Will my vice-captain position still be waiting for me.’

They had been left idle for four years at a position that guaranteed tenure if they survived to the end.
Moreover, the small yet precious monthly salary that should have been deposited in their accounts by now remained nowhere to be found.
Their anxiety had reached its peak.
Kevenriak Heteroven spoke again, his words enticing.

“You didn’t come here as honor guard, did you.”

That was true.
They had not been hired by Raina Hart.
Who would serve as honor guard for Raina Hart.
To Raina Hart, they were closer to traveling companions—or rather, village laborers—than honor guards.
In the case of Kevenriak Heteroven, the Fourth Prince, they had a duty to serve him as members of the Imperial Third Knights Order.
If they interpreted it in a slightly more favorable light, wasn’t “come back” an order issued by Kevenriak Heteroven himself.
Shukal sought confirmation of the order once more.

“Really, Your Highness?”

Kevenriak Heteroven nodded without further comment.
The Fourth Prince had commanded them to return. Our prince.
Fontepon seized Kevenriak Heteroven’s hand.

“Fourth Prince, I love you.”
“I don’t love you.”
“Yes. But I still love you.”

Shukal and Fontepon bowed at right angles, offering their farewells, then bolted like arrows toward the Training Ground where the Imperial Third Knights Order was stationed.

“Vice-Commander, please hurry!”
“That’s right. You must come and be our shield against the new Commander!”
“….”

Person seemed uneasy as he looked toward Kevenriak Heteroven.

“…Will you be alright?”
“I’ll be fine.”

In truth, Kevenriak Heteroven had a plan of his own.
To send the three of them away and remain alone.

[…Come to me….]

‘I need to find the owner of that voice.’

After Person departed, I was left alone.
Without hesitation, I walked toward the Separate Palace where I once resided.
The palace I found after four years still looked desolate.
Though I had renovated it once, the Imperial Household would never maintain a palace abandoned by a powerless master.
It was a place where sunlight never reached throughout all four seasons. With so much moisture, moss and mold crept up the stone walls.

“If I leave this here, who will eat it? I heard there’s a fairy in the Imperial Palace who grants wishes.”

Kevenriak Heteroven stood before the overgrown vegetation.
This was where Raina Hart had made her wish to the fairy.
Back then, I, a monster, had pretended to be that fairy.

‘Even after that, my teacher always made wishes to the fairy. Though she occasionally sought out fairies even in Hibei.’

The voice was calling me to the Imperial Palace.
If it was a being that was not human.
Then the voice’s true identity might be the fairy to whom my teacher made her wishes.

“I want to become stronger too.”

I spoke toward the vegetation.
The vegetation remained silent.
I spoke once more.

“I want to become stronger too.”
“You want to become stronger?”
“…!”

A woman’s voice reached us from a distance away.
Kevenriak Heteroven turned around quickly.
A woman regarding me with a cold gaze, accompanied by her attending maidservants.
The low golden dress she wore was composed and luxurious enough to reveal her elevated status at a glance.
Yet to Kevenriak Heteroven, it appeared like the skin of a poison dart frog—beautiful on the surface but repulsive within.

‘Who is she.’

A face I had never seen before.

“It has been quite some time.”
“…?”
“I see you still lack manners, not even greeting me.”

As Raina Hart’s disciple, I could not afford to be called discourteous.
Though Kevenriak Heteroven did not know this woman, I offered her a proper greeting.
Then I attempted to introduce myself to maintain propriety.

“I am Kevenriak Heteroven.”
“I know.”

A discourteous person indeed.
Kevenriak Heteroven asked.

“Who are you?”
“How dare you ask who the Empress is?”

The Empress’s maidservant flared with indignation.
The twelve-year-old Kevenriak Heteroven regarded the maidservant with complete indifference.
The Empress observed the Fourth Prince.
She had ordered him kept out of her sight, disgusted by the appearance of the newborn creature.
The last and only time she had seen him, he was digging at the ground like a beast.
He had grown considerably in her absence. And quite…

“Do you truly believe a child born to threaten the Empress Your Majesty?”

Hand resting upon her swollen belly, she bore an uncanny resemblance to her mother—that same unwavering gaze fixed upon the Empress herself.
The Empress, Tratscha Heteroven, murmured beneath the fan concealing her lips.

“…So the insect has taken human form and appeared before me.”

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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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