For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 20

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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 20

The Imperial Palace’s Audience Chamber.
Raina Hart stood before the Emperor seated upon his throne, alone with him.
The Audience Chamber, emptied of all attendants, held only her and the Emperor.

“I have heard rumors, Your Majesty.”

Raina Hart opened her mouth, addressing the Emperor before her.
In the four years that had passed, the Emperor had aged, certainly.

“Yet you appear to be in remarkably poor health.”

He appeared remarkably healthy.
Save for the eye patch covering his left eye—whether from illness or injury, she could not say.
She had never truly believed the reports, though she had expected at least some performance of illness, some theatrical coughing from a sickbed.
She had not anticipated him greeting her with such vigor, sitting so upright.

“Do you judge me only by appearances, Baroness? I assure you, my condition is dire indeed.”
“Dire indeed, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor, watching Raina Hart’s expressionless mockery, felt the corners of his mouth twitch inwardly with amusement.
A dragon quarter who did not age.

‘Unchanged from four years ago. So she truly does not grow older.’

Though he had anticipated it, witnessing it in person stirred something within him.

“What purpose did you have in summoning me?”
“Did you not make me a promise?”
“That was to be fulfilled eight years hence.”

Eight years hence. In the original narrative, Kevenriak Heteroven would drench the Imperial Palace in blood and claim the Emperor’s life.
The moment the main antagonist, Kevenriak Heteroven, awakened as a tyrant.

Everything was silent.
Save for the squelch of footsteps treading through pools of blood and corpses.
Kevenriak Heteroven reclined upon the vacant throne.
He exhaled a low breath, succumbing to the languor that followed the hunt, and placed the blood-stained crown upon his dark hair.
At last, the monster had consumed the Imperial Palace.

‘I know.’

A translucent window materialized before Raina’s vision.
The throne upon the lowered dais. The window covered precisely the Emperor’s form.
An optical illusion, as though text itself occupied the throne.

‘Impossible.’

Raina scoffed at the text—or perhaps at the author who had written it.
Show me whatever you wish. My child could never grow into such a wretched thing.
Since she appreciated that the Emperor’s form remained obscured, Raina did not close the window.

“There is also that matter.”

Emperor Cheinols Heteroven spoke.

“Surely you said you would fulfill your duty as my son’s teacher. How is it that his teacher has sent no word to his father in four years?”
“…Would you desire a parent-teacher conference, Your Majesty?”

Unlikely as that was.
Since the subject had arisen, I could use this as a pretext.
Raina did not miss the opportunity.

“I heard you intend to summon the Fourth Prince separately at a later time. We could conduct the parent-teacher conference then.”
“Do as you please.”

That tone of indifference.
So there was a hidden agenda after all.

“I must ask again. Why have you summoned me?”
“Raina Hart.”

The Emperor called for Raina Hart. Behind the curtain, only his silhouette was visible, yet his demeanor remained composed as he lifted a hand to his face.
Though a hint of subtle anxiety seeped through in his voice.

“Do you know anything about dark magic?”
‘Dark magic?’

Raina Hart’s eyes narrowed.
The memories of the Archmage—now feeling as though they were my own.
There was only one thing I could tell the Emperor from within those memories.

“Dark magic is forbidden.”

For those who wielded magic, dark magic was a field that must never be explored or attempted under any circumstance.
The most pressing concern was ‘addiction’.
Once the toxins of dark magic accumulated in the body, they induced mild addiction symptoms.

– Dark magic seduces mages.

Like a warning familiar to all mages, the toxins could ensnare a mage in dark magic in an instant.
Once the severity was recognized, it was too late.
By then, the mind was already corroded, and the mage’s body became a vessel for the toxins, craving only dark magic.
Mages of the 7th Circle or higher could maintain their sanity even under such addiction.
Yet in the Betuzhenia Empire, Raina Hart, an 8th Circle mage, was the only highest-tier mage registered with the Mage Association.

“That is all I can tell Your Majesty.”

At the Archmage’s resolute answer, the Emperor fell silent.
That was strange.
Had he asked with another purpose in mind, he would have followed up with his usual manipulative words as he always did.

“Your Majesty.”

No, that couldn’t be right.
As greedy as he was to force a potion of subjugation upon me, he wouldn’t commit such a foolish act.
He was the Emperor who conquered the Tan Continent, after all—though Raina Hart’s contribution was the greatest. He wouldn’t do something so stupid.

‘I’ll have to ask directly. The original work never showed what the Emperor did during this period.’

Raina Hart spoke to the Emperor.

“Might I ask—have you touched it? That taboo?”
“….”

The Emperor, Cheinols Heteroven, remained silent still.
Raina Hart swept her hand through the air, dismissing the window.
Only then did the Emperor’s visage, obscured by text and translucent panes, become visible.
The sclera of his left eye, now exposed as he lifted the eye patch, had darkened to a sickly hue.
Black tinged with crimson.
The symptoms of a body beginning to transform under dark magic’s corruption.
So that was why he’d forbidden anyone entry to the Audience Chamber. To show me this.

“…What have you done? Your Majesty lacks magical power, so did you use a mana stone? Or did you cast dark magic directly?”
“Raina Hart.”

The Emperor opened his mouth slowly.
With arrogance and shameless audacity.

“You must help me. If you’re to keep your promise to save my life eight years from now, I must survive until then, mustn’t I?”
“You’ve touched it. The taboo.”
‘What am I to do.’

There’s no cure for such foolishness.

***

Yet there was a cure for dark magic’s corruption.
For the Emperor, this was a stroke of fortune.

“You didn’t cast dark magic directly. If you’ve merely been afflicted by it, I can create a remedy to halt the poisoning and extract the corruption.”

Raina Hart examined the Emperor’s condition as he sat upon the throne.

“However, crafting such a remedy is extraordinarily difficult. Surely that’s why Your Majesty summoned me—because you couldn’t find an antidote elsewhere?”

Raina Hart lied without so much as a blink.
Others might not know, but for a dragon quarter like Raina Hart, it was remarkably simple.
The antidote that cleanly purged corruption was made by diluting dragon’s blood.
A single drop of Raina Hart’s blood into a bottle of tonic, and it was done.
Yet since dragon sightings occurred scarcely once every few centuries, few in this world knew of such an antidote’s existence.

“You certainly do like to talk, don’t you? It seems you want something.”
“Indeed. Given how demanding this task is, I hope you’ll offer appropriate compensation.”
“…Go ahead. Let me hear what you have to say.”

What could this Grand Mage possibly demand of me?
The Emperor wasn’t particularly pleased, but he nodded nonetheless.
Right now, Raina Hart’s antidote was his only lifeline.

‘I must hold on to her.’

I had to.
The same applied to Raina Hart.
The Emperor was her financial lifeline, after all.

“My lord, it’s only until this year.”
“What is?”
“The balance in your personal account that you entrusted to me for Hibei’s reconstruction.”

The personal funds I’d carefully depleted over four years to fill Hibei’s financial gaps had finally reached their limit.
And conveniently, a tempting source of wealth had appeared before my eyes.
This felt like someone’s divine instruction for me to seize it.

‘That’s right. The author handled the setup, and now I’m handling the cleanup.’

Surely I could borrow one convenient plot device for a moment.

“The compensation I require is the Lindraham Mine that Your Majesty owns.”

Thinking the price was cheaper than expected, the Emperor’s face brightened.
It was only natural.
In the past, it had been a mine that spewed forth gold, but after mining it thoroughly, it now produced barely ten nuggets of gold a year, if that.

‘Count Hart has been in Hibei for four years and knows nothing of the world’s current state.’

The Emperor smirked inwardly.
Unaware that dozens of meters below lay a mine overflowing with diamonds.

‘Originally, Tiernan Fargan, the male lead, was supposed to discover this mine eight years from now.’

Tiernan Fargan, whom I had observed from a distance last month, was occupied with his mercenary work.
Since the original story was still far off, I could use the diamond sparingly and return it to Tiernan Fargan after eight years.
That way, I wouldn’t disrupt the flow of the original narrative.

‘A two-level mine, no less. I wonder what else lies deeper beneath the diamond mine.’

Raina Hart concealed her excitement, regarding the Emperor with an expressionless gaze.
It was a silent question—would he accept the conditions she had proposed?

“I shall give you my word.”

Raina Hart snapped her fingers. Paper and pen materialized from thin air.

“A promise alone won’t suffice. Your Majesty should draft a contract as well.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I trust Your Majesty, but sometimes paper proves more trustworthy than words.”
“True enough. Paper can indeed be more trustworthy.”

It was wise to have the contract written down.

‘So that when Hart discovers the Lindraham Mine is barren, he can’t change his tune.’
‘If he hears diamonds have been found, he might try to take it back.’

For this moment, a mutually satisfactory contract had been concluded.
With my coffers now full, my heart grew considerably more generous.
Raina Hart feigned a subtle concern for the Emperor’s condition.

“What ordeal did you endure to allow dark magic’s toxins to accumulate within Your Majesty’s body?”
“It was my own carelessness.”
‘As expected.’

Already, the seeds of distrust toward the Emperor had taken root.
Raina Hart nearly nodded unconsciously before catching the Emperor’s gaze and feigning a cough to change course.
It had been seamless.

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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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