For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 32

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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 32

“Then I’ll share any new developments as they arise. Until next time.”

The priest who left the Daisy General Store appeared in Hibei’s grasslands.
Kevenriak Heteroven watched Raina Hart walking beside him.
His master seemed melancholy.

‘Why does she seem so listless?’

What could the Director of Daisy have done?

‘She really is a strange person.’

While Kevenriak Heteroven was suspecting the innocent Director.
I was deeply regretting what had just happened.

‘My Keri attended to a customer? Instead of the clerk?’

My disciple’s first customer service experience.
And I missed witnessing it.
Especially when my disciple’s “first” collection updates in my spatial pouch have been so rare lately.

‘I wasted too much time in the Director’s office.’

If I’d known this would happen, I should have submitted the antidote request for another day.
If only I’d left the Director’s office sooner. Then I might have witnessed my disciple’s first customer interaction.
It was truly regrettable.

“Master.”

Lost in thought, I fell silent.
Kevenriak Heteroven, worried about me, called out to his master.
I turned my head to look at my disciple.

“Yes?”
“You seem to lack energy.”

Was it that obvious?
Raina Hart deliberately answered her disciple with brightness.

“It’s nothing. I realized too late what I wanted to see, so I missed it.”
“What was it? Shall I find it for you?”

Those bright, eager blue eyes held the determination to lighten her master’s burden.
The corners of Raina’s mouth twitched as she met her disciple’s gaze.

“Keri, you’re worried about your master? How can you be so precious?”
“M-Master.”

Unable to contain herself any longer, she pulled her disciple into an embrace.
My dear child. Why are you so wonderfully devoted?

“Have you thought about what I said two nights ago? That if you wanted, you could venture into a much larger world?”

Charmed by her disciple’s adorableness, Raina retrieved the conversation they’d shared beneath the night sky.
She still hadn’t heard what Kevenriak truly thought about it.

“You could see and experience so much more. A world beyond anything you could imagine would unfold before your eyes.”
“I like Hibei.”

But Kevenriak shook his head firmly.
Anywhere else would be the same. His world was Raina, after all.
He preferred Hibei, where he could always find his master.
Whether in the Imperial Palace or the Detective Agency.
These past few days, when he’d ventured beyond Hibei, hadn’t external circumstances separated him from his master?
Even worse—

‘I couldn’t protect Master from beside her every time.’

For Kevenriak, there was no sorrow greater than this.

“Master, I’ll become stronger.”

Raina looked at Kevenriak as if asking what he meant.

“Keri is already strong enough. If he became any stronger, he’d be nothing but the world’s greatest mage.”
“Yes.”

Kevenriak nodded seriously at my half-joking remark.

“I’ll become an excellent mage and provide you with a comfortable life, Master.”

I smiled softly at Kevenriak’s pledge.
That child who believed himself to be a monster and refused to take the hand extended by others.
It had been a promise I made somewhat forcefully to get him to hold my hand.
And yet he still treated it as a promise he needed to keep.

“Keri, do you know something?”
“…?”
“That even a First Circle mage can become an excellent mage.”

I placed my hand near where Kevenriak’s mana heart was located.

“It’s not this that makes a mage strong.”

My hand moved to the side.

“It’s this that makes a mage truly excellent.”
“…Do I need to create a circle in my heart too?”

Kevenriak asked with a serious expression.
What would he need to do to strengthen his heart?
I suppressed the urge to embrace my disciple once more and shook my head.

“No. You don’t need a circle.”
“Then what?”
“You grow stronger when you have something precious you want to protect.”
“Something precious I want to…”

Kevenriak lowered his head, his gaze dropping downward.
My hand resting above his beating heart.
I gently stroked the now-quiet Kevenriak’s hair.

“And the reason I’m such an excellent mage is because of Keri.”
“…Am I someone precious that you wish to protect, Master?”
“Of course. Keri is someone precious that I must protect.”
“…”

Kevenriak fell silent for a moment at my words.
By the time I recalled the seasons from the scent of wind I exhaled, words finally spilled from my disciple’s lips.

“Master.”

Kevenriak lifted his lowered head and gazed at me.

“I want to become truly excellent.”

Because I wish to protect you.

“That’s a wonderful aspiration.”

At those words, I laughed like a blooming flower.
So my disciple also had someone he wished to protect.

***

A luxurious carriage raced along the roads of the Rural Village.

“Hibei, this place is—.”

A carriage finished in black lacquer and gold leaf, bearing a lilac-shaped family crest.
The villagers stopped their farm work to gaze upon it.

“Still such a rustic place.”

Maverick Marquis, seated within the carriage, smiled faintly at the sight of the villagers.
His neatly styled bangs revealed a pair of eyes of contrasting colors.
The left a warm amber, the right a cool grey.
Instead of the shabby formal wear he’d worn as Director of the Daisy Detective Agency, he now dressed in impeccably tailored fine clothing.
His tall frame and lean build exuded an air of refined elegance.

Maverick Marquis.
A noble beauty beloved by all.
A man in his early thirties who possessed status, wealth, and looks—was now.

“He suits Raina Hart perfectly.”

The Archmage’s faithful right hand.

It was eight years ago.
When Raina Hart brought premium-grade mana stones to the auction house.

“Ladies and gentlemen! The item I present to you today is none other than! A premium-grade stone that appears once every hundred years…! …Wait, it’s gone?”

That’s what happens when you trust the wrong business partner.
The Auction House Director absconded with all the auction items.
He had prepared so meticulously that no one noticed until the auction was about to begin.
The problem was that among the items the Director took, one mana stone entrusted by Raina Hart was included.
The other two had been consigned to different auction houses and sold for substantial sums.
But regardless.
One of the three was lost.

“My mana stone.”
“That’s—the Auction House Director?”
“My mana stone.”
“The Auction House Director…”

The Director of the Daisy Detective Agency felt wronged.
The Director was the one who fled with the items, yet somehow I bore the responsibility.
Under normal circumstances, I would have slipped through the loopholes in the contract like a cunning fox.

“Compensate me.”

But my opponent was Raina Hart—someone for whom such tricks didn’t work.
If I valued my life, compensation was the only option.

But.
Maverick Marquis had plenty of money, but the Director of Daisy Detective Agency did not.
Even selling the shop wouldn’t yield enough funds to compensate for a top-tier mana stone.
After all, Maverick Marquis’s iron rule was never to drain the family coffers for unprofitable hobbies.
And so.

“I’ll pay with my labor….”

The Director of Daisy Detective Agency found himself bound to move whenever Raina Hart gave him work.
Since that barely dented his debt, he occasionally had to call upon Maverick Marquis, whose services came at a premium.
Still, thanks to Raina Hart’s generosity, they reached an agreement to settle the matter by compensating the Mage Association’s scout.

‘The Auction House Director….’

For eight years, he’d remained hidden like a rat, impossible to locate.
But soon enough, he’d make his move to convert the stolen auction items into coin.

‘When I find him, I won’t let him off easy.’

Maverick’s eyes gleamed with unwavering resolve.

“We’ve arrived, Marquis.”

The Knight, who wore his uniform far better than an apron, announced their arrival.
Maverick Marquis rose and stepped out of the carriage.
The Butler of Hart Barony emerged to greet him.

“The Lord is in the study.”

Maverick walked with familiar ease.
Still the modest castle of Raina Hart.

“Raina.”

Raina Hart, her face unchanged.
As if she’d cast a spell to freeze time itself, Raina Hart hadn’t aged a day despite the years that had passed.
Maverick Marquis opened the study door and stepped inside.

“Were you waiting long?”
“No.”

I reclined on the sofa, resting my right arm against my disciple.
More precisely, my head was nestled against his leg.
Such a familiar arrangement no longer surprised me.
Two pairs of eyes with identical gleams turned toward Maverick Marquis.
They looked less like master and disciple now, and more like siblings.
Though it felt as though I were the younger sister.

“How disappointing. You didn’t even wait for your hardworking slave to return.”

Maverick Marquis walked to the opposite sofa and sat down.

“It has been a long time, Your Highness the Fourth Prince.”
“Maverick Marquis, you’ve arrived.”
“Your Highness the Fourth Prince still possesses such radiant beauty.”

Kevenriak Heteroven.
The Imperial Prince, now twenty years old, grew more and more to resemble the Second Empress Consort with each passing day.
One could understand why the Emperor had been so captivated by her, a dancer from the Traveling Troupe, that he spent a night with her.

“….”

Wariness still lingered in the Fourth Prince’s blue eyes.
The gaze from eight years ago, when he watched me as if questioning whether I posed a threat to his master, remained vivid.

“Ah.”

As I tried to sit up, the book slipped from my hands.
Kevenriak knocked the book away and wrapped his arms around me.

“It’s dangerous, Master.”
“I’ve told you, reading while lying down isn’t good for you, Raina.”
“….”

That wariness in his eyes had transformed now—into something belonging to a man.
Maverick Marquis met Kevenriak’s gaze and offered a subtle smile.

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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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