For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 33

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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 33

“Here.”

The rolled document passed from Maverick Marquis’s hand to mine.
I settled onto the sofa and unrolled it to examine the contents. My disciple had stepped away briefly to attend to other matters.

“It’s a document transferring ownership of Lindraham Mine to the regional lord.”

Maverick Marquis sipped his tea while reporting to me what he had accomplished.
Lindraham Mine had passed from my hands to Maverick Marquis’s, and now it was being transferred once more to the lord.
The ownership had shifted again.

“The lord accepted it willingly?”

Maverick Marquis’s lips curved upward at my question.

“When a Marquis personally bestows something, one must accept it. What else could he do?”

So he had forced it upon him after all.
When Maverick Marquis appeared as the owner of a bankrupt gold mine that wasn’t even being operated, the lord must have been shocked.
He surely was.

“What about the mercenaries?”
“I mentioned it. Actually, the lord seemed reluctant to accept it at first.”
“Because it’s a mine that only generates losses.”
“So I gave him advice, just as my clever master would have done. I told him that if he employs mercenaries, he could give them the mine as payment instead of wages. Only then did his expression brighten.”
…

I nodded and handed the document back to Maverick.
The mercenary the lord had contracted was Tiernan Fargan.
I had confirmed this not long ago, so I was certain.

‘With this arrangement in place, ownership of Lindraham Mine will transfer to Tiernan Fargan, just as the original story dictates.’

I exhaled slowly.
I pressed my temples firmly. Maverick asked me a question.

“You look troubled. Did someone cheat you out of money? Why not confide in this slave?”

At Maverick Marquis’s words, Raina Hart’s brow furrowed.
The dream from last night had surfaced in her mind.

“I saw something unpleasant in my dream.”

It was a dream she couldn’t reveal to her disciple.
The Imperial Palace transformed into a sea of blood.
I had run through that place for a long time.

“Keri!”

Searching for my disciple.
The desperation was overwhelming. I prayed that Kevenriak Heteroven wasn’t the one who created this bloodbath.
Stepping over corpses, again and again. Blood spilled by someone’s hand stained my bare feet.
As I ran, I came to a halt at one place.
The Emperor’s throne, sitting solemnly upon the dais.

“Gasp… gasp…”

The throne was empty.
Beside it, there was neither the Emperor’s corpse nor my cherished disciple.
When I awoke from the dream, I was seized by a deeply unpleasant and horrifying sensation.

‘This winter.’

The time when, in the original story, Kevenriak Heteroven consumed the Imperial Palace and crowned himself with a blood-stained diadem.

‘I absolutely cannot let Keri face such a fate.’

Even if the power of the original story were to manifest and a storm of blood swept through the Imperial Palace this winter.
I would ensure that not a single life was lost by Keri’s hand.
I bit the inside of my lower lip hard.

“What is your dream, Keri?”
“To provide comfort and prosperity to my master.”

My disciple smiled purely as she spoke.
Even now at twenty years old, Kevenriak remained unchanged.
There was no way such a disciple of mine could become the monster that would devour the Imperial Palace.

“Isn’t it foresight?”

Unaware of my inner thoughts, Maverick Marquis asked.
The amber eye on the left of his odd-colored eyes regarded the Archmage as if assessing him.

“You have the ability of foresight, don’t you? You said transferring the Lindraham Mine to the lord was because of foresight?”
“That dream wasn’t foresight.”

I stated it firmly.
Originally, Raina Hart possessed the ability of foresight, and I had occasionally pretended to have that ability to accomplish my goals.
But in truth, I had never once seen the future.
The future I knew—

Winter had arrived.
The season when white flowers bloomed in the Fourth Prince’s Separate Palace, where I had spent twenty years.
The desolate Separate Palace, as it did every year, was blanketed in a bone-chilling cold.
“From tomorrow onward, you will be the Emperor, Kevenriak.”
The Grimoire of Magic chuckled.
“I shall serve Your Majesty.”
Kin, his only loyal retainer, knelt on one knee.

‘Only as far as what appeared in the original work.’

I swiped the floating window to the side and closed it.
The window had appeared incessantly ever since the year turned.
It was as if it were warning me.
This year. The year Kevenriak would become a tyrant.

‘I already know.’

I was the one who tried hardest to prevent Kevenriak from becoming a tyrant.
If it appeared occasionally, that would be fine. But appearing countless times a day only served to fray my already frayed nerves.

‘Fortunately, I managed to avoid most of the original work’s backstory regarding Keri.’

Kevenriak wasn’t at the Imperial Palace but in Hibei, and besides.
He hadn’t contracted with the Grimoire of Magic, nor had he made Kin his confidant.
And most importantly.
He was my proud disciple.

“Sixth… Circle?”
“Yes.”

In a remote corner of Hibei, Kevenriak had gained enlightenment once more and grown stronger.
Raina gazed at her disciple in astonishment as he spoke to her with a smile, as if it were nothing remarkable.
Sixth Circle without the tutoring everyone else received, without a single year abroad.
No—the mana rings of high-ranking mages at the Fourth to Sixth Circle couldn’t be expanded simply by pouring money into education.
It was simply.

‘My child is a genius…’

Behind her expressionless face, Raina began to worry about her disciple, as always.
Maverick Marquis spoke to her.

“Unless it’s foresight, it’s just a pipe dream. Don’t worry too much about it.”

Raina’s silver eyes turned toward him.
A pipe dream. That perspective wasn’t entirely unwelcome.

“How are things at the Imperial Palace?”
“On the surface, unchanged. But it seems the Crown Prince issue will stir up trouble soon.”
“The Crown Prince? That’s a settled matter.”

The First Prince, son of the Empress, had been appointed Crown Prince three years ago.
What trouble could possibly arise now?

“The Empress Consort and the Third Prince are gathering forces. It seems Duke Asperada has sided with them. The Empress Consort is a distant relative of his, after all.”

Raina’s attention sharpened at those words.
Duke Asperada.
He was the father of the Female Protagonist, Vivian.
Vivian, now twenty years old, had been asleep since a carriage accident five years ago.
The scene of Vivian awakening two years from now was where the original story began.

“…Are you saying the Third Prince would start a rebellion?”
“Who knows. I’m neutral, so I wouldn’t know.”

At the news Maverick Marquis brought, Raina Hart furrowed her brow.
A rebellion by the Third Prince.
That wasn’t in the original story.

***

“Then I suppose this slave should take his leave.”
“Sure.”

Raina Hart responded calmly to the jab.
Maverick Marquis chuckled softly and left the study, walking down the corridor.
Duke Asperada had sought him out secretly not long ago.

“Are you asking me to support the Third Prince, Your Grace?”
“I know Maverick Marquis maintains neutrality, but consider what happens when the Crown Prince becomes Emperor. Everyone in the Empress Consort’s faction will be reshuffled into power. What influence could we wield with just one high-ranking position?”

I understood what he was getting at.
Strike first before the Empress Consort could strip away our position.
I refused.

‘His logic isn’t wrong, but Duke Asperada is dangerous. He was originally part of the Empress Consort’s faction.’

And yet that same Duke now supports the Third Prince.

‘He’s not the type to move without calculation. Did something give him the confidence to act?’

But if the Empress Consort learned of this by misfortune.
The Empress Consort, who loved drawing lines of faction, would not leave Duke Asperada unscathed.

‘That future isn’t far off either. I can’t fathom what he’s thinking. Does he truly intend to start a rebellion?’

Besides, it wasn’t my place to worry about Duke Asperada.
I was Maverick Marquis, maintaining neutrality.
Yet recently, it had become known that I was in contact with the Fourth Prince, who had fallen out of favor with the Empress Consort, and his mentor.
That was likely why Duke Asperada sought me out.
To abandon the hopeless Fourth Prince and side with the Third Prince instead.

‘Duke Asperada lacks consideration too. He doesn’t understand the sorrow of a debtor with no choice.’

Maverick Marquis spoke warmly as Kevenriak Heteroven approached him.

“Your Highness.”

His tall stature and distinct features were striking at first glance.
The Fourth Prince’s characteristic dignified and indifferent aura created such an illusion that the shabby castle corridor instantly transformed into an elegant museum before Maverick Marquis’s eyes.

“Are you here to see me off?”
“No. I was on my way to see my teacher.”

The Fourth Prince shook his head firmly.
In one of Kevenriak’s hands, he held a shawl.

“Of course you were. I asked knowing the answer.”

Maverick Marquis shrugged his shoulders.
He showed interest in no one but his teacher.
The fact that he stopped to converse like this was something to be grateful for.

“I hear you’ve achieved another breakthrough. You’ve reached the 6th Circle now, haven’t you?”
“It’s nothing remarkable.”
“How modest. Aside from Raina Hart, you’re the highest-ranked mage in the Mage Association, aren’t you?”

Because of the time required for enlightenment, all 6th Circle mages were in their fifties or sixties.
A 6th Circle mage at twenty years old.
And with beauty so rare even in Jenia.
Had he not been confined to Hibei, he would have drawn followers like clouds.

‘Not that it would matter.’

His heart was so full of one person that there was no room for anyone else.
Maverick Marquis had noticed this since Kevenriak came of age at eighteen.
The Fourth Prince’s manner toward his teacher had subtly changed from before.
It was the atmosphere of someone who had already decided the path he would take.

“Raina cherishes me as her right hand, doesn’t she?”

Maverick Marquis was an eccentric. Whenever he encountered someone as unconventional as Raina Hart or the Fourth Prince, he found himself utterly unable to resist the urge to prod them and observe their reactions.

“….”

Kevenriak Heteroven offered no response to Maverick Marquis’s probing words.
Instead, he offered a parting farewell and turned his steps toward the Study where Raina Hart awaited.

“Your Highness.”

Maverick Marquis called after him with a mischievous tone.

“If you keep looking at her like that, won’t you be discovered?”

The Fourth Prince’s retreating silhouette went still.
Though he always wore an innocent, cat-like expression in her presence.
Anyone observing closely could discern how the Fourth Prince truly felt about his mentor.

“By someone who works so diligently as your guardian.”

The Fourth Prince knew only Raina Hart.
When he learned that another had perceived the audacious feelings he harbored—

‘How would he react?’

Would shame flush his face crimson? Would he beseech—or threaten—Maverick Marquis not to tell his mentor?

“….”

Kevenriak Heteroven turned his head halfway toward Maverick Marquis.

“Please.”

His elegant profile was exquisite.
Beneath his high nose, crimson lips curved into a faint smile.

“I would welcome being discovered.”

A radiant glow of mana enveloped Kevenriak in an instant.
Maverick Marquis caught sight of the empty corridor where Kevenriak had vanished through spatial displacement, a faint smile playing at his lips.
Had it been intentional?

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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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