For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 60

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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 60

Kevenriak witnessed Vivian Asperada’s madness again today, just as he had yesterday.
From the fourth floor, in the Emperor’s office, that lunacy was painfully visible.

The princess wandered through the back garden wearing the jacket I had given her draped across her shoulders.
One shoe had been discarded somewhere, and her uneven feet stumbled with each step.
She muttered something with her lips, so I cast a spell to carry the outside sounds into the office.
Then the princess’s voice reached me even here in my study.

Most of it was the sound of sorrowful weeping.
Once or twice, there came the sharp crack of her striking her own cheeks or forehead.

[I’m sorry, Vivian…!]

Then she would grasp the spot she’d struck in shock and apologize to herself.

What was she doing?

By chance witnessing that spectacle, the Emperor found his feet rooted to the window, unable to leave.
I had never encountered anyone who seemed more unhinged than myself.

[My head… it hurts….]

Eventually, Vivian Asperada sank down, complaining of a headache.
Like a beast, she climbed onto a nearby bench and sprawled across it.

[…Sniff.]

From her face shielded by her hand against the sunlight came the sound of swallowed tears.
Her weeping never ceased whenever I looked, to the point that it was a miracle she hadn’t become dehydrated.
Would she collapse like this?

“….”

That was a matter entirely unrelated to me.
Whether the princess collapsed or not—what did it matter to me?
In Kevenriak’s field of vision came the jacket that Vivian Asperada had draped over herself so pitifully.

“Y-Your M-Majesty.”

The image of the Attendant prostrating himself before me surfaced in my mind.
Kevenriak despised the touch of another’s hands upon him. Even the hands of subordinates were no exception.
The Emperor possessed magic, so such attendant services were scarcely necessary.
All the wardrobe attendant did was prepare the clothes the Emperor would wear the next day in his bedchamber.
It was not a matter of propriety or impropriety.
If the Emperor desired it thus, then such was the law of the current Betuzhenia Empire.

But this morning.
When the Attendant saw the Emperor wearing only a shirt without his jacket, his heart lurched, and he quickly scanned his surroundings.
He was searching for the missing jacket.
The Emperor had tossed it to Vivian and left—it could not possibly be found.
Unaware of this fact, the Attendant grew frantic.
At last, he dared commit the rudeness of searching through the bedchamber’s wardrobe, yet still one jacket remained unaccounted for.

“I-I d-deserve to d-die—”

To have lost the Emperor’s garments.
The Attendant prostrated himself flat before Kevenriak, begging to be put to death.

“Enough.”
“N-No, no, no! I-I failed to m-manage the clothes p-properly—!”

Even as I said enough, he shrieked his pleas for death with such fervor my eardrums ached.
Since I myself had given the jacket to Vivian, Kevenriak felt a measure of responsibility in this affair.
So I had considered granting the Attendant his wish and ending him.
But then he began weeping, begging for mercy because he was supporting his ailing parents.

How tiresome.
Kevenriak abandoned the Attendant and left his post.

…

If I don’t retrieve my clothes that Vivian Asperada is currently covering, the Attendant might pester me again.
That was hardly a welcome prospect.

I needed to go find them.

***

It had been roughly an hour ago.
Raina Hart was hearing the past two years unfold through Person’s words.
From the very beginning, it was profoundly shocking.

“The day after the coronation, the Grand Mage was murdered. The culprit was the Grand Mage’s second disciple.”
“That… that can’t be!”

Raina Hart sprang up from the bench in astonishment. Person watched the noblewoman’s face turn pale.
Her clenched fists trembled as her mind raced in turmoil.

So Kin had been judged as the culprit?

It was true that Kin had stabbed her, but Kin had merely been used as a tool.
Not even an accomplice—branded as the perpetrator itself.
My disciple had borne the entire weight of the mastermind’s crimes.

This couldn’t stand.

In the Betuzhenia Empire, the murder of a noble carried a life sentence.
The worse the crime, the lower the social standing, the more deplorable the prison conditions.
The facilities, the treatment of inmates, the violence from fellow prisoners…
Raina Hart was nothing less than the Emperor’s mentor and a hero of the Betuzhenia Empire.
There was no chance Kin was receiving any semblance of decent treatment.

I had to do something.

Kevenriak had gone mad because of this.
Unable to expect the Emperor’s support.
Late though it was, I had to find a way to assert Kin’s innocence somehow.
Two years imprisoned. That gentle child must have suffered so much—
As her thoughts concluded, Raina Hart turned to Person with a question.

“Where have you been staying?”
“What are you looking for…?”
“Rai—”

I couldn’t bring myself to say I was Raina Hart’s second disciple.

“The culprit you just mentioned.”
“Ah.”

The word “culprit” tasted bitter on my tongue.
Person answered with a grim expression.

“She took her own life. Right there.”

I couldn’t immediately comprehend Person’s words.
Moments later, the tightness in my nose and the reddening of my eyes awakened my emotions first.
Why, Kin.
You weren’t the culprit.

“Why…?”

I had endlessly speculated about my disciples’ whereabouts.
Yet among all those countless possibilities, death had never been one of them.
Person opened his mouth sorrowfully in response to my murmured words.
To him as well, Kin had been his own disciple, one to whom he had briefly taught swordplay.

“Because she was a disciple who loved her master.”

Person spoke the next words with emphasis.
The middle-aged Knight’s clenched fist carried anger he could not fully conceal.
Those four years in Hibei—he had experienced firsthand what kind of temperament Kin possessed.

“I believe Kin, my second disciple, has paid the price for her sin. Regardless of the circumstances, it is true that Kin stabbed Lady Raina Hart’s heart. However, my lady, the real culprit is not Kin. Everyone who knew her nature understands that.”

After that, Person recounted the major events in chronological order.
I sat back on the bench and listened to his account.
Tears reflexively fell from my vacant eyes as I thought of my disciples. Person handed me a handkerchief.

Person watched Vivian Asperada’s expression carefully whenever he spoke of the New Year’s banquet—the catalyst that had transformed the Emperor into a tyrant.
He defended Kevenriak Heteroven by saying it was because of his master’s revenge.

Everything Person had told me aligned with my own deductions.
After accepting that Kevenriak Heteroven had become a tyrant, the situation I had newly envisioned was not significantly different.
And yet.

‘Person.’

Why did our Kin have to die?
I wanted to seize him and pour out the sorrow of having no chance to turn back time, but I could not.
Because I was not Raina Hart right now.

***

“….”

I sent Person away first.
I sat blankly on the bench for a moment, then rose and wandered through the Imperial Palace.
It was aimless drifting without a destination.
Vivian’s body crying out at its limits.
I found that pain almost welcome.

‘Was Keri’s heart like this?’

My heart ached so deeply, yet I could not release that anguish.
Unable to see the loss, I could not gauge its depth.
I could only sink, as if weighted down by an enormous pendulum.
Did you too need pain that you could comprehend?

The Imperial Palace, suffused with the Emperor’s profound sorrow, was silent, and I walked through that quietude.
With no retainers bound to me, there was no one who knew of her, no one searching for her.

I could not say how long I had walked.
Whenever my mind grew hazy, I struck my own face without thinking, and my cheek burned with heat.
In the meantime, one shoe had vanished, leaving my left foot in disarray.
This was Vivian’s body—I should keep it clean.
Would a Cleanse spell work? Ah, I’m not a mage anymore.

“My head… it hurts….”

I had reached the absolute limit of my endurance.
I could not take another step forward.
Yet I could not collapse on the roadside of the Imperial Palace and disgrace Vivian’s reputation.
So I crawled across the ground with what little strength remained and dragged myself onto a nearby bench.
The clothes Kevenriak had given me were warm, perhaps because they were the Emperor’s garments.
I took back my earlier words about him throwing manners to the wind.
Even without his senses, my disciple was considerate.
The midday sun was so bright it stung my eyes, so I shielded my face with the back of my hand.
…A sob escaped.
Tears fell.
Then the light that had seeped through my fingers was completely blocked out.
I lowered my hand as a shadow fell across my face.

“It seems you’ve found new quarters.”

Even against the backlighting, my beautiful disciple stood at my head, looking down at me.
Kevenriak’s face, as he asked so flatly, showed not a trace of emotion.
My heart ached.
So you’ve decided to cast away all your feelings.
So that unbearable sorrow won’t consume you whole.

“Your Majesty.”
‘Keri.’

Through the throbbing pain in my head, I opened my mouth to speak to Kevenriak.
Though I did not realize it, lying here before the Emperor made me look like a truly mad princess.

“You’ve come.”
‘Kin is dead, they say.’

But I could not speak the words I wanted to say.
What right did I have to ask Kevenriak to share his emotions with me?
I had not even been able to comfort his sorrow.

“So the princess’s madness manifests through tears, it seems.”

The Emperor gazed at Vivian’s reddened eyes and opened his mouth.
Though I heard the word “mad,” I found his voice captivating.
You exist within my reach.
Even though it shouldn’t be possible. As if you’ve been waiting for me all along—.

“It appears to be so.”

I smiled, narrowing my eyes.
With so many faults to answer for, I couldn’t truly lose my mind—so I wanted to at least feign madness.
Pretending to be a mad princess, I asked the Emperor.

“Can someone with my affliction not become Your Majesty’s disciple?”

Rather than answer, Kevenriak seized Vivian’s wrist and let out a soft laugh.

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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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