For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 64

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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 64

For Raina Hart, swordsmanship was a means to an end.
A means to become the disciple of a disciple.
A means to stand in your closest proximity.

“…ugh….”

The Emperor’s Training Ground, which Kevenriak had brought me to through teleportation.
Raina Hart was locked in a desperate struggle.

“…ngh….”

Against a longsword the Emperor had given me.
Kevenriak stood across from me, staring at Vivian Asperada in disbelief.
He hadn’t asked me to do anything particularly difficult.
All he’d said was to draw the sword from its sheath and stand holding it properly.
Yet why was I still groaning and struggling to extract the blade?

“I must have given the lady a greatsword. Or are you acting?”
“Acting… I’m not….”

Raina Hart replied with effort.
I wanted to say it was an act. But how could I deny the truth?
Vivian Asperada’s body made it impossible to hold the sheath with one hand and draw the sword with the other.

‘It’s been about a month and a half since I awakened. I thought I’d built up some muscle by now.’

Exerting strength was still far beyond my capability.
Then again, the original work never depicted Vivian holding a sword or anything like that.
Setting aside the lack of muscle.
Vivian’s physical condition—collapsing if I overexerted myself—was also a problem.
Ever since the elopement from Asperada Duke’s Castle, Tiernan Fargan had been carrying Vivian almost once a day.
Day two of Imperial Palace life. The aftershock of my act of madness was severe.

‘But I can’t tell Keri I can’t do it.’

The moment I became a noblewoman who couldn’t even draw a sword, my role as Kevenriak’s disciple would end.
A single letter was all it took to shake me.
I still need to be by your side. I must bring you back to your senses and beg your forgiveness.

“….”

Beyond that, the weight of my sins pressed heavily upon my shoulders.
Thinking of them, I couldn’t afford to crumble here.
Even if Vivian’s body refused to obey my will.
A shadow fell across Raina Hart’s head as she clenched her teeth.

“That’s enough.”

Kevenriak seized the hilt of the sword Raina Hart held.
He sheathed the blade she had half-drawn and carried the sword away as casually as one might handle a sheet of paper.

‘This can’t be.’

It was ending like this.

“Your… Your Majesty…!”

Raina Hart called out to Kevenriak as he placed the sword in the rack.
When he turned back to her, a wooden sword rested in his hand.

“This suits a noblewoman better.”
“…?”

Kevenriak handed the wooden sword to Raina Hart.
It bore no marks, as pristine as if it had never been used.

“Even children use this.”

Clearly made for adults. It seemed too much for children to handle properly.
Yet it wasn’t so heavy that she couldn’t wield it at all.
The wooden sword was substantial, but it fit snugly in Raina Hart’s grip.

“…That’s unexpected.”

Raina Hart lifted the wooden sword with trembling arms. Regrettably, she had expended nearly all her strength merely drawing the real blade.
Kevenriak responded.

“What?”
“When you took the sword, I thought Your Majesty would say you couldn’t accept me as your disciple.”
“Why?”

Why indeed.

“Well, because I couldn’t even draw the sword….”

Kevenriak’s hand, standing before Raina Hart, enveloped Vivian’s two hands.
I flinched for a moment. He pulled the hands he held forward.
The blade of the wooden sword, tilted at an oblique angle, pressed against Kevenriak’s upper body.
It appeared as though I were slashing him down.

“I have no intention of releasing the princess.”

Kevenriak, meeting Raina Hart’s gaze, smiled radiantly.
The captivating smile of a charming villain, deliberately crafted, held one’s gaze captive with an enchantment impossible to resist.
Apart from the trembling of my heart, Raina Hart understood.

‘It’s a trap.’

A beautiful one at that.
Yet Kevenriak does not smile in such a contrived manner.
There exists something he must accomplish by piercing Vivian with his beauty.

‘I thought he accepted me as a disciple because he found it amusing that the princess spoke madness.’

There was a clear reason Kevenriak had taken Vivian as his disciple.
…What could it be.
At least, fortunately.
Since he took me as his disciple according to necessity, for now he would neither kill me nor cast me out, no matter what I did.

“Your Majesty.”

So I decided to say something a bit mad this time as well.
Raina Hart smiled softly as she faced the Emperor.
With Vivian’s striking appearance, wouldn’t she look like a lovely noble lady?

“Would you grant me just one wish to commemorate becoming your disciple?”
“….”

The smile vanished from Kevenriak’s face.
The Emperor returned to his original expressionless state.

“Speak.”

He was essentially saying: let’s hear what nonsense you’re about to utter.
But Raina Hart pressed on undeterred, voicing her wish.

“Could you use healing magic on me just once a day?”

The audacity of asking an Emperor—a seventh-circle mage—to serve as my personal healer.
I wondered if Vivian Asperada thought herself even more insane than I was.
I imagined what might be running through the silent Kevenriak’s mind as I prepared to add an explanation.
But then.

“The reason is….”

My vision darkened and brightened in alternating waves.
My words came out in fragments.
I had been holding myself upright through sheer willpower even before picking up the wooden sword, fighting the urge to collapse.
The headache had started long ago, and my body felt as though weights were attached to every single cell.
Already suffering like this, I had even made a wish to the Emperor, thinking I wouldn’t survive what lay ahead.
Now I had truly reached my limit.

“I….”

Vivian’s body, consciousness slipping away, swayed as she began to fall.
Kevenriak caught her.

Thud. Tap.
The wooden sword the two had been holding rolled across the floor.

“….”

Kevenriak gazed down at the unconscious noblewoman.
A faint laugh escaped between the Emperor’s lips.

“Indeed, the noblewoman is not in her right mind.”

***

“My dear.”

Late in the evening.
Simona greeted her husband as he returned home, her expression etched with worry.

“Have you found Vivian?”

It had been roughly ten days since their daughter vanished during the tea party.
The knight of the attending noblewoman had also disappeared.
An abduction, naturally. The knight had become the primary suspect.
House of Asperada had dispatched people to search exhaustively for the knight and Vivian.

“No luck.”

Duke Asperada, Pialtis, shook his head.
His outing today had been at his wife Simona’s request.
She had heard a sighting of Vivian from an acquaintance and asked if he could search that location.
His wife, consumed with worry over their missing daughter, had not slept in days.
How could he refuse such a plea?
Pialtis had taken his subordinates and searched the area Simona mentioned, but.
He found no trace of his daughter, nor could he gather any credible sightings.

“I’m sorry. I got excited over baseless rumors and exhausted you for nothing.”

Simona’s expression mingled apology with regret.

“Why do you apologize? The fault lies with whoever spoke carelessly without proper verification.”
“No, I should have been more cautious. I was simply so overjoyed to hear news of Vivian that I….”

Pialtis reassured his wife and then entered the room.
He changed his clothes while lost in thought.

‘Vivian wouldn’t have gone to the Imperial Palace, would she?’

Ten days was more than enough time to reach the Imperial Palace.
Wasn’t she the daughter who, the moment she regained her senses, demanded to be sent to the Imperial Palace?
She had even asked me that threatening question about what I did during the Heteroven rebellion.

“Father, I spoke nonsense last time. I confused what happened in my dreams with reality.”

Later, she had come holding Simona’s hand and begged forgiveness on her knees regarding that matter.

‘Tsk.’

Duke Asperada clicked his tongue.
He had finally found a suitable marriage prospect.
Yet that mad daughter had vanished without a trace.

‘What a waste of the Asperada name.’

***

The next morning.
Raina Hart opened her eyes in her room within the Emperor’s Palace.

‘Did Keri bring me here?’

She was still wearing yesterday’s clothes. It seemed he had moved her alone without calling the servants.
Not being left outside today was quite a significant improvement.
And besides.

“…He granted my wish.”

Raina Hart murmured, feeling her body refreshed and revitalized.
Kevenriak had used healing magic on Vivian.
She had no idea what he was thinking to grant such a mad request.
His subtle tenderness kept drawing a smile to her lips.

“When will I finally be able to say I’m Raina….”

I wish my voice could reach you before Vivian wakes.
The constraints of the oath were also a problem.
Perhaps I should ask him to release the oath instead….

“Your Majesty, why do you think there’s a ghost in the Imperial Palace?”
“…Why would the princess be curious about that.”

No. Recalling yesterday’s conversation, it was premature.
Hadn’t the atmosphere turned frigid the moment someone else brought up the master’s ghost?

Knock. Knock.
Raina told whoever was at the door to enter at the sound of the knock.

“My lady.”

It was Person, accompanied by two maids.

“You’re awake. Breakfast is ready. May I have it brought in now?”

Breakfast.
Raina recalled the health foods that had filled the table yesterday.
Though her appetite hadn’t been particularly strong.

‘It’s important to eat something anyway.’

Raina nodded.
Person signaled the maids to bring the food, then spoke to Raina.

“His Imperial Majesty has ordered that since your lady’s body appears weakened, you be served meals with a diet whose efficacy has been verified.”

A diet with verified efficacy?
Raina was puzzled, but her attention was quickly captured by the dishes the maids brought.

“….”

The table was laden with meat dishes.
Raina was so moved she forgot what to say.

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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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