For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 76

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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 76

A fire.
Raina Hart turned her head toward the direction of the voices.
It seemed the palace staff were reporting the fire.
Though the smoke rose from quite a distance away, the gray plume was unmistakably ominous even at a glance.

“Your Majesty, a massive fire has broken out. I believe you should attend to it personally.”

Raina Hart grasped Kevenriak’s hand and pulled him toward the direction of the fire, but the Emperor remained unmoved.

“I know that little rat.”
“Still saying that? We need to go extinguish the fire.”
“There are many other mages in the Imperial Palace.”

That was true enough.
What use was a seventh-circle mage sitting idle?

“If Your Majesty goes to suppress it, it will be faster. We can minimize the damage as well.”
“….”
“If you have nothing to do, why not release me from my oath?”

Raina Hart produced the contract she had recently acquired.
For reasons unknown, Kevenriak despised breaking the oath he had bound me with.
It seemed to work this time as well, though something felt different.
He was being pulled along by Raina Hart, yet his pace was glacially slow.
Meanwhile, the fire and the clamor continued to intensify.

“…What is it that you want?”

Raina Hart turned her head back.
Kevenriak’s lips curved upward in satisfaction at her question.

“Grant me a wish.”
“A wish? …Excluding anything about that little rat and hiring someone to assassinate Your Majesty.”
“I have no other wishes.”

At the Emperor’s unwavering resolve, Raina’s lips twitched slightly.

“Would you ask the person with lavender hair to visit His Majesty tonight?”
“….”

Kevenriak’s expression darkened instantly.
In that moment, Raina regretted her words.

‘I’m sorry, Keri.’

I have no right to move you with such words.
But before guilt could fully settle in my heart, the Emperor’s instantaneous teleportation transformed the world before my eyes in a heartbeat.

A three-story Separate Palace engulfed in roaring flames.
People were divided into sections attempting to suppress the fire, but there was a problem.
The Separate Palace was connected to a small forest within the Imperial Palace, and the ignition point was the back garden of the Separate Palace.
The forest and the Separate Palace.
In the dry weather, the fire spreading in two directions was advancing with terrifying speed.

“Hurry! We need to suppress the forest too, not just the building!”
“Ugh. Do you think it’s as easy as you say? There are limits to our mana!”

Among the dozens of people who had rushed upon seeing the smoke were Imperial Palace mages.
About five or six mages had gathered.
All were mid to high-tier mages of the 3rd to 5th Circle, yet they were barely managing to suppress the fire around the Separate Palace.
They were insufficient to contain the flames spreading deep along the forest paths.

“Don’t just stand there! Fetch water in buckets!”
“There are people inside! Inside!”
“The entrance is blocked by fire!”

To make matters worse, people were trapped inside the Separate Palace.
They doused the flames with magic and with manual labor alike.
Yet the fire showed no signs of extinguishing.
If the flames continued to spread to the forest and the entire Imperial Palace….
It was then that anxiety and fear overwhelmed the crowd.

Whoosh.
The flames, which had momentarily subsided, surged skyward like a colossal serpent.
From the scorched earth where not a single ember remained, people gazed upward into the heavens.
The fire swelled its brilliant crimson form menacingly, then dispersed into the air without leaving even ash behind.

“….”

People stood speechless before the incomprehensible spectacle. A pair—a man and woman—approached them.
Among them, a man whose very presence radiated an overwhelming aura.
In that instant, the same thought crystallized in everyone’s mind.

‘The Emperor.’

It was not merely because he occupied the throne that this word surfaced.
They understood instinctively. That man was their sovereign.
Their knees buckled of their own accord, their heads bowing involuntarily.
First came reverence for his overwhelming might.
Then came the next thought.

‘The specter of Heteroven.’

Our Emperor has lost his mind—the confession tumbled from trembling lips as this thought seized those present.

“F-forgive us! Your Majesty!”
“Please, execute us!”
“B-but perhaps spare only Ban!”
“We beg your pardon!”

Noisy.
Would they fall silent if I killed only Ban as requested?
At that moment, Kevenriak’s lips curved upward ever so slightly.

“Your Majesty.”

Raina Hart grasped the Emperor’s arm.
Meanwhile, a servant with a family cautiously lifted his head, gauging the Emperor’s reaction.
Only then did he witness it.

“….”

I watched the beautiful woman beside him whisper something to the Emperor.
She was undoubtedly the noblewoman whose rumors had been circulating through the palace lately.
It was remarkable enough to see two beauties of such rare caliber in the Betuzhenia Empire standing together, but what happened next was utterly unbelievable.
The Emperor was smiling at this woman.
A servant who had witnessed something forbidden gasped and struck their forehead against the ground in panic.
Fortunately, the Emperor’s voice remained as terrifying as always, showing no sign that the eavesdropping had been discovered.

“Are there people trapped inside the building?”
“Y-yes, Your Majesty!”
“How many?”
“E-eight people, Your Majesty!”

Upon hearing this, Kevenriak strode purposefully into the Separate Palace.
Shock flickered across the faces of those who had never dared imagine the Emperor would personally intervene.
The Knights surrounding him hurried to follow in his wake.
From her solitary position, Raina Hart heard the voices of the maidservants nearby.

“Is it true that Commander Person went into the forest to catch a runaway horse?”

***

“…Ugh….”

Person lay collapsed beneath a cliff in the forest.
It had happened moments ago. While evacuating horses from the stable near the Separate Palace where the fire had broken out, one panicked and bolted into the forest.
Person, who had rushed to the scene upon hearing of the fire, immediately pursued the horse into the woods.
The heat from the wildfire chased at my heels, making me desperate. As I ran deeper to escape the flames, a herd of fleeing deer collided with me, and I tumbled sideways over the edge.
It was a cliff—perhaps twice my height, not particularly high.
But as I fell, my leg shattered, and a thick branch pierced through my abdomen.
I could only pray that my organs remained intact, yet the cold sweat drenching my body suggested otherwise.

‘Is this the end….’

The knight, just past forty, laughed bitterly at himself.
This was no honorable death. It was a dog’s death, plain and simple.
Then again, had I not already forfeited my right to be called a knight? I had failed to protect the lord I had sworn in my heart to serve.
Two years ago. I had not been without thoughts of my own end.

“I was wrong…. I’m sorry, Master.”
“Your Majesty!”

But I had no confidence.
What if Raina Hart asked me from the afterlife?
What if she questioned me about what became of the disciple she loved?
I had no confidence to answer that I alone had come, leaving behind a disciple driven to madness.
So I lived, and so I endured.

“Raina Hart.”

Two years had culminated in this.
Was this the end I had to show her?
Emptiness and despair enveloped the Knight’s limbs.
What surfaced from the weight of my failure to protect was memory—past moments with Raina Hart.

“Person, it’s been a while.”
“You shall become Commander of the First Knights Order.”
“You wish to remain in Hibei? …Do as you please.”

Memories flooded back with crystalline clarity, from the most recent to those long past.

‘You always appeared whenever I was drowning in despair.’

During the Third Prince’s rebellion, when I stood alone against an army in the Imperial Palace.
When I lost my position in the Third Knights Order and doubted everything about my future.
When I received orders to remain in Hibei, searching with my subordinates for a place to call home.
While escorting the Fourth Prince to Hibei, when the Empress’s assassins ambushed us.

“Vice-Commander, only we survived.”
“Damn them. Using sleep incense….”
“….”

Having lost my subordinates, surrounded by flames that reduced everything to ash, you appeared and spoke.

“Person.”
“Person.”

Just as now.

“Are you alright?”
“Are you okay?”
….

A woman with chestnut hair gazed down at me from atop the cliff.
Unfamiliar eyes swept across my fallen form.

“Your condition appears grave.”

That familiar tone—one I had sketched even in my dreams.

“Raina Hart.”

Thick tears streamed down the middle-aged knight’s eyes.

***

“Your Majesty, the person you just rescued is the last one.”

A knight who had confirmed the survivor rushed to the Emperor and reported.
His bowed waist tensed with pride and loyalty toward the 7-Circle Emperor.
But the Emperor’s attention was not on those I had rescued.
Kevenriak looked around.
The lady who should have been there was nowhere to be seen.

“Where did she go?”

Something displeased the Emperor.
Sensing the unusual tone in his voice, the knight asked.

“Who are you searching for, Your Majesty?”
“The lady.”
“I shall inquire at once.”

Fortunately, there was a witness nearby.
They said they had seen the lady enter the darkened forest alone.
The Emperor’s cold blue eyes gazed upon the ash-covered path where no one was visible.
Unconscious thoughts whispered to Kevenriak’s mind.

‘I’ve lost it.’

「Did you make a vow to Vivian Asperada?」

‘I’ve lost it again, Kevenriak.’

The Emperor’s feet, which had lifted from the ground before the Separate Palace, now treaded upon the forest path.

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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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