For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 97

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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 97

I couldn’t believe it.
I could reclaim my body.
It was as if—.

“My body is still alive?”
“Yes. Your heart is still beating.”
“…Is another soul inhabiting it?”
“It’s simply sleeping.”

Kevenriak’s answer was unwavering.
As though there truly was a place for her to return to.

‘I don’t have to disappear…?’

Two years had passed, so I naturally assumed that body would have ceased to exist in this world.
Yet it still lived.

[…Please protect your happy ending.]

A happy ending.
Did I still have a chance to protect yours?
Did time exist for me as it did for others?
My chest swelled with the hope beginning to bloom within me.

“Keri, do you know where my body is? Can we go see it?”

Kevenriak’s eyes curved beautifully with a smile.

“If that’s what you wish, Raina Hart.”
“There’s no reason I wouldn’t.”

At my words, Kevenriak extended his hand.
He was suggesting we teleport.
A teleportation that required relying on my disciple’s magical power.
When Kevenriak had believed me to be Vivian Asperada, it felt natural, but now that my true identity was revealed, I felt a touch of embarrassment.

“I’ll repay the mana you lent me later. Feel free to use your teacher however you wish.”

Kevenriak wrapped his hand around hers as she hesitantly offered it, his palm settling gently over her fingers.

“You needn’t do that at all, Raina.”

Rather, he urged her to use him freely, his enchanting smile playing at his lips. He seemed in better condition than when he had been on his knees.

But now it was I who felt unwell.

Captivated by Kevenriak’s smile, I found my gaze drawn to him without my consent.
Perhaps that was why the temperature of our joined hands felt so strange.
Warmer than when he had been mad, yet colder than when he was the disciple I knew.
An indecipherable warmth—much like the wavering of my own heart.

“Shall we go, Raina?”
“Oh, what if Vivian wakes up in the meantime—?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll bring her here.”

Kevenriak spoke as though he had anticipated my concern.
Once I was reassured, the Emperor’s mana enveloped us both.
The landscape that materialized was a place I knew well.

This is…?

I glanced around, taking in my surroundings.
A villa beyond Jenia, accessible through the Imperial Family’s Escape Tunnel.
It was where I had first reunited with Kevenriak while inhabiting Vivian’s body.
It was also where Tiernan and Kevenriak had engaged in their brief battle.

Had he read the story about the Rebel Forces that Keri had written in his letter?

I stole a glance at Kevenriak standing beside me.
His blue eyes, which had been gazing straight ahead, turned toward me as he sensed my gaze.
My heart suddenly raced, but I smiled gently back at his affectionate expression before turning my head away.

That startled me.

I would have reacted naturally, wouldn’t I?
I hoped Kevenriak hadn’t noticed anything amiss.
Then silence descended between us.

“….”

A silence I hadn’t felt in so long—unfamiliar yet achingly familiar.
Kevenriak stood beside me without urging, as if respecting my Master as she gazed at the surrounding landscape.
Even after the teleportation, our clasped hands remained intertwined.
I called out to him softly.

“Keri.”
“Yes.”

Now I could hear your answer when I called.

“Shall we go?”
“…Yes.”

Kevenriak matched my pace as we walked toward the villa entrance. I followed beside him, lost in thought for a moment.

‘If I could reclaim my body again….’

This time, I wanted to dream of a future meant solely for you.
Ever since I opened my eyes in Vivian Asperada’s body and learned that Kevenriak had become a tyrant, there was one thing I had always regretted.

“If you wished it, Keri, we could venture into a much larger world.”
“…Would my Master be there in that world as well?”

If only I had left this empire with you back then.
Perhaps we could have protected your happy ending without being bound by the original narrative.

“Keri, do you perhaps enjoy being Emperor?”

At those words, Kevenriak, who had been dissolving the villa’s barrier, turned to look at me.
Brown hair, hazel eyes. The appearance of another, yet my Master.

“…That’s strange.”

Perhaps I had known from the moment we first met.
Even though I was the intruder who found where Raina Hart slept, I could not bring myself to kill Vivian Asperada.
But Kevenriak’s unconscious mind had buried that truth.

‘Raina Hart died because of the feelings you harbored.’
‘If only you hadn’t brought her from Hibei to the Imperial Palace.’

I must not let Raina Hart die again.
So I had to pretend not to notice the warmth I felt in the hand I now held.

‘I must not love her.’

Kevenriak began suppressing every emotion once more.
Grasping the door handle of the villa’s entrance, I answered Raina Hart’s question about whether I enjoyed being Emperor.

“No.”

How could I possibly enjoy the throne that took you from me?
Raina Hart asked me again, her voice brightened.

“Then should we abandon the throne and go live in another country together?”

Raina Hart added to her words.

“Somewhere no one knows me and Keri. Besides, Anna will come of age next year, so it would be nice for just the two of us.”

Anna was the youngest of Raina Hart’s disciples.

“Ah, would Keri dislike it being just my teacher and me?”
“…No, I wouldn’t dislike it.”

Kevenriak shook his head slightly and smiled toward Raina Hart.
At my affectionate response, Raina Hart’s heart grew a little lighter as she imagined the future.
Knowing that stepping down from the throne was not something I could answer immediately, she had ventured to speak of it anyway.
Still, Kevenriak’s reaction was not unfavorable.

“That’s a relief.”

Even if you couldn’t abandon the throne, that would have been fine.
If I could reclaim Raina Hart’s body.

‘I could protect you.’

In the original story’s ending, you….

[I will protect Your Majesty.]

‘Ugh.’

A sudden headache caused Raina to furrow her brow, but she quickly composed her expression.
Yet she was caught immediately.

“Raina?”
“I’m fine. Vivian’s body is weak, so this happens often.”

The headache vanished beneath Kevenriak’s healing touch.
In Raina’s vision, embarrassed as she smiled, a firmly closed door came into view.

***

“Foolish Emperor.”

Zikhard was cackling as he flew through the Escape Tunnel.
What good did it do to teleport me to the Underground Vault?
The barrier that had confined me was already dispelled by the Emperor last time.
Now, to this great Demon Grimoire, the vault was no different from Raina Hart’s personal pocket dimension that she came and went from as she pleased.
But there was another reason Zikhard was elated beyond merely escaping the vault.

“Human thoughts never deviate from this Zikhard’s expectations.”

Having detected the presence of a 7th-circle Attendant who had been following my master in the Rebel Forces’ village.

“I predicted the Emperor would take the princess to the Villa where my master’s body is.”

So it was better for me to go to the Villa rather than remain locked away in the vault.
After all, I could discern the internal structure of the Imperial Palace simply by reading it—wasn’t that my ability?
Zikhard emerged from the vault, traversed the Library’s secret passage, and made his way toward the Escape Tunnel.
And just moments ago.

“Kekeke. Caught you!”

While soaring toward the Escape Tunnel that stretched from the Imperial Palace beyond the City Walls of Jenia, my reading range finally reached the Villa.
And there I could read Vivian Asperada and the Emperor.
How could I possibly miss the moment when my master finds her body?

“This time, I’ll finally hear the screams and see the blood of humans….”

Just to be certain he wasn’t too late, Zikhard also read the information on Raina Hart.

Raina Hart
■■ ■■■ ■■■
■■ ■ ■ ■ ■■■
….

Still information that couldn’t be read, but unlike before, the Grimoire of Magic noticed something odd.

“Wasn’t there a parenthesis next to her name two years ago?”

In that moment.
Zikhard halted briefly in mid-air, then resumed his forward movement.

“This time, I’ll finally hear the screams and see the blood of humans….”

He cleanly forgot the words he’d just muttered to himself.

***

….

Raina gazed at the Archmage sleeping within the glass chamber.
Though I had lived for over a decade in this body, it felt unfamiliar when viewed through another’s eyes.

“This place reminds me of Hibei.”
“I decorated it similarly. Does it please you?”
“Yes. Very much.”

The room Kevenriak Heteroven had prepared for her was remarkably cozy and comforting.

‘Even when I wasn’t in my right mind…’

He had been protecting me like this all along.
Raina Hart suppressed the overwhelming surge of emotion rising within her.

“I want to touch her.”

At Raina Hart’s words, Kevenriak Heteroven made the glass case vanish with magic.
His blue eyes watched as she reached out her hand toward the reclining body.

“….”

Raina Hart touched the soft cheek.
Frozen at eighteen years old, never aging, she looked exactly as she had on the day she first entered this world.

‘She’s really breathing.’

But how?
She had thought that encountering a living body would bring only joy.
Yet what she felt upon grasping this reality was anxiety rather than happiness.
How am I breathing when my heart was pierced through.

‘The dagger had magic nullification enchanted on it. Even if discovered quickly, my breath should have stopped.’

There was no magic that could restore life.
After a moment of contemplation, Raina Hart suddenly unfastened the buttons of her upper garment.

“Raina Hart…!”

Startled by her action, Kevenriak Heteroven cried out and quickly turned his head away.
A moment later.

“Keri.”

Raina Hart stared at his exposed upper body, her voice trembling as she called out to the Emperor.

“…What have you done?”

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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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