I’m a Villain, but I Want to Live a Long Life - Chapter 113

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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‘Madrin, I don’t think I’ll be able to come to the market very often anymore. If you’d call it good news, something good has happened.’

It had been so long ago that she had momentarily forgotten. Madrin recalled the face of Lady Ponzi, who had spoken with a bright smile.

Even the words she had said.

‘What’s happened? Did you build another barn?’

‘A barn? What are you talking about. Both my husband and I are getting on in years, so we can’t work much anymore. Though we might be able to look after a child at our age.’

Lady Ponzi had definitely smiled shyly. And then she had explained how it came to be…

Madrin’s eyes grew wider and wider.

“Yes, there was! Not their own child, but they had taken in one child.”

At those words, Duke Haren, who had been staring at the ground, raised his head. His eyes were somehow bloodshot.

Madrin wondered if she had said something she shouldn’t have and closed her mouth, but soon Sadina exclaimed happily.

“So there was a child they took in after all! Where did they say they found the child? Perhaps from Duke Haren’s territory beyond the boundary line?”

Madrin blinked her confused eyes. It was because Sadina had gotten the answer completely right.

‘There was a child in the forest under the jurisdiction of the Academy?’

‘That’s what I’m telling you. They brought back someone who was frozen stiff as ice and nursed them for several days before they finally regained their strength. When they woke up and we asked what had happened… it was really pitiful.’

‘Oh my, why was that young child alone in the forest?’

‘It seems they have no parents. The mother is dead, and whenever we mention the father, they clam up completely. My husband and I think… perhaps the father abandoned the child.’

“That’s definitely what they said! Even when they offered to take the child back to their parents, the child absolutely refused and threw a tantrum, so they had no choice but to take them in.”

“You’re saying the child themselves refused to go back?”

“Yes! Whether they couldn’t speak or wouldn’t speak, they kept their mouth tightly shut, but when they started making inquiries to send the child back to their parents’ embrace, the child threw a fit saying they’d rather die than go there. Since the couple had also wanted a child, they eventually decided to just take them in.”

With Duke Haren letting out a deep sigh behind her, Sadina asked.

“Don’t you know the name…? The child’s name, I mean.”

Madrin thought for a moment and then shook her head.

“I don’t really know the name. That couple rarely talked about it… Oh, but I have seen the child a few times.”

“The child?”

“Yes. On the day the elderly couple had their accident, that child came looking for them at the market.”

Madrin slowly traced through her hazy memories.

On the day of the accident, the market was in chaos.

A horse that had eaten something wrong was running around the busy market floor, foaming at the mouth, and unfortunately the elderly couple’s small stall became its victim.

The problem was that along with the stall, a pillar of the warehouse right next to it was destroyed, and the elderly couple was trapped under the debris of the collapsed warehouse and met with disaster.

When Madrin and the other market people were just stamping their feet helplessly, that child appeared.

The child, who seemed to be about fifteen years old now, screamed and wailed in front of the collapsed warehouse debris.

While calling out the elderly couple’s names.

“They cried so heartbreakingly that I still remember that scene vividly. That’s right, the child did something strange that shocked everyone in the market.”

“Something strange…?”

“Well, they suddenly stopped crying and tried to gouge out their own eyes! They kept injuring their own face. What was it, they said something strange…”

Madrin stopped speaking and glanced across at the other side. Duke Haren was biting his lips as if they might bleed.

But since she felt she should finish the story she had started, she continued speaking.

“They kept screaming about why they couldn’t stop it every time. Something about things they kept seeing… Everyone thought the child had lost their mind from shock.”

“…”

“And that wasn’t all, something about curses… Anyway, they kept clawing at their own face, so everyone had to step in to stop them and it was complete chaos. Fortunately, after a few hours they calmed down and returned to the cottage.”

“To that cottage… where the elderly couple lived.”

Madrin nodded.

“Yes. After that, the village people and I went to visit a few times with food, but they said they were fine and told us not to come anymore.”

“So you didn’t visit after that?”

“That’s mostly how it was. The child had put up walls against the village people even though they were almost grown up. But after living like that for a few years, one day the house was empty.”

“…”

“According to rumors, they met a man they promised to marry and went to the Empire. Since there’s been no news after that, I don’t know for certain.”

Having finally finished speaking, Madrin took a short deep breath.

Breaking through the silence, Sadina nodded.

“…Yes. This is sufficient. You’ve worked hard coming all this way.”

At her signal, the administrators waiting in the back approached Madrin.

“We’ve prepared a small token of appreciation according to His Grace’s orders. We’ll escort you home by carriage.”

Madrin nodded with a bewildered face and quickly stood up to follow them.

As she left through the door and looked back, she could see Duke Haren still trembling.

‘Good heavens, what on earth is this all about.’

She still couldn’t believe who she had met and what she had said.

It was unbelievable that she had seen the reclusive Duke Haren with her own eyes, and for some reason he had been giving off a strange atmosphere the entire time.

‘He has such a different temperament from our lord.’

She wondered how someone so weak could manage an estate. Madrin, who had been clicking her tongue inwardly, soon changed her mind.

A cargo carriage appeared before her eyes, loaded with glistening meat and groceries, and fine fabrics.

“You may take everything.”

The administrator who spoke matter-of-factly held out a pouch. When she opened it with trembling hands, there were dozens of gold coins inside.

“Good, good heavens…”

Madrin quickly climbed into the carriage with an extremely excited face.

Thinking that although Duke Haren seemed a bit weak, he was certainly an excellent and merciful lord.

‘I don’t know what this is about, but I hope it resolves smoothly.’

And soon she left the duchy with a smile, clutching the pouch of gold coins tightly.

“Your… Your Grace.”

Duke Haren, sitting alone in the empty room after sending everyone away, slowly raised his head.

It was Seleneae Tigris who was peeking her head through the slightly opened door.

“That young man…”

Duke Haren reflexively tried to ask about the whereabouts of the boy who resembled him, but closed his mouth.

He couldn’t define for himself what exactly he was curious about.

He bit his lips tightly and agonized, then noticed that Lady Tigris was still standing awkwardly at the door.

“Come in and sit down.”

When he spoke, Seleneae Tigris carefully approached and sat across from him.

“Did… did you find out?”

Seleneae spoke in a very cautious voice.

She seemed to have in mind the stories she had rambled about a few hours earlier.

‘The reason we couldn’t find anything no matter how much we searched Haren Territory… was because they were in Tigris Territory. I need to find someone who knows whereabouts, Sharlina’s whereabouts. That child’s house, at least that house…’

At that time, she had definitely been half out of her mind.

From the moment she saw the photo of the girl who appeared to be Sharlina, who looked exactly like Riana, she couldn’t maintain her sanity anymore.

So she hurriedly sent people to Tigris Territory and found out the location of the cottage where Sharlina seemed to have stayed.

And also how Sharlina had lived.

‘When talk of her father came up… she would clam up.’

Duke Haren bitterly recalled the testimony of the commoner woman from earlier.

‘…An incompetent father who let her mother die, what could the child expect from him.’

Duke Haren was seized by terrible self-loathing and closed his eyes tightly, forgetting that Lady Tigris was in front of him.

But soon he raised his gaze at a gentle voice.

“It’s Rubel.”

Duke Haren raised his head. His gaze trembled finely.

“That child’s real name is Rubel.”

Duke Hallen felt the name was somehow familiar and stiffened, then soon realized why.

Yes, now that he thought about it, that was right.

“…The missing prince.”

Selene nodded slightly.

“That’s right. Everyone thought he was dead, but Rubel has been hiding alone all this time. In the Cursed Land.”

Luc Hallen’s eyes flickered momentarily.

When was it that rumors spread about the former prince’s disappearance? It must have been more than 10 years ago.

The former prince’s age at that time was probably eight or nine, if he remembered correctly.

He had lived alone in the Cursed Land from such a young age?

Luc Hallen bit his lips, feeling a dull ache in one corner of his chest.

Then he quietly swallowed at Selene’s next words.

“He’s a lonely child. Rubel is.”

Selene’s eyes were calm and honest.

Duke Hallen quietly gazed into those eyes before weakly parting his lips. But he couldn’t finish his words.

“I am…”

Selene left him trembling for a long while. Then, as if she had decided something, she suddenly began to speak.

“Your Grace. Since there doesn’t seem to be anyone suitable to tell you this story, I’ll do it.”

“…”

“…Sharlina, whom you’ve been searching for, is no longer in this world.”

At those words, hot tears flowed down his cheeks.

“You already know this, don’t you, Your Grace.”

To hold back his sobs, Duke Hallen briefly held his breath.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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