I’m a Villain, but I Want to Live a Long Life - Chapter 12

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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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I extended my hand to Martina, who was sitting slumped on the floor.

She looked a bit flustered but soon hesitantly took my hand.

“Th-thank you.”

Martina said in a weak voice.

“I’m sorry about today… I’ll apologize on her behalf.”

I shook my head.

“Why should you apologize? The one with a shit personality is over there.”

As I spoke while looking in the direction Rose had disappeared, Martina hung her head low.

“Rosette isn’t usually like that, but today something bad happened…”

I was nodding but then stopped abruptly.

“…Wait, what did you just say?”

“Huh? I said something bad happened today…”

“No, before that.”

“That Rosette isn’t usually like that…?”

I widened my eyes and stared at Martina.

“Rosette?”

Rose was a nickname, and her real name was Rosette?

I covered my mouth with my hand.

Rosette Grimaldi.

That was Rose’s exact name.

She was the only daughter of the Duke Grimaldi family, and one of the dozens of children staying in that household.

What this meant was.

‘The Duke and his wife, meaning Rosette’s parents, are both completely insane.’

By my standards, Duke Grimaldi and his wife were society’s evil and trash. Not even recyclable.

‘They have nothing better to do than abuse children.’

From what I remembered, it wasn’t physical violence. But perhaps it was something even more terrible than that.

What was happening in Rosette’s household could be understood just by looking at the number of children being adopted into that house.

I asked Martina, who was sitting across from me.

“How many children are at the manor now?”

“Well, the Duke brought another four-year-old yesterday… so probably sixty-two.”

I opened my mouth and slowly set down the teacup I was drinking from.

That was probably just the number of children currently staying at the manor.

If you included the children who were thrown away or disappeared without a trace, I couldn’t imagine how many there would be.

Even people don’t bring home puppies or kittens so irresponsibly.

My appetite had completely vanished.

‘Crazy bastards…’

The reason Duke Grimaldi and his wife adopted so many children was purely out of dirty greed.

They must have said this to Rosette this very morning without fail.

‘Rosette. Your ability is pathetic. How can you get into the Academy like this? This is why we have no choice but to keep adopting siblings. You mustn’t become a disgrace to the Grimaldi name.’

‘Remember this, Rosette. Our family has no need for the incompetent. If you truly inherited the blood of the great Grimaldi, you should at least show excellence superior to your siblings.’

After letting out a deep sigh, I asked Martina.

“Did Rosette go back to the manor?”

Martina shook her head.

“Normally she would have, but not today. They’re holding a party at the manor right now…”

“What kind of party?”

“The child who came yesterday manifested an elemental ability…”

“Wait, didn’t you say that kid was four years old?”

“Yes. They can barely speak yet.”

“But they manifested an ability?”

Martina nodded. Manifestation usually occurred between the ages of ten and fifteen.

Occasionally there were children who manifested abilities a bit early, but…

To manifest an elemental ability at only four years old.

I could understand why the Duke and his wife, who were obsessed with powerful abilities to the point of being perverted, threw a party.

‘That’s why she was in an even worse mood.’

I recalled the image of Rosette trembling, pale as a sheet.

‘This feels unpleasantly disturbing for no reason.’

The reason I remembered Rosette was because she had appeared in the novel.

Of course, it wasn’t a hopeful episode. Because the scene where she appeared was…

‘Selene’s execution.’

Just before Selene was to mount the execution platform as payment for killing Eria, she met someone in the underground prison.

That was Rosette.

Rosette spoke first to Selene through the rusted iron bars.

“Selene. I never thought I’d meet you here.”

And she asked.

“Who did you kill to end up here?”

When Selene didn’t answer, Rosette laughed like someone who had lost their mind and muttered.

“I told you, didn’t I? That you’d be abandoned. I already knew, I knew everything! Soon your head will be cut off. But who could possibly save you? Huh?”

“…Please just shut up, Rosette.”

“No Selene, listen. Do you know what I did? I… killed my siblings. I killed my mother and father too.”

“…”

“I agonized over it hundreds, thousands of times. Why is my ability so pathetic? Why am I so incompetent? But now I understand. My ability was ultimately meant to kill everyone…”

Rosette shook the iron bars with hands stained with blood that had hardened and shouted.

“Selene! How’s my ability? Isn’t it amazing?! I finally inherited the Grimaldi blood! So I’m not incompetent! I’m not incompetent anymore!!”

She screamed desperately. Repeating the same words over and over.

Until the very last moment when she was dragged away by the executioner’s hands.

As I recalled the novel’s contents, I bit my lower lip hard. Martina looked at me with a puzzled expression.

After hesitating for a moment, I finally shot up from my seat.

‘I didn’t want to get involved with anyone if possible.’

It seemed like I had no choice but to look for Rosette.

Moreover…

‘From what I know, Rosette’s ability isn’t pathetic at all.’

Rather, it was quite a beautiful ability to be treated as useless at the Grimaldi manor.

Rosette could make pretty flowers bloom even in the dead of winter.

With just a light gesture, new leaves would sprout from withered weeds, and dying trees would come back to life.

Her ability was ‘Bloom’.

Rosette walked along the back road of the Tigris Estate, roughly rubbing her cheeks. Both her eyes were bloodshot red.

‘Why is she so relaxed, why!’

Despite being incompetent.

She muttered lowly.

Incompetent people shouldn’t be so relaxed. They shouldn’t lie so comfortably on the grass looking up at the sky.

The world wasn’t so generous. It was only natural to be abandoned if you lacked ability.

But Selene from earlier was strange. No, perhaps she was even crazy.

Even without abilities, she could easily kick her out. Calling it our house.

The image of her confidently spouting such nonsense was vivid in her mind.

“…You’re insane, completely insane.”

How dare a powerless nobody defy someone with abilities like herself? How could she boldly refuse her advice?

Without abilities, you can’t do anything. You become a useless human being.

…You don’t even dare open your mouth carelessly.

Rosette recalled her fifteenth birthday when she came of age.

The smile that appeared on her parents’ faces when she first manifested her ability, pathetic though it was.

It was the smile of her parents that she, their own daughter, had never been able to see until then—the smile they had always shown only to her other siblings.

From that day on, Rosette was allowed to speak at home. In the dining hall, she could put good food on her plate and wear pretty, expensive clothes.

But what made her happiest of all was that her parents’ gaze, which had looked at her with contempt, had changed.

Of course, they weren’t particularly pleased with Rosette’s ability.

But at least now they seemed to have some hope for her.

‘If you work hard, you can develop your ability. You just need to train to increase and control your mana! That’s how you can become a true Grimaldi too!’

She devoted herself to training until blood vessels burst in her eyes and her ears went numb.

All to make her pathetic ability even slightly more presentable.

…But then.

‘When you haven’t even manifested anything.’

Unlike herself, Selene was confident even without any abilities. She even seemed happy somehow.

They said she didn’t get along with Duke Tigris, yet she embarrassingly called the manor ‘our home’ and smiled.

And she looked straight at her, someone with manifested abilities.

She couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason, but Rosette found this fact unbearably torturous.

It felt like her chest was being seared with hot fire.

Staggering weakly, she slowly sank down where she stood.

‘Ian! From today, you are the hope of Grimaldi. Show everyone your ability!’

She recalled her younger brother creating small water droplets from his maple leaf-like hands at their father’s words.

It was an ability incomparable to her own pathetic power that could barely make flowers bloom.

“Ugh…”

A thin whimper escaped through her clenched teeth.

She had no idea what to do going forward. Truth be told, she wasn’t even confident she could pass the Academy entrance exam.

No matter how hard she tried, it seemed she would never be loved. Like this, forever until she died.

Overwhelmed by the dizzying fear that washed over her, tears finally began to fall drop by drop from her eyes.

But then it happened.

“What, you didn’t get very far.”

Rosette’s eyes widened as she looked up.

Selene was looking down at her, her fine hair fluttering, though she didn’t know when she had arrived.

“…What.”

Though she had filled her voice with hostility, only a weak sound flowed from her mouth.

She roughly wiped away her tears and abruptly stood up. She couldn’t remain sitting here in front of the annoying Selene.

But suddenly she felt a dizzying sensation.

As Rosette unknowingly lost her balance and staggered, Martina appeared from somewhere and quickly supported her.

“Rose…!”

But Martina’s eyes were also glistening with tears.

Rosette recalled what she had said earlier and coldly shook off her hand.

“Martina, don’t you have any pride?! Did you already forget what I said to you?!”

Martina didn’t answer. She just looked down and hesitated with an uncertain expression.

Then Selene, who had been watching the two from a short distance away, spoke.

“What did you say? You snapped at her asking how dare an orphan touch you with her dirty hands.”

Rosette and Martina turned their heads with shocked eyes.

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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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