I’m a Villain, but I Want to Live a Long Life - Chapter 28

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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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“Miss!”

I let out a deep sigh at the familiar voice from behind me. However, I quickly erased my expression and turned my head.

“Casian? What’s the matter?”

“I was eating on the first floor when I saw you going out…”

Casian stood there with a troubled expression, wiping the sweat dripping from his forehead. I smiled awkwardly.

“Ah, I was just going out for a walk.”

“But the sun will start setting in a little while.”

I blinked blankly.

“Oh, I like taking walks at sunset…”

Then Casian’s expression brightened.

“Then let’s go together!”

At his cheerful voice, I closed my mouth.

Behind him, I could almost see a dog’s tail wagging somehow.

Perhaps reading my troubled expression, Casian hastily added.

“I won’t bother you. If it’s uncomfortable, please let me follow even from a distance!”

“…”

“His Excellency told me not to leave your side even for a moment!”

After thinking for a moment, I had no choice but to nod.

“…Fine. Then let’s go together, I guess.”

“Thank you!”

Casian smiled brightly and stood behind me. I secretly shook my head and took a step forward.

The market was still bustling with people. I glanced sideways at Casian who was following behind me like a puppy.

‘I was planning to ask around among the merchants and townspeople…’

This way, I can’t investigate comfortably.

If I showed such behavior now, Casian would obviously think I was strange.

“…Can’t be helped.”

“Pardon?”

Casian asked back at my muttering. I looked at him and said.

“Casian. Actually, there’s someone I’m looking for.”

“Pardon? Who are you looking for?”

“Uh, an old friend?”

“A friend?”

His eyes were round. I smiled sheepishly and continued.

“Yes, a friend. We used to… see each other quite often before.”

It wasn’t a lie. Of course, he was in the novel and I was in the real world, but.

“Ah, so that’s why you came out in such a hurry!”

Casian answered with a bright expression.

‘How can a person be so bright?’

As I stared at him with a bewildered face, he added.

“To think you have a friend even in such a small village, that’s really amazing! Please go about your business comfortably. I’ll follow quietly without interfering!”

I hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly nodded.

It should be fine, I thought, and when I turned my gaze, the market still bustling with business came into view.

Then my steps stopped when I spotted something among the busy people.

There was a street vendor selling cheap accessories nearby. I quickly approached there.

“Excuse me. May I ask you something?”

When I spoke to him, an old man who seemed to be the owner of the street stall looked up at me with a suspicious expression.

“Is there perhaps a hill with a farm in this area?”

But the man just stared at me blankly.

After watching him for a moment, I had no choice but to hold out a coin and say.

“It’s a farm on a hill. With a reed field nearby.”

The wariness gradually disappeared from his face as he took the coin. The merchant who had been examining the coin from all angles finally muttered.

“This area is full of farms.”

“Pardon?”

“But if it’s on a hill…”

He glanced at me with my eyes wide open and slowly opened his mouth.

“If you go straight north along this road, you’ll find it.”

It was the answer I wanted. My expression brightened and I quickly bowed my head.

“Thank you!”

Casian followed behind me as I hurriedly moved my steps.

But perhaps because I was too eager.

I didn’t hear the merchant muttering something more.

“…Strange woman. Why is she asking about the path leading to the Cursed Land?”

I struggled up the hill while glancing at Casian following behind me.

‘It would be a bit much to ask him to carry me.’

He was walking up the steep hill like flat ground with a perfectly fine face.

Meanwhile, I was wiping the beads of sweat forming on my forehead while catching my breath that had risen to my chin.

To think I’d sweat this much even in the middle of winter. I was even amazed at how steep the hill was.

“Miss, the sun is slowly setting…”

I heard Casian’s worried voice from behind.

I caught my breath for a moment and gestured toward the small shape faintly visible at the end of the hill.

“Huff, we’re almost there… We’ll arrive once we reach that cottage over there.”

Casian’s expression brightened at my words.

“Ah, then we just need to hurry a little!”

I nodded and squeezed out my last bit of strength to move my steps.

Fortunately, the slope became a bit gentler as the hill approached its peak.

As I was staring at the cottage’s form becoming clearer, Casian suddenly asked from beside me.

“You must be very close friends!”

“Pardon?”

“For you to come all the way to such a distant place, you must be very close.”

Looking at his face full of innocent smiles, I nodded reluctantly.

“Well, they’re certainly a very helpful friend.”

Then Casian nodded as if he understood well. When I turned my head, the cottage had gotten much closer.

My steps quickened. Around me, the scenery Adam had shown me was spread out exactly as it was.

The vast reed field and grasslands spread out here and there. And even the flocks of sheep grazing on them.

This is definitely the place.

After walking a bit more, I finally arrived in front of the cottage. I glanced back at Casian and said.

“Casian, wait outside for a moment.”

He nodded. I quickly approached the door and knocked on it.

But there was no answer from inside. Just as I was about to knock on the door once more in frustration.

“…Who is it.”

A blunt voice leaked through the door crack. But something was strange.

‘This isn’t the Prince.’

The voice was too rough to belong to the Prince who should be nineteen years old now. I tilted my head and answered.

“Excuse me. I have something to ask briefly.”

Silence continued from beyond the door. Becoming urgent, I quickly added.

“I just want to ask one thing briefly. It’ll only take a moment.”

With a creaking sound, the wooden door slowly opened. I stiffened my expression in surprise at the face visible through the door crack.

An old man with white hair was standing there, fiddling with his bushy beard.

After looking me up and down, he soon turned his gaze to Casian behind me.

The old man’s eyes instantly filled with tension when he spotted the sword hanging at Casian’s waist.

I watched his reaction with a troubled expression. An awkward silence flowed between us.

Then the old man muttered in a reluctant voice.

“…If it’s just for a moment, come in. Only the young lady, of course.”

I nodded in bewilderment. Then I slowly stepped through the open door.

The old man’s expression looked quite fierce somehow, so I turned my head slightly to look at Casian.

‘It should be fine with Casian outside.’

He also seemed tense, as his hand rested on the sword sheath at his waist.

‘Wait here.’

When I mouthed the words, he nodded. I silently followed the old man deeper into the cottage.

After passing through a short corridor, a warm interior was soon revealed.

Tapestries woven with colorful threads hung on the walls, and logs were burning in the fireplace.

As I blankly looked around, the old man glanced at me and spoke curtly.

“Sit there.”

I glanced back behind me.

There was a sofa made with a wooden frame and several thick blankets layered on top.

When I sat down, I felt the soft texture. Just as I was inwardly admiring it, the old man who had been maintaining a dubious expression asked.

“…You said you had something to ask.”

His voice was filled with the desire to quickly get the business over with.

“Ah, that’s…!”

I quickly opened my mouth as I came to my senses.

“By any chance, is there a young man living here with black hair and golden eyes?”

The old man narrowed his eyes.

“Young man?”

I made an “ah” sound and added.

“Not a young man, but a youth.”

Considering the Prince’s age, the term youth seemed more appropriate.

The old man’s cloudy, faded eyes looked me up and down, filled with suspicion.

“…This is a place where I live alone.”

“Then perhaps there’s another house nearby….”

“Didn’t you see it on your way up?”

I opened my eyes wide at the old man’s sudden question that cut me off.

“What, what?”

“The forest that spreads beyond the hill.”

“…The forest?”

I soon recalled something and nodded my head.

The vast forest that was visible beyond the hill throughout the journey up with Casian.

“I saw it. It looked quite wide, but why….”

“You really don’t know?”

“…?”

“That’s the famous Cursed Land. How could there be people living around here?”

My mouth gradually closed.

The Cursed Land that Father had set out to subjugate was this place?

Come to think of it, the direction Father had departed on horseback was indeed this way.

It was when I was gaping, unable to continue speaking from the heavy shock.

“I have an eye disease, so I don’t know about black hair and eye color and such….”

At the old man’s words, I instantly stiffened.

“But if it’s someone who comes and goes around here, I do know of one.”

The old man stroked his beard as if lost in thought.

“…Tatio.”

I opened my eyes wide at the unfamiliar name that came from the old man’s mouth.

“There’s a fearless fellow who hunts various things around here and sells them to the village people. I bought something from that fellow today too.”

When I looked where the old man gestured, there was a basket filled with red berries on a wooden table.

‘Tatio.’

I repeated that name inwardly.

One thing was certain. According to the scene Adam had shown me, the Prince had definitely come here a few hours ago.

‘Then for now, there’s a high possibility that this person called Tatio is the Prince….’

But the name is different, the name.

However, my expression soon changed subtly.

‘…Come to think of it, there’s no way a Prince living in hiding would openly announce his real name.’

I urgently asked the old man.

“Then by any chance, do you know where this person called Tatio lives?”

The old man looked at me with a very strange expression.

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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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