Isn’t Being A Wicked Woman Much Better? - Chapter 171

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

Chapter 171
Death grazed perilously close to her ear, yet there was no time to dwell on the terror it inspired.
Unlike her, her opponent was an assassin skilled at reading presence. The desperate certainty that stopping her assault would result in a weapon piercing through her skull drove her to the very limits of her endurance.
Meanwhile, the scholars who had emerged into the Empty Lot alongside Deborah Simour widened their eyes at her unbelievable power. Albert, too, watching the endless explosions of light, felt a chilling dread wash over him.
‘She’s been concealing such strength all this time.’
The overwhelming power to annihilate half of a well-trained elite regiment in mere moments. They said that when darkness descended upon this land, a savior would appear.
‘But she seems more like a god of war than a saint….’
She generated sacred light endlessly, befitting her reputation as a savior. Albert, whose eyes had contorted at the sight of that magnificent radiance, brought his thumb to his lips and bit down hard.
‘I must kill that woman here, today, no matter what.’
Black blood dripped like ink from his lips. He withdrew a crimson spider bearing a skull pattern from within his long sleeve, scribbled something on a small slip of paper, then began muttering an incantation.
Albert’s left face gradually darkened to black, cracking like parched earth. His left arm and shoulder crumbled helplessly like a sandcastle, transforming into a swarm of spiders that scattered rapidly.
The spider swarm he controlled slipped furtively into the gaps between buildings and between stone tiles. Among them, the spider bearing the most lethal venom crept slowly toward the princess.
‘I cannot allow Deborah Simour time to heal.’
The spider advanced with precision toward her nape, its deadly toxin capable of paralyzing brain function in an instant.
“Ugh!”
Then suddenly, the nerve connection to the venomous spider severed, and Albert cried out in anguished agony.
The sorcery linking body and mind to a creature was formidable in power, but it carried the disadvantage of compromised vision and the danger of severe backlash when the creature was attacked.
Albert, eyes closed, spat black blood from his mouth while gasping for breath, then opened bloodshot eyes to gaze downward.
‘How did she block it this time…?’
“Grrrrr….”
The princess had been able to sense the creature’s approach in advance thanks to the holy beast she always carried with her. It was no coincidence that she had brought the holy beast egg that detected creatures even to the Horse Racing Track.
From the moment Albert deployed his black magic, she had sensed through the holy beast’s alert that something larger lurked nearby.
‘A spider.’
Deborah clenched her teeth as she gazed at the spider corpse that Purple had trampled to death.
‘So the venomous spider swarm that appeared at the Crown Prince’s charity event and harmed people were indeed creatures.’
There existed a powerful Black Mage capable of controlling creatures, and someone with such unique abilities was targeting her in this vicinity.
‘They’re determined to kill me.’
The murderous intent honed to a sharp edge tightened her ribcage with a surge of terror.
Moreover, having virtually no real combat experience, Deborah had been expending considerable mental energy. Her legs trembled finely from the tension of this life-or-death struggle, and her breathing grew increasingly ragged.
A powerful Black Mage controlling a spider colony would never send only a single spider, so she heightened her vigilance further and scanned the darkening surroundings.
‘…They’re coming.’
But the princess’s prediction fell spectacularly short.
It was not the Black Mage controlling the venomous spiders, but masked assassins who vaulted over the wall and landed in the Empty Lot. They were hired killers who had held their breath in waiting until Albert sent the spider. Purple urgently expelled a mass of mana from her mouth, but dozens of throwing stars had already surged toward the princess in an instant.
“Gah!!”
As the terror of an arrowhead grazing her ear flooded back, her mind went blank white in an instant. Like encountering an unexpected problem in the mathematics section she was most confident about on the college entrance exam, a vertiginous sense of helplessness choked off her breath.
Sacred magic demanded precise casting. The light clusters forming arrow shapes in the air scattered like sleet above her violet hair due to a computational error.
Deborah, drawing upon her sacred power to its maximum as if grasping at straws, curled inward protectively over her heart, anticipating the sharp pain that would soon engulf her body.
Clang—!
But the terrible agony she had imagined never came. The barrage of throwing stars was deflected entirely by a blade wreathed in golden sword energy.
‘Isidore….’
Using an improved teleportation magic circle and layering multiple Class 7 teleportation spells for maximum speed, Isidore rushed to the Capital and enveloped Deborah Simour in his protection, intercepting every attack.
Deborah Simour’s condition was dire as she struggled to steady her ragged breathing, while Isidore’s jade eyes churned like turbulent waves as he gazed upon her.
His expression held a murderous intent she had never witnessed before. Without a word, he gripped his sword hilt, and in a flash of lightning-fast movement, Isidore dispatched the remaining assassins in the blink of an eye.
The Empty Lot fell into a deathly silence. Within that ominous quiet, a rustling sound echoed as something moved with precision, and insects hidden in the darkness converged toward a single point.
“How… Duke Visconti… how are you… here….”
Albert’s rough and sinister voice scattered through the air in fragments. A towering mass of spiders reformed slowly into a human shape before he let out a savage roar.
“You should be in the Southern Region!”
Albert screamed, his face twisted grotesquely black like hardened coal on one side. Instead of answering, Isidore appeared directly behind him through teleportation magic, and his aura-wrapped blade pierced through Albert’s abdomen.
“How dare you. Your words are insufficient.”
Isidore twisted the blade and spoke coldly.
“Kugh!”
“Who’s behind this?”
Rather than finishing his opponent in one stroke, he severed fingers, ear tips, and lips while demanding answers. Albert writhed in agony but refused to open his mouth.
“So you intend to remain silent to the end.”
Isidore’s sword energy erupted with ferocity incomparable to before.
“When did you nobles ever listen to the words of creatures like us? How amusing that you now seek answers.”
“Fine. From now on, only screams will come from your mouth.”
“…Arrogant fool.”
Albert’s blackened body compressed like clay before splitting into two chunks—head and chest separated from the abdomen.
“Isidore!!”
Albert’s mouth, now transformed into a massive spider, gaped wide open. At the horrifying sight, Deborah Simour cried out his name in terror.
“No!”
The monster’s jaws spread wide, revealing venomous fangs as it lunged to swallow Isidore whole in one gulp.
Shrieeeek!
But the moment of dread was brief.
Isidore summoned a long spear and thrust it violently into the creature’s gaping maw. Infusing his sword energy, he stirred the creature’s belly with all his might, causing the blackened venom to explode outward. Isidore quickly shielded Deborah Simour and dodged away.
“Kugh, ugh….”
Fragments that fell apart transformed into small spiders that writhed and squirmed.
“Not so fast.”
With fierce eyes, Isidore raised his sword and drove it down hard into the ground. Golden mana spread like a net, shattering the small spiders that had been attempting to escape into fragments.
‘What is that.’
Just when she thought it was finally over, the shattered spider corpses scattered through the air as if still alive, causing Deborah Simour to narrow her eyes.
Like a cursed spirit wandering through the void, a blackened mist lingered around the area. Before Albert vanished completely, he gathered all his remaining power and spat out words that were nothing short of a curse.
“This is… far from… the end….”
The dying man’s thin voice swept coldly past Deborah Simour’s ear.
“Where light is strong… shadow grows deep….”
Even as he faded, the Black Mage left behind a lingering sense of dread.
“…Sigh.”
Shortly after, only Deborah Simour and Isidore remained in the Empty Lot. The scholars who had evacuated here with Deborah Simour had already fled by the time Isidore arrived.
“Let’s leave this place for now.”
As if to confirm she was alive, Isidore pulled her into a tight embrace, caressing her repeatedly before suddenly lifting her body effortlessly into the air.
“….”
His eyes were rimmed red as though he might weep at any moment, so Deborah Simour couldn’t bring herself to ask him to put her down.
* * *
The crimson spider that had brought the tattered note before the Fourth Empress soon swayed as if intoxicated, then ceased all movement—a gesture that seemed to announce its master’s death.
‘…Surely not.’
The Fourth Empress regarded the spider with sharp eyes before slowly unfolding the small note.
‘So that’s how it was.’
I had been thoroughly deceived all this time.
“Ha, ha!”
Suddenly, an absurd laugh burst forth.
‘That cunning black serpent is a saint?’
A woman who had sold her soul to demons to create rifts and conducted the Insurance Business to rake in wealth—calling her a saint was utterly ridiculous.
The Fourth Empress crumpled the paper savagely in her grip, waiting for news that Deborah Simour had perished. Instead, only reports arrived that the Lady had safely rescued distinguished scholars and was resting at the Simour Town House.

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