Isn’t Being A Wicked Woman Much Better? - Chapter 208

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

Special Side Story Episode 5
This was utterly absurd.
“That insane lunatic… he must have done something strange.”
Yet no matter how many times I denied it to myself, Deborah’s soaring popularity remained an unchangeable reality, and I found myself constantly dwelling on what I had lost. Perhaps I should have been the one standing beside the Saint.
“Deborah loved me so much, after all.”
The Empire’s praises that rained down upon Isidore should have been mine as well.
Surely, had the opportunity presented itself, I could have accomplished far greater feats than that fool.
“She loved me back then….”
With each gulp of alcohol, the sense of injustice deepened—as though I had narrowly missed everything that should have been mine, robbed by mere inches.
I gritted my teeth, swearing that once my confinement ended, I would reclaim the Saint from Isidore. But even that delusion shattered when news of Deborah’s marriage reached me. Marriage was irreversible, after all.
Consumed by seething rage, I gulped down spirits with reckless abandon. Suddenly I laughed, a hollow sound, then my face twisted with fury as I pounded the table with violent force.
“Deborah Simour! Treacherous, filthy woman! The moment some pretty boy with money appeared, you cast me aside without a second thought?”
When Philaf’s outburst erupted, the band of mercenaries beside him rose to their feet with menacing intent. Before the Shop Clerk could even intervene, everything unfolded in an instant.
“Listen here, red-head! Have you said your piece?”
“Is that how you speak of the Saint? Such words are blasphemy!”
“The Saint is not someone trash like you should dare mention… gack…!”
“My, my goodness! What, what is that!?”
The mercenaries gasped in horror at the fire spirit that materialized from thin air, while the man whose collar Philaf had seized swallowed hard against the oppressive heat radiating from the spirit.
“Do I still look like garbage you can speak of so carelessly?”
“Y-you’re a spiritist…!”
“Let me enlighten you ignorant fools. That great Saint Deborah you all worship? She’s actually an obsessive stalker.”
“Gah!”
Philaf twisted the man’s collar tighter, spitting out his words with venom.
“She followed me around so relentlessly, it was sickening. She even chased me to parties held far away, pestering me to dance just once—it gave me chills. That Saint you all fawn over was actually madly infatuated with me! Do you understand!?”
Everyone in the tavern already knew that Deborah Simour had held a grand wedding ceremony with Duke Visconti.
And the man whose eyes gleamed with vacant intensity was clearly a delusional madman in anyone’s assessment.
“She was supposed to be mine!”
Yet no one dared speak carelessly because of the spirit this lunatic had summoned.
“Yes, she loved me for so long. That fox Visconti pulled some trick and stole her from me.”
No, stolen wasn’t quite right. At least stolen goods could be recovered, but marriage? The resentment burned in my chest.
“I was the one who received the marriage proposal!”
Had I known she was the Saint, I would never have refused the proposal. I felt a bitter resentment toward Deborah for concealing such a crucial fact so completely.
“Why does everyone lie to me!? And why do you all look at me with such disrespectful eyes?”
“Kyaaah!”
The spirit, responding to Philaf’s emotions, burned with even greater intensity. Fire began spreading uncontrollably across the wooden furniture and walls inside, transforming the interior into chaos.
“Young Master!!”
Then, with a sharp elderly voice, water poured down like rain from all directions.
Philaf glared at Baron Ross, who had summoned Undine, with bloodshot eyes.
Baron Ross had once been part of the Montes Spirit Army, but now he had been demoted due to internal power struggles within the family. Whenever I saw the pathetic figure of this old man—stripped of family, power, and wealth—I felt chilled, as though glimpsing my own future.
“Ha. Now even this washed-up old geezer dares to disrespect me.”
“I don’t mind being ignored. But summoning a fire spirit inside a building that catches flame so easily! Have you truly lost even the pride of a high noble?”
“Pride of a high noble? Look at me now—where do I look like nobility? Father wanted me to live like a commoner, so he dumped me here. I’m simply granting his wish.”
“Sigh…”
Baron Ross exhaled a long, weary breath.
Philaf firmly believed Ross was a powerless old man pushed to the margins, but in truth, Baron Ross was the last opportunity Duke Montes had given his only son.
Duke Montes had resolved to follow Baron Ross’s decision entirely—whether to keep Philaf as heir or to adopt a capable distant relative as successor instead.
“I observed the young master, judging him to possess exceptional talent as a spirit mage. However, a violent leader who cannot care for the weak brings only suffering to the many. Therefore, I have made my resolve.”
“…What do you mean?”
Philaf felt the alcohol suddenly drain from his mind.
“You will learn soon enough.”
Baron Ross disappeared with a bitter expression, and not long after, Philaf received a letter bearing the family seal.
“…What the hell is this nonsense!?”
It was a letter from his father stating that a new heir would be brought into Montes, and henceforth he should live as he pleased.
“Aaaahhh!”
Philaf, who had never once doubted he would become Duke Montes, immediately tore the letter to shreds.
For days he raged like a madman, smashing and trampling every piece of furniture in the old house until his fists ached.
When there was nothing left to throw or break, he went to the tavern and reached for the strongest liquor.
“Damn it! Do you think I’m some dog that will meekly retreat when told to disappear?”
Yet no matter how he raged, there was little Philaf could actually do in practical terms.
He wanted to drag down his father and crush everything that irritated him, but he couldn’t even return to the Capital right now.
That was when a long shadow fell across his body.
“Philaf Montes.”
A man with feline, elongated pupils spoke as he lowered his robe. It had been only three weeks since he met the demon wearing a hood.
And now—
“That information is certain, yes?”
“Of course, Philaf. If you follow my words, it won’t be long before you become master of Montes. Hehehehe… and that’s not all. You can reduce to ashes every wretched thing that has burned inside you.”
Philaf grinned at the demon’s honeyed whisper.
Yes, he should have done this long ago.
‘Miya Binoshu, you must have felt this way too.’
Rather than languish in helplessness and inferiority, shaking with despair, he thought it a hundred times better to join hands with a demon. With that resolve, he drank deeply from the dark liquor filled with black blood.
* * *
I saw fragments of the past in a dream after a long time.
In a desert where fierce sandstorms raged, Naila was screaming at a red-haired man who looked identical to Philaf.
-Fleur Montes!
Fleur Montes. He was identical to Philaf Montes not only in appearance but in temperament as well.
-You need to kill that vile nature of yours first!
When Naila pointed out his wicked disposition, he exploded immediately.
-Vile nature? Naila, do you think I’m doing this because I can’t control a single emotion?
-Yes! No matter how angry you are, how could you treat a helpless old man like that?
-A gypsy who interfered with the greater cause. You blocked me while I fought on the front lines risking my life against demons! If not for me, you flies would have died long ago. I simply taught you your place for buzzing so annoyingly.
Fleur Montes’s aggressive combat style inflicted damage not only on monsters but often on civilians as well, and the old man had tried to block Fleur’s passage out of concern for this.
But Fleur, bound to the core by an overwhelming sense of chosenness, could not possibly tolerate an elderly man standing in his way.
—Let’s part ways here.
In the end, Naila made an extreme decision.
—What?
Bewilderment and anger crystallized in Fleur Montes’s reddish-brown eyes.
—I’m saying we should each go our own way. I can’t travel with you anymore.
—Huh? No matter how much of a saint you are, isn’t this too arbitrary? And do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a spirit mage who has been chosen by both water and fire spirits simultaneously?
Fleur Montes was among the top five guardian knights within the Grand Temple.
Naila had judged that Fleur, who could summon a water spirit, was the most suitable partner to traverse the desertified regions together. That was why she had accepted him as her guardian knight, but it proved to be a complete miscalculation.
—Yes, it was my mistake for thinking you might listen to me even a little. I never imagined someone chosen by spirits could be like this.
Naila muttered under her breath and turned away without hesitation, but Fleur caught her arm as she departed.
—Do you really think you can cross the desert without me? Before long, you’ll be gasping with thirst and searching desperately for water.
—I’d rather choke to death on sand in the desert than travel with you!
Naila shook his hand off forcefully.
—Are you really leaving? Why, exactly!? I’ve treated you so kindly as a saint all this time—what more could you possibly want?
—….
—Listen, Naila! Hey!!
—….
—Fine, go ahead and try on your own! You won’t last half a day in this harsh terrain without me.
True to his words, Naila was soon swept up in a massive sandstorm created by an enormous monster.
Her body was lifted helplessly into the air by the fierce winds before she could do anything, and she was cast into the heart of the desert stripped of all her possessions.
In the midst of that desolate wasteland where not even a cactus could be seen, let alone any settlement, Naila walked endlessly using the stars in the sky as her guide until she collapsed from dehydration.
Had she not encountered Rocke Visconti, she might truly have died right then and there….

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