Isn’t Being A Wicked Woman Much Better? - Chapter 50

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 50
I spoke coldly. Without even bothering to force my voice into a particular tone, an icy cadence flowed naturally from my lips.
“You said you’d let me have my way, so why are you saying something different now? Are you really going to throw away the opportunity I’m giving you just to preserve your pride?”
“You’ve got it all wrong. This isn’t about pride. Everything has an expiration date, and what you’re offering me now—even if I might have wanted it once—has long since spoiled. It’s rotten food I can’t possibly consume.”
“What?”
Philaf’s reddish-brown eyes trembled faintly.
“How do you think the recipient feels when you shove spoiled food right under their nose? Of course they’d find it repulsive.”
I grasped Isidore’s large hand lightly. He looked at me with an uncharacteristic expression of surprise.
“Philaf, stop pretending to be suddenly magnanimous and look after your own partner instead. I’m going to finish this year’s flower and the ball beautifully.”
‘Perhaps this year’s flower will be Isidore, after all.’
What was wrong with dancing with just one person? He was more radiant than anyone else in this place. No one would dare dispute Thierry’s assertion that Isidore was this year’s flower.
‘I had planned to skip the final dance and leave.’
I pulled Isidore gently toward the stage where people were dancing.
Leaving Philaf standing there, bewildered.
* * *
Some nobles lingered longer within the Imperial Palace, but the moment the final song ended, I hurried out of the ballroom and retrieved the black robe I had prepared in advance.
“My lady!”
The escort knight my father had assigned to me rushed after me as I donned the robe and walked outside.
“Where are you going so suddenly? Where on earth did that outfit come from!”
He seemed quite startled by my sudden disappearance, breathing heavily.
“James, guide me to the Night Market.”
I spoke as though I had been waiting for this moment, fastening a simple mask across my face.
“Why would you wish to go to such a chaotic place?”
The escort knight was taken aback the moment he heard my destination.
Unlike the Fountain Plaza surrounding the Imperial Palace where nobles amused themselves with elegance, the Night Market was a complex place where all manner of humanity came and went.
Of course, it was also another highlight of the Spring Flower Festival.
“Well now, I’ve said I’m going, so why all the objections? There’s something I absolutely must purchase at the Night Market.”
“Lady Deborah Simour, the interior of the Night Market has far more people than this plaza! You may find yourself jostled by commoners.”
“Then you’ll simply have to shield me well from bumping into those commoners.”
My unreasonable words made the escort knight look as though he might lose his mind.
“To put it another way, the crowds surge like waves. How can a person possibly hold back the tide?”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Hmm, is it perhaps that you find it difficult and inconvenient to escort me, and you’re trying to prevent my visit to the Night Market? I heard many nobles frequent the place. How disappointing.”
“That’s not it at all!”
“Then let’s go. What’s the difficulty?”
Once I gently pricked his pride, the escort knight finally began guiding me toward the Night Market.
‘Excellent! Let’s go find ourselves a treasure.’
The Night Market during the Spring Flower Festival. According to the novel, an interesting auction was held every year in the basement of a building behind a stall selling black pottery among the endless rows of vendors.
‘Noir Pot.’
It was a gambling-heavy auction known only to those in the know, where everything from junk worth less than a hundred won to treasures of considerable value appeared. And one piece of worthless junk from this auction house would end up in Diera Orgo’s hands and become a jackpot.
‘Turns out that old junk was an ancient artifact capable of hatching a Holy Beast’s egg….’
A Holy Beast. Literally, a sacred animal.
In ancient times when inter-species exchange was far more active than now, Holy Beasts born between spirits and animals existed quite abundantly on the surface, or so the records claim. Though the Holy Beasts have vanished from sight due to the darkness that descended upon the land, their fossilized eggs remain scattered across the world.
Since Holy Beasts possessed infinite lifespans like spirits unless they suffered physical destruction, dormant Holy Beast eggs could be awakened if an ancient artifact with matching mana wavelengths was present.
Through this artifact, Diera Orgo hatched an egg that lay submerged in water, obtaining a single white Holy Beast in the form of a turtle.
‘And she gifted that precious thing to the heroine.’
That white turtle was a rare Holy Beast capable of dealing heavy damage to dark-attribute monsters. It possessed heightened sensitivity to the darkness of the Demon Realm, granting it the ability to quickly detect the presence of rifts.
‘Incredibly useful in emergencies.’
Thanks to the turtle throwing itself into the rift’s gap, Miya was able to save her life once.
‘Honestly, shouldn’t that turtle be more necessary for me, the villainess?’
Miya would have a line of dependable suitors ready to save her life in times of crisis, but I don’t. Having lived as a reckless fool for so long, only those who harbor grudges against me would line up for me.
Clearly, a single escort knight isn’t enough. For my personal safety, I wanted to keep a Holy Beast with abilities roughly half that of a spirit.
‘Besides, the turtle is small enough to carry in my pocket. Like a self-defense tool.’
Moreover, Holy Beasts sold for exorbitant prices. In the unlikely event that I failed to purchase a title, the Holy Beast would become a valuable asset I could rely on.
‘Securing precious items before others—that’s the privilege of a possessor!’
That wondrous Holy Beast was my ultimate target, but first, I planned to secure the ancient artifact with hatching capabilities. Harboring dreams of striking it rich, I weaved through the crowd and finally discovered a stall selling a black urn.
“My lady, where are you headed now?”
Dark circles had already settled beneath the escort knight’s eyes.
“Wait at the entrance. I have business inside this building.”
“It seems like a suspicious place. I should accompany you.”
“What? Suspicious? What do you take me for! Are you suggesting I’d engage in indecent activities in this building! How dare you insult me, a lady of Simour!”
I glared wildly like a mad dog, bouncing on my feet.
“M-my lady. That’s not what I meant at all. I misspoke.”
“Then stay here. I’ll be out before midnight.”
I rakishly tilted my black mask like a villain and strode into the dimly lit corridor. Then I handed the auction invitation I’d had Master arrange beforehand to the massive security guard.
“4 gold! We have 4 gold!”
“6 gold!”
“7 gold!”
The interior was already in chaos.
‘It’s already started. I should have left the ballroom a bit earlier. All because I got stubborn over Philaf….’
“10 gold!”
“10 gold going once! Any higher bids?! The Mermaid’s Tear is sold for 10 gold!”
“Ohhhhh!”
Intense heat washed across my cheeks. Fortunately, seeing the final bid hovering around 10 gold suggested the auction had only just begun.
Among the crowd desperate to strike it rich, I too lit up my eyes and began scanning the auction items arrayed on the platform.
“A feather shed by an ancient phoenix—bidding starts at 15 gold! Observe this radiant and mystical luster, everyone!”
“15 gold!”
“20 gold!”
I narrowed my eyes as I gazed at the feather held by the auctioneer.
‘They’re spouting nonsense about phoenix feathers. It looks identical to the pink feather pen I carry around.’
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like someone had simply applied a few attribute spells to feathers dyed a vivid crimson.
‘But if someone unfamiliar with magic saw it, they’d be tempted.’
Since there was a chance—however slim—that it could be a jackpot item, the auction participants kept bidding recklessly. Like game addicts chasing SSS-tier items while continuously spending real money on random boxes.
‘I have terrible luck, so could I possibly walk away with something amazing from here?’
The auctioneer’s glib tongue made my outlook even grimmer. No matter how gambling-heavy this temporarily-opened auction was, the auctioneer kept slapping plausible-sounding words onto items at random.
Ancient. Legendary. Imperial. Dragon….
Words like that.
Most likely, he had no idea what these items actually did or were truly worth. If he had known, they never would have ended up at this auction house in the first place.
‘I have no idea which of these is actually the artifact that hatches holy water.’
The novel frustratingly never described what the jackpot item looked like. My only clue was that junk from the auction turned out to be a precious ancient artifact.
‘This is insane—it’s all junk.’
Lined up on a long table covered in red carpet were today’s auction items, most of them antiques thick with rust. Vases, shoes, staffs, necklaces, bracelets, masks, books… the list went on.
Could it be that putting a holy water egg in one of these rusty vases would cause it to hatch? The vase even had an animal carved into it, which made my theory seem all the more plausible.
‘Hmm.’
No, wait—ancient artifacts often took the form of jewelry, so that worn bracelet could be the jackpot item with ancient mana resonance.
This is so confusing. Should I just bid on everything?
“Eighty gold! Do I hear more?”
“Ninety gold!”
‘That’s nowhere near enough.’
I wiped cold sweat from my brow as the numbers climbed endlessly.
Because of this auction’s gambling nature, the prices were absurdly inflated. The dyed feathers alone had sold for forty gold, and the orc chieftain’s necklace currently being auctioned had already climbed to one hundred gold.
‘And this is still early in the auction with prices this brutal….’
Buying all these items might cost me as much as purchasing a noble title.
I nervously bit at my fingernails.
‘I’m going crazy. Wait…?! Hold on, I think I know what it is!’
As I was carefully scanning the items, a sudden realization struck me and I bolted upright.
‘That’s it!’

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