The Abandoned Villainess Takes Everything This Time - Chapter 155

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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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155.
‘I don’t know yet who carries the memory of this time.’
There was only one thread of connection she could grasp immediately.
‘Let me meet Ren of this world.’
Because Ren had given her the hairpin.
Even if the timeline was different, she needed to find out anything she could.
Though part of her wanted to simply stay here and never leave…….
“…….”
Lillian shook her head.
If things went wrong, it would only hurt and end badly.
‘……But just in case, I should tell him not to listen to strange prophecies.’
Well, she could allow herself a little hope, couldn’t she? Hope wasn’t even a luxury.
Just then, Mother smiled warmly at her.
“Lillian, there’s going to be an autumn festival at the Pavilion. Would you like to go with Father and me?”
“Yes! I want to go!”
She made her decision quickly.
* * *
The night of the autumn festival at the Pavilion.
The nobles were hunting, sharing delicious food and wine, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
In the meantime, Lillian pulled her hood over her head and crept quietly out of the Family Tent.
Having brought artifacts just in case, Lillian rolled along like a small ball.
‘I’ve already checked the route!’
She’d given her escorts the Sleeping Potion Tea, so they wouldn’t find her for a while.
Even as a child, Ren apparently still disliked crowded places.
He hadn’t shown his face at the upper-class gathering that afternoon.
‘Got it. I can smell the forest……!’
In the darkness, Lillian sniffed and followed that scent.
It wasn’t near the Imperial Palace Tent, and she’d thought he’d be with the Baltazar Faction.
But where the scent actually led her was.
“……Why here of all places?”
A dark temple near the hunting grounds.
It was like an emergency room for those injured during the hunt.
But a child this young shouldn’t be here at this hour.
What was she supposed to do now……?
‘But what if I miss this chance?’
Would she get another opportunity to meet the young Prince so soon if the adults caught her?
And more than that.
‘I smell blood.’
Lillian swallowed hard.
……Come to think of it, hadn’t Sir Elias told her this once before?
‘Duke Baltazar sent an assassin after Your Highness.’
‘Surely not.’
Life couldn’t be that cruel on such a day.
Right?
* * *
Inside the dark temple near the hunting grounds.
Eleven-year-old Crown Prince Ren sat leaning against the door.
A searing pain welled up from his chest.
“Ha.”
When he opened his mouth, a cough of blood spilled out.
At that moment, the masked assassin raised an Ability-Infused Weapon.
“Please don’t resent me.”
“…….”
“Though you bear the name Tarandia, Your Highness, you are far too dangerous.”
“…….”
He sat motionless like a broken doll.
Resent?
He didn’t even know what that meant.
‘I’m tired. Maybe I should just die.’
A Tarandia without a heart.
Just as the name suggested, he felt attachment to nothing.
He’d merely clung to life because of the Annihilation Ability he possessed.
‘Fine.’
Maybe today would be the day to end it.
The Crown Prince closed his eyes.
But in that moment, a deep lily fragrance drifted through the air.
Bang! Bang!
And flames erupted from all sides.
“……!”
The assassin spun around quickly, but the consecutive explosions of the Detonation Artifacts came one beat faster.
“Aaargh!”
The assassin screamed.
At that moment, a pink-haired girl seized his sleeve and whispered urgently.
“Huff, quick, quick! This way!”
“……?”
“Run this way—argh!”
The assassin grabbed the girl’s arm.
He gripped it so violently that her forearm swelled red before her eyes.
The Crown Prince let out an irritated sigh.
His body was already in terrible condition, and using ‘Annihilation’ was driving him mad.
The assassin collapsed, foaming at the mouth. It was inevitable when an organ was erased.
The girl clung to him again.
“Your Highness, we have to get out of here quickly—.”
But then a commotion erupted from around the corner of the corridor.
There were more of the assassin’s accomplices.
“Tch.”
Annoying. The Crown Prince finally gathered what strength he had and pulled himself up, carrying the girl.
Before long, he’d made his way into the Temple Relic Storage.
The girl whimpered and hastily activated the sacred relics inside.
“This one and that one. And this as well—.”
The room was quickly enveloped in a small barrier.
The child certainly knew how to use Defensive Sacred Relics well.
“Ugh.”
He tried to push himself up.
But he’d lost too much blood to move as he wished. Still, he trembled as he held onto the girl.
“……What are you doing, child?”
“Ah, I’m Lillian of the Tillard Family.”
“I already know that.”
The famous powerless one of the Tillard Family.
Because the Tillard Family despised him, he’d kept his distance and hadn’t known.
‘She looks like a rabbit.’
He remembered the rabbit he’d annihilated.
Seeing this girl who resembled that rabbit, feeling oddly unsettled, he deliberately spoke more harshly than necessary.
“Get out right now.”
“Your Highness, sit down first. If you don’t, you might bleed to death!”
“I don’t care if I die here.”
“…….”
“So just leave quickly……. This is bothersome.”
No matter how powerless, they wouldn’t dare touch the Tillard daughter. That would only make things unnecessarily complicated.
But the girl unwound the scarf from her head and moved quickly.
She truly didn’t sit still for a moment.
“……What are you doing.”
“I’ll just wipe away the blood. Even S-rank combatants can get tetanus.”
“…….”
A seven-year-old knowing such an unusual word.
The problem was that the ‘water’ was actually holy water contained in a Measurement Artifact…….
The Prince leaned against the wall, blankly watching as Lillian Tillard nursed him.
The feeling of her small hands wiping his wounds was strangely unsettling.
“……Why are you doing this for me.”
He made one last attempt to push her away.
Though he carried the Annihilation Ability as the Crown Prince, everyone had recoiled from him. His father had barely met him, and his mother had despaired and died.
No one had ever tried to reach him like this.
An indescribable fear rose within him.
Once he knew the warmth of another person this way, he felt he would be completely bound to this child.
Forever.
“Later, Your Highness will need to nurse me for a long time.”
“……?”
“Think of this as payment for that, for now.”
He could say nothing more.
The feeling in his chest was strangely unsettling.
Then, when he suddenly looked up, he saw something even stranger in the Measurement Artifact.
“Young lady.”
“Yes?”
“What on earth is that mark?”
“Sixty days, I think.”
“How do you know without even looking?”
“I saw the Compatibility Rating before……. Ah, I’m bleeding, so please don’t talk.”
“……? But the number is sideways?”
“……?”
“Is that number correct?”
Lillian turned to look and froze solid.
Even though she’d seen this mark once before.
Infinity appeared.
And outside the temple, Distortion began to take shape.
* * *
Ren exhaled the breath he’d been holding.
In his hand, the hairpin Lillian had left behind hung like a signpost.
“Lili.”
Lillian had succeeded in creating a Rift into her timeline.
Ren surveyed the world that came through that rift, clicking his tongue.
Wasn’t this the hunting grounds from his childhood, when he’d faced assassination threats?
‘Did I really meet my younger self.’
That version wouldn’t dare treat Lili carelessly, would it? He had to hurry.
“……It’s been a while since I’ve been here.”
And he had to hurry because of the grating voice from behind him.
Evren slowly swept his gaze across the surroundings, then smirked at Ren.
“So you used even my power to widen the Rift.”
“…….”
“Quite cooperative.”
“Misunderstandings are always a matter of perspective.”
Ren laughed, suppressing the murderous intent that boiled up inside him.
That bastard deserved to be torn apart a thousand times over.
Everything about him—his appearance, the way he spoke, every detail—made Ren’s skin crawl.
He wanted to shatter every bone in his body and annihilate those eyes that had looked at Lili without leaving so much as a speck of dust.
But he couldn’t do that, which made him want to lose his mind.
He already knew he was obsessed with Lili to an alarming degree, but now it had become unbearable.
So he couldn’t bear to see even the smallest wound inflicted on Lili’s heart. Even if it was merely a scratch.
“I tolerate you purely for Lili’s sake.”
“…….”
“Because my fiancée pities a foreign object like you and bothers to care for someone who has nowhere else to go. A wretch.”
Or rather, because she loves you more.
Ren turned his back again, barely suppressing the suffocating jealousy.
‘With two of the same existence entering, the strain on this place is beyond imagination.’
He had to find Lillian quickly before both of them caused this place to collapse completely.
Meanwhile, Evren remained unperturbed.
He’d already anticipated that such a thing would happen with Lillian.
‘She’s the woman who abandoned me and simply disappeared.’
Dying in his arms.
Vanishing without hesitation.
And meeting yet another version of him in a different timeline…….
“…….”
Even if he’d made Lillian entirely his in the Crown Prince selection, it might have meant nothing.
If she could always slip through the gaps of his fingers and escape.
But he’d prepared countermeasures for precisely such a scenario.
And he’d now steeled himself as well.
Made his peace with making the woman he loves cry.

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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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