The Abandoned Villainess Takes Everything This Time - Chapter 162

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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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162.
Lillian remembered vividly how Iris had thrown a tantrum during the Beast Subjugation in Silverin, back in the day.
‘I hate it! I’m not going! I hate monsters!’
If that girl had managed to achieve a thousand beast subjugations, she must have harbored considerable resentment.
But Iris’s weakness was simple enough.
‘She only accepts what others give her.’
In other words, her patience was thin.
She’d grown accustomed to results appearing instantly at a snap of her fingers.
So naturally, when victory came within sight at the eleventh hour, she couldn’t resist it.
Lillian took a step closer.
“If you’d made it through a thousand of them, you should have kept up the act to the very end. Now look—you’ve thrown it all away. What is this?”
“Lillian…….”
“Or I could’ve pinned it all on you being in pain and using Dark Magic.”
“……!”
If you returned from the Temple and suddenly fell ill?
There would be so many ways to weaponize it.
……Combined with everything that vanished over the last half-year.
Iris trembled faintly, yet seemed oddly composed.
“……How did you know? That I prepared that circle?”
“How could I not know your dream? You wanted to become the princess of the Tillard Family.”
“…….”
“And if I recall what you were doing in the Palace of the Heretics, the answer comes quickly.”
That attitude of yours—more interested in the gains than the prayers.
“Hah.”
Someone watching from nearby let out a loud laugh.
“A princess, of all things…….”
“So what? You were trying to steal her Control Ability, is that it……?”
The reaction of those who had lowered their guard once, only to be betrayed again before their eyes, was fierce.
“You tried to extract a person’s ability?”
“And I thought she’d learned! Ha!”
Meanwhile, the nobles, including House Bolivar, were visible as well.
From their expressions, they were sneering at where the Tillard Family stood.
“The Tillard Family really only harbors villains. What they did in the Palace of the Heretics is still fresh in my mind.”
It was Leona Bolivar who spoke—she who had gone out on the subjugation with Lillian.
“The moment Lillian disappeared, you pushed Iris forward, didn’t you?”
“The family’s emblem should be changed from a butterfly to a bat.”
Just then, Lillian’s eyes met those of the Tillard Family.
Lillian stared directly at Duke Tillard, whose face had grown deeply lined.
The Duke looked ashamed, yet utterly bewildered.
As if he couldn’t fathom why such a thing was happening.
‘You don’t understand why you’re only sowing villainy,’ Lillian thought coolly.
It was because you kept measuring value not by blood kinship or love, but by rank alone.
You never embraced your own grandchildren, never guided them from the start down the righteous path.
……Meanwhile, Ramio was waving both arms to make his existence known.
‘I! Sister! I knew you’d come back!’ his mouth shapes seemed to say as he grinned.
‘You…… fine…….’
She’d be slightly generous toward him.
‘He kept warning me that something was suspicious about Iris Tillard.’
‘He contacted Ren about it first?’
‘Trembling, but now he has the look of someone who knows who the master is…….’
Thanks to that, they’d discovered Iris using the Alchemy Circle.
Ren moved Lillian behind him.
“Lili.”
“Mm?”
“That Tillard Family—something’s off.”
“…….”
She was certain of it.
Kail was desperately pleading with Iris, who was being subdued by the Holy Knights.
“Iris, what is this! Let Iris go!”
“…….”
“It’s a lie, isn’t it? What you said just now—it’s because you were so overwhelmed—.”
While Kail clung to Iris like someone refusing to let go of a rope, Iris was far too calm.
‘Given everything she’s shown us, she should be throwing a childish fit.’
Had she simply given up on everything?
‘No.’
A terrible premonition struck Lillian like a thunderbolt.
A circle that stole power would be too massive to activate here.
‘But there’s something else……!’
Lillian cried out urgently to the group standing nearby.
“Everyone, fall back!”
But.
“Gack!”
“Aaagh……!”
The Holy Knights holding Iris crumpled. Hazy dust and power tangled together, spreading outward in all directions.
A shadow tried to use power at the source, but Lillian blocked it.
“Don’t!”
“But Miss……!”
“You can’t attack it carelessly. That’s also a Beast that absorbs Abilities!”
Markus clung to her shoulder in astonishment.
This is bad, the Priestess realizes.
“Why?”
She’s summoned something enormous.
“……!”
Iris may look like this, but she’s S-Class, right? Something matching her power level will show up—.
There was no time even to grieve recent sorrows.
A massive form with a black mane.
A Beast appeared, casting blue-white lightning around it like strikes of judgment……!
Ren embraced Lillian and grimaced.
“Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”
“It’s going to be exactly what you think…….”
‘In the original story,’ it was a Beast that Kail and Iris had set out to subjugate.
‘Even then, it had synergy with Iris’s Control Ability and would follow her lead.’
Presently, as the hazy dust and light particles dispersed, it became clear.
A Beast capable of both psychic and physical attacks.
‘The Black Lion of the End.’
Iris had just summoned a Catastrophic-Class Beast.
* * *
She hated them all so much.
And she hated Lillian most of all.
But to win, she had to learn from Lillian.
‘Lillian acts like she knows everything, doesn’t she?’
As if she comprehended every move.
Like someone who had seen only the best futures and come back from them.
So whenever Iris had prepared one move and rushed forward, Lillian had beaten her handily every time.
‘But what if I prepare two moves instead?’
And now, in this very moment, Iris rode the black lion she had summoned, gasping.
“Ah.”
Even breathing drained her power bit by bit.
Yet Iris was enraptured.
I’m looking down on everyone now!
“Is this Iris’s Oracle Beast……!”
Because Iris and the Beast were connected, her commands came without a word.
She wanted to annihilate everyone here.
‘But first, I want to humiliate Lillian!’
Just then, the Holy Knights surged toward Iris.
But the black lion faced them, its red eyes blazing.
I have seen your despair.
Your soul is now mine!
Hearing that proclamation, the Holy Knights collapsed where they stood, convulsing in agony—those who had been loyal to Lillian.
“Perfect.”
Iris whispered in rapture.
To be struck down by a psychic attack and unable even to breathe!
But that wasn’t the greatest problem.
“……Lillian, you.”
Iris, mounted on the silver lion, panted.
“You can’t use your Control Ability right now, can you?”
If Lillian’s vaunted infinite Control Ability were working, she could support every Holy Knight here and still have power to spare!
“Because you can’t use it, you can’t save the people caught in the psychic attack!”
The words echoed wide across the Central Temple Square.
“Just as I thought, you fake saint!”
Those bewildered by how events were turning held their breath.
The Infinite Saint had turned back into a powerless woman?
“……And so?”
But Lillian mocked her.
“I’ve spent my whole life as a powerless woman. And someone like you—I can defeat without Control Ability.”

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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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