The Abandoned Villainess Takes Everything This Time - Chapter 167

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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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167.
The Imperial Palace’s Main Palace.
The leaders of the Five Great Families and their subordinate houses, who had gathered here urgently today, were murmuring nervously.
“Is it true that Miss Lillian has convened a family council?”
“That’s what I heard.”
“Of course we must come when the Saint calls, but—”
What about the Crown Prince’s funeral ceremony?
Is she perhaps grieving too deeply and wants to postpone it?
“……The Saint must be devastated as well.”
“The two of them were so close.”
“Speaking of which, Prince Kail—”
“Shh!”
The conference hall door opened, and the Saint they had been summoned by appeared.
The Saint, Lillian, dressed in black, looked utterly pallid.
‘Such restraint in grief—truly, she is remarkable……’
‘But who is that man beside her?’
Everyone glanced sideways at the man with curious eyes.
They could tell he had silver hair, but the black mask covering the upper half of his face made it impossible to recognize him.
He resembled someone, but surely that couldn’t be…?
“Thank you all for coming.”
The moment Lillian spoke, everyone focused again.
“The reason I wished to see you all, busy as you are, is—”
A shearing sound tore through the heavens.
People shuddered involuntarily. A sound like the sky splitting open echoed down.
Those unfamiliar with the true nature of Distortion could still sense it instinctively.
That something fundamental was breaking down in the world.
“……To save this collapsing world, and to save Prince Evren, who must become the next Emperor.”
The assembly stirred.
“Save the world, you say?”
“How is that—”
“But the Crown Prince has already—?”
Not that anyone would contradict what the Saint said!
“Therefore, I intend to open the Imperial Palace’s Sacred Sanctuary. It is because I must draw upon the power left there by the Creator God.”
“……!”
“Thus I seek your consent here. I, as a direct descendant of the Tillard line, wish to become Duke Tillard. Do I have your approval?”
It was as if a bomb had been dropped in the conference hall.
* * *
Lillian glanced sidelong at Evren, who stood beside her like an honor guard.
‘I hid his face so people wouldn’t fall into confusion—a good choice.’
He seemed indifferent, showing no dissatisfaction.
‘He’s so placid that I worry he might be thinking of something else entirely.’
Surprisingly, they had worked out a real solution for Ren’s condition together.
‘This body is damaged because of Imprinting—it cannot be restored by ordinary means.’
Ren’s heart had ruptured. Not metaphorically, but literally.
And in that state, he had kept moving until the very end to hold back Kail.
But then.
‘The Sacred Sanctuary could be used to restore Ren’s body.’
The Imperial Palace’s Sacred Sanctuary, no less!
Once, she’d thought of it only as a place to flee to from the Second Empress—a hit-and-run location.
‘Now I finally understand why it’s called something as grand as the Sacred Sanctuary.’
Because you could access the Creator God’s power directly there……!
But to open that place…….
‘I need the consent of the Five Great Families’ heads.’
‘The approval of all five houses……’
‘And since whoever becomes the family head must access the Sanctuary directly, there’s no way around it. Lillian, you have to become Duke.’
This was content that would normally take days of discussion.
‘But there’s no time for that—I have to push through with force!’
First, Duke Baltazar—
“Ha ha, our girl becoming Duke Tillard?”
He seems even happier that I’ve recovered in the first place. Lord Elias beside him feels the same way.
“Of course—no objections!”
“……That is the decision of the Baltazar Family.”
The elders on that side, including General Bolivar, also nodded.
“The House of Boliver has no objection.”
“Not at all.”
“Didn’t you help us when dealing with those heretics?”
“If they got tangled up with them, phew.”
All the work done so far had not been in vain.
But.
“……Duke Tillard, you say!”
Duke Tillard had shot to his feet.
“Saint. Now that you’ve extracted an apology from me, does everything else seem easy?”
“…….”
“When you yourself rejected me saying you’d been abandoned—where was that loyalty then! And now you covet the Duke’s seat through trickery?”
Ah, so the trick was exposed.
Yet Lillian smiled faintly.
“Of course, normally the title of Duke Tillard is decided by the current Duke. But there is one exception, is there not?”
Grandfather’s eyes trembled uneasily.
Yes, he would remember that too.
“Namely, when all the Vassal Lords under the family consent. Is that not so, my lord?”
“Ha. As if I would allow such a thing? Those who have served me faithfully all their lives!”
Indeed. I wonder what their reaction will be.
But when I turned my gaze—
The cadet branches and retainers of Tillard knelt.
“We shall obey the word of the new Duke Tillard.”
To Lillian herself.
* * *
A few days prior.
‘The Tillard Family is now truly in crisis.’
After going to apologize to Lillian and returning thoroughly chastened, the vassal houses of Tillard had gathered among themselves and held an emergency meeting.
‘Miss Iris has disappeared—’
‘To summon such monsters and then vanish without a trace! The ill omens are boundless.’
‘What are we to do now?’
They couldn’t withdraw from the Five Great Families, nor abandon their Control Power ventures!
‘……Did Miss Lillian not say so? That we should show her the most valuable thing?’
By that logic.
There was in fact only one thing they could offer to Lillian.
So at this very moment.
In the Imperial Palace, the Tillard vassal houses who had betrayed their old master bowed their heads.
“As representatives of the 70 Vassal Houses of Tillard, we support with all our hearts Miss Lillian becoming our new master.”
“You dare betray me thus……!”
Duke Tillard’s beard trembled.
This representative was someone he had trusted until now……!
“You betray me! Without my permission—”
“It is a necessary decision, your Grace. This choice is for the sake of the Tillard Family.”
“Ha……! How dare you speak such nonsense before Duke Elrik Tillard!”
“For the family to survive, for all of us to live! There is no other choice but Miss Lillian!”
Lillian herself, however, regarded them coldly.
‘Hypocritical Tillard clan.’
With masters like these, the vassal lords they served were thoroughly worn and weathered humans as well.
They would need to be kept at a distance in the future.
‘But what remains now.’
Is the approval of the Pavil Family.
Yet the Pavil Family—everyone knew that the current Duke was not the real power.
‘The true head of House Pavil is elsewhere.’
Lillian turned her gaze toward the woman who had said nothing until now.
The Second Empress, Robellia Tarandia Perniers de Pavil.
‘I’ve never seen her look so gaunt before.’
In a world without her mother-in-law, the future mother-in-law had always been a difficult presence.
“……You.”
The Empress’s lips trembled.
“How dare you do this to me.”
The letter in her hands crumpled mercilessly.
It was a letter Lillian had sent.
Prince Kail is currently in a coma because of Annihilation.
So he hasn’t died, you see—only his mind has been annihilated.
Seeing that Ren died while that man lived seems like incredible fortune, doesn’t it?
But in a coma, he can do nothing, and death would come soon enough.
If you wish to restore your son to his former state, cooperate with me.
If you do not, I shall hold you accountable for daring to harm the Saint and impose the Temple’s punishment directly.
Now it was time to watch.
Whether she would submit to the foolish woman who once was infatuated with her nephew, at a loss for what to do.
Or whether she would resist to the very end.
And the Empress’s lips twisted.
“I, Robellia of House Pavil, consent to the Saint’s succession to the position of head of the Tillard Family……”
The Empress performed not even an ordinary bow, but knelt entirely.
“Help me, Saint. Cure Kail for me.”
“…….”
“In exchange for curing Kail, our House Pavil shall—”
The Empress clenched her teeth, then opened her mouth again. Blood beaded at her lips.
“For the next three hundred years, no longer shall we……interfere in the affairs of the Imperial Court……! I swear it solemnly.”
“Y-Your Majesty!”
Commotion broke out among the Pavil clan.
Cutting off the involvement of the Central Nobility-leaning Pavil Family?
‘It’s like severing their limbs.’
Even if they clung to survival in the Five Great Families, they would have to watch others claw their way upward while sucking their thumbs.
Lillian glanced at Kuern.
This bat-like blood relative had been blocking her path to the seat of Duke Tillard.
“Move.”
“A……. Aa…….”
He was completely dumbfounded.
Lillian took her place at the seat of the Tillard Family head and looked back at everyone once more.
‘Now the preparations are complete.’
Then Lillian briefly recalled the Spatio-Temporal Tower where she had once met the Emperor.
‘Your Majesty. How did I come to be in this place?’
‘You too received orders from the one who summoned me here.’
From the Creator God…….
‘There was something I wanted you to do.’
She had not understood then, but now she comprehended.
That this very moment had always been predetermined as the fulfillment of that calling.

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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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