The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 118

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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 118
“Striking a villain from behind…… makes you an even worse villain than he is.”
Even with her collar seized, she laughed without yielding an inch.
“That’s right. Why did I ever believe in a dream?”
Rozelin whispered the words like an afterthought.
“How was I supposed to know who was showing it to me, or why, or how?”
At her next words, Galiö’s eyes flew open.
“There’s no god watching your back. Only a villain stalks a villain’s shadow.”
That was when he realized he’d been thoroughly played by Rozelin.
“You treacherous——!”
Crunch!
He tightened his grip on her collar, nearly strangling her.
She furrowed her brow against the suffocating pressure, yet twisted her lips into a cruel smile.
“And you believed in a dream where Garren Wilbred appeared…… don’t you think that’s pathetically stupid?”
Rozelin wouldn’t stop her taunts, and Galiö—already blind with rage—raised the sword in his hand again.
Suspended by her collar with feet dangling in the air, Rozelin let her arms hang limp.
Something slipped from her sleeve. She caught it.
Watching Galiö poised to run her through at any moment, Rozelin laughed savagely.
“Why did you have to lay a hand on my people? If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have cared whether you overturned the world or seized the throne.”
Why had it to be the Bellion Duke’s House that he touched?
Why had this bundle of inferiority ruined them, pushed them into misery—his own family?
“Remember this, Galiö. The reason you’re failing so miserably is…….”
Why hadn’t she simply pretended not to know that house?
Why.
Why?
Why, exactly?
‘Because I didn’t have the courage, even once…….’
She’d watched her family crumble and turned away from their outstretched hands for help, standing alone in false strength and pride.
‘If only this man hadn’t existed.’
Rozelin hardened her gaze.
No, that wasn’t it.
‘If I’d only been a little more honest…….’
Rozelin slowly closed her eyes, then opened them as she spoke again.
“Because you touched not anyone else, but me…… my family.”
She smiled radiantly and reached out to grip his shoulders.
In the same instant, Galiö’s face twisted in revulsion as he raised his sword high.
That was when it happened.
Squelch!
Along with a sickening sound, Galiö felt a dull, piercing agony.
He reflexively drove his sword through her chest and hurled her to the ground.
Rozelin, thrown to the floor, gave a dark laugh.
He stared at the violet dagger lodged in his side, eyes widening in shock, and turned his gaze upon her.
“What…… is that?”
Rozelin coughed blood but still smiled.
“My father’s Abyss imbued in an Abyss Weapon. It brings the most exquisite death imaginable, they say…….”
Rozelin felt her vision blur and her fingertips grow cold as she continued moving her lips.
“They say when it’s used, Father is summoned instantly. No matter where in the world he is…….”
Rozelin slowly closed her dimming eyes and played her tongue across her teeth.
“Rozelin——!”
“He comes running.”
A wet, strangled sound.
Galiö, about to flee at the sound of that voice, felt his body go rigid, his vision darken, and he collapsed to his knees.
“Congratulations on wasting your life. My father loves me quite dearly……, so…….”
Until the very end, Rozelin muttered on, and her breath came to a stop.
As if death itself had arrived.
* * *
[Several days earlier]
“……What?”
“I’m going to die once.”
Crash!
Rozelin gazed down at the table splitting in half, and carefully raised her teacup to observe the enraged Bellion Duke.
“What nonsense is this? You dare spout such drivel in front of your grandfather and father, as if it were something reasonable to say? Your recklessness has crossed every line!”
As the Bellion Duke’s fierce voice thundered through the room, her spine went rigid.
Of course, Cherti Bellion and High Priest Irbon both looked flustered, and Arma seemed equally displeased with what he was hearing.
Only Rozelin and Garren Wilbred, who had learned the gist of matters beforehand, remained composed.
“Of course, I’d be grateful if you’d keep this between us.”
Rozelin spoke these words while reaching out to gently grasp the back of the Bellion Duke’s hand.
“Grandfather, I’m asking you—please, just listen to what I have to say.”
“No matter how much you are my only granddaughter, precious and beloved and so delicate you might blow away at a touch—there are some things that simply cannot be done!”
“I’m not saying I’ll die and stay gone forever.”
Rozelin watched the Bellion Duke, who had turned his head sharply and was speaking in a rapid stream, and added carefully.
“I’ll definitely come back.”
“So what you’re saying is that the people in your original world are so dear to you that you’d die to return to them!”
Rozelin slowly shook her head.
“What’s dear to me is what stands before me now—you and Father.”
On that, her resolve did not waver.
It was true that the family from that other world weighed on her mind.
But in that world, Rozelin had made many mistakes, made wrong choices, and because of those choices, she had lost everything and died.
That was already the ending she had met.
The Rozelin of that world was already dead. Even if she died here and crossed over into that world again, she could not return in her own body.
It was already a finished thing.
To brazenly insist now that everything should begin anew…….
Rozelin had already seen how that world ended.
“But if I stay with Father and Grandfather, I’ll come to regret it.”
Why couldn’t I have done it then?
Couldn’t such a future have been mine?
And so even now, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy this moment with peace of mind.
“I want to be truly happy here, in this place.”
……
Rozelin spoke with absolute conviction.
At her words, the Bellion Duke let out a groaning sound, his harsh gaze fixed upon her without wavering.
“And to do that, there are things I can’t ignore.”
The Rozelin of this world was dead.
Perhaps if that dead Rozelin were the owner of an Abyss like her, she might be living in some other world.
Or perhaps she might exist in a timeline further in the past than this one.
But the Rozelin who exists in this timeline now is her.
“I just have too many things I turned away from weighing on my conscience. I’ll settle those accounts and come back without fail.”
She had already made sufficient arrangements for that.
Rozelin looked at Cherti Bellion.
“So please, Father—listen to what I have to say.”
……
Cherti, who under normal circumstances would have already shown signs of spiraling into fury and shouted his refusal, instead kept his jaw clenched and his fists tight, but he did not shout a blanket rejection.
Cherti remained silent for a long while.
Rozelin waited in silence, bearing the discomfort without complaint.
After that long silence, Cherti slowly nodded his head.
“……Tell me.”
Cherti knew that Rozelin would act as she pleased regardless of whether he permitted it or not.
Unlike his second-eldest brother, who was openly reckless, Rozelin certainly had reckless tendencies of her own.
What sort of daughter would personally stuff medicine down her grandfather’s and father’s throats to put them to sleep the moment things didn’t go her way?
‘……It’s better to at least listen than to wake up knocked unconscious on the floor.’
But Cherti knew the truth.
That this was a fight he could only lose.
When one accumulated this much experience of being knocked out and struck from behind, perhaps one developed the ability to see the future.
“Once you hear the plan, you’ll permit it.”
No—Rozelin would make him permit it, even if he initially refused.
She would coerce them if necessary.
“If Father doesn’t permit it, I won’t go.”
No—this child would stuff medicine in his mouth, knock him unconscious, and leave anyway.
Leaving only an apology letter behind.
“I hope you’ll trust me, Father.”
No.
Whether he believes me or not, I’m leaving.
And when I come back, I’ll casually mention I’ve been away again—offer some excuse and throw in an “I love you” so he won’t scold me like some nagging fool.
With that, Cherti nodded, his expression resigned from years of learning to accept such things.
Rozelin smiled softly and continued her explanation.

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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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