The Baddest Villainess Is Back – Chapter 14

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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 14
* * *
Rumor in High Society traveled faster than feet could carry.
Of course it moved with more velocity than a galloping horse bearing its rider, and swelled faster than a balloon expanding.

Roselin let out a hollow laugh as she read the various headlines from the various newspapers.
The staff of Pluere Boutique had sent a letter in person that very morning, as if they’d seen the articles.
It was the sort of content asserting they had absolutely kept their lips sealed.
Roselin didn’t particularly think the Pluere staff had loosened their tongues either.
It was simply that there had been rather a crowd on that street that day, and among them someone with a gossiping mouth had been present.
In truth, what had given enough certainty to use such sensational language was the dozens of dresses that arrived yesterday.
Delivering dozens of dresses would have required a large carriage.
Naturally, many would have witnessed the process of transporting them.
A carriage departing from the currently fashionable Pluere Boutique had arrived at none other than the Bellion Duke’s Residence.
And Roselin Bellion, who had visited the boutique discreetly with Garen Wilbried a week prior.
All of this overlapped to create what seemed to be a sordid rumor.
And it was precisely for this reason that she had been invited to today’s dinner.
‘This is maddening.’
That day, fever had rushed to her head and she’d simply spent money at the boutique without restraint.
She hadn’t thought it would balloon into something like this.
‘Or perhaps it’s fortunate.’
If such an affair rumor took hold, it would be easier to use it as an excuse for a broken engagement.
“I had things to say anyway.”
Roselin muttered quietly, her expression weary.
‘His situation is troublesome too.’
It seemed he was making considerable effort to repair his relationship with his wife, the Marquise.
“Not my concern.”
Garen Wilbried’s misfortune was rather a source of joy to her.
Roselin made her way toward the Garden, where today’s dinner would take place, in an increasingly buoyant mood.
As she left her room and strolled leisurely to the Garden, most had already arrived.
Those already seated at the table turned their heads to regard her.
“Good afternoon, Your Grace. Thank you for the invitation.”
Roselin offered a proper greeting and straightened her posture.
The Bellion Duke glanced at her Bluish-tinted Dress and soon nodded.
“Sit.”
There was one man present whom she was seeing for the first time. His hair, a mixture of silver and black strands, held an enigmatic tone.
And like the Bellion Duke, his eyes were different colors on each side.
The jaunty appearance marked by the Piercing adorning his ear made it clear who he was without introduction.
This was exactly the second time Roselin had looked upon his face.
‘Surprising—the good-for-nothing who hardly ever comes home.’
The second prince of the Bellion house, that reckless wastrel.
Roselin’s second uncle.
Ian Bellion.
“What’s this? You’re looking less gloomy today.”
His voice, ostentatiously carefree, tilted into a grin as he spoke.
Roselin threw him a sideways glance before taking her seat.
House Bellion was already known to be an unusually informal nobility, given the Duke’s jovial temperament, but Ian Bellion was one who deviated from the norm even among them.
A man who made one wonder how such a person could be born into the Bellion family.
When it came to mischief, his mind worked faster than anyone else’s—a genius of pranks.
A child with only a grown man’s body.
A mad drunkard.
A dissolute hooligan.
He accumulated many epithets.
In some respects, Ian Bellion resembled Roselin greatly.
‘And he dies.’
He could not escape the Imperial Purge.
Ian Bellion was entangled in an incident from which he could never extract himself.
Moreover, Isgis had been absent, and by the time the Purge began, the Duke’s health was deteriorating, and with Lady Carmel the situation had spiraled into chaos both within and without.
Roselin shifted her gaze slowly from Ian, moving it toward her father, then to the Duke seated beside him, and finally to Isgis at his side.
‘Now that Carmel is gone, things should be easier.’
When Roselin’s eyes met the Duke’s, she smiled reflexively.
The Duke faltered, then let out a small cough. “Ahem.”
“Let’s eat, shall we.”
Seeing the Duke in his ornate floral formal wear today, Roselin had to suppress a wry smile.
The meal began in silence.
Or rather, it had been silent.
It would have remained that way, had Roselin’s father, Cherti Bellion, not opened his mouth about halfway through the meal.
“Roselin, I’m against it.”
At his sudden words, Roselin—who had finished eating and was merely wetting her lips with wine—looked up.
Cherti gazed at her with eyes dulled by a melancholy sadness.
The jeweled earrings hanging from his ears swayed gently.
“What could you possibly want that you’d meet with a married man!”
……
Roselin’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“In any case, I’m against it. So…….”
“Father. If you’ve read the papers, my relationship with Garen isn’t like that.”
“……Garen?”
Cherti’s voice trembled faintly as he caught on her words.
“Marquess Garen. We merely became acquainted by chance, and what’s being rumored is not the truth.”
“I see. Garen is a man whose thoughts are unfathomable. I don’t understand why you would meet with such a man at all…….”
With a slightly weary expression, Roselin cut off Cherti’s words and raised her hand lightly.
“Father, it’s not for such reasons that I met with Marquess Garen, nor are we in such a relationship.”
“……What?”
At Roselin’s rather curt words, Cherti’s eyes widened sharply, trembling faintly.
Seeing that subtle gaze, Roselin’s eyes narrowed.
“And there’s no need for you to keep sending me letters and flowers, as I haven’t forgotten my position.”
Roselin spoke plainly, having reached her limit with the flowers that had continued for over two weeks without end.
Cherti became rigid, as if turning to stone.
“……What nonsense is that.”
“I’m speaking of the notes you send every day.”
Roselin said it with a tired face.
Whatever this harassment was meant to be, she could bear the daily flowers no longer, nor the brief messages written on the notes that accompanied them.
“Flowers that grow everywhere, flowers sold cheaply, flowers picked up along the way—that sort of thing.”
Besides, Roselin didn’t even prefer strongly scented flowers.
“I know you don’t approve of me in your eyes, Father. I already know I’m not someone who should receive such things.”
It had been the same before.
Her father had never loved her.
That fact remained unchanged across any timeline.
Her father was indifferent to everything and, whenever she so much as asked for something, would stiffen his mouth and refuse harshly.
He wouldn’t even let her come near him.
There had been times she’d hoped he would hold her once, but the moment she approached, he would recoil in fear, distancing himself from her.
So Roselin had already learned resignation.
Just because the world had changed didn’t mean she harbored any desire to alter their relationship as some novel might dictate.
Because just as her father had long ago erased her from his heart, so too had she erased him from hers.
And so she had resolved to make her position clear.
It was something she could not have said before.
“You may not believe it, but I’m grateful simply for the fact that you’ve raised me this far, Father.”
This was sincere.
To have raised an illegitimate child at all—that alone was something to be thankful for.
“I don’t presume to want anything more beyond that.”
Roselin smiled faintly.
The moment her words ended, the gazes of Duke Bellion and Isgis, and even Ian, turned simultaneously toward Cherti.
Cherti remained rigid as stone, looking at Roselin’s profile without meeting her gaze.
His lips trembled pitifully, and his wavering pupils were almost heartbreaking to see.
“It’s only regrettable that I’m not excellent enough to win your approval, Father.”
Cherti’s lips quivered.
He wanted to say one thing: that it wasn’t so.
That she wasn’t an illegitimate child.
It didn’t matter if I wasn’t exceptional.
But the words wouldn’t come.
He was floundering, his lips moving soundlessly, when he finally managed to push a single word from the maelstrom of thoughts in his mind onto his tongue.
It was Roselin who broke the silence once more.

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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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The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 14

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