The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 15

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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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Episode 15
“It seems we’re both finding this awkward, so I’ll say what I came to say and leave.”
Rozerin spoke.
In truth, Rozerin herself was nursing a headache with so much to settle before departing the Capital.
She had no intention of locking horns with her family on top of everything else.
She moistened her dry lips with wine before continuing.
“When I visited the Third Imperial Prince recently, I also met His Majesty and discussed the annulment with him.”
Duke Belion shifted his gaze from his son to Rozerin.
“I received his permission.”
“……Wait. The Emperor approved that?”
Duke Belion narrowed his eyes, his tone sharp with disbelief.
That cunning Emperor, for all his soft and generous appearance, was a calculating man.
If he had decided to grant an annulment based solely on a conversation with Rozerin—without even consulting the Duke himself—there had to be a reason.
The Emperor would never approve an annulment without some advantage to himself.
‘Permission? He granted it?’
Duke Belion knew the Emperor better than anyone.
Marriage, love, even idle conversation—everything moved beneath the weight of calculated interest.
This was a man capable of crouching in the shadows for over a decade for a single hunt.
He was the sort who held his breath, held it, held it—until everyone lowered their guard, and then drew his blade in darkness where no one could see.
Either Rozerin had given the Emperor what he wanted, or the Emperor had taken something from Rozerin without her knowledge.
“……It doesn’t seem like something he’d simply grant.”
At the Duke’s murmur, Rozerin nodded without hesitation.
“He said he would permit it if I resolved the negotiations with Kaluta and addressed the troubling disappearance case currently occurring in the court.”
“……What?”
In that moment, the Duke and all those seated at the dinner table fell silent.
“So it seems I’ll be departing for Kaluta soon.”
Rozerin continued matter-of-factly, as though nothing were amiss.
“Marquis Geren will accompany me, both as an escort and to help resolve the disappearance case together.”
……
“And regarding the Dress matter…….”
She trailed off, exchanging her empty Wine Glass for a cup of water and drinking from it.
“When I went to the Imperial Palace to meet the Third Imperial Prince, I happened to encounter Marquis Geren. He had wronged me at a past reception.”
At her easy explanation, Duke Belion’s frown deepened.
He had never heard of any connection between Marquis Geren and Rozerin.
“Since my wardrobe had emptied anyway, I thought it convenient, so I asked Marquis Geren to provide clothing as an apology.”
“Hm? Niece, what do you mean your wardrobe emptied?”
“Lady Carmel’s doing. She took all the good pieces or tore them to shreds.”
Carmel had noticed that she disliked unnecessary talk reaching her father, and had tormented her precisely because of that.
A reluctance to cause her father further distress—a man who already disliked her.
The younger Rozerin would have endured it all, gritting her teeth.
As though that were some magnificent defense.
But refusing to acknowledge an attack wasn’t the same as defending against one.
‘That’s why it hit so hard when I said it aloud this time.’
She had expected him to assume she would never tell.
But Rozerin had lived to twenty-seven.
The twenty-seven-year-old Rozerin was petty and cowardly enough to exploit anything useful—even human lives.
“……How dare that woman……! What does she think she’s touching?!”
“There’s nothing to be angry about, since I’m the one who didn’t speak sooner.”
Rozerin waved her hand lightly.
Isys, who had been seething with anger on her behalf, stopped short.
‘She speaks of her own troubles as if they belonged to someone else entirely…….’
Her voice and gaze were utterly dry and indifferent.
All of it seemed to bore her.
“In any case, it’s been resolved well.”
After all, she now possessed several fine Dresses.
“……Resolved well?”
Cherti’s eyes flickered as they found Rozerin.
He wrestled to suppress the emotion threatening to burst forth.
If he lost his temper now, not only this table but his daughter herself could be endangered.
“How is any of this……resolved…….”
Cherti pressed down the surging emotions within him.
“Of course, it wouldn’t have pleased you, Father. But this was the best I could do.”
“I would have preferred you to tell me first.”
Calm yourself.
Cherti thought to himself.
“It’s fine. I was able to resolve it on my own.”
That was true—the boy had done nothing wrong.
‘I was the one who pushed her away from the start.’
So he had no right to be angry with her.
“Still, this isn’t something I should have to hear secondhand.”
……
Rozerin exhaled softly.
The expression on her face carried a distinct weariness, and Cherti’s heart lurched at the sight.
“I’ll consult with you beforehand from now on.”
Rozerin stepped back slightly.
Not for his sake, but to prevent any further trouble—that’s what it seemed like.
In that moment, Cherti suddenly felt the distance between himself and his daughter yawn impossibly wide.
“Ah, and while we’re on the subject……”
Rozerin spoke with an unusual tone, her smile faltering slightly.
“I heard that the Marquis Geren owns a residence in the Capital. Since I’ll likely be collaborating with him frequently for a while, I’m thinking of staying there.”
……
No—it wasn’t distance he felt.
Cherti closed his eyes slowly, then opened them again, as if brushing away a cold sensation creeping down his spine.
It was unreality itself.
“Once I return from Kaluta and the annulment is finalized, I’m considering moving across to the Del Kingdom.”
It was as though……
“Those are the matters I wished to discuss. Is there anything you don’t understand, or anything I should be mindful of?”
——a declaration that they would walk different paths no longer.
He hated it.
He hated this.
Why?
Have you come to hate me too?
No—I pushed you away first. This is only natural.
It was always strange that anyone could like me at all.
Of course the girl hates you.
You made her hate you.
You did.
Because you stole her mother from her.
No one else—you.
You killed her mother.
Cherti’s mind filled with such dark, suffocating thoughts.
At the same time, a purple haze began to spread slowly outward from where he stood.
Bang!
Food spilled from the dining table as it began to melt away, and those who had been nearby had already retreated long ago.
Through his blurred vision, he could see the servants scrambling in panic, fleeing to the corners of the room.
‘I need to calm down.’
Cherti thought this to himself as he blinked slowly.
‘Why do I even live?’
His crimson eyes wavered.
He had been born by killing his mother.
He had killed the first woman he had ever loved.
All that remained for him was Rozerin, and now even she had chosen to leave him.
People were muttering things all around him, but he couldn’t hear them properly.
His father’s voice and Isys’s ferocious tone echoed and faded in turn.
Cherti let out a hollow laugh.
He knew how miserable a life was without a mother’s affection.
He knew how deeply it cut into a person’s soul.
‘And I stole that chance from you.’
It was only natural that the girl would resent him.
He had wanted her to resent him.
I wished it wouldn’t come to that.
‘What if I kill you too?’
Even though it was merely a thought, his body trembled violently.
He drew a sharp breath and released it slowly.
Purple smoke drifted like breath on the wind.
Rozerin was watching him.
“……”
Cherti stumbled backward.
“Don’t look at me……”
Rozerin stood watching him, still gripping the Wine Glass she’d seized before the table dissolved entirely.
“Don’t come closer.”
Rozerin gazed at him with penetrating stillness.
Her pupils were visibly dilated, and at the sight of them, Cherti clenched his fists.
He didn’t want her to see.
He didn’t want her to see.
This pathetic form—he didn’t want her to see it.
This demonic shape, unable to control his own power, the power that had murdered his own mother.
‘……Or perhaps this would be better.’
Then she would hate him more.
Of course, she wouldn’t draw near again, but even so, it would be safer.
So it would be better to withdraw now……
Viscous purple liquid dripped steadily from his hands, dissolving the floor beneath it.
A sharp hiss rose with the smoke, and everything around him withered.
The flowers that had bloomed so abundantly darkened and dissolved without trace.
Even the stubborn weeds turned black and melted away, and nothing living remained in his vicinity.
That was when it happened.
Rozerin, who had been watching him intently, moved.
She pulled something from her pocket and strode toward Cherti with deliberate steps.

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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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