The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 151

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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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Part 2, Episode 21
Fortunately, they didn’t have to descend far before spotting the carriage.
The coachman, perhaps expecting them, bowed at the waist.
“Miss, you’ve arrived. Uh… where are the knights?”
“I gave them separate orders, so we should be fine returning just the three of us.”
“Then who is this person beside you…?”
“Someone I met on the way down.”
“Ah, are they joining us for the ride?”
“No, they’re heading back.”
At her firm words, the High Priest’s expression grew wistful.
‘Not even knowing what kind of Ability User they are, and she’s still turning them away.’
Rozelin, her eyes narrowed, climbed into the carriage the coachman held open for her.
She laid Lili Bellion down inside, then climbed back out and took a seat beside the coachman.
“Uh…? Why have you come out, Miss? The evening air is chilly. Please go inside, and I’ll attend to you.”
“I’ll get some fresh air for a moment before heading in. Don’t worry. Let’s get moving.”
“Yes, understood.”
The coachman chuckled and gave the reins a light shake.
The horse began to move slowly with a steady clip-clop of hooves.
‘…I should tell Garren about this.’
For some reason, the whole thing felt distinctly unusual.
Even when Rozelin had attacked earlier, it hadn’t felt like fear of death—more like an annoyance at plans going sideways.
“Coachman.”
“Yes, Miss?”
“Is the Bynac Cult very famous?”
“Well… by now, there’s scarcely anyone who doesn’t know of them. They’ve grown quite large in just ten years—or rather, even less than that…”
The coachman murmured as if calculating, then sighed and nodded.
“Yes, it’s been several years now. They started their activities out of nowhere, and as their believers multiplied rapidly, almost no one in the empire remains ignorant of them. My wife’s been visiting the Bynac Cult now and then, in fact.”
He rubbed his stubbly chin and shook his head with concern.
“She says our daughter recovered after she went and prayed sincerely there. Lately it’s given me quite a headache. Though it’s surely just coincidence.”
“They say someone has been healing people?”
“Well, there are plenty of rumors like that. I couldn’t say myself. My wife’s been thinking of taking our daughter along now too, so…”
He shook his head again, clearly troubled by it.
‘Why is the Emperor staying silent?’
The Emperor wasn’t foolish enough to ignore something like this.
Rozelin’s brow furrowed.
For many reasons, she needed to enter society sooner rather than later. She’d have to learn more about the Bynac Cult as well.
‘First, though, I should deal with Marlux.’
Garren Wilbred had told her not to worry about it, that he’d handle it himself—but she couldn’t let it go.
If she’d cut off Marlux early on, the family wouldn’t have fallen into such ruin.
“By the way, why the sudden interest in the Bynac Cult, Miss?”
“Just… I see them everywhere these days. We didn’t see many in our territory because my wretched father drove them out.”
“Ah yes, the Duke never cared much for temples even as a boy.”
So there was even character background built into this world.
In any case, many things seemed to be different from what she knew, and it looked like she’d need to gather information for a while before she could figure out how to deal with Marlux.
Soon enough, the carriage arrived at the Mansion.
And when Garren Wilbred heard that Rozelin had dismissed all of her escort knights, he rarely complained of a headache and pressed his palm to his forehead.
A headache and he’s pressing his forehead? That made no sense.
She asked with a frown, and he flicked her forehead.
Irritated, she kicked his shin in return, and he let out a sigh.
* * *
Garren Wilbred fell silent upon seeing Lili Bellion draped over Rozelin’s shoulder like luggage.
“I never expected raising a child would be this taxing,” he murmured with a sigh.
He looked at Lili Bellion, lost in deep sleep in a room of the Wilbred Mansion, and his stepdaughter crouching beside a chair placed next to the bed.
If he could, he’d find that man Sansar and seize him by the collar.
The boy had a sharp mind but no common sense, and now that he’d been given physical strength on top of it all, he dashed about causing trouble left and right.
“Is neglect what you call parenting?”
“You’re the one who makes me neglect her.”
“You said you had things to do, just like that damned father of yours.”
“Still, it was reckless.”
At Garren Wilbred’s words, Rozelin glanced at him sideways.
“I know. Were you worried?”
“Is there a parent who doesn’t worry about their child?”
“Yes. Plenty of them.”
Rozelin spoke in her usual flat tone.
Garren Wilbred simply closed his mouth at such a brazen remark—as if she’d buried every shred of empathy in the ground.
“Where exactly have you stashed your social skills?”
“I have excellent social skills.”
“You do not.”
Garren Wilbred said it plainly.
“More precisely, except when I need to bare my teeth long enough to mock someone or stab them in the back—that’s when I have none.”
“People don’t have teeth like that.”
“And that, right there, is precisely your lack of social skills.”
“……Is it really a problem to call something nonexistent nonexistent?”
“It was figurative.”
Rozelin tilted her head with a subtle expression.
She had no desire to argue about something pointless anyway.
Besides, she’d be indebted to him for a while longer.
“Still, it’s rather nice being this strong. Before, I’d get winded after just a short walk, and catching even a chill meant fever the next day…….”
She squeezed her hands open and shut repeatedly, then smiled faintly.
“Now I don’t tire easily, and I don’t have to choke down those wretched medicines. I don’t need to cower behind someone else when I want help, either.”
She could quietly drag away any wretch who tried to paw at her because she was young or female, and beat them senseless with her own hands.
That’s why Rozelin was quite pleased with her current state.
“But that damned father of mine.”
“Go on.”
“Why won’t this man wake up? I gave him medicine too.”
She gave the bracelet on her wrist a light shake to show him.
“The yellow stone from the Seven-Day Stone. I had him ingest it…….”
Garren Wilbred gazed silently down at Lili Bellion, following Rozelin’s murmur.
He’d brought her here and conducted a thorough health examination.
‘Her condition isn’t as dire as all that.’
When he’d first seen her yesterday, her complexion was ashen and her pulse barely perceptible—she could have died any moment without raising eyebrows.
She’d been clinging to life on the barest minimum of sustenance.
“She does seem better than yesterday, so the absorption might simply take time.”
“Is that so?”
If only she’d open her eyes—then Rozelin could use her as a bargaining chip to gain a foothold in the Bellion Family.
‘Otherwise I’m stuck waiting until she makes her debutante debut.’
That would take several more years.
Unfortunately, Rozelin wasn’t the patient type.
“What about that damned father and Makruksa?”
“Actually, I had something to discuss regarding that very matter.”
“Something to discuss?”
Garren Wilbred nodded lightly at Rozelin’s question, then opened his mouth.
“The Bynac Cult has grown larger than expected.”
Garren Wilbred spoke curtly.
‘He was talking about Makruksa—why’s he suddenly bringing up the Bynac Cult…….’
Rozelin’s eyes narrowed as the thought occurred to her.
The Garren Wilbred she knew didn’t waste words.
In other words, he must have deemed it necessary, which is why he’d brought up the Bynac Cult so abruptly.
“Don’t tell me he formed an alliance with them?”
“Something more troublesome than that.”
“……He was absorbed into them?”
Garren Wilbred looked down at Rozelin with an approving expression—she’d grasped his meaning without much explanation—and nodded.
“Exactly right.”
“……So we’re screwed?”
“More or less.”
Garren Wilbred confirmed it briefly.
Rozelin dangled her short legs over the chair’s edge, her arms crossed, and let out a hollow laugh.
She’d had no idea the organization that man built had been swallowed up like that.
‘Of course, I figured it would get in the way in this world.’
But she never imagined it would balloon into a mass like this.
Of course, it was inevitable that the smaller would be swallowed by the larger.
At this stage, Marlux was not yet fully prepared, and was quietly laying the groundwork for revenge, piece by piece.
A time when it was only just beginning to make its name known.
And when it was only beginning to slip its people into the noble houses, one by one.
“This is troublesome.”
That it had been consumed wholesale meant the Bynac Cult might be seeping into the noble houses as well.
To Rozelin’s eye, the situation had taken a turn for the worse.

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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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