The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 157

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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 27
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“…….”
Watching young Rozelin’s eyes widen, she scratched at her cheek.
Cherti Bellion—in other words, her father—and the venom coiling around him made it abundantly clear she’d managed to earn his thorough displeasure.
“Little one, Rozelin. Breathe slowly. Slowly.”
“Gasp, gasp…….”
Young Rozelin, clutching at her chest, exhaled gradually as her father instructed.
Watching as her ragged breathing gradually steadied, she lightened her step slightly.
“What exactly did you do to my daughter?”
What did she do?
She hadn’t done anything in particular.
“We talked.”
“Talked? I heard you disparaged my daughter—what kind of conversation leaves the child in this state……!”
Rozelin watched his Abyss roiling savagely.
Seeing the seething poison creeping toward where she stood, she quickly opened her mouth.
“Forgive me, but if you don’t control that Abyss, I’m going to die.”
“What……?”
“I said I’m dying. Tomorrow morning the papers will be full of rumors about the Marquessate House’s young lady poisoned by the Duke.”
She spoke with perfect composure even as she said it.
Cherti Bellion was so thoroughly dumbfounded that the strength simply drained from his body.
“Thank you.”
The gratitude came in such a bone-dry, detached tone that it was unclear what exactly she was grateful for.
Cherti Bellion found himself momentarily speechless.
“What in…….”
When she’d first brought his sister, who had vanished so suddenly, back to him, he’d found it strange.
But watching this child speak so brazenly and completely in front of a Duke who should have frightened any ordinary child made him wonder what was going on.
He had to wonder if he should accept that she truly was the young lady of the Marquessate House.
As she drove her words straight into the heart of the matter, Cherti witnessed for the first time his father rendered completely mute, as if something were lodged in his throat.
He thought the child both amusing and strange.
In truth, if she had any sense left, she never would have spoken so directly to a fierce Duke.
“At any rate, we only talked.”
“That’s exactly why I’m asking—what did you talk about?”
“Oh, I just said if you keep living so gloomily like that, you’ll never have any friends.”
Since there was nothing to hide, Rozelin answered readily.
At that, Cherti Bellion flinched and blinked.
“I told him if he didn’t want to become gloomy and wanted to change his relationships, he should go speak his heart honestly.”
“…….”
“Since he stubbornly believes that his young lordship dislikes him, I told him to stop the self-pity and the pitiful act…….”
“No, what kind of conversation results in…….”
Cherti Bellion looked down at Rozelin with an expression that said he couldn’t believe such a small person existed.
“There’s more…….”
“There’s more?”
Her small head bobbed gently up and down.
Though she was far younger and much smaller than he, her expression remained utterly flat.
Her monotone voice sounded as though she were merely reading from a report, delivered without inflection.
“Since he seemed to think he must necessarily be unhappy, I thought about throwing him into the alleyways where all the unfortunate children lie scattered on the streets.”
It was what Rozelin wished someone had done for her younger self.
All because she lingered with the regret of wishing she’d understood reality a little sooner.
“Beyond that, if nothing worked, I told him to just give up.”
“……Give up what?”
“Love.”
A word tumbled out—one that shouldn’t have come from a child’s lips. He tried to examine the child with a startled expression.
At the same moment, the child too slowly raised her head to look at him.
Her dry eyes seemed to hold nothing, as if emotion itself had withered away.
“When you have so much around you, isn’t wanting love too as well—greed?”
“…….”
“After all…….”
The child’s lips moved slowly, and she locked eyes with him directly.
Or rather, their eyes had been meeting all along. He simply felt, in that moment, as though she were piercing through to something inside him.
“Your father will never love someone like you, not in a lifetime.”
“……!”
Cherti’s pupils dilated sharply.
The voice came out measured and dry, yet somehow it sounded as though she were blaming him.
“Isn’t that right, youngest prince?”
He quickly looked away at the sight of the child, whose lips had curled up into a smile as if she had never spoken such words at all.
His young daughter’s shoulders trembled faintly, her head bowed low.
As though she had committed some grave sin.
As though she couldn’t bear to lift her head and look at him. Her small cheeks quivered as she kept her head pressed down.
“…….”
That small, hunched form stirred a memory—of himself, long ago.
The same as that day when he had endured his father’s verbal abuse and the contempt in his gaze.
‘…….’
Without question, Cherti had sworn that his father was the one person in the world he least wanted to resemble.
It wasn’t as though he was ignorant of the man’s standing in the world.
Everyone desired him, admired him, sang his praises.
And he had wanted to give them exactly that in return.
But Cherti’s Abyss Control was insufficient, and instead of waiting, his father had whipped him relentlessly, without pause.
He had hated that.
He had never once felt loved.
He had thought of himself as worthless, as garbage. Hearing himself called garbage again and again, he had come to believe it was true, and soon he couldn’t even bear to look at his father’s face.
“From now on, the prince will continue to brood, won’t speak honestly, will decide that a parent like himself is unnecessary, and will abandon his child to neglect.”
“……What?”
“All while telling himself it’s for Rozelin’s sake.”
Cherti’s eyes widened.
Before him stood nothing but a child, and yet—why did it feel this way?
It wasn’t merely the sensation of facing an adult; he felt himself being sternly rebuked.
“Never once stopping to consider that she might not even want that.”
“…….”
Cherti said nothing, lowering his gaze to his pallid, weary-looking daughter.
She kept stealing glances at him, and the moment their eyes met, she quickly pressed her head down again.
Just as young Cherti had done. The situation was no different whatsoever.
The only difference was that now he stood where his father had stood, and his daughter stood where his younger self once had.
In the end, he was no different from his father after all.
“No, I’m…….”
Rozelin watched Cherti mutter quietly to himself, her eyes rolling slightly.
‘Surely he’s not about to dig a hole and bury himself in it?’
She had deliberately used harsh words to give him a bit of a shock, that was all.
Though, to be honest…….
‘Neither of them talks to the other.’
Unless she gave them both this jolt, they would never speak to each other at all.
Rozelin knew her own stubborn, twisted nature all too well.
And she knew just as well the gloomy, somber nature of her father.
“Anyway, I should be getting back inside—it’s growing late. That wretched father of mine said if he comes home late, he’ll dress me in a gorgeous Dress and send me out as a Debutante.”
“……?”
Despite the horrified expression on her face, what she was saying sounded quite normal—even good, in fact.
‘Is she bragging?’
Cherti looked at her with an expression of utter bewilderment, and there she was, trembling her whole body with visible distaste.
“In any case, I’m certain that when Rozelin grows up, she’ll say she hates her gloomy father.”
“……Gloomy? What exactly about me is gloomy…….”
“Your clothes, for a start—so old-fashioned and dreary…… Well, actually. It’s more of an antique vibe? Very vintage.”
Beyond repair.
Cherti felt as though he could hear the unspoken continuation of the child’s words.
“Well then, I’ll be going inside. I’ll visit again in a few days.”
“……You’re coming back?”
“Friends require regular contact, after all.”
So then—was this a business arrangement or a friendship……?
Cherti couldn’t bring himself to ask even that much, and he watched the child walk away with renewed propriety and a polite bow, her footsteps brisk.
When he lowered his gaze, even his own daughter wore an expression of bewilderment.
“Listen, why don’t you two actually talk? At this rate, her daughter’s going to run away from home. I’m currently preparing for my own escape, mind you.”
“……Who is Rozelin, anyway?”
“……I have no idea either.”
That day, their casual exchange about the tempestuous girl became the thread that first drew their hearts together.

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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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