The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 161

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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 31
“You’ve gone back in time and grown stronger, and now you go about speaking to your younger self as though you’ve become something tremendous and enlightened. That’s quite the performance.”
Garren Wilbred continued slowly, watching the child’s eyes redden at the rims.
‘Well, it’s unfortunate, but there’s nothing for it.’
If a relationship could be damaged by this, then that person had never truly held his regard—no use dwelling on it.
“Humans exist within the compassion of others. The only difference is that most people don’t notice it unless someone like me says it outright.”
“…….”
“The reason you lack compassion for others is simple. There may be some difference in disposition, but it’s because you make no effort whatsoever to think from another’s perspective.”
Garren rose from his crouch, watching the child’s flushed face.
“You never think to repay the compassion you’ve received.”
“…….”
“No matter how strong you become, there are plenty who could defeat you. From where I stand, you’re a frog in a well.”
It was the moment Garren Wilbred brushed past her on his way out of the Study Room.
The child opened her mouth, eyes burning red.
“……Why do you have to speak to me like that?”
Patter.
At the sound of water droplets falling onto the Marble Floor, Garren Wilbred froze.
“……Rozelin?”
“How can anyone live purely by rationality? I’m not you. I can’t live as rationally as you do, and I don’t have the confidence for it.”
Garren Wilbred stilled.
Rozelin remained motionless in the exact same posture as before, her head bowed, only her lips moving slightly.
“I know you evaluate me favorably in some sense.”
Someone rational, practical, who thought similarly to himself and didn’t easily despair—a dry yet quite fascinating person.
“I don’t avoid compassion because I dislike it. I’m always thinking about it in my own way.”
Rozelin spoke with her soft lower lip caught between her teeth.
Something churned in her belly and her throat tightened, as though something might burst free at any moment.
But instead of screaming it aloud, she released the words that had formed in her mind.
“But what am I supposed to do when my best is someone else’s second-worst?”
Rozelin had always been thinking.
Even when that person was worried, she had tried to offer the best counsel she could.
“You’ve always given me advice that way.”
Always direct.
Her father, her grandfather—they were all the same.
Unable to soften their words.
Yet she had tried to learn from them. She had done her best in her own way.
Rozelin had never possessed a wide emotional range.
When that person expressed worry, it reached her ears differently—as a question of why such worry was necessary at all.
‘Yet I tried not to ignore it and to respond, and my best fell short of their expectations—what was I supposed to do?’
Would it have been better to stay silent?
‘Then it’s just like before.’
What was the difference between this and those days when she had kept her mouth firmly shut and said nothing at all?
“Is wanting not to be a burden such a great fault? Did anyone say that independence means severing ties with you? Didn’t I say I would maintain our relationship as father and daughter?”
Rozelin clenched her fists and tried to speak calmly, pressing down her agitated voice as much as she could.
“Being young isn’t a shield or an excuse, so I simply wanted to pull my own weight.”
“Whine…….”
The Wolf whimpered softly.
Rozelin gazed down at the bundle of fur pressing its cheek against her arm.
So only the Wolf held in her embrace could see Rozelin’s face twisted with shame.
The Wolf looked up at Rozelin, then glared savagely at Garren Wilbred standing frozen to one side.
It was a look so utterly vicious that if its body had been free, it would have attacked him without hesitation.
“I didn’t want to disappoint someone who thought well of me.”
“…….”
Garren Wilbred drew a slow breath and gazed down at the child’s rounded crown.
“In any case, we were much like rivals, so I wanted to at least stand on equal footing materially, in whatever form.”
Rozelin barely managed to push words and sounds past her throat, forming sentences.
“I’ve never thought you were anything remarkable. I just…….”
Not once had she ever believed herself to be remarkable.
Rozelin released one of her hands holding the Wolf and pressed her small palm against her eye sockets.
“I was just glad I wouldn’t be a burden. Since I’m not in pain, there’s no need to care for me.”
Garren Wilbred looked down at Rozelin with an awkward expression.
It wasn’t cruelty that made him speak so bluntly—it was simply that enough time had passed, and he thought it was finally time she faced reality.
“Even a few hours in the cold left me bedridden with high fever for a week. I’ve spent my entire life dependent on medicine, never knowing what it was like to live freely…….”
Rozelin’s hands clenched into fists.
She remembered those years of flight, always forced to carry her medication with her—every moment soaked in misery.
“I’ve never been able to run or walk freely whenever I wished. So yes, I got a little carried away. It’s my first time being able to spend hours outside without falling ill the next day, my first time sleeping outdoors without coughing…….”
…….
Garren Wilbred looked down at Rozelin, his eyes narrowing slightly.
‘It’s true. Her condition was far worse than even I realized.’
As he’d learned later, she’d rarely set foot outside her room as a child.
The list of physicians who’d visited her was long enough to fill several pages.
“I know you came here for me. I understand what truly matters to you lies elsewhere. You didn’t need to come here at all.”
Rozelin swallowed hard before speaking.
“I know.”
She knew.
From the moment he had stepped into this place and come searching for her, she knew.
She’d recognized it even then, in the rain, when he offered his umbrella to her as he would to a stranger he’d met only yesterday.
“If I don’t force myself, I’d be the most worthless thing in the world. I’m well aware of that.”
…….
Garren Wilbred tilted his head, his expression subtly shifting at words that seemed to crawl along the ground.
In that moment, he understood why Rozelin Bellion was Cherti Bellion’s daughter.
“If I were afraid of being hurt, I would have hanged myself long ago.”
A small whimper escaped.
Rozelin’s delicate hand reached up to stroke the ball of fur gently.
At least having something in her arms made her feel slightly better.
“Do you think relationships that have once soured must remain poisoned forever? Haven’t you heard the rumors about me?”
Rozelin slowly lifted her head and turned her body.
Her reddened eyes fixed directly on Garren Wilbred.
Garren Wilbred gazed steadily back into them.
“If you were still someone I considered an enemy, there would be dozens more blades buried in your neck and head by now.”
“……You speak of such brutal things as though they were nothing.”
“I despise myself.”
Rozelin spoke flatly, her eyes hollow.
“So I don’t pity myself.”
Since she’d regained her senses, Rozelin had never once felt pity for herself.
She simply lived day by day, thinking only this:
that she was an utterly contemptible, annoying, pitiful creature.
“It may not satisfy your eye, but I am making an effort in my own way.”
“I see.”
“If I don’t speak, I won’t hurt others. But to learn the compassion and empathy you talk about, I must eventually open my mouth.”
It was then that Garren Wilbred finally paused.
A memory surfaced—a childhood habit of hers he’d nearly forgotten.
With bitter eyes, clenching her fists, her expression ready to break into tears at any moment, she would always keep her lips sealed, glaring at whoever stood before her.
That silence had been her greatest rebellion, her ultimate protest against them.
‘She was changing.’
So slowly he could barely feel it happening.

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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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