The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 164

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Part 2, Episode 34
“…….”
The child brushed Rozelin’s hair back gently with small hands, then clicked his tongue softly.
He knew that Garren Wilbred and Rozelin shared some connection—one they themselves weren’t aware of.
‘I never guessed he’d be a demon.’
If he hadn’t witnessed Garren suddenly unfurl his wings and take flight, he’d never have suspected a thing.
‘A demon…….’
A creature he hadn’t even known existed in the real world.
He had made a contract with Garren Wilbred.
A contract asking to be connected to the world where she lived.
In exchange, Arma had entered into an agreement to surrender the greatest thing he possessed after a certain period of time.
It was difficult to protect her from a distance.
But at the same time, Arma had to handle imperial affairs to become emperor.
He couldn’t abandon the empire entirely like Rozelin had. Not when he needed to be at the highest place when she returned.
That’s why Garren Wilbred had provided him with a temporary body.
The body of a beastman—one that had vanished beyond the reach of history, now appearing only in old folklore or relegated to fairy tales and novels.
When his true self slept, Arma could inhabit this world in the beastman’s form.
Conversely, when he wasn’t sleeping, he could act as the Crown Prince in the other world.
Thanks to this arrangement, he devoted minimum time to maximum efficiency in his Crown Prince duties, then spent the rest sleeping and pouring all his remaining hours into this world.
‘The price of becoming Crown Prince is having to deal with that man’s brother every single day…….’
Whenever Arma made an irritated expression, the image of that damned human sneering ‘Didn’t your brother yield the Crown Prince seat to you?’ would surface in his mind.
Arma brushed his hair back with an exasperated look.
After staring down at Rozelin for a long while, he soon went and sat at her desk, which was piled high with documents and books.
His eyes swept quickly over texts related to demons and papers concerning investments.
This much volume was barely a fraction of what he normally processed over there.
‘Organizing this much is nothing.’
Arma uncapped a pen and opened his notebook and books.
If she didn’t want to read it all herself, it was simply a matter of summarizing only the parts that needed reading.
‘Still…… I was genuinely startled when I couldn’t achieve Imprinting at first.’
As Arma processed documents, he recalled the day he first met her.
He was someone with a manufactured body—an existence that shouldn’t exist in the world, yet had suddenly dropped into it from somewhere.
To even settle into that body, Arma had endured hardship for nearly a year and a half.
Because the species was different, his soul’s essence didn’t align properly, and for a while it was an endless cycle of regaining consciousness after entering the body, then collapsing again, then waking and collapsing once more.
And that was only the beginning.
According to Garren Wilbred, an existence that shouldn’t be required a ‘bond the world could accept’ in order to function.
Since his body was originally a person with no destiny at all, he could only act by treading upon another’s fate.
That’s where the concept of ‘Imprinting’ came in.
For that to work, the first human he saw had to be Rozelin.
That’s why he couldn’t leave the paper marked with the Protective Talisman.
The moment he stepped outside it, Garren Wilbred had warned, the world would recognize and reject him.
‘I never thought she wouldn’t respond no matter how many times I called.’
All that came out was yelping and barking and whining and howling, and he’d thought he’d die of frustration.
After nearly ten attempts, he’d finally managed to achieve Imprinting with her.
At least Garren Wilbred had periodically brought him food, which he was grateful for.
‘Honestly, I did wonder sometimes what I was even doing…….’
Especially when the veterinarian examined him.
“……Well, I get to see her every day, so I suppose that’s enough.”
It wasn’t his real body anyway, so what did it matter?
Arma murmured quietly to himself, then rapidly read through the mountain of books and processed both documents and summaries simultaneously until dawn broke.
* * *
There was a story about a house elf in a book she’d read as a child.
Whenever the protagonist mentioned needing something, the next morning it would appear right before their eyes—a fairy tale come to life.
And lately, Rozelin had been having that sort of experience quite often.
Though ‘lately’ was stretching it—this had been going on for far too long.
It had been nearly a year since these strange occurrences began.
‘……Garren said there’s nothing dangerous about it and to just leave it alone.’
Rozelin found it rather convenient anyway, so she’d let it be.
After all, this house elf had taken to reading books she should have read, creating neat little summaries with only the necessary parts, organizing documents for her, and generally making life easier—if convenience could be called that.
But now this house elf had even begun cleaning her room and leaving her little notes of advice on sticky paper.
Rozelin, rubbing the corners of her eyes as she drifted in and out of sleep, suddenly snapped awake and smacked her lips.
“……What is this? It frightens me.”
No matter how she thought about it, there was something unsettling about believing this was the work of a fairy.
Rozelin gazed at the neatly arranged space once more and shivered.
A faint tremor ran through the air.
Beneath Rozelin’s bed, the wolf curled in sleep went rigid.
Rozelin, however, noticed nothing.
She rubbed the back of her neck and gently stroked the wolf’s head, poured out a generous portion of feed, then dressed lightly and made her way to the Dining Hall where Garren Wilbred would be.
Since that day, they had made a dramatic reconciliation and now managed to get along reasonably well.
There was no need to leave when he insisted she stay at the house, and after pouring everything out, her mind felt considerably clearer.
Still, with nothing to do, the idleness grew tedious, so by mutual agreement they decided to proceed with the investments she’d already committed funds to.
The condition, however, was that she would not lose the escort knight he had chosen, whether she was attending meetings or sitting in on presentations about new ventures from investment targets.
As she approached the Dining Hall, soldiers greeted her with gentle smiles.
“Welcome, Miss.”
“Hello.”
“Did you sleep well last night?”
“Not particularly.”
She pushed away the creeping drowsiness by rubbing her eyes as she spoke, and laughter played at the soldiers’ lips.
“I see, Miss. Perhaps the dream fairy will visit you tonight. Enjoy your meal.”
“……All right.”
Rozelin nodded, doing her best to hide her displeasure.
After spending roughly a year in this Mansion, she had come to realize that the atmosphere of the Duke’s household was considerably more austere than she’d thought.
A household takes much of its character from its master, and since Garren Wilbred habitually played the gentle sort, the Marquis’s retainers were quite affable.
Whenever she passed through the Corridor, they would laugh and greet her, and they would even offer the master of the house casual remarks—that he seemed to be in good spirits, or whether something pleasant had happened.
Because of this, the retainers of the Marquis’s household regarded Rozelin as a rather taciturn yet endearing young lady.
Whether she accidentally tripped and got back up without crying earned her praise—that she was admirable, that she would surely grow into someone great, and all manner of flattery.
More than once, her face had nearly flushed from embarrassment.
‘It’s probably because Selena maintains the Mansion so well that this atmosphere is preserved.’
Rozelin thought this as she walked purposefully.
Over the past year, Rozelin had visited the Duke’s Estate consistently, building trust while gathering information and discerning whether any suspicious figures had entered the family.
Because Rozelin visited the Duke’s Estate so frequently—nearly as often as one visits home—no one found it strange that she came to the Bellion Family Estate.
Rumors had even spread that the Marquis Wilbred’s household and the Bellion Family Estate were on exceptionally close terms.
Though in reality, the heads had never met in person.
In any case, she had gradually altered the atmosphere within the Duke’s Estate.
Whenever her father tried to speak harshly, she would interject from beside him, and when he grew gloomy and looked ready to withdraw into himself, she would offer him kind words—that he might truly end up buried underground if he continued like that.
Her grandfather was no different.
So whenever Rozelin visited, Iseus Bellion would make sure to come see her.
In the meantime, she gathered information about Marlux and the Bynac Cult, among other matters.
Of course, most of it was with Garren Wilbred’s help. When she’d tried to do it alone, he’d disapproved so pointedly that she’d had no choice but to yield.
‘I think I’m far too kind.’
Shaking her head, Rozelin entered the Dining Hall, which she had now reached.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————