The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 171

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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 41
“What did I do wrong?”
“No, I was simply at a loss for words before such a spectacularly trashy moment. It’s a compliment.”
“That’s fine—I was also slightly shocked by the Duke’s trash-tier remark just now.”
“……What?”
“Pretty words, gentle words, proper words. Keep this up and your granddaughter will abandon you later. What is ‘trashy’?”
“Then what should I say? I was trying to give you a compliment.”
I pondered for quite some time over the Duke’s words.
I became curious about how one could possibly interpret “trashy” as a compliment.
“How about, ‘You threw filth with such elegance’? That might work.”
“How is that any different from what I said?”
“Well, trashy is provocative, but filth is a bit more subdued, don’t you think?”
The Duke looked down at me with an expression that said ‘what nonsense is this?’, then shook his head slowly and thrust a thick purse at me.
“That’ll do. Take this. Pocket money.”
“Yes.”
That evening at supper, when I mentioned receiving a substantial sum from the Duke, Garren Wilbred took it from me, and it ended up delivered to the Duchy intact.
* * *
I emerged from my thoughts and, watching the two still in conversation, rested my chin on my hand.
“Rozelin, are you happy?”
“Hmm? ……Yes. Why?”
“Just curious.”
That’s all that matters, really.
I popped a cookie into my mouth and chewed it contentedly.
* * *
It was my first debutante ball.
“Marquis Garren Wilbred and Countess Selena Hyde, and finally Miss Rozelin Wilbred, the Duke’s daughter—please welcome them!”
In other words, this was my first time entering a ball flanked on both sides.
Until now, I had always gone alone or been escorted by a knight of the house.
I had expected Selena, but I was genuinely surprised that Garren Wilbred agreed to enter alongside us.
In any case, I entered with Garren Wilbred and Selena Hyde, and…….
“Duke Devon Bellion and Marquis Cherti Bellion, Miss Lily Bellion, Prince Ian Bellion, and Miss Rozelin Bellion—please welcome them!”
Everyone from the family showed up except the eldest.
The child version of me was visibly both delighted and greatly flustered.
I was grateful that the one in there was not me.
I mean, it’s a younger version of myself, but……still, it’s not who I am now, and for that I’m thankful.
“……Ugh.”
I exhaled softly and lightly rubbed my cheeks.
“The ball hasn’t even properly begun and you’re already sighing, Rozelin?”
“How could you see that and have no thought—wait……?”
I could just go ahead as usual, right?
As my casual tone slipped out habitually, I was testing the waters when a laugh-tinged voice came from above my head.
“Relax.”
I let out a small cough and nodded.
Selena, having been away from society for so long, was quite popular—she looked busy greeting this person and that.
“……Quite a lot.”
When I murmured softly, Garren Wilbred cast his gaze downward and slowly nodded.
“They’ve infiltrated more than I expected.”
“Indeed.”
The Bynac Cult.
Like a cross driving downward through a Five-Pointed Star symbolizing demons, the symbol appeared at first glance to represent the vanquishing of evil.
Yet conversely, one could interpret it as the Five-Pointed Star having received the cross—a symbol of divinity—as a sacrifice.
Such symbols could be interpreted one way or another, leaving room for multiple readings…….
‘More people are carrying such things than I realized.’
They certainly hadn’t bought them as mere trinkets.
One person recruits another, and another recruits the next, and the pyramid grows ever larger.
“What about the Temple?”
“They don’t seem to have much influence here. Either the Temple’s power is weak, or their High Priest simply hasn’t been found yet.”
“I see.”
That’s troublesome.
Normally, all available personnel would have fallen under the Temple, but now they were divided between the Bynac Cult and the Temple.
The Temple’s power naturally had no choice but to weaken.
The Temple had quite a lot of work to do.
Among it, the greatest task was suppressing and purifying Demonic Beasts, but this would make things difficult.
I narrowed my brow and gently rubbed my forehead.
I didn’t want wrinkles from such a young age.
“Have you any thoughts on the matter, daughter?”
“For now… I’m still considering. I think I’ll need to find the High Priest at the Temple first…”
The problem was that all I knew of the High Priest was that he had a rather sordid love of money and was quite beautiful in appearance.
And even that much was only possible if he hadn’t yet fallen under the sway of the Bynac Cult.
“Could you look into it for me, Father?”
“…Well, yes. That much isn’t difficult.”
Garren Wilbred let out a small laugh as he answered.
“That said, you’ve grown quite good at relying on me, haven’t you, daughter?”
“…Don’t like it, then.”
“I never said I disliked it.”
Garren Wilbred’s gaze followed Selena slowly, adding only that he simply found it curious.
“I’m curious though — why did you change your mind so suddenly?”
“What do you mean?”
“About Selena. When we first met, you said you had no interest in her whatsoever. And with your temperament… well, there seemed to be barely any common ground between you. So why did you suddenly feel this way? Even willing to put up with the trouble of it all?”
Looking at those eyes now, who would believe this was the man who once had no interest in her at all?
One could plainly see his fingertips trembling whenever another man approached and tried to speak with her.
Whether he was aware of it or not, Selena seemed to be in high spirits, reuniting with old acquaintances after so long.
‘Come to think of it, Selena is barely in her twenties.’
The age when one is eager to spend time with friends, yearns to make her debut in society, and longs to enjoy newlywed life.
“…Yes, that puzzles me too. Why I failed to see it.”
She wasn’t exactly a gem buried in mud, after all.
At the smooth tone of his voice, I turned my head again to regard Selena quietly.
“Why are you keeping Selena around like this?”
When night falls, Selena Hyde of this world falls asleep, and Selena Wilbred, the wife of Garren Wilbred, opens her eyes in that body — I knew this much.
But for that very reason, it troubled me. If you pawn away her entire life like this until the day comes when she returns, what becomes of her life after?
“It’s not as though you’re planning to maintain two households.”
Or rather, is it two worlds’ worth of households in this case?
“…I’m still thinking it through.”
“Thinking what through?”
“You know my Special Property, don’t you?”
He spoke in a hushed tone.
‘Special Property?’
Ah, is he referring to the fact that no matter which world he inhabits, there is only one of him?
The Special Property whereby memories of that person fade from everyone’s minds the moment he sets foot in another world.
“Originally, a human is one. At every choice, at each branching point, that single body simply separates little by little and duplicates itself, as it were.”
“That’s confusing.”
Dissatisfied with my reply, he gently stroked his chin before speaking again.
“Well, to put it simply: there is only one ancestor. If you divide a lump of dough and divide it again and again, the fact that it remains dough doesn’t change, but the size diminishes and diminishes.”
“True.”
“If you bring it back together, there is ultimately only one complete mass of dough of the original size.”
…
“In simple terms: since the roots are the same, no matter how far the branches spread, it’s possible to make it so only one exists in any given world.”
As Garren Wilbred spoke, I held my orange juice glass and grimaced.
“That sounds too much like your own thinking, doesn’t it?”
“You’re right. I’m being greedy.”
He admitted it readily, and I had nothing left to say. If he himself was aware of it, what more could I say?
“…What did you just say, Dylan?”
It was then that I heard Selena’s voice, her expression hardened, confronting someone.

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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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