The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 172

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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 42
“What? I didn’t say anything in particular~? Oh my, did you perhaps overhear something?”
At the familiar voice, I turned my head and saw Selena facing off against someone, her expression hardened.
“Rozelin is the daughter of a duke. She’s hardly someone for you to disparage so casually.”
“I said I didn’t say anything, so why are you getting so worked up about it? Really……. Look, did you hear me say anything?”
His laughter rang out with a vulgarity that was utterly unmistakable.
I narrowed my eyes and studied the man. His face wasn’t one I recognized.
“I don’t know~? I didn’t hear anything. What did you supposedly say?”
“You see, nobody heard anything, so why are you being so difficult about it alone? Do you have some kind of inferiority complex…….”
He rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged.
“In any case, if I happened to be rude, I’d hope the lady would forgive me with a heart as vast as the sea. After all, the generosity of the Hyde young lady is quite renowned.”
“Right, right. I’d say she’d probably accept someone with a beggar attached to them, wouldn’t she?”
I blinked once.
What are they doing right now.
“You know, Father.”
“Yes.”
“What’s so great about them?”
“A man who holds some position in the Bynac Cult. He’s recently manifested the Abyss, and apparently every business venture he touches yields decent results.”
As if that mattered at all.
I frowned as the thought crossed my mind.
What kind of accomplishment was that, to sneer at someone’s potential future mother like this?
“I’ve also heard rumors that he’s the concubine of the Bynac Archbishop.”
“……Oh, a man?”
“As I said. That woman doesn’t discriminate between men and women. She takes what she wants and discards what she doesn’t. She’s the sort who stirs desire—spend too long around her and your character becomes twisted like theirs.”
He spoke on, his eyes narrowed.
“They think they’re something special. They can’t imagine that the higher you soar, the more your limbs shatter when you fall—only creatures without wings fail to understand that.”
“Father, am I allowed to cause trouble?”
“Do whatever you like.”
Garren Wilbred gave his permission readily, his lips curling into a slight smile.
I stood with a low laugh and stepped forward.
* * *
The woman’s eyes glinted fiercely as her fists tightened.
Garren Wilbred knew well enough that Selena’s nature was anything but meek.
He also knew that she only softened and grew sweet toward him, toward himself and those at his side, and toward her own people.
Had this not been the Reception Hall, Selena would have already brought a wine bottle down upon the man’s head.
‘That woman still plays her games with such poor taste.’
Garren Wilbred frowned, his thoughts turning to Amon.
If there existed a pinnacle among non-human beings who lived as they pleased, it would be Amon.
For her, in whose eyes life held no value as life, even this was merely a toy to play with for a moment.
Clever minds gathered what they could and thought ahead, but there were those of another sort.
Those who believed their passions would last forever.
“They ought to understand that what comes easily is lost easily.”
That interests begun for amusement end when the amusement fades.
And if one went about causing scenes like this, the Bynac Cult would have quite the headache on its hands.
Lost in such thoughts, he folded his arms across his chest.
It was to suppress the urge to grab that man by the hair and slam his head against the table this very instant.
Today was for Rozelin and no one else.
Even if it was only a brief pretense of family, Garren Wilbred put his whole heart into every game he played. This moment was no different.
So Selena, too, was holding herself back, biting down on her anger.
‘To believe that only those hurt by your words exist in this world…….’
But there were also those who became all the more savage before such a person.
Rozelin was one. Selena was one.
He slowly turned his head to look at Selena again.
The child had approached Selena and was lightly grasping the hem of her dress.
“Selena.”
As the child drew near, the fierce gleam in Selena’s eyes softened and she turned her head swiftly toward Rozelin.
The emotion in her gaze melted away like snow, and soon her eyes grew tender as she gently stroked the child’s hair.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing. I was just about to leave soon.”
Rozelin nodded at her gentle voice.
“But what’s this man doing bothering Selena?”
“I wasn’t bothering her.”
Huh?
Rozelin blinked. Her expression made it perfectly clear what she thought—*wasn’t bothering her?* when she’d just been bothered moments ago?
“Just a dog barking beside her, that’s all.”
“……Oh.”
A small sound of understanding escaped Rozelin.
She turned to look at the man needling Selena, then back at Selena again.
“Right, so it was a dog. I thought it was a person because it was standing on two legs.”
“There are dogs that walk on two legs in this world, child. I hope our Rose doesn’t grow up to be one of them.”
“I won’t.”
Though it seemed unlikely she would, for various reasons.
“Excuse me, sir.”
“Who are you calling sir, you stupid little——”
The man’s lips were already moving when he seemed to notice the eyes on him from around the room. He clamped his mouth shut.
“Ahem.”
Rozelin let out a laugh watching him clear his throat.
“Why are you bothering Selena?”
“I’m not bothering anyone. I merely asked the lady if she might forgive us should we have made some mistake.”
“Ah, I see.”
With eyes wide as saucers, Rozelin nodded her head in the manner of an innocent child.
“So you’re magnanimous too? Or do you have no heart at all, so it’s even smaller than a flea?!”
“What? Of course——”
“Of course?”
“Mine’s bigger than yours, little thing. Don’t go butting into grown-ups’ conversations like that. If you carry on like this, people will judge your parents’ quality.”
“Wow.”
Rozelin grinned.
“Ah, so that’s why you look the way you do. People are judging your parents’ quality.”
Rozelin pressed her small hands to her cheeks, her expression one of genuine pity.
“Selena, I think this man has no parents. Poor thing. I’ll forgive you even if you’re upset.”
She shook her head solemnly, as though deeply sympathetic.
“Look at those clothes. Who wears something so hopelessly outdated…… The colors! My goodness, it’s like he’s stuck in another era……”
Rozelin shuddered, trembling as she spoke.
True, the colors were somewhat dated, but not so much that one deserved to be called “hopelessly outdated.”
Besides, the Reception Hall was full of people wearing nearly identical garments.
Yet the child shivered as though horrified, bouncing on her toes.
“Look at my father. And look at Rozelin’s father too. Um……”
Rozelin pressed her cheeks between both palms and rubbed them while clicking her tongue.
“Aren’t they wearing similar clothes?”
The man spoke.
Rozelin then slowly lifted her head and scanned the man from feet to head. Then she lifted her head again and scanned Cherti from feet to head.
After examining Garren Wilbred as well, the child turned her gaze back to the Minor Count of the Dellen Family with an expression so pitiful nothing could possibly surpass it.
“……I see.”
The look in her eyes was devastatingly sympathetic. It was the kind of naked stare that left no one guessing what it meant.
“Hang in there. They say people are defined by their faces. Still, if you’re a good person, life doesn’t have to be quite so tragic……”
Rozelin shook her head as solemnly as though pronouncing a death sentence.
“But sir, with that face and that character—you must truly have no parents at all……”
Rozelin sighed pitifully.
“The only way out would be to die and be reborn, die and be reborn, die and be reborn again.”
Rozelin spoke without pause, a cheerful laugh on her face.
“It’s nothing but dying and being reborn all over the place! What are you even saying, you crazy orphan——!”
“Me?”
When the man’s face twisted in exasperation, Rozelin’s eyes widened in innocence.
“But I have a father over there and a potential mother here, so why would I be an orphan…… Sir, if you’re going to be so obvious about envying what you don’t have, it just…… looks bad.”
In other words: you’re the one without parents.
That was the meaning behind her words.
With her hand held delicately near her lips, the child’s voice was conspiratorially quiet—and yet, for reasons that begged questioning, it carried remarkably well.
“Are you planning to actually become something?”

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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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