The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 194

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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 64
‘What in the world is this?’
Speaking with such certainty, as if she knew everything—it made her skin crawl.
Irbon let out a heavy sigh and shook his head firmly.
“In any case, an impossible task remains impossible.”
“So only a Hero or a priest can face it?”
“Yes. However, all those called Heroes throughout history possessed Divine Power, so they differ little from priests in that regard.”
So in the end, divine strength was necessary.
Rozelin twisted her face in displeasure and tapped her foot.
“Then there’s no ordinary person who could have sealed it or faced it?”
“There isn’t one, but… ah, there is one person recorded in the old texts.”
Irbon spoke in response to Rozelin’s question.
“Who?”
“I mentioned it before, didn’t I? That there was a Shalom, a master of demons. His name is occasionally mentioned in scripture as well, alongside a Hero named Ivan Michael.”
Shalom?
For some reason, the name felt oddly familiar.
‘Not from Irbon, but as if I’d heard it from someone very recently.’
“Shalom…”
As Rozelin murmured it softly, her eyes narrowed, and then something flashed in her mind.
“Pffahahaha. Yeah, that’s right! Bashin, open the door already. The master is leaving.”
“You two…”
“Anyway, I hate this place. Living with you guys is too barren, too shabby. And I don’t like that pointing either. Right, Erebus?”
“Mm-hmm. That’s right, it’s Shalom. You’re the problem, Bashin.”
Suddenly, a scene from a dream she’d had not long ago came back to her—that strange dream where all the faces were pitch black and she could only hear their voices.
“Why was Shalom able to seal them?”
“Because he was the master of demons.”
“So why did such mighty demons take a mere human as their master?”
Irbon blinked and tilted his head.
“I’m not certain, but according to the records that remain, he was a man with a fearsome affinity for others, quick-tempered and as willful as a demon himself.”
‘Is that a compliment or an insult?’
Rozelin tilted her head with a thoroughly uncertain expression.
“However, there was one thing they all had in common. ‘He was a person whom anyone near could not help but love,’ or so it was written.”
It seemed Irbon had meant to elaborate further, but if anything, Rozelin found herself even more bewildered.
“Hmm…”
“So thousands of years ago, there was apparently even a brief time when humans and demons coexisted in harmony…”
As Irbon spoke, he seemed embarrassed by his own words and scratched the back of his head.
“Well, that’s how the legend is told, but since it was thousands of years ago, who can say what really happened.”
“So is it impossible to seal a demon without a Hero or priest of legend, or that Shalom person?”
Irbon pondered for a moment, rifling through his thoughts, then nodded.
“At the very least, that’s what would be needed to face a demon. One would need the strength to oppose it.”
“Hmm.”
Rozelin lowered her gaze in silence.
‘But then why did that damn father tell me I could do it?’
And with such certainty in his voice, too.
“Can anyone perform a sealing if the conditions are met?”
“No, that’s not quite it.”
“…So even I would find it difficult?”
“…No, you should be able to do it.”
He had said it clearly.
‘You’ would be able to do it.
‘I can do it?’
Rozelin’s brow furrowed.
“Don’t tell me I have some incredible talent for Divine Power or something?”
Whether Irbon heard her soft murmur or not, he let out a dry laugh.
“You have virtually no talent for Divine Power, so don’t worry, Rozelin.”
“…Virtually none?”
“None.”
“Not even a little?”
“Not even a little.”
With a warm smile, Irbon gently delivered the final confirmation—as if to say she wasn’t even at one out of a hundred, but rather closer to zero—and Rozelin closed her mouth.
“But… oddly enough, I do sense something divine about it. Still, it feels like it’s operating on a separate wavelength altogether…. In any case, it doesn’t align with Divine Power at all.”
Irbon drove another dagger into the matter.
In that moment, a brief exchange with Garren Wilbred surfaced in my mind.
“The Abyss dwelling within you…… I caught sight of it once, a very long time ago.”
“……What are you talking about?”
“That Abyss would sometimes turn back time, sometimes hunger for it, sometimes even link another’s time to its own and glimpse into theirs. So long ago, beings with life gave that Abyss a name—the master’s name—as a mark of reverence.”
“What is it?”
“That’s…… a puzzle for you to solve. Try and guess. Come to think of it, he was quite as willful a man as you are.”
“Then why the hell am I being hunted?”
“I told you—it’s a puzzle. Once you solve mine, you’ll find the answer to your question as well.”
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t uncovered the truth about my own Abyss yet.’
Rozelin, her expression complicated, opened her mouth to address Irbon.
“Did this Shalom character have some sort of special power too?”
“Well…? There are records of him healing people or prophesying that barren couples would bear children…… and some accounts remain about how his appearance hardly aged at all, even decades later…….”
Since the stories were old, naturally a disclaimer was added—that certainty was impossible.
Rozelin had never intended to believe it all anyway, so she simply nodded.
‘Shalom, Sealing, the Abyss’s name, the Demon’s master…….’
Her head suddenly throbbed.
“Can’t I just resolve this by saying I’m a genius with Divine Power?”
“That won’t work.”
“……In any case, cut to the chase. How do we perform the Sealing?”
At Rozelin’s question, Irbon’s expression twisted sharply, as if his own mouth had begun to ache.
“If we gather two Sacred Artifacts needed for the Sealing, plus a person with enough power to stand against the Demon, it can be done.”
“Two Sacred Artifacts?”
“Yes. The Holy Sword—one of the Imperial Capital’s national treasures—and a Sealing Medium to bind the Demon. The Medium is single-use, so anyone with the Divine Power of a High Priest could manufacture it.”
That’s simple enough.
Rozelin stood from her seat, bounced off the sofa with a broad grin.
“Then I’ll fetch the sword, and you make the vessel.”
“That’s exactly why I said it won’t work……!”
“I’ll give you all my savings.”
Five thousand orlangs a day, painstakingly accumulated—a pittance, really.
“This isn’t about money! It’s……!”
“But if someone has to do it, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be the one. I’m the one with the most at stake right now.”
With that old-soul reasoning, Rozelin added one more thing.
“I appreciate your concern, but hesitating and regretting inaction is worse than acting and regretting the action.”
She waved her hand, insisting there was no need for further argument, and left the reception room without looking back.
“……It’s not concern. It’s just that I feel like I’ll work myself to death making this.”
What is this person talking about? Why would I be concerned about her?
He let out a scoff.
As if creating a single Sacred Artifact demanded any real effort.
Irbon grabbed his hair, let out a cry of despair, then pressed his head down with a grimace.
“I wish that when I say something’s impossible, people would just take it at face value……..”
With a heavy sigh, Irbon rubbed his face while clutching his throbbing head.
“A Sacred Artifact…… how am I supposed to make one again.”
Irbon drained the now-cold teacup and rose from his seat with a shuffle, departing the reception room.

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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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