The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 20

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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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Chapter 20
He blinked slowly and exhaled.
“Would you rather I leave?”
“……No, come in. It’s just a bit untidy inside…….”
He hurried across the room.
Being underground, the windowless chamber was pitifully sparse for quarters befitting the heir to a dukedom.
“Wow, it really is filthy.”
Rozerin spoke without hesitation.
Certi’s shoulders flinched.
“The air down here was so foul coming in, it hurt my nose.”
“……Yes, I imagine so. It’s possible there’s still some lingering effect from my power. Here, drink this Antidote and…….”
Rozerin accepted the blue potion Certi Bellion offered her.
Rozerin had come here irritated, true enough, but she hadn’t yet settled on what to say.
“Father.”
“……Yes?”
Certi Bellion stopped mid-sip of his tea, staring at his fingertips.
He made a deliberate effort not to get excited, taking his cup slowly before holding it out to her.
“This room reeks of a widower, it’s gloomy and suffocating.”
Thwick, thwick, thwick.
A blade flew in from nowhere.
Certi Bellion’s jaw dropped at Rozerin’s sudden words, but her expression remained unmoved.
“Under these circumstances, it would be difficult to ask you to escort me to the Imperial Palace Banquet.”
“……What?”
“Do you have any clothes?”
She was treating him like a beggar outright.
Still, Certi Bellion’s lips twitched.
And with good reason—he’d just heard words he couldn’t believe.
“What did you just say?”
“The Banquet. His Majesty invited me, and I’ll be attending. Can you escort me?”
“……Of course I can. But are you sure I’m the right person?”
At Certi Bellion’s cautious question, Rozerin shrugged and nodded.
“Yes. However…….”
“However?”
“Move your room to the first floor and clean up that dismal appearance, and then I’ll agree.”
“Dismal……?”
Certi’s face fell as he gaped at her.
Rozerin shrugged and rose from her seat, continuing.
“Because on that day, I want to stand out the most.”
At the sly smile that crossed Rozerin’s face, Certi Bellion’s mouth fell open.
For the visage of the woman he’d only dreamed of appeared in her—in his child.
“I was planning to ask the Marquis Garen if you refused, so this worked out well.”
Crackle—
The fine teaspoon he’d been holding melted away in his grip.
“……Absolutely not. I’m the one taking you.”
Certi ground out his teeth as he spoke.
And days later, the day of the Banquet arrived.
* * *
The Imperial Palace held regular Banquets four times a year.
Each time one was held, it lasted four to five days, during which the nobility mingled with one another and discussed necessary matters with the Emperor.
Of course, major announcements often came around this time.
Which meant that any noble with a title and their heir had to attend, at minimum.
“The Duke Devon Bellion, the Count Certi Bellion, and the Duchess Rozerin Bellion now enter!”
Which, naturally, meant the Duke of House Bellion attended as well.
Her father came in his capacity as heir, and Rozerin came by special invitation from the Imperial House.
Eyes fixed on them from all directions.
“……Certi Bellion?”
“What, the Count Bellion who never leaves his quarters? Whatever brings him here……?”
“And the Duchess Bellion—isn’t that the stammering girl? After she made such a spectacle of herself at the last Debutante ball, it’s a wonder she dares show her face.”
“Can that even be called a Debutante?”
Rozerin heard the whispers tinged with laughter at the edges of the crowd and swept her gaze across the room with an indifferent expression.
Many of the faces were familiar.
Every last one of them had gossiped about Rozerin behind her back in her original world, delighting in the scandal.
A pack of losers, jealous of her continued prominence in society even after her expulsion from it.
Of course, Rozerin had no interest in losers, so she turned her gaze away.
“But who is that woman? Does House Bellion really have someone so striking?”
“……Didn’t they just say she’s a Bellion lady?”
“……No way. That gloomy one, the one who stammered like that…… the one with the gaudy makeup?”
“The one in that brilliant dress?”
“……Now that I think about it, I’m sure I saw something like that at Fleur’s Boutique recently…… they said it was a reserved piece and wouldn’t sell it…….”
It was unclear whether they were whispering or deliberately loud enough for her to hear.
With each step Rozerin took, the gossip dug deeper into her ears, and she wore an exhausted expression.
‘I want to sleep.’
The reason being that today she had to wake up at dawn.
Somehow interpreting her remark about wanting to stand out the most, Father had summoned a makeup artist from early morning.
The artist had even coordinated the dress Rozerin would wear to tonight’s banquet before leaving.
A navy dress like the night sky, with silver hair flowing like lustrous silk.
Crimson eyes and a lipstick in a shade of red that was slightly more muted and softer than what she usually wore.
Elaborate jewelry and a posture without a single flaw.
The Rozerin Bellion they remembered was always a gloomy woman who hunched her shoulders and lowered her head, her face shrouded in darkness.
A woman who, when approached, would only glare or keep her mouth firmly shut, offering nothing but silence.
A woman who didn’t know how to adorn herself and never uttered a single word of back-talk, no matter what anyone said to her.
So they didn’t immediately recognize the woman before them now as the same person from their memories.
When they finally grasped the situation, seeing their jaws drop in astonishment all around her, Rozerin’s expression turned annoyed.
“Tsk, people’s faces will wear out at this rate,” the Duke of Bellion remarked.
Those who had been staring at Rozerin without the slightest shame suddenly flinched at his words, their shoulders trembling as they turned away.
Only then did they notice the Duke of Bellion, and snapping to attention, they rushed toward the two of them.
“Your Grace, the Duke of Bellion! It’s been so long. I hope you’ve been in good health?”
“Ah, Your Grace has arrived. What an honor to see you.”
“My goodness, His Grace, the Young Duke of Bellion—it’s been an age. I believe it’s been the first time since we met ten years ago, I wonder if you might remember…….”
“I’m Count Loira! We attended the academy together for a brief time, years ago……!”
Crowds surged around the Duke and Certi.
As the tide of people pressed closer, Rozerin grimaced and retreated.
The Duke and Young Duke found themselves at the center of the throng, while Rozerin slipped away to a suitably obscure corner.
‘……Wow.’
Rozerin caught sight of her father already beginning to emit a murky aura.
With his long black hair tied back and his bangs swept aside to reveal his forehead, Certi possessed a dangerously compelling beauty.
It was bewildering why he would hide such a face.
The buttons of his shirt, fastened all the way to his neck, gave off a monastic air, while his face, slightly darkened and stiffened by severity, radiated an air of dissolution.
His appearance bore hardly any wrinkles, despite his years.
His brows, slightly furrowed as if in irritation, laid bare his neurotic temperament for all to see.
‘Well, his face is a finished work of art.’
Even in shabby clothes, it would command attention.
But when money is spent on makeup and he’s dressed so carefully—what else could one expect?
‘I didn’t ask him to apply makeup, though.’
She had only asked him to shed that somewhat gloomy and melancholic atmosphere, yet incongruously he had swept his bangs back and bared his face entirely.
‘……The mystery of genetics.’
She herself had reaped the benefits of it, after all.
Just as Rozerin, who hadn’t wanted to stand out at all, slipped toward a quiet corner and was about to lean against the wall, a massive shadow fell across her vision.
A large silhouette eclipsed her view.
“Hmm~? Who might this be? Aren’t you the young lady of House Bellion~? My, my, in the time we haven’t seen each other, you’ve become quite the woman…….”
A broad, familiar-looking man whose mouth was smacking with relish blocked her sightline.
That bastard.
The one who had insulted Rozerin in her past life.
Baron Gilbert.
“Ahem, you see, as I told you, when you dress yourself up like this, how beautiful you become. Your ample bosom and your slender waist—it’s all thanks to my advice.”
The man, grinning widely, wiped sweat from his brow with a handkerchief as he spoke.
Upon seeing a face she hadn’t encountered in so long, Rozerin broke into a broad smile.
Her foul mood, already at its worst, had just been dragged down to the very depths of perdition by this wretched man standing before her.

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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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