The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 201

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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 71
“Yes, the Holy Sword.”
I nodded.
“Did you pull it?”
“Well…….”
At my slight nod, Garren Wilbred’s expression grew strange.
He stared down at me for a moment, then dropped his hand from his chin, crossed his arms, and turned to gaze out the window.
“What about Selena?”
“She’s sleeping.”
“I see.”
…….
…….
Silence returned.
He remained quiet for a long while, staring out the window as if lost in thought.
At the edges of his gaze, I sensed something strangely subtle.
I glanced at him, then fidgeted with my fingers and let my eyes wander.
The silence felt uncomfortable, as did the meaningless passage of time.
The man who seemed ready to scold me at any moment was now saying nothing, lost in a prolonged silence.
‘He’s been wearing that expression a lot lately.’
A look that seemed to see something other than me.
Whether he was tormenting me or occasionally being kind—there was always this subtle sense of misalignment.
“……I have a few things I want to ask you. Is it okay if I do?”
So I decided I needed to ask.
I could remain silent and keep my eyes closed, but there were things that wouldn’t resolve that way.
They say all living creatures are given something called Fate.
So some omnipotent being knows everything that will happen and where it’s happening right now.
‘Maybe coming to this world…….’
The demon Amon appearing in this world, Garren Wilbred choosing to help me, Arma coming to be with me—
‘Perhaps it’s all predetermined.’
Garren Wilbred turned to look at me a beat too late, his expression guarded, and smiled faintly.
“What are you saying?”
“There’s a lot I’m curious about. But let me start with something related to the assignment.”
“Assignment?”
He blinked, then seemed to remember our agreement and let out a small sound.
“Ah, about your Abyss ability.”
“Yes.”
“Did you figure out the name of the Abyss ability?”
“No, not that.”
To be honest, I was still uncertain.
But as I turned over what I’d heard and combined it in various ways, sometimes a thought would emerge: ‘Could it be? What if?’
“What if it’s called Shalom?”
To do that, I needed to confirm whether the man in my dream—the one who said “you”—was Garren Wilbred.
At my words, Garren Wilbred hesitated briefly, then slowly blinked. His slightly twisted lips seemed to tell me he couldn’t smile as usual.
I watched him for a moment, then gently traced my fingertips along the table.
It meant nothing. It was just a habit born from the lack of an answer.
“Shalom.”
He rolled the word slowly on his tongue, pronouncing it carefully.
After repeating the same action three or four more times, he uncrossed his arms and looked at me again.
“Yes, Shalom.”
“……Where did you learn that name, if I may ask?”
At Garren Wilbred’s question, I hesitated for a moment.
Telling him what I was curious about wasn’t difficult.
“If I tell you how I learned it from that damned father of mine, would something bad happen to the person who told me this?”
At my words, he let out a low laugh.
“No, that shouldn’t happen.”
“Irbon told me. Remember the High Priest candidate you mentioned before? The one you asked that cursed father of mine to find?”
“Ah, yes, I remember.”
He gave a brief response and nodded.
“The Temple does have many ancient theological texts.”
He tilted his head, as if to say it would make sense for him to know the name.
“So you’re wondering if I know Shalom?”
“…Well, for now.”
At that, he gazed at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read.
“I do know it. I’ve lived far longer than you might think, so there’s more I know than don’t.”
Something about the way he tacked on that addendum made me furrow my brow.
Normally, he wouldn’t add that kind of unnecessary qualifier to what he said, and the fact that he just had felt oddly off.
“You know that’s not what I meant. I was asking if you know it personally.”
At my words, he curved his mouth into a strange, quiet smile.
“I do know it.”
Again.
That expression again.
Sometimes he acted as though he existed apart from the world. I knew he was a demon moving among humans, but most days there was nothing about him that felt that way—and then, subtly, in certain moments he would become completely unlike anyone else, as though he and we were different beings entirely.
As if to say: we are not the same as him.
I didn’t like it. Not occasionally—truthfully, quite often.
“…I see.”
I studied him for a moment, then rubbed the back of my neck lightly with a hand that had grown quite familiar by now.
“Are you going to get angry if I ask what kind of relationship you had?”
“Well…”
Garren Wilbred trailed off.
“I would have been angry, had you been anyone else.”
“Even with Selena?”
“…She’s something of an exception. There’s no way I could get angry at her, no matter what she asked.”
“Because you have guilt toward her?”
“Because I have guilt toward her.”
He repeated my own words back to me, then let out a low laugh.
“Are you curious about Shalom?”
At Garren Wilbred’s question, I looked at him.
If he was asking whether I was curious, there was only one answer I could give.
“Yes.”
“I see.”
And yet…
“But you don’t have to tell me. Everyone has things they don’t want to talk about.”
I wasn’t interested in prying further if it meant watching that expression on his face.
“…”
“I don’t want to dig into it while you look like that. So if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine.”
Unused to saying such things and feeling awkward about it, I averted my gaze and simply blurted out what I needed to say.
“Not exactly a person, though.”
“I don’t care. In my eyes, you are.”
“…”
I thought Garren Wilbred might laugh, but instead he fell silent, and I lifted my head slightly.
His eyes had widened in a way they rarely did.
I had no idea how many times today he’d made that expression.
Annoyed, I decided to set aside what I wanted to ask for now and confront him about something else instead.
“What I wanted to ask was… you made a contract with Arma without saying anything to me?”
“…Contracts are confidential to parties involved. There was no way around it.”
“At least you could’ve given me a hint. I ended up abandoning Arma for three months, couldn’t even feed him properly—I was the one hauling dead chickens to him. And I’ve been carrying him around this whole time!”
“There’s no problem if you’re betrothed to him.”
“There’s a huge problem.”
When I raised my voice in rare agitation, he tilted his head with an expression of complete incomprehension.
‘So this is how you’re going to play it?’
Wasn’t this exactly when the saying about walking in someone else’s shoes applied?
I exhaled, then smiled brightly and spoke.
“When Selena turns into a cat, I hope you treat her exactly like that.”
“…”
The moment I brought up Selena, Garren Wilbred fell silent like a broken machine, his mouth snapping shut.
“Three months of neglect, feed her nothing but dry food, and throw dead animals at her too. I’m curious to see how Selena reacts to that.”
“…Selena is fragile. The Third Prince is not.”
There he was, making weak excuses.
So exasperated I could only stare, he quietly looked away.
“Damned if I’m going to play along with your father’s nonsense. Thanks to you, I’ve become some crazy person dragging a wolf around, doing all manner of ridiculous things.”
“Don’t be angry with me. If I spoke about the Contract, I’d have to pay the price—I couldn’t say anything. Still, it was wrong of me not to tell you.”
When I gave him a sidelong glance, he shrugged.
Yet the thin smile that played across his features no longer carried that same inorganic, uncanny emotion from before.

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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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