The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 21

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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 21
‘I can’t believe it.’
Roseline shook her head. Gilbert was nothing like the version she remembered.
He was far more bloated than memory had painted him.
This Gilbert had eaten far more, his frame swollen and shapeless with excess weight.
That was the problem with this man.
Raised indulgently in the countryside by a conservative baron, pampered without restraint, he’d been steeped in the notion that men were heaven itself—superior to all things.
Besides, until now Roseline had only glared at him, never truly pushing back.
In short, he was a Frog in a Well.
Even accounting for that, his ignorance of Social Awareness ran frighteningly deep. Even for a provincial clod, there were things one simply had to know.
There existed stations in this world one did not dare touch.
Roseline smiled brightly and spoke.
“My memory’s a bit fuzzy, but did the Gilbert Family engage in livestock breeding?”
“Ah? I’m not Gilbert—I’m Robert, my lady.”
“Oh, that’s right. I forgot.”
“No matter at all. Ha, but it seems my lady spends her time so properly at home that news reaches you late.”
……
“Our main ventures are textiles and mineral extraction.”
As he dabbed away beads of sweat that dripped constantly from his face and crept closer with a sly gait, Roseline’s smile deepened.
“Ah, was that so? My apologies. I’m only human, after all—memory has its limits.”
She laughed lightly and seized a Wine Bottle from a nearby table.
“That happens~.”
He laughed indulgently in return.
Oblivious to the fact that she meant simply that she hadn’t bothered to allocate any brain capacity to remember him.
“A lack of Social Awareness means a woman can be all the more devoted to her husband. Personally, I prefer a modest woman to one too brazen.”
Gilbert’s hand crept slowly toward Roseline.
“I thought the Gilbert Family ran a livestock operation. I kept seeing pigs.”
“N-no, it’s not Gilbert—it’s Robert…….”
“Ah, I keep forgetting.”
“In any case, Lady Roseline—do you have a betrothed or a lover? I understand you haven’t received a single marriage proposal so far. If you haven’t, then…….”
Gilbert reached his hand toward Roseline with a casual air.
‘This fool still doesn’t know she’s engaged… Why does he even come to social gatherings?’
Roseline sighed inwardly, and those nearby clicked their tongues silently.
They had expected that the stammering young lady who could only glare with her mouth firmly shut, no matter what she did, would keep silent as always.
It was the moment Gilbert’s hand brushed against her waist.
Crash!
“Aaaaah!!”
With a sharp, explosive sound, Gilbert’s body jolted violently backward.
Roseline grimaced slightly as wine from the shattered bottle—having missed him partly—splattered across her view, a waste.
“How dare a walking pig, ignorant of propriety, make a grab at me.”
“D-d-blood…… Father, Father!! I’m bleeding!!”
Gilbert, trailing wine mixed with blood from his head, began shrieking and thrashing about.
Roseline let out a cold laugh and looked down at him.
The Banquet Hall fell silent, and soon every eye began turning toward them.
“Y-you, you, you……! This shameless, unladylike creature!! How dare you touch a man! You’ve gone mad!”
Roseline looked down at the man sitting on the floor, his face gone deathly pale, and gave another cold laugh.
“So tell me—do you even know who you’re dealing with?”
Roseline spoke with exasperation, then pressed her heel firmly between Gilbert’s legs.
“Even a foolish, ignorant country mouse should know the difference between one’s station and another’s.”
“Ahhh! Aaaahhh!! Ah!! Father—aaaahhh!!”
Roseline caught sight of Baron Robert watching from a distance, his face drained of all color.
“Listen, Gilbert. It’s not I who needs to be proper—it’s you.”
“Faaather!”
“Yes, tell me—why isn’t your precious father coming to your rescue now? Why does he just stand there like a stone monument, doing nothing about my shameful, improper conduct? Well?”
His eyes flew wide open.
Too much coddling spoils them. He thought himself the highest.
He didn’t even know rank existed.
“Frog, there are women above your head, beyond your well.”
“Ugh……! I told you to stop!!”
After thrashing about for some time, Gilbert used his heavy bulk to shove Roseline away and lurched to his feet.
Roseline’s body lurched violently. In the same instant, a massive hand descended upon her with vicious force as she teetered off-balance.
Crack!
Roseline’s eyes snapped wide open.
“……Roseline.”
A firm grip seized her waist.
Certi, who had caught wind of the disturbance and crossed the Banquet Hall in a heartbeat, now held her steady with an iron embrace.
And standing before Roseline was…….
“Your Highness, the Third Prince……?”
It was Arma, the Third Prince whose head had turned.
His tousled hair fell across his eyes, casting shadows that obscured his expression.
Roseline, who never would have expected anyone to block her path, went rigid with shock.
“Y-y-your Highness?!”
Gilbert…….
No—Gilbert trembled, his lips quivering, his face drained of all color.
He shifted his gaze slowly.
The cold stare that had fixed on Gilbert softened, rounding into something gentler as it turned toward Roseline.
“……Are you unharmed, Lady Roseline?”
Roseline, who had been left speechless by the flush creeping across her cheeks, nodded a beat too late.
“Ah. Yes, thanks to you…….”
“A worm more contemptible than vermin dares lay hands on my precious granddaughter without knowing his place?”
Thud.
Devon Bellion, resplendent in vibrant crimson formal wear and adorned with multiple jewels, smiled savagely as he spoke.
The walking cane he held struck the floor with brutal force.
“How dare you…….”
Devon was opening his mouth to continue when——
Someone moved faster.
“You dare lay a hand on my daughter……?”
It was Certi Bellion.
His face, as he held her firmly behind him, had twisted into something utterly grotesque.
From his shallow breaths came a violet-hued mist, and his crimson eyes—so like hers—roiled with a killing intent and contempt beyond measure.
Crunch.
Certi Bellion’s hand closed around Gilbert’s throat.
“Gack, ugh……!”
Roseline’s mouth fell slightly open at the sight of her father lifting Gilbert’s massive frame with a single hand as though it were nothing.
Her father appeared so slender that by any measure he seemed incapable of wielding such strength.
People gathered around Roseline.
Though the noise had been swallowed by the Banquet Hall’s din at first, the commotion had grown loud enough that they’d noticed and come rushing over.
“How dare you…… How dare you……!”
Certi Bellion’s eyes flooded deeper crimson as his excitement rose.
With pupils dilated, the Poison Mist flowing from his body sent nearby guests screaming and scrambling backward.
“That woman first…… tried to seduce me……! Waaah, Father, Dad!!”
Certi Bellion hid Roseline behind himself, his gaze flickering with savage fury.
Though Gilbert screamed as though begging for his life, Baron Robert could not move.
It was Baron Robert of a similar age to Devon Bellion who understood best the fearsome reputation of that man.
He knew well how ruthless young Devon had been, how brutal the methods within his grasp.
Though he now acted like a toothless tiger in his age, the truth was otherwise.
And with the young duke—who wielded the Poison Abyss and carried the danger of Runaway State—now stepping forward, Robert dared not intervene.
“How dare a pig-like wretch run his mouth……?”
Certi Bellion’s hand darkened with violet.
The toxin spreading across his palm began seeping into Gilbert’s exposed skin.
“She is my daughter! My daughter!”
His voice came out like a scream.
The sight of him resembled a beast mourning the loss of its young.
“What gives you the right, how dare you……!”
‘His sanity’s completely gone.’
Roseline, now twenty-seven yet living as her seventeen-year-old self again, had discovered many unexpected facets of her father.
One of them was that Certi Bellion’s mental fortitude was far more fragile than she’d assumed.
At least when anything involved her, it grew noticeably weaker.
“I’ll kill him.”
As Certi Bellion spoke those terse words, his grip tightened.
Roseline reached out without hesitation and grasped the hem of Certi’s garment.
At that, Certi looked down at her with a startled expression.
“……Roseline?”
“Yes. I’m fine, so please stop.”
Roseline showed him the tips of her fingers, already stained violet from standing at his side, as she spoke.
‘If I make this matter any larger, the Emperor will find a handle to use against us.’
Certi’s face went deathly pale at the sight of her poisoned fingertips.
“……No, this won’t do.”
He shook his head.
“Don’t come near me. I……”
“Don’t worry, Father. I brought a proper antidote just in case something like this happened.”
Roseline withdrew a small Potion Bottle from the pocket inside her sleeve, speaking with utter composure.
“……What?”
“I’m rather popular in various circles, so I came prepared in case of situations like this.”
Certi’s mouth fell open as he watched his daughter recite this with such casual indifference, as though she’d foreseen it all.
“……So you don’t need to shield me from now on.”
Roseline’s gaze shifted to Arma, the Third Prince, as she spoke.
Though she spoke with that same detached, unfeeling tone, Roseline was actually caught in a peculiar feeling.
It became especially clear when Arma had stepped in front of her.
Because back then too……
Arma had shielded her this way.
To keep her alive.

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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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