The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 24

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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 24
“……Ah.”
Arma’s lips parted wordlessly as he was rejected outright, without a moment’s hesitation.
He hadn’t expected such cold dismissal.
He’d thought even a rejection would come with some explanation. But not even that.
“Wait, Roserin!”
Arma rushed after her at once.
Fortunately, Roserin wasn’t far away.
She stood frozen, startled by the servants scurrying about in all directions, and Arma too halted his breath and stepped, watching her with dull eyes.
Roserin looked like someone who’d stumbled upon an absurd scene, as if unable to believe that anyone would search for her like this.
‘……What is this?’
For Arma, being ignored by someone was as ordinary as breathing.
But not with Roserin.
From their first meeting, she’d been timid and quiet, requiring him to speak first before she’d answer, yet she’d never once looked at him with scorn.
She ignored others’ questions, but she always answered his.
Though that hadn’t been true from the beginning. At first, she’d kept her thorns raised against him as well.
But as Arma drew closer, spoke more often, her thorns would soften whenever she looked at him.
Through that effort, Arma had come to know Roserin well.
Or rather, he’d thought he knew her quite well.
But now…….
‘What on earth is this……?’
Now her thorns seemed raised only toward him.
“So I apologize, but I’d appreciate it if you’d let me go. I prefer someone a bit more promising, with a clearer sense of self and more masculine presence—someone a little rougher around the edges.”
The memory of her voice, cold as frost.
Arma followed in her footsteps as she resumed walking, fighting the smile that kept threatening to break across his lips.
He’d heard she’d tried to end her life.
Not knowing she’d been pushed to such a limit had come as something of a shock to him.
He’d thought she told him everything.
But when he thought about it, she’d never actually spoken of anything difficult.
What she always talked about was ordinary, everyday life.
Eating meals, taking tea, going for walks, reading books.
Arma stepped quickly toward Roserin, who was about to move on.
“Roserin.”
She stopped at his call.
“……Your Highness?”
He saw the look on her face—why had he chased after her?—and forced a smile, opening his mouth carefully.
“Your Highness can go to Karouta, but why can’t I, Roserin?”
“Ah. Because you’re the opposite of my ideal type.”
Roserin spoke tersely.
At that moment, Arma froze in place as if frozen solid. He watched her receding figure with a trembling gaze.
She walked straight ahead without once looking back, like someone who’d truly shut away every feeling in her heart.
“I prefer someone a bit more promising…….”
Certainly, the 2nd Prince, who was preparing to serve his brother well, had a brighter future than the weak 3rd Prince.
“With a clearer sense of self…….”
The 2nd Prince certainly possessed a strong sense of conviction.
So strong, in fact, that his temperament was somewhat crude, but conviction he had, unmistakably.
“And more masculine presence……”
Objectively speaking, the 2nd Prince possessed more masculine presence than the 3rd Prince.
Of course he did.
Arma had an image close to being tossed around by the 1st and 2nd Princes, unable to speak up even to the servants.
“Someone with a rougher edge to them.”
A crude temperament could also be called rough.
And all these circumstances matched the 2nd Prince perfectly.
Unlike the 2nd Prince, the 1st Prince did not mock others carelessly. He did not pester or torment like the 2nd Prince did.
‘Though he’s irritating in his own way.’
In any case, her ideal type could also be described as the 2nd Prince.
Arma was somewhat shocked by that realization.
“…….”
Arma did not want to become Emperor.
It was bothersome, and bothersome, and bothersome again, and honestly, he didn’t want to do as his father, the Emperor, wished.
‘……Why?’
Arma found himself lost in thought.
He had tried his best to treat Roserin with tenderness, with care—so why had she chosen the 2nd Prince over him?
He resumed his pace, lifting his head slowly.
Roserin had already vanished from sight.
And the fact that she hadn’t so much as glanced back—that, at least, hadn’t changed.
“Ah…….”
And in that moment, Arma understood. She had never once turned to look back at him.
Never once sought his gaze before he called to her.
Never answered a single question he hadn’t first asked.
Which meant that they…….
Had never truly been close at all.
The realization struck him like a blow, his eyes widening without his meaning to.
The implication was simple.
Roserin had never opened her heart to him—not once.
He had simply deceived himself.
Or perhaps it had been pity on her part.
Perhaps she had sensed his ulterior motives from the start.
Whenever Arma saw her, Roserin’s eyes were always hollow, her shoulders always hunched, always shrinking away from others’ gaze.
‘……I thought she cared for me. But she didn’t. Or maybe she’d already given up.’
A person who had summoned the courage to die—was she incapable of any other kind of courage?
No. In that moment when she’d been ready to end it all, Roserin had made her choice: to erase everything, to forget, to cast it all away.
‘……That’s why she agreed to the Breaking Engagement. That’s why she’s trying to start over with someone else.’
Someone whose face, whose very nature, might come closer to what she truly wanted.
‘If I send the Second Prince and her to Karouta like this…….’
Karouta was a savage land.
Women there dressed brazenly, baring their bodies without shame, and kissing in the streets was treated as perfectly ordinary.
“No.”
Arma shook his head, his gut twisting with revulsion.
He cast dignity aside and bolted down the corridor at full speed, chasing after her.
He caught sight of her not far ahead and reached out, pushing himself harder still.
“……Stop.”
“……Your Highness the 3rd Prince?”
Arma seized Roserin’s wrist—not roughly—and jerked his head up to meet her gaze.
She flinched, her brow furrowing in confusion.
“I’ll do it!”
“……What?”
Roserin stared at him as though he’d gone mad, utterly bewildered.
“I will become someone with firm convictions and masculine vigor—a fierce man! So let me go with the Karouta Delegation instead!”
The corridor rang with the force of his voice, and everything fell silent.
Servants, soldiers, and attendants all froze in their tracks, breath caught.
Roserin, not immediately grasping his meaning, let out a soft exclamation after a delayed beat.
“Ah.”
His sudden declaration stirred something odd in her chest.
‘……So he’s saying he wants to be the one betrothed to the Karouta Princess instead of the 2nd Prince?’
She had brought the 2nd Prince to use him for an alliance with the Karouta Princess, but if the 3rd Prince took his place, her plan would suffer no real setback. Multiple cards in hand were always better.
‘The more options, the better.’
Yet something tugged at her heart—a strange unease. She pressed her hand to her chest, hesitated, then slowly nodded.
“Very well.”
It posed no problem whatsoever.
“Yes.”
At Roserin’s approval, Arma broke into a bright smile.
Thump.
……Or it should have been nothing. Yet somehow, her heart beat loudly against her ribs.

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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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