The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 4

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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 4
Before the words had even left his mouth, other servants began dragging the three maids away.
“Wait, please! This is a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!”
“Yes, yes, future mistress! Mistress! Miss Carmel!”
“Young Duchess! It wasn’t us!”
Carmel’s confusion was written plainly across her face as she opened her mouth to look at the Duke, then quickly turned back to the three maids and spoke in haste.
“I’m sorry, Father. I never ordered them to do this—their loyalty to me was simply too strong…….”
“Miss!”
“Please, spare us……!”
The three maids, pleading as though their lives depended on it, were dragged away by the other servants.
“How dare such worthless vermin play games at my table.”
The Duke murmured softly, his expression deeply displeased.
Rozerin watched them go in silence, then set down her utensils and continued speaking.
“Have you ever heard of Maglooksa?”
At Rozerin’s quiet question, Isys—who had been sitting with a displeased expression, drinking water—raised one eyebrow sharply.
“Maglooksa? Don’t tell me you mean that trash organization? Those underground criminals?”
Rozerin watched Lady Carmel, whose eyes wavered despite her unchanged expression, and nodded.
“Yes. Lady Carmel was raised in Maglooksa as a Bishop.”
At Rozerin’s words, the table fell silent and cold.
“And she intends to bring down the Bellion Duchy.”
At this bombshell revelation, questioning gazes turned toward her.
Rozerin turned her head to look at Lady Carmel, whose expression could no longer be hidden, and smiled beautifully.
“That’s why I told you not to bother me.”
At Rozerin’s casual remark, Carmel’s eyes widened.
“You…… No matter how long I’ve been away, how could you make such a delusion-like accusation and slander me like this! Just what makes you hate me so much…….”
Rozerin ignored Carmel’s tearful protests of innocence and kept her gaze fixed on Isys as she continued.
“If you need proof, you need only look at the soles of her heels.”
At Rozerin’s words, Lady Carmel’s lips pressed shut.
“It’s special ink, so her body heat needs to rise above a certain threshold for it to show.”
Maglooksa.
Uniquely, it was a criminal organization that used chess pieces as its ranks.
The hierarchy ran from the lowest rank of Pawn through Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, and King.
And there was one special rank called Reaper—Maglooksa’s assassin who carried out the most covert and dangerous missions.
The current Maglooksa was an underground network holding its breath in the shadows, waiting for its moment—an organization where even leaders, executives, and fellow members did not know each other’s identities.
Thus information could be cut off at any point, making it a place of ruthless compartmentalization.
And ten years later, they would outright establish a Guild and operate openly.
That was why Rozerin knew most of what there was to know about Maglooksa.
She had used them to escape before, and conversely, had been betrayed by them as well.
Maglooksa’s explosive expansion—culminating in the establishment of a Guild—began when they intercepted the Bellion Duchy’s business dealings.
They stole internal secrets, poached technicians, and gradually seized clients, expanding their operations piece by piece.
And the greatest contributor to all of this was Carmel herself.
Nor was it only the Bellion family whose internal information had been leaked.
If other houses had addressed it quickly, it would have been resolved, but at that time the Bellion household was beset by one crisis after another, and the situation had deteriorated.
Isys, who had never cared for Lady Carmel, left the Duchy on the day of their wedding.
‘And I—unable to bear the stepmother who quarreled with me at every turn—flipped the table, grabbed my jewelry, and left home.’
Then, three years later, the Duke fell ill with a mysterious incurable disease, and not long after, while traveling to visit his fiefdom, he was ambushed and died along with his butler.
The only surviving direct heir was Rozerin’s father, the Young Duke Cherti, but he too fell ill with a disease similar to the old Duke’s and was barely lucid on any given day.
Naturally, Carmel took on the role of acting Duke and began handling the affairs of state.
It was like leaving a fishmonger in the hands of a cunning cat—what could one expect?
When Isys finally learned what was happening and came to the Duchy, everything had already fallen into irreparable ruin.
The clients had all severed ties, the fiefdom’s tax rates had become so exorbitant that riots were on the verge of erupting, and the treasury was empty……. The gaps were too numerous and too vast for an Isys who had never received proper heir training to repair.
Yet despite all his bowing and appeals for mercy, those he had obstructed eventually murdered even Isys.
And so, in the world where Rozerin lived ten years hence, the Bellion Duchy no longer existed.
“Stop saying strange things! How dare you……! No matter how uneducated I might be, to come home and adopt such a terrible habit of lying……!”
“Enough.”
The Duke of Bellion, who had been silent, spoke as he patted his lips lightly with a napkin.
“There’s no need to wag your tongue. If you’re innocent, then we need only verify it.”
The old man spoke languidly as he picked up a wine glass.
“Father!”
The Duke of Bellion narrowed his eyes as he tilted the glass, took a sip of wine, drew out a cigar and placed it between his lips, then nodded indifferently.
“Are you doubting me too, Father? How could you……!”
Carmel’s tears streamed down her cheeks. She turned her head sharply toward the young duke, Cherti.
“Say something. Tell me—have I ever done anything so vile that I deserve to be suspected of involvement with such a wicked organization? I only…… I only loved you…….”
Patter, patter. As her tears fell, Cherti’s brow furrowed.
A strange, aching sensation gripped his chest, and he pressed his palm against it hard.
It felt like facing an unpleasant yet inevitable truth—that he must eliminate everything standing against her.
He turned away without a word and looked toward Rozerin, with whom he’d barely exchanged proper conversation in ages, then hesitated.
The girl was watching him intently.
When their eyes met, Rozerin shifted her gaze indifferently and raised the Wine Glass to her lips again.
“Father, let’s stop there. I can confirm things separately…….”
“No. Please have the steward do it directly. Since she has a gift for memorization, be careful with her.”
Rozerin cut off Cherti’s words with a curt statement.
“Oh, and since she knows how to use Hypnosis as well, it might be wise to blindfold her and escort her out.”
At the added remark, Carmel forgot to hide her expression, her mouth falling open in shock.
The fact that she possessed skill in Hypnosis was known only to superiors above the rank of Bishop within Maglooksa.
More precisely, only to a select few among them.
Carmel had been raised as an organization child since infancy, sold to Maglooksa; her abilities were known only to the oldest members.
It was information no outsider could possibly know.
Carmel couldn’t fathom how such a dim, pathetic woman with no self-respect had come to know the hierarchy of Maglooksa so thoroughly.
“Who exactly are you?”
“Oh, have you given up the act, Lady Carmel?”
“I asked how you know all this!”
She’s given up.
Rozerin looked down at her Wine Glass, drained it, and smiled faintly.
She then leisurely propped her elbows on the table, rested her chin in her palms, and tilted her head slightly.
“How did I know…….”
Rozerin brought her lips close to Carmel’s ear and spoke in a voice only she could hear.
“Because they once extended a recruitment offer to me as well.”
“……What?”
“They asked if I’d become their Queen.”
At Carmel’s expression of near-shock, Rozerin’s eyes widened and she laughed brightly.
“That’s impossible. That kind of talk……!”
“You wouldn’t have heard of it. That’s because you’re merely a Pawn.”
Considering that a Pawn was the lowest rank, the rank of Bishop wasn’t quite so far beneath notice.
“As if a position like Queen would ever befit someone like you!”
“That’s right. So I refused.”
Rozerin lifted her chin from her palms and sank deep into the back of her chair as she spoke.
“Farewell.”
She smiled sweetly and gave a languid wave of her hand.

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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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