The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 43

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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 43
* * *
Time passed swiftly, and the day to return from Kaluta to The Empire drew near.
“Thank you for the advice, Roserin. I’ll be able to prepare ahead now.”
At the Khan’s words, spoken just before departure, Roserin faltered.
‘How many times in my life have I heard someone thank me?’
Roserin found herself caught in a strange, sudden feeling.
In truth, Roserin had only used information she possessed to earn favor—nothing more. She had needed that goodwill for her own benefit.
“I hope Kaluta remains safe.”
Several responses had come to mind—that it was nothing, that it was fine—but what finally crossed her tongue was a small fragment of genuine sincerity.
“Yes, that is my hope as well. I trust you will convey this matter well to the Emperor of Dianithas.”
“Of course. I am even more grateful that you sent such fine people to accompany me on the journey.”
Roserin spoke with even composure.
The Khan of Kaluta had given her an Advance Delegation as a token of his promise.
Though it took the form of a small, unofficial delegation, it was also a symbol that Kaluta would soon establish diplomatic relations with The Empire.
Those accompanying Roserin were among Kaluta’s finest in refining techniques, chosen to be sent first for House Bellion.
Seven in total: five Kalutas, Batar in the role of guide, and Naryan.
For Khan Haliona, giving up her own daughter—the next Khan of Kaluta—was surely no easy choice.
Roserin understood that it was no light matter.
“We are grateful for your trust in us.”
“I simply chose to trust my own eyes. You are a person worthy of trust. Worthy enough that I would entrust my back to you.”
At the Khan’s words, Roserin smiled without reply.
“And I am never wrong.”
At her confident tone, Roserin nodded.
“I will do my best to honor that faith.”
She turned away after answering.
“Roserin! Let me show you the way.”
Arma, who had been waiting for the conversation to end, grasped her hand without hesitation and pulled her forward.
Roserin looked down at her own hand, caught in Arma’s grip.
‘Calluses are embedded deep in his palm.’
The hand that held hers firmly was unchanged from before. Which meant Arma had possessed such a hand even before he died protecting her.
‘Did he really die?’
She blinked slowly.
Somehow, now she thought the odds were higher that he had not.
At that time, Roserin had been fleeing, and she did not return. Could not return.
So apart from the death notice announced by the Imperial Court, there was no way for her to know whether Arma lived or died. It meant she had never directly witnessed his corpse.
‘And thinking about it, I never even knew what Abyss he possessed.’
She knew he had an Abyss. But Arma had not told her, and Roserin had not asked.
Once, Roserin had liked Arma. Probably she still did.
They say that when one loves, the heart pounds, the world blurs white before the eyes, tinnitus rings out, and one cannot think of anything at all.
But Roserin’s love was not so dramatic, not so grand. For her, love had arrived subtly.
It was an emotion she did not even recognize while he was at her side.
Only after losing him did she understand its preciousness. And only long afterward did she belatedly realize it had been love. That she had been loved.
Yet after losing Arma, Roserin continued to live her days. Even after grasping that it was love, she still breathed and went on living.
In most stories, losing the one you love feels like death, like breathing becomes impossible. But that was not her case.
Yet over meals, in loneliness, in sickness, he would surface in her mind, again and again.
For her, love had sprouted from the tenderness of someone being there when she needed it.
It had seeped into her from the gentle person who remained at her side when everyone else departed.
After turning over all that had happened, Roserin reached one conclusion.
‘…He was alive.’
The assassins Roserin had seen were certainly strong, but not as strong as the Kalutas.
The Kalutas could shatter massive trees with their bare fists, yet those assassins could not fell a tree even with their swords.
‘……He was simply abandoned.’
Roserin blinked once at the truth she had only now grasped.
“……But why six months?”
“In six months, it will be the condition for each of us to settle our hearts.”
…….
There had been no need to speak of such things yesterday.
In that other world, Arma had abandoned Roserin instead and chosen freedom. So in this world too, there was a high probability that Arma would eventually choose freedom over her.
With that thought, her mind became clear.
“……Roserin?”
“Yes.”
“You seem to be in good spirits. Has something fortunate happened?”
“The work I’ve been planning appears to be coming along better than expected.”
Roserin lifted her shoulders in a small shrug.
If Roserin harbored any lingering regrets, the first was the hand of Igis Bellion that had so coldly pushed her away, and the second was failing to die in place of Arma Dianithas when he had blocked her path that day.
The first regret would be largely resolved by winning the bid for Olang Mine and concluding her transaction with Kaluta.
As for the second regret—now that she had realized it required no concern from the outset, why should she not be pleased?
Once Roserin had purged herself of all lingering attachments, she longed to depart for a place where no one knew her, and to rest.
No matter how many times she rewound the mistaken choices of her past, the world would not return to what it had been before.
The regrets would remain regrets, and the bitterness lodged within her would never be erased—not until the moment of her death.
“Is that so? Then things have turned out well.”
Arma answered with a smile at the sight of her.
He had already assumed it was because the matter with Kaluta had resolved favorably.
“Ah, Roserin—please call me Arma. It is rather strange for lovers not to address each other by name, don’t you think?”
Following the principle that even the longest journey begins with a single step, Arma sought to narrow the distance between himself and Roserin by changing how she addressed him.
“Of course, Arma.”
Arma’s face brightened at Roserin’s compliant reply.
* * *
Time passed swiftly.
The journey back to The Empire was nearly half-finished by the time they arrived in Landarin, the city of trade.
The city they reached to shake off their accumulated fatigue was tense and grim in atmosphere.
A sharp, acrid stench of charred wood hung heavy in the air.
A nearby village had been reduced to ash in the span of a single night.
It seemed the authorities were searching every surrounding settlement in an effort to flush out the perpetrator.
‘……Has the arsonist already begun to move?’
Roserin frowned at the sight of Ash Dust—fallen from some unknowable height—settling like delicate snow upon roofs and leaves alike, blanching everything white.
‘It’s faster than I expected.’
Human memory, after all, was hardly reliable enough to recall ten years’ worth of events with day-by-day precision.
One could only remember in broad strokes: something like this happened around this time.
That was why it was necessary to read through various newspapers, carefully piecing together the fragments to form a coherent picture.
To identify where memory diverged from reality, to find the discrepancies between this world and the one she remembered, to narrow the margin of error.
“How tedious.”
Roserin exhaled softly.
Yet this arson case was something she would have to resolve.
She left her room at the inn and descended the stairs to the first floor. She needed to obtain a newspaper.
She could have summoned the servants, but she couldn’t be bothered.
‘……I must prevent Landarin from burning.’
The Ash Dust falling now was laced with poison.
‘Is Geren making his move as well?’
It was said that Corpse Poison arose wherever corpses lay. All the more so when this was an arsonist’s terror.
Living beings, burned alive while their screams were consumed by flame, and then—their anguish crystallized into Ash Dust.
Some resentments, even in death, left their curses behind. And this Ash Dust carried Corpse Poison within it.
Someone had deliberately created Ash Dust laden with Corpse Poison. Before long, it could become the source of an epidemic sweeping across all of The Empire.
Lost in thought, her gaze fixed downward as she walked, Roserin’s body suddenly lurched violently backward.
As she staggered, tipping off-balance—
“Ouch.”
A low exclamation, and someone caught Roserin’s waist to steady her.
“Sorry, sorry. Are you all right, miss?”
The man righted her quickly, then withdrew his hand.
“I wasn’t paying attention—didn’t see you coming.”
A faint, peculiar odor emanated from the man as he scratched his head awkwardly.
“……No, it’s all right. The fault is partly mine as well.”
The scent of a Fire Demon.

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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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