The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 46

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 46
“My, my. Rozelin, won’t you spare a greeting for me too? I’m quite hurt.”
There was one more figure who seemed utterly immobile—until he wasn’t.
“Father, what brings you here…?”
“Because of the arson incident… Rozelin?”
Cherti had been answering Rozelin’s question when her voice began to fade. He frowned, calling out to her.
Rozelin’s body swayed violently.
“Yes…”
She murmured softly, her head drooping as she cursed under her breath.
‘This wretched body has its limits.’
The moment they appeared, as though relief had washed over her, Rozelin’s body crumpled slowly.
“Rozelin!”
“Rozelin!”
Cherti reached out his arms while Arma, who stood nearby, rushed forward to catch her.
She collapsed into unconsciousness, and the atmosphere grew heavier still.
“…So, you all came together to welcome me? That’s rather harsh.”
Aximus let a bead of sweat roll down his cheek, his expression taut with tension.
Clang!
Cherti Bellion’s Purple Poisoned Sword, dripping venom, clashed simultaneously with Aximus’s blade.
It was chaos.
* * *
“Oh, terrifying…”
Aximus, who had barely escaped from the hellish battle where he was clearly outmatched, slipped into an alley and clicked his tongue softly at the sorry state of himself.
His shabby Tunic, which he’d rather liked, was now so tattered that he’d need to change it or look absurd.
“What exactly is that girl?”
Why were monsters pouring in like that and causing such a ruckus?
“And why did those beasts abandon their nest and come out anyway?”
As his plans crumbled in multiple ways, he scratched his head irritably, muttering to himself.
“Who am I? Someone you should never have laid a hand on—a person of noble station.”
A hand seized Aximus’s shoulder as he limped forward, gripping the crumbling, shabby wall of the narrow alley.
‘…I didn’t sense anyone approaching.’
Cold sweat traced down Aximus’s cheek as he was seized in an instant.
‘…This is bad.’
His legs wouldn’t move.
Something dark was holding fast to the ground beneath his feet—it looked almost like a shadow.
“…Oh, you’re that man from before.”
Aximus turned his head slightly, speaking in a low murmur.
“I’m rather particular in my tastes, so there aren’t many things in this world that please me. Because of that, I truly despise it when someone touches what’s mine.”
His throat was seized along with a flat, arid voice.
“I’m investing considerable effort in her, you see.”
‘…I can’t move at all.’
Pale hands held Aximus’s shoulder fast.
“Next time, I’d recommend choosing your opponent more carefully before you play. At your age, you probably don’t want to be crawling around limbless just yet, do you?”
Crack!
His arm twisted without a sound.
Aximus’s teeth clenched against the sickening, terrible pain as his eyes widened.
The blue eyes looking down at him curved into crescents, brimming with rapture.
‘What kind of madman is this…’
Even as he groaned in agony, he bared his teeth in a savage grin.
“…Khhhh!!”
Soon blood spilled across the ground along with the horrible pain.
‘How did he follow me here? I didn’t sense anyone…’
An Abyss, perhaps?
He’d never heard of an Abyss like this.
It was his first time being tracked.
Despite his desperate efforts to think of other things, he couldn’t endure the pain—blood dripped from his bitten lip and sweat traced down his cheek.
One arm tumbled to the ground.
A young man with a boyish, innocent face smiled white.
“Now that you understand, in the future, don’t dare touch what isn’t yours with those filthy hands.”
The shape engulfed in darkness vanished in an instant.
Aximus laughed, his face pale.
“……Anyway, these days nobody knows how to respect their elders…….”
With his one remaining arm, he raised a leaf cigarette to his lips and flicked his fingers to light it.
Inhale, exhale…….
Smoke billowed up in thick clouds before scattering and vanishing.
“××, got to wash my hands after this. All this fuss over nothing…….”
After finishing the cigarette, he muttered curses under his breath, lifted his arm with its tattered junction point, and rose from his seat.
Whoosh.
Aximus’s body vanished in a burst of red Flame Demon.
* * *
Tick, tick, tick.
The clock ticked on.
Rozelin’s eyes opened slowly at the irritatingly loud sound.
A pitch-black sky loomed overhead. Though calling it a sky felt wrong. It was simply blackness.
No stars, no moon. The word darkness suited it far better than sky.
“Hello, Rozé. It’s been a while.”
“……Sansar?”
Rozelin’s eyes widened and she shot up from where she lay.
Unlike the pitch-black sky, everything around her gleamed pure white.
As she sprang to her feet on the pristine velvet floor, Sansar stood before her smiling—his appearance little changed from before.
‘Is this a dream? Or……’
Rozelin glanced around frantically. Just moments ago, she’d been with Aximus or someone—hadn’t she?
“I kept my promise. I had a feeling something like this would happen to you.”
Sansar spoke softly, extending a hand toward her with his quiet voice.
His long hair made him appear feminine at first glance, yet his subtly androgynous voice revealed he was male.
“We don’t have much time, so let me get to the point.”
Rozelin frowned at his words.
“Do you know? There are Abysses that reveal themselves, and there are Abysses that remain hidden. Some have specific conditions attached. Do you know what your Abyss is?”
“……No.”
Rozelin shook her head.
“Rozé, your Abyss is one that can only awaken when you die.”
“……What?”
If you died, that was the end—how could you awaken an Abyss? It wasn’t an ability you could use as a spirit either.
“It’s complicated to explain in detail, but you can think of it as a kind of Resurrection Abyss. After death, you return to the past and can live once more in another’s body.”
Rozelin’s expression twisted.
“Since returning to the past only applies to your own past, you’ll necessarily return to your own World Line.”
But now that she thought about it, hadn’t Rozelin already died once?
She was already living again in another’s body in another world.
‘I thought this was the Marquis Garen’s ability……’
Was that not the case?
Rozelin’s brow furrowed.
“Because of external interference, your Abyss hasn’t fully awakened yet. It’s in a Half-Awakened State.”
“…….”
“And the power I shared with you—as I said before, you can’t use it right now.”
Sansar licked his lips.
“It’s an ability you can only use once your Abyss awakens. Which means you have to die to use it as well.”
He smiled beautifully. If one didn’t know his gender, he would seem a truly lovely woman.
“Do you know why Kaluta is so strong, Rozé?”
“I couldn’t say.”
“It’s because I am the god of war.”
Sansar.
A god who embodied strength, war, and battle itself.
All who passed where he trod bowed their heads, and when he raised his fist, even great mountain ranges crumbled to plains.
“So you really are a god.”
“Did you think I wasn’t?”
“You never told me directly.”
Rozelin’s voice was steady and matter-of-fact.
Sansar laughed with delight at her reply, his face radiant with amusement.
“And I can directly manifest my power into the Khan of Kaluta.”
Sansar drew slowly closer to her, then pressed his lips to her forehead.
“My Rose.”
Pure white light seeped into her forehead.
“After you die, you’ll become a being stronger than any Kaluta.”
“……What am I supposed to do after I’m dead?”
“I love all world lines, but the one where I met you—that one I love most of all.”
Sansar spoke softly, then flicked his fingers. A screen materialized in empty air, displaying a scene.
Rozelin’s eyes widened ever so slightly.
It was a tomb. A tomb of the Bellion ducal house, neglected and fading into obscurity.
“Do you have any wish to return?”
“…….”
Rozelin drew in a slow breath. She was far from dull enough not to understand why he was saying such things.
Her trembling gaze fixed on Sansar.
“Thank you for getting my children out of here, Rose.”
Rozelin said nothing in response.
“But no matter how much you change the future here, some things remain unchanged. This isn’t your world, after all.”
“So you only met me to use me like this?”
“No—I just got hungry during my amusement. Sorry.”
At Rozelin’s serious words, Sansar raised a hand dismissively and tossed out a remark.
Rozelin’s expression twisted.
“Meeting you was chance, if you speak the language of humans.”
Sansar looked at Rozelin.
“But it might have been necessity.”
“I don’t see anything good in it for me.”
“……I just gave you an ability—what are you talking about?”
“An ability you can only use after death hardly counts as a gift, does it?”
Rozelin spoke with narrowed eyes.
“Ah! Or maybe that’s all a Kaluta means to you. If that’s the case, I understand.”
Her expressionless voice carried a dry tone threaded with bitter mockery.
Sansar’s face tightened as he regarded her.
“What—you want something, then? Fair warning: what I’ve already given you is already far beyond reasonable bounds…….”
“Unless you can offer me something I can use right now, how am I supposed to know your true measure?”
Rozelin cut through the silence.
Only then did Sansar recall that his relationship with Rozelin had not been one of untroubled affection.
‘……Has my memory been polished over time for not seeing her?’
Sansar watched Rozelin, who was pressing him for something, with displeasure.
“So what do you want?”
Finally hearing the words she’d been waiting for, Rozelin smiled with wicked delight.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————