The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 47

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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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Episode 47
“Give me some other ability worth using.”
“……All right, I’ll bestow Divine Protection so you don’t fall ill easily.”
“That’s something you should give me anyway, considering you’re the one asking for help.”
Rozerin spoke with shameless composure, arms crossed.
Sansar’s mouth twitched slightly.
“……You mentioned it before, didn’t you? That there’s something called the Seven-Colored Stone in Kalutain Mythology.”
“…….”
“Give it to me.”
“Have you lost your mind? Roze?”
“What do you mean you can’t? I saved all your children.”
Rozerin spoke with a frown creasing her brow.
“Hand it over.”
She held out her hand without a shred of shame.
“Otherwise, I’ll use Future Knowledge to drain Kalyuta dry — just the sweet parts that you love.”
“You……!”
“You need to give me at least that much if you want me to keep helping.”
There’s still a long road ahead, after all.
As Rozerin added this, Sansar stared at her with lethal intensity before snapping his fingers.
A bracelet woven from seven stones of different colors materialized around her wrist.
“……That’s gaudy.”
Rozerin said it plainly.
“What does it matter! How did I even end up befriending someone like you? I really can’t believe…….”
Sansar muttered quietly that nothing had changed about her, and Rozerin added her agreement without emotion.
“Anyway, there’s one thing I want to say.”
Rozerin’s gaze turned to Sansar.
She raised her hand to stop him from speaking.
Sansar fell silent.
“Why?”
“Don’t hold back. Give me Divine Protection too.”
“……You really are a con artist.”
Sansar grumbled in displeasure, then bestowed his blessing upon Rozerin.
“In any case, you can live again in the original world if you die here.”
“…….”
“Of course, not as ‘Rozerin Bellion,’ but still — your future could change.”
Rozerin said nothing.
“Think about it carefully. You have nothing here that’s truly yours.”
Before Sansar’s words had even finished, her vision wavered, then everything went black in an instant.
* * *
“Ugh.”
Rozerin’s eyes flew open as a terrible headache hammered through her skull.
“Rozerin……?”
The first thing she saw was Cherti, his face haggard and worn.
His eyes were bloodshot, the veins so inflamed they seemed on the verge of bursting, and her sudden awakening left him looking dazed.
“Rozerin…….”
“Father, cough……. Father.”
Rozerin shook her head.
She glanced briefly at the bracelet jingling around her wrist, then slowly began to sit up.
Or tried to, at least.
With a soft sound, she was pulled back down.
If only the warmth embracing her had felt less real.
“Rozerin……. Rozerin.”
At the arms holding her body firmly, Rozerin’s eyes widened.
“…….”
The warmth of being held felt unfamiliar and awkward. It was only then that Rozerin realized it had been a very long time since anyone had held her like this.
Warm and comfortable — not quite so bad, really.
Rozerin blinked slowly. Since his arms held her completely, she couldn’t embrace him back.
‘……This feels good.’
Once she acknowledged that fact, she understood how lonely she had been.
‘I was lonely.’
Now that she thought about it, she seemed to have said something similar to Garen before she died.
“I thought you were going to die too.”
Her voice trembled.
“I thought I’d killed you too…….”
‘……What?’
Rozerin tilted her head.
If Rozerin had died this time, it would have been entirely her own carelessness. Failing to manage her expression and letting her feelings show to her opponent—that was wholly her fault.
“I’ve…….”
“No, that’s not it.”
Rozerin cut off Cherti’s self-recriminations with an indifferent tone.
At that dry voice, Cherti faltered.
“I was the one who insisted on going to Kalyuta. How is that your fault?”
“If I’d firmly forbidden you from coming here…….”
“I would have come anyway.”
Rozerin added flatly.
“It’s not like I listen to what others say.”
Cherti watched the coldly composed Rozerin with a gaze that quivered faintly.
‘……Others?’
A pang of loneliness welled up inside him.
“Am I a stranger to you?”
“That’s just how I meant it.”
……
What could he do when his own daughter said such things?
He was a father who hadn’t properly cared for her all these years, so he had no words in his defense.
Yet wounded, Cherti worked his lips and nodded reluctantly.
“I should have simply locked you away……. Then you wouldn’t have faced any danger. Chains are crude and binding causes pain, so perhaps a room sealed with an Abyss where you couldn’t escape……”
Rozerin, who hadn’t heard Cherti’s muttering to himself, turned her head with a puzzled expression.
“What did you say?”
Cherti lifted his head to look at Rozerin with a darkened face, then slowly shook it.
“No, it’s nothing.”
“But Father, what are you doing here?”
“The plague circulating through the Empire and the arson incidents happening in various villages have been weighing on me, so I came to meet you.”
At Cherti’s words, Rozerin’s eyes widened slightly, and she let out a small smile.
“Thank you for worrying about me.”
“It’s not worry! I was lying in bed at home, and since you weren’t coming back, I thought it might reflect poorly on the family if my own daughter were to cause trouble, so…….”
Cherti, who had been muttering loudly, faltered when he met Rozerin’s indifferent gaze.
……Yes. I was worried something might happen to you.”
After a long silence, Cherti covered his mouth with his hand and spoke softly.
“Yes, I know.”
“……You know?”
“Yes.”
Now Rozerin understood that Cherti cared for her and cherished her deeply.
……
Cherti’s face flushed red.
“Father is quite shy, isn’t he?”
“……Who’s shy…….”
“Could you hold me a bit longer?”
Rozerin, whose arms had loosened, looked at her father, who had stepped back at a distance, and asked.
At Rozerin’s words, Cherti stiffened momentarily, then stared at her with wide eyes.
“……What?”
“Holding me isn’t so bad. Could you hold me just a little longer?”
Rozerin said it again.
Caught off guard, Cherti brushed off his clothes as he stood back, then hesitantly stepped closer and opened both arms wide.
‘……Like some maiden or young master in their prime.’
Rozerin let out a silent laugh to herself even as she leaned her body against her father’s chest.
She smiled softly, pleased by the firm, solid embrace.
“This is nice. Father’s embrace.”
“……Is it?”
“Being held by someone is quite a pleasant thing, isn’t it?”
Rozerin murmured quietly.
“I’ve never been held like this before, so I didn’t realize what I was missing.”
She had lived her whole life pretending to be fine on her own, playing at strength, never leaning on anyone.
“I was lonely.”
She murmured it softly.
“I didn’t know it until now, but I suppose I was terribly lonely, Father.”
At Rozerin’s whispered admission, the arms holding her tightened.
“I think that’s what I needed.”
Not words to console herself with, not the sharp, thorny language that wrapped around her body like armor, not a shield—
Perhaps all she had ever needed was the warmth of another person.
Rozerin thought she had discovered something new and tried to pull away from his embrace.
Had the arms holding her not grown stronger still.
‘…This hurts.’
She was just beginning to furrow her brow when Cherti spoke.
“…I’ll hold you every day.”
His voice came out rigid.
“You…”
Cherti’s lips trembled.
He was a monster born of killing his mother, born from her death.
As he grew, unable to control the Abyss, he had killed several servants. At one point, he had even been locked in a small stone cell made of Soul Stone.
After he matured somewhat, he walked down into the depths.
He grew up draped in restraint-like ornaments across his entire body, under his father’s contemptuous gaze and the endless whispers and condemnations of those around him.
“I didn’t know you were lonely.”
“…”
“I grew up that way myself, so I thought you’d be fine. Because you’re her child… I thought you’d be strong. I believed you were.”
At his confession-like words, Rozerin felt somewhat at a loss.
‘This isn’t what I wanted.’
Just as she was wondering how to break through this suddenly serious atmosphere, Cherti’s voice came again.
“But now that I think about it, I was lonely too.”
“…”
“I was lonely too.”
Rozerin recalled what she vaguely knew of her father’s past.
She twisted her arm free from Cherti’s embrace and gently pulled him close, awkwardly patting his back.
Cherti’s eyes widened.
“Even so, thank you for not abandoning me and raising me all this time. Without you, I’m certain I would have died long ago.”
She had been told her body was that fragile, after all, and she had never been permitted to leave her bed.
At her words, Cherti’s arms began to shake softly.
Tears began to fall from the dark eyes of the man full of gloom.
“Because no one in the world needed me…”
Rozerin felt her shoulder grow damp. She opened her mouth, then closed it quietly.
She was not accustomed to this kind of comfort.
“I thought you didn’t need me either. But…”
“…”
“You did need me. Just as I once did… you needed me too.”
Even if everyone in the world condemned him as worthless, Rozerin had never looked upon her father with contempt.
The child had only ever gazed at him directly and asked for nothing but his affection.
Cherti had been unable to overcome his fear and pretended not to see it.
“…I’m sorry.”
“…”
“I’m sorry, my child.”
Rozerin stopped moving, forgetting even to pat his back.
It felt strange.
She had never thought she would hear an apology in her lifetime.
“It’s all right. I never resented you.”
It was a lie.
Rozerin had resented him once, and only when she grew older and came to understand him could she let it go.
“…Then resent me. Better yet, blame me.”
He murmured it quietly, his voice catching.
“Your father… loves you most of all.”
At the sincerity in his quiet words, Rozerin’s eyes widened slightly.
After a brief silence, it was the moment she began to smile.
“Fire-!”
A cry—half scream, half warning—cut through the air.
She turned reflexively toward the window, only to find the world beyond already stained a violent crimson.

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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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