The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 6

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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 6
“……What?”
Igis blinked once, then burst into laughter so loud it seemed the entire dining room might shake.
He brought his fist down against the table with a bang, once, twice, three times.
At that, the Knife in Belion’s grip flew toward Igis’s head.
Igis caught it between two fingers and flicked it back to his father with a snicker.
“Well, I never knew our nephew had such a personality.”
“Yesterday, when Lady Carmel paid a visit, she turned my insides completely upside down. I simply couldn’t hold it in any longer.”
“Hmm, is that so? Then I’ll have to give her a proper scolding.”
The old man murmured this with amusement, chuckling as he looked toward Rozerin.
“But Cherti… I mean, your father. He doesn’t hate you on purpose, I assure you. His social graces have always been lacking—the man’s simply been unable to speak his mind honestly.”
Rozerin gazed at Igis with a gentle smile.
“Yes.”
Belion observed Rozerin turning away with a look of complete disbelief, then opened his mouth.
“Rozerin, let’s have tea together soon.”
“Yes, then I’ll take my leave.”
Rozerin let his words go in one ear and out the other, offered a light bow, and promptly left the dining room.
“……Father, isn’t that girl’s relationship really twisted?”
“Mind your language. Tch, utterly uncouth.”
“What are you saying—who taught me to speak like this? Think of yourself when you were young. You hurled every imaginable oath under the sun.”
“I had no education to fall back on, no education! You ungrateful whelps!”
“Of course, the old story about how you were an illegitimate child abandoned until twenty, wandering the back alleys as a street thug. I know, I understand~ where else could this incorrigible nature of mine have come from? From you, Father.”
Igis looked down at his father with a snort, caught sight of the firmly shut door, and sprang to his feet.
“In the first place, Father raised the youngest far too harshly, which is why he’s become such a gloomy wretch. Don’t let your only granddaughter leave home—manage this properly.”
“Then why didn’t you lot do your duty as heirs? Do you want to die?”
The old man ground out his cigar and spoke savagely.
“Really now, what can an old man like you do but threaten death? Anyway, I’ve never had a good feeling about that woman—I told you to send her away.”
“But the boy likes her.”
“Nonsense. Our entire household is ruined because of you, Father.”
Igis waved his hand dismissively, sauntered toward the door, and continued muttering as he left the dining room.
“Well, I suppose we’ve all been rather careless too.”
With that quiet murmur, the dining room door soon closed firmly behind him.
* * *
“Hey, Cherti. Nursing your sorrows in a warehouse, are we?”
“……Get out.”
In the dim, empty warehouse where only moonlight poured through the window, Cherti sat drinking hard liquor, his expression openly hostile toward the uninvited guest.
“Why do you speak to your daughter like that?”
“…….”
Without waiting for an answer, Igis settled into the seat across from him and shrugged.
He watched his youngest brother drink in silence, consecutive cup after cup, then shrugged and laid out some dried meat before pushing a piece into Cherti’s mouth.
“Didn’t I say you were overprotective?”
“You wretch, get out.”
“Good grief—you hide that awful temperament and play the stoic, putting on quite a show, and yet what returns is your daughter threatening to jump off the mansion rooftop and leave home?”
Cherti watched his irritating older brother giggle away and scowled.
“I must be insane to try talking to a beast like you.”
As Cherti jerked to his feet, Igis continued to chuckle as if endlessly amused.
“Hey, your daughter really is planning to leave home.”
“……Shut your mouth. That’s her choice.”
“Tsk-tsk, her choice, yes. She’s an adult now, so it’s her decision, not yours.”
Cherti glared at the smirking Igis with a dangerous look.
Igis shrugged.
“Being a parent is never easy, is it? Your children never turn out the way you want, and they don’t understand unless you spell it out for them.”
Igis stopped his teasing, snatched the cup from Cherti’s hand, and drank down the liquor in large gulps, then nodded toward the seat across from him.
Each time Cherti moved, the long silver drop earrings clinked softly, and the rings and bracelets crowding both his wrists clattered against one another.
“Damn…….”
Cherti sat down roughly across from Igis.
“Want to know the truth?”
“What.”
“The truth is, you’re properly registered in the family registry. That you love him?”
Bang—!
The moment Cherti’s fist came down on the table, it flooded violet before melting away in an instant with a soft hiss.
“Damn it.”
Igis salvaged the bottle and glasses from the dissolving table, then clicked his tongue sharply.
“This is insane! What am I supposed to do about it? As for me……!”
Igis watched Cherti—who had dropped his dignified act so completely he looked like a sullen child, grinding his teeth—and let out a quiet laugh, rising to his feet.
Red flames bloomed around him, consuming the remnants of the violet-smoking table before guttering out.
“Listen, your niece has made up her mind. If you can’t hold her, let her go. She wouldn’t have done it if she wasn’t desperate.”
……
“Do you understand what you’re doing? That’s something even your parents couldn’t do—let alone as a human being.”
Igis looked down at Cherti for a long moment, then turned to leave.
He was heading for the warehouse door.
“……But.”
A voice emerged, barely above a whisper—as if about to vanish entirely.
“I took her mother away from her. Never even held her properly once. And now…….”
Cherti pressed his face into his palms, his lips moving slowly.
“What am I supposed to say to her……?”
Igis, his hand on the door handle, let out a short, light laugh.
How many people knew that this man—who always pretended to be strong and stayed tight-lipped for his daughter’s sake—had a nature like this?
“Isn’t what you need to say already decided?”
“What is it.”
“What? For heaven’s sake. It’s something even a three-year-old knows.”
Igis let out a derisive snort at Cherti’s words and left, closing the door behind him.
“……Rozerin.”
The man rubbed his face roughly in the moonlight, his red eyes fading as he exhaled deeply.
* * *
“……Miss. Flowers have arrived.”
“Again?”
“Yes.”
Rozerin frowned at the mysterious bouquet that had been arriving for days now.
Since the dinner party, the bouquets had come every single day, each time with a different variety and a card bearing a brief message that arrived around noon.
[The flower language was lovely.]
[I happened to pick some up.]
[While I was out, they happened to be on sale.]
[Flowers that grow everywhere.]
Though the meaning behind these notes remained elusive.
‘Is he saying these are worthless—nothing more than something picked up by chance?’
She always thought the same thing: the language of noble high society was exhausting, especially when one had to think deeply about it.
The problem was that on the sixth day of this bouquet delivery, it could no longer be ignored.
Her room was so full of flowers she felt she might suffocate from the fragrance.
‘I have no idea what this harassment is supposed to accomplish.’
Too tired to think further, Rozerin waved her hand and spoke.
“That’s enough. Get rid of all of them. And from now on, if any more come, share them among yourselves or throw them all away.”
“Ah…… Understood, miss.”
At her command, the maids immediately bowed.
Fortunately, the maids the steward had newly assigned were good ones—not loose-tongued, and they did only what they were told.
“Is the carriage ready?”
“Yes, the driver is waiting.”
“Good.”
“Um…… but are you really planning to go dressed like that?”
One of the maids, looking uneasy, carefully ventured to speak as Rozerin turned to leave the room.
The dress Rozerin wore was jet black.
In the Empire, one did not typically wear black clothing unless one was in mourning.
“Yes. I have no other suitable clothes right now.”
At Rozerin’s words, the maids’ lips sealed shut.
In truth, Rozerin’s wardrobe contained only faded garments, hardly befitting an Imperial Daughter.
Lady Carmel had droned on endlessly about how an Imperial Daughter must live modestly.
When word spread that the Imperial Daughter—who had never said a word even as Lady Carmel lorded it over the Duke’s Residence—had actually thrown her out, all the household staff were astonished.
When rumors first began circulating that the Imperial Daughter had changed somehow, they doubted it was real, but her actual demeanor had shifted considerably.
The servants hurried down the stairs after Rozerin.
With her red eyes—which she always hid—now openly visible and her shoulders and back held straight, Rozerin descended the stairs and boarded the carriage.
The carriage door closed, and they lurched forward into motion.
‘I never thought I’d return to the Imperial Capital on my own two feet.’
The last time she’d gone there, Gerren had seized her and handed her over to the Imperial Knights, and she’d been locked away in prison.
‘It’s been so long since I’ve seen the Third Prince……’
At ten years old, Rozerin had believed herself the most noble and exalted being in the world—spoiled, sickly, and insufferable—and she had been betrothed to the Third Prince.
Rozerin, the Empire’s only Imperial Daughter, whom she’d thought of as no better than a bastard.
The Third Prince, Arma Dianitas—weak, harboring no ambitions of the throne, dreaming of nothing grand.
Whether a discarded card or not, the union of the Dianitas Imperial House and the Belion Ducal House had been the scandal of High Society.
After the carriage departed, Rozerin sank into her thoughts.
Some time later, the carriage came to a halt and the door swung open. Through the window, the brilliant Imperial Capital came into view.

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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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