The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 67

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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 67
Rozelin paused for a moment before speaking.
“If I help you, you have to help me too.”
“Of course! Whether it goes well or not, I’m your maid, Miss.”
“Right then.”
Rozelin glanced at her Name Badge and nodded.
“Jena.”
“Oh my, you knew my name all along.”
She spoke with obvious delight.
‘No, I just read it off the badge.’
Did she forget she was wearing that gaudy thing on her chest?
Rozelin thought dryly, but rather than deny it, she simply nodded.
It was always good to accumulate goodwill.
“All right then, we’ll go with this.”
Rozelin chose the more crudely drawn of the two papers.
For now it was struggling along begging for investors, but later it would become the Cosmetic Lotion that swept through the Empire.
The problem was that the person selling it was a wild-haired eccentric—practically a walking scientist.
She’d heard he was such an oddball who knew nothing but invention that the business had a rough start.
“This one?”
The maid looked puzzled.
“Yes.”
At Rozelin’s words, the maid tilted her head slightly.
‘I mean, who would invest in some scrap of paper like this.’
Rozelin clicked her tongue inwardly.
The scientist’s reason for selling cosmetic lotion in the first place was that her research funds were insufficient.
The business, started with a modest initial investment, took several years to get off the ground, but ultimately it became a massive success.
The Cosmetic Lotion had the effect of clearing blemishes from skin and leaving dry faces thoroughly moisturized.
‘Now that I think about it, around this time there should still be quite a few things worth investing in.’
Rozelin gauged how long she could remain here.
‘If I invest early, it’ll be useful.’
Rozelin smiled with amusement.
At Rozelin’s smile, the maid’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Make the investment decision however you see fit.”
The maid opened the door Rozelin indicated.
“I’ll come fetch you later, Miss.”
“All right.”
As Rozelin stepped into the Conference Room, the maid, who had smiled with composure, quickly clutched the scrap of paper and turned around.
‘A jackpot tip!’
The maid, who had been about to rush down the Corridor, barely caught herself and remembered the manor’s rules, then disappeared walking at a speed nearly as fast as running.
* * *
“……Rozelin?”
“Good morning, Father.”
Or was it afternoon?
Rozelin greeted Cherti Bellion, who sat at the head of the Conference Room table, lightly.
‘It’s only a theory, but by the time this body’s original owner regains consciousness, I’ll likely have returned to my own world.’
Garen Wilbred had once explained that for a soul to settle into a Parallel World body, that body must be empty.
Rozelin had not died and had grown into an adult.
That meant the Rozelin of this world would also grow up safely.
So long as the current Rozelin existed and was alive, the past of “she survived” would never change.
That was likely how it would work.
Rozelin accepted the barrage of gazes from everyone in the Conference Room with indifference, then walked over to stand before Cherti Bellion with her arms spread wide.
“There’s nowhere to sit, so may I borrow Father’s lap?”
“What? When did I ever say you could come in here like this…….”
“Your daughter came to see you, Father. Don’t you know what acting spoiled means?”
At Rozelin’s words, Cherti looked down at her with an expression that said ‘what kind of child is this.’
“My arm’s about to fall off.”
Cherti scooped her up with reluctance written across his face and set her on his lap.
“What on earth are you doing here?”
“Just because.”
She couldn’t exactly tell him that his daughter from the future had come to stop him from going on a rampage today.
“……Go back.”
“I don’t want to.”
“……Rozelin!”
Rozelin yawned.
Cherti faltered at his daughter’s blatant dismissal of him.
“Just stay quiet instead. If your body aches, tell me.”
“Yes.”
Rozelin nodded.
Pitying glances fixed on Rozelin. Cherti’s expression darkened.
“Since things have come to this, let’s wrap up the agenda quickly.”
“As I mentioned, this is about business investment. I believe we should invest in this construction project.”
“Now, now—that construction project has many problems! Surely if we’re talking business, the hospitality venture would be the sensible choice!”
“Not at all. The number of travelers is increasing steadily, so if you’re going into hospitality, shouldn’t we also consider this food supply business…….”
Fools, the lot of them.
Rozelin’s eyes swept across the countless investment proposal documents spread across the table.
These ventures didn’t exist in future-Rozelin’s memories.
Which meant they’d likely collapsed before she even knew about them. Cherti’s tongue clicked softly against his teeth as the argument continued.
A gloomy aura emanated from him, yet the gazes of the money-hungry collateral relatives showed no signs of dimming.
‘Well, Grandfather’s gone, the eldest is in a disputed territory, and that reckless second son has no interest in any of this…….’
Right now, the easiest mark was clearly his father—barely an adult.
‘Is Father twenty-four? Twenty-five?’
Rozelin snatched the documents from her father’s hands as though to formally demonstrate his incompetence, and neatly folded them into a Paper Airplane before launching it.
“What! Young Miss, do you even know what that is!”
“Well…….”
Rozelin propped her chin on her hand and smiled sweetly.
“Garbage?”
The bright, childlike gaze swept across everyone gathered around the Conference Room table, though curiously devoid of any warmth.
“Rozelin……!”
Rozelin glanced at Cherti Bellion and nodded.
“Yes.”
“I told you to stay quiet.”
“Sigh. These are people who’ll use my father’s vague consent to stamp the Seal whenever he’s distracted—just to fill their own pockets. And my father gets angry at me because of such people. It’s frustrating.”
Cherti gazed down at his daughter, who in his absence had become such a smooth talker, and sighed deeply.
“Now, now! A young thing whose hair is barely dry shouldn’t be inserting herself where she doesn’t belong, Miss.”
Rozelin glanced at the man sitting beside her and narrowed her eyes.
“Is being old something to brag about?”
Rozelin let out a cold laugh, then seized the Seal of Estate Master sitting off to one side.
With her left hand, she raked through the towering pile of investment requests, singled one out, and stamped it with a loud thud.
Cherti gasped.
“Rozelin!”
“Let’s go with this one.”
Thunk!
She stamped another.
“……What are you doing, all of a sudden? Look at how red your face is. You wander around on your own and your fever spikes again. I……!”
“This one too.”
“I told you that you’re nothing but a burden when you go outside…….”
Thunk, thunk!
“And this one and this one.”
Rozelin plucked out only the ventures that could turn a profit from among the documents and placed them one by one into Cherti’s arms.
“What are you doing? If you’re angry, just say so. How much more are you going to make your father suffer…….”
“I’m not angry.”
Rozelin shrugged with an expression that asked why he would say something so strange.
“Father, they say it’s good to build self-esteem. Otherwise you end up drowning in delusions of persecution.”
What you’re doing is persecution paranoia.
Cherti found himself at a loss for words—the situation summed up so neatly.
“…….”
“Anyway, you were just going to pick something at random and run with it anyway, so what’s wrong with doing this?”
Cherti looked at the ventures Rozelin had chosen.
All of them were businesses whose nature was unclear to him. But that hardly meant he could have made sense of the ones the others brought, either.
“Good heavens, what kind of business is this! A business, Young Miss, is supposed to……!”
“Yes, let’s go with this.”
Noticing Rozelin’s flushed cheeks, Cherti Bellion took the documents the girl had prepared and handed them to the butler standing beside him.
“Proceed as written, Din.”
“Yes, understood, Young Estate Master.”
The butler accepted the papers without a word, casting a sidelong glance at Rozelin.
Din was well aware that rumors of the “Mystical Young Lady” had been quietly circulating through the estate recently.
And he also knew that the Young Duke intended to handle this matter adequately before pushing it up to the Duke.
In fact, everything Rozelin had mentioned in passing had proven accurate.
The exotic treasures that a merchant had brought to the estate and sold to the servants and the mansion itself were all fraudulent.
The jewels and everything else were counterfeits.
If Din hadn’t happened to overhear what Rozelin had told him, the aftermath would have been troublesome.
He was able to recover the full amount of damages before the merchant could gamble away every last coin, having personally gone out to catch him.
After that, an unprecedented hailstorm struck the Empire, just as the young lady had said it would.
He heard that she had flatly declared the estate’s master would not attend the regular family council meeting on time.
And indeed, he could not come—her master, who never missed such a meeting.
Whether it was because the valley waters had swollen, Din wasn’t certain, but heavy rain was clearly falling in the region where his master was supposed to travel through.
Given such circumstances, Din believed once more that the young lady had her reasons.

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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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