The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 75

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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 75
He wore an expression of mingled pleasure and displeasure, as though he’d heard two stories at once, before his hand drifted to his chin.
“……Hmm.”
“……That’s what I recall hearing from Grandfather. He’s done something similar before, or so I’ve heard.”
It struck him as an efficient method.
Once people were seized by fear, those who remembered it would never dream of standing against the Imperial Court.
But newcomers to the nobility—those fresh to their family seats or the aristocracy—would have no such memory.
So the Emperor meant to overturn the Empire before long.
“You know, thanks to the princess, the plague was settled quite quietly. Damage was minimal. The princess…… happened to leave for Kaluta and brought back the medicinal herbs that became the antidote from there.”
“That’s fortunate.”
“I’m saying it’s remarkable. I’ve searched ancient texts, and I’ve never heard of anyone with an Abyss like the princess’s.”
“The Abyss manifests according to its nature, Your Majesty.”
“More than that—doesn’t it seem as though she saw the future and came back?”
Thump. Her heart felt like it dropped.
Rozelin lifted her gaze, keeping her expression as blank as possible.
“If I could do that, I’d have changed my own future first.”
The tension hung taut.
The moment Rozelin spoke, her body rigid with anxiety, the door flew open without warning.
“What are you doing, Your Majesty?”
“There’s no warmth in how my youngest addresses his father.”
It was Arma.
“My apologies. The Third Prince kept insisting I open the door.”
Rozelin slowly shifted her gaze.
The Captain of the Imperial Guard bowed deeply.
“No, never mind. My son’s stubbornness—even I can’t stop it.”
The Emperor waved his hand.
Arma brushed past him and started to fling something onto the floor, but caught sight of Rozelin and quietly set it down instead.
“Rozelin, has Father been troubling you?”
“What kind of wounded thing is that to say, my youngest? We were simply having a conversation. Weren’t we, princess?”
“Yes, though Your Majesty did speak in rather pressing tones, nothing came of it.”
To her addition that this could therefore be called a conversation, the Emperor looked at Rozelin as though marveling at such a creature existing.
“……Father.”
Arma glared at the Emperor. The Emperor let out a hollow laugh.
“They say raising children is pointless, and look at you—besotted with a woman, abandoning your father like this.”
“Rozelin, I’ve brought the kidnapper—the one who abducted you before, the one we captured.”
Ignoring the Emperor, Arma dropped to one knee before Rozelin and explained.
The figure sprawled on the floor was missing one arm.
He ground his teeth, yet raised his head to look at Rozelin.
The hollow eyes and skin stretched tight over bone made it plain he’d lived no pleasant life of late.
Axsimus Baldur.
He was the King of Malucia’s faithful instrument—his right hand.
“……What about the man we captured at the Gambling House?”
“Ah, he died during interrogation. The priest as well.”
At Arma’s artless remark, Axsimus’s head whipped around to face him.
As if he hadn’t shown mercy in his hands, and as though the torture disguised as questioning had been conducted by someone who already knew everything worth knowing.
“My apologies.”
At Arma’s dejected words, Rozelin shook her head.
“No, it’s fine.”
“Miss, let me give you some advice—stay away from this madman. There’s nothing good that comes from being near him.”
Axsimus, his remaining arm bound behind his back, spoke with bared teeth.
Rozelin nodded.
“I know.”
“……Rozelin?”
“……Ah, so you do know.”
At her words, Arma questioned her in turn, while Axsimus nodded with a bewildered expression.
“Then, at least that’s a relief…….”
He answered with reluctance.
“I’m curious about something—who is the King of Malucia?”
“Ha, as if I’d tell you that.”
Axsimus cackled.
He showed no signs of clinging to life; his eyes had already surrendered all attachment to living.
He bore none of the bearing of a man who held a title of count.
“Little brother, how lax have you become with his management, that a criminal dares to——”
The Emperor laughed savagely.
“Holding his head high before my daughter-in-law, no less.”
Thud.
The air grew heavy.
Just as breathing became labored, someone gently gathered Rozelin into his arms.
It was Arma.
“Shh—it’s all right, Rozelin. If you calm yourself, you’ll be able to breathe.”
Opening her eyes at his gentle voice, Rozelin only then realized she had not been breathing at all.
She exhaled her stifled breath slowly, and her eyes widened at the sight visible over her shoulder.
Axsimus Baldur lay on the ground, his throat squeezed in an invisible grip.
As though he was not even permitted to cry out.
His body convulsed, contracting and expanding in helpless rhythm.
Watching blood vessels rupture and his eyes strain as though they might burst from their sockets, Rozelin clamped her lips shut.
She understood now what the Emperor’s Abyss was.
As Rozelin sat rigid, the Emperor regarded her with an expression of apparent satisfaction.
“What troubles you, princess?”
Rozelin meant to answer that it was nothing.
“I’m not your daughter-in-law.”
The words tumbled out unbidden—not because she had intended to make a correction in her heightened tension, but because they simply escaped.
“Ah.”
A heavy silence descended.
* * *
“Are you unwell, Lady Bellion?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Rozelin nodded briefly to the Captain of the Imperial Guard, who had been entrusted with her escort to the carriage through the Emperor’s and Third Prince’s considerateness.
Arma suggested to Rozelin that if she had any questions, he would look into them, and urged her to go inside first.
Had it not been for him, the atmosphere would have grown far more awkward still.
Arma, who added that he was sorry he couldn’t see her off personally as he had matters to discuss with the Emperor, appeared to have suffered a considerable shock.
‘I should have explained further.’
That the Broken Engagement meant she would never become his daughter-in-law.
Rozelin realized her blunder too late.
The Emperor had certainly used his Abyss to vent his own stress, but officially he had cited ‘for Rozelin’s sake’ as his reason.
To deny that was to invite trouble.
“There has been much talk in the Imperial Capital lately concerning Your Ladyship.”
“Is that so?”
Rozelin looked at the Captain of the Imperial Guard, who spoke to her so warmly.
Only the strongest in the Imperial Court joined the Imperial Guard, and he had been selected as their captain.
She had heard he had served the Emperor since childhood and was all but a brother to him.
Though he had likely entered his late forties, judging by appearance alone one might believe him early forties.
‘He doesn’t age.’
Save for fine lines on his face and a beard on his jaw, he looked nothing like a man in his late forties.
The countless scars upon his cheeks and hands spoke to how fiercely he had lived all these years.
That he had not stepped down from his post as the Emperor’s Captain of the Imperial Guard even at this age was testament to the steadfastness of his skill.
“Yes, I hear Your Highness has achieved much in various ways.”
“That is fortunate.”
“Particularly, thanks to the Lishu Herb brought from Kaluta, the plague that had spread throughout the Empire has been contained far more swiftly than expected, and many have come to regard Kaluta favorably.”
“That too is fortunate.”
The Captain observed Rozelin, whose expression did not change even at such praise, and smiled wryly.
“An old man rambling foolishly, it seems.”
“It’s only because I lack skill in conversation, so please think nothing of it.”
Rozelin replied coolly.
“Your Highness seems quite different from the Bellion heir.”
“Well, he’s hardly so devoid of social grace as all that.”
“Ah, in that regard we are rather similar——”
Rozelin faltered at the Captain’s words.
The Captain caught himself, falling silent before letting out a soft laugh and hastily shaking his head as he added,
“——Not entirely, it would seem. Your Highness is marginally better.”
Rozelin’s expression tightened.
“Yes, I understand.”
As she nodded in satisfaction, the Captain of the Imperial Guard gazed at Rozelin with an ambiguous smile.
“But how did you know that the Lishu Herb in Kaluta is effective against the plague?”
The Captain of the Imperial Guard asked carefully as he escorted Rozelin.

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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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