The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 81

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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 81
I want to have her.
The more I look, the more I covet.
Arma had lived his whole life disregarded by countless people. It was a landscape of his own making, a scene he had constructed.
Because Arma was meant to disappear quietly one day.
To do that, he had to be someone of no value whatsoever. So Arma had lived as a person who existed yet did not exist. Being ignored by everyone was simply the natural order of his life.
A life where no one expected anything and no one acknowledged him.
And the first thing Arma was ever given as his own was Rozelin.
The Third Prince’s betrothed.
A woman who bore his name and a man who bore hers—no one else’s.
Arma was Rozelin’s Arma, and Rozelin was Arma’s Rozelin.
They were labeled thus, but when he came to his senses, she had already peeled away that label and clutched it in her hand.
Only he fretted endlessly. Rozelin took no interest in him. Even when Arma stood beside her, she did not see him.
‘Why?’
Why indeed.
Because he had wanted it this way.
He had arranged for no one to take interest in him, and so Rozelin too harbored no interest in him. That was all.
Who could dream of a future with someone everyone disliked, someone from whom nothing could be expected?
‘So what’s this about kissing?’
How lightly she must regard their relationship, to speak such words without a flicker of emotion crossing her face. Her expression held no thrill, no excitement.
And when he offered his clumsy confession—barely a confession at all—she did not even show surprise.
“Zenziang…….”
Thud.
Arma let out a low groan, striking his head against the wooden post that bound the Youth.
With his cheek pressed to the damp, cold wood slick with night dew, his own wretchedness felt all the more pitiable.
‘A dream…….’
In that dream, he had lost Rozelin through a foolish choice.
And because of that foolish choice, Rozelin had died in that dream.
Arma briefly imagined Rozelin dying, then immediately realized the thought repelled him far more than expected, and his face twisted in disgust.
“I like you, Rozelin.”
If he spoke even like this, might she show a flutter of excitement?
No. Given how unmoved she was even at the suggestion of a kiss, the chances were nil.
Whether someone heard that soft mumbling, or perhaps it was mere coincidence—a twig snapped somewhere in the darkness.
Arma jolted upright and spun around, his face draining of all color in an instant.
“……Ahem!”
“…….”
“Bwahahaha! Quite the timid fiancé you’ve chosen, nephew!”
Or should one call it brazen, in this case?
Laughter rippled through the added remark.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk! You youngsters—nothing you won’t say in front of your elders!”
Watching Ian Bellion, the second uncle who had come despite being told to stay away, spout such nonsense, Rozelin clicked her tongue in disapproval.
“Hey, did you just click your tongue?”
“You’ve been released from Confinement remarkably swiftly.”
“Swiftly?! Do you have any idea how long I was locked away?”
“I do not.”
Between the Duke of Bellion, who kept clearing his throat as if his voice pained him; her own father, standing distant with trembling eyes as though he’d lost the world; her eldest uncle, who laughed as if the garden itself might wash away; and her second uncle, whose mouth wouldn’t stop moving—Rozelin caught sight of Arma, his face ashen.
Arma, who had just found himself making a public confession before his betrothed’s family, lifted his head with eyes that trembled.
“……May I go home?”
“Yes.”
Rozelin understood his embarrassment well enough. So she answered as flatly and expressionlessly as possible.
At that, Arma’s face fell as though he’d received both a shock and a wound, and he gave a careful nod despite his trembling jaw.
Just as Arma was about to turn to leave—
“Ughh…….”
The Youth bound to the wooden post opened his eyes.
“…….”
Rozelin gazed quietly at the Youth, whose hostile young eyes, devoid of all emotion, fixed upon them.
Red hair. Golden eyes.
At a distance, one might have called him a beast without absurdity—so feral was his gaze.
This was something that even Rozelin from the other world had discovered quite by accident during her flight.
A fact that Ian Bellion would likely not enjoy hearing—perhaps an unpleasant one.
“What’s your name?”
Ian Bellion was an illegitimate child of the Bellion Duke Estate.
Born from a mistake the Duke made in his youth.
Devon Bellion, the Duke himself, had grown up as an illegitimate child, so rather than hide or abandon Ian, he took him in and raised him without discrimination alongside his legitimate children.
Ian Bellion grew up somewhat crooked, but not so severely that he went entirely astray.
Devon Bellion had four children in total.
Three legitimate children from his wife, and one illegitimate child from outside.
The eldest son: Igis Bellion.
The second son: Ian Bellion.
The third son: Cherti Bellion.
And between the eldest and second sons, there was one daughter.
Lily Bellion.
“Your mother’s name is Lily, isn’t it?”
And if her memory served her right, the first Reaper of Makluk was now nineteen years old—the son of Lily Bellion.
“……Wait, what did you just say?”
Silence descended on the surroundings.
It was Ian Bellion, naturally, who was most agitated.
“I asked if you were the son of Lily Bellion.”
Rozelin offered the clarification once more.
At that, the Youth turned to stare at her with a vicious glare, then abruptly whipped his head away.
Ian Bellion had nearly died when he was young.
It had been decades ago.
Ian Bellion harbored deep shame over being an illegitimate child.
Consumed by rebellion, he had run away from home, and Lily Bellion, worried for him, followed.
Lily Bellion was someone who had fallen badly from a tree as a child and walked with a limp.
And during that escape, Ian and Lily were pursued by assassins.
Assassins from Makluk, no less.
“Stop spouting nonsense! Lily is dead! There’s no way she had a child like this!”
Ian Bellion shouted and strode toward Rozelin.
And he saw it again.
How she had hidden him and offered herself as bait instead, chased by assassins until they reached the cliff edge, her foot slipping as she fell down into the vast chasm below.
“What are you doing?”
At the same moment, his father blocked her path, and Igis Bellion seized Ian by the scruff of his neck.
“Hey. Little brother, have you lost your mind?”
“Older brother, she’s saying strange things right now! Sister is dead! I……!”
“Did you ever see a body?”
At Rozelin’s question, Ian Bellion’s eyes snapped wide open.
He had not. And for that reason, he felt as though the truth had been driven home.
As he surged forward toward Rozelin, Cherti bared his teeth.
“That’s far enough.”
“Damn it, don’t be disrespectful to your older brother!”
“You do the same to the firstborn.”
“He doesn’t say anything to me, so why would I say anything to you? Don’t you dare overstep your station! Get out of the way, I’m talking to my nephew……!”
“Don’t threaten my daughter. You want to die?”
As Cherti stepped in front of her, Ian Bellion’s eyes turned sharp and lethal.
At that vicious gaze that looked ready to tear him apart at any moment, Rozelin glanced to the side and caught sight of Arma, whose face had grown gloomy.
‘……Come to think of it, is this the Garden?’
Rozelin recalled what Arma had said earlier, leaving the quarreling voices behind her.
“……No, I didn’t want to do it this way. I wanted to wait a bit longer to set the mood, then walk through the Garden or along the beach…….”
Come to think of it, this situation wasn’t all bad. So long as the noise behind them stopped.
“Arma.”
Aside from the noise, there was the wide-open moon shining brightly, and the sounds of insects and birds calling from the grass weren’t unpleasant.
By this standard, the atmosphere was quite good.
Besides, those people looked busy, and the quarrel didn’t seem like something that would end quickly.
Seeing them both drawing out their Abyss, it looked like it would take some time before things settled down.
Rozelin, not wanting to waste time standing idle and watching uselessly, smiled faintly at the idea that had just occurred to her.
“……Rozelin? Why……?”
“Since we’re in the Garden anyway, shall we kiss?”
Crack.
As Arma’s eyes widened, the raucous noise behind them abruptly ceased, and the surroundings fell silent as the grave.
“Hey! What are you saying in the middle of your uncles fighting? Pay attention to the mood!”
“……But aren’t you going to stop fighting?”
She’d thought the noise would drown out her words, but it seemed Cherti’s ears were unnervingly sharp even when she spoke softly.
“Rozelin, let’s talk later. Just you and me.”
At the gravity in Cherti’s voice, Rozelin clicked her tongue silently to herself.
“……Yes.”
Rozelin acquiesced quietly.

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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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