The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 85

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 85
At Arma’s question, Rozelin smiled faintly, her gaze distant.
Her fragile body had a habit of failing her at precisely the moments that mattered most.
Rozelin fell ill often—fever after fever haunted her—and through it all, Arma was always there.
It took only a moment to fall into tenderness, and only a moment to lose it.
For Rozelin, Arma was someone who had crept into her heart slowly, so gradually that by the time she noticed, he had already gone far too deep.
“Since when have you felt this way about me?”
“I… I’m not sure. But I didn’t dislike you from the moment we first met. You didn’t say anything when you saw me back then.”
She nodded slowly.
After all, she’d believed no one could ever care for her.
“But the kinder you were to me, the more time we spent together, I felt us drawing closer, and I liked that.”
Rozelin nodded gently. She took Arma’s hand and strolled with him through the Garden at a leisured pace.
Arma carefully matched her grip, his palm warm against hers, and slowed his steps to match her rhythm.
Beside Rozelin, Arma walked with equal unhurried ease.
Though he stood a full head taller and his legs were proportionally longer, he willingly shortened his stride and moderated his pace.
Beneath the pitch-black night sky, stars spilled across the heavens, and the moon burned bright.
The crickets had been singing until Rozelin and Arma passed, then fell silent as if on cue.
The Garden of the Duke’s Estate was sprawling, stretching across the entire grounds.
“I loved your tenderness.”
“…Rozelin.”
“In truth, I came to understand you’re not someone who is only kind, but I learned that after coming here…”
Rozelin let out a small laugh.
Her laughter rang out clear and unguarded, and Arma found himself staring at her profile, caught off-guard by the sudden shift in mood.
“After I left home, you came to find me so often.”
Through him, she had learned so much. Time spent in his company was never something she could call unpleasant.
“Until you died… or rather, until you left my side—I didn’t even know I loved you.”
One shouldn’t take the presence of someone nearby for granted.
At her added words, Arma slowly shook his head.
“It’s my fault for not truly examining my own heart. You have no fault in this, Rozelin.”
“You were kind. In all those thoughtless years, when the world had never shown me kindness—no matter how I pushed you away, you remained gentle.”
And so at the very last moment, Rozelin opened her heart, and Arma left her behind.
Rozelin walked deeper into the Garden, where even the crickets’ voices grew faint.
“The mood is right, the night is here, the Garden surrounds us. Do you still lack conditions for a kiss?”
“…”
Rozelin smiled softly and draped her arms around Arma’s neck.
“…Rozelin.”
Arma murmured her name low, his eyes trembling slightly.
“Are you going to embarrass me?”
“…No, never.”
Arma reached out, carefully drawing her waist toward him.
As Rozelin slowly closed her eyes, Arma gently pressed his lips to hers.
In the silent moment of their kiss, the crickets resumed their chorus as if all sound had returned to the world.
After a long time, Arma withdrew his lips as Rozelin’s cheeks flushed deep red.
“Rozelin…”
At his deepened murmur of her name, Rozelin drew back slightly, her face faintly flushed, and touched her lips lightly with her fingertips.
Arma’s cheeks too were colored red.
Rozelin placed her hand over her heart. It raced with a fervor she hadn’t felt in ages, alive in a way nothing else could match.
‘So I really do love him, then.’
Rozelin was seized by a sense of fresh realization.
“Thank you for loving me, Arma.”
As Rozelin slowly lifted her gaze, Arma caught the subtle nuance in her words and looked at her with an anxious expression.
“But there’s still something you want to do, isn’t there?”
“…Rozelin?”
“When I said I wished for you to be happy—I meant that sincerely.”
She smiled brightly.
This smile was beautiful, but it was not one Arma liked to see.
Because this smile only appeared on her face when she was about to wound someone—or preparing to.
“Roze…”
“But if the question is whether I can forgive the fact that you deceived me and abandoned me… then no. I cannot.”
“…”
Rozelin understood Arma’s situation.
Understanding it, she could accept it to some degree.
Still, whether to forgive him or not was another matter entirely. All those years spent carrying guilt—wasn’t that a waste?
“Of course, I’m not saying this to the Arma of now. But you have things you need to do as well.”
She touched her lips—still warm from their kiss, still soft to the touch of her fingertips—and spoke.
“I have things I need to do too.”
Rozelin spoke with quiet resolve.
“So it’s fine if you go.”
At her permission, Arma went rigid.
He smiled awkwardly with his gentle expression before slowly his face hardened, and he rubbed it with his palms.
“That’s cruel, Rozelin.”
After a long moment, he finally curved his lips into a smile and spoke slowly.
“You let me kiss you and then you do this?”
“I wanted to try it. I’d never done it before.”
“……You’d never done it before?”
Arma’s eyes widened.
As he asked in apparent bewilderment, Rozelin nodded matter-of-factly.
“No.”
“……Wait, could it be that you were actually a certain way on that side?”
“It’s not that there was a problem with the physical functions themselves.”
To his serious question, Rozelin shook her head.
As her vision grew increasingly blurred, she absently rubbed the back of her own neck.
“So I’d appreciate your cooperation with the Engagement Annulment. If you would.”
Honestly, dying after breaking the engagement was better than the rumor that he had a deceased betrothed.
“You want to be free, don’t you? You don’t want to be bound by duty and you want to escape.”
……
To Rozelin’s matter-of-fact words, Arma slowly shook his head.
……
Because even the voice reaching her ears was blurred, she simply watched Arma without speaking.
‘I should go inside and sleep soon.’
A signal was coming that anything more would be too much.
“If I were to say……that I won’t run away.”
At his clearer voice, Rozelin’s brow furrowed.
“Run away from what?”
“From the duties and obligations I have to bear.”
“Why?”
“If I do that, will you not abandon me? Or……will you not tell me to leave?”
Arma stepped closer and carefully took Rozelin’s hand.
Rozelin let out a soft laugh.
“I……”
She laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
“I’m going.”
“I’ll wait. If you must go, I can simply wait for Rozelin to come back.”
In that moment, her vision swayed.
‘No, am I the one swaying?’
Arma, alarmed, reflexively pulled Rozelin into his embrace.
“Rozelin……?”
He looked down at her, startled.
‘……It’s so warm.’
He’d noticed since earlier that their joined hands and lips felt warm, but he’d thought it was simply her body temperature rising.
‘……Damn fool.’
Having failed to notice Rozelin’s condition, he cursed himself.
“……How long will you wait? Just……”
Rozelin, murmuring softly with half-closed eyes, lost consciousness.
‘I’d heard her body was frail, but not to this degree.’
Arma lifted Rozelin into his arms.
“As long as it takes.”
He hurried his steps toward the Duke’s Estate and spoke.
“By the time you return, I’ll be Emperor.”
What was the point if he didn’t have the highest seat, the most precious place, waiting for her?
Arma dashed into the Duke’s Estate, his mind racing.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————