The Male Lead Has Gone Mad Over the Troublesome Villainess - Chapter 18

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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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The Male Lead Has Gone Mad for the Villainess — Episode 18
Kael found himself questioning it again. He stopped the sparring and fixed his gaze on Rosana.
Even when she bit her lip in exertion, even when she grimaced as though the training pressed heavily on her, her expression shone with radiance.
Kael closed his eyes slowly, then opened them.
“I don’t know what I’m looking at anymore. Is she really the noblewoman I knew?”
“I confess the same bewilderment. It seems we may have brought back someone entirely different, Your Highness.”
Kael could not deny that absurd suggestion. The thought had already begun to take root in him—what if it were true?
“Huff, huff! When will I be able to hold a Longsword? I’d like to learn more about it.”
“That won’t be possible today. I believe we need to build your foundation with basic training first. Of course, given the urgency of our situation, we’ll move forward quickly, but I think it’s still too early.”
“Oh… I was looking forward to it!”
Rosana clicked her tongue in disappointment and rubbed her cheek. She looked just like a dejected puppy.
In a manner entirely unlike himself, Kael burst into genuine laughter.
It was as though the frozen gates of his heart, sealed as firmly as an ice castle, had cracked open, and warm sunlight was pouring through. The rigid line of his mouth softened. With his eyes still shut, he laughed with an ease he hadn’t known in years.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed with such comfort.
Or whether he’d ever truly laughed at all.
Or why he was laughing now.
The laughter simply came—as though it had been transmitted to him from Rosana.
Rosana was the sort of person who couldn’t even open a bottle cap for fear of breaking her nails. Whenever she so much as got a chip on a nail or a strand of hair, she would go pale and tremble uncontrollably.
‘Father, I…’
‘What? What are you trying to say? Noble daughter, don’t be so theatrical about this. It’s nothing serious…’
‘No, you don’t understand! My nail just broke! Oh, this won’t do… this won’t do!’
And then she wouldn’t leave the house until her nail or hair had grown back to its former state. That was the sort of person Rosana had been.
“Perhaps… the environment was destroying her all along.”
“You mean to say…?”
Kael’s brow furrowed slightly. The fact that Rosana had joined the Expedition Force in the first place made no sense. If her claim to have volunteered were a lie. If one removed that fundamental premise.
“What manner of man is the Duke?”
“He’s known to be fond of his daughter, or so they say.”
“And so he sent her here?”
“Ah…”
Millers’ eyes widened.
Kael narrowed his gaze, lost in thought. Perhaps the Duke’s House harbored secrets he knew nothing of.
Once the frame that had been imposed upon Rosana was removed, other truths began to reveal themselves. The real Rosana.
* * *
Several days later, in the evening.
Since glimpsing Lilia’s small feet, one thought had not left her mind.
She had to teach these children something.
Among the younger recruits were children adopted into noble houses to replace those who should have gone, and children sent here merely for being powerless members of cadet branches. Thinking of them as children dragged to the battlefield against their own will made her chest tighten with helplessness.
Lilia and the other children were completely defenseless. They were barely ten years old; what difference would handing them a sword truly make?
If the children learned only how to flee, how to hide, and how to buy time, their survival odds would increase substantially. In the original story, it showed Seraphine grieving before the near-total annihilation of the young ones, and Kael undergoing a dark transformation—but was that narrative thread truly necessary?
She decided to try to save even one more life. After the day’s march ended and dinner was finished at the Campsite, she called the children together during the evening hours. Fortunately, since Lilia had shown her favor, they gathered easily.
“Children, we’re going to play something fun starting today.”
Right after supper, she gathered eleven children, Lilia at their head, into the Clearing. Each one eyed her warily, yet their faces were alight with curiosity. Lilia stood in the front row, her eyes gleaming.
“Sister, what kind of game?”
“Are we playing with dolls? Playing house? Then I want to be the mother!”
“No, nothing like that. Hide-and-Seek.”
“Yaaaay! Hide-and-Seek!”
As the children cheered, she felt the eyes of the others on them. She was drawing on every memory from her past life—the Camouflage and Alert Technique drilled into her at training camp, which she would now dismantle and rebuild for ten-year-olds to understand. Well, that was her own version of Hide-and-Seek, after all.
From her pocket she drew a length of cord and several bells. They were cheap bells bought at Market Street, but they would serve her purpose perfectly.
She tied the cord low between two trees and hung the bells from it.
“Now, what do you think will happen if someone touches this cord?”
“Jingle-jingle!”
The smallest boy shouted with excitement. The loose shoes on his feet were at least twice the size of his own feet—clearly cast-offs from someone else.
“That’s right! It’ll make a sound, won’t it? The game is to run away without making any sound! I’m going to be the monster. What will I be?”
“A monster!”
“And what happens if the monster catches you?”
“Oh no, it’ll eat you up!”
“Exactly. So you have to run away carefully without the monster finding you. Can you do that?”
“We can!”
“Then shall we tie the cord first?”
The children came swarming over, hands raised, all wanting to have a turn. They squabbled good-naturedly over who would go first, and she couldn’t help but smile. Even in this desolate reality, the laughter of children remained crystalline and pure. And there, among them, Lilia laughed brightly.
I paired the children two by two and scattered them across the Clearing. Lilia found herself matched with a sharp-eyed girl whose hair was tied back in two neat bunches.
The children erupted in bright laughter. One stumbled as they scattered, but grinned widely and scratched the back of her head as she ran.
“All set!”
“Then let’s begin!”
The children began to slip away cautiously between the traps we’d arranged, moving with care rather than speed. With my eyes closed, I could hear their muffled giggles and the soft rustle of their passage through the Clearing.
They truly believed this was nothing but a game. But I knew better—I believed this practice might save their lives when it mattered most.
And perhaps in that crucial moment, they would survive, would live to see the light alongside me. I wanted nothing more than for every one of them to make it through.
The next day we tried something different. The children would tire of the same game if we repeated it endlessly. If they’d learned to flee, they needed to learn to hide as well. They gathered before me, their eyes bright with anticipation.
“Today, we’re playing the Hiding Game.”
“Ohhhhh!”
I lined them up at one edge of the Clearing and explained the rules. I would be the seeker. They had to hide their bodies within the designated area, and if they reached the opposite tree without being caught, they won.
“What if we get caught?”
“Then I’ll tickle you senseless!”
“Kyaaaah!”
The children burst into fresh peals of laughter.
“But the winners get a special prize.”
I drew out a pouch from inside my coat and showed them the Dried Fruit. Their eyes lit up at once. Lilia was already licking her lips. It was exactly the sort of treat children craved.
“Go!”
At my signal, they scattered in a rush—behind trees, between shrubs, beneath the supply cart. They’d tried their best to find clever hiding spots, but nearly every one had a sleeve or a shoe tip jutting out from the side of their hiding place.
I pretended not to notice as I passed. No Monster would be careless enough to miss something so obvious. And yet each time I drew near, I could swear I heard the rapid thud of those small hearts racing with fear and excitement.

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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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