The Male Lead Has Gone Mad Over the Troublesome Villainess - Chapter 21

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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 021
Yet Kael showed not a flicker of disturbance. The command staff of the Expedition assembled swiftly, and he positioned me at his side before asking,
“Which direction?”
“Northeast, Your Highness.”
“Move the front line as far from the camp as possible. We depart immediately.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The knights moved with practiced speed, as though they’d been waiting for precisely such an order. Kael had lifted himself halfway into the saddle when he turned back to me, his gaze darkening.
“…Are you certain this time as well?”
His voice sat low and heavy, as though he carried an entire burden of burdens upon his shoulders.
“…Pardon?”
“You said you would return. Do you still believe that now?”
I smiled at those words.
Of course I do, my male lead.
Kael does not lose. Not in this battle, nor in any that come after. And so I can dream of a future at his side.
As a reader who has witnessed his efforts, his best, and his countless choices—and as one who has always supported him. He has never made a wrong decision.
I answered him in a gentle voice. If he needs certainty, then I will give it to him.
“Yes, Your Highness. A year from now, at this very time, I’ll be drinking coffee at a coffeehouse, deciding where to invest next. Perhaps I’ll even be contemplating matters of the heart. We will return—I promise you that.”
Kael asked with eyes that wavered. In the original work too, he doubted himself endlessly, again and again.
“How can you be so certain?”
“Because Your Highness will make it so.”
I smiled brightly and clenched my fist.
If what he needs is encouragement, then I’ll give him as much as he requires.
“So please, Your Highness—be strong!”
After studying me for a long moment, Kael’s lips softened into a smile. He extended his hand toward me—a broad palm hardened by calluses, outstretched and steady.
He asked quietly,
“Will you come with me?”
It was a simple question, yet I found myself without words. No one here had expected me to fight, after all. What he was truly asking was whether I would ride with him.
My heart quickened, and warmth flooded through my veins. It meant he saw me differently now.
No longer was I merely a spoiled noblewoman whose presence only caused trouble. I nodded and took his hand.
With a single powerful motion, Kael pulled me up.
“Oh!”
I nearly cried out at the sheer force of it, but caught myself and held my breath instead. I felt his laugh vibrate against my back.
How long had it been since I felt body heat this close? I pushed away the thought and glanced at his hands gripping the reins—strong, scarred, hardened by years of labor. Kael pulled the reins taut with me secure against him.
“Forward.”
As he spoke those words in his steady tone, the horse lurched into motion.
It was time to test the Short Blades gathered in Rainford and the fruits of my careful training.
I felt each blade in my bodice one by one, my fingertips tracing their edges.
I asked myself,
Are you ready, Rosana?
And I answered,
Of course.
This was not a march toward death. It was merely the first step toward return. And so I felt no fear—not when Kael’s heartbeat burned so warmly against my back.
* * *
It had been so long since I’d seen true combat. The sensation enveloping my entire body made my heartbeat quicken.
We’d sent the horses back to camp. A vast presence moved through the barren forest, drawing closer by the moment. Beside me, Kael—who had been lying in ambush—raised his hand.
The easiest way to kill a Ground Spider is to shatter its brain. For that, mounting the creature was ideal. Which is why we now crouched together in the branches above.
My palms, gripping the rough bark, had begun to sweat. How long had it been since I’d held my breath in such a high place, waiting?
Senses from my past life stirred awake one by one. Silence the breath, relax the muscles, rely only on hearing to read the darkness. My body remembered what I had been.
“Shh.”
Kael placed one long finger against my lips from beside me. I stilled my breathing at the signal.
Tap-tap-tap.
The sound of massive spider legs striking earth drew ever nearer.
Wow.
There it is.
I swallowed hard. I had never seen a spider of such size in my life. The eight eyes of this colossal arachnid Magical Beast—a creature that fed on humans to grow—gleamed crimson even in the darkness. Its body, thick with dark-red fur, exuded a sickly, metallic stench.
Just as Lilia had warned, there were fourteen of the massive ones…but one was missing. Beyond them, countless smaller spiders swarmed.
Moonlight scattered across a black tide. Hundreds of eyes blazed red as they surged forward. Time seemed to freeze. Or perhaps it was my breath that had stopped. My heart hammered like madness.
Facing them directly for the first time was far more horrifying than I’d imagined. Nausea rose in my throat. The characters in novels fought such things countless times and emerged victorious. Only now, standing before them, did I grasp how precious those victories truly were.
When I read them as words on a page, they were merely “colossal arachnid Magical Beasts.” To face them in reality was to feel how sanitized that language truly was. To hold steady before such a thing was to understand how much crueler reality was than any text.
I watched Kael raise his hand, drew a Short Blade from my bodice, and gripped it tight. My fingers trembled with tension.
Kael turned his head to look at me.
In the silence where even our breathing had ceased, our eyes met. His lips moved soundlessly.
‘If you’re afraid.’
If I’m afraid?
I waited to hear what Kael would say next. He moved his lips slowly.
‘Then run. No one will blame you for it.’
Kael added one final thing.
‘I will guard your back.’
At those words—my grip loosened. The tension drained away.
Fool, Rosana. Kael was here. The savior of this world. He would never be defeated, and he would inevitably seize victory.
He was the symbol of triumph, an eternal beacon of hope that could never be extinguished.
I had come here of my own will and stood at his side. I could not allow myself to become a burden that held him back.
You’re going to win, Rosana.
True, this was my first time facing a Demon Beast. But the ones I would encounter ahead would be stronger, more terrible. The nightmares waiting for me here would be far worse than this.
If I retreat now, I will never move forward.
I’ll be consumed by fear.
That was not who I was. I wanted to overcome them. I wanted to drive my blade through their throats. The Expedition still had many children who needed protection. For their sake, I had to grow stronger.
‘I’m not running away.’
Besides, if I fled and left the protagonist to face this hell alone, I’d never sleep another night. He was the only hope in this nightmare.
I smiled at Kael.
‘I will guard Your Highness’s back.’
Kael closed his mouth and fixed his gaze on me.
If he became a lamp to illuminate the path the Expedition walks, then I would be the shield that protects him. If he were a butterfly, I would be the umbrella above his head—so that his light might burn all the brighter.
‘Where Your Highness walks is where I walk. If you are here, then I am here too.’

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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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