The Male Lead Has Gone Mad Over the Troublesome Villainess - Chapter 3

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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 Over the Villainess — Episode 3
Luisa was a haughty maidservant who attended to the youngest daughter of the Ardena Family.
Seriel had taken a particular dislike to her own sister.
‘That ugly wretch. Skin and bones, nothing else! It’s because of her that Father drags me around even more! I can’t stand the sight of her.’
Today, as always, Luisa had spent the afternoon placating Seriel’s tantrums before being sent on this errand.
‘She hates chicken most of all. As if she has such refined tastes. I heard she choked badly on it once, ages ago. This is the perfect chance to teach her a proper lesson.’
So Luisa had boiled the chicken she despised without any seasoning at all, taking special care to let the gamey smell rise thick and pungent. At this, Rosana surely wouldn’t touch a bite. Just like always.
Every time Rosana was locked away in the Attic, Luisa had starved her this way.
Hoping for praise from Seriel, Luisa opened the Attic door.
“Time for your meal, my lady.”
As she spoke, she swept the room with a contemptuous gaze. But strangely, the woman was nowhere to be seen.
“My lady?”
“Oh, just leave it there.”
Luisa’s eyes dropped toward the voice coming from below. Rosana lay sprawled on the floor, doing something.
“What on earth are you doing!”
Stretched out on the floor like that, with no concern whatsoever for her dignity as a noblewoman.
Rosana glanced at Luisa, whose face had twisted with alarm, and let out a sigh. She wobbled to her feet, performed a light stretch, and muttered to herself.
“Trembling over something this simple. Where did all my beautiful muscles go.”
“Lady Rosana!”
“I’m in the middle of my work, so stop fussing and get out.”
Rosana waved her hand dismissively.
Luisa’s lip jutted out in a pout—she had never been spoken to like this before. But the moment Rosana spotted the food on the table, she straightened up eagerly, as if she’d been waiting for this all along.
“I’ve prepared this especially for you, my lady. Please don’t leave any. Lady Seriel specifically asked me to see to it.”
“That’s wonderful! I was just wondering how I’d get my protein in!”
“…I beg your pardon?”
Luisa stared at Rosana in utter bewilderment. The woman tore into the chicken like a famished predator. The way she expertly stripped the meat with both hands was utterly shameless. Was this really Rosana?
“This is fantastic. The chicken is perfectly boiled—the meat just falls off the bone. From now on, prepare it like this every time. Keep it plain, no seasoning whatsoever.”
“…Are you truly eating that?”
“What.”
Rosana pointed a chicken bone at Luisa like a weapon.
Rosana’s sharp eyes gleamed and flashed. Somehow, that bone looked exactly like a blade. Though it couldn’t possibly be.
It was the moment Luisa found herself instinctively backing away.
“Do you want some too? Then just say so. Should I save you a piece?”
The unexpected, artless question left Luisa’s mouth hanging open.
Luisa swallowed hard.
Watching Rosana savage her food with primal hunger, Luisa decided to revise her plan. It seemed Rosana had revised hers as well.
* * *
“Hmm.”
She examined the bowl, tilting her head. She stirred through the towering pile of chicken pieces.
“It’s all Chicken Breast?”
The maidservant who’d brought the food lifted her chin arrogantly. She twisted her lip into a sneer and spoke.
“You must think of your health, my lady. If you gain too much weight, it won’t be good for you. This is all for your wellbeing, so I’m sure you understand……”
“Excellent. Keep bringing it like this from now on. No seasoning, cooked to exactly this tenderness, and plenty of Chicken Breast.”
The maidservant’s face soured at my words.
“L-like this? Continuously?”
“Yes. Like this from now on.”
I understood well enough why she was reacting that way. Originally, Rosana had once choked badly on dry Chicken Breast and suffered for two days afterward. Since then, she’d despised anything chicken. She often complained of difficulty breathing whenever she was locked away and given it to eat. It seemed they were trying to torment me with nothing but chicken.
But for someone like me, who needed to build leg muscle, it was the perfect food.
And Chicken Breast, no less?
Pure protein incarnate. It was what I’d lived on when I was seriously building muscle before. So I was used to it. Besides… this was a meal plan that someone else was preparing for me. Not something I had to buy myself. Was this place some kind of exercise paradise?
Sure, the lack of equipment was a shame, but to have an environment where I could do nothing but train all day long, locked in? I was managing my Aerobic Exercise with things like jumping in place.
Truly the best!
My lips twitched.
The maidservant, who had been watching me shake my fist in frustration, fled the room. I stretched luxuriously.
“Now, what kind of training should I do? Leg Press? Or Stretching? Aerobic Exercise?”
After just one day of training, every muscle in my body was crying out. Yet that pain was a hopeful sign. My dormant muscles were waking up again. After all, muscle soreness is best worked through with more exercise.
My will burned brightly.
* * *
Meanwhile, in the Imperial Palace Conference Hall of the Grada Empire.

Kael fixed Duke Ardena with a cold stare. The duke’s sharp chin was tilted upward, his eyes gleaming with base intent.
Kael disliked Rosana, but he despised her father, Duke Ardena, far more.
“Say it again, Duke Ardena. Who exactly are you sending on this Expedition?”
“Rosana volunteered, Your Highness.”
“Hmph.”
Kael recalled his former fiancée—sharp-tongued and neurotic. She was a woman who recoiled at even the slightest smudge on her skin. Beyond that, she despised rubbing shoulders with common folk. A creature of pure self-interest. And this woman had volunteered for an Expedition to save the world?
Even remembering the two months he’d spent as her betrothed—a coercion imposed by the duke and emperor alike—he knew she was no such person.
‘They’re trying to saddle me with dead weight.’
Kael swept his cold gaze across the conference hall. Every face turned away from his, every throat clearing with nervous coughs. They were all thinking the same thing.
Even in this crisis, every noble house kept their precious heirs locked away, while pushing forward only their collateral branches, their second daughters, their second sons—those deemed expendable by their own families.
‘Noblesse Oblige? The spirit of the aristocracy has rotted through and died.’
They dumped salvation and hardship alike onto others’ shoulders while scheming to harvest the fruits for themselves from the safety of the rear.
And the Ardena Family stood foremost among them.
Could that skeletal woman even lift a blade? More blood would be spilled protecting the life of the precious Ardena princess than she could ever shed.
Kirdel, the eldest son of Ardena, was the only one from that house worth sending on such an Expedition. But they would sooner die than surrender him.
Kael ran a rough hand through his hair.
Could this Expedition possibly succeed?
When he turned his gaze to the Emperor, the answer became even clearer—none at all. Those murky eyes swam with greed. He’d already bled the nobles dry with his extortions. The Emperor was the first to lose his mind when the Empire began its collapse. He’d been useless before; now he was no better than garbage.
The Emperor was doing everything within his power to evade the situation.
He’d surrendered himself to decadence.
There was no hope in the Emperor. The world was steadily becoming a wasteland. And the Empress—even now she was pressuring Kael with her resolve to enthrone her eight-year-old son as the next emperor.
Kael let out a bitter laugh.
Even if noble blood and lives were spent to save the Empire, it would be those parasites who reaped the rewards. Disillusionment flooded through him.
Was there anything here truly worth saving?
Perhaps the power granted to him was never meant for salvation at all.
Kael’s laugh turned to mockery. What cursed him most was his own inability to turn away from the Empire’s people, who clawed and fought to survive even in this collapse.
‘Damned fool.’
Kael swallowed the curse between his teeth.
“If you’re going to play these games, you’ll pay the proper price for it. I expect assured support for supplies.”
“Your Highness, surely—games, you say?”
“My blade does not discriminate between opponents.”
Kael’s voice dropped to a quiet edge. He was restraining himself only to avoid compounding the chaos.
“Produce either the coin or someone of actual use. Choose one of the two.”
Kael leveled a sharp warning. Revulsion welled up again at the thought of facing Ardena’s precious princess. His stomach churned.
‘I will not eat any dish containing low-grade poultry.’
The image of that pale-faced woman dabbing her lips with disgust surfaced in his mind.
‘I cannot bear these squalid, airless spaces. Let us go elsewhere.’
He remembered her intolerance of even minor discomfort. Kael swallowed his rage and squeezed his eyes shut.

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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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