The Male Lead Has Gone Mad Over the Troublesome Villainess - Chapter 47

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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 a Troublesome Villainess — Episode 47
The day after returning from the black market, a meeting was convened. If you could call it that—it was just the advisors and Halde in attendance.
Halde was there in his capacity as guide.
Kael asked him directly.
“I’d like to hear your thoughts on this.”
Halde, visibly weighed down by the atmosphere, let out a crooked smile. Then he cleared his throat several times before speaking.
“It would be wise to enter the mansion with only a small group. The route itself isn’t long, but if too many move at once, they’ll notice us.”
Halde continued in a grave tone.
“Then it’s me and four knights. We go in that way.”
“That won’t do, Your Highness.”
Halde pushed back firmly, then scratched his head vigorously.
“You can’t even enter the mansion with only knights. I’ve heard that the door to the High Priest’s Mansion won’t open without a woman.”
Sensing the uncomfortable mood, Halde hesitated before continuing.
Kael’s expression twisted.
“Which is why you absolutely must bring both Princess Rosana and this female knight Seraphine.”
“Both of them?”
“Yes. And you mustn’t ignore that Kalad specifically mentioned the High Priest’s preference in women either. If he’s still alive, we could turn that inclination against him.”
“How disgusting.”
Millers muttered.
“For one who would be a High Priest.”
“If the High Priest is still in there, the likelihood that he’ll show interest in women is high.”
“You’re saying he might not open the door?”
“Yes. The mansion is enchanted with Magic. I’ve heard the door itself won’t open unless a woman is present.”
At Halde’s words, Millers let out a hollow laugh.
“What kind of place is this, anyway?”
Halde exhaled a long breath.
“You must choose the day before the Full Moon rises to enter the mansion. Between one o’clock and eight o’clock in the afternoon is comparatively safe, or so I was told. Especially—you must not go past eight. You must escape before the Full Moon rises high in the sky.”
Kael studied Halde intently. The man possessed information as detailed as any information broker. As if he’d been there himself.
“You came from Gracestone, didn’t you?”
Halde’s body stiffened imperceptibly.
“……Who told you that?”
“Someone who knows you. If you know anything more, you’d better spill it now. If we fall, there’s no one left to fill your pockets.”
Halde shrunk his shoulders slightly. Then, very quietly but distinctly, he added:
“No one truly knows what’s inside that mansion. Everyone who laid eyes on them died, and only Kalad survived.”
……
“I once guided Kalad to that place. But I fled before entering, and he went in alone. That’s how we became enemies. There’s nothing more I can tell you. Kalad kept everything he saw that day locked away.”
There was no deception in Halde’s eyes. He added one more thing.
“Kalad lost his left ear that day in that mansion. That’s all I know.”
After studying Halde for a long while, Kael sighed. Insufficient information and Halde’s counsel—nothing sat right with him, yet he seemed forced to follow the man’s advice regardless. Halde was, after all, loyal to Kael’s purse at the moment. Kael spoke softly.
“Five people. Me, Knight Seraphine, two elite soldiers, and Princess Ardena.”
Kael genuinely did not want to take Rosana there. The thought of exposing her before that depraved High Priest was worse than death itself, but something took priority—securing the Key of the Sanctuary that the High Priest possessed. In the end, he had no choice.
The meeting concluded.
Millers was leaving when he stopped in the doorway.
“Your Highness.”
“Speak.”
“Do you truly trust Halde?”
“No. But what choice do I have?”
Kael leaned back in his chair. A dark shadow lay across his face. His gaze turned toward the house where Rosana was staying. He spoke in a low voice.
“Princess Rosana might actually be pleased about this.”
She was, after all, someone who would risk danger without hesitation.
Kael exhaled. There was nothing about any of this that sat right with him.
* * *
I learned from Millers that I was to accompany them on the journey to the High Priest’s Mansion.
“We depart tomorrow morning.”
I blinked at that news for a moment.
“Am I really going with you? I’m worried I might be a burden.”
The people going with us were renowned simply by their names alone. They were far beyond someone like me. Millers sighed.
“So I’m going as bait, then?”
“Halde insisted strongly. Though there is one thing I can tell you—His Highness didn’t want to take the princess there.”
Something in my chest twisted at those words. Kael had been far too kind to me lately.
Besides, what in the world could be in that mansion? I’ve been dulled by modern civilization and media, yet I genuinely have no idea.
“You don’t wish to go, then?”
“No. It’s better to go, if I’m going at all.”
I need to know what’s there, need to understand what I’m missing, so I can prepare a response. There might be something I’ve overlooked entirely. My unease right now stems from one thing alone.
“There’s too much I don’t know these days.”
Millers looked at me briefly, then let out a short laugh.
“That’s true for all of us, my lady.”
* * *
The appointed day dawned. The five of us passed through the city gates before sunrise. Radan and Cobi were the two elite knights accompanying us.
Halde led us into the forest where the High Priest’s Mansion stood, and spent the entire journey repeating that he would not be entering it himself.
It took half a day’s walk to leave Gloria’s walls behind. Beyond the city, the world was quieter still. What had once been fields remained furrowed, yet nothing grew upon them anymore.
As we continued, the forest’s edge came into view. Beyond a single hill, all below was green—dense with trees so thick we couldn’t see within, their boundary as sharp as a drawn line. The fields ended precisely where the forest began.
Standing before it, I felt something deeply wrong.
It was as though someone had drawn that line deliberately. The alienness of it struck too sharply to ignore.
“Follow this path straight ahead. And I beg you—promise me you’ll emerge before eight o’clock.”
Halde spoke with an ashen face. His gaze upon the forest brimmed with dread.
“According to what I overheard from Kalad, eight o’clock was the hour—when the things dwelling in that mansion wake.”
Halde pressed the matter upon us again and again. It was unlike him. We left him behind and stepped into the forest.
“My lady.”
Seraphine spoke quietly from behind.
“We should be careful. The atmosphere feels decidedly eerie.”
I nodded. The sunless forest loomed around us as if to swallow us whole, and Halde behind us grew steadily smaller.
There’s something in this forest, without question. I felt as though I were seeing the phantom of some vast shadow waiting for us. With each step deeper, that wrongness grew more acute.
Then, at last, an enormous mansion revealed itself. That such a structure could exist hidden here spoke volumes of the High Priest’s wealth. What exactly could he be concealing within?
Perhaps we’d been careless until now. Yet if the High Priest were human, surely he wouldn’t have colluded with demons.
Whatever lurked inside wore the mask of human form. No matter how corrupted within, couldn’t we still find understanding through words?
But all such thoughts proved premature. What dwelt within was a darkness far deeper than we imagined.

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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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