The Male Lead Has Gone Mad Over the Troublesome Villainess - Chapter 54

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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 Lost His Mind to a Villainous Woman — Episode 54
The courtyard had become a battlefield.
Kael stood at its center. They kept emerging from nowhere, a relentless tide. Golden Light spilled from his blade.
Severed torsos split apart and fell to the earth; those behind trampled over the corpses and surged forward.
There was no thought of retreat. Kael ground his teeth and pivoted half a turn, slashing to his left.
That was when it happened.
“Your Highness!”
Kael’s gaze snapped upward. All he could do in this place was trust in Rosana and Seraphine, and wait for them to return safely. And that wait had been answered.
Rosana stood at the rooftop’s edge.
She wore a dress he had never seen before. The hem below her knee was torn, seams split in places, yet beneath the moonlight it caught the eye strangely. Each time wind swept across the roof, her skirt billowed and her dark hair streamed long and wild. Kael’s gaze locked onto her.
Suddenly, a memory surfaced—a tale he’d heard in childhood about beings who once bore wings but fell to earth, never to return to the sky.
The shrine keepers had called it the Fall. He still remembered how the old keeper who told him that story would lower his voice at precisely that point.
Young Kael had thought the tale terrifying.
But he was wrong. The Fall was beautiful enough to blind the eye.
Rosana leaped downward. It was unreal, a rapturous sight—as if an angel were plummeting from grace. The fact that she hurled herself into the void with complete trust shattered something inside him in silence.
The skirt that had swollen in the air collapsed downward. Moonlight blazed upon Rosana with a brilliance that dazzled.
Her appearance was a mess, plainly and simply. And yet she was beautiful.
Without thinking, Kael reached out his arms. Rosana fell straight into his embrace. Her body was lighter than he expected.
Kael staggered back two steps from the impact. But he did not let go of her—he held her fast.
Kael felt, for reasons he could not name, that this moment was complete.
Rosana slowly drew herself away.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
Rosana broke into a grin and bounded down, drawing her sword. Turning back to Kael, she spoke with cheerful vigor.
“Reinforcements have arrived!”
Kael burst into hearty laughter without meaning to. His fallen angel, it seemed, had a taste for battle.
Seraphine descended after her.
She moved along the eaves sideways, shifted to the wall, crouched low, and landed cleanly.
There was no room for hesitation.
“We have the key. Now let’s get out of here.”
At Rosana’s words, Kael nodded. Now that the key was secured, there was no reason to linger.
“Retreat!”
Kael’s order rang out.
* * *
The journey back through the forest was far different from the way in—not for a moment could we lower our guard. The werewolves pursued us with relentless tenacity. They showed no sign of stopping, as if venting the rage born from losing their leader.
It was when we finally reached the Forest Entrance, fighting them off all the way.
“Aaaahhh! Help me!”
Beneath a great tree at the Forest Entrance, Hald was beset by werewolves.
One of his legs was bent at an unnatural angle. He sat with his back against the tree, clutching nothing but a broken branch as he swung it weakly.
“You bastards! Don’t come any closer! I’m warning you!”
“Hald!”
I called his name and ran toward him. I meant to dispatch the nearest one first.
I drove my dagger deep into the exposed flank of that beast and dragged it downward.
“Screech!”
It spat blood and fell. I moved in rapid succession. By the time I’d severed the second one’s throat, Kael and the others had arrived. Seraphine finished off the remaining werewolves.
I dropped to my knees before Hald and examined him.
“Hald!”
“My lady…”
“Is your leg broken?”
Hald gasped for breath. The sight of a grown man weeping, tears and snot pouring down his face, was almost unbearable to witness.
It seemed impossible to treat him here.
I knelt before Hald and extended my hand.
“What are you doing? Grab it, quickly. You want to die here?”
Hald stared at my hand for a moment in a daze, then gripped it tightly. I pulled him to his feet and draped his arm over my shoulder.
“My lady.”
Hald spoke through heaving breaths.
“You can leave me behind.”
“Don’t say things like that before I actually do it.”
Hald said something very quietly, but I heard it anyway.
“…Thank you.”
Kael’s order came down.
“We move. Now.”
The pursuit team was still at our heels, and the forest entrance was nearly within reach.
* * *
We crossed the forest boundary.
Even after that, I ran forward another ten paces, still half-dragging Hald along beside me.
“Gasp. Gasp.”
A sudden wrongness struck me, and I glanced back. They’d stopped. They stood frozen at the Forest Entrance, gnashing their teeth toward us, writhing with frustration.
“Hald.”
“Do you know what’s happening?”
“My lady, if you could possibly release my shoulder—just a bit—I fear my ribs are about to give way.”
“Better that than you falling flat on your face. Your legs must be killing you.”
Hald caught his breath for several moments before he answered.
“The old folk around these parts do speak of such things. For some time now, they say those creatures cannot venture beyond the forest boundary. There’s talk of a Forest Curse. But I had no idea such ghastly things actually existed out here. Calad, that bastard—hiding something like this?”
It was likely the Sacred Relic he’d been after. Since his own attempt had failed, he’d probably hoped someone would escape the Sacred Place and bring the Sacred Key back out for him.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner that they couldn’t cross over?”
“I took it for superstition. There must be a hundred such tales in this region alone.”
I exhaled deeply. At least we’d made it. Those creatures could no longer pursue us, and we had succeeded in obtaining the Sacred Key.
When I looked back, the eastern sky was beginning to brighten.
I sat Hald down on the ground, then doubled over, gasping for air. My entire body ached—there wasn’t a part of me that didn’t hurt. It had been a brutal fight. I must have stumbled without thinking, because Seraphine suddenly rushed toward me.
“My lady!”
“I’m fine. Just my legs—they’ve given out.”
“You’re bleeding, my lady! Please forgive me, but I must lift your skirts.”
“Wait, no—”
I had no chance to stop her. She pulled me down to the ground and lifted my skirt without hesitation.
I saw Radan and Cobi turn their heads sharply away. Hald did the same. Only Kael was staring at me intently, his gaze burning. More precisely, he was staring at my wound. I looked down at it myself.
A long, deep gash ran along the outer side of my left thigh, just above the knee, bleeding freely.
“…When did this happen? I must have caught it during the fighting.”
Seraphine sighed, then tore two long strips from the hem of her dress. She folded one piece and pressed it against the wound, then wrapped the second strip tightly around it, tying it off inside my knee with a knot.
Once she finished the binding, Seraphine spoke quietly.
“You must not strain it for some time.”
“Ow! Gentle, Seraphine!”
As delayed pain came flooding through me and I whimpered shamelessly about it, a shadow fell across my face. Kael was standing over me, his eyes cold as steel as he studied my wound.
“Can you walk?”
He asked the question in a tone that sounded almost angry.
“No need to ask—I’ll tell you it’s fine anyway.”
His gaze turned glacial, and then he scooped me up into his arms without warning. There was no time to object.
No, no, no, no, no—Seraphine is watching!

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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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