The Villain Who Will Kill Me Is Too Handsome, It's Troublesome - Chapter 109

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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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Episode 109.
“What are you doing?”
“A flood. We’re going to trigger a flood.”
Artiela swung her Aura-wreathed blade with fierce determination, trying to breach the dam even slightly.
“You built that dam far higher than the water level, didn’t you?”
At Artiela’s explanation, Kirien examined the dike blocking the waterway again.
It was certainly higher than necessary.
“And I can feel a sinister presence in those storm clouds gathering over there.”
This was no ordinary rain.
If torrential rain poured down all at once? If the dam built here gave way?
The Grain Storage District below would be completely submerged. The Grain Storage District in Rupel Territory was so broad and flat that water wouldn’t drain away easily.
Before it all drained, the wheat would rot to nothing.
“They raised the taxes too.”
Could it be those two were scheming together again?
“Rotten bastards!”
Artiela swung her Bardo in fury. But the magical force anchored to this place was considerable.
“Damn it, who put a shield on the dam?”
“I will help as well.”
“No, Kirien cannot use his Aura.”
The connection to the Source of Evil had been severed, they said, but caution was warranted. She intended to preserve the only clue that could distinguish him.
Fortunately, she had brought Holy Knight Order members with her—their aid would suffice.
“Everyone except Kirien—use both Aura and Holy Power together!”
“Yes, Captain!”
“Kirien, you distribute Holy Power evenly to everyone.”
At Artiela’s command, everyone immediately pooled their strength and began smashing the dam and ground.
Fortunately, the strategy worked.
With a sharp crack, the dam split. As the blockage gave way, water began trickling through.
It couldn’t burst all at once. She had to restore it gradually to its original flow. Artiela carefully regulated the release, opening a channel that ran down into the Basement as well.
The Holy Knight Order members she’d brought scattered with shovels, carving new waterways and building dikes where needed. The vassal lords and territory folk, following her instructions, had already bundled the wheat and secured it against collapse.
Just as they were nearly finished with the preparations, rain suddenly began pouring from the sky—such a torrential downpour that visibility vanished.
“The ominous presence that was in those storm clouds… it’s not in the rain.”
At least that was something to be grateful for.
It seemed the enemy had done all they could in summoning those dark clouds to this place.
Honestly, if she hadn’t discovered the lake beforehand, she would have taken this sudden deluge on parched land for a natural flood.
‘It’s fortunate Kirien heard the sound.’
Kirien was surely sick of those villains by now, but he was a blessing. At least they could anticipate what was coming and prepare.
Artiela, soaked through by the rain, walked the Rupel Territory to ensure nothing was left unattended.
Half a day passed like this.
The rain that had been pouring finally stopped.
Then a rainbow appeared in the sky.
“Ugh, just when I thought—”
She’d thought it was over. It wasn’t.
This time, locusts blanketed the sky.
“What the—”
A curse nearly escaped the lips of this woman of the cloth. She hated bugs, and traumatic memories of her battle against the demon spider sent her Holy Power haywire.
All insects were detestable! Spiders especially!
Every last bug could burn in perdition!
Her Holy Power, nearly equivalent to a Barrier, kept the locusts from even approaching the wheat fields—they crumbled to dust. Though they weren’t magical creatures and fell easily, Artiela poured forth her strength with obsessive, frenzied determination.
In the end, Artiela collapsed from exhaustion.
For the first time in a long while, she fainted spectacularly.
* * *
She woke after sleeping deeply, only to find it was night.
Artiela lay in the Duchess’s chamber within the Rupel Ducal Residence, with Kirien attending to her bedside.
“You’ve awakened?”
At Kirien’s voice, Artiela blinked and surveyed her surroundings. The antiquarian atmosphere of the Ducal Residence felt different from the Imperial Capital residence.
More intimate somehow, and peaceful.
The sort of place she might find herself visiting often.
Artiela pulled at the quilt, then suddenly sat bolt upright.
“Oh, the wheat field—my wheat field is safe, isn’t it?”
Kirien burst into clear, bright laughter.
“Ha, well, thanks to you Artiela’s wheat fields remain unharmed.”
Just then, she caught sight of the maidservant who had come to bring warm water suppressing a smile beside her.
By the fireplace, the Holy Knight Uniform was drying nicely.
Shamefully so.
A clergyman.
Insisting that her betrothed’s land—someone she wasn’t even married to yet—was hers. How had she become such a worldly person?
But she’d already fallen for it.
For the broad sweep of wheat fields in the duchy was so beautiful. The prosperous, peaceful air of this place suited her so well.
She’d even imagined it: after retiring from the Holy Knight Order, walking side by side with Kirien through these sunset-gilded wheat fields in her twilight years.
Embarrassed at the thought, Artiela pulled the blanket up over herself. To hide away.
Kirien tugged it back down and placed a damp cloth on her forehead.
“You’re running a fever.”
“I think I’ve caught a cold.”
“No wonder. You were dashing about even in the rain.”
Despite Kirien’s protests, Artiela had thrown caution aside.
The reason was simple.
She would never allow him to be branded with such a stigma—that he brought misfortune wherever he went. Until now it had been coincidence, but calamities like this were ripe fodder for suspicion, weren’t they?
So she’d thrown herself at prevention all the more desperately.
How could she let him fall back into the hands of the Source of Evil?
“Nothing troublesome has happened since then?”
Kirien smiled silently. The truth was, the next disaster was unfolding in real time.
Crack-crack-crack!
A sound of thunder thundered down. And again, and again.
“Lightning from a cloudless sky.”
“Damn it.”
There was no way to stop this. It wasn’t even easy to have called it forth.
No, more than that—
“The people of the Southern Kingdom are in danger, aren’t they?”
Mages who could control the weather itself through magic. The Imperial Capital’s Black Mage Practitioners had never been of such caliber.
Yet these creatures had been lying dormant all this time?
No—these creatures followed the Source of Evil? That’s far too dangerous.
Artiela peered out the window with weary eyes.
But this time too, it didn’t go on for very long.
Like the rain before, the lightning poured down for roughly half a day, then stopped abruptly all at once. Thankfully, the damage wasn’t severe—only a few large trees and some roofs were destroyed.
“I’ve reported the situation to the Holy Saint.”
He showed her the Communication Device as he spoke.
“They’re targeting Kirien, aren’t they?”
“That would seem to be the case.”
“Still going after Kirien’s body, then.”
Kirien smiled bitterly. The truth was, he had once become one with the Source of Evil.
So he seemed to grasp something of that being’s heart.
Why it had stripped away all the negative emotions from him, making him into a soul that truly shone. He thought he understood how desperately it wanted that.
“I should stay here a few days longer and attend to the Territory.”
“Why?”
He showed her the wine glass beside him.
Her cheeks had flushed red again.
“I heard it. The next calamity will likely be plague.”
Damn it.
That was the disaster the Black Mage Practitioners favored most—a pestilence born from Curses.
At least there was one mercy: the local lord here possessed Holy Power. Plagues conjured by Curses could be purified away quickly enough. So there was no real cause for great alarm.
Only she worried a little that the people of the Territory might panic from the successive calamities.
“If we treat them together, it should end quickly. If we could find the Curse’s conduit, we could solve it even faster, but—”
“No. I don’t think that will work for you.”
“Why not?”
Kirien drew a long breath. Then, drawing Artiela’s shoulders close, he spoke.
“A Conscription Order has arrived.”
They had moved faster than expected. Not the Southern Kingdom—Piter.
“The Emperor himself has decided to subjugate the Southern Kingdom, it seems.”
“What? An Invasion War?”
Piter was blundering again.
The Invasion War won’t allow Edelion’s Holy Knights to mobilize. Still, if he volunteers himself despite that, it’s certainly something to be grateful for.
It gives us a pretext, doesn’t it?
A chance to draw him out naturally?
“If you go ahead first, I’ll join you shortly.”
Artiela flinched at Kirien’s words.
Apart? Us?

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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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