The Villain Who Will Kill Me Is Too Handsome, It's Troublesome - Chapter 44

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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 44.
Kirien, who had been helping Bailey gather food for a quick meal in the dining room, dropped a dish. He returned to the parlor with a vacant expression on his face.
“Surely you’re not… you’re not actually going to send a proposal to Artiela?”
He stammered the question at Bleo, barely managing the words.
“He hasn’t said anything outright, but looking at the meeting notes from earlier……”
Bleo had just finished reviewing Kirien and Peter’s exchange through the meeting notes he’d received from an attendant.
“My, I didn’t think he was like that.”
Lillian shook her head, and Bleo mirrored the gesture.
“You must have misread the situation, Mother.”
“Is that so?”
“What happened to Artiela’s arm—it might not have been the Source of Evil, but rather His Highness——”
Bleo clamped his mouth shut in a hurry.
At the same moment, his siblings’ terrifying stares and his father’s sigh all came into view.
“The Source of Evil? Surely not——”
Lillian’s gaze swept across her family.
The look never quite reached Kirien, yet he was already lowering his head.
“My deepest apologies, Mother.”
He’d already offered one.
“I beg your pardon? Why would the Duke apologize?”
A question mark appeared in Mother’s bewildered eyes.
But soon her pupils began to move slowly, sweeping across the room with methodical precision.
She was putting the pieces together.
And soon she would reach her conclusion.
“Could it be that the Duke, our daughter’s… enemy? The Source of Evil?”
“Not yet, Mother.”
“I’ve already struck it down. We’re safe for now.”
“There are still many differences from that cruel one in history. It’s holding its ground without compromising with me.”
“Ah, so after a fierce battle, my daughter’s arm ended up like this——”
Lillian’s pupils trembled violently. The kind, gracious lady who had been gentle with Kirien was about to vanish.
Her upper body, which had been moving toward him, suddenly lurched backward. The scroll Mother was searching for in her bosom looked suspiciously like a summoning circle for assassins.
“Uh, Mother?”
“Mother? We need to think about this rationally.”
“Mother, please restrain yourself. Summoning a band of wizard assassins to Edelion would be heresy.”
“Lillian, dear, compose yourself.”
But Mother drew out the scroll nonetheless and infused it with mana, tearing it open.
“Mother!”
Kirien shut his eyes tightly.
It was the face of one resigned to his fate. Or perhaps wracked with guilt.
“Ah, I’m sorry, Duke. But my daughter is far more precious to me.”
Along with Lillian’s cold voice, magical force poured forth from the scroll toward Kirien. Yet nothing seemed to happen.
“It’s the Oath Magic Circle.”
“Pardon?”
“Repeat after me.”
“Ah, yes.”
“I, Kirien Rupel,——”
“I, Kirien Rupel,——”
“shall protect Artiela Solti with all my soul.”
……
“You won’t do it?”
“I shall protect Artiela Solti with all my soul.”
Lillian completed the magic circle with a gesture of her fingers.
“There. It’s done.”
“I’m sorry? Is that truly all it takes?”
“Of course. It’s a kind of oath-binding. I did the same when my husband proposed to me.”
As Lillian explained, the Solti Count pressed his brow and shook his head slowly. It seemed to be a fond memory; his mouth corners were turned upward.
“Th-thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. You’ll die if you break that oath.”
“Ah, yes, yes?”
“For my daughter’s sake, you can manage that much, can’t you?”
Lillian took Kirien’s hand as she spoke.
“You said I might be Bertia’s son, didn’t you? Just as she loved the Duke enough to stake her life on his birth, I love my children. So feel free to call me selfish. I could make reparations if you demanded them, but I cannot break this Oath Magic Circle.”
“No, I understand. Of course I’ll keep this oath as well.”
“Thank you. After all, handsome people really do have open hearts, don’t they?”
Lillian laughed with genuine warmth.
‘Is this really all right?’
Artiela sent a signal toward Yusiel.
‘Well, it’s not bad for you.’
‘But still, if the Source of Evil ends up taking over the Duke’s body…’
‘We die together.’
A terrifying mother. But knowing her heart so well, Artiela felt tears threatening to spill over as she wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist.
Even after moving out and becoming independent, she was still being protected by her mother. The gratitude of it made the tears fall harder.
“My daughter inherited my nature, so why does she always pick the most troublesome men? I keep telling her—never choose by looks alone.”
At this sudden criticism, her father coughed repeatedly in embarrassment.
Still, Kirien didn’t appear upset, which was fortunate. He was watching the members of the Solti Count House with envious eyes.
Or rather, he was laughing along with them.
As if he’d stepped into a family portrait.
* * *
“What news of Artiela?”
After all the priests had departed, Peter received Percell’s report in his study.
“She has awakened safely, though she still cannot grip the Bardo with her right hand.”
“Has she lost her Holy Sword Qualification?”
“No, not at all. I hear she’s been training the Holy Paladins with her left hand as if to prove a point.”
Peter’s quill drew in toward the inkwell.
“Impressive.”
“The guards should take note. Such resolve—it commands more respect than any knight I know.”
Percell offered the praise sincerely.
Usually his lord grew pleased whenever Artiela received such compliments, but now his mood seemed to have darkened.
“Are the preparations complete to announce the Marriage Prohibition Edict tomorrow?”
“Y-yes, but are you certain? The nobles seemed ready to resist, saying it’s something only done in uncivilized countries on the Eastern Continent.”
Peter appeared deaf to Percell’s caution, absorbed entirely in signing the documents that had been brought before him.
“And they all seem to have guessed which woman has caught Your Majesty’s attention.”
At that, Peter could not help but react.
“How do you intend to appease Edelion’s objections?”
It was tantamount to threatening the Solti Count House that if they did not present a Holy Paladin as Empress, they would face charges of treason.
And he had left the door open deliberately so they would hear it.
“That was only if Artiela remained a Holy Paladin.”
“Y-Your Majesty?”
What could he be thinking?
“But since nothing serious has occurred, all should be well. The nobles aren’t fools—they’ll select another young lady from among the houses and recommend her to me.”
Now the Emperor’s judgment seemed sound once more.
Was that just a final, desperate gambit?
“So don’t worry yourself. Starting tomorrow, be ready to examine the candidates the nobles bring forward.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. When shall we schedule the visit to Edelion?”
“…Frankly, I don’t want to go. If I do, Artiela will be there…”
Percell nodded in understanding.
Indeed, how could the sting of rejection fade in an instant?
Besides, after today’s shameful conduct—both as Emperor and as a man—it would be unbearable to face her soon.
“Then I shall ask the Saint to come here instead.”
“Yes, do that.”
After Percell left, Peter exhaled heavily.
Now, truly, it was time to give up.
His final attempt had failed, and it had taken precisely the form she would despise most.
‘If I can’t have you, I’ll destroy you’—was that it?
Peter picked up his quill, its tip dark with ink.
He had no shame left to accept help from Edelion. He would have to overcome this through his own strength alone.
The quill moved rapidly through the air.
The pain radiating from the back of his hand drowned out everything else.
* * *
The next day, Artiela mounted her horse.
Behind her, Kirien clung to her carefully.
“I’ll be back soon.”
“Be careful out there.”
“Freil will be waiting when you arrive.”
The Holy Paladins and Yusiel were not the only ones to see them off—the priests came as well.
“But Saint, are you certain it’s all right to send just the two of them?”
The priests were still uneasy, as they always were—conservative to a fault.
“Really, now. A man and a woman shouldn’t be so close, clinging to each other like that.”
Artiela flicked her ear dismissively at the priests, her tone light and cutting.
“Indeed. If I’d found the Goddess’s Tears sooner, I wouldn’t have to endure this either.”
“Hmm.”
Having silenced the priests, Artiela turned to Kirien.
“Duke, shall we depart now?”
But he stood there looking displeased, not reaching for her waist—instead gripping the hem of her robe tightly, as if terrified of the dizzying height beneath them.
“I have a suggestion.”
“What is it?”
“How much longer do you intend to address me that way?”
A chorus of whistles drifted up from the Holy Paladins below.

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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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