The Villain Who Will Kill Me Is Too Handsome, It's Troublesome - Chapter 48

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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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Chapter 48.
The man with streaks of white in his hair couldn’t even meet Kirien’s eyes. His body seemed beyond his control, seized by an instinctive terror like that which gripped the young ladies he’d seen at the Temple.
“P-please, spare me!”
Kirien simply stared at him.
Unlike the seething aura around him, he seemed to feel nothing toward his opponent at all.
“I was wrong about everything. I shouldn’t have driven you away, shouldn’t have struck you across the face while calling you a thief, shouldn’t have locked you away saying you brought misfortune.”
Artiella’s ears twitched.
This madman—was he confessing to child abuse? Yet Kirien remained unmoved.
‘Is he restraining his anger?’
Does he know what catastrophe his malice could unleash?
That was probably why the seething aura dared not rampage. But emotions weren’t meant to be controlled at will, were they?
Even knowing what might happen if he lost control, Kirien hadn’t avoided this meeting with the Orphanage Director from the start. Whether he had confidence in controlling his emotions, or had simply lost the memories from that time—she couldn’t say.
“It’s been a while, Director.”
The moment Kirien opened his mouth, the man trembled harder and urinated where he stood.
“No—you’ve come to kill me this time!”
“This time?”
Artiella regarded Kirien with suspicion at the word choice. But Kirien shook his head.
“I haven’t seen him since entering the Duke’s Household.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. And while he may have disliked me out of spite, I don’t think he was actually afraid of me back then.”
Kirien’s brow narrowed slightly. As the memory surfaced, he did seem to feel a measure of displeasure.
With his power now, he could easily take revenge on anyone.
But true to his noble soul, he called to the Director with a gentle, forgiving expression.
“Director.”
Rather than erupting outward, the seething aura formed a halo around Kirien’s face—as though he were a saint descended to earth.
The old Director, seeing this, trembled afresh and cried out.
“I—I told you I don’t know! There was no such thing among the Legacy Items I sold!”
Artiella’s eyebrows shot up.
Could it be—
“Listen, you. Have you seen Kirien recently?”
The man nodded frantically.
“It wasn’t me.”
Kirien naturally denied it.
“Hmm, so he needs it too, then.”
The Source of Evil was after the Goddess’s Tears as well. How irritating.
“When did he come?”
“Y-yesterday evening…”
The timing was curious though. After all this time, he suddenly takes an interest? He’d never bothered searching before.
“Is the Source of Evil watching us?”
The Temple wasn’t filled solely with righteous people, after all. It could certainly cling to those harboring wicked hearts.
Artiella’s brow furrowed.
“So who did you sell the rest of the Legacy Items to?”
“I—I don’t know. I just sold them to some wealthy collector, and I heard that eventually a person of importance bought them. They said they use them like Talismans.”
The Director didn’t know, but there seemed to be Sacred Objects mixed in there as well.
“Who is this collector you speak of?”
“In—in the Hometown Village. The merchant guild leader there.”
“Very well. Thank you for the information.”
At least she’d found a thread to pull.
* * *
The cleanup took a bit longer.
As it turned out, those brigands were problem youth from the Neighboring Village. They were the ones who’d been extorting Protection Tax from the market, or so they said.
The ringleader apparently decided that with many wealthy nobles frequenting the Inn, they should ambush people on the roads for money. But since the nobles rarely came through, they’d shifted their target to robbing the Inn itself instead.
“The Source of Evil must have latched onto the ringleader. Suddenly he displayed superhuman strength and subdued all the Inn’s guards and staff single-handedly. His eyes were completely rolled back.”
And once a human tainted by the Source of Evil had exhausted their usefulness, they were simply discarded.
The ringleader was found at the Lakeside, a drowned corpse with no external injuries.
“To the Orphanage Director’s eyes, that person could only have been Kirien.”
“So that’s why he was trembling.”
“Yes. An ordinary human would find it nearly unbearable—the Killing Intent and malice pouring forth from Kirien’s beautiful face.”
A short laugh escaped her.
Kirien picked up his water glass with a grin. The next moment, his expression shifted to one of uncertainty whether he should actually drink it.
“I didn’t hear anything this time.”
The Orphanage Director was still recovering and not quite himself, but thankfully the staff were unharmed. They were conscientious people, and they regarded Kirien and Artiella as their saviors.
As a result, the two were receiving excellent treatment.
“We’ve recovered the room fee.”
Artiella had asked the guard unit to retrieve the money those thugs had stolen.
“And tonight’s room is free.”
This was what made her happiest.
“It’s because we’re deducting the Holy Knights’ wages, you know? You should save your coin.”
“…….”
“Well, if you wanted to spend the leftover money from the Rupel Family, I wouldn’t stop you, but wouldn’t it be better to use it for something more meaningful?”
A donation to the Temple, for instance.
At Artiella’s scolding, Kirien finally couldn’t hold back his laughter and burst out again.
“Hah, hah, hah.”
Watching him, my heart felt strange.
Whether this was truly fine, or just an act of being fine. As I searched his face with worried eyes, Kirien spoke first.
“Seeing the Orphanage Director in that dark underground brought back my childhood memories completely.”
“But you seemed so unbothered about it? You forgave so easily. Looking at his face, you weren’t even angry? If it were me, now that I’m stronger and taller, I’d want revenge.”
“I’m not sure.”
“Maybe it’s just numbed from so long ago?”
“I think it’s more because of the Source of Evil.”
All the anger and resentment had already been vented back then. And it absorbed all those negative emotions away.
“I do remember the suffering. The pain and anguish feel vivid, terrifying, and overwhelming. But hatred and resentment haven’t come back to life.”
I couldn’t tell if that was good or bad.
“So you’re just left as a man pretending to be good, a hypocrite…….”
Smack. Artiella struck the back of Kirien’s hand. His eyes went wide.
“You’re not being a hypocrite—you’re a genuinely good and virtuous man who was raised well.”
“…….”
“You decided not to think negatively, remember? Think everything through positively. Or else, come on, here!”
Artiella filled a spoon with the perfectly simmered stew and held it to his mouth.
“Eh?”
The moment he opened his mouth in surprise, she popped the spoon straight in.
“For now, focus only on the good things happening around you. Like marveling at the taste of a special stew you get to eat while traveling.”
Artiella filled the same spoon with more stew and put it in her own mouth.
Kirien’s eyes went even wider. At the same time, his face flushed crimson.
“Why? Is it too spicy? There is a bit of pepper in it, but that’s what makes it special—without it, it’d be bland.”
At Artiella’s words, Kirien shook his head desperately. His ears had turned bright red, as if he’d bitten into a whole chili pepper.
“Excuse me! Do you have any fruit juice? Please fill it with ice.”
He wouldn’t spit it out even when told he could—instead he chewed and swallowed through it. Surprisingly stubborn.
“I’m, I’m fine.”
“Come on, your mouth isn’t swollen from the spice, is it?”
“No. Rather, um, about that Temple donation……. The seniors said I should pick out furniture……. They said to go with Artiella…….”
“Oh, since Kirien joined too, we should set up another room. Sure, let’s go together once everything is finished.”
“There will be a lot to do together once everything is resolved.”
Artiella spooned more stew into Kirien’s mouth. Holy Knights needed to eat well to stay strong, and he seemed to have lost his appetite from the shock.
But apparently he’d adapted to the spiciness by now, as he accepted it obediently.
“Still, we did beat down those bandits, so my sacred power increased a little. It’s rewarding.”
“Mine seems unchanged.”
Just then, a young maid brought fruit juice to their table. She was very young, wasn’t she? But her face looked familiar somehow.
“Big sister! You’re the one with the Holy Sword, right!”
The young maid looked at Artiella with bright, sparkling eyes.
“Yeah, that’s me. And you—are you Rezi’s Younger Sister?”
“Squee! Yes!”
The younger sister of the maid who’d given her cookies before—the girl Artiella had rescued.
“And this mister is your boyfriend, right?”
I wasn’t surprised anymore, and I wasn’t embarrassed. Well, everyone saw us that way anyway, so I might as well play along with the teasing.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Kirien was the biggest victim here.

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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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