The Villain Who Will Kill Me Is Too Handsome, It's Troublesome - Chapter 70

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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 70.
After questioning the jeweler about various details, Artiela turned her horse’s head back toward the Imperial Palace.
“So it was always shaped like a butterfly from the start?”
“Yes. It was simply a gold rod with a deep pink pearl set at the end, and they asked me to repair the section where the diamond was fastened to the wings—it had come loose.”
So she’d never entrusted a holy relic to him at all.
Then why had she lied? Had she failed to shake off the shadow properly, or was something else at play?
Artiela urged her horse forward urgently, arriving at the Princess Residence.
Yet something was wrong.
“Quickly, send someone to the Temple! We must bring the priest!”
“Surely only a Saint could save her now?”
Something terrible had happened, it seemed.
“Wait, please!”
Artiela called out to a knight passing nearby and stopped him.
“Sir Artiela! Please, we need your help.”
“What is it? What’s happened?”
“The 2nd Princess… she’s in critical condition.”
Her again?
She’d seemed perfectly fine. What happened so suddenly?
* * *
They sent for someone from the Temple, but it was already too late. There was no way to resurrect the dead with Holy Power alone.
“Why does such misfortune visit the Imperial House in succession?”
The 1st Princess had given her Holy Power freely, yet her eyes were dark-rimmed again from exhaustion.
“I knew she would cause great trouble one day, but still… I wished for her to live foolishly and brightly, at least.”
Though she appeared cold on the surface, it seemed she held more affection for her blood kin than anyone. Perhaps she simply couldn’t express closeness easily, forever at risk of entanglement in political strife.
“Are we bearing the retribution left by the 5th Emperor?”
He was the only emperor ever judged by Edelion. He had committed evil deeds purely and thoroughly, and received his judgment for it.
Back then, her wise brother had cooperated with Edelion, and declared a coup the very moment the judgment was rendered. He deposed the tyrant and ascended the throne himself, protecting Edelion in the process.
Dozens had fallen by that emperor’s own hand, and thousands of imperial subjects had died of starvation under his tyranny.
So whenever misfortune befell the royal family, those words always emerged from their lips.
“Did you find the holy relic?”
“No. As it turned out, there was never any commission for craftsmanship in the first place.”
Artiela handed over the box she’d brought from the jeweler, and the 1st Princess in turn gave Artiela a sheet of parchment.
“That’s what the will suggested.”
It was the 2nd Princess’s final testament.
“She wrote that she had no memory of that day.”
“But why did she lie? If she’d been honest, we could have searched from that point onward.”
“I don’t know. According to what’s written there, she was terrified. Sunk to the bottom of that black lake, she felt so lonely, so sorrowful, so tormented…”
It echoed the testimony from Peter that Pursell had conveyed.
“Even after she regained her senses, she was too afraid she’d be drawn back there again to live. Selfish and foolish to the end. Did she take after her mother, I wonder?”
The 1st Princess’s fingertips trembled slightly.
Artiela glanced at Bleo beside her. Bleo then gently drew the 1st Princess into his embrace.
“You needn’t hold back your tears, if you’re grieving.”
At Bleo’s comfort, the 1st Princess immediately pressed her forehead against his chest and wept softly.
“Sobs… Will my brother end up the same way when he awakens? Or will I lose myself too, if I hear that voice and succumb to its temptation…?”
“The Source of Evil is a being that preys upon people’s anxieties and darkened hearts. It uses those as leverage to make people distrust one another, to shake their resolve. But conversely, if you steel your heart, it cannot even approach you.”
Rather than gentle consolation, Artiela offered counsel that must be kept close.
Both Bleo’s comfort and Artiela’s words seemed to strengthen the 1st Princess.
“Your words are true. Yes, I must protect the Imperial House, and this empire.”
Bolstered, the 1st Princess took a deep breath and summoned the chief steward and the head maid. She and Bleo would work together to set things in order, it seemed.
As the two prepared the funeral rites, Artiela read through the 2nd Princess’s will. Just as the 1st Princess had said, she could feel the trembling of one consumed by anxiety in every stroke—the writing shook visibly throughout.
The script was so hasty it was difficult to parse the meaning, but.
“Let’s see… ‘I showed the ladies an unladylike spectacle—throwing things irritably, stamping on them, making a scene’…”
It was written that she had received considerable shock from the figure reflected in that black water. And that figure would surely be after the Princess regained consciousness, so…
“It must have rolled somewhere in the Princess Residence.”
Artiela requested permission from the 1st Princess and searched the 2nd Princess’s residence thoroughly, her white uniform and hair becoming covered in dust without any concern.
“Sigh, why can’t I find it?”
Kirien had the Mirror of Truth now, so technically it wasn’t necessary… yet something about it bothered Artiela.
“The Source of Evil must have had a reason for trying to steal it…”
Finding the Goddess’s Tears made sense enough.
It would sever the link between Kirien and the Source of Evil—his final target—and heal even Artiela’s arm in the bargain.
But deliberately eliminating Boutonniere didn’t make sense.
“Unless there’s some other means of getting into Kirien’s body?”
So they wouldn’t be discovered. That had to be it—there was no other explanation.
Artiela, who had been sitting on the marble floor of the Princess Residence racking her brains, now threw herself flat and began methodically searching through every crack and crevice.
She would find it. She had to.
* * *
Patient knight though she was, Artiela never did find the Boutonniere. Not even after secretly uncovering the hidden passages of the 2nd Princess’s residence and tearing through them.
Weary in body and spirit, she returned to Edelion and leapt from her horse before it had fully stopped.
“Commander! You went to the Imperial Palace—did you end up excavating the entire grounds?”
“Well. How’s the priestess?”
“It seems her meeting isn’t finished yet.”
“I see. We’ll need to prepare the funeral rites at the Palace.”
The funeral arrangements for direct imperial blood fell to Edelion.
“What? Has His Majesty the Emperor finally passed?”
“No. The 2nd Princess.”
Kirien, who had come to greet Artiela, approached her in alarm.
“What happened? Did the 2nd Princess also fall victim to the Source of Evil? And why are you in such a state, Artiela?”
“Goodness, how did you get so filthy?”
Bailey was with him. She promptly drew a handkerchief from her pocket and set about dusting Artiela’s uniform and face with industrious care.
“That grimy, are you?”
“The uniform and cloak will need washing straightaway. And you’ll need a bath—does the Holy Knight Order barracks have a bathing chamber? We can’t use the royal residences again, can we?”
Bailey’s handkerchief had already turned black. It seemed Artiela’s face had gotten smudged with soot when she’d crawled into a fireplace while searching for the secret passage.
What an ungainly picture she must make.
“Nursemaid, that’s enough. You’re making her uncomfortable.”
“Not at all, I’m fine.”
Artiela waved her hand in protest. She hadn’t minded it since becoming independent, but her mother had always fussed like this when she was young—it felt familiar.
“But Bailey, what brings you here?”
“The renovations at the duchy have nearly finished, and we were preparing a party, never expecting our lord to become a Holy Knight like this. I thought perhaps… well, might we go ahead with it?”
Bailey’s expression was rueful.
So Artiela spoke up.
“Yes, of course. But let’s hold it after the 2nd Princess’s funeral.”
“Might we invite the Holy Knights as well?”
At Bailey’s question, the nearby knights all cried out at once.
“Yes! What an honor!”
“We wouldn’t miss it!”
“May I attend as well?”
Forgive the dead, but this corner was bright with cheer. Which is precisely why the Source of Evil couldn’t so much as approach.
Just then, Ushiel’s voice drifted from inside, and her mother’s with it.
“So using this method, we can lift the Seal…”
Her mother suddenly stopped in her tracks.
“Bailey! It is you, isn’t it? You were Bertia’s lady’s maid.”
“My goodness, Miss! Or should I say, Countess now?”
“What are you doing here? Wait—you were the head servant who’s been looking after our lord?”
The two had passed each other countless times in these halls yet never truly met.
“Yes, ma’am. My mistress asked me to care for the lord, to ensure he was never lonely, to stay always by his side.”
The person who knew Bertia best had been at her side from the very beginning.

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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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