The Villainess Hid Her Identity, and Now Everyone is Misunderstanding - Chapter 73

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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 Villainess Hides Her Identity, and Everyone Misunderstands
Chapter 73

In any case, what matters is that I have many people helping me.

[Current Empire Population Survival Rate – 98.2%]

The Quest’s success condition was an Empire population survival rate of 88% or higher.
‘The Spanish flu killed around 3% of the population.’
Even the pandemic that had spread a few years before I possessed this body had a mortality rate of barely 1% in decimal places. And yet it had caused such chaos.
Considering those figures, 12% was by no means low. It was actually quite a dangerous level.
‘So the problem is the cure.’
Of course, I knew what the cure was.
“Knowing doesn’t help. We can’t obtain it right now.”
“What do you mean you can’t obtain it?”
“Oh, Your Highness!”
As I turned around with a bright smile, I saw Rakiel, who like me had his nose and mouth covered with a mask.
Though his face was hidden, his black hair and crimson eyes revealed his identity.
Besides, his overall features were far too distinctive to ignore.
His relaxed, languid gaze tilted slightly as he looked at me. He seemed quite pleased that I was welcoming him.
“What brings you to greet me so—”
“You’ve arrived at just the right time!”
I clapped my hands together and immediately pulled him inside by the arm. Then I rummaged around and pulled out something.
“Hehehehe.”
“That’s quite an unsettling laugh… What is that?”
He stared at the object I was holding with bewilderment.
“Why, it’s a mascot costume head!”
I held out a puppy mascot head to Rakiel.
It was hastily made so it was a bit crude, but it was a full-face mask-style mascot head. It even had eyes cut out.
“Just put this on, hold this, and stand around! It would be even better if you walked around the entire city, but that would be difficult in this weather, wouldn’t it?”
He noticed the sign I was holding in my other hand.
“Cover your nose and mouth… Let’s practice social distancing? What does this mean?”
That’s what you’ll be promoting as you go around.
I’m fortunate to have spare manpower.
Of course, Hagen will be having a bit of a hard time at the Imperial Palace, but those in urgent need come first, don’t they?
I forcibly placed the puppy mascot head and sign into his hands. He accepted them with a bewildered expression.
“You can do it, right? Since you’ll be covering your face, it should be fine.”
“…Only you would ask the Crown Prince to do something like this.”
“Wow, am I your first? I’m honored.”
“That’s not what I meant….”
Rakiel looked down at the items in his hands with an exasperated expression. He didn’t seem particularly pleased.
“I wondered why you greeted me so warmly. It shouldn’t have been possible.”
“What are you saying? I always, forever, and constantly welcome Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
It was true that I welcomed him because he was handsome enough to at least be pleasant to look at. Though it was a bit bothersome.
As I laughed demurely while covering my mouth, he finally burst into laughter.
“If the Veiled Saint thinks so highly of me, I’m truly honored.”
“Ugh! I’m not a saint!”
I couldn’t tear at my hair, so instead I tore at my hood and shouted.
It was a troublesome title.
All I did was bring some hygiene concepts from my original world and improve the environment.
I simply forced people to wear masks and regularly wash their hands with soap, and provided some medicinal herbs that helped with epidemics. It was only natural that the mortality and infection rates from disease decreased as a result.
“Not a saint?”
He laughed slowly.
“Look at what the people around you think of you.”
When I suddenly turned my head, the people watching me smiled and waved their hands.
They were the ones who had willingly become my hands and feet, and they were now treating people who came with symptoms.
“Those with severe symptoms, come this way!”
“If you feel fine, please come over here!”
Thanks to them, this Management Office was operating quite systematically.
“Everyone was saying that if they get sick, they should go to the Management Office run by the Veiled Saint. What you’ve accomplished….”
“Oh no!”
When I spotted a familiar face in the distance, I quickly grabbed the cloth at the tent entrance.
“Please tell them I’m not here if that person comes!”
“What? They seem to have already seen….”
“Hurry!”
I hastily hid my body deeper into the tent and tried to calm my racing heart. Because that person was….
“Oh, Veiled Saint! I’m here to report today’s accomplishments. Please come out and listen!”
My fan club president!
Beyond the tent, I could hear murmuring with clasped hands.
“O Veiled Saint of the Bernhardt Empire, as of today, the number of believers has increased from 89 to 99, and we are conducting missionary activities throughout the Capital City.”
I don’t know about that stuff, so stop it!
“Following the Veiled Saint’s teachings, we strictly prohibit gatherings of five or more people, and we are cracking down on restaurants and taverns that operate late into the night with believers in shifts! Furthermore, everyone is wearing masks and hoods just like the Veiled Saint and cleaning the streets….”
Knock it off!
“Hmm, quite interesting. Can I get one of those masks and hoods too?”
I heard Rakiel’s voice, seemingly in agreement rather than objection.
“Of course! Everything comes from the Veiled Saint’s grace, so we’re providing them all for free.”
That’s all my money anyway!
Let me say it again—every single item in this place was purchased with my own personal funds. Of course, that doesn’t mean the money of Evelyn Rosenthal disappears anywhere.
How on earth did things come to this?
Ding!

[Special Title: Veiled Saint]
[Reputation surpasses 2,000!]
[Followers have emerged.]
[Some individuals have begun voluntarily following you, and an unofficial support faction has formed.]

I’d hoped that raising my reputation stat would strip away my notoriety as a villainess, but what is this—I’m not some cult leader!

[You have entered the initial cult formation stage.]

What?!
I asked if it was a cult, and now it looks like I’ve actually become one.
My head throbbed and the world spun around me.
Meanwhile, outside the tent, the conversation was in full swing.
“Would you be interested in joining our organization?”
“Very much so.”
“Oh my, then you’ll be our hundredth member! Hehe, we’ve prepared special benefits for you. Now, if you’ll come this way—”
“I told you not to get caught up in nonsense!”
Whoosh.
“…!”
The woman who appeared between the tents had her eyes flash with recognition.
….

A moment later.
Having finally managed to peel the woman away from me, I collapsed into a chair inside the tent, feeling utterly drained. Dealing with someone who clung to me with such intensity had sapped every ounce of my strength.
“Do you really dislike it that much?”
At Rakiel’s tilted-head question, I burst out in frustration.
“Of course! I have no intention of becoming the leader of some cult. My goal is to live a quiet, unremarkable life….”
As I muttered with a dejected expression, he chuckled softly.
“There is one way to resolve this situation immediately.”
“Really? Truly?”
I lifted my head with widened eyes as he continued.
“Come under my wing. To the Imperial Palace.”
….
I exhaled a deep sigh.
Certainly, if I placed myself under his protection, those seeking to contact me would disappear. It was a foolproof method—if I weren’t Evelyn Rosenthal.
There was also the option of revealing my true identity.
‘Though I’d rather die than do that.’
This was a sort of alternate persona, an alternate persona. With the title of Saint already attached to me, if I were to reveal myself as Evelyn Rosenthal, I might face immediate execution for impersonating a Saint.
Besides, once I placed Rakiel on the throne and avoided that dreadful “destruction ending,” my plan was to enjoy a peaceful, leisurely life.
I intended to leave behind this complicated life in the Capital. That terrible “Saint” title would be unnecessary in my future.
As I continued to sigh heavily without giving a proper answer, Rakiel shifted the conversation with a dissatisfied expression.
“By the way, does Evelyn know that you’re doing this here?”
“Of course.”
In Rakiel’s eyes, I was probably some sort of madwoman who abandoned all her duties to devote herself entirely to helping people.
But the “Rosenthal lady” he spoke of had long since gone to recuperate in a warm village in the Southern Region.
“Though she’s not in the Capital, it’s entirely thanks to her patronage that I’m able to move about like this.”
“According to the Duke, she went on a trip to a resort in the Southern Region?”
“We continue to exchange correspondence.”
“The Southern Region… That’s unfortunate.”
“Why is that?”
He replied with a peculiar expression.
“There’s something I wanted to ask her. When is she expected to return?”
“I’m not sure. She didn’t set a specific date before leaving.”
Sensing that Rakiel seemed to be contemplating something, I tilted my head and continued.
“If you have something to tell her, you can tell me. I’ll pass it along.”
After all, I am that person.
‘Hmm, I haven’t seen him since we met at that banquet last time… What could he possibly want to tell me?’
I searched my memory but couldn’t recall anything that would require a meeting with Rakiel. If anything, we hadn’t seen each other even once since our engagement.
‘I should have sent a letter.’
Still, he was my fiancé.
If people learned that we showed such little interest in each other, who knew what rumors might spread.
That the Rosenthal lady still harbored feelings for the Crown Prince, or that our engagement might soon be broken off.
‘Admittedly, such rumors would be rather troublesome.’
I was thinking I should send him a letter soon as Evelyn, but Rakiel’s lips moved slightly before he uttered words of refusal.
His tone suggested he had deliberated quite heavily on the matter.
“No, I think I need to tell him in person.”

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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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