The Villainess is on a Quest - Chapter 10

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 9
Wisps of smoke lingered in the air, pooling blood marked the ground at intervals, and corpses lay scattered throughout the hall.
Though the scene before them resembled a battlefield, the gathered crowd exchanged furtive glances in suffocating silence.
Fear and dread filled them, yet they were forced to act as though they had seen and heard nothing.
Aine, whom they believed capable of checking Binet, had collapsed into ruin.
Her subordinates had all been subdued and imprisoned, and Aine herself had vanished.
The remainder had no choice but to bow their heads as low as they could manage.
They believed Binet’s power would only grow more entrenched from this moment forward.
“What’s become of that woman?”
Yet Binet’s thoughts ran otherwise.
“We’ve dispatched pursuit teams, but we haven’t found her yet.”
“Incompetent fools, the lot of you. And these are the Royal Guard meant to represent the palace.”
“Your Grace. Please wait a while longer. I’m certain we’ll apprehend her soon.”
“How much longer am I expected to wait?”
At Linus’s words, Binet’s expression darkened with displeasure.
He’d been certain that day that he could suppress everything perfectly, but contrary to expectation, Aine had escaped.
He’d wanted nothing more than to kill everyone who had stood in his way that day, but Linus had vehemently opposed it.
Eliminating them could have strained relations with every military faction in the kingdom.
“All routes leading to where the First Army is stationed have already been sealed. Therefore, it’s only a matter of time before she’s captured.”
Every possible measure had been taken, and they had even succeeded in capturing two of her subordinates who were heading toward Aine’s forces.
Now only Aine and Wilhelm remained.
“But she could head somewhere other than the First Army. What if she goes to the nobles who support her, for instance?”
“We’ve already taken precautions for that as well. We’ve placed people within the faction that supports Aine Kleine.”
“Then what if she flees to another country—”
“Your Grace.”
Yet Binet still could not hide his restlessness. Watching him, Linus felt a stirring of doubt.
“Wouldn’t things have been simpler if you’d taken her into custody when you two were alone?”
There had been moments when Aine could have been captured with certainty.
The most optimal moment was when Aine and Binet had been alone together. Then, Aine had crawled all the way to the jaws of the tiger, defenseless.
Had he taken her hostage then, her subordinates would naturally have surrendered without resistance.
It was arguably the simplest approach, and indeed, Linus had proposed exactly that to him.
Everyone had agreed, but Binet, the decision-maker, had firmly refused.
“Are you blaming me for what’s happened now?”
“How could I blame you, Your Grace? I’m merely curious why you hesitated then.”
Linus was puzzled. He had despised Aine more than anyone.
Had he wished it, she would have been arrested the moment she entered the palace and would by now be imprisoned in a cell.
Yet why had he chosen to attempt appeasement rather than subjugation?
Whenever Linus voiced his doubt and asked, Binet always answered in this fashion.
“A considerable portion of the military favors her. It was better to appease her somehow and bring her to my side than to fight her.”
To appease and win over—theoretically, it was a perfect answer.
Had Aine herself joined Binet’s cause, nothing would have stood in his way any longer.
“As you yourself well know, winning her over was impossible from the start.”
But what was called ideal had its reasons for being so.
Linus smiled thinly as he spoke.
“No matter how hard we tried to conceal it, if even one hint of what we’ve done reached her ears, the outcome would be as plain as day to see, wouldn’t it?”
The transgressions they had committed.
Binet winced, but offered no rebuttal.
“I’ll go strengthen surveillance over the Capital nobility. And Your Grace—settle your mind on the matter. The glass was shattered long ago.”
Having said this, Linus turned to leave Binet’s presence.
‘Perhaps she really does intend to flee to another country.’
Watching Linus depart, Binet exhaled slowly and stared down at his own two hands. They were pristine white, untouched, yet to Binet’s eyes they appeared otherwise.
“Yes, the glass was shattered long ago.”
Stained scarlet with someone’s blood.
* * *
Where before her body had burned hot, now it trembled with cold that ran bone-deep.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know what you’re apologizing for, but hold on tight so you don’t fall.”
Wilhelm, unconscious and collapsed, had drawn close into Aine’s embrace, seeking warmth.
Aine too longed to kindle a fire and rest if only for a moment, but the thought that Binet’s pursuers might be closing in forced her to move with urgency.
‘If we’re caught here, my subordinates’ sacrifice will have been for nothing.’
There was no way to know how long his subordinates could buy him time.
He had to get as far from the Royal Palace as possible.
At least beyond the reach of their control.
Then the sound of hoofbeats reached his ears. Had the pursuers already found his location?
Alarm flooded through him, but it was too soon to despair.
‘I will save this child, no matter what.’
Gripping reason with nothing but the will to save Wilhelm, Aine strained to listen.
The hoofbeats he heard were still just one horse.
If he could deal with just that one, they wouldn’t know of his presence yet. With that thought, Aine drew back the bowstring on his horse.
He would finish it in one shot, without so much as a scream.
“Commander! Where are you!”
“Mane?”
The voice that reached him while he gathered every ounce of concentration, waiting to see what would emerge, was not from the pursuers.
At first he thought he had misheard and kept his guard up, but that voice was indeed Mane.
Aine eased his pace.
As if she had only just caught up, Mane drew a breath of relief and reached his side.
With complicated feelings, Aine looked at Mane and asked.
“You didn’t go back to the main unit?”
“I set out to follow you and treat your wounds, Commander!”
At her answer—that she had come to treat him—Aine shook his head.
“I’m going to ride without stopping all the way to the Verona Empire’s border. There’s no time for treatment.”
There was no time for treatment, nor even rest. He meant to flee the pursuers and make for the Verona Empire’s border.
“It doesn’t matter. I will follow you to the end and treat you, Commander. It’s my duty as a physician.”
“You’re saying you’ll come all the way to the Empire with me.”
“My family all passed away during the war. So there’s nothing dangerous for me in following you.”
Aine wanted to send Mane back.
Going to the Empire at this moment was no different from betrayal. One misstep could drag his family and house into ruin.
But hearing her answer, Aine had no choice but to nod.
In truth, for someone like Aine who knew little of medicine, it was a welcome situation. From the moment they entered the Empire, he would have to entrust everything entirely to them.
Through Mane, he could verify whether they were treating Wilhelm properly.
‘What will the Commander do from now on, I wonder.’
Meanwhile, Mane was troubled about what lay ahead.
The Empire would certainly be pleased to keep Wilhelm alive.
They could use him as a hostage—Matthias’s child.
Aine, by contrast, was someone the Empire had long yearned to capture.
They could execute her on the spot without a word of protest.
Though she was forced to head to the Empire to save Wilhelm, if he became a hostage with no protector at his side, her plan to secure future options would unravel from the start.
Aine, who could not help but understand Mane’s thoughts, gazed at Wilhelm with worry and thought only of what lay ahead.
‘To reach the Empire, we must pass through Brandtfort Fortress.’
There was no way around Brandtfort.
Even if they somehow managed to head there, the problem persisted.
Aine thought of one person.
The man who oversaw Brandtfort.
Kled Hertz—the Verona Empire’s prince and the one whose life he had sought, and who had sought his own, too many times to count.
* * *
The pursuers chased Aine relentlessly, day and night.
There was no way to know where she had gone, but they had to find her.
“Aaaagh!”
“Captain! Hanson!”
“Don’t worry about stragglers—keep moving! Do you want to see your families die!”
Their families in the Capital were held hostage.
If they returned empty-handed, the fate awaiting their families and themselves was as certain as fire.
So they all pushed forward with desperation burning beneath their feet, searching without rest.
‘Please—I have to find her somehow.’
Whether that desperation was answered or not, the pursuers soon found Aine’s trail after riding at full speed.
“Move, unless you want to watch your families die!”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————