The Villainess is on a Quest - Chapter 11

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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 11
The pursuit might continue, but the horses were spent.
The moment Aine decided to rest, Mane rushed to her hand and began tending to the wound with urgency.
If infection set in or the flesh began to rot, it would be catastrophic.
“Something’s strange. I haven’t done anything, yet the wound is already closing.”
Aine had found it strange as well.
The burn had been severe, and yet she felt almost no pain.
“This shouldn’t be possible.”
“That’s right. It would be impossible unless the Divine had chosen to save you.”
The word Divine made Aine’s brow furrow.
How many times in her life had she heard the word salvation?
The very incarnation as a villainess had been a terrible curse from the start.
And now Divine salvation? A curse wanted to escape her lips, but there was no other explanation for what was happening.
As if on cue, something appeared before her eyes.
[SYSTEM: Data modification complete.]
[Heroine status updated. Raysee Orion → Aine Klyne.]
[Previous: Raysee Orion]
[Current: Aine Klyne]
[Quest status: Update complete.]
Text she had never seen before.
‘Me? The heroine?’
With trembling eyes, Aine read the words over and over.
Yet no matter how many times she looked, the text remained unchanged.
A heroine? Why? What had changed to make this happen?
She couldn’t comprehend it. The Divine who had hated her all this time—why would they hand over Raysee’s position to her so freely?
‘What is this supposed to mean? What in the world?’
From beginning to end, it had all been on a whim.
She cast a resentful gaze toward the sky, but nothing came back in return.
She sighed. Abandoning the meaningless gesture, she turned her attention to Wilhelm.
He remained lost in sleep, showing no sign of waking.
He hadn’t eaten properly or even drunk enough water. Especially because he was so young, she worried how much longer he could endure.
“He’ll be fine for now. So please don’t worry too much.”
He’ll be fine for now. At Mane’s words, she could finally breathe easier.
“If we reach the Empire, will he wake?”
“The Empire has already perfected the Antidote. They’ve even succeeded in systematizing the treatment methods, so the young prince should recover quickly.”
The only thing she could trust was the Berona Empire.
“Please… stop.”
Aine was helpless. The small voice of Wilhelm that kept escaping his lips carried a desperate edge.
She almost wondered what nightmare the boy was suffering through.
“Commander. Once you reach the Empire, what will you do?”
Mane seemed anxious as well, for she too asked the question.
What lay ahead in her plan.
Aine paused for a moment, choosing her words, before speaking.
“Do you remember who guards Brontfort Fortress?”
“Yes. I believe it’s the Empire’s crown prince.”
The Empire’s crown prince. Clred.
He was a formidable enemy who had driven the Kingdom to the brink of crisis countless times. Aine herself had nearly died falling into his traps more times than she could count.
“I’ve heard that in the Empire, only those favored by the Emperor can become heirs.”
“Surely not.”
Unlike the Orion Kingdom, where the eldest inherits, the Empire operated on a winner-take-all system where the most capable seized everything.
If he harbored ambitions for the throne, Aine thought she could offer him terms.
“I will entrust my safety to him on the condition that he becomes the young prince’s guardian.”
“You can’t do that! I know what they’ll do to you!”
“Perhaps they’ll lock me away in a dungeon for life, or execute me in front of all the Empire’s citizens.”
This was something Aine had already anticipated—that she might face death, or something worse than death.
But this was all Aine could offer.
After resting sufficiently, Aine planned to carry Wilhelm on her back again and mount the horse.
“Do we truly have to save the young prince? I don’t understand.”
“Because everything depends on this child.”
“Commander. Please.”
Mane looked at Aine as if she couldn’t understand her at all.
This was a girl she’d never met before.
Had she not headed directly for the Royal Palace, she wouldn’t have even known of her existence — and yet Aine was willing to stake her own life to protect her.
Aine, understanding what Mane meant, smiled bitterly.
“This child belongs to Her Majesty the Queen. She must be protected, no matter what.”
If she failed the Quest, she was already dead anyway. But what caught Aine’s attention more than that was the Quest reward itself.
A clue to Raysee’s death.
‘How did you actually die?’
Everything Vinette had told her turned out to be a lie.
The hidden truth existed elsewhere.
Aine wanted to know. How her dearest friend had met her end.
To uncover this truth, she would need to reach the Royal Palace, but now they were being hunted.
‘Unless I’m an idiot, they’re blocking any chance I have of linking up with my division.’
In their current situation, where they couldn’t even remain in the Kingdom, the only clue available was succeeding in this Quest.
‘And then I’ll have my revenge. Against everything that made you die.’
For that, she had no choice but to cross into the Empire now and save Wilhelm.
* * *
“Isn’t this truly strange?”
“Not that again.”
“But it is strange, isn’t it? Those Kingdom dogs aren’t invading right now — they just keep waiting.”
The Imperial Army stationed at Brontfort Fortress was bewildered.
They had been certain that the moment the Orion Kingdom Army regrouped, they would launch an assault. Once Brontfort fell, the path to the heart of the Berona Empire would open completely.
If Brontfort was breached, there would be no future left for them.
They had scraped together stragglers and the retainers of nobles alike, and still mustered barely ten thousand men.
“They must be planning something! Your Highness, why not launch a Night Raid in the dead of night?”
“Have you finally lost your mind from all those defeats?”
“They are masters of the Night Raid. If we just stick our hands into that hornet’s nest, it’s obvious our own forces will suffer catastrophic losses.”
“Especially when our opponent is Orion’s Goddess, Aine. You know better than anyone what happened to every army that has fought her.”
Clred, seated at the head of the table, smiled coldly.
With his uncommonly pale golden hair, blue eyes, and a face as coldly impassive as ice, he was the Empire’s Crown Prince.
‘They’ve all become cautious.’
At first glance, they might appear incompetent, but before the war with Orion Kingdom, these men had all been renowned generals.
Yet every one of them avoided fighting the woman they faced now: Aine Clraine.
Orion’s Goddess. Master strategist. Unparalleled hero.
These epithets belonged to a single person, and what’s more, they had been bestowed by their enemies — themselves.
Clred, too, had cornered Aine multiple times, but he had failed to kill her.
“So we’re just going to sit here with our hands folded? Surely we need to try something to turn the tide of war!”
Gent insisted stubbornly that they must leave the fortress and stake everything on a decisive battle.
In truth, his words had merit. To overturn the situation, they needed not to merely endure inside the fortress, but a decisive victory.
“We will not leave the fortress.”
“Your Highness!”
“Our opponent is Aine Clraine. She’s almost certainly prepared for the moment we venture outside.”
But Clred shook his head. He gazed at the scar etched into the back of his hand. Even with his eyes closed, it remained vividly fresh.
The moment in that first battle when Aine’s arrow had grazed past him.
Since then, an endless string of grueling fights with Aine had continued, and Clred had come to understand her better than anyone.
‘Unless Aine Clraine suddenly falls gravely ill, we will not venture outside the fortress.’
The Empire’s last hero, Clred Hartz, chose to wait for opportunity to present itself rather than make a hasty choice.
‘What is she really plotting?’
Yet even for him, there was something oddly troubling about it.
Why were they dragging their feet before Brontfort Fortress, the final gateway?
‘Has something happened in the Kingdom?’
As he pondered this, Gent continued to press his case with Clred.
“Your Highness. This is not a mere suggestion.”
Rather than remain as they were, they should strike first and launch an offensive against the enemy.
But Clred had consistently refused to hear him out.
“I told you — our army in its current state cannot defeat the Orion Kingdom Army.”
Beyond being outnumbered, the most critical factor was the qualitative difference.
The Imperial Army was simply a rabble scraped together from every quarter.
The elite force that Clred personally commanded was all that remained, but Aine’s army consisted entirely of experienced, battle-hardened elite soldiers.
No matter how favorable the circumstances of battle, considering the qualitative gap, defeat was certain.
For the Empire now, defending Brontfort Fortress took precedence over annihilating the enemy.
If they suffered defeat in battle outside the fortress walls, as Gent had urged, holding the fortress itself would become impossible.
“We must be more careful now than ever before. If we recklessly commit our forces and lose, that’s the end of us.”
Unless the goddess of victory herself descended upon them, Clred knew better than anyone that this was their last chance.
So he chose to move with even greater caution.
“Your Highness! Aine is moving now!”
When his adjutant arrived with this report, Clred immediately assumed she meant to invade and prepared to enter combat readiness at once.
“But something seemed… odd about it.”
“Odd? What do you mean?”
Yet the answer that followed threw not only Clred but Gent beside him into confusion.
“Aine is approaching our position alone!”
“Alone?”

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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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