The Villainess is on a Quest - Chapter 14

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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 14
“Is that woman really Aine?”
“You idiot. There’s no way the enemy Commander-in-Chief would fall into our hands this easily.”
“No. I saw her clearly with my own eyes. That woman is definitely—”
Whether we had been rescued or captured remained unclear, but Mane, Wilhelm, and I entered Brandt Fort Fortress.
And at once, countless gazes turned toward Aine.
Those who could not believe that Aine Kleine had been captured, those burning with hostility, those trembling with fear, those marveling at the sight—all manner of expressions filled the space.
‘I don’t understand. Why do they look at me that way if I’m their enemy?’
But what I understood least of all were the eyes fixed upon me with something like longing mixed in.
Aine paid it no mind. They must have been mistaken.
For now, what demanded her focus was the man walking ahead.
Cled Hartz, the Governor of Brandt Fort Fortress.
We had crossed blades on the battlefield only a handful of times, yet each encounter left her with an uncanny sensation.
Unlike others, when facing Cled there existed something perilous, something unsettling, something precarious.
It was like the feeling of a finely honed blade pressed against her throat.
‘My fate, Mane’s, and Wilhelm’s—all of it rests in that man’s hands.’
If he decided to kill them, they would all be executed here.
If he chose to spare them, they would likely spend some time as prisoners, though she had already made her peace with that.
So long as she could save Wilhelm.
While she was gathering her thoughts, Cled came to a halt.
Before them stood a door.
“Please, come inside. There are still matters I wish to discuss with you.”
Cled opened the door as if to prove a point, revealing the room beyond.
“May I ask why?”
When she did not immediately enter, Cled asked what the problem might be.
“It is unexpected.”
“Unexpected in what way?”
“In all honesty, I assumed you would take me to a torture chamber or an interrogation room.”
Through the gap in the open door, the room within appeared quite pleasant.
Rather like someone’s study.
“I considered it, but you are far too significant a figure for such treatment.”
Cled merely shrugged, offering no further reaction.
Aine watched him enter first, then followed, and soon the door closed behind them.
Though she had escaped the persistent barrage of stares from the corridor, no sense of relief came with it.
“Would coffee suit you?”
“I appreciate the offer, but I must decline. Caffeine does not agree with me.”
“Then I shall offer you imperial tea instead. Unfortunately, we have not developed a taste for the beverages of our enemies.”
If anything, an even sharper gaze now pressed against her—one that seemed capable of strangling a person with sight alone.
Cled’s eyes were relentless, as if intent on proving that very point.
‘I would be suspicious too, were I in his position.’
A Commander-in-Chief surrendering to the enemy in a war already won—it defied reason.
It was cause enough for suspicion. One might well suspect a trap from the start.
Yet contrary to expectation, Cled appeared remarkably composed. Whether he was performing or not remained unclear, but his outward demeanor held the coldness of reason.
“There is something I wish to ask you first, Your Highness.”
As Cled sat across from her, offering the tea, Aine spoke first.
“What has become of the people who came with me?”
Since she and her companions had been separated the moment they entered Brandt Fort Fortress, she was anxious to know their condition.
It was possible they had judged everyone except her to be expendable and put them to death.
From Cled’s perspective, there was no reason to tell her. He could instead use them as hostages to extract whatever answers he desired.
Yet after taking a sip of coffee, he answered readily.
“Your subordinates are being treated by our military physicians as we speak.”
* * *
Aine’s life was effectively in their grasp already.
And there was little reason to antagonize someone who had surrendered of her own will.
‘I can decide whether to use them as hostages after our conversation.’
Having settled on this, Cled studied Aine closely before beginning their proper discussion.
‘She is more delicate than I expected.’
The Empire’s celebrated general—she who had slipped gracefully through a trap laid by countless strategists working day and night, and who had even brought Cled himself to the brink of death more than once—was a far more terrifying woman than her fragile frame suggested.
Because of her title as a hero, Cled had always imagined Aine possessed the broad frame of an accomplished knight.
But the woman before him—had he encountered her without knowing her name, he would have taken her for nothing but a beautiful noblewoman, fair as a flower.
But the moment their eyes met, such thoughts evaporated.
Cled, who could divine another’s thoughts merely by locking eyes with them, found Aine’s mind utterly unreadable.
It felt as though a wall had been erected to keep him out. For Cled, encountering someone whose thoughts and emotions remained inscrutable was a first—and it captivated him.
His gaze then fell upon her hands.
“How did your hands come to be in such a state?”
“My hands? Ah.”
Aine regarded her singed palms, marked with burn scars, and answered as though it were nothing.
“I sustained these while pulling someone from a fire.”
“The treatment is rather crude—it seems this happened recently.”
Aine, having no particular desire to conceal anything, laid her hands bare before him without reservation.
Cled continued to study her hands in silence before finally speaking.
“I confess myself curious: why did you surrender to us? With your strength, isn’t this war already won the moment Brandt Fort Fortress falls?”
Cled was now ready to engage Aine in serious conversation.
“As you say, it was a war already won.”
At his question, Aine felt a bitter taste bloom in her mouth.
He was right—the battle had been as good as won.
All she needed to do was return home and resume her ordinary life, yet circumstances had spiraled into chaos.
‘They’ve likely planted spies in the Kingdom as well.’
She had no wish to tell an obvious lie and thereby erode his trust.
Especially since there was the matter of working alongside them for some time to come.
“You’ll know soon enough, but a rebellion has broken out in the Kingdom.”
“A rebellion?”
“Binet Orion, the King’s younger brother, has gathered followers with the aim of assassinating the royal couple and seizing the throne for himself.”
It was a turn of events Cled had never anticipated, and for the first time, his composure visibly cracked.
Watching his expression, Aine anticipated his questions and answered them before he could ask.
“I did not support Binet’s claim. Because of this, he sought to eliminate me, and when I fled, he dispatched pursuers after me.”
At first glance, it seemed the Kingdom had abandoned her, but Cled sensed something amiss.
“All the more reason this confuses me. Wouldn’t your proper refuge be with the army loyal to you, rather than with us?”
According to Cled’s intelligence, the Kingdom 1st Legion remained steadfastly loyal to Aine.
Her soldiers would march to their deaths without hesitation if she commanded it.
In fact, surrendering to the Empire might well be the greatest peril she could face.
If they chose to kill her on the spot, there would be no chance for revenge or anything else.
“I came here to strike a bargain with you.”
“A bargain?”
“Yes. A bargain.”
Aine drew an inward breath.
Now came the crux of it—the matter of Wilhelm.
‘How he receives this will determine all our fates.’
If he agreed to her terms, matters would unfold as she had anticipated, smoothly and without difficulty.
But if he refused, everything would careen toward catastrophe.
Wilhelm’s status as a prince was known; the Empire would exhaust every method to keep him alive, yet the reality was that he would have to live his entire life as an imperial prisoner.
Aine would never allow such a fate to befall him.
“I’ve heard the Succession is already a complicated matter.”
So she sought a method he could not refuse.
“If you aid me in my revenge, I will help you become the Emperor of the Empire.”
The die had been cast, and all Aine could do was hope it would land on six.

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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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