The Villainess is on a Quest - Chapter 22

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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 22
The Imperial Assassination Incident.
Shortly after Odin consolidated his power, a noble family that had rendered extraordinary service hoped that he would take their daughter as Empress.
Among past emperors, many had taken multiple consorts, so it was not an impossible notion—yet Odin had proclaimed that he would have only one Empress.
They begged, offering to settle for a concubine or even a mistress, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.
“So it seems they came to believe that my mother and I were the problem, and decided to eliminate us.”
When they were refused, Odin gave them every consolation within his power.
But human greed knows no limits. Eventually, they attempted not only to remove the Empress, but also Clred—who might become a seed of danger.
“They succeeded halfway. My mother met her death after an eternity of nightmares.”
Yet they failed in the other half. Through Medicinal Herbs that Odin had painstakingly procured, I miraculously awakened from death’s doorstep.
“From my case forward, various treatments were developed. There are now specialists who dedicate themselves to this field, so please do not worry too greatly.”
Clred hesitated for a moment. Whether to speak of the aftereffects he himself was suffering.
‘That I cannot see a woman’s face.’
But he chose to remain silent. He had no wish to burden her with needless concern.
Meanwhile, Aine could not rejoice at what Clred had said.
“I had no idea such a thing had happened to Your Highness.”
She felt sorry that because of her, he had been forced to recall a memory he would rather have left buried.
Faced with a reaction entirely at odds with what he expected, Clred smiled bitterly.
In that moment, he longed to see her face.
What expression was she wearing as she listened to his story?
“It is no matter. The wound has faded now, and I feel nothing from it anymore.”
Desiring to change the subject, Clred asked whether she had any questions for him.
Aine too had no wish to make him uncomfortable, so she followed his lead.
“Is there truly no problem for Your Highness in keeping me like this?”
Hearing the question, Clred stopped walking.
He stared at her as though unable to comprehend what she meant.
Aine also came to a halt, meeting his gaze directly.
Looking into his eyes—blue as the sea, fathomless in their depth—she pressed further with blunt directness.
“I know the people of the Empire hate and resent me. Should it become known that Your Highness is harboring me, would that not cause difficulties?”
Clred let out a hollow laugh at her words.
‘So that’s what she thought helping me meant.’
She was laboring under a gentle misunderstanding. It was true that he had hidden her to protect her, but she had mistaken his reasons for doing so.
Clred supposed that the Kingdom surely had planted its own spies, so Aine would likely understand something of public sentiment there—but it seemed this was a grave miscalculation on his part.
“We shall continue to meet from now on, and calling you ‘that woman’ grows rather awkward. What would you prefer I call you?”
Though taken aback by the sudden shift in topic, Aine recognized the merit in his point and answered.
“Call me as Your Highness wishes. Whether Claine, or Countess, or anything else—I do not mind.”
“Then I shall call you Claine.”
The moment their forms of address were settled, Clred returned to the matter at hand.
“You are laboring under a grave misunderstanding, Countess Claine.”
Unable to fathom what misunderstanding he meant, Aine fixed her gaze upon him.
Clred then answered without reservation.
“The people of the Empire do not hate you. They favor you, in fact.”
When first hearing his answer, only one thought occupied Aine’s mind.
“If this is jest, I would ask you to cease.”
What he had spoken was nonsense. Yet Clred’s expression remained solemn from beginning to end.
As though his words contained not a trace of humor.
“I swear to you, I have never once spoken falsely to you, Countess Claine.”
“You speak in earnest, then?”
“Yes. My words stand as I have spoken them. Many among the Empire’s people hold you in favor.”
There was no sense of deception in what he said.
Yet her mind could not accept it. It could not.
Aine’s thoughts were consumed entirely by a single question: Why?
What reason could the Empire’s people have to favor her? She was the Empire’s enemy, a blade drawn to sever its lifeblood, and she had indeed shattered countless Imperial forces and dealt them defeat.
The number of Imperial soldiers who had fallen in those engagements was beyond reckoning.
Understanding the nature of Aine’s reaction, Clred offered a gentle explanation.
“Of course, the people did not favor you from the beginning. All cried out calling you a witch, insisting that you should be captured and executed at once.”
Aine held back a retort that this was only natural and waited for Clred to continue.
“But matters changed as the wounded began their honorable discharge from the front lines.”
Clred recalled that moment when public opinion had shifted in an instant.
The battlefield was always chaos. In a place where only thoughts of killing your enemy existed, there was no room for the luxury of looking after another.
At first, she tried to care for them however she could, but as the war dragged on, that camaraderie slowly withered away. Abandoning the wounded and moving on became routine.
For those left behind, only death awaited. There was no reason to spare the enemy alive.
“Those who returned home told their families, their neighbors, and everyone they met that they owed their survival entirely to Lady Aine.”
Yet contrary to expectation, Aine did not kill those she left behind.
She took them as prisoners, but she did not treat them with the harshness the Empire would have shown.
“She showed mercy to the prisoners. She treated the wounded and provided them food.”
She even sent those prisoners back to the Empire.
At first, Clred could not fathom why she would do such a thing.
Prisoners were a means of pressuring the opponent, a way to gain the upper hand at the negotiation table.
“I wondered countless times what reason she had for sending prisoners back.”
I even suspected she might be thoroughly brainwashing them to turn them into Kingdom loyalists and sow discord, but eventually I came to understand her true purpose.
“Whether she intended it or not, those who returned home spread word of Lady Aine’s noble deeds to their families, their acquaintances, and even to strangers.”
People loved sensational stories. The image of Aine showing mercy to her enemies on the battlefield struck Clred with profound surprise.
The witch had saved those whom even the Empire had abandoned. At first, resentment lingered.
But as time passed, people were moved by her compassion that transcended nation and nationality.
“There was no reason to kill those who had lost the will to fight. From the moment they were wounded and abandoned, they were no longer the Kingdom’s enemies.”
Aine gave little thought to her own actions.
The Kingdom and even her subordinates had opposed her, but whenever she saw the abandoned, she was always reminded of her former self.
That pitiable, abandoned version of herself, completely overwhelmed and defenseless.
So she provided minimal treatment and supplies, then released them. She had never expected it would become a tale of virtue.
“Many people hold you in high regard. So the troubles you worry about will not come to pass.”
At his confident declaration, Aine felt doubt rise within her.
If Clred spoke truth, then the Empire’s people truly did regard her favorably.
‘Yet it doesn’t seem like everyone would.’
Even when she had achieved great deeds in the Kingdom of Orion and been hailed as a hero, not everyone had loved her.
Some had despised her. But could one truly call an enemy nation otherwise?
<Empire Favorability Rating Survey Notification>
[SYSTEM] Favorability Status Survey
Favorability Rating regarding Aine has been ascertained.
Would you like to confirm? <Confirm>, <Cancel>
And at that very moment, the System Window appeared before her—bringing with it precisely the information she had been wondering about.
‘What strange timing.’
Aine had noticed lately that the System Window seemed to have become more favorable toward her.
Before, it had only appeared during true crisis situations or moments directly concerning her.
But now, whenever she wondered about something or needed to know something related to her, it appeared immediately, just like this.
The change felt unfamiliar to Aine, but since she was curious, she pressed the confirm button.

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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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