The Villainess is on a Quest - Chapter 30

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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 29
Odin, too, was a source of concern. Perhaps his greatest weakness.
The matter of succession.
Among Odin’s children, Cled was the only one who remained unmarried.
He had tried to erase that vulnerability, and Cled had made efforts as well, but only dismal results had come back.
Forced unions could never produce heirs, and so Odin had already begun considering the question of succession after Cled’s time.
But then an extraordinary variable appeared—a variable named Aine Kleine.
‘I never expected her to be so bold.’
Whenever he thought of it, a smile kept creeping across Odin’s lips.
The moment he’d asked how she would prove it, she’d stolen a kiss—such audacity had caught him off guard.
But what had drawn his attention even more was Cled’s expression.
Odin had wanted to call a painter on the spot to immortalize that vacant, bewildered face—the look of a man who couldn’t even comprehend what was happening to him.
Having taken a liking to her from their first meeting, Odin now harbored a complete and thorough affection for Aine.
As they arrived at the Imperial Palace, Odin spoke.
“The false may soon become the true.”
“Your words are so incomprehensible, sire. I can only be bewildered.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll understand soon enough.”
* * *
For Aine, it was entirely unexpected.
That kiss she’d just given—it was Cled’s first.
She already knew of Cled’s affliction through his own account. But considering his station, his beauty, his abilities—how could women not try to seduce him?
So when Odin had told her to prove it, Aine had vaguely assumed
that he’d kissed many times before. But this assumption proved spectacularly wrong.
Cled had vanished with a flushed face, and Odin had simply given her a date before returning to the Imperial Palace.
‘A Hidden Quest.’
Even as she worried about where Cled had gone, Aine focused on the system window that had appeared before her eyes.
A Hidden Quest. The reward that followed was equally bewildering—something she’d never imagined.
Favorability +10. At least it meant he wasn’t displeased, she thought, and turned her gaze to the mirror hanging in the office.
Red hair and gray eyes filled her vision first.
Her sharp features inspired caution in others, yet her face was beautiful as if embroidered by a master craftsman.
Aine let out a bitter laugh, remembering how her name had constantly circulated among countless young nobles before her family’s decline.
None of that remained in the present. She looked at one of her own hands—scarred and hideously burned from the night she’d saved Wilhelm.
‘The banquet is a week away, then.’
Odin had said he’d send a carriage in a week. That meant she needed to finish all her preparations before then.
“I can ask Hamilton for help with the dress and other arrangements.”
Aine’s gaze drifted to the spot where he’d been sitting moments before.
What degree of physical contact would be appropriate for someone who reacted so intensely to a kiss? That was the question troubling her.
She needed to reach at least a level that wouldn’t raise suspicion, and it was while thinking this that Aine suddenly remembered something.
‘Come to think of it, that was my first kiss too.’
In her original life, she’d never had much interest in romance, and that hadn’t changed after falling into this world.
Save for her parents, it was perhaps her first instance of physical contact with another person, and Aine began to recall what had just happened.
The lips of a crown prince of the empire were….
* * *
‘Soft.’
Cled had come to the Training Ground trying not to think about it, but his mind kept returning to it.
When Aine had seized his collar, he hadn’t anticipated what would happen next.
Then, when her lips suddenly and naturally met his, his entire body had gone rigid.
Though he’d never done it before, this was something Cled had resolved to accept long ago.
He’d told himself that if he ever found himself forced to produce an heir, it wouldn’t matter who the woman was—it was inevitable.
He’d believed that if Odin commanded it, he could kill his emotions and accept anyone. And that was precisely why this was so bewildering.
“Your Highness, you seem unable to concentrate today.”
“My apologies.”
“I don’t mind. Shall we continue our sparring?”
“Please.”
Why was he so unsettled now? Over a mere kiss.
He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and found his thoughts returning to Aine.
Odin had commanded it, so there was no helping it—yet she’d pressed her lips to his without a moment’s hesitation.
For Aine, a kiss was nothing more than a trifling sacrifice for the sake of her goals.
‘Then I too must not let myself be so shamefully shaken.’
He must not be shaken. With that resolve, Cled prepared to return to his sparring.
“Oh, we have a visitor.”
“It seems you were in the middle of sparring. Shall I come back another time?”
But before that could happen, someone else arrived.
The woman who had stolen his first kiss—the one with hair as crimson as a rose.
The moment their eyes met, Cled realized he had fled the room without a word.
Recognizing the discourtesy of his actions, Cled shook his head.
“We’ll postpone the sparring.”
“Very well, Your Highness.”
The attendant withdrew, leaving the two of them alone.
Cled moved toward Aine, intending to apologize for his rudeness.
Having retreated so abruptly, he was certain her pride must be deeply wounded.
“My apologies, Your Highness.”
Yet it was Aine who spoke first.
Bewildered, Cled studied her expression. From the moment they first met until now, she had maintained the same composed demeanor.
“Why are you apologizing to me?”
It was he who ought to apologize.
But Aine shook her head and continued, “It was my mistake to act without informing you first, Your Highness. I wanted to apologize in case I’ve caused you any displeasure.”

Hearing her response, Cled felt utterly confounded.
His father Odin had proposed this first. It was possible this was the only way Aine could make her intentions clear to him.
“You have nothing to apologize for. If anyone should apologize, it is I.”
“To me, Your Highness?”
“You showed courage in your actions, and I responded with cowardice by fleeing.”
Cled swallowed and looked at Aine. Her face had been a blur to him until now.
Yet somehow, he now found his gaze drawn to her ash-gray eyes and the crimson of her lips.
He couldn’t explain why. But what mattered was that he could see her more clearly now.
“Then shall we call it mutual fault?”
While his mind was still fixed on her lips, the distance between them had grown impossibly small.
Aine extended her hand. Cled, who had been staring at it silently, nodded and took it.
Her hand was warm, but he knew he shouldn’t hold it any longer, so he released it.
Thinking their business was finished, Cled expected Aine to leave, but she remained, as if there was still something more she wanted to say.
“And I came because I wanted to make a proposal to you, Your Highness.”
“A proposal?”
“Yes, regarding the banquet that will take place in a week.”
Now that she mentioned it, there was indeed such an event. Cled had given it little thought, but Aine spoke with unmistakable seriousness.
“I’m concerned we might appear awkward together, giving people reason to gossip. I think we need time to grow accustomed to each other. What do you think?”
She was suggesting they spend considerable time together over the next week.
* * *
To put it plainly, Cled did not refuse the proposal.
Rather, it would be more accurate to say he could not refuse.
Aine’s reasoning was sound. If they appeared awkward before everyone’s eyes, who would believe in them?
In that spirit, his barrage of gifts to Aine was operating on the same logic—to win her favor.
Gifts pleased anyone. Among the nobility, it was common practice for those seeking to establish good relations to exchange presents.
He had assumed Aine’s refusals were merely ceremonial.
“From now on, gifts won’t be necessary.”
But Aine truly seemed to have no need for gifts.
“I understand that you’re sending them for my sake, Your Highness. But I prefer being with that person to receiving gifts.”

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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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