The Villainess is on a Quest - Chapter 47

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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 46
What happened in the Plaza was enough to set the Empire ablaze with gossip.
“Breaking news, breaking news!”
“Why is everyone making such a fuss? It’s not another one of those baseless accusations, is it?”
“You fool. This time it’s real. There weren’t just one or two witnesses that day.”
“He’s right. This time it’s genuine.”
Wherever one went, people were abuzz with talk of what had happened that day.
“More than hundreds of people saw Aine Klaine in the Plaza that day.”
Countless people had watched with their own eyes, clear and unmistaken.
The sight of Aine Klaine standing atop the Fountain.
It had been mere rumor before. Most people suspected it was nonsense—why would the enemy commander be in the capital?
What had been dismissed as idle gossip shifted entirely when she herself stepped forward and revealed her face.
The scattered newspapers on the ground bore the very image of Aine ascending the Fountain that day.
“I never would have imagined Crown Prince Cled and Aine Klaine were in such a relationship.”
But what truly sent shockwaves through the realm was Cled’s appearance that followed.
As if to prove her words true, the two embraced in a kiss before the eyes of the multitude.
“It seemed like a love for the ages.”
“Indeed. Two enemy commanders bearing the fruit of love—how utterly romantic.”
Two adversaries who should have slain each other had become lovers, and what’s more, they’d even had a child together.
Had this happened at the war’s beginning, the reaction would have been far different.
How could one fall in love with the enemy, let alone with the very one who had brought the Empire to the brink of ruin?
But now, after years of protracted war, sentiment had shifted.
“Could this be the fruit of peace?”
It seemed as though this endless, mutually ruinous conflict had finally found its end.
In that light, the union between them was welcomed openly.
“Moreover, now that the Crown Prince has a child, no one could reasonably object to his place in the Line of Succession.”
The people of the Empire adored Cled, whom they saw as a hero, and wished for him to become the next Emperor.
Those who knew that hardline nobles had opposed him precisely because he had yet to take a wife, citing succession concerns, were pleased by this turn of events.
Though born of the Orion Kingdom, Aine herself came from a noble house of considerable standing and possessed remarkable abilities besides.
“This cannot be. It simply cannot be!”
Yet there were those who could not wholly accept this outcome.
“The Crown Prince’s seat must be mine!”
* * *
Philip Hertz—second son of Emperor Odin and half-brother to Cled—read the morning newspaper and felt a fury unlike any he had known.
“A wife, and now an heir? What in the world is happening?”
In practical terms, he had occupied the place ahead of Cled in the Line of Succession.
Should Cled die or be crippled on the battlefield, the succession would fall to him.
Though he had prayed fervently for that outcome, Philip had believed himself secure in his advantage.
After all, failure to marry or produce an heir would become grounds for disqualification.
So Philip had imagined that with time, even Odin would come to recognize him and name him Crown Prince.
Until he read the morning newspaper.
“To speak of marriage with an enemy commander—what madness!”
Though marriage was not yet formally announced, the existence of a child made Aine’s elevation to Crown Princess seem all but inevitable.
If the sole grounds for disqualification vanished, Philip could foresee with perfect clarity what Odin would do.
“My dear. Whatever shall we do?”
“What do you mean what? We must oppose it with every fiber! How could an enemy commander, and a woman of the Orion Kingdom no less, be brought into the Imperial Household?”
Philip’s wife, Leina, nodded in agreement rather than protest.
If he became Emperor, she would become Empress.
This opportunity could not be allowed to slip away so easily.
The two moved to depart for the Imperial Palace at once, but paused, aware of a presence that was not following.
“What are you doing? Come along at once!”
Their daughter, Sonelopi Hertz.
“Have I not always told you not to move like a sluggard?”
“See that you try your utmost to please His Majesty the Emperor. You understand what will happen if you do not, yes?”
Sonelopi shrank back, seized by dread at the sight of them.
Though her parents ought to be the source of her greatest comfort.
Yet knowing what would come of silence, she forced her lips open to speak.
“……Yes, I will.”
* * *
“It feels rather like being surrounded.”
“If this place were a battlefield, that would be true.”
“To you and me, it hardly seems any different from one.”
The front of the Chesher Residence was surrounded by people.
Journalists had come seeking confirmation, alongside nobles and commoners—all eager for even a glimpse of them.
She could have stepped outside to demonstrate how intimate their relationship had become, but Cled had objected.
“Retaria may well be hiding among them, after all.”
These were the same people who had fired arrows in the Plaza without hesitation, even with civilians present.
Those whom the Imperial Guard had managed to capture had downed poison without flinching, claiming it was for the greater good, and died on the spot.
“I wonder what drives them to such extremes.”
Even Aine Klaine, who had witnessed countless fanatics during the war, found Retaria’s actions incomprehensible.
What did they truly desire?
“Power.”
“Power?”
Cled answered as though certain.
“They feign devotion to the throne, but in truth they seek to seize the very center of power for themselves.”
He remembered vividly what they had done in the early stages of the war.
“They spoke of the Orion Kingdom as though it were evil incarnate, urging others to fight them as though it were a holy crusade.”
They had sought not only to foster hatred of the Orion Kingdom but to manipulate the political landscape according to their will, regardless of whether one sided with the throne or the nobles.
“Fortunately, because you achieved victory after victory, the people were not swayed by such rhetoric.”
If gods existed, why must we continue to know only defeat?
Had the god chosen the Orion Kingdom, not us?
Was Aine Klaine not like a Joan of Arc sent by the goddess herself?
Once people recognized the sophistry in their logic, they refused to be deceived further.
“So that’s why they target me. If I die, they can reignite the flames of war.”
She felt revulsion toward those who continued to advocate for war.
The way they showed not a shred of concern for the lives of so many, all for the sake of their own power.
“Should they gain power through such means, I wonder if they would truly look after the welfare of the Empire’s people.”
She found it almost admirable that they persisted so steadfastly even as public sentiment had grown so cold.
By all rights, they should have fractured and fallen apart by now.
As her revulsion and wariness toward Retaria deepened, Aine found her mind turning to another matter.
“Has the Emperor said nothing on the matter?”
Surely Odin had received word of these events.
She wondered how he would react to the current situation, so vastly different from the days of Wilhelm.
“His Majesty sent a letter early this morning.”
“What did it say?”
So a letter had come. As Aine asked, Cled handed her the opened missive as if to say she should read it herself.
Aine opened it at once and read its contents.
It did not take long to read through what was written.
“Are you certain this letter came from His Majesty?”
“I had the same doubts, but the imperial seal is genuine.”
There were only a few lines written, after all.
And the gist of it was this:
‘Well done. I formally welcome Aine Klaine as Crown Princess.’
She found it absurd, but she understood that just as she was using them, so too was he using her—nothing more.
“The Imperial Palace will announce it first. The birth of a new Crown Princess.”
Cled showed no particular reaction.
He merely smiled and gazed at her steadily.
“I offer you my sincere congratulations on becoming Crown Princess.”
Aine could only laugh at the sudden turn of events that had made her Crown Princess.

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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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