The Villainess is on a Quest - Chapter 51

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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 51
“They have overstepped all bounds.”
“Commander. What would you have us do?”
Meri and the 1st Legion remained stationed in the Capital.
She longed to leave this place, yet Linus had applied pressure.
Should they depart without recognizing Binet as king, he had warned, their families would face grave danger.
Trapped here with their feet bound, they received every scrap of news that reached the Capital with open eyes.
“They arrest anyone who so much as speaks Aine’s name aloud.”
“Arrest would be a mercy. They torture people to extract why they spoke such things, and worse—they force out the names of anyone who shares her sympathies.”
Linus had grown ruthless.
He was dragging away countless people, determined to silence Aine’s Sympathy Movement once and for all.
Terror had spread through the entire Capital like a suffocating fog.
“Should we not move to save them?”
Someone turned to Meri with the question.
Surely they could not allow this to continue.
“We do nothing.”
“Commander.”
“If we step in now, there’s no telling what will happen.”
Others pressed her to act, their voices urgent with the heat of the moment.
The people’s favor was turning away from the throne; if the Legion rose now, they reasoned, the masses would surely rally to their banner.
But Meri shook her head.
“Duke Balbani’s 2nd Legion is quartered just beyond the Capital.”
The 2nd Legion was camped at their very doorstep.
“We have no stomach for a bloody Civil War, and the Chancellor may well be expecting precisely this.”
“A trap, you mean?”
Meri nodded slowly. If all of this had been anticipated and prepared for, the situation would be dire indeed.
There was every reason to believe Duke Balbani’s forces—armed and waiting as if they’d been given advance warning—would rise at the perfect moment.
However mighty the Kingdom’s premier legion, an unprepared ambush could annihilate them.
‘Especially without Aine.’
The difference in morale with Aine present and absent was immense.
During her absence, the soldiers had struggled greatly.
It had brought them relief to learn that Aine had crossed safely into the Empire and was living well, but regardless, Meri wanted to avoid battle in their current state.
“Above all, Aine’s safety in the Empire now depends on our continued existence.”
Having backing and lacking it made all the difference.
Even if they could not offer direct aid, their very presence held value.
They had to serve as Aine’s anchor, her rear guard.
So they could not afford reckless action.
“Commander, your wisdom is sound. Our thinking was too shallow.”
The officers grew calm, making no further demands.
With the tension broken, Meri turned back to the matter at hand.
“What of our approach to Duke Balbani of the 2nd Legion?”
Their foremost objective now was persuasion.
If they could bring the 2nd Legion to their side, the situation would resolve itself.
“He has sent no reply.”
Yet it seemed the situation would not yield so easily.
* * *
“The 1st Legion keeps sending word. Would it not be wise to answer them?”
Duke Balbani—a devoted follower of Aine, a man some even called her adoptive father.
Yet letters from the Capital had been arriving at his quarters in steady succession.
Each implored him to reconsider his stance, promising that if he joined them, removing Binet would be simple.
In his heart, Balbani wished to answer their call. His loyalty to Aine burned as bright as ever.
“What choice do we have? Our position is already set.”
But he could not yield.
“The Chancellor watches us with a serpent’s gaze. One wrong move, and we tumble into catastrophe.”
This was why Linus let the letters arrive without objection—why he remained silent.
They were men shackled by secrets they dared not speak, blackmailed into submission.
And so they could not answer Meri’s call.
“Are you certain, sir? People are calling you a slave to ambition.”
“Yes. The honor we have guarded for the Kingdom lies trampled and defiled.”
Yet his officers pressed on, demanding that he rise regardless.
Better to burn himself alive than be held by his weakness and reduced to livestock.
Certainly, a soldier loyal to his nation ought to act that way.
“But I cannot.”
Balbani was not such a man.
With his weakness so firmly grasped, he could not draw the sword at his hip.
“We, too, will take no action unless the Commander moves first.”
Frustration gnawed at him, but without the Commander, they could not proceed recklessly—so they remained still.
Yet Balbani knew the truth.
He knew he could not keep them waiting indefinitely.
* * *
“Are you certain I’m fit for this task?”
“There’s no one else I’d trust with it.”
Aine had asked Mane to take on the role of Wilhelm’s tutor.
For Mane, it was undoubtedly an honor.
A prince’s tutor. And not merely any prince—Wilhelm, who by rights should have ascended to the throne of the Orion Kingdom.
When he reclaimed the crown, the rewards would be substantial; yet Mane felt a flicker of hesitation.
“I was born in the countryside, and I know nothing of imperial protocol, let alone royal etiquette, Commander.”
Her knowledge extended only to medicine; courtly customs and ceremonial rites remained largely foreign to her.
She worried whether someone like her could truly be suited to serve as tutor to Wilhelm, now the imperial heir drawing every eye upon him.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know.”
“Commander?”
“I’ll take every criticism that comes.”
Aine had not dismissed this concern lightly either.
She had already imagined the burden Mane would bear.
Which was precisely why Aine wanted to entrust Wilhelm to her.
She herself would be the shield, taking all the blows, so that Mane need only focus on Wilhelm’s wellbeing.
“Wilhelm’s memory is not yet whole.”
He had only recently escaped that eternal nightmare.
In its aftermath, his recollection remained fragmented.
With no way of knowing what lay ahead, whoever stood at Wilhelm’s side needed two things: first, to be trustworthy; second, to possess medical knowledge.
‘And the only person who meets both conditions is Mane.’
That was why she insisted.
Not only did Mane know of Wilhelm’s birth, but Aine could trust her completely.
“Mother, are you finished talking? Oh, Mane!”
Though he’d been told to wait, Wilhelm’s patience had worn thin, and he appeared in the room.
He turned toward Aine, but catching sight of Mane beside her, his expression brightened as he greeted her.
“Besides, I want to entrust him to someone Wilhelm loves.”
Wilhelm was naturally sociable, but he took a particular fondness to Mane.
“I tried the String Game just like you showed me before!”
“Is that so? What shape did you make?”
“A butterfly, for one!”
“A butterfly? My goodness!”
Because Wilhelm favored her, Aine wanted all the more for Mane to accept.
Mane, reading Aine’s intention, let out a quiet sigh.
“Since the Commander insists, I have no choice.”
In truth, Mane had planned to seek instruction from the imperial physicians during their time in the Capital.
Her goal was to learn in areas where her knowledge fell short and advance the medicine of the Orion Kingdom.
‘I can study later, once I’ve finished standing watch over them both.’
But watching Aine and Wilhelm, she felt it was time to set aside such ambitions for now.
After all, once the war ended, opportunities to learn would come aplenty.
As she nodded in agreement, Wilhelm spoke.
“Father! Have you arrived?”
Wilhelm dashed toward Kleid, who had entered the room.
Kleid smiled as Wilhelm welcomed him, yet his gaze remained fixed on Aine.
“Mane, could you look after Wilhelm for a moment?”
“But I want to play with Father.”
“Just a moment. Father has something to discuss.”
Aine caught the meaning in his eyes.
‘He has something to tell me.’
As Mane led Wilhelm away and they disappeared from the room, Aine and Kleid stood alone.
Kleid did not open his mouth immediately.
Aine was just about to ask first, wondering if something had gone wrong, when—
“Do you happen to have a younger sibling?”
An unexpected question hung in the air.

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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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