The Villainess is on a Quest - Chapter 81

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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 80
“Why must we resort to such pointless scheming?”
Strange currents of rumor were spreading through the Capital. The press had deliberately refrained from directly addressing the situation, so most people remained unaware.
But among the nobility, whispers had already begun to circulate.
Soon, virtually everyone would know.
“Don’t you realize that many people are watching us—both of us?”
Ever since the attack on the Chesher Estate, Philip and Leina had become the focus of public scrutiny.
Under such unwelcome gazes, they had to move cautiously—yet Leina had decided to visit the Imperial Palace.
Philip was anxious that her presence might somehow compromise their plans or alert their enemies.
He had repeatedly urged her to stay home, but Leina stood firm in her resolve.
“I’ve already settled the matter with Marquis Rodman and my father.”
This was precisely why Philip could not simply force the issue as he normally might.
Two men wielded enough power that even Philip had to defer to them, and both had endorsed Leina’s intention.
“They want to understand how things are truly unfolding within the Imperial Palace. So when I offered to go, they welcomed it.”
Since the last attack on the Imperial Palace, Aine had expelled nearly everyone within its walls whom she deemed even remotely suspicious.
With so few remaining to feed them intelligence, Retaria had been pleased when Leina volunteered to enter the palace herself.
“You don’t find it the least bit suspicious that she’d let you inside the palace so readily? What do you think might happen to you?”
Yet Philip remained skeptical. Why would Aine allow Leina through the gates so easily? She might seize her, interrogate her under torture.
They had already crossed many lines. These people were hardly fools.
Philip suspected Aine might arrest Leina, lock her away, and extract information through savage questioning.
“Philip. If it means making you Emperor, I’m prepared to do anything.”
“Leina, that’s—”
“It’s poison.”
In that moment, Leina showed him the pendant. Within it rested a small vial containing a quantity of clear liquid.
“If I sense they mean to seize me, I’ll choose this path. So you focus on becoming Emperor.”
She was willing to sacrifice everything. Only after hearing this did Philip’s anxiety ease.
As long as no information leaked, nothing else mattered.
Philip exhaled in relief and pulled her close, speaking against her hair.
“Come back safely, Leina. I’ll wait for you, trusting only in you.”
Leina’s teeth pressed into her lower lip.
‘You don’t care what happens to me at all.’
He had heard she might die from poison—shouldn’t he have protested more fiercely?
If he possessed even a shred of love for her, he should have desperately stopped her, insisting she mustn’t go to her death.
But when Leina realized he did not truly cherish her, the last remnant of feeling in her heart died completely.
‘I will never make you Emperor. If I did, my life—my entire life—would be destroyed.’
The moment he became Emperor, he would inevitably seek another woman and use some flimsy excuse to turn her own house against her for not supporting him sooner.
For the sake of her life and her family, she could not help him.
Especially not when she thought of Sonelopi, whom she had borne and then abandoned.
‘He cast her away—what right has he to anything now?’
Philip would surely try to kill Sonelopi as well. Or perhaps he would use her like a chess piece, as he saw fit.
She could not allow such a thing to happen.
With remorse weighing on her heart for young Sonelopi, Leina set out for the Imperial Palace at once.
* * *
“To be honest, I still can’t understand you. If you came here to poison me, you should have hidden the poison until the very end. Why did you surrender it at the checkpoint?”
Upon entering the Imperial Palace, she naturally faced an inspection. After all, Leina might have brought something intended to harm Aine.
During that process, Leina herself surrendered the poison from her pendant.
The moment she did, alarms sounded and several attendants swarmed around her, checking whether she carried any other dangerous items—but besides the poison Leina had surrendered, they found nothing.
“It wasn’t for Your Highness to consume. I brought it as a means of escape should I find myself in danger.”
What puzzled Aine further was Leina’s demeanor itself.
This woman, who had seemed never to acknowledge Aine as Crown Princess, now bowed and addressed her as such—a display Aine found almost impossible to believe.
So Aine’s curiosity was piqued. What truly was Leina’s reason for coming to the Imperial Palace?
“Since you seem to know so much already, I’ll get to the point. I don’t want my husband Philip to become Emperor.”
Aine’s expression did not change at Leina’s words.
Philip still clung to his ambitions and continued to threaten her openly.
“How can I trust you? When he becomes Emperor, you’re the one who benefits most.”
It was a rational suspicion.
Yet Aine sensed something in the woman before her—a quality that suggested she was trustworthy, and she expected Leina would make a genuine effort to prove that trust.
“The deed to the Pink Diamond Mine that Alex Rodman offered to my father, Dunkin Horizon.”
Leina began laying out, one by one, the items she had received beforehand from Dunkin.
The deed to the mine from Alex, the covenant from Retaria promising Philip’s appointment as Supreme Commander, a check for ten billion Beneto, and finally, a list of Retaria Faction members.
“Retaria offered such a sum to draw in her father.”
When Aine saw those checks, she nearly laughed aloud. It was plain that Retaria was mobilizing every tool at her disposal to secure Dunkin.
“I won’t ask the foolish question of whether the Imperial household could offer a higher price. You’ve already revealed your intentions.”
“We wish to stand with the Crown Princess. More precisely, with myself and the Horizon Family.”
They were breaking from him entirely. Without a future to see clearly, they’d chosen betrayal faster than anyone else might have.
“In that spirit, I offer all of this to Her Highness without reservation. Please accept us, foolish and ignorant as we are.”
Aine fell into thought as she watched Leina kneel before her.
Had Dunkin been waiting all this time without obeying the imperial command simply because they were gathering these things?
Now that she understood the reason, Aine felt her tension ease. She had the leisure of a well-fed predator.
“I know your purpose, but I haven’t yet heard your motive.”
Why had she suddenly chosen betrayal? There was no such thing as betrayal without cause.
Not that she needed to know, but still—it had to be clear.
“Philip hoped that if I came here and was captured, I would take poison. In that moment, every feeling I had for him vanished.”
She’d thought she loved him, but there was no love at all.
Now, after too many years had passed before she could fully admit it, Leina’s heart held only wounds and regret.
Before Aine could finish saying she was free to go, Leina hesitated at the threshold, then spoke.
“…Is Sonelopi doing well?”
“She’s growing very healthy and strong.”
Growing well. Only after hearing those words did hot tears burst from her eyes.
Aine did not offer comfort. Nor did she rebuke her.
After all, she would be condemning and reproaching herself enough on her own; there was no need to tire her tongue with more.
‘Dunkin has turned.’
Instead, Aine focused on the items before her. Every piece needed to completely topple her opponent was ready.
Night passed and the sun rose, bringing with it the golden chance to illuminate the world anew.
“This will settle it.”
As Aine surveyed the list, she felt the end approaching.
Not long now—the moment when she could drive them out completely and turn her full attention to Wilhelm.

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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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