The Villainess is on a Quest - Chapter 82

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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 82
“Commander Meri. Have you heard the news? It seems the Empire is showing signs of internal strife.”
It was one of the rumors spreading from the Intelligence Bureau of the Orion Kingdom.
A series of murders within the imperial family were erupting across the Verona Empire.
This was undoubtedly causing upheaval within the Kingdom as well.
“Wouldn’t this be the perfect moment to strike them and seize as much territory as possible?”
“You fool. What makes you think our situation is any better?”
There were those who argued they should seize this golden opportunity and attack the wavering Empire without delay, and others who said an offensive was out of the question when their own affairs were in such disorder.
Meri’s 1st Legion had chosen the latter course.
“How can we take the offensive when they’ve slashed the supply lines to the 1st Legion?”
Linus continued his relentless attempts to seize military authority.
He was using supply allocations as leverage to exert his influence over the Military.
He threatened to drastically cut material shipments to those who did not comply. In fact, the 1st Legion’s supplies had already been reduced to barely half their former levels.
“Your words are wise, gentlemen. Our army is in no condition to fight.”
Even a legendary blade that had once commanded the world became nothing but a rusted sword if maintenance was neglected.
Weakened though they were, their enemy was the Empire—and Kleid Hafts and Aine existed within it.
If those two strategists put their heads together and came forth to face the Kingdom’s forces, the outcome was as clear as day.
“Probably five thousand soldiers under Aine could wipe us all out?”
“Five thousand? A thousand would suffice.”
The freshly conscripted soldiers answered skeptically, telling them not to exaggerate, but the veterans harbored no such delusions.
Everything—the military equipment they had now, the armor, the arrows—was in short supply.
Those who understood that war was not won by numbers alone would never face the Imperial forces, no matter what order came down.
“More pressing than that—I wonder what will become of the Kingdom. I heard the provincial nobles made unreasonable demands of the central government again.”
And the Kingdom itself was reeling from internal turmoil no less than the Empire.
“The so-called king is too busy hiding in the shadows to put any of it in order.”
“It’s merely a rumor circulating of late, but they say the King Matthias and Queen Leixi were both involved in their own deaths.”
* * *
The rumors were not spreading only through the 1st Legion.
As there was no eternal night, there was no eternal terror either.
The Capital nobility, chafing under the reign of terror imposed by Binet and Linus, had begun to spread whispers.
This information was sufficient to turn the entire Kingdom upside down.
“He wasn’t assassinated by a traitor, then?”
“How in the world could such a thing come to pass?”
“To murder one’s own blood—and King Matthias at that, wise and just as he was!”
Everyone had believed Matthias’s death was the work of the Verona Empire.
But the news that the current king—his younger brother Binet—was involved in that very death was enough to rouse public fury.
Had Binet governed as righteously as Matthias had, the blow might have been softened; but because the Kingdom was being turned completely upside down under his hand, the impact was all the greater.
Demands for an official investigation into the truth about the royal house grew louder with each passing day. The demeanor of those nobles who had not actively sided with Binet was turning distinctly cold.
Even as Binet struggled to placate the angry mobs and win back the nobles’ support, he made a catastrophic decision.
“Arrest them all! No—kill them on the spot!”
Binet commanded the Royal Guard. They were to charge all the protesters with treason and execute them where they stood.
* * *
“What the hell are those wretches screaming about! Who does what!”
The Royal Guard moved swiftly to suppress the protesters in accordance with Binet’s orders.
The crackdown was brutally executed, and the streets reeked of blood while cries and wails echoed through the air.
Officials rushed before the royal palace and submitted petitions begging him to rescind the order.
They said that slaughtering the people without formal trial was an abandonment of humanity itself.
But Binet refused to hear a word of it, and instead imprisoned all those who had submitted petitions in the Underground Prison.
“I didn’t! I said I didn’t do it! I never did anything!”
Alone in his private chamber, Binet began to convulse. His head was splitting with pain.
“I didn’t know! Why would I—why would I do that to him, to my brother!”
Binet, unable to even form coherent sentences, finally collapsed to the floor. With his eyes closed, he recalled that day and wept.
The author of all this was not himself, but Linus. He despised him utterly.
If only that man had never existed, they would never have descended into such catastrophe.
‘Please. Someone make this hellish situation stop.’
He imagined what it would have been like if Aine had been here. Aine Kleine. If she had been at his side, would he have fallen so far? Would he have let Linus act so unilaterally?
Ever since she vanished, the Kingdom had crumbled in an instant. It was as though it were proof that the realm had been sustained all along by the efforts of a single woman.
Binet laughed silently. It was a pointless reflection, given that he had already inflicted an eternal nightmare upon Wilhelm.
She would have found a way to escape this place and save Wilhelm, and sought to uncover the hidden truth.
‘And the moment she reaches that truth, I will die.’
Once, he’d feared such things, but not anymore. Now he found himself wishing for that moment to arrive.
Come, fate. Come, the hour when I might end this filthy sin staining my hands.
* * *
“It seems Dunkin has made his choice.”
“We’ve heard he’s withdrawn all our accumulated funds from the bank.”
“I never thought he was so obsessed with money.”
Through the Imperial Bank director, they learned that Dunkin had liquidated every account in full.
With that, he’d stepped into the same boat as the rest of them. Retaria felt genuine joy.
Honestly, there had been plenty of skeptics at first.
Whether he truly intended to stand with them, or if he might be contacting Aine behind everyone’s back—such doubts had circulated.
‘But he never once touched base with the Imperial Palace.’
Under strict surveillance, he’d met with Reina only a handful of times, and beyond that, nothing.
Alex Rodman’s lips curled upward.
Because Dunkin had held the line without showing up for work, Retaria had managed to buy precious time.
In that span, they’d concentrated weapons and gathered their people.
“We move in four days.”
“Is that certain?”
“Seems rather tight, doesn’t it?”
“No. They were already planning to annihilate us. We can’t afford to sit idle.”
From the moment Aine unsheathed her blade, avoidance had become impossible.
It was either die quietly where they stood, or seize the moment when their enemy’s guard dropped and strike first.
Given that choice, there was only one answer: kill them before they killed you.
“But the opposition commands the Imperial Guard.”
The Imperial Guard—each member possessed extraordinary skill.
While they couldn’t quite claim the One Against Hundred standard, they were easily capable of subduing dozens.
If that day hadn’t been an ambush, the odds of them being the ones defeated would have been high.
“The Imperial Guard doesn’t matter. Dunkin is ours now, isn’t he? If he brings the Capital Defense Force to our side, their defeat is already sealed.”
From the moment Dunkin fell into their hands, the outcome of this war had been decided.
Alex honed his blade with that certainty.
“We depose the Crown Prince and display Aine’s head before the assembled masses. Then we name Prince Philip as Crown Prince immediately, petition the Emperor for abdication, and obtain it in one stroke.”
They would set up a puppet emperor and remake the world according to their design.
For that, Retaria would stop at nothing.
“If we gather all personnel from the provincial posts, we should be able to muster two thousand.”
“With nearly ten thousand Capital Defense Forces available for immediate deployment, if they all move, taking the Imperial Palace will be effortless.”
“My lord. Has there been any word from that one?”
Suddenly, she wondered whether their leader had sent any message.
Alex Rodman had indeed received word about this earlier.
“He said to trust in him and deliver tangible results.”
“As expected!”
“So he gave his consent as well.”
He had not consented. But Alex could not reveal that truth.
Rather, he’d been told to avoid direct confrontation and immediately head to the provinces to expand Retaria’s influence—but Alex could not comply.
‘Now that we’ve come this far, there’s no turning back.’
He carried with him an arrogant certainty that he would emerge victorious.

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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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