The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 169

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 169

Lisia had a dream.

In the dream, she stood looking down at a wasteland.

No, it wasn’t a wasteland. Originally, it had been fertile wheat fields.

But land left without people to tend it had transformed from wheat fields into barren ground.

The ruined village was full of abandoned houses, and where roads once existed, broken carts and collapsed stone pillars that marked the village lay in ruins.

It was a more miserable sight than land that had never been cultivated at all.

Lisia knew well the land that had never been cultivated. The village of the rebels where she had lived was located on just such land.

There were many such places in Evron. Land that humans dared not challenge nature to cultivate even once. Land without roads or villages. Frozen plains that remained in their original state.

But standing before them, though she might have felt fear, she had never felt they were miserable.

However, this place was miserable.

“I’m against it.”

A heavy voice came from behind her.

Lisia turned around. Her hair was disheveled by the wind, so she gathered it with both hands.

Cedric looked at her with dark eyes.

Not all black things are equally dark. The eyes of Cedric that Lisia knew were originally the gentle color of night.

But what now lingered in those eyes was a frozen shadow. Long-standing loneliness and despair had accumulated from deep within, now taking on a cold color like stone.

Lisia found this pitiful.

“There’s nothing we can do about it now. Should I gather the people who follow me and wage war against the temple?”

“That might not be a bad idea.”

“It’s really scary when you say that, Ced.”

“If the saint joins Evron’s military strength, it would be quite manageable.”

“We could struggle for a few years. We could probably finish off the temple, but Evron would be destroyed. Karam would come down after that.”

Lisia answered thus.

“Well, I know you’re not speaking seriously, Ced.”

“…”

“I’m fine.”

Then Cedric let out a long sigh.

“Lisia.”

“I’m fine. Really.”

“Lawrence is a cruel bastard. Even more so to women.”

“Ced.”

“Think again. That oracle isn’t real. Marquess Rosan fabricated it.”

“Yes. I know that best of all. I’m the one who hears the voice of the divine.”

Lisia turned her gaze from Cedric to look at the wasteland again.

“Reveal with your own mouth that it’s a false oracle. That’s all you need to do. No matter what Archbishop Akim or anyone else says, no matter what claims the temple makes in unity, you’re the saint. If you survive and tell people before them that it’s false, that’s the end of it.”

“How many more sacrifices would we have to make to survive like that? Could we escape Marquess Rosan’s trap by doing so?”

“…”

“If we overturn this oracle and fight and win against the temple, will this tiresome affair finally end?”

Cedric couldn’t answer those words.

“And it’s not completely a lie either. In the end, I have to change the Emperor’s heart.”

“Lisia.”

“If not the current Emperor, then at least the next Emperor’s heart. If that doesn’t work, then the heart of the Emperor after that.”

Lisia said.

She had said that the oracle she received was to care for the poor and suffering.

Those words weren’t completely accurate. She had crafted the least threatening statement to the temple and those in power to protect her life.

Originally, oracles cannot be perfectly translated into human words.

What Lisia heard from the divine wasn’t such a single phrase, but everything.

To save the people living in this world, to save those suffering from tribulation.

And that she was someone who could change others by remaining unchanged and believing in sincerity for that purpose.

Holy power was merely incidental. Even if Lisia healed tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of sick people with that holy power, if the world didn’t change, the sick would just be born again.

What needed to be healed was the world itself.

So holy power was merely received to help her not lose hope and keep the light burning on the long, arduous journey.

“I’m going to try to change Lord Lawrence. I know. I know that he’s being sweet to me now to obtain the saint, and that he’s originally a cruel and selfish person.”

“Lisia.”

“But that person loves me.”

Lisia smiled sadly.

Perhaps that was why she had become a saint, she thought.

“People can change. Sincerity will get through. I believe that. And if only that person can change, that would be the fastest way to save the Empire.”

“I don’t think that will happen.”

“Even if it doesn’t work… at least I could bear an heir to the Imperial family.”

Lisia spoke with clenched fists. Then she looked back at Cedric again.

“Even if I fail, there’s still 20 years later, 30 years later. I’m a saint. No one can threaten my life and position so easily.”

“…”

“You know it too, Ced. Someone has to go. Whether it’s Lord Lawrence or… Marquess Rosan, someone has to watch what happens within the Imperial family.”

“…Would it be no use if I asked you not to leave?”

“Poor man.”

Lisia sighed.

Her holy power didn’t include foresight. But still, Lisia felt she knew Cedric’s future.

No pillar in this world can support the sky alone forever.

Cedric had no one to be with him. He had many who were loyal, but none who could stand as equals and lean on each other.

He had many who would throw away their lives to carry out orders, but none to confide in and consult with.

If even she left, he would remain alone for a very long time.

“Or would you like to do the opposite?”

Lisia said cheerfully with a smile, as if joking.

“The opposite?”

“I’ll just play the role of a saint healing the sick as I do now. You seduce and persuade Marquess Rosan.”

“Nonsense.”

“Make him your person. You could even marry him. Then everything would be resolved very smoothly, don’t you think?”

Cedric let out a hollow laugh.

Lisia smiled and said.

“Good days will come. Trust me. It’s a saint’s blessing.”

“Lisia.”

“The day will surely come when you’ll think all of this was just a trial to overcome.”

The wasteland was dyed in sunset, and the wind carried the smell of dust.

The only consolation was that nowhere in that wasteland could any sign of the plague be found anymore.

Lisia opened her eyes in bed and looked at the ceiling.

The tears wouldn’t stop.

* * *

Cedric had to leave at dawn that day.

Both his body and mind were exhausted. It felt as if decades of fatigue had crashed down on him all at once.

He was also anxious about leaving Artizea’s side now.

However, the given task had to be done. He couldn’t disobey the imperial command. Not as a matter of duty, but because it was also dangerous.

“His Majesty the Emperor doesn’t suspect me, but still, showing that I talked with you too long before leaving wouldn’t be wise.”

Cedric said with a sigh while stroking Artizea’s hair.

“At least until I return, don’t think about anything.”

“….”

“Your body is not yours alone. You must also understand that you cannot control all worldly affairs by yourself.”

“…I understand.”

“This is what I’m saying as your husband…, and it’s also an order I’m giving as your lord.”

“…Yes.”

Cedric gently stroked her belly.

It was a child who had been quiet for a while after moving a few times at first. But that night, it struggled restlessly.

Whether it was due to shock, or perhaps the child had somehow known that its mother wasn’t pleased with its existence and had been deliberately staying still, the movement was remarkably active.

“Please don’t come out. It will only complicate my feelings.”

Only after being urged several times did Cedric say this and go outside alone.

Small commotion could be heard from outside. Soon the sound of war horses’ hooves grew distant.

Artizea watched the dawn light color the window.

Even until then, her thoughts couldn’t gather into one. What filled her chest was an ecstatic sense of despair.

‘I shouldn’t have gone to see him.’

That was what Artizea had been thinking all night long.

On the day she returned, she shouldn’t have gone to see Cedric.

When he had no memory, she shouldn’t have even created the opportunity to tear at his heart by proposing something like a marriage contract.

It would have been better to just poison Milaire and Lawrence and end it there.

That day, if Cedric hadn’t accepted her proposal, that was what she had originally planned to do.

Duke Loigar would have become Emperor. But wouldn’t that have been fine?

Evron wouldn’t have fallen, and Cedric would have had the power to resist.

She should have executed the plan immediately that day without going to see him.

Before he came to love her while knowing nothing. Before suffering and conflict arose in his heart.

It would have been better if she had just ended everything.

But it was already too late.

For both Cedric and herself.

Cedric’s words were right. It could never become something that never happened.

And the fact that they had come to love each other like this would also never become something that never happened.

She could die without regret.

Though her mind was so complicated that it seemed nothing would go down her throat, when morning came she was still hungry and thirsty.

The maids brought preparations for washing. Artizea washed her face and had breakfast.

As soon as morning came, Hailey came to see her with haggard eyes. It was a face that hadn’t slept a wink.

“I have more questions about what you said yesterday.”

“…Yes.”

“You haven’t already reached an agreement with His Highness about the succession issue, have you?”

“That’s right.”

Hailey let out a long sigh of relief.

“Wouldn’t it be proper to decide that first? It doesn’t seem like something someone like me can give an answer to beforehand.”

That was the conclusion Hailey had reached after thinking all night. In truth, it was also partly to delay giving an answer.

“Yes.”

Whether she understood Hailey’s worry and tension or not, Artizea readily agreed.

And then she asked.

“But where is Lisia?”

Usually Lisia was the first to wake up in the morning and come to pay her respects.

In fact, Lisia would wake up at dawn hours before Artizea got up and finish light exercise and training.

But today she hadn’t come to pay her respects.

“She said she wasn’t feeling well.”

Hailey answered on her behalf.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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