The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 2

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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 2

Artizea was well aware of her own evil deeds.

Therefore, she never thought about wanting to be recognized as a good person or wanting to be forgiven.

However, just once, she had asked only Saint Lisia.

“Don’t you resent me?”

She had asked this question thinking that Lisia would naturally resent her.

But Lisia smiled faintly with her haggard face.

“If I resent you, do you think you’ll feel better? Will you feel like you’ve repaid your sins even a little?”

“…”

“What should I do? I’ve already forgiven you.”

Lisia said this with her bloodless white lips.

Lisia was a saint.

Artizea had threatened her and forced her to marry Lawrence.

This was because the influence and symbolism that the saint possessed were necessary to supplement Lawrence’s lacking legitimacy.

All the imperial citizens rejoiced that the saint would become the crown princess.

During Lawrence’s coronation, flowers brought for the empress were piled like mountains around the imperial palace walls.

The empire adorned her body with gold and fur, and laid silk beneath her feet.

A woman born in a poor baron’s family in the northern frontier had become someone who could enjoy all the luxuries in the world.

But she had become more shabby than when she appeared in social circles without a single jewel, more than when she wore old clothes that couldn’t even block the cold wind while making pilgrimages to plague-stricken areas.

Her beautiful golden hair that had a reddish tint lost its luster and became pale and dry. Her transparent yet vibrant skin became dull and cloudy. Her plump and red lips also turned pale white.

Lawrence had inherently sadistic tendencies. Moreover, he had a complex about legitimacy.

When these two combined, inferiority complex and hatred toward the praised empress were born.

Artizea tried hard to protect Lisia from Lawrence.

Since she was the one who dragged her into this hell, she should at least protect her. And she had sworn to do so.

But what Artizea could do was at most prevent physical violence in public places.

She couldn’t stop what happened in the bedroom.

Lisia withered away, abused and isolated in a prison decorated with expensive embroidery and gold from the Southern Region.

Lisia’s holy power was so mighty that she could save even dying people as long as they still breathed. However, it was useless against her own illness.

Even so, Lisia looked at Artizea and smiled.

“Tia, I am a much, much stronger person than you think.”

“Your Majesty the Empress…”

“Whatever the reason was, whatever you did to me, in the end, it was I who decided to marry His Majesty Lawrence. So my being here is my responsibility, not yours.”

Lisia said this quietly.

“And I know how hard you tried to survive. That can’t be an excuse for harming others, but… I decided to forgive.”

“…”

“So please subtract at least my weight from the burden you’re carrying, Tia.”

It was Lisia who was dying.

Yet instead, Lisia reached out and caressed Artizea’s cheek, comforting her.

“Thank you for coming to see me. Besides the maids and servants, you were the only one in this imperial palace who truly worried about me.”

“That’s not true. Even now, countless citizens outside the imperial palace are kneeling and praying toward this place.”

“Those people only know the saint and the empress, they don’t know me.”

Saying this, Lisia hesitantly made a request.

“Tia, would you hold my hand?”

“Yes…”

“I thought I would be scared when it came time to die. It’s not as frightening as I thought. Maybe it’s because I’m going to be embraced by God?”

“You’ll be able to recover soon.”

Even knowing it wasn’t true, Artizea had no choice but to say this.

Lisia smiled and said.

“May I ask you a favor?”

“Even if you asked me to bring the heart of an ice dragon, I would get it for you.”

“It’s not something like that. If… actually, I hope such a thing never happens, but if you ever, by any chance, meet Lord Sedric…”

“Yes…”

“Please tell him that Lisia lived without regrets.”

“I will definitely do so.”

Artizea promised. Then Lisia squeezed her hand tightly.

“I’m sorry. For not being able to save you…”

“I am…, someone like me…”

“If there’s a next world and I can live once more, I would like to be called Lisia by you then.”

Those were her last words.

Click-clack.

Artizea came to her senses at the sound of footsteps coming down the stone stairs.

She couldn’t tell whether she had been dreaming or remembering Lisia until now.

How long had it been since she was imprisoned in the underground prison?

There wasn’t even a single barred window, so she couldn’t tell when the sun rose and set.

Therefore, Artizea now had almost no sense of time.

Once a day, a guard came down with a meal. But it was impossible to judge how many days had passed by that.

In the beginning, her consciousness was hazy due to torture wounds.

Now the bleeding had stopped and the wounds had somewhat healed, but the aftereffects caused severe pain.

Being suspended by chains constantly drained her stamina. Her shoulders felt like they would tear, and her lower limbs, where blood had pooled, were bruised.

Her body was ice cold, but she couldn’t tell if the prison was cold or if blood wasn’t circulating properly in her body.

“How pathetic you look, you vicious bitch.”

“Ugh…”

Artizea didn’t try to speak and just kept her mouth shut.

How many people in the world would want to tear Artizea apart and kill her?

Among them, Benia was someone who would sell her soul if she could just stand in the front row.

Benia was Lisia’s maid.

Artizea had flooded the village where Benia’s family lived. A plague had spread in that area.

It was Lisia who saved Benia, who had lost all her family and was dying. From then on, Benia served Lisia with her life.

All of Benia’s precious people had died because of Artizea. It was natural for Benia to hate her.

When Artizea looked at her quietly, Benia gritted her teeth and spat out.

“Right, you have no tongue. I should see what sophistry you would spout with that wicked tongue of yours.”

“…”

“The emperor’s strategist who once could make even birds fall is nothing special after all.”

Slap!

Benia struck Artizea’s cheek with all her might.

“It’s regrettable that your limbs and tongue are all cut off, leaving me no place to cut.”

Slap!

“You piece of trash. How dare someone like you look at me with pitying eyes?”

Artizea closed her eyes.

Benia was right. Artizea had no right to pity Benia.

Benia had lived carrying out her loyalty. When Lisia was alive, and even after she died.

After Lisia’s death, she flattered the new empress to remain in the imperial palace. When the empress was ill, she even endured tasting excrement with her mouth.

To remain in the imperial palace and someday seize an opportunity for revenge against Artizea and Lawrence.

Benia struck her cheek several more times.

Only a few molars remained. Still, there were many wounds in her mouth, so blood flowed out.

Benia took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood from her hands. Then she loosened the chains that bound Artizea.

‘Why…?’

Artizea thought it strange. Benia said quietly.

“If it were up to me, I’d tear you apart a hundred, a thousand times right here and it still wouldn’t be enough, but this is Lord Sedric’s command. He probably wants to drag you out and dismember you to appease the souls of those who died by your hands.”

That couldn’t be right.

Artizea knew Duke Sedric of Evron far better than Benia did.

That honest and righteous man, whatever his reasons, was not someone who would go so far as to extract an already fallen and tortured woman just to dismember her.

Moreover, if she helped her escape, Benia could never return. The Imperial Palace was not such a lenient place.

The fact that she had come down with the key would be discovered soon enough.

Benia was Sedric Evron’s subordinate and a spy favored by the Empress.

There was no way he would waste such an important chess piece like this. At least Artizea wouldn’t have.

Probably Sedric Evron had given this order for a different reason.

Not to publicly execute a now tongueless schemer, but because he wanted to save his precious subordinate and the maid of his dead lover Lisia.

Without such a reason, Benia would never have voluntarily left this dungeon.

But Benia’s thoughts didn’t reach that far.

She freed Artizea from the chains and covered her with her own outer garment.

A body that had endured months of torture and lost limbs was light enough for Benia to carry alone.

Artizea was loaded onto a laundry cart and taken out of the Imperial Palace.

The jostling of her body caused a high fever to rise in her already weakened state.

From midway through, her consciousness became clouded again.

Artizea knew she was being moved, but she couldn’t fully comprehend how she was being transported.

When she regained consciousness, she was inside a tent. The wounds where her limbs had been severed were wrapped in clean bandages.

The face of the old man nursing her was familiar. He was Duke of Evron’s butler.

“You’ve regained consciousness.”

Though she was his enemy, the butler spoke politely with respectful language.

“If you can manage to consume something, it would be best if you did.”

He spooned water and poured it into Artizea’s mouth. Artizea blinked and shook her head slightly.

“I understand. The doctor said your physical condition is too poor to keep food down well. I’ll brew you some strong tea instead.”

The butler said this, stood up, and went outside the tent.

Artizea turned her head to look around her surroundings.

There wasn’t much inside the tent. Just a lamp for boiling water, the bedding she was lying on, and a lantern.

The butler didn’t return alone. The curtain at the tent entrance fluttered as Sedric Evron strode inside.

Artizea convulsed as she looked up at him.

It had been several years, but his appearance was unchanged.

His neat and handsome features looked as if drawn with bold strokes in a single motion, and the deep anguish beneath his thick eyelashes remained the same.

Only his vivid black eyes seemed deeper than before.

“It’s been a long time, Marquess Rosan.”

“….”

“I heard your tongue was cut out.”

“….”

“Even someone who was once the world’s greatest schemer couldn’t manage to save her own body, it seems?”

Artizea lowered her eyes.

She did lament her own foolishness in remaining loyal to Lawrence while knowing she would be betrayed.

But she felt no guilt.

All humans in the world are evil. Those who approach power are even more so.

That was Artizea’s firm belief.

However, before two people in this world, Sedric Evron and Saint Lisia, she could not say such things.

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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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