The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 271

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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 271

It was when Hailey finally came out of the study with the completed report.

A middle-aged man was standing right in front of the door. Hailey let out a sigh. She desperately wanted to pretend not to know him.

However, she couldn’t completely ignore the mayor’s secretary.

“You know this already. Her Highness is not meeting with anyone.”

“I’m not asking for an unreasonable formal audience! If she could just briefly bless young Wello…”

The secretary spoke desperately. Wello was the son the mayor had gained late in life, now only three years old.

Although it hadn’t spread to this vicinity yet, it was a time when plague was going around. Even if it meant being rude to the Crown Princess, his desire to have a blessing bestowed upon his young son was understandable.

Hailey also wanted to help bridge the gap if she could.

However, she couldn’t make exceptions.

If she allowed a three-year-old, what about a five-year-old? What about a seven-year-old?

What about elderly people who get sick easily? What about those who are already ill?

Once she started allowing it, the requests for visits would never end. Although they were maintaining security now, as long as the Evron Knight Order was moving, administrative officials and lords couldn’t help but know.

If rumors spread that there was a saint here, pilgrims and sick people would gather like clouds.

With plague going around, if people moved around like that, the contagion would only accelerate.

“I don’t have healing power. We have no choice but to maintain security and continue quarantine measures as we are now.”

When Hailey asked what she would do, Artizea answered calmly.

For Hailey, who vividly remembered the miracle at the Harvest Festival, these were words that were hard to accept.

“That incident was a one-time thing. You can think of it as being lucky enough to receive a miracle.”

Since she said so herself, there was nothing else Hailey could say.

But handling external activities on Artizea’s behalf was giving her a splitting headache.

“I’m sorry. Her Highness is truly unwell.”

Hailey only said that much. What could the secretary do? When the Crown Princess had collapsed from travel fatigue and was unable to meet people.

Hailey left the secretary standing there and departed.

And she took a deep breath in front of Artizea’s room.

“I’m coming in, Your Highness.”

There was no answer from inside.

Hailey opened the door. It had been several days since Artizea stopped answering. She had grown accustomed to it by now.

All the wooden shutters were closed, making it pitch dark even though it was broad daylight. The smell of candles was acrid.

Artizea was sitting facing the wall where a map was posted. There were notes made here and there with pins and black pen. They were notes whose meaning Hailey couldn’t understand.

“You’re here?”

Artizea’s complexion as she turned around was darkly shadowed. Only her blue eyes glowed like phosphorescence in the darkness.

“You stayed up all night again.”

“I can’t sleep.”

“Then you should at least lie in bed and close your eyes.”

Hailey said.

She had been weak from the beginning, and it had gotten worse since she collapsed while proclaiming the divine oracle.

Hailey thought Artizea shouldn’t have come to the Western Regions at all.

Artizea probably hadn’t slept properly for a single day since Alphonse and the knights’ bodies arrived.

Hailey was an Evron person accustomed to death. In other words, she was also familiar with people who were broken by the death of those close to them.

‘At least it’s fortunate that she’s not trying to act as bait like I worried about when she first came west.’

It was natural that the knights’ deaths would be painful. However, she hadn’t expected Artizea to become like this.

Her worry about Lisia was the same. She knew that Artizea held Lisia dear and loved her like her only friend.

Hailey was also worried about Lisia. She was a relative with whom she had spent her childhood. She was not much different from a sister.

But the current Artizea was not normal.

Should she use some kind of medicine to make her sleep? If she slept deeply and woke up, she might acknowledge that she herself needed rest.

Artizea muttered.

“I don’t want my train of thought to be interrupted.”

“You should have at least ventilated the room. Sophie must not have done anything.”

Hailey deliberately brought up Sophie. She thought that would draw more of a reaction from Artizea.

And her thinking was correct. Artizea spoke as if making excuses.

“I can concentrate better this way than having it get light and dark, so I told her to just leave it.”

“Then may I open them now?”

Artizea nodded. Hailey extinguished several candles and approached the window to open the shutters.

Fresh air rushed in all at once.

Artizea let out a big sigh. Then, as if her head hurt, she pressed her forehead and leaned back against the cushions.

“The news you were waiting for has arrived.”

“Summarize it for me. My head hurts.”

Hailey placed the report with original messages from various places attached on the desk.

“It was as Your Highness said. We can’t confirm identities, but considering the increase and decrease in numbers, it seems most of the bandits who disappeared from this region are moving to the Aba River Region.”

Hailey was surprised when she first confirmed this.

The place where they were now was originally one of the regions in the west where bandits rampaged most severely.

But when they arrived, it was strangely quiet.

This was despite the fact that the lords who periodically subjugated bandits couldn’t send out subjugation forces because of the plague.

Since bandits wouldn’t move while worrying about plague, it was right to see that an overall migration had occurred.

“How did you know?”

“Because bandits can be moved with money alone.”

Artizea replied.

Even if a wealthy person wanted to gain military power, it would take several years to raise an army.

But Lawrence didn’t have that kind of patience. Moreover, he wasn’t aiming for rule and domination.

Rather than waste mental energy, recruiting bandits with money would be the most convenient method.

“Mark the information you brought on the map with red pen.”

“Yes. I’ll do it, so in the meantime, Your Highness should get some sleep, even briefly. It would also be good if you ate something. Alice nearly got into a fight after constantly nagging the chef to keep the soup warm.”

“Alright.”

Artizea answered, but didn’t get up. She didn’t want to show that she was having dizzy spells.

Having several people worry about her was a strange and uncomfortable feeling. Having to endure not to avoid showing weakness like before, but to avoid causing worry.

When she didn’t deserve it.

Artizea leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes. The underside of her eyelids was dry and stinging.

The scratching sound of Hailey taking notes made her body feel heavier. But perhaps because she was too tired, sleep wouldn’t come.

‘If I fall asleep, I feel like I’ll have terrible dreams.’

To avoid collapsing when she truly needed to be alert, she had to preserve her strength. Artizea knew that too.

Hailey spoke in a deliberately light voice.

“Don’t worry too much. Lisia is a strong girl. Whether she was kidnapped for political purposes or because they knew Lisia was a saint and wanted her healing power, they’ll eventually show themselves if we wait. They won’t kill her.”

“That won’t do. If that happens, it’ll be too late.”

The opponent was Lawrence. It wasn’t for healing power or political purposes.

Once Artizea herself had publicly declared that she received a divine oracle, Lisia had no political usefulness.

And Lawrence wasn’t someone who could gather forces through virtue by providing healing and grace with long-term vision.

So it would be correct to think that Lawrence’s target was Lisia herself.

Now she thought she was beginning to understand.

Actions come from purpose. Purpose comes from desire.

At the psychological foundation of Lawrence was resentment and anger at being deprived of what he should naturally have.

In the past, that ‘thing he should naturally have’ was inheritance rights and the Empire.

And Lawrence had once possessed the Empire.

But human desires don’t change easily. Because they come from the entirety of life experience.

The goal was achieved but the desire remained. So the target must have changed.

The possibility was sufficient. Lawrence had ultimately failed to make her heart submit.

‘If he regards Lady Lisia as that “thing he should naturally have,” then everything he’s done so far can be explained with consistent logic.’

He spread plague in the west and caused chaos. Because Lisia tried to stop the western plague.

He framed Cedric and made the people of the capital aware of their discriminatory consciousness toward the North. Because Lisia cherished Cedric.

They burned the port. To increase political burden on Cedric and to destroy the North.

At the same time, they deepened the conflict elements that were inherent in the North. Because Lisia cherished Evron.

Even with overwhelming force, they deliberately killed Alphonse and the guard knights. To torment Lisia.

She could understand the logic behind his actions. So she could also guess what he would do next.

He would destroy everything that Lisia cherished. Just like before he returned.

For the past few weeks, she had thought like mad, and thought again.

What she had planned to pressure Cedric.

What she had executed and what she hadn’t. And what she had discussed with Lawrence, constructing logic to seek permission.

So the conclusion she finally reached was one.

Artizea placed the back of her hand over her eyes.

‘I should have killed him as soon as he returned.’

She hadn’t thought there would be more reason to blame herself than this.

She had once destroyed the Empire. After returning, she had partially followed Cedric’s principles, but it was only partial.

The justification of reducing the total amount of sacrifice was not righteous. What did that matter to the innocent victims who were actually swept up in it?

If there was an afterlife where retribution was carried out, even with an immortal body, it would be impossible to repay all those sins.

Cedric had said it was something he had chosen first. That the responsibility was his, and the past had already become nothing.

However, in the end, it was Artizea herself who had decided to uphold justification, scheme conspiracies, and try to put Cedric on the emperor’s throne.

The crimes committed in the past had not disappeared either. The blood of those who died from this plague was also on Artizea’s hands.

All of that had been done knowingly.

But now, for the first time, Artizea regretted something she had never even thought of.

‘I should have just killed my brother and mother that day.’

If she had, all of this would have disappeared.

After that, the world would have flowed according to its natural order.

Wouldn’t that have been the Divine’s will?

To undo everything you have done.

‘Now… now I can’t.’

Artizea had the same thought she had repeated for days.

Even now, there was a way to kill Lawrence. Not something clumsy like what she had told Milaire, but a curse that could truly bring death.

But then what would happen to Lisia?

Those under Lawrence’s command were bandits. If Lawrence died and those men never appeared again?

Lisia was a skilled archer and good at shooting. But she was alone.

The bandits would never let a young woman go. She didn’t think escape would be possible either.

Even if she escaped, ahead of her waited a plain swarming with bandits.

“Hailey.”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to Aba.”

If Lawrence had decided to thrust the destruction of the Western Regions before Lisia’s eyes, the next action would be flooding.

He would sweep through some areas to directly spread the plague, while simultaneously paralyzing administrative power to collapse the quarantine lines.

And Lawrence would already know well where to strike to make the Aba River overflow.

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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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