The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 306

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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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1. The Sound of Flower Buds Falling (2)

Cedric fell silent.

“…”

“Haha.”

Bishop Nicos laughed. Cedric wondered if he had made such an obviously strange expression and rubbed his cheek.

“Your joke is excessive.”

“She’s a pitiful young lady. Prince, you’re not someone who would fail to see even when looking.”

Bishop Nicos spoke in a gentle voice.

“Well. Isn’t she the young marquess of Rosan?”

Cedric answered in an opaque voice. He meant that someone of such status wouldn’t easily be placed in a pitiful position.

Of course, Cedric knew that was merely conventional wisdom.

Until then, the young lady had been standing quietly. Now she seemed as lifeless as a shadow cast on the wall rather than a painting on wallpaper.

He tried to turn his gaze away. He was about to end the conversation, but Bishop Nicos seemed to have no intention of dropping the topic.

“That’s what makes it even more regrettable. She’s a remarkably intelligent young lady, so it would be a waste to bury her talent like this. I suggested she become a priest by taking holy orders, but she doesn’t seem inclined to do so.”

“A priest?”

Cedric had no intention of reacting to Bishop Nicos’s words, but he couldn’t help but show surprise at this.

To suggest taking holy orders to the heir of a marquess family before she even came of age.

If it were a second son or below, they might be sent to a monastery early to establish the succession structure, but it was never done to the heir.

Bishop Nicos seemed satisfied that he had surprised Cedric.

“Wouldn’t it be better than having all her rights taken away by her mother, becoming a puppet confined to the manor, or burying her talents in a political marriage?”

“Talent… You hold her in very high regard. You must know the young lady well.”

“Almost everyone knows that the Marquess Rosan’s wife hates her daughter for being incompetent and won’t even let her go outside. Well, she does come and go to the temple frequently though. Many people know her circumstances.”

Bishop Nicos said.

“You might think it harsh to suggest taking holy orders to a young lady not even twenty years old, but one doesn’t become a priest solely through faith, does one? There’s also the path of dedicating oneself to scholarship as an academic priest.”

It wasn’t wrong. Although the weight was gradually shifting to the Imperial University, the temple still held hegemony in various fields such as philosophy, ancient languages, history, and logic, not just theology.

Children born into poor families still often became priests for the sake of their studies.

“I’m not saying this out of greed for the Rosan marquess family, but she’s worthy enough to become Akim’s successor, so I can’t help but find it regrettable.”

“If Bishop Nicos speaks so highly of her, she must truly be intelligent.”

Though he had no personal acquaintance with Archbishop Akim, knowing what kind of person he was, Cedric was somewhat surprised.

Bishop Nicos was both a friend of Archbishop Akim and someone who respected him. If he spoke this highly of her, then the talent he spoke of was probably real.

Bishop Nicos shook his head.

“But that mother of hers scolds her, asking what use it is for a girl who should manage household affairs to learn so much. In the end, she wasn’t even allowed to attend the doctrine study group.”

“Where an individual’s happiness lies is something others cannot know. Didn’t the young lady refuse your suggestion, Bishop?”

Cedric answered calmly.

Bishop Nicos nodded. It seemed he hadn’t spoken with any particularly deep feelings from the beginning. He had simply talked about it because it caught his eye.

But Cedric felt somewhat frustrated.

If such a thing had happened in a family under Evron’s command, he thought he probably would have intervened as a protector, whether the person wanted it or not.

After that, the two exchanged greetings about various people’s recent situations without anything special.

Until then, the young lady had been standing against the wall without conversing with anyone.

Cedric became conscious of this and felt uncomfortable. While extending a hand would be difficult, perhaps one dance would be acceptable, as Bishop Nicos had suggested.

At any rate, it would be better than leaving a young lady who hadn’t even come of age standing against the ballroom wall with no one to talk to.

He also knew that dancing one song with him could help the young lady endure several more balls more comfortably in the future.

Yet he hesitated because, in the end, she was Milaire’s daughter and Lawrence’s sister.

He didn’t even want the brief mention of having danced to pass through others’ lips.

The music stopped briefly. The dancing people stopped in place. The spinning skirts settled down, coloring the surroundings in brilliant hues.

The Emperor came out holding Milaire’s hand. Lawrence followed behind them.

Cedric thought he knew whose dress the young lady’s outfit had originally belonged to. Milaire was wearing a similar dress.

Of course, she wasn’t buried in fancy fabric and corsages. Like leaves and ribbons added to a large bunch of peonies, they only made her stand out more.

The Emperor looked around the hall with smiling eyes and met Cedric’s gaze. Cedric lowered his eyes and bowed politely.

“There’s no need to dampen the mood because of me. This is a light gathering, and I’m merely an invited guest, so please be at ease.”

As those words ended, the music began again.

Cedric waited somewhat tensely. He thought the Emperor might call him or come this way.

Then he would have to greet Milaire and acknowledge Lawrence. Though he had come prepared, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

But instead of calling him, the Emperor only exchanged light nods and glided to the center of the ballroom holding Milaire’s hand.

People left a wide space for the Emperor and Milaire, and like supporting actors on a theater stage, they began dancing again, filling in from the edges.

Cedric also made eye contact with Lawrence, but both only acknowledged each other casually and turned their gazes away. Lawrence probably didn’t want to chat with him either.

Seeing a familiar face, Cedric parted appropriately with Bishop Nicos and went to greet that person.

Then he caught a glimpse of the Rosan marquess’s young lady at the edge of his vision and stopped walking.

He saw the blue eyes carved into her pale face shining. The gaze that no one had been watching flew through the ballroom, dancing to the music.

Would they perhaps look this way, or not?

The excitement mixed with worry and anticipation made her expressionless face look not like an eighteen-year-old but like an innocent nine-year-old girl.

Cedric felt a strange mood and followed that gaze, thinking Bishop Nicos’s worry had been unnecessary.

If there had been a young man at the end of that gaze, he would have thought the young lady was deeply in love.

But that gaze was directed toward her mother.

However, Milaire’s head never turned toward the young lady. There was no greeting or conversation that should have naturally occurred.

Cedric looked at the young lady. The young lady slowly lowered her head.

What was there was no longer a shadow cast on the wall, but a young lady awkwardly wearing her mother’s ill-fitting clothes.

Cedric felt as if he had witnessed a scene of withering before blooming. He heard the sound of something falling.

He thought it was the sound of flower buds falling.

* * *

Suddenly opening his eyes, moonlight seeping through the curtains was breaking white across Artizea’s shoulder.

Cedric pulled up the blanket to cover her up to her neck. Artizea murmured in a half-asleep voice.

“What are you doing instead of sleeping?”

“Just, thinking of old times.”

He couldn’t distinguish whether he had briefly fallen asleep and dreamed, or thought about it in a half-conscious state.

Cedric smiled to himself while caressing Artizea’s cold shoulder until it became warm.

He hadn’t intended to wake her, but Artizea seemed to be waking up too. Cedric pressed his lips once to her shoulder and said.

“Didn’t you once have clothes with flowers attached? About the size of a fist.”

“I know what you’re talking about. There was a style that was newly attempted during the middle of the Ients embroidery trend.”

Artizea yawned and stretched. Then, still with heavy eyelids lowered, she murmured.

“It failed because only Mother could pull it off. The clothes were made for Mother in the first place.”

“I remember when you wore it, you looked like you were buried in a tomb made of fabric.”

“Did I ever wear such a thing?”

Artizea was murmuring when she couldn’t return to her drowsy state and her eyes sparkled open. She seemed to remember when that was.

“Back then, you were… Ah.”

Artizea’s face flushed bright red.

Since she had a good memory, she couldn’t fail to remember that Cedric had attended that gathering, that it was a compromise for the Western Army’s triumph ceremony, and what rumors had circulated afterward.

In the end, Cedric had returned that day without dancing once or even finishing a single wine glass.

Thanks to that, not a single word came out about him having any intention of supporting Lawrence.

There was no story beyond the Emperor having forced the Duke of Evron to attend for Milaire’s sake. Though that had been profitable enough.

Before Artizea could ask anything more, Cedric embraced her head and buried her face in his chest.

That incident was somewhat embarrassing for me too.

Humanly speaking, I had turned away even after seeing Artizea, yet I had never forgotten that face.

But I never extended my hand until the end. There were several opportunities.

“Do you know when I first set my heart on you?”

Instead of an answer, he only felt Artizea holding her breath.

Cedric smiled slightly. He had no intention of telling her. In fact, he didn’t know exactly himself.

However, that passionate gaze like a sunflower had been directed toward me at some point, and whenever I became aware of it, I heard something like a thumping sound from within my chest.

He had always thought it was the sound of regret.

That he hadn’t saved someone he could have saved back then. Though he didn’t think everything that happened afterward was entirely his fault, he believed it might be the sound of words like “perhaps” and “what if” grinding against reality.

But thinking about it now, it was probably the sound of new shoots growing where flower buds had fallen.

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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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