The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 317

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

2. Spring Breeze (11)

After that, Artizea guided the guests to the garden.

In the garden of the Empress’s Palace, there was an annex that was rarely used. It was said to have been the Empress’s personal space in previous generations.

There were rumors that it was a place where the Empress’s lovers waited. It was secluded enough for that, and trees much taller than a person’s height were planted densely as if deliberately trying to keep it out of sight.

So even when strolling through the garden, the building’s roof was not visible.

Empress Dowager Katrin had never used this annex. At least when she was a powerful Empress, every corner of the garden was maintained.

But after the doors of the Empress’s Palace were closed, no one looked after it, so the building became old and the surrounding trees grew even more lush.

When Artizea entered the Empress’s Palace, there was an opportunity to manage it once again. However, she deliberately chose not to.

She repaired the building itself, but left the garden overgrown. Instead, she put up a fence around the outside.

Outwardly, she said it was wasteful since there were no guests coming to the Empress’s Palace. She made excuses that the fence was put up in case Leticia might enter and be in danger.

But that wasn’t the reason. It was for today.

The Karam who introduced himself as Beil stood mesmerized in front of a tall maple tree. Then he would touch the tree trunk and touch the newly sprouted leaves, delighting like a child.

Kesa said:

“He’s seeing trees with such large leaves for the first time. The big trees in our land are hard as iron and their leaves are sharp like needles. The new shoots are light green, but they’re not soft and pretty like baby hands like these.”

Beil shook his head and muttered something to himself. Kesa smiled.

“He says he never imagined he’d see such trees before dying. During the journey here, he could barely get off the ship due to security reasons.”

〘Beil is the greatest carpenter in the Iron Beak tribe.〙

Apua said.

Karam’s technology was inferior to humans. There could be no other opinion about this.

If he was a craftsman, he would feel this fact even more keenly.

“It’s not yet time to reveal your identities, but if there’s anything you’d like to learn about during your stay, I’ll make sure you can experience it as much as possible.”

“He says thank you.”

Beil answered, and Kesa translated.

“Actually, just experiencing such warm weather feels like a great experience that broadens the world. Even I, who have traveled quite far south, never imagined weather this warm.”

“The North was really cold.”

Artizea shuddered just thinking about it.

Kesa looked at her pale complexion and the spring dress worn under her fur cloak with a newly impressed expression.

“I heard there are lands in the Empire that are like midsummer all year round. But seeing Your Majesty the Empress’s attire, it seems it gets even hotter than now?”

“Since it’s too hot for human bodies, we make clothes using very thin fabrics.”

“You mean something like handkerchief cloth?”

“Yes. But you must be hot.”

Artizea said, glancing slightly at the other Karam.

Kesa and Apua had cleanly shaved their faces. Thanks to this, except for the part corresponding to hair being excessively stiff and thick, they didn’t look much different from humans.

If they just covered their arms and third eye, anyone would think they were people from some distant foreign land or just think their appearance was unusual.

Seeing that their necks were also exposed, it seemed they had also cut off the fur that extended like a mane down their backs.

But the other Karam were not like that. They had groomed their fur and cut some of it to be polite, but the choice to shave it all off cleanly was impossible for them.

They looked hot. They actually would be hot. Just not throwing off their clothes was already being polite.

Kesa laughed heartily.

“There were plenty of opportunities to shave on the ship. It’s our own fault.”

“Actually, I was going to serve tea, but seeing how hot you are, that won’t do. Are you two alright?”

“It’s a bit hot, but bearable.”

〘Since this is our first visit, circumstances weren’t favorable in various ways so we came to see you in spring, but if there’s a second opportunity, we’d like to cross the Thold Gate in autumn and meet in winter.〙

Kesa translated those words. Artizea compared Kesa’s translation with what she understood and nodded.

The reason she had forced herself to cram vocabulary into her head was because she was worried the interpreter might play tricks in the middle.

“Yes. This place is too hot, and the North is a place where human feet are easily bound even in midsummer.”

That was the reason above all else why coexistence with Karam was possible.

Even if Karam moved south in the dead of winter, they would have to go back north when summer came. The habitats of Karam and humans only partially overlapped.

Artizea had cool beer brought instead of warm tea.

Kesa’s face brightened. In the food-scarce North, alcohol made from grain was quite precious.

Beil, who had been kneeling on the ground touching the soil, and the other Karam who had been looking at the massive Imperial Palace from afar and examining the buildings with curious faces, also smelled the alcohol and gathered around, twitching their noses.

Hanna distributed wooden beer mugs one by one. They weren’t suitable items for use in the Empress’s Palace, but she thought this would be safer for Karam who weren’t delicate with their hands and had little experience touching porcelain or glass products.

“Please make yourselves comfortable. I’ll have thinner clothes prepared.”

“Thank you.”

Apua said.

His pronunciation was still unclear, but it didn’t feel like he was just imitating without understanding the meaning.

He seemed to have no difficulty understanding the conversation between Kesa and Artizea either.

In a way, it was natural. Though his writing was clumsy, he had almost no trouble reading and writing. It meant he had mastered the grammar of the Imperial language almost completely.

Artizea looked at him.

A question that hadn’t been resolved even after two years of exchanging letters rose from her chest and scratched at her heart.

She knew he was a ‘returned one.’ However, she didn’t know what circumstances led him to start this kind of work.

Apua was the son of the Iron Beak tribe chief, and within Karam, the Iron Beak clan had always been one of the most powerful tribes.

By the time of the golden generation’s tribal chief, they became even more prosperous, encompassing all the tribes in the area and earning the reverence of being called ‘Keeper of the Flame.’

It was essentially a word meaning king.

Such a tribe had no need to interact with humans. When they lacked something, it was much easier to plunder other weak tribes.

In fact, the Karam that Evron had interacted with in the past were from weak tribes pushed to the mountains, including the Blue Bear clan that Kesa belonged to.

Karam do not inherit rank. There’s no law that a chief’s son must become chief, and Apua’s siblings numbered eighteen in total, she had heard.

Even so, if he was the son of a chief called a king, he would certainly be in a considerably higher position than ordinary Karam.

In fact, he had led the unprecedented work of interaction with humans and come this far.

Why had such a person studied human language and culture to this extent?

Even if cultures had penetrated each other through coexistence, it couldn’t have happened to the ruling class in such a short time.

Artizea carefully chose her words. Even then, just in case, she wrote in letters on paper so Kesa couldn’t understand.

『May I ask how you learned the Imperial language? Though I’ve only studied for barely two years, it seems to me that learning to write is rather easier than learning to speak between Karam and humans.』

Since Karam had no writing system, it would make sense if he learned it to record things and to read books.

But the differences in vocabulary and grammar were nothing compared to differences in pronunciation. Unlike dog barking or bee wing flapping, they could be distinguished and understood.

If studied, there would probably be some affinity. However, there were those like Kesa who could speak both languages.

But to understand speech this skillfully would require considerable effort. Even now, Artizea could only understand by very carefully matching the sounds she heard with the vocabulary she had memorized in her mind.

『You must have put in a lot of effort.』

Artizea only added that much.

Apua’s lips held a faint smile. He picked up the pen.

『Thanks to my lord.』

What he called ‘lord’ was Sedric. Before returning, in the North conquered by Karam, he had apparently called him that.

Artizea had a brazier brought. It was to burn letters that shouldn’t be shown to others.

Meanwhile, Apua filled an entire sheet of paper.

『Your Majesty the Empress probably knows that my lord once led a separate unit during the war to launch a surprise attack and kill the king.』

That was when Artizea had raised grain prices and cut off supplies to the Evron Duchy.

Artizea controlled her breathing slightly. The king who died at that time was the current Iron Beak tribal chief, so he was Apua’s father.

Apua observed Artizea’s expression and wrote:

『It was merely a great warrior being defeated by a greater warrior. Please don’t be concerned. It was an honorable fight.』

『I don’t think the Iron Beak tribe would have weakened immediately just because of that incident.』

『After that, a fight broke out over the chief’s position. I was ambushed, and when I came to my senses, I had been thrown into the Thold Mountains with both arms cut off.』

An old man living alone near the Thold Mountains took pity on him and saved him.

He said the village where he had lived was plundered by Karam and only traces remained. The people had scattered to find relatives they could depend on or became refugees and went south.

But the old man remained in the village.

He said his daughter and son-in-law died when the village was plundered. His son, who had been dragged off as a soldier to the battlefield, returned having lost one arm but was eventually taken by wild beasts. Not one of his grandchildren remained either.

However, the old man took pity on Apua.

“My boy was missing one arm too.”

The old man would mutter while looking at Apua’s empty shoulder.

“The bad one is that devil-like woman. You’re just a pitiful fellow.”

It took Apua several years to perfectly understand those words. It took even longer for him to fully comprehend all the meaning contained within them.

But he could understand that the old man was cursing those who had taken his children as he looked at his own arms.

He piled up firewood like mountains in place of the children the old man had lost. Even without two arms, his superior physical abilities hadn’t disappeared.

When he hunted beasts, the old man would light a fire and smoke them. Apua also learned from him how to grow root vegetables.

The Thold Mountains were warmer compared to Karam’s land, and farming went well there too. Apua lived there for fifteen years.

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