The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 320

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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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2. Spring Breeze (14)

The most important task he had been working on lately was currently unfolding in the Empress’s Palace, but Sedric was quietly sitting in the conference room of the main palace.

Officially, the retainer group from the north had not come for political affairs, but to pay their respects to the Duke of Evron. It was closer to a private matter.

However, it was difficult to concentrate on the meeting. The officials were on edge, worried that the Emperor might divide important interests at this gathering and give them to the northern nobles.

Behind them would be nobles with various connections.

Or they were also concerned that he might select a few from among the retainers from his days as Duke of Evron and give them high positions with significant political influence.

Sedric had no such intention.

Even if he lived another 20 years without incident, time would never be abundant.

While half a day is enough to tear down a house, building one requires a long time to lay the foundation.

He didn’t know if it would be possible to re-establish the Empire’s foundation even with one person dedicating their entire life to it.

He wanted to save time. That way, he wouldn’t burden Leticia with an excessive load.

In his generation, he had to bring the tide of the times to a point where a small minority could not prevent change. He also had to establish a system that could stop future emperors from committing tyrannical acts.

He had already witnessed how quickly a single tyrant could destroy a nation.

Such a thing must never happen again.

So even if there was affection and trust, he had no intention of placing people in important positions based on that alone.

Even when he said no, not many truly believed him. In fact, the more untrustworthy someone was, the less they believed it.

It was a meeting about reorganizing the administrative system of the eastern region, but with his mind in the north, it couldn’t be conducted properly.

Still, Sedric patiently finished everything he needed to say and ordered the participants to bring proper reports and proposals before the next meeting.

By the time he finished the unproductive meeting that had lasted all afternoon, the sun was setting.

‘It wasn’t entirely unproductive.’

Artizea’s purpose of diverting attention was certainly achieved.

Now there would be almost no one interested in things like priests quietly visiting the Saintess.

Even if someone noticed, they would think it was about the issue of northern priests gaining stronger influence within the temple.

For Sedric, it was frustrating. However, he knew that solving it through persuasion would take too long.

Karam had even less time than he did. While lifespans would gradually lengthen, there was no guarantee that someone with both Aphua’s understanding and influence would emerge again during Sedric’s reign.

There was no guarantee that such conditions could be met again either.

「Now is the right time. Considering Prince Aphua’s influence, and right now there are many topics that can divert people’s attention elsewhere without greatly affecting their livelihood.」

After his reign was completely stabilized, they wouldn’t be able to use the mere fact that people came from the north as a smokescreen like now.

And it seemed Artizea was also thinking that it had to be done while she was alive.

In the end, the Karam issue had to be settled with the temple somehow.

Sedric felt uneasy, but there was no choice.

「You don’t need to worry. It’s not like I’m going to do the actual work, just asking for the Archbishop’s cooperation. Once we get the Archbishop involved, he’ll work hard to manage things for his own self-preservation.」

「Considering the amount of books you read, how can I not worry?」

「About half of that is a hobby. It’s similar to how Lord Sedric looks at documents until past midnight the night before, then gets up at 5 AM the next day to go swing his sword.」

「….」

「You’re doing work that can be left for future generations. Don’t worry. I’m not studying desperately, just enough to do translation work and prevent the scholarly priests from playing tricks.」

Though she said that, Sedric knew that given Artizea’s personality, she wouldn’t stop at just that level.

She had promised to stop immediately if it harmed her health or made her tired, but even that was questionable how much he could trust it.

He was aware that his level of dependence on Artizea was high. However, there weren’t two such people in the world, and even if there were somewhere, there was no guarantee he could trust them, so he ended up continuing to rely on her with a heavy heart.

When Sedric stopped by his quarters in the main palace to change clothes, Leticia was there.

“Tisha, when did you arrive?”

But her reaction was a bit different from usual. Instead of calling for daddy and running into his arms, she had brought her own chair to the middle of the drawing room and sat with her back to the door, not answering.

The servants were maintaining proper posture, but they couldn’t suppress their laughter and were having all sorts of conversations with their faces.

Lady Kishwar silently bowed to him. Sedric kept his mouth shut and pointed at Leticia, asking with his face what was wrong.

Lady Kishwar spoke only with lip movements.

-Hide and seek.

-Ah.

Sedric also sighed only with lip movements.

Yesterday evening, he had promised Leticia that they would play hide and seek together after she finished eating.

But Leticia had fallen asleep before dessert was even served. While he and Artizea were discussing whether to wake her or not, there was an urgent report from outside.

If she had been awake, he would have explained. But since she happened to be asleep, he just let her sleep and left.

She seemed to be angry about that.

“Tisha.”

Sedric called Leticia in a gentle voice.

Leticia’s shoulders moved greatly. But she didn’t turn around. It was as if her whole body was saying “Hmph.”

“Are you angry?”

“Hmph.”

This time she made the sound outright.

Sedric looked at Lady Kishwar with a troubled face. Lady Kishwar shook her head. It was a signal to do as he pleased.

Sedric went inside to change clothes first. The clothes he was wearing had decorations with sharp edges. They were clothes to avoid when holding a baby.

Originally, he had planned to leisurely wash up and go to the Empress’s Palace. However, now that Leticia was waiting, he simply washed his hands and face and changed into comfortable clothes.

When he came back out to the drawing room, Leticia was again sitting with her back turned.

The dressing room was inside the bedroom, and the door leading to it was in the opposite direction from the door leading to the corridor.

In other words, while he was changing clothes, Leticia had turned her chair around to face the opposite direction and sat with her back turned again.

The smiles never left the servants’ lips.

Sedric rubbed his lips with his palm. If he laughed, she would get angry.

He had actually made her cry several times by laughing because she was cute when angry. Today, he absolutely could not make such a mistake.

After pressing down the laugh lines that kept trying to form at the corners of his mouth several times, Sedric spoke solemnly.

“Leticia Morin, if you have any grievances, come and report them.”

Of course, Sedric had never used such a tone before. But the kings in the fairy tale books he read to Leticia always spoke like this.

Leticia flinched. Sedric also gave a fake cough, “Ahem.” This time Leticia was startled and shifted her bottom on the chair.

Leticia’s attendants twisted their heads trying to suppress their laughter. The main palace servants were more accustomed to controlling their emotions, but they couldn’t suppress the corners of their mouths.

Sedric approached Leticia, bent down, and made eye contact.

“What is so unfair?”

Leticia turned her sulking face away with a snap. Sedric had to tense his facial muscles again to pull down the corners of his mouth.

“If you don’t tell me, daddy won’t know.”

The standoff between Leticia and Sedric continued for a while longer. But eventually Leticia lost.

“I hate daddy!”

Leticia stood up abruptly and pushed the chair hard. Sedric caught the chair with one hand and embraced Leticia with the other to prevent her from falling.

When he lifted her up, Leticia burst into tears. Her tiny hands clenched into fists and pounded on Sedric’s shoulders.

“Yesterday too, yesterday too, sob, hide and seek together, waaah!”

“Sorry. Daddy had something very urgent come up.”

“Sniff, you always do that, waaah!”

Sedric patted Leticia’s back.

“Sorry.”

“Daddy’s bad. Sob, when mommy breaks promises, sniff, waaah!”

Leticia couldn’t finish her sentence and began crying at the top of her lungs.

“Sorry. I was going to explain before leaving, but Tisha was sleeping so peacefully that I felt bad about waking you.”

“Then, then, what about in the morning?”

Leticia sniffled and tugged at Sedric’s collar.

“Why did you leave without saying goodbye?”

Sedric had woken up 3 hours before Leticia’s usual wake-up time and couldn’t spare any time to have breakfast together.

But rather than making such elaborate excuses to the baby, he honestly apologized.

“Daddy is sorry for not keeping his promise with Leticia. Please forgive me.”

Leticia didn’t say she forgave him, but wrapped both arms around Sedric’s neck and rubbed her face against his collar.

Sedric stroked Leticia’s back a few more times and said.

“Shall we go to mommy together?”

“Yes.”

“And eat ice cream together too.”

“Really?”

Leticia stopped sniffling abruptly and whipped her head up. Sedric said.

“I heard from the cook this morning. He said strawberries came in, so he’ll put them in the ice storage.”

“Strawberries! Ice!”

Leticia shouted and suddenly struggled to get down. But when Sedric didn’t put her down, she pleaded with words.

“Me, quickly!”

“It’s not like they’ll give it to you just because you go now.”

“Ice creeeam!”

Even in the Imperial Palace, it wasn’t something you could taste just anytime.

Sedric had no choice but to put Leticia down. Leticia grabbed his hand and walked at what she considered a fast pace.

Even so, being carried would be much faster. Anyway, Leticia still couldn’t walk to the Empress’s Palace on her own feet.

‘I need to drain her energy like this.’

Sedric had that thought and chuckled softly.

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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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