The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 4

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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 4

“I must somehow bring Lawrence down. But the difference in power is too stark. I and my subordinates, who only know military affairs, can’t find any way to narrow that gap.”

Artizea stared at him blankly.

Cedric’s face, which she had thought looked like a sculpture, had now transformed like a blazing sun.

He did not raise his voice. However, Artizea felt as if she had heard shouting.

“I know that you are a wise person.”

“….”

“You may have lacked judgment in choosing your lord, but your eyes were clouded by family affection. You employed dirty schemes and machinations, but I also know it was for Lawrence’s sake.”

“….”

“I can think of no one other than you who could overturn and break through this situation. Marquess Rosan, I need your strength.”

Cedric bowed his head.

However, soon thinking that alone was insufficient, he knelt down and bent his waist, taking a prostrating position.

Artizea was shocked.

She flailed her limbs, but in her condition where even sitting was difficult, she ended up falling over. The butler caught and supported her.

Cedric raised his head. His black eyes held fire, like heated coal.

“You must no longer have any family affection for Lawrence now. Haven’t you looked back at the Empire and felt regret?”

“….”

“I know that you are merely a schemer, not a demon. You’re different from Lawrence. Didn’t you think about doing good things with the power you obtained that way?”

Artizea shook her head.

Did she even have the right to feel regret?

What people said was right.

Even if she wasn’t a demon, if there was a witch who made a contract with a demon, it would be her.

Even if her heart had changed, she no longer had a tongue to speak with or hands to write with.

With a body exhausted by fatigue and pain, she couldn’t even think properly.

“Marquess Rosan, you still have a brilliant mind left. You could hold a pen in your mouth to write, and there must be ways to communicate with others’ help. Since your life remains, if you have resolve and will, you could do anything. I need you.”

Artizea looked at him for a long while. Her vision blurred.

It was ridiculous.

She had never heard the words “I need you” even from Lawrence, to whom she had devoted her entire life in loyalty.

She knew Cedric.

Because he was an enemy, she knew him better than anyone else in the world.

The resentment in his heart would be deeper than a valley where lava flows. People around him would be begging him to flay her alive.

Yet he was kneeling before her. Solely for the greater cause.

But Artizea could only shake her head again this time.

What she was good at was slandering people, winning favor, assassination, and plotting conspiracies. Strategy and tactics were not within her scope of expertise.

She could not accomplish what Cedric had failed to do.

Even if she truly was a miraculous strategist, there was no way to overcome a situation where the tide had turned so drastically.

“I see.”

Cedric seemed to understand the reason why Artizea shook her head.

“So even you can do nothing about it now.”

He said gloomily.

Tears dripped from Artizea’s eyes.

She had intended not to feel regret until the day she died. She had resolved that from the moment she first stained her hands with blood.

Regretting belatedly wouldn’t make her forgivable, would it?

Even the dead should resent the fate of being born into such a world, if they were going to resent anything.

Except for newborn babies, where in the world was there anyone without sin?

No. Even newborn babies commit countless sins through their very birth.

Like her. And also like Lawrence.

Yet she felt regret.

In truth, the regrets that had accumulated like dust from deep in her heart now clumped together like a massive boulder and pounded her heart.

“I’m sorry for making an unreasonable request.”

Cedric stood up.

“The military camp’s circumstances aren’t good, so I can’t provide proper hospitality, but I’ll soon assign someone to escort you to the countryside. I hope your remaining years will be peaceful.”

Artizea could say nothing and only shed tears as she looked up at him.

That night, she lay curled up alone in the tent and thought.

A way to set everything right.

There was no such thing. Not in the current state.

However, in truth, Artizea did have a method.

She crawled and sat up on the bedding.

She had not wanted to use this method. Because she was a sinner.

She didn’t think she had sinned against Lawrence. But she was a sinner.

So she had planned to just die and rot away. While embracing all the evil deeds she had committed for Lawrence’s sake.

But….

‘There is no strategy. But there is a method.’

If the power had tilted too far to be reversed, she could return to before that power had tilted.

Artizea bit her half-remaining tongue. And drew a magic circle on the bedding.

Magic had long since disappeared from this world.

However, the methods of performing magic were still passed down.

Dense blood, an accurately drawn magic circle, and human sacrifice.

In reality, the biggest reason magic had disappeared was not the issue of human sacrifice, but because there were few people who could draw magic circles accurately.

The letters of magic circles had to be written in ancient script.

While copying and drawing might be possible, there weren’t many who could apply and use them as desired.

But Artizea could do it.

She was one of the few people who could freely handle the ancient script that had become a dead language.

And she had once studied magic circles for use in evil deeds.

The bleeding wouldn’t stop easily, but still, Artizea bit her tongue several times and chewed the inside of her mouth to produce blood.

To write letters with blood flowing from her blunt tongue, she had to draw the magic circle quite large.

She drew the magic circle all night long. Since there would be no second chance, she had to draw it accurately in one attempt.

Partway through, her vision began to flicker. To stay conscious, she bit her tongue even more fiercely.

When she finally succeeded in completing it near dawn, she collapsed onto the magic circle from blood loss.

‘A perfect human sacrifice.’

Artizea weakly closed her eyes.

The magic circle that had consumed her life began to glow blue.

Cedric, who realized the disturbance in the tent, rushed in and looked at her in shock.

However, the magic circle that had already begun operating would not give up its sacrifice.

Lightning occurred, blocking anyone who tried to approach.

‘In the next world, may you achieve your goals.’

That was Artizea’s last thought.

The magic soon became a pillar of light reaching to the ends of the sky, splitting the night sky.

* * *

When she opened her eyes, it was early dawn.

Artizea wiggled her feet under the blanket. Then she moved her hands.

Finally, she touched her tongue with her finger.

“Was my interpretation of the magic wrong?”

She tried speaking aloud. Her voice came out perfectly fine.

The ancient script written in the magic circle meant “Accept the life of Artizea Rosan and in exchange, turn back time.” So Artizea had naturally thought she would die.

However, now she was alive.

There was no physical pain at all. Only the flame of regret that had been pounding inside her chest still made her heart beat.

She raised her hand high with an unfamiliar feeling.

Moonlight seeped through the window, tinting her fingernails blue.

Artizea silently stared at those fingernails, then pulled back the sheets and climbed down from the bed.

She lit a lamp and went to look in the mirror.

“I’ve come back.”

What was in the mirror was a girl with bright platinum hair and blue-green eyes.

She touched her cheek with her fingertips, feeling around. Her own face didn’t seem like her own.

Had she always looked like this?

She realized anew that she hadn’t cared about herself for a very long time.

She had rarely looked in mirrors either. She hated having a different face from Lawrence and Milaire.

Milaire used to get annoyed, saying she was too ugly to even look at.

Lawrence rarely even looked at her directly.

Well, who would be interested in a sibling’s face anyway?

Perhaps it would be different for Artizea, who had to take care of Lawrence’s appearance and even his women problems.

Artizea turned away from the mirror and returned to her bedroom.

She hadn’t planned to return. Her purpose was to turn back time and give Cedric one more chance.

Without her alone, Lawrence’s power would be considerably weakened.

While Milaire was excellent at pleasing the Emperor’s heart, she was impatient. Whatever schemes she devised, she always left traces.

Lawrence wasn’t the type to devise conspiracies from the beginning.

Moreover, she had been the only one who originally was wary of Cedric.

From when he was still the Emperor’s nephew who hadn’t yet distinguished himself, Artizea had kept him in check until she cut off all his limbs.

So if she didn’t keep him in check, Cedric would probably be able to preserve his strength until the decisive moment.

Even after harming him that much, hadn’t he survived until the end and resisted Lawrence?

‘But I’ve returned.’

Then she had to do something.

Whether she returned because the magic circle went wrong or due to some other problem, there must be a reason she survived.

“I need your power.”

Artizea thought of how Cedric had bowed his head.

Her chest ached as if struck by stone, so Artizea quietly placed her hand on her left chest.

‘In exchange for kneeling before a demon, you will gain a demon who will dirty their hands in your stead.’

It was like a vow.

Artizea went to her desk.

At the bottom of the desk drawer was a diary. She took out the diary and opened to the last page.

《Imperial Year 482, June 2nd》

Eight days ago, Artizea had turned eighteen.

There were still nearly two years left until her twentieth birthday, when she could inherit the title of Marquess Rosan.

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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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