The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 90

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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 90

The priest was in his room.

Temple life was inherently like a hamster running on a wheel. After just a day or two of observation, it wasn’t difficult to figure out that the priest would be in his room at this time.

Moreover, he was troubled by complex problems. It was reasonable to expect that he would spend long periods alone in his room.

“Your Highness.”

The priest opened the door, saw Artizea, and bowed his head in surprise.

Artizea gestured for him to go inside. The priest hurriedly but quickly went back into the room.

Artizea left Alphonse outside and closed the door.

“Please sit.”

“Ah, yes.”

Like last time, the priest sat on the bed.

Artizea pulled up a chair for herself and sat down.

“I looked into what you told me.”

“Yes.”

“What you said was correct. There was a village north of Told Gate, and families with Karam mixed blood mainly lived there.”

“It’s a tragic affair.”

The priest made the sign of the cross upon hearing about Karam mixed blood. He seemed to shudder just thinking about it.

“His Highness the Duke is too soft-hearted. Dealing with the seeds of sin quickly would be far more merciful to both the fathers and mothers.”

Artizea hid her bitter smile and spoke with a serious expression.

“Being cast out from the temple should be punishment enough for them.”

“That is not punishment. How dare demons set foot in a temple?”

“Father.”

Artizea let out a small sigh.

“I don’t think things like Karam mixed blood forming a village north of Told are that important. Even if there were others who helped them. How could people so easily turn their backs on family or relatives?”

“Yes… I understand Your Highness’s noble heart. But…”

“Please overlook the individuals. But I cannot forgive a retainer who committed such acts without even the Duke’s knowledge.”

Artizea spoke in a gentle voice. The priest nodded.

“His Highness the Duke will learn of this matter too. Since it’s the cause of war, he cannot ignore it. He will find and punish those responsible.”

“Ah! Is that so! That’s fortunate.”

“However, the situation isn’t good right now. There was the recent affair with the Jordin family, and now there’s the threat from Karam at Told Gate, so he has no choice but to be cautious.”

“I understand what you mean.”

“Have you already written the letter you plan to send to the Grand Cathedral?”

Artizea asked. The priest nodded.

“Then give it to me now. I’m going to the capital anyway. But I won’t deliver that letter immediately.”

“Then… what do you intend to do?”

“If you learn new information, or if something important happens that requires the letter to be delivered to the Grand Cathedral immediately, please contact me again.”

Artizea said this.

“Then I’ll deliver your letter to the Grand Cathedral at that time.”

“But what if the message sent to Your Highness is intercepted or someone manipulates it?”

The priest spoke with a worried expression.

Artizea smiled slightly.

In her opinion, the only people in the Evron Duchy with such cunning were Freil and Ansgard. And Ansgard wouldn’t involve himself in such matters.

But the key was that the priest thought this way.

Artizea opened her handbag and took out a silver seal.

“I’ll give you this.”

“Is this Your Highness’s seal?”

“It’s one I used before marriage.”

Artizea said this while showing him the shape of the seal.

It was a seal engraved with a vine rose pattern that unmarried young ladies with no family rights would use.

“If you press here like this, the pattern changes.”

Artizea pressed down firmly on one of the decorations on the seal and showed it to the priest again.

Part of the seal’s base rose up. The vine rose petals changed to relief, transforming into an almost identical but different-feeling seal. The border also changed.

“I used this when receiving secret letters from friends that I didn’t want to show my mother, Father.”

The priest immediately understood what she meant.

Even this priest in distant lands had heard rumors about what kind of person Milaire was. She was someone who would open and inspect her daughter’s letters without hesitation.

“I no longer have use for it so I got it back, but my maid knows about this changed seal.”

“I understand what you mean. If I need to send you urgent communication, I should use this seal and send it to Your Highness’s maid.”

“Yes. Then it will be delivered to me intact.”

That was a complete lie.

Artizea had never used a separate seal before marriage.

She had only just informed Alice about the seal’s pattern. It was in case the priest actually contacted her.

Of course, the possibility of that was almost zero. She wasn’t giving it to him to actually use for sealing.

This seal had an elaborate mechanism.

To safely change the pattern, you had to press other decorations in sequence first, not the one she showed the priest.

If you only pressed the decoration she taught him without doing that, a poison needle would spring out. It was as thin and short as steel wire, like a thorn that would be hard to find even if you knew it was there once it pierced your hand.

If he was lucky, he would survive. If he trusted that Cedric would handle this matter properly and forgot about it from today, the priest could live.

If he put the seal deep in a drawer and never took it out, nothing would happen.

But…

‘Probably, he won’t survive.’

Artizea thought this.

The priest would surely try to contact her. This involved the Church and faith.

Even someone who swore to keep secrets would be hard to trust, and this was someone who had earnestly thought he must reveal this fact even in difficult circumstances and had approached Artizea.

He would definitely try to inform the Grand Cathedral about the Karam crops.

In the end, he would die. What meaning was there in leaving a single thread of possibility for survival?

‘It serves as an alibi.’

Artizea thought like an excuse.

At the moment the priest died, she would be in the capital. There would be no one who could connect his death to her.

In reality, it was meaningless.

This poison left almost no trace. If they performed an autopsy to determine the cause, they might discover it was poisoning.

But no one would go that far just because one ordinary priest died suddenly here.

So it was really just an emotional comfort for Artizea herself.

She had left a way to live, so his death wasn’t her responsibility but his own fault – it was a way to reduce guilt and shift responsibility to the victim.

“Thank you so much for your consideration. I worried for so long about whether I should tell Your Highness or not, but it seems I did well to speak up.”

The priest spoke with a somewhat relieved expression.

“Trust His Highness the Duke and wait. I hope you can maintain faith in people as much as your faith in God, Father.”

Artizea said this.

Then she put the rather thick letter the priest handed her into her handbag and came back outside.

“Please go in, Father.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

The priest bowed deeply, bending at the waist.

Artizea turned around.

Suddenly she remembered what Cedric had said.

“When we go together, we’ll be able to find a truly proper path.”

When he said that, what kind of proper path was he envisioning in his heart?

She had a vague idea.

That’s why Artizea felt even more that she wouldn’t be able to walk that path with him.

‘I should return to the capital.’

She thought blankly.

A place where human lives could be used as chess pieces at will, where conspiracies were hatched for a pouch of gold coins or a position one step closer to the Emperor.

That was where she belonged.

In the capital, she wouldn’t have to feel such hesitation anymore. In a world of one-eyed people, the one-eyed are normal. Among countless vile people, her ugliness too would be diluted.

Rather, she hoped for that.

* * *

The first thing Artizea did upon returning was to take out the priest’s letter from her handbag and read it.

There was hardly any noteworthy content.

It contained factual accounts about how someone among the Evron Duchy’s retainers had tried to use the residents to cultivate Karam crops, and the fact that Karam mixed-bloods were being born here.

At the end, the priest added his usual thoughts.

“There are many people here who are simple and faithful, but too far removed from God’s word. The ducal house’s retainers are also loyal and brave, but they don’t know well what is important.

Since His Highness the Duke is often away, there are many corners that escape his notice.

A considerable number of people here sympathize with the devil’s spawn. There are also occasional instances of mixing with ugly and filthy blood, but excommunication alone is not sufficient punishment.

The Evron Duchy does not have enough temples. Perhaps that is why the people wander without knowing the right path.

I hope the Grand Cathedral will consider these circumstances and dispatch several priests to discipline the people and teach doctrine to the knights and administrators…”

Artizea skimmed through to that point and threw the letter into the fireplace. In the well-burning fireplace, the letter was consumed in an instant.

She personally took the poker and thoroughly scattered even the ashes. It was a habit.

There probably wasn’t anyone in the fortress who would pick up paper scraps left from burning in the fireplace and piece together the faintly remaining letters. If such a person existed, she would want to scout them.

Knock knock.

There was a sound of knocking on the door.

“Come in.”

Artizea answered normally. Since she had called for Alice, she naturally thought it would be her.

However, the door didn’t open right away. Artizea thought it strange and stood up.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t heard the sound of saying “It’s Alice” when knocking, as the maids usually did.

Was it someone else?

“Ah.”

Before she could open the door, it opened from the other side.

Artizea nearly jumped in surprise. Sedric was smiling awkwardly from beyond the door.

As if he had just come in from outside, his cheeks had turned apple-red from the cold wind.

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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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