The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 92

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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 92

Artizea lowered her eyes with a troubled expression.

“I was planning to receive a reply before leaving.”

However, Sedric’s words couldn’t be said to be entirely wrong.

What Sedric said wasn’t simply about the letter. It meant whether she had planned to leave without thinking about Sedric himself and without saying farewell.

That had been her intention. She had planned to leave without seeing his face again if possible.

She thought it was necessary to maintain distance.

If she went to the capital, she wouldn’t have to meet Sedric for a while.

Then she could somewhat steel her wavering heart. She could drive away the impatience and greed from her mind, even if just a little.

Her composure would return. Artizea thought that’s how it should be.

She thought she shouldn’t have come to the Evron Duchy. It wasn’t about the variables she created causing disputes or cracks in the duchy’s loyalty. Artizea herself was wavering.

She wanted to be content with the present. She no longer had the confidence to throw away what little humanity remained in her. She was trying to become a hypocrite.

She was conflicted, wondering if killing for efficiency’s sake might not be necessary.

Even so, the blood on her hands wouldn’t be washed away. There were still several people who absolutely had to be killed anyway.

Minimizing sacrifice was just minimization. It didn’t mean there would be no sacrifice at all.

If efficiency worsened, the damage would ultimately increase. Artizea could calculate that. From the beginning, reducing even a drop of blood wouldn’t make her red hands white.

Even knowing this, her hands and feet felt heavy because she worried about being discovered by him right now and earning his hatred.

It was foolish.

Hadn’t she come to his side not to be happy beside Sedric? She had come to do what he couldn’t do.

She thought of the future as well. She had to think about after Sedric wore the emperor’s crown.

Artizea wanted to clear away as many as possible of those who would interfere when he began his rule. Before she left.

But now she wasn’t confident she could leave in time.

When she had just returned to the past, Artizea had a perfect image of the future drawn in her mind.

A righteous emperor and good empress who loved each other would work together to change the world for the better. That would surely be the most perfect image of the imperial family that all the people desired.

But now she had become so pained that she couldn’t even think of that time.

When she couldn’t think of the future, she couldn’t design schemes.

So she had to leave.

Artizea felt as if her mind had become completely muddled. The only useful part of her was breaking down.

“Tia.”

Sedric reached out and gently caressed her cheek and chin. Artizea, who had been lost in thought, was startled and looked up.

A light kiss that barely touched came down.

Again, she became unable to think.

As she let out a long sigh the moment their lips parted, Sedric stroked her lower lip with his thumb.

“Isn’t it alright to think only of me right now?”

Artizea awkwardly averted her gaze again. The problem was that she could only think of him, which was troublesome.

“How is the situation at Told Gate?”

“Are you changing the subject now?”

Artizea smiled awkwardly. Then she pulled the teapot closer and refilled the empty cup as she spoke.

“That was the original business, wasn’t it?”

“Even if I said I wanted to see your face and talk before you left, would you still insist that was the original business?”

“You seem to be rather harsh with me today.”

“It’s your fault.”

Sedric lightly lowered his head. Artizea turned her head away before being kissed.

“It seems like you’re the one changing the subject, Lord Sedric.”

“And you’re the one being harsh.”

Sedric decided to compromise by kissing her cheek.

“Is it alright for you to be away from your post like this during a war?”

“We’re not in a state of continuous combat. After fighting once initially, Karam retreated beyond the range of our cannons.”

“They don’t seem to be retreating though?”

“They seem to have other purposes as well.”

Sedric took a sip of tea and calmed his mind. Then he said.

“Karam has built siege weapons.”

Artizea, who was about to put another sandwich in her mouth, couldn’t do so and looked at him in surprise.

“Did Karam have that level of technical skill?”

“They didn’t. The siege weapons they made this time had no practical use either. The battering ram was destroyed by a single cannon shot, and the catapult had poor accuracy and broke after throwing rocks about three times.”

Sedric continued.

“However, the design itself was a completely proper trebuchet. Though the craftsmanship of the blacksmith who made it was terribly poor.”

“You also said it was the first time a small unit crossed the Told Mountains to attack. Considering the time it would have taken to cross the mountains, rather than crossing recklessly, they came over and hid for a while, then timed their attack to when troops were concentrated at Told Gate… So two unprecedented things happened.”

“That’s right.”

“Haven’t you considered the possibility of an informant? Since there’s exchange, someone among the humans might have passed tactical or weapon information to the Karam side. It’s something they could easily do to check Lord Sedric or harm the Evron Duchy.”

Artizea asked for confirmation. Sedric denied it.

“I think the probability of that is almost zero. Because the languages don’t communicate. Simple trade or personal relationships might be different, but it’s impossible for a human to enter Karam territory without speaking the language and gain enough trust from the ruling class to incite war.”

“What about bribery? Giving money in exchange for threatening Told Gate with adequate forces.”

“That’s a very human perspective.”

Sedric smiled faintly.

“Karam doesn’t value gold and silver. The most precious things here are food and winter clothing. It would be difficult for enough resources to move the Karam ruling class to cross the mountains unnoticed.”

Artizea thought so too. If that amount of resources had moved from the mainland to the north, it would inevitably be caught by intelligence networks.

In the resource-poor north, it would have been even more noticeable.

“Then you think some Karam personally learned human tactics and convinced their own forces?”

“Actually, it’s hard to think of any other possibility.”

Artizea drew in a breath.

Then that person was undoubtedly a ‘returned one.’

When Artizea plotted to oust Duke Loigar, Evron had initially been defeated.

Ultimately, Sedric achieved miraculous victory by killing the Karam king. However, the effects remained.

The Told Gate fortress that had once collapsed wasn’t as solid as before. It was breached again after Lawrence became emperor.

Lawrence was different from Emperor Gregor.

Emperor Gregor had wanted to use the Evron ducal house more thoroughly. To do so, he kept Evron alive.

He let young Sedric live to continue the ducal house, restored the honor of the previous duke and duchess, didn’t stop material supplies, and even hanged Duke Loigar on the gallows for the responsibility of defeat.

However, Lawrence couldn’t become a cold-hearted politician.

Originally, he disliked Sedric. Not only did they not match temperamentally, but after marrying Lisia, he unilaterally hated him, consumed by inferiority and jealousy.

After Lisia died, supplies to the Evron Duchy were thoroughly cut off.

Even merchant trade was forbidden. Unlike Emperor Gregor, who used food as strategic material to control Evron, Lawrence intended to starve them to death out of hatred.

No matter how much Artizea warned, it was useless.

Even so, Sedric endured for several years. But ultimately, Evron was destroyed.

Sedric lost his stronghold and wandered with his knight order. Since Lisia was dead too, he probably couldn’t find a reason to come to the capital anymore.

The border was practically reestablished at the Allia Wall, the southern boundary of Evron. The empire required enormous military expenses.

Because they lost the strategic military point of Told Gate and Evron’s know-how of blocking Karam for over a hundred years.

Defending that border contributed to impoverishing the empire. Later, the system completely collapsed and the border itself became meaningless.

Karam had occupied the north.

At the time, she didn’t think much of the significance.

The north was useless land. What Artizea worried about then was the political instability caused by Sedric becoming the focal point of anti-emperor factions.

In the end, she had grasped the situation only as an internal power problem of the empire.

However, looking at it from Karam’s perspective, it becomes an entirely different problem.

At that time, there were no measures to evacuate the people of the Evron Duchy below the Allia Wall.

No matter how low the population density, the number of residents in the entire territory was in the millions.

Just because Karam occupied the land didn’t mean they massacred all the people at once or created a colonial system to isolate them.

Then there would have been exchange between the survivors and Karam.

Even blocked by the Told Mountains, there was exchange. So if they lived on the same land, the amount of exchange would increase and the quality would rapidly improve.

In the current situation where exchange is sparse, would some Karam suddenly realize they should learn about humans and study tactics?

Rather than thinking that something that had never happened before suddenly occurred, it would be more rational to think that the Karam had returned after making contact with and learning from a new civilization.

This was the emergence of the variable that Artizea had been most concerned about.

“Their withdrawal right after the first engagement was also like that. Normally, once battle begins, the Karam get excited and can’t see what’s in front of them. Since retreating is considered extremely dishonorable among them, strategic withdrawal is almost unheard of. Not just me, but even the fortress commander said it was the first time he’d seen them retreat so quickly.”

“The fortress commander is in his fifties?”

“Yes. Since he’s been on the front lines since his late teens, he’s been fighting the Karam for over thirty years.”

“Then we can’t say he spoke from shallow experience.”

“That’s right. We believe a commander with that level of control over the Karam has appeared.”

Cedric said.

“I even have a guess who it might be. I saw them from the city wall.”

Artizea fell deep in thought.

Cedric continued speaking.

“When I first received news that you would be going to the capital, I thought I should buy time. Even if it was a small force, the Karam had attacked beyond Told, and if siege weapons had appeared as well, then regardless of the actual war situation here, the central government would treat it as a major problem.”

The longer a drawn-out stalemate was maintained, the more tense the central government would become. Ironically, the more this happened, the more Evron would become an untouchable target.

Even without engaging in active combat and only defending through siege warfare, war was still war. Supplies would be rapidly depleted, and troops would also suffer casualties.

Cedric had been prepared to endure this in order to expand the range in which Artizea could maneuver.

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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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