The Angel and the Villainess
It was an explosive roar unlike anything Vesper had ever heard before. She had witnessed countless spells cast by mages on the battlefield, but this was entirely different. The blunt, elongated object emitting blue light that Jerome had brought out. The small canyon carved along the trajectory of the fired light. The shockwave from the explosion had been strong enough to knock even Vesper off her feet. Fragments that appeared to be from the pursuit team were scattered haphazardly.
After the deafening boom that had rung in their ears subsided, the only sound that echoed loudly was that of Jerome’s shelter burning down in futility.
Vesper ran toward Jerome, who lay buried in the snowfield in the distance. He was still breathing; it seemed he had simply fainted. The burn on his forearm looked severe.
“Jerome! Come to your senses!”
No matter how much she shook him, he would not wake. Vesper hurriedly removed her robe and wrapped it around his body. Her mind raced as she scanned the surroundings.
“Belgio!”
The butler came running at her call.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“The pursuit team must have left a sled nearby. Find it at once. And Tessa!”
“Yes! Your Highness.”
“Follow me.”
The place Vesper ran to with Tessa was the entrance of the shelter, already engulfed in massive flames. Looking inside, she saw that the rocky section had not yet been touched by the fire.
“I will bring items out from inside. Catch them carefully.”
“You’re going in there? It’s far too dangerous!”
There was no time to persuade Tessa or to hesitate. Vesper dashed straight inside.
“Y-Your Highness!!!”
Her body instinctively curled at the tremendous heat. But she could not come back out if she wanted to survive.
The objects and devices she had examined closely when she first entered Jerome’s space. She snatched up the square ceramic that radiated warm heat and ran back to the entrance.
“Catch this. Do not break it.”
“Your Highness! Please…!”
Leaving Tessa stomping her feet in distress, Vesper ran back in. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed another ceramic near the flames. The fire-heated pottery sent searing pain through her hands. She wrapped the nearly dropped piece in her robe and rushed out again.
She buried her throbbing hand in the snow, but the pain only intensified.
“Ugh!”
“Your Highness! Your hand…”
“It’s fine. Don’t concern yourself with it. We must move quickly.”
She offered Tessa a light smile even as the girl’s eyes brimmed with tears.
A short while later Belgio returned with two dog sleds. They laid Jerome on one, and the group finished preparing for departure.
“Your Highness… with your hand in that state, are you truly all right?”
“Tessa cannot drive the sled. This is not the palace. We have no need for pointless etiquette or formalities here.”
At her words, both Belgio and Tessa bowed their heads.
“Now that we have sleds, let us head to the cave where we stayed before.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The dogs harnessed to the sleds began to sprint. Facing the biting wind, Vesper fell deep into thought.
In the days when her nation still stood, she had encountered many wonders of the world through envoys from every country. Yet everything inside this man Jerome’s shelter was utterly unfamiliar. She had never seen such things even during her single visit to the Magic Tower.
Even the unidentified object he had used to annihilate the pursuit team in a single strike.
One thing was certain: in Vesper’s eyes, Jerome was no mage.
If the clues are pieced together… he is closer to a Nephilim.
The blue light of the dawn sky that he possessed. One who brought warmth to the frozen earth. Beings who enjoyed solitude in the land of death.
If her conjecture was correct, all these strange objects must be technologies from the celestial realm.
Vesper recalled the words her father had always emphasized: to survive in a cold place, one must become cold as well. He had surely been speaking of the political arena, a frozen lake covered in treacherous schemes. Yet the principle applied everywhere.
She had lived with those words engraved upon her heart. But now, as she was forced to rise once more, Jerome had shown her something new. Even in a frozen land, one could simply melt everything away.
She resolved to make Jerome hers… no, to make him her Nephilim without fail.
The throbbing burn spread up my arm. The intensifying pain forced my eyes open.
“Ugh!”
Without thinking I reached for my left arm, but Vesper caught my hand. Her slender fingers were cold as ice.
“It will hurt terribly. We retrieved emergency supplies from the pursuit team’s baggage, so please endure it a little longer.”
She pressed a cloth soaked in lukewarm water against my arm, wiping only around the wound with meticulous care. Each time I groaned, her movements grew even gentler. Then she tore a strip from her underskirt and dropped it into boiling water.
The place where she had been sitting was covered with blood-stained cloths.
“How long… have you been doing this?”
“A full day has passed. Your fever was severe, but it has eased somewhat. That is fortunate.”
“You’re surprisingly skilled at this.”
She gave a bitter smile.
“Until the Conterno fell, I spent time on the battlefield as well.”
Most people would have avoided it, yet she had thrown herself directly into the fray. Both the Scala Duke and this woman felt newly impressive.
When I tried to sit up, something slid off my stomach with a soft thud.
“This is…”
It was the Ceramic Heating Plate I had made. A heat-generating device created by melting frozen clay.
“It looked essential for enduring the cold, so I brought it.”
“……”
She must have placed it there while thinking of me… but inwardly I felt a chill. It meant that in that short span of time she had already deduced its purpose.
In the original novel, this woman’s true value had shone brightest in moments of crisis. She possessed sharper insight and judgment than any other heir, along with ruthless pragmatism. Behind her meticulous calculations, she solved every problem without sparing herself.
No wonder the author had been so desperate to kill her off.
The most frightening part was that Vesper never denied defeat. Instead, she always planted the seeds for her next move within it.
“Personal nursing… you’re surprisingly kind.”
She paused at my words, then spoke.
“Does it seem that way because I am a heartless woman?”
Come on, I only said it because you used to be high-ranking…
From the atmosphere, it seemed she was referring to the rumors.
The Relief Army Massacre Incident led by the children of her political rivals and those supporting the collateral line. Vesper had become the woman who valued her own political games more than relief goods for the duchy. From that point onward, the title of “villainess” spread far and wide.
In truth, that too had been a scheme orchestrated by the original novel’s princess using the male lead. From the protagonist’s perspective it must have been a refreshing stratagem that crushed both a political enemy and a hostile nation.
From then on, even the other vassals turned their backs. The original story I knew ended right around there. The situation had gradually worsened until it reached this outcome.
“No. You’re too soft to be the villainess from the rumors. There were probably circumstances you couldn’t speak of.”
“…Pardon?”
Her eyes widened.
I couldn’t tell her I already knew, so I glossed it over.
“True villains cherish their own bodies more than anyone else. They hate getting hurt or feeling pain above all else.”
“……”
Vesper stared at me blankly.
“Running out to a battlefield that could have been your last when you don’t even know how to fight? Well, I suppose that could happen.”
“……”
“And right now your hand is badly burned and in terrible pain, yet you’re still doing all this to treat me? Real villains could never manage that.”
“Vill…ain?”
“Ah… I mean evildoer. Evildoer.”
She kept dipping the cloth in water and wringing it out with that same injured hand. Though milder than mine, her burns were clearly worsening. No surprise, since her hand was still trembling from the pain.
She quietly looked down at her own hand. A single drop of water fell from the wet cloth.
For a long time she said nothing. Then she bowed deeply to me.
“Thank you. And I sincerely apologize. All of this happened because of us, for no reason…”
“What are you thanking me for?”
“For many things…”
“Forget it. We’ll call it even for you nursing me. Those empire bastards are just sons of bitches.”
“……”
“Hurry and treat your own hand first.”
“Yes.”
She answered with a gentle smile.
“By the way, where did the others go?”
“They stepped out briefly to gather firewood.”
The howl of the blizzard echoed inside the cave. They had gone out for firewood in this weather?
Speak of the devil. Two figures entered, creaking with every step, their faces encrusted with dangling chunks of ice.
“Belgio?”
“Y-Y-Your Highness… something usable for firewood…”
I could hear his teeth chattering from here. If we were going to survive, I had to stop this reckless behavior immediately.
“Don’t go out for firewood anymore.”
“But if we have no firewood, how…”
I pressed my palm against the cave’s stone floor. After concentrating, I activated the skill.
> Deploying Tuning Wave.
> Analyzing bedrock structure. Analyzing composition...
> Heat-reactive materials confirmed: pyrite, magnetite.
> Heat circuit configuration points detected.
> Initiating circuit configuration and grid resonance heating.
Blue light began to spread from my hand. I traced glowing circuits along the wall sections capable of producing heat.
Everyone stood frozen, mouths agape, eyes darting around in disbelief.
“Just wait a little. It will warm up soon.”
“……”
The firewood Belgio had obtained with such difficulty slipped from his arms.
“Ahh…”
With his sigh, it fell uselessly to the floor.
At that moment Vesper looked at me, her voice trembling.
“You… really are a Nephilim.”
“Who? Me?”
I rolled my eyes upward.
Nephilim out of nowhere? Does this world even have Nephilim? Doesn’t sound like a good thing…
Or maybe the author had slapped on another bizarre setting.
“Uh… I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you’re mistaken. I’m not.”
“Of course you would say that. You must hide your identity completely.”
What the hell is she talking about?
“I sensed something unusual from the moment I saw your shelter. I will keep your secret without fail, so you may rest easy.”
It was even more bewildering that this rational woman was acting this way.
“Why are you being like this? I keep telling you it’s not true!”
Vesper nodded slowly, smiling as if to say she understood perfectly. That smile seemed to tell me to trust only her.
She approached and knelt on both knees before me. Belgio and Tessa gasped in shock.
“Y-Your Highness! How could you kneel…”
“Your Highness!”
Vesper raised a hand to silence them. Then she looked at me and spoke.
“I understand my situation better than anyone. Past glories no longer exist. Surviving together with them takes precedence over any pride worth protecting.”
“…That’s true, but first please get up—”
“I desperately need your help. I am prepared to pay any price. Please… assist me.”
“Excuse me?”
“I, Vesper Diletta Scala, beseech the son of the celestial realm.”
Son of the celestial realm… To Mr. Park Won-jung and Ms. Lim Ju-yeon back in Korea. This woman’s deadly serious face had just turned my parents into heavenly beings.