Chapter 105
Chapter 105
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: Villainess
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Villainess.
Thud.
Stone fragments tumbled down with a clatter.
Thump, thump.
My heart was pounding. It wasn't anything major. Lucia was staring at me, having just punched the wall.
Her blood-red eyes narrowed in a sharp glare.
She slowly scanned me up and down, as if appraising me.
"You don't seem gay."
"I like women."
"Yeah, I figured. Your reaction right now proves it."
"......"
"So why reject me?"
She gazed at me, her voice laced with irritation.
The reason was simple.
Our relationship wasn't normal.
It was lopsided.
Our first meeting had been wrong from the start.
I looked at Lucia. She spoke in a slightly melancholic tone.
"......Don't you like me?"
"That's not it."
How could I not like her?
I gazed at her. Her snow-white skin, blood-red eyes and hair.
A peerless beauty who made even great beauties look ordinary.
No woman could dislike her.
But.
Our relationship was wrong. I'd stolen her obsession,
and in turn, made her obsess over me.
Playing with people's emotions only brings momentary thrill.
That's why.
"......I have ambitions."
-Ambitions? You?
The Holy Sword responded to my nickname with incredulous disbelief.
Did ambitions really not suit me that much?
-Of course not. How could a guy like you have ambitions?
A mix of admiration and insult.
Unlike the Holy Sword, Lucia reacted differently.
"Ambitions?"
Her melancholic voice brightened again. She looked at me.
A strange eagerness crept into her eyes.
"Ambitions... Ambitions, I like that. But with those ambitions, wouldn't you need me even more?"
Lucia leaned in, subtly thrusting out her chest.
But something felt off.
She was usually a rational woman, so this sudden change...
"More importantly, you seem weird all of a sudden."
"Ah, sorry. I'm just a bit eager."
Lucia smiled brightly at my words and said that.
"Actually, before coming here, I had to tidy up some annoying business."
Annoying business?
If Lucia called it annoying, it must be serious.
She always seemed relaxed and strong around me, so it piqued my interest.
"Truth is, even though I joined the clan, it's a bit risky."
"Risky?"
"Well, more precisely, the risk of some fools who don't know their place mouthing off."
"What do you mean?"
"I have a fiancé."
Fiancé.
My eyebrow twitched at the word.
"Oh? Look at that reaction."
Lucia suddenly flashed a pleased smile.
"Right now, I don't even think about him... I just want to get closer to you instead."
Lucia rambled on defensively.
"Really, I have zero interest in that fiancé guy."
"Sure."
People can lose interest, sure.
But how rotten must his personality be for those words to come from sweet Lucia?
"Ahem... I got a bit excited, but anyway, back to the point. At first, it was a marriage alliance between families, so I thought I'd try getting along with him."
"I see."
"It's business between families."
Lucia glanced at me slyly.
She seemed to want some reaction.
'It's just business.'
She'd even put in effort.
In this situation, wasn't Lucia blameless?
-......Normally, no one would care about that.
'What's with that look?'
-I can't give looks... whatever.
The Holy Sword sounded deflated. Ignoring it, I looked ahead.
"So I tried to get along with my fiancé, and he liked me too. As you can see, I'm pretty cute, right?"
I nodded seriously at Lucia's self-praise.
She panicked, fanning her face to cool it.
Why's she embarrassed after saying it herself?
"Ahem, anyway... He liked me, but then everything changed."
"Changed?"
"First... Do you know about my family?"
Lucia's family.
I didn't know.
Just that she was the Villainess,
and a few things my friend told me.
One thing I knew.
'Her fiancé is more trash than expected.'
And that those connected to him were flashy and dangerous.
That's all.
"The Philhart family."
A family I'd never heard of.
But the Holy Sword reacted.
-Philhart? That Philhart family still exists?
The shocked Holy Sword.
What kind of family makes this guy react like that?
-A family of assassins. Sometimes called the Slay Gate in Eastern tongue.
'An assassin family? Why?'
-You're so free of prejudice. It's complicated, but assassin families don't last. Rulers hate them most.
'True.'
-But Philhart was different. They attached to rulers, eliminated rivals, grasped weaknesses. That's how they endured as a family... but.
'They got wiped out, right?'
-Yes. The problem? The previous Sword Hero moved to destroy them.
"......"
Previous hero.
Come to think of it, what happens to previous heroes?
With Holy Sword and Holy Bow continuing,
Do they relinquish like honorary positions?
-In peaceful times, it's possible.
The Holy Sword spoke nostalgically, reminiscing.
I looked at Lucia and said,
"I get the gist."
"I'm a survivor of the Philhart family. I inherited their blood, but half-abandoned by them, I lived here once."
"......"
So that's when she got the title Execution Princess.
Vicious nickname, but people wander sometimes.
-What thick blinders. Or is she well-hidden? Or just oblivious?
Dismissing the Holy Sword's nonsense, I looked at Lucia.
"If you were half-abandoned and rose on your own, why bother with a fiancé...?"
"Haha... I was a bit crazy back then."
Lucia spoke with a hollow expression.
"Being alone so long, I craved affection. Wanted family recognition. Climbed up, but all I got was marry this family pest to enrich us..."
Lucia curled her lip bitterly.
"Well, thanks to that, I met you, Yuseong... but it's gotten annoying."
"Annoying?"
"The family binding me is tiresome now... Ah, I tire easily, but my interests have shifted."
"......"
I had a hunch.
From the beginning.
When I first fell here, the item I stole from Lucia.
'Villainess's Obsession.'
Probably because of that.
Looking at her with that thought,
Lucia gave a mysterious smile.
"So... the point of bringing this up..."
Her cheeks flushed.
She gazed at me quietly and said,
"Will you pretend to be my fake fiancé?"
Lucia asked me.
*
Carrying the wooden boxes filled with the potions Cheongju had mass-produced,
I headed to the guild.
Hilda said they'd buy them at market price.
Walking with high expectations.
"......"
I saw Soyeonhwa.
Her face a bit puffy. Did she cry somewhere?
"What."
"Teach me the sword."
The sword.
I looked at Soyeonhwa.
The Empire's engineered Sword Hero. Her talent had despaired countless geniuses.
However.
I'd seen her future.
The Holy Sword said.
She wielded the Light of Annihilation.
I'd glimpsed Soyeonhwa becoming that.
And how absurd that power was.
I'd felt it, even as an ally.
'Is teaching her swordsmanship the right thing?'
Wanted to ask the Holy Sword,
but since then, it acted like it forgot that memory.
'......Headache.'
I grimaced without realizing.
Driving me crazy. Lucia's words,
Soyeonhwa's issue,
Veronica's problem too.
'But she's innocent.'
Forcing a relaxed face, I looked at Soyeonhwa.
"Does it bother you?"
"......No, not that."
"Right?"
Soyeonhwa looked relieved.
"Good. Others don't like me."
"......Don't like you?"
"Yeah. They hate that I just swing swords. Sword swingers hate sparring me."
Makes sense.
Soyeonhwa said she'd steal others' swordsmanship, unless it was me.
I'd stolen hers instead.
'Her sword luck seemed good.'
Linking with Dark Moon and Mysterious Heaven felt powerful.
Anyway, not the point.
I recalled her future form somehow.
A body of light.
A massive light sword cleaving the world.
Impossible for current me to face.
Unconquerable power.
Beating it? Impossible.
So.
I'd thought.
The one showing me that damned scene
'Might be asking me to keep her from that path entirely.'
My wild guess maybe.
If weird vibes, Steal Strike somehow.
Teaching orthodox hero swordsmanship might not be bad.
'Might hasten that scene though.'
But better than regretting later.
Fewer regrets better.
Future's unknown anyway.
I looked at Soyeonhwa. Puffy face.
She stared back. Jewel-like red eyes fixed on me.
"I'll teach you."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Soyeonhwa beamed happily.