The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 212
In the room, which briefly fell silent, the children responded with a loud “Yes!” just as
Roxelyn furrowed her brow.
Then, laughing together, they disappeared.
Of course, their expressions remained as fixed as ever.
As the children vanished, Roxelyn smiled and looked at the two who entered, closing the door behind them.
“What are Mom and Dad hoping for to have come all the way into this deep forest?”
A boy, leaning in close, asked her slyly. Roxelyn looked up at him silently.
Each time Arma seemed ready to lash out, his hand twitching as if to strike, Roxelyn gripped his hand tightly.
“Do you have no plans to leave this mansion?”
The blond-haired boy laughed, crossing his arms.
“No, I don’t.”
“Why?”
“Because if I go outside, they’ll just look at us with those filthy eyes and curse us. Why should I bother? My real parents are probably happier without me anyway.”
With a scoff and a youthful sneer, the boy turned his head and continued.
Roxelyn had seen these two boys before.
They were the ones she ignored and pretended not to know, eventually used by the King of Makruxa, then blamed as causes of famine and plague, and executed by guillotine.
“Your parents are dead,” Roxelyn stated calmly.
“…What are you talking about all of a sudden? Did a war break out or something?”
“No, I’m saying that His Majesty Leidolt Jean Diyanitas, the 13th Emperor of Diyanitas, has already passed away.”
The blond boy’s eyes widened at Roxelyn’s words.
In a different sense, Arma also looked at Roxelyn in surprise. And, indeed…
“The current emperor of Diyanitas is the 28th, Severus Jean Diyanitas.”
For now, they were in a future hundreds of years later.
“What nonsense are you talking about? We’ve only been here a few years at most!”
“No, think about it carefully.”
Roxelyn, unfazed by the fury directed at her from up close, spoke with a calm expression.
“How many ‘Moms’ and ‘Dads’ have come here so far?”
The boy glared.
“And why did you end up here?”
At her steady and even tone, the black-haired boy behind the blond one trembled, his eyes quivering.
“…Roxelyn, I don’t understand, but may I ask for an explanation of what’s going on?”
At Arma’s request, Roxelyn glanced at him, then slowly began to speak.
“I mentioned it earlier, didn’t I?”
Arma turned his head to look at her.
“In the past, there was an emperor who hated illegitimate children.”
The black-haired boy, who had been hiding behind the blond one, flinched violently.
Roxelyn continued slowly.
“Do you remember what the 13th Emperor was famous for?”
Any royal who learned the empire’s history would know.
It was something Roxelyn had only discovered while researching this mansion.
“…He was a tyrant. I was taught that he cut down everything he disliked and even killed the women he slept with.”
At Arma’s explanation, Roxelyn nodded.
“Yes, he loathed illegitimate children. He also despised those who were not nobility and cared deeply about bloodlines.”
In a world where wise rulers exist, there are also tyrants. And some believe that a person’s worth can be judged by bloodline alone.
“So, he valued the pedigree of his partners, and if they didn’t meet his standards, he killed them. But there was one who didn’t meet his standards yet survived and gave birth.”
By any objective or subjective measure, he was an emperor of truly despicable character.
“When the noble daughter of a count’s family gave birth, he intended to make her his concubine. But before the marriage could take place, it was discovered that she was illegitimate.”
But when such a despicable person holds absolute power, individuals become powerless.
“The count’s family, unwilling to send their daughter to a palace where people died frequently, had secretly sent an illegitimate child in her place.”
What followed was simple.
Upon discovering the truth, the emperor raged, killed her shortly after childbirth, and wiped out the count’s family.
However, he couldn’t kill the child she bore.
After all, if he killed a newborn child with imperial blood, the backlash would be inevitable.
“So, the emperor created an asylum to gather ‘tainted bloodlines’. In the dark, dense forest, deep inside.”
A place where no one could escape and, even if they did, would die lost in the forest—an asylum for illegitimate children.
“No…”
The blond boy murmured, his face pale.
“Our father didn’t abandon us.”
Watching the boy mutter with a pale expression, Roxelyn slowly traced her thoughts back through the past.
