The Baddest Villainess Is Back - Chapter 222
“…What is it?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just happy.”
“…All of a sudden?”
A slight frown appeared on Roxelyn’s brow.
“I’m just glad you’re safe, Brother. How do you feel? Is there anything unusual?”
“…I’m… fine.”
“You don’t have to force yourself to speak. …I’m truly glad. Really, I am.”
As Roxelyn watched Arma’s face coming close without any intention of backing away, she scratched her cheek.
‘Is there really something here to like?’
All she’d done was take him in for treatment, issuing thinly veiled threats along the way.
“…Love really is blind,” Roxelyn mused.
“Brother, just do whatever you want now,” Edward told Albus from the other side of the room.
But meanwhile, Arma replied to Roxelyn, “Is this what they call blind love?”
“You can stop now, Brother,” Edward cried.
“I haven’t done a single thing to deserve being liked, yet you keep saying you do.”
“All this time, Brother… I’m sorry to have kept you…”
“I just like you. You’re beautiful and lovely, so I like you.”
“…UGH! ENOUGH! Hey, you two! Try reading the room!”
Edward, who had been tearfully clinging to his brother, making solemn declarations, burst out in irritation.
Arma glanced at him and spoke up.
“Your tone toward your elders doesn’t seem very respectful.”
“What elders? Our parents are dead!”
“And who was the one who first started calling us Mom and Dad?”
At Arma’s narrowed gaze, Roxelyn gently tapped his arm. He took a step back, his expression melting back into his usual smile.
Edward narrowed his eyes. “Such a scheming brat.”
Roxelyn changed the subject.
“Anyway, since I saved you, I’ll assume you’ve agreed to the terms.”
“You’re not allowed to harm the forest.”
As Edward crossed his arms and made his demands shamelessly, Roxelyn pulled out a document from her sleeve. It was a paper confirming that the land around the forest belonged to the Bellion Dukedom.
“Then you’ll need to vacate immediately.”
“What?!”
“I already told you, this place belongs to my family. If you can’t follow the rules, then forced eviction is the only option…”
With her arms crossed, Roxelyn tilted her head arrogantly.
“Of course, you’ll also need to pay rent for the time you’ve occupied it without permission…”
“Rent? Do you think we wanted to be here?! We were here first, to begin with!”
“Do you have any proof?”
Roxelyn smirked.
“…What?”
“I asked if you have proof.”
She gave a lighthearted laugh, waving the document with an air of mockery, her chin held high.
“I’ll turn a blind eye to the shoddy repairs you made inside.”
“You… do you even know who we are?!”
“Imperial Princes… who had been long declared deceased.”
“Declared… dead…”
Edward’s mouth gaped open.
“…It’s true.”
In the meantime, no fewer than fifteen emperors had come and gone, so it made sense for them to be presumed dead long ago. Yet it was hard to believe.
To Edward, it felt like they had been here for just a few years. In the dark forest, night and day were indistinct, and they hardly ever slept. Every day felt the same as the last, creating a life with no clear sense of time passing.
Edward slumped onto the bed next to Albus, rubbing his face vigorously.
“…I didn’t realize it had been that long.”
“Being immortal, you’re probably a bit desensitized to the passage of time.”
Albus rubbed his neck uncomfortably, as though still getting used to his body.
Roxelyn examined him with narrowed eyes. The yellow stone she had was one of healing and purification. It had helped restore Albus’s body, but only to the state it had been in right before his death. In other words, it could only heal external wounds.
Looking at Albus’s frail, skeletal arms and hollow cheeks, she could tell the mansion had seen terrible times under the rule of the 13th Emperor.
“Let me build a new home for you closer to the edge of the forest.”
“No need. This is enough.”
“If you stay here, it’ll only remind you of the past. Why force yourself through that?”
Roxelyn’s words made Edward and Albus hesitate.
“The past is there to be forgotten, not to be lived in. You…”
Roxelyn recalled her own past.
“…did nothing wrong.”
“……!”
Her unexpected words widened the two boys’ eyes. Edward’s gaze quivered.
“It’s not a crime to have been born. It’s not something you chose. There’s no reason for you to feel even the slightest guilt, nor to keep yourselves locked up here.”
“No… I…”
“You were just born, that’s all.”
At her words, the surroundings began to shift. The once grand mansion began to lose its color, appearing shabby and worn. The proud windows creaked, and the floor, which had seemed new, now showed rotting wood that seemed ready to break with a single step.
‘No, it must have been this rotten floor all along.’
This might just be part of Edward’s Abyss.
“You’re not the ones in the wrong, so there’s no reason to be imprisoned here.”
Roxelyn continued to speak calmly.
“I’ve learned that if you don’t speak up about injustices, no one will ever know. Silently enduring doesn’t make you strong. Do you know what true strength is?”
“…What is it?”
“Speaking up loudly and clearly when you need to.”
Roxelyn replied.
At some point, a group of children had gathered at the doorway, with Gerun and the High Priest behind them.
“So, everyone, repeat after me: ‘My father or mother is a rotten jerk!’”
With a wide smile on her face, Roxelyn encouraged the children.
