The Baddest Villainess Is Back
Chapter 21
‘…I can’t believe it.’
Roselyn shook her head. Gilbert was completely different from her memories.
He was even more bloated than she remembered.
This was exactly the problem with him.
Not only had he been coddled by a conservative Baron in a rural estate, but he had also grown up thoroughly steeped in the ideology that men were superior to women.
Moreover, until now, Roselyn would have done nothing more than glare at him without putting up any proper resistance.
In short, he was a frog in a well.
Even so, he was far too ignorant of the world. Even for a country bumpkin, there were things one ought to know.
Specifically, that there are certain social ranks in this world that one must never cross.
Roselyn opened her mouth with a faint smile.
“My memory is a bit fuzzy—did the Gilbert Baronry happen to be in the livestock business?”
“Hm? I am not a Gilbert, but Giles Robert, my lady.”
“Ah, that’s right. It slipped my mind.”
“It’s quite alright. Haha, nonetheless, it seems rumors reach you slowly since you stay so modestly within the mansion, my lady.”
“…….”
“Our primary focus is textiles and minerals.”
As she watched him creep closer while incessantly wiping away beads of sweat, Roselyn’s smile deepened slightly.
“Ah, was that it? My apologies. I am only human, and my memory has its limits.”
She smiled casually and gripped a wine bottle sitting on a nearby table.
“It happens~.”
He offered a magnanimous laugh.
He had no idea she was actually saying she had no brain capacity to spare for the likes of him.
“Being ignorant of the world means you’ll be able to support your husband well later on. I personally prefer a modest woman over one who’s overly sophisticated.”
Gilbert’s hand crept toward Roselyn.
“I thought the Gilbert family dealt in livestock because I keep seeing a pig.”
“Th-the name isn’t Gilbert, it’s Robert…”
“Ah, I keep forgetting.”
“In any case, Lady Roselyn, do you have a fiancé or a lover? I understand you haven’t received a single marriage proposal yet. If you don’t have one…”
Gilbert reached out toward Roselyn.
‘To think there’s still someone who doesn’t know I’m engaged… Why does he even bother coming to social circles?’
Roselyn sighed inwardly, and the people nearby clicked their tongues in their heads.
They assumed the stuttering Princess, who could do nothing but glare with her mouth shut no matter what was done to her, would remain silent this time as well.
It was the moment Gilbert’s hand touched Roselyn’s waist.
Crash—!
“Aaargh!!”
With a sharp shattering sound, Gilbert’s body wobbled violently.
Roselyn frowned, looking regretfully at the wine that had spilled when the bottle partially missed and broke.
“A walking pig doesn’t know its place, aiming for a human.”
“B-b-blood… Father, Father!! I’m bleeding!!”
Gilbert, with wine mixed with blood trickling from his head, began to flail and scream.
Roselyn snorted and looked down at him.
The banquet hall fell silent, and soon all eyes began to gather toward them.
“Y-y-you…! You immodest wench!! How dare you strike a man! You’ve gone mad!”
Looking down at the man who had collapsed on the floor, pale with shock, Roselyn snorted again.
“You’re the one who’s clearly lost his mind…”
Roselyn spoke as if she found it absurd, then ground the heel of her shoe down firmly between Gilbert’s legs.
“Even an ignorant, immature country mouse should know how to distinguish between high and low waters.”
“Ack! Aaargh!! Ack!! Fatherrrr!!”
Roselyn looked over at Baron Robert, who was watching from a distance with a stunned expression.
“Look here, Gilbert. It’s you who should behave modestly, not me.”
“Fatherrrr!!!”
“Yes, why is your great father standing there as still as a stone statue, not coming to save you even as I commit this immodest and rude act? Hmm?”
His eyes bulged.
Being raised too precious was a problem. He thought he was the highest being in the room.
He truly didn't understand the hierarchy.
“Little frog, outside of your well, there are even women who stand above your head.”
“Eeek…! I told you to stop!!”
After flailing for a long while, Gilbert used his massive bulk to shove Roselyn aside and scrambled to his feet.
Roselyn’s body swayed heavily. At the same time, a large hand swung down viciously toward the off-balance Roselyn.
Slap—!
Roselyn’s eyes widened at the sound.
“……Roselyn.”
Her waist was firmly caught.
Cherti, who had sensed the commotion and rushed from the center of the hall to this corner in an instant, was holding her steady.
And in front of Roselyn…
“3rd Prince…?”
There stood the 3rd Prince, Arma Dianitas, his head turned from the impact.
His hair was disheveled from the blow, casting shadows over his eyes, making it difficult to read his expression.
Roselyn, who had never expected anyone to step in front of her, froze in a rare moment of bewilderment.
“Y-y-your Highness the P-Prince?!”
Gilbert…
No, Giles Robert, turned deathly pale, his lips trembling violently.
Arma slowly shifted his gaze.
In an instant, the cold glare directed at Giles Robert softened into a gentle curve as it turned toward Roselyn.
“……Are you alright, my lady?”
Roselyn, momentarily lost for words at the sight of his reddened cheek, nodded a beat late.
“Ah. Yes, thanks to you…”
“A bastard more insignificant than an insect dares… to lay a hand on my precious granddaughter without knowing his place?”
Thump.
Devon Bellion, dressed in his usual flamboyant red suit and adorned with various accessories, spoke with a savage grin.
The cane in his hand struck the floor harshly.
“How dare you…”
It was the moment Devon was about to continue speaking.
Someone else reached out faster than him.
“A wretch like you dares to touch my daughter…?”
It was Cherti Bellion.
Cherti’s face, as he held her firmly from behind, was twisted in utter ruin.
A violet haze drifted from his shallow breaths, and his red eyes, so like her own, surged with an insurmountable killing intent and contempt.
Grip—.
In the blink of an eye, Cherti Bellion had Giles Robert by the throat.
“Guh, ack…!”
Roselyn’s mouth parted slightly at the sight of him lifting Giles Robert’s massive frame with a single hand as if he weighed nothing.
Her father looked slender to a fault, appearing as though he possessed no physical strength whatsoever.
People were crowding around Roselyn.
Since they were in a corner, the commotion was likely muffled by the banquet noise at first, but with the disturbance growing this large, everyone had finally noticed and gathered.
“How dare you… How dare you…!”
The eyes of the agitated Cherti Bellion turned a deeper shade of crimson.
With his pupils dilated and a poisonous mist seeping from his body, the surrounding guests screamed and scrambled backward.
“Th-that woman, guh… she first… to me… seduced me… Hieeeek, Fa-Father!!”
Cherti Bellion kept Roselyn hidden behind him, his gaze flickering with a predatory ferocity.
Giles Robert screamed for his life, but Baron Robert could not move.
This was because Baron Robert, being of a similar age, knew the terrifying notoriety of Devon Bellion better than anyone.
He knew well how arrogant the young Devon Bellion had been, and how cruel his methods were.
He knew that even if Devon now acted like a toothless tiger in his old age, the reality was quite different.
Furthermore, he could not easily intervene now that the Little Duke, who possessed the poisonous Abyss and carried the risk of going berserk, had stepped forward.
“Where does a pig like you get the nerve to wag its tongue…?”
Cherti Bellion’s hand stained with a violet hue.
The poison spreading across his hand soon began to seep into Giles Robert’s skin.
“She is my daughter! My daughter!”
He cried out like a scream.
It sounded like the howl of a beast that had lost its young.
“Who do you think you are, to dare…!”
‘Ah, he’s lost his mental grip.’
Roselyn, living her seventeen-year-old life again at the age of twenty-seven, was discovering many new sides to her father.
One of them was the fact that Cherti Bellion’s mental state was weaker than she thought.
At the very least, it was clear that it became significantly more fragile whenever it concerned her.
“I will kill you.”
It was when Cherti Bellion tightened his grip, muttering those short words.
Roselyn reached out without hesitation and grabbed Cherti Bellion’s sleeve.
Cherti Bellion flinched and looked at Roselyn.
“……Roselyn?”
“Yes. I’m fine, so please stop.”
Roselyn spoke, showing him her fingertips which had turned violet from standing beside him.
‘If this escalates further, it could give the Emperor an excuse to target us.’
Seeing Roselyn’s fingertips, Cherti Bellion turned pale.
“……N-no.”
He shook his head.
“Do not come near me. I am……”
“Don’t worry, Father. I brought plenty of antidotes just in case something like this happened.”
Roselyn spoke calmly as she pulled a small potion bottle from a pocket inside her sleeve.
“……Eh?”
“I happen to be quite popular in many ways, so I brought this in advance in case such a situation arose.”
Cherti stared blankly at his daughter, who nonchalantly muttered that she had already anticipated this.
“……So, you don’t have to step in for me from now on.”
Roselyn shifted her gaze to the 3rd Prince, Arma.
Though she spoke calmly and indifferently, Roselyn was actually swept up in a strange sensation.
It became particularly vivid when Arma blocked her path.
Because back then, too…….
Arma had stood in front of Roselyn just like this.
To save Roselyn’s life.
