The Baddest Villainess Is Back
Chapter 52
Roselyn let out a short sigh.
“I’ll head back for now. My head hurts a bit.”
“Ah, yes. Do that. Shall I call a physician?”
Ever since that day, she had been experiencing occasional headaches and eye pain.
‘Why is this happening again?’
Frowning, she pressed her palm firmly against her temple. As she gave a slight nod, a maid standing nearby stepped forward.
“My Lady, I will escort you to your room.”
“……Alright.”
The moment she took a single step, the world spun around her.
‘What am I going to do with this damn body…….’
A voice called out her name like a scream, but Roselyn couldn’t even respond before she promptly fainted.
It truly was a pathetic, fragile body.
\* \* \*
“……What?”
Roselyn snapped her eyes open, but no matter how much she rubbed them, her vision remained blurry, causing her to frown slightly.
Rustle.
At the faint sound, Roselyn’s body gave a violent flinch.
She scowled and took a deep breath.
Instinctively, her body tensed up.
“Ah, you’re awake.”
There are things that trigger bad memories.
Roselyn’s life on the run had been anything but pleasant. In hindsight, there might have been some good moments, but that was all.
Furthermore, since Roselyn was objectively beautiful, there were many who targeted her.
Even so, Roselyn had survived well.
However, there were certainly events that even she could not avoid.
For instance, the time she was captured and brought to the Imperial Palace, where her freedom was stripped away.
「Don’t you wonder what kind of scream someone lets out when their eyes are gouged out, Princess?」
「…….」
「I’m curious. I’m also curious whether the noble Princess, who has managed to run away so well until now, will beg me for her life or not.」
「Judging by that vulgar and cheap way of speaking, I think I understand why you’re stuck in a smelly, filthy underground prison like this. It seems this place suits a fellow like you best.」
Even while undergoing persistent and grim torture, Roselyn openly mocked her opponent.
「……Gah\! How dare you, when your very life is held in my filthy and insignificant hands\! You don’t know your place\!\! I can kill someone like you whenever I want. I can kill you\!\!」
「No, you can’t kill me. The Emperor won’t allow it. If you kill me, you’ll be carved up alive.」
Sometimes she giggled like a madwoman.
「Ah, shall I explain it further so even an idiot can understand? Even in this state, an insignificant commoner like you is something that belongs in a mire lower than me.」
「You—you brat\! How dare you, do you know who I am\! In here, I am like a god\! All of you should just grovel at my feet and beg for your lives while confessing what you know\! You people……\!」
「Hahaha, you seem to quite enjoy playing the leader of the sewer rats, so please continue to enjoy yourself.」
Sometimes she would viciously provoke him.
「Filthy brat, do you think I don’t know how people like you survive on the outside?! Fine, let’s see just how long you can keep that noble nose of yours in the air……\!」
「Every time you open your mouth, it reeks of the gutter. And there is no way I would ever entertain an insignificant commoner like you.」
Squelch.
That day, Roselyn lost an eye, and the bleeding was stopped with a heated iron.
“……Uh, are you alright?”
Grisly memories sometimes resurfaced at just the sound of a voice.
Roselyn kept her mouth shut and blinked once.
“Your vision is a bit blurry right now, isn’t it? It’s an aftereffect. It seems that getting burned was quite a shock.”
“…….”
“Have you been burned in the past? Physically, you’re fine, but if you have trauma related to fire, sometimes the body shows abnormal reactions despite being healthy. You’ll be fine soon once you calm down.”
The very familiar voice was less hoarse than she remembered, smooth and completely devoid of any metallic rasp.
“Who… are you?”
“Ah, I am Asidor, a mid-ranking priest dispatched from the Temple by imperial order.”
Asidor.
Only then did Roselyn give a faint smile and shrug her shoulders.
“I see. Thank you for helping me.”
“Not at all, it is only natural as an apostle of God.”
“An apostle of God, is it……?”
Roselyn muttered lowly, chewing over the memory.
They say people always try to erase bad memories quickly, but Roselyn was always the opposite.
She tended to remember the bad memories longer.
Chewing, chewing, and chewing over them again, just so she could somehow seize a momentary chance to throttle their windpipe.
It was a biding of breath for the day of revenge that might one day suddenly arrive.
The Asidor who existed in the world Roselyn remembered had been a torturer in the underground prison under the name ‘Sing.’
A torturer who could never go above ground.
Sing was an exceptional human who possessed the Abyss of Healing even while working as a torturer, but his appearance was grotesque.
He was a man who had suffered severe burns. The skin over his entire body had melted into a mess, and his vocal cords had apparently been damaged in the process, as his voice always had a metallic rasp and a hoarseness as if phlegm were boiling in it.
In short, he had been quite a hideous sight.
‘So he was originally a priest.’
Well, she had guessed as much.
The Abyss of Healing was something most of those who devoted themselves to the Temple possessed.
Among them, the stronger one’s divine power, the stronger the power of the Abyss became.
The Abyss usually awakened in individuals due to innate talent.
However, there was exactly one Abyss that could be received even without talent, and that was the Abyss of Healing.
Even so, not just anyone could receive it. One had to have divine power to enter the Temple, and once they became a child of God by entering the Temple, they could receive it.
“It is quite a shame that I cannot see the face of the one who helped me.”
She had wanted to see what kind of face he originally had.
“You will be able to see it soon. If you relax and get a good night’s sleep, you’ll be fine when you wake up.”
“Yes, I look forward to it.”
Roselyn replied leisurely, her mind slowly working.
‘Come to think of it, there was one. A priest who was sentenced to be burned at the stake.’
The charge was definitely…….
‘Because he dabbled in forbidden sorcery?’
Originally, the death penalty was usually carried out only by hanging or decapitation.
Hanging was usually for nobles, and decapitation was usually for those other than nobles.
Among them, burning at the stake was a punishment handed down when one reached for the wicked darkness, such as forbidden black magic or dark sorcery.
‘It’s amazing that he survived that, too…….’
So instead of maintaining that tenacious life, he had become a torturer who would never see the light again.
It made sense that his personality would turn sour.
“But you said it was an imperial order earlier. Is this not the Duke’s estate?”
“Yes, this is the Imperial Palace. You received an order for an audience with His Majesty and collapsed on your way here…… Do you not remember?”
Roselyn frowned.
‘Now that you mention it, that’s right.’
She slowly and lightly rubbed her temple with her palm. She seemed to have been completely out of it lately.
“How many days has it been?”
“Today is the third day.”
“……My father must have been in an uproar.”
Roselyn felt a wave of exhaustion as she recalled soothing Cherti, who had rushed out like the protagonist of a tragic drama.
“Then I shall take my leave now. In truth, there was nothing I could do for you other than supplement your vitality. If you need anything, there is a bell pull next to the side table, so you may pull it.”
Roselyn nodded at the man’s explanation. Whether it was revenge or anything else, she had to get better first to do it.
Click.
The door closed.
‘All that’s left is the disappearance case.’
It was almost time for the culprit of the disappearances to show up.
Because the culprit of the disappearances and the culprit of the arson cases shared the same root.
If the arson cases had begun to occur, the culprit of the disappearances would soon begin to move in earnest as well.
‘I wonder what happened with the epidemic.’
It was just as Roselyn let out a sigh of frustration.
Click.
She heard the sound of the doorknob turning.
Roselyn stopped moving abruptly.
Being unable to see remained like a trauma for Roselyn now.
The torturer ‘Sing’ had possessed a truly foul personality.
He enjoyed watching the prisoners tremble in fear when they couldn’t see.
And Roselyn was the type to try desperately not to give him that pleasure.
Someone who had approached slowly stopped right beside the bed where Roselyn lay.
“…….”
They seemed to be doing nothing in silence, as not even a small rustle could be heard.
Presently, Roselyn felt a large, warm hand placed on her forehead.
The hand slowly stroked her cheek and seemed to tidy her disheveled hair once before slowly pulling away.
‘Who is it?’
Roselyn pretended to sleep so as not to be caught being awake.
It was because the cautious touch did not feel as though it intended to cause her harm.
“Roselyn……”
The moment his hand grasped Roselyn’s, her eyes widened behind her lids at the voice that echoed in her head and the scene that flashed before her.
