The Baddest Villainess Is Back
Chapter 64
Eyes wide and frantic, Roselyn lunged at Count Baldur.
She shoved her fingers into his mouth, then quickly withdrew them and clamped her hand over his lips.
Caught off guard by her sudden assault, the Count failed to react in time. It was only when he felt something sliding down his esophagus that he snapped to his senses and frantically clutched his throat.
Gulp.
Something had invaded his stomach.
“You... what did you just do to me...?! What did you make me swallow?!”
“A bead.”
A red bead.
Gerran Wilbrid had found and returned the bead that had swallowed all the flames intended to burn Randarin that day.
A bead that has fulfilled its purpose shatters.
The red bead was on the verge of breaking after consuming so much fire, but it hadn't shattered yet.
It would likely only break once it had finished gorging itself on all the heat it desired.
“...A bead?”
“Yes. That bead is particularly fond of fire.”
Roselyn, her wrists raw and weeping from the rope burns, smiled brightly.
“If you don’t want to die, you’d better work hard at burning yourself.”
“What...?”
“Because it’s going to strip away every last bit of heat in your body.”
No sooner had Roselyn finished speaking than Count Baldur’s lips began to turn a sickly shade of blue.
“You...!”
Thud.
The man fell to his knees.
“Have you ever stopped to think? Are you truly the illegitimate son of the former Count Baldur? Is the ‘King’ actually on your side? Or... are you just another pawn being used by the King in the end?”
Roselyn murmured meaningfully.
As the man shivered violently from the cold, his eyes widened just as the door was flung wide open.
Roselyn, who had turned her head in tense anticipation at the sound of the door, froze when her eyes met a pair of pupils that seemed to hold the vast blue sky.
“...Arma...”
Roselyn gave a faint smile.
Her body swayed.
The strength drained from her rigid frame, and Roselyn collapsed forward.
“...Roselyn!”
Arma rushed forward, catching her in his arms. He slowly lifted his head.
Whoosh.
Crackle.
The man, though groaning in agony, did not stop the flames from erupting from his body.
Arma, who had been glaring at Count Baldur with murderous intent, stepped back while holding Roselyn at the sight of the bizarre spectacle.
“Hey!! Hand over that woman, right now...!”
The man, who had drawn his sword at some point, shouted with a menacing gaze, flames dripping from his entire body.
Even for one possessing an Abyss of fire, it didn't mean the fire wasn't hot.
It simply meant they had a slightly higher resistance to heat than others.
This meant that even with a fire Abyss, one could still suffer burns, have their skin melt, and even die from a flame stronger than their own.
“...What did you do?”
“I told you to hand over that wench, now!!”
Boom!
With a loud roar, the blazing flames spread to various parts of the room.
Flames erupted in a circle around Arma.
It was as if a piece of hell had been brought into the mortal realm.
“How unsightly,” Arma said.
“It's so hideous I can barely stand to look at it. Acting as if you're actually someone important... and turning what is mine into this state... all of it...”
K-boom!
With a thunderous sound, a pitch-black darkness began to crawl out from around Arma.
Count Baldur’s eyes widened.
“Aximus Baldur.”
Arma looked down at Roselyn’s weeping wrists with eyes that had sunken into a dark chill.
The surging, ink-black darkness began to devour the surrounding flames in an instant.
The fire swallowed by the darkness lost its color and began to burn as black flames.
“...What the hell are you?”
“You have a lot of nerve showing your face as a noble of this empire when you don’t even recognize my face.”
“Ha...!”
His composed facade long gone, Count Baldur gritted his teeth.
His already fierce expression grew even more menacing, and the large pectoral muscles visible through his disheveled clothing twitched and writhed.
“Do you think I, of all people, would lose to a bunch of pampered noble brats who’ve lived their whole lives in comfort?!”
The muscles in his arms bulged, and then the flames flared up even more violently.
The man’s skin finally began to scorch and melt under the relentless heat.
“Clinging to petty things like being an illegitimate son or a noble...”
Arma smiled radiantly.
“That is why you people are pathetic, Makruksa.”
No sooner had he spoken than the pitch-black darkness swirling around Arma instantaneously swallowed all the flames Count Baldur had unleashed.
Soon, the world was engulfed in darkness.
In a void where not a single speck of light was permitted, only Count Baldur’s burning body illuminated the view.
“Crazy bastard...”
He hissed a low curse.
“The reason you were looked down upon is because you were weak. It's because your value was less than that of a pebble rolling on the ground.”
Hearing the voice echoing from the darkness, Count Baldur forced himself up, gasping for air.
“What do you know...?!”
Flicker.
The flames weakened.
Count Baldur caught his breath.
The more he tried to intensify the fire, the faster something sucked the flames away.
‘It’s cold.’
He gritted his chattering teeth.
Feeling cold for the first time since awakening his Abyss, the man clenched his fists tight.
‘What the hell are these people...?!’
He couldn't believe it.
‘I never heard any report that the 3rd Prince possessed this kind of power.’
He tried to control the flames.
‘And what is that woman? And what is this bead?!’
Everything was utterly incomprehensible.
He couldn't see an inch in front of him, making escape impossible. If only he could use his Abyss properly...
“Why, with this kind of power...”
If the 3rd Prince had this kind of ability, he could have easily aimed for the position of Crown Prince.
He was certain of it.
It was an instinctive gut feeling.
The 3rd Prince was far more dangerous and had a much greater capacity than the current 1st Prince.
“I intended to take Makruksa for myself, thinking it was a decent shell... but was it just a gathering place for trash full of inferiority complexes?”
“Who are you calling trash...? You little brat, how dare you...”
“The fact that you couldn't reach that position on your own already makes you trash. And...”
The pitch-black darkness began to compress around Count Baldur.
“How many days do you think a human can stay in the dark before they go insane?”
Count Baldur gasped as he watched the black darkness closing in on him.
Even being locked in a room without a single ray of light would be less dark than the shadows billowing behind the man before him.
“Fuck, weren't you trying to dig for information about Makruksa?! It won't do you any good to kill me like this...!”
Watching the approaching darkness with terror-stricken eyes, he spoke urgently.
“...”
“I’ll cooperate! I’ll cooperate, so get this bead out of me! I’m really going to die at this rate!”
Count Baldur screamed.
However, the darkness continued to compress until it had shrunk into a single sphere, trapping Count Baldur’s entire body except for one ear.
“We’ll see... I’ll release you on the day Roselyn wakes up and the wounds on her body are completely healed.”
Arma smiled coldly.
It was a smile his opponent could never see.
“If your mind is still intact by then, I’ll consider a deal.”
Click. Arma stepped out of the room.
Inside the room, where only scorched black marks remained, a black sphere floated silently in the air.