The Baddest Villainess Is Back
Chapter 72
72
* * *
“Roselyn!”
Arma strode toward Roselyn as soon as she entered the Imperial Palace.
Dressed in a snow-white uniform, Arma, with his boyish and youthful face, smiled brightly at the sight of her.
“I heard that you had woken up, but I wasn’t able to show my face because the Duke’s estate wasn’t accepting visitors.”
“It’s fine. I couldn’t even step a single foot out of my room anyway,” Roselyn added bluntly in response to Arma’s concern.
Arma glanced at Roselyn’s cheeks and body, which looked fuller than the worst-case scenario he had imagined, before speaking.
“I’m glad you look healthier than expected. I heard you had grown quite thin while you were ill.”
At Arma’s words, Roselyn glanced down at her own figure and nodded.
“Well, for an entire week, I couldn’t take a single step out of bed while being surrounded by my family’s surveillance. Having breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with two snack times a day… even if I didn’t want to gain weight, I had no choice.”
“Ah…”
Arma’s lips parted at Roselyn’s resigned tone, but unable to find the right words, he simply nodded with a trace of a smile on his face.
“Anyway, I’m glad you’re here. Father was also waiting for you to make a speedy recovery.”
“Yes, I know.”
“I heard you’re staying at the Imperial Palace for the day. Would you like to have a meal together?”
Seeing Arma reach out to gently take her hand, Roselyn slowly nodded.
“All right.”
“Thank you. If there’s any food you prefer, I’ll let the chef know.”
“…I think anything but meat would be fine.”
She didn’t exactly feel like eating meat that bled after having her own side pierced with a squelch.
Fortunately, Arma nodded without much of a reaction.
“Do you like seafood?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll tell them to prepare a meal centered around seafood.”
Looking down at Arma’s hand holding hers gently so as not to hurt her, Roselyn applied a bit of pressure and squeezed his hand back.
Arma’s shoulders twitched, but he continued to walk forward slowly in silence.
‘…He looks so small from a distance.’
But up close, he was such a large person. Even her own small hand was more than half-hidden within his.
“Arma, may I ask you something?”
“Yes, please go ahead.”
“There was someone I was seeing.”
“…Pardon?”
Arma’s eyes widened.
‘Someone she was seeing? When on earth…? No, is this that open-mindedness people talk about these days…? No, did she date someone briefly in Kaluta…? But she was with me, so when…? Was it before the engagement…?’
Even though he knew it made no sense, Arma’s mind went blank at Roselyn’s incomprehensible declaration.
Unable to hide his flustered state, Arma’s mouth hung open as he glanced at her, but seeing Roselyn’s calm expression, he slowly nodded.
“…Yes.”
“I even lived a life on the run with that person. He threw away everything he had to follow me.”
“…Yes?”
“But then, just before he was caught by our pursuers, he told me to go first and that he would follow after holding them off. Then he died.”
“…Yes?”
“But I recently found out that he was actually alive. He had faked his death and abandoned me.”
“…”
“If you were that person, Arma, why do you think you would have done that? I was curious about that.”
At Roselyn’s question, Arma’s face hardened.
“…Just what kind of crazy… No, what kind of wicked person would do that? Isn’t that just bottom-tier trash? How could he dare do that to you? Which bastard was it?!”
‘It was you…’
Roselyn tilted her head as she watched Arma, who was unusually flying into a rage, unable to contain his anger.
“…Hah. How can there be a man who isn’t even worth living as a human being?”
“Hmm…”
“Hiding his true nature from the person he’s seeing…”
Arma, having heard the rest of Roselyn’s explanation, paused for a moment and trailed off.
“Pretending to be a lover when he didn’t even truly love you…”
Arma’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Acting so sweet as if he’d give you his very heart and soul…”
“…”
“And in the end, he faked his death and abandoned you…?”
As Arma spoke, a sense of déjà vu washed over him.
No, it felt like something he had heard before.
But it wasn’t that he had heard it.
‘…How does Roselyn know my plan?’
Arma realized that everything Roselyn had said aligned quite closely with his own plans.
Of course, they hadn't lived a life on the run, nor were they being pursued.
So, naturally, there was no reason for that kind of death to occur.
However, Arma had indeed intended to fake his death to cast off his duties.
“And he didn’t show up even when you were suffering.”
“Yes.”
Arma briefly put himself in the shoes of the man Roselyn described and racked his brain.
If Arma were in the same situation as the man Roselyn spoke of, he probably wouldn't have appeared in order to stay thoroughly hidden.
In the first place, the fact that he abandoned her meant he had no feelings for her.
If he hadn't wanted to abandon her, he would have at least told her.
Suddenly, Arma recalled a dream he had been having frequently of late.
“I thought I would be okay.”
“But I wasn’t.”
“I wasn’t okay at all, Roselyn.”
Only after those thoughts surfaced did Arma come to a dead stop and slowly look at Roselyn.
“But Roselyn, may I ask why you are suddenly asking this? Did this actually happen…?”
“No, just…”
Roselyn, who had been walking leisurely down the hallway, stopped along with Arma and shrugged.
“I had a dream like that, and I was just curious why he would have done it.”
“…A dream?”
“Yes. It’s just simple curiosity.”
Roselyn answered as she resumed her pace.
It wasn’t as if she was looking for a proper answer.
Because the person she could ask was no longer in this world.
“I apologize if my pointless talk made you uncomfortable.”
“No, no! I wasn’t uncomfortable. It’s just… it’s only a dream. So…”
Arma said, catching Roselyn’s hand.
“So don’t let it trouble you. I would never do that.”
At Arma’s words, Roselyn glanced at him and let a practiced, hollow smile touch her lips.
“I’ll do that.”
Her fleeting response didn't contain a single grain of sincerity.
It was enough for Arma to feel it. Flustered by that, Arma took a deep breath.
“We’ve arrived. Are you coming in as well, 3rd Prince?”
“…No, I have someone to show Roselyn, so I plan to go somewhere else for a moment.”
“Then go ahead.”
Roselyn nodded.
The soldier guarding the drawing room knocked on the door and announced Roselyn’s arrival.
“Roselyn.”
At Arma’s call, she tilted her head slightly to look at him.
“You might not believe me, but I also…”
He took a breath.
“I also had the same dream.”
At Arma’s words, Roselyn blinked slowly and smiled.
“I know.”
She stepped into the drawing room.
“…Pardon?”
The moment Arma asked back a beat late, the door to the drawing room Roselyn had entered shut with a thud.
“Uh… Sh-shall I open it again, 3rd Prince?”
“…No, it’s fine.”
Arma hesitated for a moment before turning around and walking away from the drawing room.
* * *
“You might not believe me, but I also… I also had the same dream.”
“I know.”
…Like hell I did.
I didn't know.
Roselyn thought as she entered the drawing room and offered proper greetings to the Emperor and Khan.
‘…What was that just now?’
More than anything, her own mouth seemed to be the biggest problem for saying she knew something she didn't just because she was so surprised.
‘…Is this habit of saying things I don’t mean something I inherited from my father?’
Roselyn blamed her father for her strange personality development.
‘…No. Then was what I saw back then not the Arma of that world, but a glimpse into the dream this Arma was having? Then the dream Arma said he had back then…’
How on earth could Arma be connected to himself from another world?
Roselyn rubbed her forehead in frustration.
‘And I still don’t know why I went to the past of my original world.’
Roselyn let out a short sigh and lowered her gaze slightly to look at her wrist.