The Villainess Intends to Have It All - Chapter 22

“Raise your head.”

Peiron finally received Enzo’s long-awaited permission.

Standing right next to him, Erina could see Peiron’s tense face up close.

Having bowed for quite some time and subjected to an unfamiliar negative gaze, his expression appeared slightly distorted.

Seeing his silver hair damp with sweat and crimson eyes wavering aimlessly, Erina bit the inside of her cheek.

She clenched her fists to avoid openly showing her excitement.

His usually confident and radiant appearance now disheveled pleased her more than expected.

She wished for everything about him to be ruined.

While he may feel like his world was crumbling, for Erina this was only the beginning.

Enzo, looking down at the visibly shaken Peiron who couldn’t hide his inner turmoil, turned his gaze away.

“I hereby proclaim!”

As Enzo raised his right hand and spoke in a low voice, the nobles instantly placed their right hands on their left chests and knelt on one knee.

“A mana stone mine has been discovered in the Great Empire of Asilium, and its owner is Erina Medelia. From this moment on, I bestow upon Erina Medelia the middle name Brill and declare that she will be under the protection of the Imperial Family.”

The Emperor’s proclamation meant that no objections would be allowed regarding the declared facts.

Furthermore, bestowing a middle name along with Imperial protection meant she would receive treatment comparable to that of royalty.

“I also promise to facilitate a smooth divorce for Erina Brill Medelia if she so desires.”

Marriages and divorces among noble families were all mediated by the Imperial Family.

Moreover, divorce required settling all entangled affairs between the families, typically taking at least a year to process.

Enzo was essentially offering to provide a shortcut through all those periods and procedures.

“Erina Brill Medelia.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Do you wish for a divorce?”

Erina raised her bowed head to look up at Enzo.

With a voice trembling from surging emotions, Erina answered.

“I, do.”

Her faint, quivering voice evoked sympathetic feelings in Enzo, Sandes, and those kneeling alongside her.

“Earl Emkil and Viscount Kerenick, from this moment on, announce the mana stone mine to the empire and inform the temple and tower to request prompt visits.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

As Herrigel and Sandes answered simultaneously, Enzo’s gaze turned to Peiron, whom he had trusted and believed in until this very moment.

“Count Iolls and Erina Brill Medelia, visit the Imperial Palace together tomorrow.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Peiron and Erina answered at the same time.

In contrast to Erina’s trembling voice filled with anticipation for the future that had completely deviated from the original story, Peiron’s voice was deeply subdued.

“The Founding Day banquet is adjourned!”

Having finished his proclamation, Enzo lowered his hand, turned around, and left the banquet hall holding the hand of the Empress, who was anxiously watching while holding their child.

As the Emperor announced the end of the Founding Day banquet rather than celebrating it, the nobles could no longer remain in the hall.

The nobles began to slowly exit the banquet hall, rising from their seats.

Erina and Sandes, having been seated in the innermost area, had to wait for all the nobles to leave.

While waiting for the nobles to exit, Erina looked at Peiron.

Feeling her gaze, Peiron raised his head and their eyes met.

“Erina.”

Erina did not respond and simply looked at him with a calm smile.

That smile made Peiron feel as if his insides were twisting.

“Are you satisfied?”

At Peiron’s voice, faintly trembling with a mix of emotions, Erina smiled even more brightly, her eyes shining.

“No.”

Erina was far from satisfied.

She couldn’t possibly be satisfied.

Although Erina had obtained the mana stone mine and socially ruined him, Peiron did not know the feelings she had endured over the past year.

Erina wanted him to feel as if he were staring endlessly at an unreachable window in a room with no exit.

She wished he could experience the desperate longing for love, yearning for someone to reach out a hand while trapped in an inescapable place.

She wanted him to question why the world was so cruel only to him, to despair and regret all the choices he had made.

“Were you always this kind of woman?”

Erina found Peiron’s words utterly laughable.

How much did he really know about a wife he never even tried to face, to utter such words?

“If you had just lived quietly, it wouldn’t have come to this…!”

“I would have died.”

“What?”

If she had been the Erina who shed endless tears watching her husband reject their relationship, bring in an orphan to place as the heir, all while trapped in a prison-like home.

“I would have died.”

If she had lived as Erina Iolls, she would have died.

That’s how it was in the original story, after all.

Peiron tried to open his mouth to deny Erina’s words, but he couldn’t speak when faced with her cold eyes gleaming with anger.

Erina felt suffocated just imagining what it would have been like if she hadn’t known the original story.

Sandes, who had been watching from the side, carefully took Erina’s hand, which was trembling from clenching it so tightly.

The departing nobles brightened their eyes and opened their ears to watch them as if viewing the most interesting scene of an opera while leaving the banquet hall.

Wanting to see as much as possible, their footsteps, which would normally have been hurried, were as slow as a tortoise’s.

Judging by the few remaining nobles, their own departure was not far off.

“I’ll move ahead.”

Herrigel, who had been standing quietly nearby, greeted Erina and Sandes, intending to leave first.

As Sandes and Herrigel seemed to have a not insignificant acquaintance, the two exchanged greetings along with pleasantries.

Herrigel’s gaze turned to Erina.

“Duke, thank you for your generous assistance.”

Herrigel smiled gently at Erina’s polite greeting.

“To receive thanks for an old man’s actions blinded by greed, how embarrassing.”

Erina couldn’t help but smile back at Herrigel’s jovial response, treating today’s events as insignificant.

Herrigel’s gaze shifted beyond Erina to Peiron, who was staring blankly at her.

What a foolish man.

It was both pitiful and ridiculous how he failed to recognize the beautifully shining jewel by his side, blinded by love.

“Tsk.”

Herrigel clicked his tongue openly while looking at him, then left.

By now, only Peiron, Sandes, and Erina remained in the banquet hall.

As Erina was about to leave without even glancing at Peiron, turning her back on him, Peiron hurriedly called out to her.

“Erina.”

But there was no answer.

Seeing Erina, who hadn’t even responded to him, now smiling and preparing to leave as Sandes naturally escorted her, Peiron’s mood soured.

“Erina, let’s talk.”

Instead of answering Peiron’s words, Erina moved with Sandes.

“Viscount, let’s go.”

Seeing the two of them looking at each other softly as they walked, he became angry.

“Erina!”

Erina walked on, leaving behind Peiron who could only call out to her in a harsh voice, unable to chase after her.

No matter how earnestly he called, she had no intention of answering.

She no longer wanted to be entangled with him in any way.

Sensing Erina’s resolve from her fingertips on his arm, Sandes didn’t stop walking either.

As the two exited the palace, the garden was bustling with people waiting for their family carriages.

As Sandes and Erina crossed the garden, gazes immediately turned to them.

Anticipating such a commotion as soon as the Emperor adjourned the banquet, Heila had moved early.

Thanks to that, the Viscount’s carriage was positioned at the very front.

Erina, Sandes, and Heila boarded the carriage amidst gazes even hotter and more intense than the sun brightly illuminating the clear day.

As the carriage departed, all the noise and chaos disappeared, replaced by a comfortable silence inside.

Sandes quietly observed Erina, who sat with her back straight, staring blankly out the window.

She had become the most famous person in the empire, simultaneously earning the envy and jealousy of all nobles, while also becoming the most pitiful woman because of them.

At first, Sandes had thought Erina was just a lucky woman.

Having observed and investigated the Iolls family for a long time, Sandes came to know the entire process of how Erina obtained the mine, realizing it wasn’t luck.

The fact that she went straight to a place where no one would normally go, and headed directly to the rocky mountain, bypassing the wide hill and village.

It meant Erina had already known there was a mana stone mine there and acted accordingly.

Erina hid many things from Sandes and was wary to an odd degree, yet strangely trusted him immensely.

Unable to understand the reason for that shallow trust, he would ponder, and before he knew it, his mind would be filled with thoughts of Erina once again.

“You’ve worked hard, Viscount Kerenick.”

Sandes, momentarily lost in thought, only realized Erina was looking at him when she spoke.

“Ah, I see.”

“My, ‘I see’?”

Trying to hide his surprise, Sandes gave a perfunctory answer, to which Heila immediately mimicked him in an amusing voice, as if she had been waiting for the opportunity.

Knowing Heila’s considerable mischievousness, Sandes deliberately sighed heavily while holding his head, making a show of it.

The subdued atmosphere in the carriage lightened with their actions.

“So even the Viscount can feel embarrassed.”

“Heila.”

Heila, who had been secretly cheering for the two of them, found this unfamiliar side of him fascinating and couldn’t help but tease him.

“Are you returning to the Iolls mansion?”

“Yes, I have things to organize and people to take care of.”

The night before, Erina had gone to Revil and told him to be ready if he wanted to leave together.

Of course, having suddenly come to the Iolls mansion from the orphanage, he would have arrived with nothing, but she had informed him in advance.

‘Are you really going to take me with you?’

Once she made up her mind to let go of her attachment to the Iolls and take Revil with her, Erina no longer thought of Peiron when she looked at the child’s crimson eyes.

As if those moments when she couldn’t even look at Revil’s eyes, feeling uncomfortable just seeing the vivid crimson, had never existed, Erina was no longer affected.

“So you’re planning to bring the child out.”

“Yes.”

“May I ask why?”