The Villainess Intends to Have It All - Chapter 29

“Fortunately, thanks to His Majesty the current Emperor looking favorably upon my abilities, I am now doing well like this.”

The current Emperor, Enzo, could have hidden Sandes as much as he wanted, considering him a disgrace to the empire.

However, far from hiding Sandes, he tacitly acknowledged him as royalty by giving him a middle name.

People could not know what secret was hidden behind the relationship between the two.

Although it was a very dangerous choice to keep close the illegitimate child of the former emperor who should have been worried about treason, the emperor took the risk and kept Sandes by his side.

There might have been something that made him have to trust Sandes, or Sandes might have been too talented to be killed.

Or there might have been some kind of reason that was both.

“Are you interested in me now?”

At Sandes’ sly question, Erina, who had been lost in thought, snapped back to reality with a start.

She was flustered by Sandes’ attitude of constantly trying to push in without any signal.

Once the mana stone market stabilized and Sandes’ needs were met, he might lose interest.

Erina knew how painful it was to be betrayed by someone close and receive bitter indifference in return.

She had felt painfully through life how draining the halfhearted sympathy they left behind was.

That’s why Sandes’ interest was not welcome.

Erina avoided Sandes’ gaze, which was staring at her intently, and quickly signed the documents she was holding and handed them to Schmilden.

“Thank you. The documents will be certified by the imperial family, the temple, and the tower, and then stored.”

Schmilden received the documents from Erina, put them away carefully, and turned around.

Schmilden turned and headed to the desk opposite the table where the two were talking.

“Is it done? Then I’ll…”

“Erina.”

Sandes, who had always called her Lady Medelia with a polite attitude, called her by name.

Erina, who was about to hurriedly get up from her seat, had no choice but to give him her gaze again, which she had been avoiding.

Erina felt her whole body being bound by his deep gaze, which held no hint of playfulness.

Even though she could avoid it, she couldn’t, making it hard to breathe.

“Won’t you call my name?”

In contrast to his slightly lowered voice, a gentle smile still rested on his lips.

Her gaze was captivated by the eye smile he had shown at their first meeting.

Just facing him seemed to steal her mind and entrance her.

Erina tried to gather her confused thoughts and straightened her awkward posture to stand up straight.

“I-I’ll go in first, Marquis.”

Erina, who stammered in her haste, left the office, leaving Sandes staring blankly behind.

Sandes couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Erina leaving the office silently even as she hurried out.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself.”

Schmilden, who had finished organizing all the documents, returned to the table and tidied up Erina’s teacup.

Sandes leaned back in his chair at Schmilden’s amused words.

“Enjoyment, huh…”

It seemed like that.

Being with Erina always evoked new and unfamiliar emotions.

That feeling of wanting to have something for the first time, while always being wary, was just sweet enough to become addictive.

Even knowing that such feelings were all luxury for him now, he wanted to taste them.

“That’s the problem.”

Sandes got up from his seat and sat down at his desk to clear his complicated mind.

As he rummaged through the documents Schmilden had organized, someone walked out from a corner where there had been nothing.

The person with short black hair resembling a dark shade and pitch-black night held out documents to Sandes.

“Ranta, you’re here.”

Schmilden, who was tidying up the cups, welcomed him without being surprised by his sudden appearance and held out a newly poured cup of tea.

Ranta, who quietly stared at the offered tea with his ash-gray eyes, carefully accepted it and nodded.

If Sandes was the emperor’s shadow, Ranta was Sandes’ shadow.

He did all the things that couldn’t be done as Marquis Kerenik when appearing in public.

“Rose Asila visited the mana stone mine without attending the Founding Day celebration when Count Eols was heading to the imperial palace.”

Sandes frowned and asked.

“The mana stone mine? How did she know about that place?”

Although the location of the mana stone mine was revealed at the Founding Day banquet, it wasn’t known to anyone before the Founding Day celebration began.

After Sandes was entrusted with the mana stone mine by Erina, there were those who entered but none who left.

“She rented a public carriage and headed there specifically. When she was stopped by a knight as she tried to enter after discovering the mana stone mine, she took the carriage again and headed to Lafilen Palace. She talked with Idely Modim and returned to the Eols mansion.”

Rose’s movements, which Sandes had ordered Ranta to track, were a bit strange from the moment she first appeared at the mansion.

She entered the Eols mansion and didn’t go out even once, then suddenly left the mansion without anyone knowing when the Founding Day celebration started.

What was even more suspicious was that she moved knowing the exact location of the mana stone mine, which only Erina and himself knew about.

Sandes couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something fishy about Rose.

As Sandes was lost in thought, his gaze fell on the luminous mana stone placed in a corner of the desk.

He picked up the mana stone as if entranced.

The clear lavender-colored jewel-like stone reminded him of Erina, who had left with a blushing face as if fleeing.

His mind was filled with the image of a beautiful woman who seemed so fragile she might break when looked at, yet didn’t crumble.

As the darkness that had occupied Erina’s face gradually cleared, her hidden beauty shone more brilliantly with each passing day.

Though she didn’t seem to know it herself.

“Keep watching that woman a bit more.”

“Yes.”

Sandes turned the first page of the document about Rose Asila that Ranta had handed him without even looking at it.

“Next.”

Sandes, still rolling the mana stone in his hand, spoke to Ranta, and the answer came immediately.

“It seems Feiron Eols will be dismissed from his position as the 2nd Knight Commander. For Erina Brill Medelia’s escort…”

“Lady Medelia.”

“Pardon?”

“Call her Lady Medelia properly.”

Ranta’s ash-gray eyes blinked at Sandes’ tone, which seemed strangely displeased.

Ranta tilted his head and looked at Schmilden for a moment, but Schmilden just laughed.

“Yes. I understand.”

An awkward silence briefly settled in the office.

“It seems the 5th Knight Division will be assigned as Lady Medelia’s escort.”

“Wasn’t that where the third child of Duke Herigel Emkil was the commander?”

Sandes asked Schmilden while looking at the documents again.

“Yes. Baron Emkil, the second son of the Emkil ducal family, is the commander of the 5th Knight Division.”

Somehow displeased, Sandes tapped his index finger on the desk.

Schmilden, noticing Sandes’ discomfort, laughed out loud without hiding his amusement.

“Should I have taken charge of the knight division?”

“Pardon?”

As Ranta asked about Sandes’ muttering, Sandes closed his mouth and turned to the next page of the documents.

“Next.”

“The Pope from the Kamkarash Temple and the Great Sage from the Meltias Tower have expressed their intention to visit in person.”

It seemed the powerful figures with heavy bottoms were surprised by the enormous mana stone mine that hadn’t been discovered even during the Magic Era and were now rushing.

The representative figures of each temple and tower were moving directly towards the Asilium Empire.

Sandes was pleased with this fact.

The larger the scale, the higher Erina’s status would inevitably rise.

As he turned the document again, it was the last page.

“The artifact trade hidden in the black market has become active. We’re buying as much as possible, but neighboring kingdoms seem to have noticed and are starting to move.”

“Prioritize buying artifacts with practical use.”

“Yes, understood.”

Sandes organized all the documents on the desk and stood up.

Just as he was about to move from his seat, thinking he had dealt with everything that needed to be handled, Schmilden called out to him.

“Your Excellency.”

Schmilden, who had been looking at Sandes’ eyes that resembled a clear sky without a single cloud, carefully asked him.

“What do you plan to do about Revil?”

Sandes’ feet, which were about to take a step, stopped.

For a moment, he paused like a music box that had reached the end of its life.

Sandes, who had been looking at the office door, turned his head to look at Schmilden.

Sandes recalled the image of the child standing like a corpse next to Erina, suppressing his presence.

Common light brown hair like his own, and uncommon bright scarlet eyes similar to Feiron’s.

A physique that looked much smaller than his age, and skin as white as if it had never seen light.

Revil, who came out of the Eols mansion holding Erina’s hand, was a child who looked like a young child who didn’t know the world, yet had eyes that seemed resigned to everything.

“He really resembles that person too much. How about investigating?”

“I heard he was brought from an orphanage sponsored by the Eols family.”

“Yes. That’s why we don’t know where he was before entering the orphanage.”

“Schmilden.”

“Anyway, since Lady Erina requested help regarding the child, weren’t you planning to take action? Why don’t you look into it, considering it as part of that?”

His deep sky-blue eyes, reminiscent of a desolate and lonely open sea, trembled.

When Sandes told Erina about himself, he deliberately hid many things.

He only mentioned things that he thought wouldn’t affect him even if he recalled them now.

He swallowed the reason why he came to hate Eols, why he became the emperor’s shadow, and why he was reminded of someone when he saw Revil.

He still couldn’t bring it up because just thinking about it felt like raking open wounds that hadn’t healed.

“That child… died.”

Schmilden hesitated for a moment at his subdued voice, but felt that if he didn’t speak now, he might never get another chance.

“But I think we need to look into it more.”

Sandes recalled the time when he faced the corpse of that child, who had been his only blood relative left in the world after his sister died.

That day when he faced the child, barely recognizable by the necklace he had given as a gift, as everything had been burned black due to the fire.

That moment when everything pointed to the black corpse being that child, yet something felt off.

Sandes always had trouble sleeping when he recalled that moment.

Because he couldn’t keep his sister’s dying wish to protect that child, because he felt the child’s voice, remaining only in his memory, might curse him for not protecting him.

Sandes closed his eyes and sank into thought.

Although enough time had passed for it to fade, it was still too vivid.

Everything about that child, who had been the only thread of life left to him, was still dizzying enough to shake his mind.

“Ranta, find out what happened to Revil before he came to the orphanage.”

His dark voice, scraped down to barely a whisper of hope, scattered through the office.

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.