The Villainess Intends to Have It All - Chapter 66

If asked to name the most foolish and pitiful person in the empire, people would answer without hesitation.

Peiron Iolls.

The man who lost the trust of His Majesty, which every servant of the Asilium Empire desires, and who willingly gave up the jewel that brought him the greatest wealth on the continent.

People cast looks of both pity and contempt towards him.

But the person in question considered being unable to meet his lover as the greatest misfortune of all.

Peiron didn’t care about anything else as long as Rose alone remained by his side, even if he lost everything.

However, upon seeing him fall after losing the emperor’s trust and going through a divorce, Rose chose to turn away under the pretense of securing her future.

Every day was agonizing for Peiron.

He had to halt all business operations and liquidate the real estate assets of the count’s family in order to prepare the property to be handed over to Erina.

He was anxious as the deadline set by the emperor was approaching.

If he failed to meet the deadline, the Ministry of Justice would seize and dispose of the most valuable assets first.

To maintain the Iolls County, he had to pull himself together and prepare.

Amidst all this, the fact that he could not meet Rose made Peiron even more desolate.

So, to breathe, Peiron prepared a secret villa where he could meet Rose, unknown to anyone else.

He sent a letter to Rose informing her of the villa’s existence and asking her to come see him anytime, but as expected, there was no reply.

After disposing of some of the count family’s real estate, Peiron habitually visited the villa to soothe his throbbing head.

Entering the empty villa devoid of any warmth, Peiron stood blankly in the modest living room.

The villa, decorated while yearning for Rose, made Peiron’s heart even colder.

The waiting seemed endless.

The villa, adorned with sweet colors in hopes that Rose would come even once someday, was filled with sweetness yet unbearably cold.

“Ha……”

His dark crimson eyes resembled the setting sun outside the window.

Just as Peiron, who had been standing for a long time, turned to leave the villa, the door slowly began to open.

Outside the open door stood Rose, the lover Peiron had endlessly longed for.

“Rose.”

Dressed in a light blue dress as if it held the clear sky, Rose saw Peiron and quietly entered the villa, closing the door behind her.

At the sight of Rose, whom he couldn’t even meet in his dreams, Peiron’s eyes stung with overwhelming emotion.

She looked a bit thinner and more pitiful than he had imagined.

Then Peiron’s eyes caught sight of the bright red lace gloves.

“Rose!”

Startled, he rushed to stand in front of her and asked.

“What happened to your hands!”

Afraid it might hurt her, Peiron carefully lifted her arm to examine it.

The pieces of teacup embedded between the lace gloves and the dried blood on her palms clearly showed what had happened.

Peiron couldn’t help but know that Rose had injured herself by breaking a teacup.

“Rose, why… why do you hurt yourself.”

Peiron held her small, delicate hand, unable to grasp it properly, and didn’t know what to do.

As Peiron hesitated, unable to touch it carelessly due to the lack of medical supplies in the villa, Rose spoke.

“Ron.”

Though her cracked voice uttered only one syllable, Peiron was filled with countless emotions.

He couldn’t understand why she and he had to suffer like this.

Looking at the flickering flames in Peiron’s eyes, Rose stretched her lips full of wounds and said.

“I finally found it.”

“Rose.”

“A way for us to return to when we were happy.”

Peiron’s heart ached at Rose’s trembling voice.

The woman he thought had turned her back on him was still suffering and wandering.

Without tending to her own wounds, she had been desperately trying to find a time when they could simply love happily like before.

But this was a terrible misunderstanding on Peiron’s part.

Rose was merely acting to reclaim what was hers, but he thought she had thrown everything away for love.

“But Peiron, you must help me.”

“Rose.”

“You must, you. Okay?”

As Rose tilted her head and spoke as if whispering, Peiron could see her appearance more clearly.

Her face, pale to the point of being bluish, dark under-eye circles, bloodshot whites, and dry skin.

Yet still beautiful and lovely green eyes.

Peiron caressed her cheek with a trembling hand, filled with sympathy.

“Tell me.”

At Peiron’s response, the corners of her eyes gently creased, forming a pretty eye smile.

But the corners of her mouth, hidden by Peiron’s palm, twisted grotesquely.

“We must kill.”

Peiron’s fingers, which were stroking Rose’s cheek, froze at the chilling sentence delivered in a refreshing tone.

“…What?”

“We must kill Erina, Peiron.”

“Rose.”

“We can only reclaim it by killing that woman.”

Only then did Peiron discover the thick and dirty hatred hidden within the fresh greenery.

It was such a terrible emotion that he was afraid to touch the fragments of sticky feelings, lest he fall into the abyss with them.

Peiron hesitated, as the emotion had grown so enormous that he couldn’t tell when it had become this big.

“Rose.”

“What is it?”

“But.”

“You said you love me.”

“I do love you! But……”

“Ron, we must reclaim what that woman stole from us.”

Rose raised her blood-stained hand and placed it on top of Peiron’s hand.

Startled by the cold and sticky sensation, Peiron hastily withdrew his hand.

At that, Rose’s eyes cooled in a way he had never seen before.

“Don’t you love me?”

Peiron certainly loved her, and still loves her.

But he couldn’t easily answer in the face of her eyes filled with unfathomable emotion.

Without knowing why, Peiron couldn’t respond.

“It’s something we must do for us to love each other.”

Seeing Peiron’s wavering eyes, Rose took another step closer and embraced him.

Rose gently placed her hand on his chest and looked up at him with tearful eyes.

“Help me, Peiron.”

Seeing Rose’s pitiful appearance, Peiron wanted to embrace and comfort her immediately, but strangely, Rose felt unfamiliar.

Her eyes, which always sparkled, now shone coldly, and her lips, which used to form only shy smiles, were now twisted sharply.

Peiron felt strange.

It felt as if she wasn’t the Rose he knew.

“Rose, even so, no matter how much you hate Erina, killing is…”

As soon as Rose heard Peiron’s words, she pushed hard against his chest where her hand had been resting.

Peiron, who had been standing there stupidly, stumbled back a couple of steps even from Rose’s weak push.

“Wake up, Peiron.”

“Rose?”

“For me, I can just abandon you and be done with it, but you?”

Peiron’s face hardened instantly.

Rose’s words were correct.

Rose could turn her back on Peiron and continue living as Rose Asila, but Peiron would have to live like this until he died.

The contempt of people, the ruined finances of his family, the lost trust.

It was obvious to anyone that he would gradually walk the path of downfall.

“Even if we kill her, we can’t turn back time, Rose.”

Peiron said, looking at Rose with a cold face.

Feeling that Peiron, who had only been acting foolishly, had regained his senses, Rose approached him again with a bright smile.

“I know, Peiron.”

“Even knowing that?”

“If there’s a rightful owner of the mana stone mine, if the mine returns to that owner, how about it, Ron.”

“What do you mean?”

Rose tilted her head and gave the shy smile that Peiron had loved.

“The mana stone mine, it was originally mine. Not Erina Medelia’s, but Rose Iolls’.”

Peiron wore a confused expression.

No matter how much he loved her, this was too serious a matter to simply believe.

“I know it’s hard to believe. So I’ll tell you my story today.”

Rose smiled seductively like a siren from legend and slowly removed her blood-stained lace gloves.

“I’ll tell you about my life that was ruined because of that woman, staying by your side all night.”

After removing both lace gloves, Rose threw them on the floor and continued speaking.

“I’ll also tell you the story of that woman who threw my life to the ground, a life that should have been happy after meeting you.”

Rose, with reddened under-eyes, began to untie the ribbon of her dress behind her back.

Peiron’s eyes widened.

Although she was his passionately loved partner, Rose had always stepped back whenever Peiron tried to get a little closer.

So Peiron cherished her, waiting until Rose was ready.

“So Peiron, you must help me.”

Rose finished untying the ribbon and pushed off her dress.

Rose, left in a thin chemise that revealed her skin underneath, raised her blood-stained hand and took Peiron’s hand.

“Look at me, Ron.”

With the hand not holding Peiron’s, Rose slowly pushed off her chemise.

Seeing Rose’s snow-white body left only in undergarments, Peiron called out to her in shock.

“Rose!”

“Look at me, suffering like this to reclaim everything.”

Rose’s body, hidden under the dress, was full of wounds.

They were wounds Rose had inflicted on herself, clawing at her own body to endure the pain that came with regaining her memories.

“You’ll help me, won’t you?”

Rose desperately wanted Peiron to fall into the abyss with her.

Peiron, who loved Rose, had no choice but to take her hand, even if only the depths of hell awaited them.

Peiron’s sunset-like crimson eyes began to sink into the mud, crumbling into the greenery.

Peiron’s slightly trembling hand slowly traced up Rose’s neck and cupped the back of her head.

Rose closed her eyes with a bright smile as Peiron’s face drew near.

Between their meeting lips, their hot breaths intertwined as stickily as their clasped hands.

Peiron’s chivalry, which he had held onto until the very end, completely crumbled before this viscous love.