The Villainess Lives Twice

Chapter 293

Proofreader: somnium

“Madam is asleep.”

“I’m glad. I came here with a prescription for sleeping pills.”

“Thank you.”

Alice nodded.

Sleeping pills were not good for a weak body like Artizea. Still, it would have been better to fall asleep relying on it.

But Alice was not in a position to make such a decision of her own accord.

So, she didn’t know how grateful she was when Cedric gave her a sleeping pill and told her to put her mistress to sleep.

“Tomorrow morning, Her Grace will be fine.”

Alice spoke as if giving an excuse.

“I know,” Cedric said in a low voice.

He didn’t mean to say Artizea will be fine tomorrow morning. It meant he knew Alice’s concerns.

And when tomorrow morning comes, they will put this matter aside and discuss the urgent matter.

Cedric cast his gaze out the dark window. It was a new habit these days. He did it so as not to show his troubled face to others.

He clenched and opened his fists several times.

It was not easy to cool the feeling that was boiling in his chest.

It was like that the whole way here. It felt like his heart would melt from the heat and flow down into his stomach.

So, he feared that in the end there would be no such thing as a right mind.

Still, he thought that part of this heat would go away when they met.

He knew she wouldn’t welcome him. He knew she would reproach him for coming.

Still, if he held her with his arms wide open, he hoped she would pretend to be lost and hug him.

However, he realized that Artizea had not changed.

Cedric thought,

‘Can I change you?’

And he thought again,

‘Can you withstand it until I change you?’

How many times does he have to say it and how many times does he have to do it?

Was it possible?

Not even a word of love or an oath to be together. What can he do beyond this?

If Alice had not arrived in time, this anger would have been thrown to Artizea as it was.

Even though he knew she would be broken.

He even felt the desire to do so. Wouldn’t it be more comfortable if he smashed her all, picked up the pieces, and wrapped her in a bloody blanket?

If he goes and lays with his arms full around her, he will be able to turn away for a moment, pretending not to know the pain.

It seems like everything has been resolved, so he can pretend that and pass the time for a while.

But Cedric couldn’t.

Had he been a man who could fool his heart, he would not have lost all that was his in the past and wandered the wasteland.

Cedric said, exhausted,

“Can you take good care of her? She’s not the type of person who stops when we say stop, so if it’s too late, you’ll have to stop her by force.”

“Yes…… . Then, Master…….”

“I will sleep in another room tonight. I can’t go to her bedroom because there’s a doctor anyway, so go and stay with her.”

“Yes.”

Alice greeted him with a complicated face that seemed relieved and sad and went away.

Thump thump.

Then, a knock was heard.

“It’s Owen, Your Highness.”

“Come in.”

Cedric put an expressionless look on top of his painful expression reflected in the window.

Owen came in and reported,

“They fired the first flare. I have instructed them to continue in one-hour intervals from now until tomorrow noon.”

“Good work.”

“Your Highness’ orders, yes, but I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do.”

The flare was a signal that Cedric was here.

He had already done one inspection when he came to the West. However, it would not be wise to provide detailed location information.

Cedric came in with a minor security. Currently, the number of escorts staying here was only 120, including the 100 escorts of Artizea and the 20 people Cedric brought.

Of course, one troop of the Western Army was dispatched to various places as a search party within the day. Two more troops from the Western Army, commanded by Ein, will follow.

Even so, the fact that the Crown Prince and his wife were in a secluded, remote place with only 120 escorts was to be treated as a secret.

That must have been part of the reason Cedric didn’t announce the news while he was traveling all the way here.

“If Lysia sees it, there will be hope.”

“That’s true.”

Owen’s face softened slightly at Cedric’s answer.

‘And he’ll be watching, too.’

Cedric looked out the window and thought to himself.

He knew that Lawrence would hate him as much as he hated him back.

It was a different matter from the fact that the Emperor or Artizea had politically restrained and repressed him.

Cedric was well aware that Lawrence had starved the North to death simply because he hated Cedric.

He was no different now. He was still obsessed with Lysia.

Lawrence misunderstood the friendship between Cedric and Lysia, and this time he must have wanted to kill Cedric in front of Lysia.

‘Actually, it might not have been a misunderstanding.’

Cedric thought that Lawrence knew better than Artizea about the feelings between a man and a woman.

Had Lawrence known it was friendship, he would have acted the same.

No, he did the same to Baron Morten and his wife. He had hated not just Lysia’s ex-fiancé, but her real brother.

However, just as he couldn’t subdue Lysia, he just couldn’t kill Cedric.

So he will be angry if he finds out that Cedric has come. He would not be able to ignore Artizea as calmly as he would.

Anger is what stirs people.

He couldn’t ask for anything more than Lawrence came running to kill him.

Cedric turned around slowly. Owen took the pistol wrapped in the handkerchief from his arms and placed it politely in front of Cedric.

“Lysia is still safe. It was enough to make her maid run away.”

Owen said.

Cedric held up the handkerchief. And with a confused feeling, he picked up the pistol.

“I didn’t know you gave it to Lysia.”

“I was hoping something like this wouldn’t happen. It’s my fault. Instead of letting her go to the West, it would have been better if she had been entrusted for work in the North.”

He could not give orders to Lysia. He always thought he couldn’t do that.

But if he had asked her for work in the North, Lysia would not have refused.

“Did you say a maid brought it?”

“Yes. Her name is Venia.”

“I heard from Alice earlier. Is she still here?”

“Yes. If you’re going to meet her, will you let me bring her?”

Cedric hesitated for a moment. Then he said in a low voice,

“It is very late. If it’s urgent information, you and Tia must have already heard it, so I’ll meet tomorrow if I have time.”

“Yes.”

Owen answered.

Young Venia’s presence was also for him a pry into the scars of the past.

[“She told me to give it back if I get the chance.”]

She had come to the North with this pistol long ago. It was not long after he heard the news that Lysia had died.

Eventually it came back to him unused.

And this time it also came back clean in Venia’s hands.

Cedric looked down at the pistol.

He owed Venia. The debt was different from what Artizea felt.

In the end, Cedric knows that Venia wants to kill Artizea, but he borrowed her hand to rescue her.

He didn’t say why. If Venia had known he would kneel before Artizea, she would never have helped.

In retrospect, that was the first time he had intentionally deceived a faithful person.

“I have no regrets,…….”

“Yes?”

“…… nothing.”

Cedric put the pistol in his arms.

Come to think of it, at that time, Lysia did not entrust her will to Venia, but to Artizea.

Was it because she didn’t have the same heart just before she died as when she entrusted this pistol to Venia?

Perhaps, she did not expect that Venia would come to deliver her belongings to the far North.

Or, the will was meant to be brought by Artizea.

‘I am not as strong as you, Lysia.’

Cedric cast his gaze out the road-side window.

It was then.

Bang! Bang!

The guard knocked on the door.

Owen went out in surprise and brought in a guard.

“What’s going on?”

“The messenger has come. This.”

Owen took a letter from the guard’s hand and gave it to Cedric.

There was a signature on the envelope.

《Lawrence.》

Other than that, nothing was written.

Cedric tore open the envelope.

Inside was a map with the location marked with a red dot, and a note with the date two days later.

Cedric inadvertently crumpled the note in his hand.

“Who brought it?”

“They are being interrogated.”

“Take care of it. Don’t let them die. And when something comes up, always bring it to me.”

“Yes.”

The guards bowed and went out.

* * *

Artizea woke up the next day, just as the sun was getting closer to the center of the south.

She opened her eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment.

She didn’t seem to have slept well because she was sleeping with medicine. But her eyes were brighter than yesterday.

Artizea carefully climbed out of the bed. She then pulled the rope and instead of calling Alice, she tucked her cold feet into her slippers and she went outside.

Cedric was sitting in her living room.

It wasn’t a dream. Artizea thought blankly.

Cedric had his gaze fixed on the map, even if he could have sensed her coming out.

Artizea shifted her gaze towards the map. There was a large red mark that she had never drawn before.

Cedric held out the open envelope without looking back at her.

Artizea clutched her chest. It must have been what she had hoped for, but she felt like her inside was going to burst and it was hard to breathe.

“Lawrence sent it.”

Artizea widened her eyes. Then, she took the envelope and hurriedly opened it.

Cedric let out a long sigh. And he turned to Artizea.

His face didn’t smile anymore. He didn’t even reach out his hand in a gentle manner.

As exactly as what happened last night.

“Last night I shot the signal flare showing that I was here. Lawrence seemed like he was waiting for me.”

“…… Yes.”

“For now…… Let’s stop him. After that…….”

Cedric sighed once more and said,

“Then, we’ll talk.”