The Abandoned Villainess Decides to Take It All Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Underground Ruins

Fortunately, Lillian Tillard did not die.

None of her limbs were broken, and her head wasn’t injured either.

So I’m incredibly lucky.

Happiness, after all, was simply a matter of setting your standards low.

Still… it seemed she had fallen straight into the basement of the mansion.

Lillian pushed herself up from the collapsed rubble.

“Haah… seriously.”

She wanted to curse loudly and crudely.

But having been raised in a noble household, something deep inside her stopped the words before they could escape.

Looking up, she saw that the ceiling had completely collapsed.

Dirt, shattered walls, and broken pillars sealed the opening.

It was fortunate that the familiar blocked the falling debris when the ceiling collapsed.

The rock dragon.

It had shielded both the duke and Lillian from the falling rubble.

That part had been good.

What came afterward was the problem.

Lillian sighed as she looked down at the unconscious Duke Baltazar, lying among the debris.

“That’s a lot of blood.”

From his head.

And of course, the familiar had vanished.

That was normal when something happened to its summoner.

“Damn stonehead. Completely useless.”

Lillian muttered quietly.

Next time you get summoned, I’ll dismantle you piece by piece.

Then I’ll turn you into a natural-style chair for my workshop.

First, she wiped the duke’s blood away with the cleanest part of her sleeve.

When will the Shadows get here?

This place seemed extremely well hidden.

“Hmm. What’s wrong with me?”

Lillian pressed a hand to her forehead.

She wasn’t seriously injured, but dizziness kept washing over her.

It was dark here.

Broken.

Underground.

This is similar to the place where I died in the original story.

When she closed her eyes, the memory surfaced faintly, almost as if she had experienced it herself.

Grandfather! Please save me!
Brother…!
I’m still alive…!

“Ugh…”

She shouldn’t have remembered that.

It only made everything worse.

But honestly, she had never liked underground spaces anyway.

After her parents died, she had been locked away too often.

So this really was misery piled on top of misery.

“…Ah.”

When she came to her senses, she realized she had collapsed beside the duke.

Cold sweat covered her body.

Even though she wasn’t seriously injured.

Maybe this was the moment to leave her last words.

Lillian muttered weakly toward the unconscious duke.

“…When you get out of here, just say it was because of the nightmare.”

“Ugh…”

“When people are struggling, sometimes they say things they normally wouldn’t.”

“….”

“All that stuff about family being allowed to kill each other…”

When life became unbearably painful, even the kindest person could eventually reach their limit.

‘They might all die doing that…’
‘Then it can’t be helped. Even if everyone dies together, His Highness must be killed.’

But just because someone said something like that once—

You couldn’t decide that it reflected their entire heart.

Otherwise, that would be a little sad.

…Hmm.

Come to think of it, why did people curl into a fetal position when they were struggling?

Some smart person probably knew the answer.

Just then, vibrations shook the rubble above.

Small stones and dust began falling around her.

A massive piece of debris overhead started shifting.

Wow… this time I’m really in trouble.

Just as she thought she was about to be crushed—

The scent of a snow-covered forest drifted through the air.

“Lillian.”

“…!”

Lillian’s fading eyes snapped open.

The collapsing rubble never touched her.

In the darkness, a silver-haired man—the villain—was kneeling on one knee, looking down at her.

“How does someone get kidnapped from inside the castle?”

Ebren Tarandia was breathing heavily.

That surprised Lillian slightly.

Ability users rarely sweated or became breathless.

Their physical capabilities were simply too exceptional.

Still, she answered calmly.

“I didn’t expect it either.”

“I placed barriers everywhere. How?”

“I kicked a garden ornament… and the familiar…”

Ebren suddenly lifted Lillian into his arms.

There was the faint scent of blood, though she couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

“That ornament was part of the barrier. Why would you kick it?”

“I didn’t know.”

You had to warn people about things like that first.

Even she attached warning labels to her prototypes.

“But how did you get in here…?”

“I saw the crack.”

“I see…”

…Was that really something someone could just casually do?

Lillian hugged her bag tightly.

For some reason, her voice came out faint.

Still, she had to prove her usefulness.

Why is he having destructive impulses again?

The red spiderweb mark had spread across his left cheek.

It would have been nice to feel grateful that he saved her—

But the mark kept ruining that feeling.

“The duke was attacked by someone close to the Second Empress.”

“….”

“There’s a spider inside this bag. If we interrogate it—”

“That’s enough.”

Ebren cut her off, irritation simmering in his voice.

“This is why imprinting should never have happened.”

“Your Highness.”

“Be quiet. We’re leaving.”

…Please take your grandfather too.

Later

For the first time in his life, Ebren Tarandia felt utterly foul.

“So Lillian cornered Marquis Somnis, is that it.”

If he had gone directly to Lillian after tearing open the spatial crack—

The Shadows had just arrived outside, horrified by the sight of the collapsing building.

The person he had imprinted on was capable.

Useful.

He should have been pleased.

Yet from his throat down to his chest, everything felt numb, like he might vomit.

He pressed the physician harshly.

Even more severely than during his awakening fever.

“Why hasn’t she woken up yet? And why does she have a fever?”

“She suffered too great a shock. If she rests—”

“Hah.”

She hated being trapped underground.

Of course she would suffer a “great shock.”

He understood.

He understood everything.

And yet his stomach twisted, and he wanted to annihilate everything within reach.

But whenever Lillian groaned weakly in bed, he found himself sitting beside her.

It was unbearably frustrating.

He needed a solution.

A Memory

On the day of the First Empress’s funeral, Duke Baltazar had hated the young Prince Ebren standing before him.

“Move aside.”

“Duke.”

“Why did it have to be this way…!”

“….”

“The Tarandias are unbearable. Your Highness should never have been born.”

After that day, they never truly faced each other again.

Every day, whispers seemed to echo in his ears.

Hate the prince.

Kill the monster.

That thing isn’t human.

Kill it.

Use the other grandson.

Use every member of the family to stop him.

And if that still wasn’t enough—

‘When you get out, just say it was because of the nightmare.’

But the voice of that Tillard girl drowned out the whispers.

‘When people are struggling, sometimes they say things they normally wouldn’t.’
‘All that talk about family killing each other…’

The daughter of those hypocritical Tillards.

And yet—

In that situation, she had no reason to pretend.

“…Ha.”

The duke let out a dry sigh.

He had awakened inside Ebren’s castle.

How blind had he been, to regain his senses only now?

Lillian… I should meet that child as well.

But the first person he faced was his grandson.

“Duke.”

Ebren smiled brightly.

To an outsider, it might look like a warm moment between grandfather and grandson sharing a meal.

In reality—

Ebren was annihilating every weapon the duke possessed.

Every familiar as well.

So that none of them could ever be summoned again.

The duke could only watch in silence.

Suppressing a groan.