The Abandoned Villainess Decides to Take It All Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Lillian’s blood relatives placed an advertisement across the entire front page of the newspaper.

“The powerless Lillian has been disowned!?”

So they truly wanted everyone to know she was no longer a noble.

Petty? Childish?

Well… that’s life.

“House Tillard has officially removed Lillian (formerly Tillard) from the family registry…”
“She no longer belongs to one of the Five Sacred Houses.”

It was a way of making absolutely sure that no one could adopt Lillian into another noble house.

Beside her, Margaret Rubelli was furious.

“What is this!? How can they do this!”

“Well… it’s about what I expected…”

“My lady is far prettier than this illustration!”

“…?”

Was that what she was angry about?

“When I was wary of you before, I was still completely sincere about your face, my lady…!”

So Margaret’s outrage came from the fact that the newspaper illustration had failed to capture Lillian’s pale, slender face and her hair—which had become even shinier lately thanks to proper meals and enough protein.

Lillian answered awkwardly.

“Th… thank you?”

My maid really is strange…

“They’re going to regret this terribly later!”

“Mmm, do you think so?”

“They really will! They’ll beat the ground in regret!”

“Mhm.”

House Tillard was a family obsessed with human resources.

So if they ever discovered that Lillian was some bizarre infinity-sign Guide, they would never leave her alone again.

She truly didn’t care.

But that evening, on the day the newspaper came out—

“Congratulations on being cut off from your family, my lady!”

A celebratory cannon exploded in the dining hall.

Lillian peeled confetti off her hair and stared blankly.

“…?”

No matter how she looked at it, this didn’t seem like something to celebrate.

But Duke Baltazar, Elias, and the Shadows all rushed in at once.

“Disowned? What nonsense!”

Duke Baltazar roared.

“You’re the one who discarded those wretches. Elric Tillard has had his head buried in the dirt since he was young.”

“…That is correct.”

When those two agreed, the rest of the people below them turned it into a full-scale celebration.

Jeanne Baltazar stepped forward proudly.

“My lady, to commemorate this, I’ll show you wine-bottle juggling!”

It was impressive.

She was juggling six bottles at once.

Before she realized it, Lillian was clapping along.

“Hey, move aside! Have you ever seen someone jump through a flaming ring?”

They were supposed to be called the Shadows, yet they were oddly cheerful and lively people.

Lillian had absolutely no idea why everyone was being so over-the-top.

Still, she let them keep refilling her wine glass.

Later That Night

After the celebration for abandoning her family ended, Ebren Tarandia was left holding a completely drunk Lillian.

Naturally, he carried her in his arms and walked down the castle corridors.

“She can’t even hold her liquor, and yet she drank everything people handed her.”

It annoyed him.

It didn’t matter whether the people offering drinks were close allies or distant acquaintances.

Half-asleep in his arms, Lillian stirred.

“…Your Highness.”

“Did you drink a lot?”

“Yes…”

Lillian blinked slowly.

He expected her to ask to be put down.

But surprisingly, she stayed quiet in his arms.

“Your Highness… not my room… the garden…”

“Surely you’re not asking me to go to the workshop while you’re drunk—”

“I don’t work that hard…”

What a liar.

From what he had seen, Lillian always appeared calm but constantly ran around busily doing something.

Instead, he carried her to the garden swing beneath the large tree.

The swing was wide enough for her to lie down, so sitting there while holding her wasn’t difficult.

Lillian slipped her pinky finger into one of his shirt buttonholes and spun it lazily.

“If you drink poison, Your Highness…”

“You want to poison me?”

“…No. You said poison gets annihilated. Why are you trying to turn me into a criminal?”

“If you become a criminal, then I’d have to go to prison with you.”

Since he had to follow the line of his lifeline, that wasn’t technically wrong.

Still, being locked in prison alone with him didn’t sound so terrible.

Ignoring annoying reality for a while almost sounded pleasant.

“Oh, how awful…”

Yet even drunk, Lillian rejected the idea immediately.

Ebren asked with faint amusement,

“Oh? Being with me is that awful?”

“I hate prison. I hate dark places.”

“A royal prison is decent enough. The lighting is fine.”

“Says the warm iced Americano…”

“You’re talking nonsense again.”

“Then does alcohol get annihilated too? You’re saying you’re not drunk at all after everything you drank earlier?”

“Yes. Apparently so.”

“What’s even the point of living like that? Honestly. Live a long life.”

“Haha!”

Listening to Lillian’s blunt drunken complaints, Ebren laughed.

Until now, he had only ever smiled when the situation demanded it.

This was the first time he had laughed without murderous intent.

Without wanting to destroy something.

Everything felt new with Lillian.

But eventually he stopped laughing.

“So why did you drink so much today? It’s not just because you were happy, is it?”

Because inside her heart, something rippled quietly.

A transparent sadness.

Why?

Shouldn’t she be happy now that she was free from that wretched family?

“To forget…”

“What do you want to forget?”

“…The moments when I tried so hard to be loved by those people.”

Lillian quietly rested her head against his shoulder.

“When I’m in front of them, I’m really fine. They’re irritating and pathetic.”

“You were better than them.”

“I know. That’s why it’s strange.”

Ebren slowly pulled her closer.

She didn’t resist.

“When I’m alone… suddenly I feel ashamed of myself… and I hate myself…”

“….”

Emotions he had never felt before flowed through him.

Clear sadness.

And muddy self-loathing.

What if those emotions swallowed Lillian completely?

What if she broke under them?

The thought made it difficult for him to breathe.

Without blinking, Ebren said quietly,

“Then tell me.”

“…?”

“Tell me to erase all of them from this world.”

He could do it.

In truth, he wanted to.

Regardless of consequences or efficiency.

“If you say the word, I would gladly do it for you.”

“….”

“If you want, their mouths… their fingers… one by one where you can see them—”

But Lillian shook her head against his shoulder.

“I don’t like that… then it’d be the same as last time.”

“But—”

“If you keep acting scary, I’m going to fall asleep…”

Ebren frowned and fell silent.

The sadness filling Lillian’s chest slowly faded.

She really is difficult to understand.

She had rejected the idea of killing them.

And yet hearing him say it had still comforted her a little.

For a long time, he stayed on the swing holding her quietly.

Drunken Lillian tugged at the collar of his shirt.

“Later…”

She murmured sleepily.

“I need to have a talk… with the person in charge of your clothes…”

“Why? Should I get rid of him?”

“…He dresses you terribly, but he chooses good perfume…”

“The one who suits the perfume is me, so why does that bastard get the praise?”

“I ruined my life because of this smell…”

For someone who claimed her life was ruined, Lillian fell into an even deeper sleep.

Her pink hair rested against his shoulder.

Completely enclosed in his arms.

Ah.

So that was it.

For the first time in years, Ebren vaguely remembered why—when he was a child—he had once wanted to hold that pink rabbit in front of his mother.

Completely forgetting that anything touched by his snow-white power would die.