A Villain's Will to Survive novel Chapter 274

Chapter 274: Princess and Empress (2)

“Perhaps you love me?”

Meanwhile, at the Imperial Palace, Deculein brought up the subject of love to Sophien in an even tone.

“This damned man!” Sophien shouted, the exclamation slipping out before she had the chance to catch it.

Sophien jolted violently, her whole body flinching as everything in her private chamber—the Go board, scattered stones, and stacks of state documents—shot into the air.

“This man must be out of his mind!”

Sophien’s heart lurched as the deeply buried ennui within her mind suddenly burst into flames—a tremor she hadn’t felt in all those long years, both confusing and overwhelming. Before she could name the emotion, her cheeks trembled, and her hand slammed down on the desk.

“This man dared to make a fool of me—that’s no different from treason.”

"... What exactly has he done, Your Majesty?"

At that moment, a voice rose nearby—almost unpleasant in its timing—it was, of course, Keiron, while beside him, Ahan poured tea, her features betraying the smile she fought to contain.

“Did you not hear just now?” Sophien said, her brow knitting.

"Yes, Your Majesty. While you were possessed, I had no way of hearing what was said,” Keiron replied.

“... Hmph, that’s enough. I will go back to him and find out what he meant...”

Sophien shook her head in frustration and tried to resume the possession, but it was no use—the magical link had already snapped, broken by Deculein’s treasonous words just moments earlier.

Yuren, a nation over a thousand kilometers from the Imperial Palace of the Empire, would make restoration of the possession...

“Ah,” Sophien murmured, then sighed and smacked her forehead with an open palm.

“Your Majesty, what did the Professor say to you?” Keiron asked.

Right now, the Empress’s face was puffy and flushed red—a rare and almost unheard of sight.

“You look as if a girl’s heart has found its way back to you.”

“Shut your mouth. This damned Professor just said...”

Sophien’s hair was tousled as she opened her mouth to speak but shut it again, silenced by the oddly suggestive glances Keiron and Ahan exchanged in her direction.

“Just said...”

Sophien started to say something again, but stopped halfway and shut her mouth again.

“Just now this man said...”

Once again, Sophien opened her mouth to speak but stopped, shutting it again and shaking her head—a gesture that said she wouldn’t speak of it.

“This is Knight Yulie’s report, Your Majesty—the one you requested,” Ahan said, offering the document with slight regret, sensing the Empress would say no more.

Sophien accepted the file with composure, and it was a document from the Intelligence Agency compiling Yulie’s recent activities into the pages she now held.

“Walking straight into hell, isn’t she?” Sophien said, skimming each line until a dry laugh slipped free from her lips.

“Yes, Your Majesty, that’s what I’m afraid of—that she won’t make it back alive...”

Yulie’s trail stretched across Glacier Mountain in Freyden, through the Den of the Fire Bear, and to the shimmering Lake of Frozen Crystals—before heading beyond the Empire’s borders into the Land of Destruction.

“It seems she’s somewhere in the Land of Destruction, but her whereabouts have been unknown since then.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Wouldn’t that mean she’s as good as dead?”

“No, Your Majesty. Even in recent days..."

Ahan paused for a moment, then reached into her inner pocket and pulled out a bundle of letters.

“It’s a letter,” Sophien muttered.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Because Knight Yulie was from Freyden and couldn’t send her regular letters to Yukline—since the elders would likely intercept and reject them—she requested Ahan to hold the letters and deliver them to the Professor when the time came.

“We’ve received twenty-three in total, Your Majesty. Another arrived just last night—Knight Yulie is still holding on,” Ahan added.

“That woman is writing as if this were a diary,” Sophien said, her tone flat, though her eyes had rested silently on the letter for a long time.

“Yes, there’s one addressed to Your Majesty as well,” Ahan replied, offering Yulie’s letter to the Empress with both hands.

Sophien pressed her fingers against her temple and used Telekinesis to open the letter.

“It addresses the hearing and includes an apology to Your Majesty for her shortcomings...”

The Empress’s Hearing, proposed by Yulie and her knights, had been delayed—Sophien chose to put it on hold after a series of unexpected events one after another.

... Your Majesty, I send this letter with nothing but guilt in my heart. In the Land of Destruction, where the cold strips flesh from bone and the air itself turns to grief, I kneel like the guilty. It was my failure, born of ignorance and misjudgment, that brought about such a blind hearing to be held...

“... What a foolish knight. Too foolish, and too sincere and honest—she’s even making an Empress feel petty,” Sophien muttered, unable to finish the letter, shaking her head.

Even after Sophien went as far as fabricating evidence to destroy both Yulie and Freyden, her loyalty remained unchanged—whether she knew or merely chose not to care.

However, despite everything, Sophien’s stance toward Freyden hadn’t changed—Freyden remained the house most deeply tied to the Empress’s poisoning, and once Deculein returned, the hearing would resume.

“You may leave,” Sophien ordered, handing Yulie’s letter back to Ahan after pushing herself up and walking over to lie down on the bed. “That includes you, Keiron. I’ll be alone now.”

“Yes, Your Majesty—”

After Ahan and Keiron’s voices overlapped in succession, Ahan stepped outside, leaving Keiron turned to a statue in place.

Left alone in her sealed chamber—so still that not even the wind could enter—Sophien sank once more into thought.

“Perhaps you love me?”

Deculein’s voice brushed against her ear, making Sophien’s cheeks flush again—but this time, she sat up, unable to hold in her frustration any longer.

“That damned man...”

Once more, Sophien found herself lost in thought.

“... Hmph.”

The Deculein of now holds over a century of memories shared with me. If he’s awakened to all those years, remembers everything, and knows me better than I know myself—and if those words came from him... if they really did...

“... Indeed,” Sophien said, a laugh slipping past her lips.

And just like that, Sophien eventually nodded.

“I admit,” Sophien muttered, staring up at the patterns on the ceiling of her chamber.

When Sophien closed her eyes, the Professor’s face surfaced again and again in her mind, and the feeling she could neither deny nor push away slipped past her lips at last, as if admitting it aloud made it real.

“... I am in love with you.”

***

I sat at the desk in Yuren’s guest room with a Holy Language scroll open before me, telling myself I was reading it—but no, I was only staring at the words.

"... There really was no way forward." I muttered.

My whole body felt drained, every ounce of strength gone, my fingers drooping limp and unresponsive after burning through all of my mana.

"This is what it looks like to be stuck at the ABCs."

Of course, I kept my posture steady, though I was just short of full mana exhaustion, and all I had managed to understand of the Holy Language was its most basic structure from the first year’s record—by the second year, everything I had struggled to learn had already changed.

"This is despair at its finest. There’ll be no bloodless ending—not for me."

I knew this game had an ending reachable through oratory and persuasion, and though I meant to convince Quay, with the language in this state, I didn’t stand a chance.

I glanced out at the darkness beyond the window, then at the red-furred munchkin curled up and purring on the bed, before rising from my seat and stepping out of the room, where down the corridor of Yuren Palace—now steeped in night—stood Prosecutor Rose in the distance.

“... Professor?” Rose said, her hands on the handles of someone’s wheelchair as her eyes landed on mine.

I walked toward her, stopped beside Carla—who was asleep in her wheelchair—and leaned in slightly to check her face.

"Her condition has improved. We administered emergency care and pain relief. I brought her outside as she wished for a breath of air. Somewhere along the way, she fell asleep."

Carla’s breathing was fragile but seemed a little steadier than before.

“... But can she really be cured?”

“Once the materials are secured, the transformation formula is all that’s left. I’ve already arranged everything with Hadecaine,” I replied.

“Would you mind if I asked something, Professor?” Rose asked, watching me for a while as her fingers moved through her bobbed hair, trying to ask the question.

“What would you ask of me?”

“What you said to Princess Maho today... may I ask if those were your honest thoughts?”

“Of course they were my honest thoughts. Do you take me for someone who lies?”

But to me, they’re nothing strange—familiar truths more natural than any form of politics I’ve seen here and far older in my mind with the knowledge of them than Deculein’s Elitism ever was.

It must be Maho, trying to listen in, I thought.

I have no real intention of searching for it—nor will I. I have a rough idea of who took it, but it hardly matters now, I thought.

Whirrrrrrrrr—

“Hmm, is this what you built?” Quay asked.

“Yes, we built it together,” Epherene replied, adjusting the aircraft’s propeller with Telekinesis.