The Villainess Lives Twice

Lawrence stopped.
He tried hard to straighten his expression.

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“When did you come back?”

“This afternoon.”

Cedric answered in a low voice.

“Is the war over?”

“No.
But I heard the news from the capital.”

Lawrence made his face expressionless, then halfway it twisted.
He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t contain his emotions.

From the beginning, he did not know how to suppress himself for a long time.
He was born with a passionate temperament resembling Miraila.
Besides, he had little need to train patience.

Lawrence didn’t know why he hated Cedric so much.

He knew from the beginning that Cedric wouldn’t be actively supporting him right away just because Cedric married Artizea.

Rather, now was the opportunity to attract him.

If Cedric didn’t intervene in this and wanted to keep his distance, he would have stayed in the north, pretending not to know, instead of returning.
The border work was more urgent, and the excuses that the news arrived late could be used as needed.

But Cedric did not do that and returned in haste.
It meant he was paying more attention to Artizea than Lawrence had thought.

 

While nothing was going well, he could actually say it was going in a good direction.

Cedric had a good reputation and was supported by the public.
With his help, the aftermath of this incident could have passed more easily than expected.

Neither Grand Duke Roygar nor Grand Duke Evron would easily do such a dangerous job like treason.

Still, he couldn’t make a good face.
So pretending not to know Cedric and passing by was the best option he could do right now.

Lawrence didn’t always like Cedric.
But mostly it was directed as discord and compared often to relatives of the same age but wasn’t in the same tune.

He didn’t really want to face Cedric, but he had no reason to actively hate Cedric.

But now it was different.

There was an unbearable deep emotion that was boiling from the depths.
It was as if Cedric had scraped the depths of his heart with something like a claw, and the cold pus was spewing out poison.

It was hateful.
Lawrence thought that in that expressionlessness and indifference must be hidden contempt and hatred for Lawrence, too.

And even though he’s never actually seen it before, he kept imagining Cedric’s horrific expression of disgust.

And Lysia.

Her face is like that, too.

The lady-in-waiting still occupied one side of his head.

It touched with the hatred in Lawrence’s head.
It was really a mystery.

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She was just a woman he had little interest in.
She was not the type to be taken or stolen, or something like that at all.
They never even converse properly.

 

He told her to come, but he didn’t really expect her to come.
She was, after all, the woman of Evron.
A woman of Evron whose mission is more important than passion.

And it was Artizea who sent Lysia to the west in the first place.
It had nothing to do with Cedric.

‘This bastard will take what is mine.’

Still, Lawrence was caught by his ankles at the thought without any basis, and he couldn’t get out of it.

Amalie had once told Lawrence he could become emperor if he could embrace Evron Grand Duchy.
Lawrence agreed with her.

But now it was different.
There are people in the world who can never be tolerated.

He couldn’t understand how he had thought of getting Cedric on his side.

“Please excuse us for a moment.”

Cedric raised his hand lightly and said.
Amalie, Gayan, and Sir Keshore bowed their heads slightly and stepped back.

The attendant who was leading Lawrence knew that it was not his place to join, so he hurriedly backed away too.

“Well, do you have something to say?”

Lawrence asked, showing raw hostility.

Cedric squinted his eyes.
Unlike Lawrence, that was all his signs of hostility and displeasure.

“Is that all you have to ask?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean, do all you have to ask me is war stories? Aren’t you wondering if everything’s okay with Tia? Aren’t you her brother?”

Lawrence frowned slightly at those words.

“Yes…….
Come to think of it, is everything all right?”

Lawrence said so indifferently.
Up to this moment he was not very curious about Artizea.

Cedric took a step towards Lawrence.

Lawrence was not swayed by his momentum.

But in the next moment, Cedric reached out.
Lawrence was startled and took a quick step back from Cedric, but he couldn’t avoid it.

Cedric grabbed Lawrence’s collar with his left arm and thrust him against the wall.

Thud!

“Keugh….
!”

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Lawrence gasped for breath at the shock on his back.

Cedric clenched his teeth and said out.

“It is such a waste to dedicate lives to something like you.”

“What, nonsense…… Ugh!”

Lawrence struggled to shake Cedric’s hand away.

Lawrence handled quite a bit of weapons and was good at hunting.
He was a young man with above-average physical strength.
He was also very accustomed to using violence.

But with all his might, he couldn’t even push Cedric’s left hand away.
He tried to kick Cedric, but that didn’t work either.

He lifted his toes with force.
Lawrence’s face turned red as he suffocated.
There was no sign of the white and beautiful face.

“It’s your little sister! It happened while she was trying to mediate your mother’s affairs, and even if you don’t even think about protecting her, isn’t it normal to worry about whether she is okay?”

The attendant rushed in and tried to stop it.
Gayan grabbed him and shook his head lightly.

Lawrence is no longer the Emperor’s favorite son.
And Cedric was the one who decided that he would now live as an imperial family.

He didn’t mean to intervene in a fight between such high-ranking people.

“You should at least protect your mother and sister and wife.”

“What, pretend to be nice.”

“Why, did you lack in receiving such devotion, you?”

“Every day you ramble, giving advice to others, ugh!”

Lawrence snorted as Cedric strangled his throat.
Cedric loosened his grip strength a little to hear what he had to say.
Lawrence then raised the corners of his mouth and smirked.

“You filthy hypocrite, who protects whom? After you shed a few drops of tears, even if you transported the corpse with the limbs swept off in a cart, it would never end.
And you’re talking about dedication?”

“…….”

“The loser who ran away because he didn’t want to get his hands dirty!”

Cedric once again slammed Lawrence against the wall.
And he growled.

“Yes.
You are right.”

“Cough, heuk…… .”

“I ran away to not get my hands dirty.
I should have killed you first.”

Cedric said so.

Lawrence chuckled.
Somehow, he felt a sense of coolness in his stomach.
It was because it became clear that this tantrum and hatred within him was neither one-sided nor an illusion.

“Will you try? After all, you don’t even have the courage to pull out a knife in this hallway.”

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“Do you think the blood flowing through your veins will block the sword?”

“Uh, uhk…… !”

“You won’t be emperor, Lawrence.”

Cedric said so.

“I’m not going to leave it like that.”

“Who are you, you dare……!”

“Remember.
That I have the power to kill you at any time.”

Cedric said in a low voice that the others couldn’t hear it.
And he threw Lawrence on the floor.

Lawrence moaned painfully at the shock as he was thrown.
Cedric looked down at him and sighed.

“So pray that nothing will happen to my wife.”

He said so and turned his back.

Gayan, Amalie, and Sir Keshore followed him in a panic and hurriedly.

“Your Grace.”

He wasn’t in the mood to talk, so Cedric didn’t answer.

And he strode out across the Imperial Palace.
He thought there was nothing wrong with Lawrence’s words.

“Haa.”

The attendant carefully lifted Lawrence up.

His back hurt so badly when he hit the wall.
But a twisted smirk hung around Lawrence’s lips.

He didn’t know exactly what the words that came out of his mouth meant.
But it felt a little cool as if he had said what he wanted to say.

Lawrence brushed off the crumpled collar.
And he said to the attendant.

“I will go back.
Say that to Father.
Seeing that the guards are following that guy, I don’t think I need to meet him.”

“Yes.”

“And.”

“What?”

Slap!

Lawrence’s palm slapped the attendant’s cheek.
The attendant bowed his head without saying a word.
From the moment Lawrence was caught by the collar, the attendant was prepared to be the subject of his anger.

But Lawrence was content to hit him only twice, leaving no trace on his cheek.

“Aren’t you supposed to go in front of Father?”

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“Yes.
Yes…….”

Lawrence clenched his fist.
Frightened, the attendant closed his eyes and tightened his stomach.

Then Lawrence laughed out loud a few times, patted him on the shoulder and left.

＊＊＊

Before Artizea collapsed, there were three main instructions to Hayley.

First, contact Brother Colton in the west.

Second, ask Bishop Nikos for cooperation and appeal to the Archbishop.

Third, control the Knights to avoid excessive conflict.

In addition to that, there were some detailed instructions regarding information control.

But there were limits to what Hayley could do.

First of all, since Cedric came, the issue of the Knights left Hayley’s hands.

And it was impossible to control the information so that the incident did not escalate.

As long as the Knights launched a military action and the Guards and the Central Army responded to it, it was impossible for the citizens to not know about this.

Meeting the Archbishop was also withheld for the time being.

Cedric raised an army towards the temple.
Meanwhile, she couldn’t come forward and convey that Artizea’s will not to fight with the temple.

Even if she negotiated, several days were needed to shrink the temple.

However, she wrote a letter to Bishop Nikos, informing him that Artizea is conceived.
She also wrote a thank-you note, saying she remembered the care he had provided during the time of their stay in the temple.

It was a sign that she was aware that not the whole temple was the enemy.

Aside from that, all Hayley could do right now was write letters to Brother Colton and Lysia.

She couldn’t stop sighing.

When Artizea threw herself away to solve the problem, she was determined to be like Evron.

However, when things came to pass, she leaned towards Artizea’s orders to get the job done on due course.

‘The situation must not be so great that even Her Grace cannot stop it.’

That was certain.

She missed Lysia.
If it was Lysia, she’d definitely be able to hold the middle ground while keeping common sense in times like these.

She thought so until midnight.

“Sister Hayley, what the hell happened to Her Grace?”

That night, Lysia suddenly appeared in the Grand Duke’s residence.
She was with Brother Colton in a modest outfit.