Fated to Be Loved by Villains-Chapter 324: Before the Ceremony (2)

“Wow, are you really getting married?”

“...”

“Well, I haven’t done that myself, so I can’t give you any advice.”

“...Just shut up for a second.”

I clutched my throbbing head while Marquis Bogut, who somehow had recovered his usual energy, started spouting nonsense.

It hadn’t been long since I ran for my life, barely managed to escape the tense atmosphere from earlier.

“Anyway, glad to see you alive and kicking.”

This guy had gone through a lot—I mean, he had to deal with Professor Mobius and all. Thankfully, he looked pretty healthy now.

Just a while ago, he was shaved bald and looked like he was on death’s door. It pained me just to look at him. But now, aside from his slightly pale complexion, he seemed presentable enough.

Marquis Bogut shrugged, agreeing with my words.

“Likewise, you look better yourself.”

“How so?”

“You seem more relaxed compared to before.”

“...”

Not knowing how to respond to that, I just awkwardly scratched my head.

“...Well.”

After a long pause, I continued.

“I do feel much better now.”

Honestly...

While it wasn’t pleasant to have my past traumas laid bare, it felt strangely liberating to have someone acknowledge and understand them.

-Have I not told you many times that you are not alone?

Eleanor’s image suddenly popped into my head.

I remembered this was the second time she’s told me that.

“...I can’t thank you enough for that.”

Well...

One thing was for sure. I learned a valuable lesson from those two experiences.

Just as I wanted to protect those around me, they also wanted to protect me.

They might not had said it outright, but that lesson had definitely been etched into my mind.

As soon as he heard those words, Marquis Bogut broke into a wide smile again.

“So that’s why you decided to get married so suddenly!”

“...”

“That’s wonderful. I may be single, but I remember Armin and Astrid living happily in newlywed bliss during their early marriage. I pray for blessings in your future as well.”

“...About that...”

As Marquis Bogut casually brought up topics that made my head spin, I tried to steer the conversation back on track.

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“You know how you wanted me to save my mother?

“...Yeah?”

“Don’t you think you owe me a little gratitude?”

“...”

I continued speaking to Marquis Bogut, who was blinking his eyes as if to say, ‘What the hell are you on about?’.

“Sure, I wouldn’t have known about what happened to her if it wasn’t for you.”

“...Right?”

“But at the end of the day, it was me who went through hell and back to save her.”

“...”

“So, I want to collect some compensation for that.”

Marquis Bogut stared blankly as if I had just spoken in an alien language. Soon after, he spoke up in a dazed voice:

“...What a filial son you are.”

“...Shut up.”

Yeah, yeah, I knew I was being unreasonable, but if you thought about it, I wasn’t exactly wrong.

“No, no, no, look here, Dowd Campbell. I went through a lot myself too, you know?”

Marquis Bogut protested in indignation—a rare expression coming from him.

“I sacrificed my entire political support base I had built up to start a civil war, made it so that everything went as peacefully as possible so it could be suppressed without bloodshed, deliberately made you a target for the Magic Tower, and sold my soul to get you, an outsider, into this exclusive place. It wasn’t easy–”

“So?”

“...”

“You think I didn’t go through at least that much?”

“...Also I’m an incurable patient–”

“–You were.”

I cut him off mid-sentence with a smirk, as if to say ‘Got you’.

“You’ve been completely cured by the Magic Tower’s facilities, haven’t you?”

“...”

Actually, this was one of the reasons why I bound Mobius’ mind to my control.

The level of technology here was insane. They could do crazy shit like human transmutation and transferring consciousness, healing a sick body wasn’t that difficult.

“I saved your life, so get to work. You can at least understand that much, can’t you?”

“...What a devilish person. Oh, wait. You are a Devil...”

“...”

Touché.

I kept silent as Marquis Bogut pondered. After a while, he finally spoke up again.

“By ‘work,’ you mean the Holy Kingdom, right?”

I nodded. This time, seriously.

The real reason why I, an unfilial son by nature, went out of my way to pull all those strings to push this punk to work for me...

...Was because he was a genius of warfare who could’ve utterly crushed our empress in the civil war, had things gone according to the original timeline.

This man wasn’t called ‘Unbeatable’ for nothing.

“I’d like your help with the command.”

“Command?”

“I’ve laid the groundwork. The Empire, the Tribal Alliance, and even the Magic Tower. With this lineup, even if we were to go to an ‘all-out war’ with the pope, we wouldn’t be put in too much disadvantage.”

“...Actually, based on external military strength alone, even a fraction of those forces seems like overkill.”

“That’s assuming they’re not hiding anything.”

Marquis Bogut just shrugged in agreement.

“The pope...is a rather infamous figure even within the Empire.”

He continued with a gloomy expression.

“The Tristan Dukedom, the Guardians, the Royal Family—there are rumors that all their curses are related to his ‘behind-the-scenes operations’.”

“...”

That information somewhat aligned with what I knew of the original story.

The pope, the most powerful priest in the world...

And the most sinister mastermind in the world.

I had encountered him once before. Even then, he had chosen to bide his time and gather strength instead of directly confronting me.

“...Fighting against that guy isn’t something anyone can just do. I’d prefer to handle it myself if possible...but I can’t do that. I’ll probably get extremely busy once things kick off with that side.”

You see...

During the upcoming ‘Final Chapter’, I’d have to settle things with other places too.

There was an extremely high chance that I’d be too busy to even pay attention to the overall ‘command’.

“The Prophet.”

“...Haa.”

Even Marquis Bogut went silent and just let out a deep sigh the moment I said that name.

The thing here was...

While yes, that punk held some degree of ‘favor’ towards me.

But, both her and the pope...whatever it was, their ‘grand objectives’ were likely aligned.

And their objective would probably lead to the outcome I want to avoid the most.

“Both the Pope and that punk hate Devils.”

“Come again?”

“I said what I said.”

I could only hope that things wouldn’t go that way.

“...Alright, now I understand why you’re asking me for help. After all, you’re up against that suspicious masked woman. Can’t be helped then.”

“Yes. Also, I figured that since you’ve decided to sacrifice yourself for my mother’s sake, you might as well see it through to the end–”

I frowned.

Marquis Bogut was staring at me with a strange smile, and it was quite unnerving.

“...What are you looking at?”

“Nothing, it’s just...”

He stroked his chin with an amused expression.

“You’re calling her ‘mother’ now?”

“...”

“Before this, you always called her ‘Professor Astrid,’ like you’re putting a clear distance between the two of you.”

...He was right...

I let out a sigh, running my hands over my face.

To begin with, it would be stupid of me to keep having an attitude towards her after witnessing with my own eyes why she disappeared without contact for so long, even though she was still alive.

Besides...

“I can’t keep her at arm’s length forever, More importantly...”

“More importantly?”

“I need all the help I can get.”

“...”

“Eleanor is just the beginning.”

“...”

“There are several others lining up.”

“...”

“The real problem is going to start tomorrow.”

Well...

Receiving a sympathetic look from a former enemy was certainly a novel experience in its own right.

●

There was a saying that marriage is the grave of life.

You would lose the freedom you’ve been enjoying before.

And...

I could deeply relate to that sentiment, albeit in a slightly different way.

[It’s not just slightly different.]

Huh?

[In your case, you’re actually going to be buried in a grave before getting married. You can’t compare the two situations.]

...

I looked around as I heard him say that. The sad part here was that he was right.

Currently, we were in a clothing store to choose a wedding dress—Eleanor had practically dragged me here by the arm.

That in itself was fine, but the problem here was...

“...”

I silently turned around.

There was Iliya, hostility radiating from her eyes.

I didn’t know why the hell she was tagging along, but the problem here was that Eleanor didn’t seem to mind her presence. Hell, she was the one who told her to come along if she wanted.

“How about this one, Dear?”

Eleanor asked casually while coming out in a new dress.

But...

She wasn’t actually asking me that, but Iliya—who was staring at her with blazing flames in her eyes.

As if she was showing off.

“Do you think it suits me?”

“It...suits you...very well–”

The reason the end of her sentence was slightly drawn out was because Iliya was grinding her teeth as she said it.

I could see the ‘井’1 character etched clearly on her forehead, making her look extremely fierce.

“Hmm.”

Eleanor nodded before she continued.

There was a faint smile on her lips—it looked like she was mocking her.

“Today, I plan to ask for your opinion on various things.”

“...”

“Too bad...”

Eleanor swept her gaze around slightly as she said that.

As if looking for ‘others’ who were surely around, but wasn’t visible right now/

“I’d love it if the others have such an opportunity too.”

As Eleanor said those words with a provocative smile, I felt my breath was getting caught in my throat.

Can I even survive this...?

1. It visualized veins popping, a common troupe of in anime/manga.