The Villainess Wants To Retire-Chapter 498: Scavenger

Eris spun at the sound of the Commander’s voice, her eyes wide and alert. She felt the shift in the air before she saw the intruder.

Sensing the threat, she instinctively pushed Mira behind her, her free arm acting as a physical barrier. She stepped into a defensive crouch, her body shielding the boy in her arms from whatever stood in the shadows.

"Mama?" Rael whimpered, his small hands fisting into her tunic as he sensed the sudden, jagged tension in the air.

"I’ve got you," Eris whispered, her eyes locking onto the figure at the end of the hall.

Bianca stood her ground, her hands visible to show she wasn’t reaching for a weapon, though her fingers were already beginning to spark with a cold, blue light. She assessed the distance. Twenty feet. Wide enough for a spell, narrow enough for a lunge.

A smile began to spread slowly across Bianca’s face. It wasn’t a kind smile. It was the expression of a scavenger who had stumbled upon a wounded lion.

All the fear she had felt while fleeing Ophelia evaporated, replaced by a surging, intoxicating confidence.

She saw the way Eris held the child. She saw the way the Empress’s eyes darted toward the boy’s head, making sure he was covered.

Perfect, Bianca thought, her chest swelling with a cruel triumph. She’s vulnerable. She’s distracted. I don’t need a dagger to kill a mother who is too afraid to fight back.

The silence stretched taut, vibrating like a piano wire about to snap. Bianca was the one to break it.

"Well, well, well," she said, her voice drawing out the syllables with a theatrical, mock-pleasantry. She took a slow, deliberate step forward, her smile widening until it looked like a scar. "The great Eris Igniva. The dragon-queen herself."

She gestured vaguely at the group, her eyes dancing with malice. "Reduced to playing nursemaid in the dark? How the mighty have fallen. I expected to find you on the throne, or perhaps burning in the streets, but here you are... hiding in the guest’ wing with a crying brat." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Her eyes flicked down to Rael, lingering on the boy’s trembling legs before returning to Eris’s face. The threat was as clear as if she had shouted it.

Eris didn’t flinch. Her expression remained unchanged—a mask of cold, controlled ice that would have made Soren proud.

She stood her ground, her breathing deep and even, despite the fire she could feel clawing at the inside of her ribs.

"Bianca Virelya," Eris said, her voice dropping to a level, dangerous quiet. "You’ve finally shown yourself. I was wondering when you’d crawl out of whatever hole Vetra left you in."

She didn’t look at Ryse; she kept her focus entirely on Bianca, her gaze clinical and dismissive. "How predictable. Like a rat scurrying through the sewers, looking for scraps while the palace falls. Always running. Never standing. A coward to the very end."

The delivery was calm, matter-of-fact, and far more devastating than a scream. It was the tone one used for an annoying insect.

Bianca’s smile tightened, the flush of rage coloring her neck. Her fists clenched at her sides. Bitch. You arrogant, white-haired bitch.

"You’ll pay for that," Bianca hissed, her internal voice screaming for blood. "You’ll meet your end today, right here, in this fancy hallway."

But then, Bianca’s gaze shifted. She stopped looking at Eris and focused entirely on the child. Her eyes softened with a mockingly sweet concern that made Eris’s skin crawl.

Rael was terrified. He sensed the hatred radiating from the woman in the shadows, and he buried his face deeper into his mother’s shoulder, his small body shaking with silent, rhythmic sobs.

"So this," Bianca said, her voice dropping into a soft, honeyed tone that was purely for effect. "This is your son. The little prince. Rael, isn’t it?"

The temperature in the corridor didn’t just drop; it plummeted. The air around Eris began to shimmer with a distorted, golden heat. She shifted Rael further from Bianca’s view, turning her shoulder so that her body was an absolute barrier between the boy and the intruder.

"Don’t," Eris said.

The word wasn’t a plea. It was a low, vibrating growl of protective fury that seemed to come from her marrow.

"Don’t you even look at him," she continued, her voice rising in a terrifying crescendo. The golden glow in her eyes was no longer a flicker; it was a conflagration.

"Don’t you fucking dare lay your eyes on my son, Bianca. If you even breathe in his direction, I will burn the soul out of your body before you can blink."

The fury was absolute. The Empress was gone; there was only the Mother, and she was standing on the edge of a god’s wrath.

Bianca took a step back. It was an involuntary twitch, a primitive neurological response to the sudden, suffocating shift in the air.

Eris’s intensity didn’t just radiate; it physically pushed. Bianca’s boot caught on the uneven edge of a cracked floor tile, a brief, undignified stumble that she caught with a frantic jerk of her shoulders.

She forced herself to stand tall, squaring her shoulders and lifting her chin in a display of bravado that felt as thin as glass.

She’s just a woman, Bianca told herself, the thought a frantic whisper against the rising roar in her ears. She has a child in her arms. She’s encumbered. I have the advantage. I am the one with nothing to lose. The logic was sound, but it felt hollow. Every time she looked into Eris’s eyes, the conviction withered.

"Protective," Bianca sneered, the word dripping with a mock-sentimentality that tasted like bile. "How touching. Truly, the devoted Empress and her little heir." Her smile turned cruel, her gaze sliding back to the boy with a sickening slowness. "But protection only goes so far, Eris. Especially in a palace that is currently being digested by the earth."

"Choose your next words," Eris said, her voice dropping into a register that made the stones beneath their feet vibrate. "Very, very carefully, Bianca. There is no trial here. No judges. No laws."