I Became the Villainess in an Anticlimactic Novel - Chapter 35

While holding Ryno in my arms, I used my head to gesture at the gryphon to Lecht. That was an indication for him to do something about it.

But Lecht, however, had a carefree expression on his face, as if he was asking me why I was doing this. On the contrary, he shot a glare at Ryno. 

When I averted my gaze slightly, Tanma, who was next to me, also had a smile on his face, no different from how he usually would.

No, why are you all so relaxe…

That was when I suddenly remembered what Lecht had told me before.

 [Lecht] “All demonic creatures hide their appearance with illusion magic when they leave the Grand Duchy. It just doesn’t work on you, since you’re the Saintess of the Moon God.”

[Ara] “No way.”

I turned my head and looked at the gryphon. When its eyes met mine, the gryphon approached me cautiously and rubbed its beak against my cheek, its red eyes shining. Perhaps because it was in a good mood as it continued to rub against me even more, its large size gradually shrunk as it did so. When it spread its wings after being chased away from me by Kelber in a fit of temper, it had already shrunk to the average size of an eagle, its wingspan spanning around one metre.

I heard the sound of Linden muttering as he absorbed the barrier magic he had cast earlier.

[Linden] “This is the first time I’ve seen a size manipulation spell being cast on an animal. I knew that theoretically, it was possible, but I never did it since it was too dangerous…”

At his muttering, I gulped, swallowing dryly before replying back.

[Ara] “R-Right? That’s just an ordinary animal.”

[Linden] “To think of enlarging an eagle and riding it, how incredible.” 

[Ara] “An eagle… haha.”

I see. So it looks like an ordinary eagle to Linden. And he thinks it was enlarged by a spell!

As I breathed a sigh of relief, I suddenly heard a muffled voice from within my arms.

[Ryno] “Y-Your Majesty…! I love you, and I’m really thrilled to be in your arms as well, Your Majesty, but… I can sense His Majesty’s bloodthirst…!”

I turned my head slightly at the words of Ryno, who was grabbing onto my collar while his shoulders trembled. Lecht was indeed looking at Ryno, who was still in my arms, with a ferocious light in his eyes. But I couldn’t just let go of him right away.

[Ara] “Ryno, your horns…! You said you couldn’t humanise yourself.”

The cold temperature around Lecht dropped even lower at my whisper that was so soft it couldn’t be heard by Linden.

Ryno’s voice trembled as he spoke.

[Ryno] “I have an illusion spell on me, just like other demonic creatures…”

[Ara] “Oh.”

So, unlike the butler Tanma and Lecht, who were able to humanise themselves, illusion magic had been cast over Ryno, just like other demonic creatures. So it meant that his horns were only visible to me, and not anyone else.

‘So that’s why Lecht and Butler Tanma were so relaxed!’

No wonder they never had the thought to urgently hide Ryno, who had appeared out of the blue with horns…! Why did it feel like I had somehow been deceived by myself?

[Linden] “Ara. That guy… are you guys close?”

Linden’s voice was just as cold as Lecht’s. 

After realising how strange my actions must have looked, I quickly let go of Ryno, whose face was still buried in my chest.

[Ara] “Oh, ahaha! It’s been so long—it’s so good to see you!”

I slapped Ryno on the shoulder as I laughed exaggeratedly. 

[Ara] “I’ll introduce you guys! This is Ryno. He’s a friend I met while I was at the Grand Duchy! So, he’s a believer of the… our Lunar religion. So he taught me a lot about the things I don’t know. Very competent!”

I introduced him with a moderate mixture of truth and lies.

[Linden] “You must be a mage.”

Linden stretched his hand out to Ryno after sneaking a glimpse at the gryphon and Kelber, who were scrapping with each other on the ground.

[Ryno] “I’m not a mage, but I can control the wind!”

[Linden] “…?”

Ryno answered valiantly and shook Linden’s hand up and down in the air.

Linden tilted his head with an expression of ‘aren’t you a mage if you can use wind magic?’ and whispered quietly under his breath.

[Linden] “As expected, mages are full of weird quirks.” 

A cold voice fell between us just as I was feeling relieved at overcoming the situation.

[Lecht] “What business did you come here for?”

Ryno’s shoulders shook violently at Lecht’s voice. Feeling the energy around Lecht become even fiercer after he sneakily tried to hide behind me, Ryno leapt up with a ‘eek’ and went to hide behind Tanma instead.

But you’re clearly too large to hide behind Tanma…

[Ryno] “The truth is, there’s a problem in the Grand Duchy…”

Those words caused Lecht’s fierce energy to flare up even more. In other words, the atmosphere became even more tense.

[Tanma] “Problem?”

Tanma had on his usual smile as he asked, perhaps because it was related to the Grand Duchy.

[Ryno] “Pestis has started to spread.”

t/n: latin for disease or plague; has the meaning of the worst disease

Tanma and Lecht’s faces stiffened. I didn’t know what they were talking about, so I grabbed Lecht to ask him.

[Ara] “What are you talking about?”

[Lecht] “Do you remember the epidemic that was in the village where we stopped?”

[Ara] “Of course I do.”

It was an incident that revealed that I was the saintess, so there was no way I could forget it.

[Lecht] “Apparently that disease started in the Grand Duchy.”

I held my breath. What sort of bombshell is this?

[Ara] “Don’t tell me we were the ones who brought it in? No, but none of us were infected though…?”

[Lecht] “No. It’s not that.”

[Ara] “If that’s not the case, then how…”

Lecht added softly under his breath.

[Lecht] “That bastard has crossed the line.”

It was unclear whether that was a reply to me or if he was just talking to himself.

In any case, I had the thought that I should try and resolve the situation first, even if that meant I had to slow my search for the cause like last time.

[Ara] “Let’s go back quickly before it gets worse!”

I shouted urgently since I could fix everything once I arrived. But the direction where the broken door was suddenly became noisy.

[Priest —] “I told you, I’m not telling the Saintess! What if she collapses again?!”

[Priest —] “Didn’t even the High Priestess tell you to tell the Saintess? It’s worth it.”

The Priest Trio rushed in whilst arguing just as raucously as always. But the only difference this time was that they were all extremely pale.

[Ara] “What’s wrong with all of your faces?”

Having just some bad news, I became anxious at the mood of their tussling which seemed even heavier than usual.

[Priest —] “Saintessss! Hngg, we’ve got a big problem…!”

[Priest —] “Oh, seriously, I told you we should’ve just figured this out on our own without telling the Saintess!”

One of them began to sob loudly while the other began to vent his temper.

[Ara] “What’s the matter with you guys? Tell me.”

At my urging, the calmest priest among them spoke. What he said was shocking.

[Priest —] “Do you perhaps remember the epidemic in the village where we first met you, Saintess?”

[Ara] “…No way.”

[Priest —] “There has been an outbreak of that epidemic in the capital.”

I started to feel dizzy.

[Priest —] “It started a few days ago at the Head of Ezzarson’s funeral and is now spreading at a tremendous rate.”

There was an outbreak of that deadly disease in the Grand Duchy and the capital at the same time? How could the worst situations coincide this much with each other?

[Linden] “Ara!”

[Tanma] “Miss!”

[Ryno] “Your Majesty!”

[Priests] “Saintess!”

The moment my vision turned white, several people reached out towards me, who stumbled. I reached out to hold onto the arm of whoever got to me first and asked.

[Ara] “Has anyone informed the central gov… no, the palace? Have you started to quarantine the area?”

When I thought of what happened back then, I was reminded of the incredible transmission rate. We needed to stop it quickly before it spread any further.

[Ara] “What about the temple? Does Lydia know? Can we send any more priests? No, more importantly, shouldn’t we immediately send more doctors to the capital?”

My thoughts started to jumble out of order.

[Lecht] “Ara, calm down.”

It was Lecht who was patting my hand and calming me down. 

Looking at it now, it was Lecht’s arm that I was holding onto tightly. As if I was holding onto my lifeline.

He gently loosened my tense fingers and pulled a russet handkerchief from out of his pocket. He carefully wrapped the handkerchief around my wrist, which I hadn’t thought would abate after turning red from Alion’s grip.

[Lecht] “Have you calmed down a little?”

[Ara] “Yes… thank you.”

His actions broke the tempo of my complicated thought process. The sand in the murky water seemed to have subsided a bit now.

I took a deep breath in, alternating my eyes from the tulips still in my hand to the soft handkerchief wrapped around my wrist. 

That’s right, panicking doesn’t help the situation at all. Let’s calm down.

[Ara] “Have you informed the temple?”

I went through every point thoroughly.

[Priest —] “The High Priestess knows. She said she’s coming here right away.”

[Ara] “What about the Imperial Palace?”

[Priest ​​—] “I came here right away since I thought I’d be able to tell you right away as His Highness the Prince is here, but…”

At the end of the priest’s gaze was Linden, who had a troubled expression on his face. In other words, what they were saying was that they deliberately ran to find Linden first instead of going to the Imperial Palace or going to find Crown Prince Ziken.

Linden nodded and said.

[Linden] “I’ll let the Imperial Palace know.”

Then he added, wiping his forehead.

[Linden] “Although this isn’t something I should be saying in this sort of situation, thank you for coming to find me instead of my older brother.”

[Priest —] “Don’t mention it.”

They exchanged brief, yet meaningful pleasantries. It was when I was listening to them and wondering what I should sort out next.

[Priest —] “Of course I’m not going to that damn bastard who ignored our Saintess!”

[Ryno] “What? How dare that bastard ignore Her Majesty!”

My eyes widened into circles at the priest’s unexpected outburst in such a serious situation, and the goofiness of Ryno, who had such a quick reaction to it.

[Priest —] “So a really irritating guy that only has his position actually does exist!”

[Ryno] “He seems like an uncomfortable person to be around, just judging from what I’ve heard! That sort of guy just can’t mind his own business!”

Nevertheless, I burst out into laughter at the appearance of the two men who genuinely started to fume in anger together. The dark and heavy atmosphere was considerably relieved thanks to them.

[Ara] “Right, let’s put out the nearest fire first. Priest, please guide me to the location.”

I put down the bouquet of tulips on the table first and spoke,

[Priest —] “Will you be alright?”

[Ara] “Of course I will. I can’t just pace around anxiously when it’s a disease that I can cure.”

Although the priests looked restless, they still nodded their heads in the end. As we all walked toward the broken door, Linden suddenly added.

[Linden] “By the way, Mr. Green Eyed Mage.”

[Ara] “Ryno, I think he’s talking to you.”

[Ryno] “What? Me? But I’m not a mage though.”

Although Ryno denied it, Linden, who had already labelled him as ‘an eccentric mage specialising in wind magic,’ continued to speak.

[Linden] “Although I’m happy that I met another mage, I’m afraid I’ll still have to charge you for breaking the door. Since this timber was quite expensive after all.”

[Ryno] “Heok.”

Ryno turned his head with a look of extreme embarrassment on his face. His gaze was on Lecht and Tanma. However, Lecht brushed past him and said calmly.

[Lecht] “If you don’t have money, then you’ll have to use your body to pay him back.”

[Ryno] “Heok. But…!”

Tanma followed after Lecht and patted him on the shoulder encouragingly. Though his smile seemed to be somewhat cold.

[Tanma] “Just think of it as the price of Miss’s hug and work hard. Good luck.”

[Kelber] “Woof!”

Behind him following triumphantly was Kelber, who had won the scuffle with the gryphon.

[Ryno] “Your Majesty…”

Ryno gave me a look that asked him to save him as his last resort. Although his body was distracting, the look in his eyes was so forlorn it made me think I was kicking a puppy away and poked at my conscience. Nevertheless, I had no choice but to avoid his gaze.

[Ara] “…Good luck.”

I don’t have any money either…

[Linden] “Then, Mr. Green Eyed Mage. Thank you in advance for cleaning up.”

After only giving him a firm handshake, Linden left the dormitory happily, leaving a devastated Ryno behind.