Chapter 145

Chapter 145

I was surprised as I hurried down to the first floor upon hearing that Avila had brought a friend to visit the capital residence. It was because Elaine was waving her hand slightly beside Avila.

“Avila! …Elaine?”

I quickly took the two of them up to my office. Although the employees of the Blois Mansion were trustworthy, I still had to hide the fact of Elaine’s visit, just in case.

“I wanted to contact you somehow anyway, Elaine!”

I was so glad that she came to visit. Despite the fact that I wanted to contact her quickly about Cadis, I had no idea how I could contact her without anyone knowing as she lived in the imperial palace where there were so many people watching.

“Rowaine.”

Elaine looked at me with her lips pouting, looking like she was about to burst into tears.

“What happened? Why is Cadis…”

I looked at Elaine with regret. It seemed she had just found out what had happened to Cadis.

“I went to look for Cadis yesterday, though he was nowhere to be seen. Feeling anxious, I asked my father to send Cadis, but…”

In the past, in order to remove Dimitri from the villain role and take revenge for Coco, I intercepted Elaine’s plan that I had read about in the novel and destroyed the slave traders and their mastermind. As a result, her plan was thwarted, and she lost the opportunity to gain ownership of Cadis. Instead, it seemed she had made another plan to keep him by her side.

“Not long ago, I orchestrated a poisoning incident. I poisoned my own food, and it caused an uproar in the imperial palace.”

“Oh, my goodness. This is the first time I’ve heard about it. How could I not know about such a major incident?”

“It’s inevitable. My father buried the matter quietly. In the Imperial Palace, more incidents happen and get buried than you would think. It’s all considered family matters. As you know, it’s a complicated family.”

Elaine laughed cynically. Her laugh seemed so weary.

What kind of things does she experience on a daily basis to make her have such an expression?

“After that incident, I often requested my father to assign a hunting dog to me, claiming I was suspicious of the food since dog shapeshifters are good at detecting poison.”

“…..”

“Although I couldn’t obtain ownership of Cadis, I was able to have him by my side whenever I wanted in that way.”

“…..”

“But today, even though I asked for him to be sent, they sent another hound instead.”

It seems she deliberately pretended to be oblivious and threw a tantrum, asking to send her favorite dog shapeshifter. I could imagine her acting like a naive, immature girl and whining to the Emperor.

“At that time, I heard from Count Heres about what happened to Cadis, that he’s now imprisoned.”

Elaine looked at me with determined eyes.

It was a look that firmly believed in her own judgment.

“I don’t trust Count Heres, but I trust Rowaine. That’s why I risked my life to come here today. I thought there would be misunderstandings if I didn’t talk to you face to face.”

Her words touched my heart.

Even though there were circumstances beyond my control, I had nonetheless intercepted her plan. In addition, I played a decisive role in getting Cadis imprisoned by falling into Herman’s trap. I felt both guilt and a sense of responsibility towards Elaine.

“Thank you, Elaine. For trusting me.”

It couldn’t have been easy for her to believe in me when everyone else was calling me a villainess and to take the risk of coming to me when it wouldn’t have been easy to sneak out.

I explained everything to her as it was.

I told her that Cadis’s condition was strange and that it seemed all of this was Herman’s scheme.

Elaine’s expression darkened.

“I knew Count Heres was untrustworthy, though why would he do such a thing? I thought he was just an errand boy for his father.”

“I find it strange as well. The Count Heres I know is nothing more than a hedonist.”

In the novel, he was portrayed as a character who wasted his abilities and appearance in pursuit of pleasure without much interest in what was going on in the world. He would attach himself to Rowaine, encouraging her indulgence and jealousy whenever she was bored and causing incidents to enjoy the spectacle.

It was puzzling that he would create such a trap.

“What could be driving him? For what purpose?”

She tilted her head in confusion.

“But isn’t Rowaine an old friend of his?”

I jumped up and denied it.

“Friends with someone like that?! I wouldn’t…”

Even though I was about to say that I wouldn’t associate with such an unpleasant person, considering that Rowaine and Herman were likely close before I possessed this body, I chose my words carefully.

“…I was used by him. He’s good-looking, you see. I was pathetically captivated by his face. It’s truly a dark history that I really want to erase.”

I said this, almost sobbing.

Avila and Elaine looked at me with sympathetic expressions as if they understood what I meant.

“Goodness…”

Their expressions were as if they were hearing a story of a painful unrequited love from their youth, regretting their inability to distinguish between love and mere infatuation, and were foolishly swayed.

I shuddered, letting them misinterpret it as they pleased.

‘D*mn it, why did Rowaine like such a person?’

I drew a firm line.

“It’s a story from the past. Now, we’re more like enemies, let alone friends. In fact, I never really knew him well, even back then. We never had a truly deep relationship!”

I vented my frustration, and Avila patted me on the shoulder.

“Those who are gone from our lives are all like that. There’s a reason why they pass by.”

Herman wasn’t even my ex or anything, but it was truly unfair. Still, there was nothing I could do. There was no clearer or simpler way to explain that we were no longer friends.

I sighed deeply and ran my hand over my face.

“Anyway, since his behavior is suspicious, it would be best to keep a close watch. And once the punishment for Cadis is decided, as a person involved in the case, I’ll be informed right away, so I’ll try to prevent it by any means.”

“Can you do that?”

“I’ll take responsibility and rescue Cadis, Elaine. I promise.”

It was because I was responsible for intercepting her plan.

Elaine thanked me and took both of my hands, and as a result, her wide sleeves fluttered slightly, revealing her wrists. At that moment, Avila closely examined the bracelet she was wearing and muttered.

“It must be something that looks just like that…”

At her words, Elaine unclasped the bracelet and showed it, asking.

“Do you know what this is?”

“Yes? Isn’t that the Princess’s bracelet?”

“No. I found it recently near the imperial palace’s laboratory and kept it because it might be important. Avila, you’re a wizard, right? Can you tell what it is?”

“Near the lab?”

Avila carefully examined the bracelet Elaine handed her.

It was a bracelet with a diamond-shaped, unidentified stone attached to the end of a leather string. Seeing that the leather part was quite worn, it seemed to have been used frequently by someone.

“I’m not sure either… but it seems like the key to open a sealed book I have would be exactly that shape and size…”

Her eyes widened in surprise.

“…Could it be?”

She suddenly rummaged through her belongings and pulled out a book.

“I recently received a letter saying that my senior, an imperial wizard, suddenly disappeared. This is her belonging. The contents can only be viewed after breaking the seal. The seal requires a key…”

Saying so, she pointed to a tiny groove at the back of the book.

It looked like the stone from the bracelet Elaine brought would fit perfectly. Sensing she was on the right track, she inserted the stone of the bracelet into the groove and infused it with mana. Then, to everyone’s amazement, the book began to glow with a golden light, and words that had been invisible before appeared.

“….!”

She stared blankly at the book with a dumbfounded face, even though she had done it herself.

“Could I take a look at that?”

As Avila handed the book over willingly, Elaine began to flip through it quickly. Soon, her hands started to tremble.

“Curse… The secret of the curse is written here.”

I asked in surprise.

“By curse, do you mean the curse engraved on the hearts of the hounds?”

Elaine nodded. Her eyes scanned the letters intently.

Avila clutched her head.

“Senior Tara… must have discovered that secret.”

Elaine spoke with a dark expression as if she had realized what was going on.

“If you’re talking about the owner of this bracelet, she probably isn’t alive anymore. I saw her being dragged away by the knights.”

Avila sighed.

Elaine spoke to the distressed woman with eyes filled with many emotions, including excitement, anger, and hatred.

“To train the hunting dogs, not just dog shapeshifters but many others have been sacrificed. We need to stop this immediately.”

Her eyes gleamed viciously.

“Listen, there’s something I’ve been planning for a long time. If we can break this curse and thus neutralize the Emperor, I intend to start a rebellion without delay.”

“….!”

Although I knew this from reading the novel, Avila, who was hearing it for the first time, shuddered.

“I have forces aligned with me. Can both of you trust me and join in my cause?”

Leaving Avila, who couldn’t answer right away, behind, I nodded.

“Just as Your Highness has trusted me, I, too, will trust and support Your Highness.”

Elaine would become the Emperor.

And with the right beliefs, we would change the world.

“I want to live in the world that Your Highness will create.”

Avila also nodded at my words.

“I don’t want to live in such a cruel and frightening world.”

Elaine looked down at the book containing the secret of the curse with a complicated gaze. That day, with astonishing concentration and memory, she memorized the vast amount of information written in the book and returned to the imperial palace.

Promising the day we would meet again.

 
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Translator’s Note:

Hiya, it’s Nabi! ❤︎

From chapter 145 onwards, the translation of ‘I Reincarnated As a Villainess, But Why Did I Become a Cat Butler Instead?’will be continued under a different group on another site. However, don’t worry! I’m still the translator of the novel, only that the novel will be hosted on a different site, that’s all!

You can go to the website directly through this link or novel updates!