CWWV 7

Chapter 7

“Customer! Your clothes are ready.”

But just then, a clerk appeared carrying shopping bags full of clothes in both hands and wedged between Sella and Roddy.

His sharp gaze softened, and at the same time, Sella’s eyes—freed from the shackles of the man’s stare—turned toward the clerk.

And her eyes went wide.

Good heavens, are all of those clothes? If someone buys this many clothes at this shop, just how much money does this person have?

The shopping bags in the clerk’s hands were so large and numerous that the clerk seemed to be staggering.

Sella subtly peeked inside the shopping bags. With enough money to buy that many clothes, it seemed like more than enough to buy the lace her sister had torn, and then some.

But before she could even gauge the number and types of clothes inside the shopping bags, Roddy took the bags from the clerk, said “Excuse me,” and brushed right past Sella, leaving the shop.

As if to say she shouldn’t even dream of borrowing money.

Tch… He said he had no money. Just how much money does he have? If he didn’t want to lend it, he should’ve just said so!

It seemed clear that the woodcutter’s parents must have been the owners of Mount Tolto.

Was being a woodcutter just a hobby for him? Is that why he was so indifferent to money?

Sella fell into thought as she watched the man’s retreating figure.

With the thought: ‘Roddy is rich, and I need money.’

After returning to the orphanage and finishing her work, right before going to sleep, Sella habitually calculated her money again.

The only money she could save was the 10 gallops she could skim off from the woodcutter Roddy each week.

That was 40 gallops a month. To save 600 gallops, it would take more than ten months.

It was fortunate that the hidden villain and Ceselia hadn’t met yet, but there was no telling when they might.

Ah!

Sella’s closed eyes flew open. Suddenly, a fact she hadn’t thought of until now came to mind.

In the novel, it hadn’t been specified exactly where the hidden villain male lead Rodiac’s retreat was. But the fact that he and the female lead met at ‘Bliss’—didn’t that mean Rodiac lived near this village?

Rodiac had originally been the Crown Prince, first in line to the imperial throne. Born of noble blood, and with outstanding appearance and exceptional abilities, he had carried the expectations of not only his father the Emperor but all the empire’s people.

Then, about ten years ago, during puberty, he went through secondary sex characteristics and manifested an ability.

A first-in-line heir to the throne who had manifested a special power.

He was truly beyond perfect—an ideal successor.

Since the founding emperor who established the empire with a powerful ability, among his descendants—that is, among the imperial family—there had occasionally been cases of manifesting abilities.

However, not all imperial family members manifested abilities. That was why those who had abilities, or among those with the same ability, those with stronger abilities, were more welcomed as the next heir to the throne.

Of course, even if one had an ability, if it wasn’t particularly powerful, it wasn’t easy to surpass the legitimate first-in-line heir and inherit the throne.

The first in line was determined by bloodline. But Rodiac not only manifested an ability—he was also the legitimate first-in-line heir to begin with.

Furthermore, the abilities he manifested were so powerful and diverse that it was difficult to find precedent.

Abilities of all kinds, spanning nature, animals, objects, and even humans—he had them all, regardless of target.

So it was only natural that Rodiac became the Crown Prince who bore the full expectations of the empire’s people, with not even room for controversy.

But just as he seemed to be advancing smoothly, he encountered an unexpected problem. It was the issue of the ability’s backlash.

Originally, ability users were bound to experience backlash that followed their abilities. Mild headaches and feverish sensations were common backlash symptoms.

However, because Rodiac had all too many abilities for a single ability user to possess, he suffered backlash that was difficult to bear.

The backlash’s intensity increased in proportion to the size and type of the ability.

In other words, it meant Rodiac had to endure unbearable pain at an unbelievably frequent rate.

In the novel, it was described as a lump of hot lava churning inside his body, and his head feeling like it was being struck with an axe.

His head split with an axe, and lava churning inside his body. Ugh. Just imagining it was horrifying.

In the end, the manifestation of his ability became not a blessing but a curse for Rodiac. Far from properly wielding his abilities, when the pain came, it was difficult for him to even maintain his sanity.

Fortunately, Rodiac had stronger mental fortitude than anyone, so for several years he endured and withstood the pain.

But the abilities grew stronger with each passing year, and the backlash worsened accordingly. Eventually, when the pain came, he reached a state where he lost his reason and showed signs of madness.

What would happen when an unprecedentedly powerful ability user lost his reason and expressed his pain?

Tearing the clothes he was wearing to shreds was a given, and even injuring his own body was, in fact, nothing more than a minor issue.

The moment he had an episode, everything around him—living or non-living—was destroyed and broken.

In the midst of his madness, he couldn’t even recognize what or whom he was destroying.

And as such incidents repeated, Rodiac grew increasingly haggard. Of course, suffering from long pain, his heart and mind had also actually grown increasingly cynical and desolate.

The founding emperor had subjugated the monsters that covered the continent, threatening people’s survival, with his ability and established the empire. Even after that, thanks to the efforts of emperors with abilities, monsters had decreased to near extinction.

As such, protecting the empire’s people from monsters had traditionally been considered the first duty of the Laelus Empire’s emperor.

That was why it could not be tolerated for the Crown Prince, who would become emperor, to commit slaughter with destructive power rivaling the strongest monsters, far from protecting the people.

Nevertheless, the Emperor couldn’t bring himself to decide on Rodiac’s deposition until the very last moment and delayed it. Because he couldn’t easily give up his son with perfect bloodline and powerful abilities.

In the end, it was Rodiac who made the decision first.

In truth, Rodiac—who had been born and raised as Crown Prince with high pride and self-esteem—was the one who suffered most from his transformation into a monster.

He relinquished his position himself and disappeared from the imperial palace, concealing his whereabouts.

The deposed prince Rodiac, who had thus disappeared from the world, appears again in the imperial palace starting from Ceselia’s debutante. Having fallen for Ceselia, he showed himself at the imperial palace following her.

Anyway, really, why does the pain subside when he’s with the person he loves? The combination of my poor memory and the flaw of having skipped the parts with explanations and mainly read the dialogue and scene-focused parts.

Even knowing exactly would not be enough, and with such a big hole in information. Really.

In fact, most of what she knew about the founding emperor’s duties, bloodline, and abilities came from absorbing the original Sella’s common knowledge rather than from memories of the novel.

At least she clearly remembered that Rodiac’s condition improved somewhat when he was with Ceselia. That was why he was obsessed with her.

The problem was that Ceselia’s heart went to someone else.

Unfortunately, Ceselia falls in love with the current Crown Prince—born of the Emperor’s second wife—who took the position Rodiac had relinquished.

So it was, in a way, natural that Rodiac, rejected by his only salvation, would fall into darkness.

Anyway, considering the place where he and the female lead first met, the possibility that the hidden villain was隐居 near here was quite high.

And if he rarely met people normally… did he live in the mountains somewhere?

If it was a mountain, the only one near here was Mount Tolto.

…Mount Tolto?

Sella’s body, which had been following the flow of thought, suddenly trembled.

If it’s Mount Tolto, that’s too close! After getting Betty out from around the female lead, wouldn’t it be safest to leave this village entirely?

Even if it wasn’t Mount Tolto, it was the same. Either way, the hidden villain was near the female lead.

Right. Living close to someone like that was dangerous from the start. If she was unlucky, someone she happened to pass on the street could be the hidden villain.

If that happened to be when the hidden villain was on a rampage, her body could burst and she could die from the power of the ability he was swinging around!

Anyway, avoiding him as much as possible was the best policy.

“Haah… First, money is the problem.”

First, to get her sister out of that house.

After that, to repay her and her sister’s orphanage debt and completely escape this neighborhood—this orphanage—where the hidden villain might be.

Even as she fell asleep, Sella was consumed by thoughts of money.

However, even six days later, on the day she was to go place the wood order again, Sella hadn’t found a clear solution.

To the point where she thought it might be more realistic to desperately pray that the date the hidden villain and female lead meet would be pushed back to about six months later when she’d finished repaying the debt, or to pray that the female lead would never encounter the hidden villain at all.

Working frantically at the orphanage, earning money through other means was unimaginable.

“Hello, Roddy.”

Not long after entering Mount Tolto to place the wood order, amazingly, she really did meet him at the very path where she’d encountered Roddy last time.

“It’s been a while.”

Huh? Formal speech?

It seemed this man had learned some manners in the meantime.

“Um, Roddy. The weather has gotten a bit warmer, so this week I was thinking of ordering only 45 units… then could I give you just 30 gallops for the wood?”

Since 50 units was 40 gallops, 45 units should be 36 gallops. But she was desperate for every penny, and this man had been a bit of a pushover in the last transaction…

“Isn’t it 36 gallops?”

“Pardon?”

No, this man escaped being a pushover in just one week.