This Villain Is Mine Now - Chapter 128

At Elaina’s question, Lyle turned around.

“Wasn’t it given to be used?”

“That’s true, but…”

“I didn’t use it.”

Elaina’s heart sank at Lyle’s words.

“W-why not?”

“…Just didn’t feel like it.”

At that moment, Elaina remembered what Leo had said that morning.

“Lyle, if this ring hurt your pride or anything like that, it’s not your fault—”

At her unusually subdued voice, Lyle frowned and looked at her. “What are you talking about? Hurt my pride?”

Biting her lip in frustration, Elaina suddenly burst out. “Fine! Let’s just forget about it all. We can resolve things just fine without using that ring. I wasn’t all that keen on it from the start anyway.”

Elaina started talking rapidly

“But let’s make one thing clear. If there’s blame to be placed in this matter, it’s on the Marquis of Redwood who orchestrated it, the Young Marquis who kidnapped me, and finally, myself for foolishly getting kidnapped. You, Lyle Grant, have absolutely no fault in any of it. Not even a little. So you don’t need to feel anything weird about not being able to heal my leg or about Kyst healing it for me.”

She loudly insisted that even if Kyst hadn’t healed her leg, she would’ve recovered through rehabilitation eventually, and that the wound on her thigh wasn’t even visible to most people, so it was fine.

“What Kyst did was amazing, but you’re more important to me. So once this is over, I’ll go to Mabel and return the ring to Kyst right away.”

“Elaina.”

“So don’t think such stupid things. About hurt pride or anything like that…”

“Calm down.”

Lyle took Elaina’s shoulders. The gentle gesture made her flood of words suddenly stop.

“I was never hurt. Yesterday, I just regretted not asking for his help sooner.”

He was a mythical being who could command monsters, so surely he could have helped with Elaina’s injuries. He simply blamed himself for not thinking of Mabel earlier.

“And while I didn’t use the ring, I did put it to good use. Just like you said, I didn’t really want to use its power. Somehow, I felt like once I used it, I’d end up wanting to use it again.”

He hadn’t used it, but he had taken advantage of it. Elaina frowned at the strange phrasing, and Lyle gave a soft laugh.

“Just leave it at that. Not used, but utilized.”

“So what does that even mean?”

“Finally, what we said before about only having circumstantial evidence—things changed a bit yesterday.”

“…What?”

“Shawd contacted me.”

“No way! Did they find something at the archducal castle?”

“No. Nothing came up at Grandfather’s quarters, but instead we found this.”

Lyle pulled out a sheet of paper and showed it to Elaina. It was a letter from ten years ago, sent by Fleang Redwood to a member of the Grant knighthood.

“It’s information on the northern forces that the Marquis had siphoned off before the incident. I found something odd here.”

Elaina quickly read through the letter. She soon realized what Lyle was referring to.

“The date is strange.”

“Yeah. On that date, Grandfather said he saw the capital being attacked in a dream. But that never actually happened. No matter how many times we checked, there was no record of it. But looking at this letter—”

「Unrest has been detected in the capital. As ordered by the Archduke, please deliver the Northern Army’s organizational chart as soon as possible. This command is classified; destroy it immediately upon reading.」

Though faded with time, the yellowed letter clearly stated those words.

“Why are we only seeing this now…”

Elaina trailed off. Despite the instruction to burn it, the letter had survived. If they had obtained it back then, things might have turned out very differently. Understanding the unspoken thought, Lyle added an explanation.

“The sender had already died back then, and his wife couldn’t read. Even if she could, with the charges of treason, she likely couldn’t step forward openly.”

Elaina let out a breath of relief.

“I see… then.”

“Yes. It’s all over.”

“One more thing. So today, you didn’t use the ring, but you ‘utilized’ it…”

Lyle gave a soft chuckle. “You’ll see at the trial.”

***

After confirming that Elaina was asleep, Lyle quietly left the room. The Emperor had given him just one chance. To properly bring the Marquis to justice at the trial, even sleep felt like a luxury.

Returning to the study, he began reviewing the mountain of documents prepared for the trial. The hand holding his pen gradually slowed.

It wasn’t that he felt sleepy. On the contrary, his mind was perfectly clear. He was recalling the encounter that had taken place earlier today.

“What, have you come to kill me?”

The lowest floor of the underground prison. A space prepared for just one prisoner.

Lyle had ordered the guard to step aside. The Marquis, who had first acted pitifully, begging forgiveness for his son’s crime, immediately changed his tone once they were alone and sneered at him.

“Go ahead. If you want, here.”

It didn’t stop at mere words—he confidently approached the iron bars and even tilted his neck toward them, pointing to the spot he claimed Lyle should stab. His demeanor was full of certainty that Lyle would never actually harm him.

Though confined to a prison with not a ray of sunlight, he remained thoroughly informed of the outside world. Lyle was well aware that, given the Marquis’s former status, there were undoubtedly guards in this place who had been bought by him.

“Don’t you know you’re not allowed to bring weapons into the prison?”

Lyle responded in a detached voice, not falling for the provocation.

“Besides, you must realize I have no reason to kill you right now. If you die here, that incident from ten years ago will forever remain a stain on the Grant family.”

At Lyle’s words, the Marquis burst into laughter. As if he had heard a hilarious joke, he cackled, revealing white teeth between his filthy, prison-worn face. After rolling on the floor in laughter for a while, the Marquis suddenly stood and addressed Lyle smoothly.

“Still clinging to that pathetic hope? Every word out of your mouth is ‘that incident ten years ago, that incident.’ What happened ten years ago, exactly? Wasn’t it just your oh-so-great grandfather launching a foolish rebellion? Isn’t that the truth? The head of the Grant family is this foolish—tsk. Your father seemed a bit sharper than you.”

The Marquis’s smirk vanished at what came next.

“You recognize this, don’t you?”

The moment Lyle pulled the ring from his inner pocket, the Marquis’s face drained of color.

“T-that… how did you get that!”

The Marquis shouted in shock. Seeing his once-composed expression twist, a smirk formed on Lyle’s lips.

“You look quite startled. Is it because the ring’s appearance has changed so much you didn’t recognize it?”

“Give it here! Give it to me! That’s mine!”

The Marquis stretched his arm through the bars, flailing wildly. But it wasn’t nearly enough to reach Lyle. Lyle, as if mocking him, returned the ring to his coat pocket.

“You toyed with my grandfather. And with my wife.”

He looked at the Marquis with an emotionless face.

“Aren’t you curious what the power you used on my grandfather and my wife will feel like on yourself?”

Lyle shoved a gloved hand through the bars. Grabbing the Marquis by the hair, he twisted his head sharply.

“To be honest, I’d like to snap your neck right now. But that would be too easy. I hope you enjoy the dream I’ve prepared just for you.”

Recalling the Marquis’s vacant, stunned expression, Lyle glanced down at the papers before him. His hand began to move once more.

Just as he had said to Elaina, receiving the dragon’s help to heal her wound hadn’t hurt his pride. But the matter from ten years ago—he needed to bring that to an end with his own hands.

He hadn’t used it, yet he had.

Lyle was certain. No matter how vivid his imagination, he could never create a nightmare more horrific than the one the Marquis would now conjure for himself.

“By now, he must be having a wonderful dream.”

Lyle looked up at the darkened night sky, a smile forming at the corner of his lips.