This BL Novel Is Ruined Now

Chapter 114

Translator: Yonnee

RP: Haebaragi_syk

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The place where Reina and the village chief chose to have their discussion was at the townhall’s rear garden, where people rarely ever passed through.

The village chief walked slowly for a long time as though she was taking a stroll right after a meal. Finally, however, they found a roughly made wooden bench, and they stopped in front of it.

“Have a seat, Lady Reina.”

Reina sat on one side of the bench just as she was told, and she carefully interlocked her fingers together.

‘I have to explain it properly…’

As she was immersed in such thoughts, her rumination was interrupted by a voice in which the traces of time could be heard.

“Your expression doesn’t seem too good, so the situation must be grave.”

“…I would like to say that it’s not the case, but I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“Hoho…”

With the way the village chief’s forehead became wrinkled further, Reina could see just how sad she was right now.

“Lady Reina.”

Addressing the noble lady who fearlessly entered the plague-ridden village, the village chief paused for a moment but soon opened her lips to speak once more.

“When I was ten years old, my own father dragged me away and sold me to a baron whose nobility lay only in his name.”

The old woman chuckled as Reina’s eyes went wide at the rather sudden revelation.

“It was common back in the day.”

“……”

“Despite how common an occurrence it was, I was a little girl who went through that experience, and I hated the world because of it. Do you know why?”

Reina shook her head carefully. The village chief looked at the distant sky and solemnly told her story.

“The baron’s mansion had been so full of grain that it was rotting because he couldn’t finish everything. Meanwhile, just because someone’s on the brink of starving to death, they’d be willing to sell someone else for just a single bag of grain. That’s why I was angry.”

Much time had gone past, but the pain that the village chief felt still seemed fresh. Even so, the old woman carried on telling the story of her bitter past with a calm tone.

“It’s very strange to think about it now. I didn’t think much about being taken to bed by an old man over the age of fifty while I had still been so young, but I was so angry about the rotting food that he had.”

“…I’m so sorry.”

“There’s nothing you should apologize for, Lady. It was the baron and my father who were at fault.”

“……”

Even still, Reina wanted to apologize.

She wanted to apologize for being an aristocrat as well.

The words lodged in her throat were about to come up, but she couldn’t bear to say anything because it would only be shallow atonement.

“So many people couldn’t get any food, yet one person had so much that he threw away all the excess that went bad… I was absolutely devastated to see that at the time.”

This was the extreme disparity between the rich and the poor.

It was laughable how this was the true reality of the Pluntria Empire, which was called ‘Heaven on Earth’.

That’s originally how it was with the dragonfolk.

A tribe distinctly ruled by hierarchy, an intelligent species that would accept that someone dying because they were weak made entire sense.

That was the dragonfolk.

Currently, they were trying to understand humans and assimilate with them, but how could they ever be rid of their ‘logic of power’ when it came so naturally for them?

In this society they were reining over, there was not quite any consideration given for the weak.

“So, I killed him. It’s not that I was being subjected to pain, and it’s not that I was being treated less than human. It’s just, I hated the baron so much for not valuing food… It was on a midsummer night when the cicadas were singing loudly— I had stabbed him to death with just a fork.”

Reina froze where she was, taken aback by the unexpected confession. Then, a regretful smile lingered on the village chief’s lips.

“Yes, I’m an ex-convict who once killed a person. But fortunately—or unfortunately—he was a mere merchant impersonating a baron in our rural village, so I managed to avoid the death penalty.”

“……”

“I was locked up as a prisoner for two whole decades, and I was exiled from my birthplace.”

Reina wondered why the village chief was telling her this story. But just as the thought came across her mind, the village chief continued again.

“After that, I was a woman without a single thing to my name. I wandered and wandered, and the place I had reached was the Launcer Village.”

“Ah…”

Reina now understood what the village chief was trying to say.

‘You want to tell me… just how precious this place is to you.’

“The people of Launcer took me, even as I couldn’t even be considered human then—a lowlife far worse than a brute… And in the end, they made me whole. They made me human. That’s why this place… This place is practically my hometown.”

“……”

“Lady Reina, I heard about how you had prevented the plague’s spread at the Thurn Village.”

Holding Reina’s hand, the village chief pleaded earnestly.

“I’ll do anything. You have already triumphed over the plague once before, Lady Reina. I’ll trust you entirely and follow everything that you say. So please… please save my people.”

Words weighed more than gold.

Thus, one should not make promises to others recklessly, especially if it involved other people’s lives… One must never commit to any promises while giving only false hope.

“…I’ll do my best.”

In the end, she could only say ambiguous words in response. Nevertheless, the village chief shed tears as though Reina had vowed to save everyone.

Her fingertips were tingling.

“Thank you. Thank you so, so much. Truly, Lady Reina. Thank you.”

Receiving such profuse words of gratitude that flowed like a prayer, in the end, Reina bowed her head as piquant guilt surged within her.

‘I’m not genuinely doing this for you all.’

It’s only for her own survival… She was only facing this plague for her own sake. Perhaps she and the baron were no different.

‘So please… Don’t thank me.’

“Even… Even if it means I have to sell my soul, I will do everything to support you, Lady Reina. So please… please have pity on the people of Launcer.”

Listening to the words of the village chief, Reina’s eyes went wide.

“……”

Pressure weighed down on her heart, her stomach felt so heavy, and her throat also got lodged.

‘I’m not that great of a person…’

She was just trying to find a way to survive… It felt like her desperate efforts were just conveniently being packaged as good deeds.

Whether she knew it or not, the village chief looked at Reina with tears welling up in her eyes.

“Just as you have saved the Thurn Village, I beg of you, please save the Launcer Village as well, oh great Chantra.”