Too Lazy to be a Villainess novel Chapter 160

Chapter 160: The Ones Who Let Her Die

[Cassius’s POV—Imperial Hall, Cassius’s Chamber, Nightfall]

The sound of my boots echoed across the obsidian floors—each step like a gavel pounding against the bones of memory.

The palace was silent now. Deadly silent.

Not even the wind dared whistle through the high-arched corridors.

The guards at my chamber door stood to attention, but I only spared them a glance. Ravick was already waiting, as expected—his presence like a shadow stitched to my spine. As I approached, he bowed low.

"Your Majesty."

I didn’t slow my stride. "If you’re here to beg for my daughter’s forgiveness..." I flung the door open. "Get out."

He followed me anyway.

Of course he did.

"No, Your Majesty," Ravick said, falling into step behind me. "I am no one to meddle between a father and his daughter."

I paused.

Turned.

My eyes narrowed into blades. "You are her personal knight."

He bowed again, low and respectful. "That title was claimed by Lord Osric after his oath."

"Osric," I muttered, lips curling around the name like it burned. "He’s a person who took an oath. Nothing more."

I pushed open the doors to my chambers.

The fire was still lit.

Shadows stretched long and thin across the cold floor.

I walked inside, poured a glass of wine that tasted like ashes, and sank into the high-backed chair that overlooked the gardens below.

"I don’t want that boy circling her like a vulture...but I cannot stop him either," I muttered, more to myself than to him. "After all, I don’t want history to repeat itself."

My voice cracked against the stone walls—harsh, bitter, loaded with a fury the world could never understand.

Ravick stood near the hearth, silent, because he knows what I am saying.

And then he said it. The words made the fire hiss and my grip tighten around the glass. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"But... it seems like nothing is changing, Your Majesty." He stared at me with haunted eyes. "I feel like everything is falling into place... just like before."

He swallowed. "Can we really save her this time? Can we stop what’s coming? Or are we going to lose the princess again in this life?"

I turned to him slowly. My voice dropped to a rasp.

"NO."

I slammed the glass down on the table—wine splashing like blood across the silver.

"No," I repeated, slower. "I am not losing her. Not in this life. Not again."

The silence between us grew thick.

Ravick shifted uneasily. "Then... what do we do now, Your Majesty?"

I turned to the window, where the moon was high and merciless.

"Have you found the priest?"

He shook his head. "Not yet."

I cursed under my breath. "Then keep looking. Turn over every stone in this cursed empire. Because I am starting to believe—"

My fingers curled into fists. "—that Lavinia remembers everything."

Ravick stiffened. His eyes widened. "Y-Your Majesty... how could you possibly—"

"She hired a guild master," I cut him off, my voice sharper than any blade drawn in my court. "To dig into the name Eleania Talvan."

Ravick’s face drained of all color. "How... how is that possible, Your Majesty? She was never supposed to—"

"Exactly," I growled, rising slowly from my seat, the shadows of the tall windows casting slashes of light across my face. "She was never supposed to remember her past life. The life where I—" I paused, the words scraping my throat raw. "The life where I abandoned her like a coward... the life where I neglected her... broke her. She was never supposed to remember that nightmare."

I turned away, the weight of my own guilt clawing its way up my spine like ice.

"I burned every trace. Buried every name. Made sure time itself would forget. So—why now?" My voice dropped to a whisper, laced with dread. "Why now... is she searching for Eleania Talvan?"

Ravick’s hands trembled as he bowed his head. "Perhaps... perhaps the princess is remembering through dreams. The way you did... Your Majesty."

A bitter laugh escaped my throat, hollow and humorless. "Dreams... curses that bleed through time."

I turned sharply, eyes dark and cold. "There is something more than that, Ravick. I can feel it. but I also feel like the universe is mocking me. Is fate demanding she suffer again for my sins?"

"I don’t know what to believe anymore. I just know this—" I slammed my fist on the window frame, the sound echoing like thunder. "— I do not want her to remember."

Ravick looked at me, startled. "Your Majesty..."

I stared out at the capital—the city I had conquered, the world I had reshaped, all to escape that one truth. After all, how can I—her father—allow her to recall the damned life I gave her before? How can I let my daughter carry the weight of a pain I authored with my own hands?

I exhaled, slow and shaking. Then, coldly, "Find that priest, Ravick. The one who spoke of rebirth and borrowed fates. I don’t care if you tear apart every temple in the kingdom or the entire continent. Bring him to me, because only he has the answers."

"They were the reason, Your Majesty. The reason we lost her the first time."

"Because that... is how you change fate, Ravick."

"I want fate to watch this story unfold. I want the gods to choke on the ending I carve for her. Lavinia will live, Ravick. She will live—if I have to shatter heaven and hell alike to make it so."

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