Rebirth of the Villainess Wife - Chapter 1

—First and foremost, I have always been about family, wealth and power, and everything else has been secondary or tertiary.

That was me, Elaine Farrens, the Duchess of Farrens.

Nevertheless, I was not without fondness for my husband and love for my children, and that is why I did many things to ensure that they had what I valued.

For example, I manipulated my eldest son by bribing him, gaining his weakness, and sometimes using his own good looks, in order to link him with various high-ranking nobles so that he could rise through the ranks as a nobleman.

The eldest daughter played with the princes from a young age so that she could marry into the royal family, and then manipulated the children’s favors so that they told the princes they wanted to marry the eldest daughter.

The second son wanted to make it big as a swordsman, so I spent a tremendous amount of money on a search for a renowned swordsman and martial artist to teach him in person.

The second daughter had a rare talent as a magician, so she made sure to pay off the various academic cliques so that she could eventually rise to the position of head of the court magician and finally to the head of the magic academy.

None of this is a bad thing, I suppose.

As a mother and as a duchess, I think it is a very normal and affectionate thing to do.

…I thought so from the bottom of my heart.

But now I was faced with a situation that forced me to change my mind.

“Mother… please give up no more.”

Inside the burning mansion, gazing at me with a dignified expression while holding a staff, is my second daughter, Lily.

She has acquired powerful magic and has grown up to be the next court mage, just as I had hoped, but for some reason she is pointing her weapon, the magic staff, at me.

I said to Lily.

“Haha, what am I supposed to give up? What did I do…”

As I say this, I realize that my voice has become much more hoarse.

I know that I should give up now.

But my pride, which has brought me this far, refuses to allow me to admit my mistake now.

Lily looks at me with sorrowful eyes.

It’s not the way you look at your parents.

It’s just the eyes of looking at a criminal…

“You know best what you have done, mother. It is because of you. Father has already been executed. And so are the brothers… All that’s left is your mother and… me.”

“T-then, then! Let us both run away! If we go to the neighbouring Holy Land of Ledert, I’m sure they will shelter us! My mother’s family lives there…”

Lily shakes her head at me as I say this in a roundabout way.

“That country will never accept our 《unholy family》… That’s enough, mother. You can see by looking at this burning red mansion, can’t you? We have reached a point where our house can no longer recover in any way. Let’s accept that and disappear peacefully at least for the last time.”

As she says this, powerful magic power is concentrated at the tip of Lily’s magic staff.

I am also a fairly high-ranking magician in this country, but I am nowhere near as good as Lily.

She has the skills of a heroic class, capable of defeating even a Golden King-class demon all by herself.

I can only deal with goldsmith-class demons at best, no matter how I try…

“Well, goodbye, mother. Don’t worry about me. I will follow you later, and with a single blow, I will painlessly bury you… so that the crimes of our family, which attempted to overthrow the royal family and overthrow the state, will be swept away, and all will be forgotten…”

“Stop… stop…!”

I said as if shouting.

But Lily didn’t hear those words, and released a powerful, peerless annihilation spell from the tip of her magic staff.

It is said that only a hero who has reached the peak of sorcery, let alone a court magician, could use it. But on me, of all people, her mother….

Ah, I’m going to die here.

I had to realize that.

And once I realized that…

I could be honest about all my regrets.

I was wrong.

The Dukes of Farrens even tried to overthrow the country.

The crimes started with me.

I sent my entire family to their deaths and had to make my own daughter Lily clean up the mess because I wanted everything I shouldn’t have wanted.

Oh, if this is how it’s going to be.

If it was going to end like this… I should have tried to live more modestly and happily.

But it was too late for such regrets.

My existence, my last regret, was thus completely annihilated by Lily’s magic.

…It was supposed to be that way.

◆◆◆◆◆

…?

It was, it was…

My stomach… my lower abdomen, it hurts to death…!

What on earth is this… this has only happened about four times in my life…!

Just as I thought that, suddenly, the vision in front of me opened up.

“Hang on! Elaine! Almost there, almost there…! The healer and the midwife are right beside you! I’m here too…! So do your best…!”

The voice was strongly encouraging.

Hang on, you say?

What in the world…?

Ah, but for some reason, I instinctively feel like I have to hang on.

Yes, I have to put strength into my stomach…

Breathe hard… yes, there’s also a midwife… midwife?

What, could it be that I… am about to give birth…?

Thinking about this, I looked around and saw that it was indeed the room in the mansion where I had given birth before.

In other words, it was my room, and around it, a healer, a midwife, and assistants were busily walking around.

As for myself, I was sweating, my stomach bloated, and I was clearly giving birth, judging from my physical condition.

Moreover, I was strangely confident that the baby would be born soon.

I wonder if it’s because I’ve had four children that I’ve come to understand such things…

No way, a fifth?

No, no, I thought I was dead in the first place… Why am I suddenly in childbirth?

I wanted to think very calmly and slowly, but the child in my belly wouldn’t wait for me to do that.

…Well, for now, let’s think about it after birth.

With that in mind, I put pressure on my abdomen and decided to give birth to the child first.

Chapter 01 Prologue.

First and foremost, I have always been about family, wealth and power, and everything else has been secondary or tertiary.

That was me, Elaine Farrens, the Duchess of Farrens.

Nevertheless, I was not without fondness for my husband and love for my children, and that is why I did many things to ensure that they had what I valued.

For example, I manipulated my eldest son by bribing him, gaining his weakness, and sometimes using his own good looks, in order to link him with various high-ranking nobles so that he could rise through the ranks as a nobleman.

The eldest daughter played with the princes from a young age so that she could marry into the royal family, and then manipulated the children’s favors so that they told the princes they wanted to marry the eldest daughter.

The second son wanted to make it big as a swordsman, so I spent a tremendous amount of money on a search for a renowned swordsman and martial artist to teach him in person.

The second daughter had a rare talent as a magician, so she made sure to pay off the various academic cliques so that she could eventually rise to the position of head of the court magician and finally to the head of the magic academy.

None of this is a bad thing, I suppose.

As a mother and as a duchess, I think it is a very normal and affectionate thing to do.

…I thought so from the bottom of my heart.

But now I was faced with a situation that forced me to change my mind.

“Mother… please give up no more.”

Inside the burning mansion, gazing at me with a dignified expression while holding a staff, is my second daughter, Lily.

She has acquired powerful magic and has grown up to be the next court mage, just as I had hoped, but for some reason she is pointing her weapon, the magic staff, at me.

I said to Lily.

“Haha, what am I supposed to give up? What did I do…”

As I say this, I realize that my voice has become much more hoarse.

I know that I should give up now.

But my pride, which has brought me this far, refuses to allow me to admit my mistake now.

Lily looks at me with sorrowful eyes.

It’s not the way you look at your parents.

It’s just the eyes of looking at a criminal…

“You know best what you have done, mother. It is because of you. Father has already been executed. And so are the brothers… All that’s left is your mother and… me.”

“T-then, then! Let us both run away! If we go to the neighbouring Holy Land of Ledert, I’m sure they will shelter us! My mother’s family lives there…”

Lily shakes her head at me as I say this in a roundabout way.

“That country will never accept our 《unholy family》… That’s enough, mother. You can see by looking at this burning red mansion, can’t you? We have reached a point where our house can no longer recover in any way. Let’s accept that and disappear peacefully at least for the last time.”

As she says this, powerful magic power is concentrated at the tip of Lily’s magic staff.

I am also a fairly high-ranking magician in this country, but I am nowhere near as good as Lily.

She has the skills of a heroic class, capable of defeating even a Golden King-class demon all by herself.

I can only deal with goldsmith-class demons at best, no matter how I try…

“Well, goodbye, mother. Don’t worry about me. I will follow you later, and with a single blow, I will painlessly bury you… so that the crimes of our family, which attempted to overthrow the royal family and overthrow the state, will be swept away, and all will be forgotten…”

“Stop… stop…!”

I said as if shouting.

But Lily didn’t hear those words, and released a powerful, peerless annihilation spell from the tip of her magic staff.

It is said that only a hero who has reached the peak of sorcery, let alone a court magician, could use it. But on me, of all people, her mother….

Ah, I’m going to die here.

I had to realize that.

And once I realized that…

I could be honest about all my regrets.

I was wrong.

The Dukes of Farrens even tried to overthrow the country.

The crimes started with me.

I sent my entire family to their deaths and had to make my own daughter Lily clean up the mess because I wanted everything I shouldn’t have wanted.

Oh, if this is how it’s going to be.

If it was going to end like this… I should have tried to live more modestly and happily.

But it was too late for such regrets.

My existence, my last regret, was thus completely annihilated by Lily’s magic.

…It was supposed to be that way.

◆◆◆◆◆

…?

It was, it was…

My stomach… my lower abdomen, it hurts to death…!

What on earth is this… this has only happened about four times in my life…!

Just as I thought that, suddenly, the vision in front of me opened up.

“Hang on! Elaine! Almost there, almost there…! The healer and the midwife are right beside you! I’m here too…! So do your best…!”

The voice was strongly encouraging.

Hang on, you say?

What in the world…?

Ah, but for some reason, I instinctively feel like I have to hang on.

Yes, I have to put strength into my stomach…

Breathe hard… yes, there’s also a midwife… midwife?

What, could it be that I… am about to give birth…?

Thinking about this, I looked around and saw that it was indeed the room in the mansion where I had given birth before.

In other words, it was my room, and around it, a healer, a midwife, and assistants were busily walking around.

As for myself, I was sweating, my stomach bloated, and I was clearly giving birth, judging from my physical condition.

Moreover, I was strangely confident that the baby would be born soon.

I wonder if it’s because I’ve had four children that I’ve come to understand such things…

No way, a fifth?

No, no, I thought I was dead in the first place… Why am I suddenly in childbirth?

I wanted to think very calmly and slowly, but the child in my belly wouldn’t wait for me to do that.

…Well, for now, let’s think about it after birth.

With that in mind, I put pressure on my abdomen and decided to give birth to the child first.