I Was Reincarnated as a Mob Noble, and I Swear I'll Protect the Villainess Who Got Married Off to Me No Matter What ~To Dodge Our Total Downfall, I Went All Out Training My Trash Skill [Super Recovery] Through Crazy Hard Work, and Before I Knew It, I Could Totally Wreck the Game Protagonist Who Condemned My Wife Easily - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Valeria Becomes Convinced That Zenon Is the Real Savior

[Lady Valeria Asphodel’s POV]

I’m Valeria, daughter of Duke Asphodel. I just stood there frozen.

I’d just watched Zenon’s wound—the one from beating Gawain in single combat—regenerate right in front of my eyes.

The glow covering his body was exactly like the saintess’s [Miracle of Healing].

No—actually, since the wound healed without any chant at all, you could even call it stronger than hers.

“Come on, like we agreed—you’re resting till tomorrow, Valeria. Then I’ll use this power to heal you up!”

Zenon shouted it out.

Wh-What the heck…

He was seriously worried about me. He’d challenged Gawain to a fight just to protect me.

Even after I’d doubted him, insulted him, thrown all that crap in his face.

Without realizing it, tears started welling up.

Ah… God really didn’t make a mistake.

He gave the [Miracle of Healing] to someone with a truly righteous heart—the complete opposite of saintess Alicia.

He sent the real savior into this world.

Why couldn’t I have met Zenon sooner? That regret hit me hard.

At the same time, the miracle of actually meeting him shook my heart like crazy.

And even though our engagement was just something my father forced through, Zenon straight-up said he wanted to be my real partner—my fate-bound ally, my husband.

He was nothing like Crown Prince Harold, who’d broken off our engagement.

I looked down at defeated Gawain and remembered what happened eight days ago.

…Gawain, our wish—it’s finally coming true now.

※※※※※※

—Eight days earlier, evening, in the palace of the Albion Kingdom.

“Using undead to try and take my life? That’s unforgivable! Valeria, our engagement is off!”

At the ball, my sixteen-year-old fiancé—His Highness Crown Prince Harold—publicly declared our engagement broken.

Every noble in the room turned their curious stares right at me all at once.

Announcing something like that in public, humiliating me like I was on display—it was unbelievable.

And the worst part? I had zero memory of doing anything like what he accused me of.

“Harold-sama! Those creepy undead wandering the palace were so scary!”

Saintess Alicia threw herself into His Highness’s arms without caring who saw.

She used to be a commoner, but she’d healed the king’s illness with her [Miracle of Healing] and became his absolute favorite.

On top of that, she had His Highness’s affection too—she was wearing a gorgeous dress he’d gifted her.

I’d never once received a single present from him.

“Oh! Sorry for scaring you, Alicia! But don’t worry anymore. I’m exiling this woman to the borderlands!”

His Highness hugged Alicia back like she was the most precious thing in the world.

The two of them acted like they were the stars of some stage play.

I’d known for a long time that His Highness found me annoying.

I’d tolerated him taking lovers—kings do that—and even turned a blind eye to his affair with saintess Alicia.

…But this baseless accusation? I couldn’t stand for it.

“Your Highness Harold—what proof do you have that I tried to assassinate you with undead?”

I snapped open my fan and pointed it right at him.

Above all, this was the first I’d even heard about him being attacked by undead.

“Undead don’t just spawn naturally inside the palace! You’ve got the [Necromancer] skill—you summoned them and sent them after me, didn’t you!?”

“I have no memory of such a thing. I swear on the name of the kingdom’s sword—the Asphodel ducal house.”

I said it calmly and clearly.

No matter how bad things got, the daughter of the Asphodel house could never lose her composure.

I hid every bit of my inner turmoil.

“More importantly—this is a huge incident. Please tell me exactly when, where, and what kind of undead attacked you.”

“Don’t play dumb! Look at these rotten poison scars! If Alicia hadn’t saved me with her [Miracle of Healing], your minions would’ve killed me!”

His Highness got furious and raised his right arm—covered in ugly scars.

“Harold-sama, I’m so sorry it’s not fully healed yet! Alicia’s working super hard to get your beautiful arm back to normal!”

Alicia touched his arm and used her [Miracle of Healing]. The scars shrank a little.

That part felt off to me.

She’d healed the king’s whole illness in one day—why wasn’t she fixing His Highness’s wound right away?

It looked like she was deliberately holding back her power, dragging out the treatment just so she could keep meeting him and stay in his good graces.

The way she acted toward His Highness versus everyone else was blatantly different too—especially how she looked down on the servants.

She was straight-up playing the innocent, bubbly girl His Highness liked.

“A-Alicia, you’re so kind and amazing! I can’t forgive you, Valeria… for trying to hurt not just me, but my precious Alicia too with your filthy undead!”

“…Like I said, that’s a misunderstanding.”

Inside, humiliation made me shake.

“My precious Alicia,” huh?

It hit me all over again—he never had even a shred of real affection for me.

“You’re right—undead don’t appear naturally in the palace. Someone must have used them to try and kill His Highness.”

But protecting and supporting him was my duty. If this was some plot by the empire, I had to handle it calmly.

“This is a crisis—if the criminal who attacked His Highness is still out there. I’ll find them myself and send them to the guillotine.”

My father raised me to always carry myself with pride.

The Asphodel ducal house is the kingdom’s strongest sword.

Use that power for the people, for peace, for what’s right—even if it means standing against the royal family when they’re wrong, and guiding them back to the proper path.

That’s why I’d forced the cancellation of the insane amount of support policy for the orphanages that His Highness was pushing because of Alicia’s suggestion. He hadn’t liked it, but…

Right now, the Balzark Empire was showing its ambitions outright. We needed to redirect way more budget to the military, or the country would get invaded, tons of people would die, and everyone would suffer.

Supporting the orphans mattered, sure—but that could wait until after we repelled the empire army.

Even if it meant people secretly called me a “war-loving evil woman.”

Even right now, in this moment.

No matter what disgrace they threw on me, I had to stick to my mission and support His Highness.

“No need.”

“Huh…?”

“I said no need! Valeria—you’re my cousin. You probably thought you’d make a better ruler than me, so you pulled this crap, right!?”

His Highness’s face went beet red as he screamed.

“I know—you’ve always looked down on me behind my back, saying I’m not fit to be king!”

“Why would I ever…?”

I was stunned.

I’d only ever tried to help him—never once looked down on him.

“Someone with a good heart told me! You’ve always been like that—better at magic, better at studies, better at everything! Do you know how much it hurt getting compared to you all the time!?”

Right then, I caught saintess Alicia—still clinging to him—sticking her tongue out at me mockingly.

Wait… did Alicia feed him all these baseless rumors about me…?

“I’m restarting the orphanage support policy you forced to stop too. The empire invasion? Just leave it to that Sword Saint Greivan border count guy—it’ll be fine!”

“Please wait, Your Highness! The border count needs reinforcements right away. If we don’t send them, this country will—!”

“Shut up! You’re guilty of attempted assassination of the crown prince—you’re exiled to the Greivan border count territory! If you love war so much, go fight on the front lines all you want!”

With that insult, His Highness spun around and stormed off.

※※※※※※

That was eight days ago.

Back then, I felt completely crushed by despair.

I’d worked so hard for His Highness, for this country—and it all turned out to be pointless.

…But now, I can think it was actually for the best.

Because getting exiled to the borderlands let me meet my destined partner—Zenon.

If we combine our strengths, we can definitely save this country.

Right now, everything feels worth it.