The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix's Novels Also Desires Happiness

“My dear Celicia, this is the gift I prepared for you. Is it beautiful?”

She heard the most beautiful voice in the world.

Her gaze shifted slightly, and she saw an exquisite, elegant ring gleaming softly atop red velvet cloth. It was as though a star had been plucked from the heavens solely to be delivered before the person most beloved.

The light clearly was not dazzling, yet it still blurred her vision slightly. Fortunately, even through that blur, she could still see the scene before her with perfect clarity.

Clear enough to carve itself permanently into her heart.

“Yes. It’s beautiful.”

She could not help nodding softly.

As the ruler of a nation, as the true sovereign whose authority stood at the pinnacle of the continent, her heart was cold as a frozen lake. Even while conquering the Kingdom’s royal capital, she had remained calm. Logically speaking, a tiny gemstone ring should no longer have been capable of stirring any emotion within her.

Yet at this very moment, the frozen lake in her heart shattered without the slightest resistance. Scalding waves surged upward, blooming and crashing, just like her current state of mind.

Her heart reflected the scenery.

Music began to play. Countless flower petals drifted down. It seemed as though all the warmest light in the world had gathered here, illuminating the handsome face of the blond man before her.

Amid the applause and cheers of countless people, she extended her hand and waited for him to slide the ring onto her finger.

It was both a gift and a vow.

She waited for the final moment of that promise.

However—

Just as the ring was about to touch her finger, several hands filled with vile and disgusting auras suddenly appeared, violently snatching away the blond man before vanishing from her sight.

“You!”

She flew into a rage. Instinctively, she tried to use imperial authority to crush those offenders to death, but the moment she regained her senses, everything had vanished.

The ring vanished.

The warm light vanished.

The music and flowers vanished.

The blessings and cheers of the crowd all vanished as well.

She was forcibly restrained within darkness, unable to move.

Click.

A light turned on somewhere.

“Mm... ah... Muen... you’re amazing...”

Bed curtains fluttered. Waves of flesh rolled. Those shameless vixens posed seductively, indulging freely in what should have belonged to her amid beautiful spring scenery.

“Stop!”

She shouted majestically and struggled with all her strength, yet neither the authority of an empress nor the power capable of briefly contending against a Crowned could break free from those restraints.

That familiar coldness suppressed her, leaving her able only to sit there and watch quietly...

“Oh my, so you came too.”

Midway through the fierce battle, the person she hated most walked over with her slender waist swaying. Completely naked, with glaring kiss marks still remaining along her beautiful collarbone and neck, she moved seductively while chatting lightly, deliberately showing off the faint gleam on her finger.

That gleam should have belonged to her too.

“Jealous? If you’re jealous, then if you’re willing to call me big sister, I might even make room for you there~”

The little devil leaned beside her ear and whispered softly.

Make room for you...

A place for you...

Just... a place?

Those humiliating words made something within her boil violently. Terrifying power finally shattered the restraints and destroyed everything around her—

Including the scene that made her grit her teeth in fury.

Crack.

The sound of something breaking under unbearable pressure pierced her ears. Celicia suddenly opened her eyes, dazedly feeling the cold wind blowing against her face, yet for a moment she did not even know where to direct the fury burning in her chest.

No one stood before her.

The earlier scene had merely been a false image inside her mind.

...A dream?

The night lights of Belrand flickered in the distance, and occasionally a dog barked somewhere far away. Celicia glanced sideways and discovered that the armrest of the chair she sat in had already been crushed apart in her grip.

The scene from the dream had been fake.

But the anger was utterly real.

“Your Majesty seems to have had an unpleasant dream.”

A gentle voice temporarily soothed the rage and ache inside Celicia. A warm presence like a spring breeze drifted over, driving away the chill of early winter.

A graceful figure stepped out from the darkness into the bright lamplight. The platinum-white uniform dress swayed with the breeze, yet could not conceal the mature richness and allure of the woman who had fully bloomed.

This dignified noblewoman placed a small incense burner beside Celicia. With a flick of her finger, curling smoke rose into the air, and the calming fragrance soothed the two sleepless women of the night.

“You’re late, Lady Rossetti.”

Celicia rubbed her temples.

“Ah, please forgive me, Your Majesty. The Royal Mage Corps simply has too much work. If Your Majesty had listened to me and dragged that old fossil back to keep doing hard labor, how would I have ended up staying up so late that I was even several minutes late to your invitation?”

The noblewoman—or rather, the current commander of the Royal Mage Corps, Phyllis Rossetti—sighed and complained with practiced familiarity.

—Although her flawless, radiant face showed absolutely no trace of staying up all night.

“I already told you. If you can bring your teacher back, I have no objection to letting him resume the position of commander.”

Celicia picked up the coffee beside her that had already gone cold and took a small sip.

As the Empress of the Empire, not having attendants nearby was obviously strange, but Celicia had always been this way. Whenever she contemplated something important, she hated having others around her.

Only on very rare occasions had there ever been exceptions.

“Please spare me, Your Majesty. How would I dare go looking for him? I’d get beaten up.”

Phyllis looked even more miserable.

Although she had also reached Truth Rank, there were differences even among Truth Ranks. If she went to find the old man now—and asked him to come back and work like a beast of burden again—he might very well literally turn her into a beast of burden.

He truly had that kind of terrible sense of humor!

“Let’s discuss serious business.”

Phyllis clapped her hands and changed the topic.

“That dream just now... let me guess. It involved a certain man?”

“...This counts as serious business?”

Celicia’s expression remained blank.

“Late-night romance topics are extremely serious matters whether among teenage brats or women in their thirties and fifties.”

“Then which are you? A teenage brat or an old woman?”

“Me? A combination of both, probably. I have the innocence of a teenage brat and the maturity of an older woman, so I believe I’m very qualified to comment on this.”

Phyllis lifted her chin slightly, clasped her hands behind her back, and strolled toward the railing overlooking the entirety of Belrand.

“Didn’t I already tell Your Majesty long ago? When it comes to men, you have to tie them down in advance. The earlier the better. Because if you don’t tie them down, eventually someone else will do it for you. And by the time that happens, it’ll truly be too late for regrets!”

“...Is that so?”

Celicia thought about the legendary tales of this commander’s tragic defeat in romance during her younger years that still circulated throughout the palace, and she slowly nodded.

“What you say makes a lot of sense.”

“Right?!”

Phyllis also recalled the glorious years of her youth.

Originally, she should have been the victor...

Just a little more. Only a little more.

If that bastard had not been blind, if that bitch had not pulled the rug out from under her, if she herself had not been too confident in her own victory and failed to notice danger approaching...

How could things have ended up that way...

Thus, from that moment onward, she understood one profound truth—

“Even cooked ducks can still fly away...”

Phyllis clenched her fist and declared her realization to the entire city of Belrand.

“You have to actually eat the meat before it truly belongs to you!”

“...”

No one responded.

Only the breeze concealed the awkwardness.

“Lady Rossetti.”

“Yes?”

“How about...”

Celicia rubbed her temples again.

“How about you at least try the blind dates Pink Bear arranged for you?”

“...Forget it.”

Phyllis smiled faintly with melancholy and once more transformed into that elegant noblewoman.

Even though she was still single and could not truly be called a noblewoman at all.

“That old fossil probably introduced me to some kind of monsters anyway. I’m not going. Besides, as the current commander of the Royal Mage Corps, I haven’t fallen so low yet.”

Phyllis tossed her hair proudly.

“That’s true...”

After all, as commander, she would never—

“But if Your Majesty knows any sweet young pretty boys, you can introduce them to me.”

Phyllis abruptly changed tone, and her dignity shattered alongside it.

“Recently my tastes have been getting younger and younger. Compared to those old, stiff fossils, younger men suit me much better...”

“Mm?”

Celicia narrowed her eyes immediately, becoming alert.

“You aren’t planning to also...”

“Cough! No!”

Realizing what she had implied, Phyllis trembled and hurriedly explained:

“Your Majesty, rest assured. I long ago lost all interest in blond men! Whether old blond men or young blond men, I have absolutely no interest whatsoever!”

“...”

“I swear to heaven! If I, Phyllis Rossetti, still hold those thoughts, then may lightning strike me—”

BOOM!

A rare winter thunderclap echoed across the sky, as though heralding the arrival of an unusual rainstorm.

“...”

Phyllis’s cheeks twitched awkwardly.

“Your Majesty, let me explain...”

“Enough, enough.”

Celicia finally sounded slightly impatient and waved her hand.

“I don’t believe in that sort of thing. If you say you’ve moved on, then you’ve moved on. Besides, I didn’t summon you here to discuss your current tastes. I have serious business for you.”

“Serious business?”

The moment she heard the word work, Phyllis instantly displayed the humble expression of a workhorse.

“Your Majesty, over at the Corps, I still—”

“Stop pretending. I heard Vice Commander Rayner has already been working through the night for five consecutive days. All the Corps’ miscellaneous work is being handled entirely by him.”

Celicia studied Phyllis carefully.

“So while Vice Commander Rayner is on the verge of sudden death from overwork, may I ask what exactly you, the commander, have been doing?”

“...”

Phyllis’s expression stiffened.

“Then doesn’t that mean I should return even sooner? If the vice commander dies from overwork...”

“He’s only been staying up five days. He won’t die that easily. We’ll discuss it once he’s actually about to die.”

Celicia directly tossed a document toward Phyllis.

“This is your next assignment. Your task is extremely important and directly related to whether my plan succeeds or fails, so you must complete it.”

“A plan?”

Phyllis blinked in confusion.

At present, Belrand was peaceful and prosperous. Anyone daring to oppose Her Majesty had already gone to cosplay weather dolls with their entire family hanging from somewhere. What matter could possibly require the Empress herself to formulate such a grand plan?

Filled with curiosity, Phyllis opened the document.

Then her expression visibly became more and more colorful.

“Your Majesty... this isn’t right, is it?”

“What’s wrong with it? Isn’t this exactly the same advice you just gave me?”

“It does match my earlier advice, but this execution method... isn’t it a little ridiculous? With Your Majesty’s status, is something this complicated really necessary?”

“It is. This is to ensure absolute success.”

Celicia still maintained her cold expression, betraying nothing outwardly, yet deep within her eyes lingered a gravity that refused to fade.

More than anyone else, she understood that when it came to this matter, she had to devote two hundred percent of her energy and caution to it.

Her opponents were equally terrifying. One careless mistake could lose everything.

She absolutely would not become the loser who, in the end, needed someone else’s pity just to obtain a... “place.”

Absolutely not.

Celicia’s hand tightened.

“Very well. If this is Your Majesty’s decision, then I have no right to object. But... why am I the one doing this?”

Phyllis asked in confusion.

“Wouldn’t someone else be better suited?”

“All the others suited for this sort of thing have already been killed by me.”

“...”

“So do you understand now? Under the current circumstances, whether it’s your identity, your experience, or the past you still haven’t let go of after more than twenty years, all of it makes you extremely suitable for this task.”

“...”

“Go.”

Celicia patted Phyllis’s shoulder and said gently,

“You wouldn’t want the person working overtime every day until they nearly collapse from overwork to become you instead, would you?”

“...”

What else could she even say?

Phyllis closed her eyes and answered as though resigning herself to fate.

“Then... I’m really going to take this seriously.”

“The more serious, the better. Go vent the resentment you’ve carried for more than twenty years.”

“I understand.”

Phyllis tucked away the document.

“I’ll go make preparations immediately. When will the target arrive?”

“When?”

Celicia rose from her chair and gazed toward the sky filled with dark clouds.

Occasional lightning flickered within them. A massive storm seemed about to descend.

Yet Celicia suddenly raised her hand.

Terrifying imperial authority surged upward and forcibly scattered the clouds.

The moon and stars shone brightly. The breeze turned clear and refreshing.

A storm?

In her plan, not even the slightest drizzle was permitted.

Everything would become the most suitable possible outcome.

Exactly like the scene she had imagined earlier.

“Don’t worry. The arrangements are almost complete already. He... will be back very soon.”

...

...

“Hiss... Damn. My poor kidneys almost overloaded again.”

The first thing Muen did after climbing out of the warm blankets was pound his thoroughly ravaged lower back once more.

Another damn high-level match.

First he had been tormented through underhanded means by An and Liya. Then afterward, he had to endure the little vixen’s ancient combat technique assault.

Even though the durability of his waist had already improved to another level entirely, it still felt difficult to withstand under those circumstances.

Fortunately...

He was still the winner.

Muen lowered his head and looked into his arms.

Ariel’s skin still carried traces of flushed color as she clung tightly to him like an octopus, sleeping deeply. None of her usual pride or arrogance remained. Her brows were slightly furrowed, and lingering on her little face was an expression that could not quite be identified as excitement or suffering.

After Ariel passed out from reaping what she had sown last night, naturally Muen had not let her off. He simply fucked her awake again.

Then once she woke up, they continued.

Unexpectedly, Ariel in that state became even weaker, passing out several more times in succession.

Only after Muen had finally emptied his last magazine did they earn the chance to rest, sleeping obediently all the way until now.

—After this experience, she probably would never go experimenting with weird techniques like that again.

So in the end, this sort of thing really was just like cultivation. No matter how powerful the techniques were, they were useless without true strength as the foundation!

A mere little vixen still needed much more training!

Muen admired Ariel’s beautiful sleeping profile and immersed himself in the joy of victory for quite a while longer.

Then he remembered something important.

“Right. An said yesterday that this letter can finally be opened today, didn’t she?”

Muen took out the letter from his father once more and examined it carefully again, yet still discovered nothing unusual. It truly looked like an ordinary letter.

“What exactly are you trying to hide?”

Muen still could not understand the meaning of the letter.

Thus, without hesitation, he tore open the envelope.

The words written on the paper immediately entered his eyes.

“Huh?”

Muen abruptly sat up and turned the thin sheet over several times, yet there were still only those few short words upon it.

But those few words alone were enough to make his expression become grave.

“‘My son, return to Belrand immediately’?”

Staring at his father’s handwriting, Muen unconsciously muttered to himself,

“What does this mean?”