A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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10.

“….”
If this were the Edith Blake I knew, she would have already been indignant and huffed, or wept and screamed in protest.
Perhaps because the desired reaction wasn’t forthcoming.
He muttered with a somewhat vacant expression.
“…Amnesia, you say?”
“That’s right.”
“I… can’t remember?”
“Correct.”
A heavy silence descended over the table.
Vincent observed me quietly, his chin resting in his palm.
But only for a moment.
“Pfft… Puhahahaha―!”
Suddenly, a booming laugh filled the Reception Room.
“What? Amnesia―?”
“….”
“The best that stupid head of yours could come up with is amnesia, Edith Blake? Ahahaha!”
“….”
“Ah, sorry, sorry. It’s just too funny… *snort*, anyway, it’s hilarious.”
Whether he truly found it amusing or not, Vincent wiped tears from his eyes and continued chuckling.
I regarded him with an expressionless gaze.
Honestly, I didn’t care whether he believed me or not, and I was beginning to grow irritated.
My nose was tickling as though I were about to sneeze.
‘Should I open the window again? No, it’ll happen soon anyway.’
Perhaps he noticed that my mind was elsewhere.
His laughter gradually subsided.
“Right. Let’s drop the jokes here….”
“….”
“Where is Ruellin?”
As though the laughter-filled expression from moments before had been nothing but an illusion, he fixed me with a gaze so chillingly cold it sent shivers down my spine.
At the abrupt question, I responded in bewilderment.
“The Purifier? Why would you look for her here?”
“Drop the unconvincing act. It’s not entertaining.”
“I’m not acting.”
“Then you expect me to believe that nonsense about amnesia? If that were the case, you should have at least feigned surprise when I used my ability earlier, Edith Blake.”
“….”
“Don’t you have the intelligence to think that far ahead?”
His tone, deftly crushing me beneath his heel, ignited a surge of anger that threatened to spill over.
But I gritted my teeth and held it back.
Losing my temper here would only entertain him.
“I said I was surprised, Vincent. And I already heard from the Butler that you’re an Awakener who manipulates wind.”
“….”
“It’s rude to openly ask a guest who’s come looking for you who they are, especially when you claim not to remember.”
At my composed reply, Vincent let out a hollow laugh.
“So the Butler didn’t tell you what we are to each other?”
“Well, he did mention we’ve known each other for 13 years….”
At those words, his expression shifted to one of unmistakable arrogance.
As if to say: what could I possibly do against someone he’d known for all those years?
Or perhaps: let’s see how long you’ll keep pretending not to remember.
I scratched the bridge of my nose and muttered as if to myself.
“Does that matter?”
“…What?”
“From what I see today, we don’t seem to have been very close at all.”
“What the….”
Denying the bond between us—it was something the original Edith Blake could never have said.
She who had clung so desperately to that 13-year thread, unable to let it go.
Vincent, who knew this better than anyone, stared at me in disbelief before suddenly shouting.
“You’ve known me for 13 years, Edith Blake. Since you were seven until just recently, you chased after me like your life depended on it—what nonsense is this now!”
“Really? That’s surprising. You came to someone who’d just come back from the dead spouting curses, so I wondered just how serious this grudge was.”
“…!”
At my blatant sarcasm, his mouth finally snapped shut.
Perhaps my claim of memory loss was finally becoming believable to him—unfamiliarity flickered across those puppy-like eyes.
“Unfortunately, I really don’t know where Ruellin is. I’ve heard that I hated her before, and I understand your suspicion of me.”
“….”
“But that will never happen again. So for the sake of old affection, I hope you’ll let this go. You were my longtime friend, after all—surely you can do that much, Vincent?”
I thought this was a fairly decent conclusion.
Part of me wanted to say “think whatever you want” and walk out, but from Vincent’s perspective, I was nothing more than the woman who’d kidnapped Ruellin.
‘And with that temperament of his, I’m a bit afraid he might suddenly lose it and use his ability….’
But unlike me, Vincent didn’t seem to see it that way.
“Ha! There’s a limit to shamelessness… You nearly killed someone, and now you want me to forget?”
He let out a sharp, incredulous laugh, then fixed me with a murderous glare and pressed on.
“Edith Blake. Fine, I get that you’ve only just woken up and aren’t in your right mind.”
“….”
“But think before you speak—don’t just blurt out whatever comes to mind. What will you do when your memory comes back? Are you planning to never see my face again?”
I was at a loss for words.
Wasn’t that something I should be saying?
I stared back at him, utterly bewildered.
“Aren’t you just as guilty of nearly killing someone?”
“What?”
“While you only saved Ruellin and turned a blind eye to me, I nearly died. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
Had I really been so foolish as not to anticipate that Edith would say such things upon waking?
‘How utterly stupid must I have seemed.’
As if I’d touched upon some forbidden nerve, his face drained of color in an instant, and I found the sight simply absurd.
“Who… who said that? What bastard dared speak such nonsense…!”
“You yourself said just moments ago that you thought I must be quite badly injured.”
“That was…!”
“Thanks to that, I spent a week in a coma, lost all my memories, and became an idiot. I’m grateful.”
I’d merely informed him of what he’d wanted, yet for some reason he reacted as though he’d been ambushed.
“That was just an accident! The Gate, the situation wasn’t very favorable…! Look, you’re still alive and well anyway!”
“Right, whatever. I don’t remember it anyway, so let’s call it a simple accident as you say.”
“That’s not how it works—it’s the truth. Who is it? Who told you such ridiculous things? Was it Ethan? Or Dylan Frederick?!”
“It doesn’t matter who. Either way, I’m not going to make an issue of it anymore and I’ll forget about it, so I hope you do the same.”
“….”
“You’re smarter than me, so you should have the intelligence to understand what I’m saying.”
When I turned his own words back on him, he stared at me with a stunned expression.
It didn’t matter if he understood or not.
“I don’t think there’s anything more to discuss. Take care.”
With that, I rose from my seat.
I was about to walk toward the door.
It was then that my skirt suddenly pulled taut, and a plaintive voice reached me from behind.
“…Edith.”
“….”
“I’m in pain.”
I turned around, seized by an odd sensation.
Had I heard a ghost?
The man who had been desperate to belittle me moments before now looked up at me with a pitiful expression.
His pallid complexion and bloodshot eyes truly made him appear as though he were suffering.
Vincent, his face transformed in an instant, clung to my skirt like a child afraid of abandonment as he spoke.
“My head is spinning… and I can’t breathe properly. It seems a lot of magical energy has accumulated.”
“….”
“If this continues, I might lose control again. Will you really just leave me here like this? Hm?”
At those words, I recalled the past of the second male lead that I had forgotten.

「Vincent lost his mother to a rampage shortly after his Awakening and spent an unstable childhood.
Unable to lose his only son, Marquis Leandro borrowed an ancient relic from the Imperial Family to temporarily seal his abilities.
Vincent, who barely regained stability, became active as an S-rank Awakener, yet he harbored an extreme fear of magical corruption.
That trauma later became a crucial element in his love for Ruellin.」

‘Right. There was that setting too.’
I took a fresh look at the madman Vincent.
In the novel, he was usually a dependable lover like a close friend, but the moment he sensed even the slightest danger of a rampage, he’d burrow into Ruellin’s arms like a child and beg for purification.
In other words, the male lead who stirred the female lead’s maternal instincts.
‘I thought he only did that with the female lead.’
Now it was clear he’d been acting this way whenever he was at a disadvantage.
If Edith, who knew his past better than anyone, saw him like this, she would have given him everything out of pity.
Once I grasped the situation, I closed my eyes firmly.
And when I opened them again.

71%

The rampage percentage visible above his head made my mind go cold.
It was time for purification, but it wasn’t immediately dangerous.
Compared to Eston, it was a percentage he could endure.
I decided to coldly awaken him to reality—to ruthlessly mock and trample the one tender heart, the sincerity, that Edith had shown only once.
The one who had mercilessly ridiculed and crushed it every single time.
“So?”
“…Huh?”
“So what do you want me to do about it?”
“I… Edith?”
My prediction was right—he blinked repeatedly, confusion seeping into his eyes.
He wouldn’t understand how someone he expected to fret and worry the moment he complained of pain could act like this.
The red corners of his mouth, which had been raised while feigning pity and pathos, trembled slightly.
“Either go find Ruellin and get purified, or go back to your own place and isolate yourself. Don’t cause trouble here for no reason.”
“Trouble… you say?”
Finally, all expression drained from Vincent’s face.
It seemed he’d never heard such words from Edith—from anyone, really.
But what could he do? The foolish girl he knew was no longer here.
“Yes, trouble.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Why? Because you pretended not to see me at the Gate, and now you want to drag me into your rampage and get me killed?”
This time the blow landed hard—his hands gripping the hem of his skirt began to tremble violently.
Even that seemed repulsive to me now.
“How annoying.”
Smack!
I spoke without hesitation, swatting away the hand that had seized my skirt with all my strength.
Just as I turned to leave, something caught in my grip.
Glancing down, I saw the jasmine stem he’d given me earlier, crushed halfway, clutched in my palm.
I sighed and dropped it at Vincent’s feet.
“And I don’t like flowers.”
“….”
“I have pollen allergies. Oh, was that intentional? Did I just miss the hint?”
See? Thirteen years of that—utterly useless.
As his brilliant golden eyes shattered from the shock, I left the Reception Room.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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