A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 105

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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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105.

“Edith Blake, that’s you, right?”
“….”
“We need to talk for a moment.”
Damn, his ears are sharp too.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
In that moment, I felt him rise from his seat and trudge toward me.
With a heavy sigh, I had no choice but to turn around again.
Whether intoxicated or flushed by the sunset light.
Vincent’s cheeks were burning a vivid crimson as he staggered forward.
The sight of him triggered a reflexive memory of the dream I’d had last night.

― …Edith Blake, I’m in pain.
― I can’t endure it any longer. Please help me, Edith Blake. Save me, I beg you….

Vincent, clinging to me—to Edith Blake—desperately grasping for life.
And Edith Blake, finding him pitiful and poignant, unsure what to do, pouring forth her ability without restraint.
The moment I realized that everything Vincent had loved about Ruellin was nothing but an illusion, my emotions became strangely complicated.
‘So what happens now? Will the distorted memories return to their original state?’
I didn’t know exactly what Ruellin’s ability was, so I couldn’t predict what would unfold.
Yet I found myself wishing the memories would never return.
What good would it do to reveal now, ‘Surprise! It was actually Edith Blake who purified you all along!’?
My relationships with the male leads were already hurtling toward ruin.
‘Perhaps he loved Ruellin herself, regardless of the purification.’
She was beautiful, kind, and virtuous, after all….
‘Though it’s questionable whether someone who impersonated The Purifier using Edith Blake is truly kind and virtuous.’
In any case, thinking it through that way, it seemed far better not to reveal the truth.
Thud.
Vincent had closed the distance and now stood directly before me.
His eyes were somewhat bloodshot and weary, but he seemed otherwise composed.
‘I thought he might break down sobbing.’
His rough golden eyes, which gave little hint of his thoughts, gazed down at me quietly before he finally opened his mouth.
“…Are you coming back from the memorial service?”
“Yes.”
I nodded silently, then asked in return.
“…What about you?”
“I didn’t go.”
“….”
“I just… couldn’t bring myself to believe it.”
He let out a hollow laugh and explained why he hadn’t attended Ruellin’s memorial service.
“I still feel like Ruellin is alive somewhere.”
I felt the same way, though perhaps not for the same reasons.
Then, Vincent suddenly broached an unexpected topic.
“I heard you awakened as The Purifier.”
“….”
“Congratulations, Edith Blake.”
My eyes widened at his straightforward words of congratulation.
Then it occurred to me that he likely wouldn’t remember the moment when I had purified him.
‘I have no idea how much he actually remembers.’
Hoping he at least retained memories of our conversation before the purification, I opened my mouth.
“…Thank you.”
With those words, an awkward silence settled between us.
I didn’t know what to say.
Not whether he was feeling better, nor apologies for how things had turned out.
Everything felt like it would sound hollow to him now.
But then.
“Are you happy?”
As if to shatter my own consideration and concern, the man suddenly fixed me with a crooked smile.
“…What?”
“Ruellin is dead just as you wanted, and you’ve become The Purifier.”
“….”
“How does it feel now? Are you pleased?”
At his biting words, I furrowed my brow.
‘…What is this? Does he not remember our conversation?’
The man who had clung to me so desperately, saying he was sorry and that he’d hold on as long as he could before I escaped—
I couldn’t fathom where that person had gone.
The warm atmosphere we’d ended on that day had vanished without a trace, replaced in an instant by a taut tension hanging between us.
Staring at him coldly, my expression hardened like frost.
“Would you believe me if I said no?”
“….”
“Would you feel better if I said I’m thrilled to death?”
At my sharp question, his face showed the expression of someone caught off guard.
It was the same tiresome routine repeated endlessly.
“If you called me here to get drunk and complain, then there’s nothing more to say.”
With that, I turned and walked away immediately.
This was exactly why I’d tried to escape before he found me.
‘…I’ll never be able to reconcile with him.’
I had always believed that nothing in this world was eternal.
That was why I had accepted his sincere apology back then.
Just in case.
He had turned away when Edith Blake died, and even after I possessed this body, he had repeatedly driven me to the brink of my limits.
But if he truly repented and reflected on his actions, and if enough time passed….
I thought perhaps there might still be room to build a new connection.
Foolishly.
‘They say even parents cannot change human nature….’
I had been an idiot.
I was shaking my head in self-contempt at the thought of myself from two days ago, when I had decided to purify him.
“Why did you do it?”
“….”
“On the day he was about to go berserk, why did you purify him? You could have just let him rampage and die at the hands of another Awakener.”
A murmur suddenly reached my ears from behind, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
“You said you couldn’t stand the sight of me anymore. You said we should sever ties. So why?”
“….”
“Could it be….”
“….”
“Do you still love me?”
For a moment, my head went blank as if I had been struck on the back of the skull.
I could not comprehend what I had just heard.
Did he ask if I still loved him?
Was that why I purified him?
‘What the hell….’
No matter how much I tried to ignore it, I could not dismiss those words.
I clenched my teeth and spun around sharply.
Then I strode back toward him in quick steps.
“Hey.”
“….”
“You went berserk, and now you’ve completely lost it?”
At my sudden words, Vincent’s face crumpled.
But I simply could not hold back.
“I don’t understand. Do you tell people you love that you want to sever ties?”
“…What?”
“Did you tell Ruellin that she was annoying, repulsive, and unbearable?”
Less than an hour had passed since he went berserk before I said those things.
So what was all this talk of love?
“What’s the problem? Are you upset that I purified you? I wanted to just follow Ruellin and die, but it seems like you think I forced myself to save you because I love you?”
“….”
“Or is it that I should have died instead of Ruellin? That a wretched girl who didn’t even die in Tollen and crawled back to life like a maggot has now even become The Purifier—is that what’s making you angry?”
“…Edith Blake.”
“I’m sick of it all—the irritation, the frustration, the world itself making me want to scream!”
My outburst caused Vincent’s flushed face to drain of color in an instant.
I hadn’t wanted to push someone who had just lost a loved one like this.
But that didn’t mean I would silently endure his aimless venting either.
I wasn’t in a position to afford such restraint.
Yes, I was terrified and afraid too.
Of this situation where the male leads—where everyone—had discovered I was The Purifier.
“Why did I purify you? Then why did you go berserk back then?”
“….”
“My Maid and the Healer who would die helplessly caught in your rampage through no fault of their own—what crime did they commit? And what about me!”
“….”
“What crime did I commit? Is there any guarantee I’ll survive unscathed if you lose control again?”
He listened to my words in silence, his face ashen, before his lips finally moved.
“…Ethan will do whatever it takes to protect you.”
“That man?”
As if.
I let out a scoff of derision.
At that, ripples of disturbance flickered across Vincent’s golden eyes.
In truth, Ethan had taken no real action until he saw me clinging to Serge.
It was surprising that he hadn’t chased after Ruellin like Vincent and Dylan had, but that was all.

― So this is what you mean by being able to handle it yourself—clinging to a stranger just to survive?

As I recalled that face, so quick to condemn me even in that moment, a twisted smile escaped my lips.
“You seem to be under a misunderstanding… To me, you and my brother are no different.”
“…What?”
“You both turned your backs on me in Tollen. So what exactly am I supposed to trust?”
“…”
“How could I have any expectations of you two, who blame me for falling while talking with Ruellin? Why don’t you think about that at all?”
My caustic tone made the tremor in his golden eyes grow increasingly violent.
Vincent’s voice came out tightly suppressed.
“Does that mean… you don’t trust me or Ethan anymore, not even a little?”
“Yes. It’s all over, Vincent.”
I steadied my breathing, which had grown somewhat ragged from my uncharacteristic agitation, and finally exhaled the truth like a sigh.
“The Edith Blake you knew died long ago—pathetically, wretchedly, without a single person to save her the way you wanted.”
“…”
“So I don’t understand why you still speak as though something remains between us.”
“…”
“Since losing my memory, you feel like a stranger to me…”
At my final murmur, almost to myself, Vincent’s jaw clenched hard.
“Don’t say it like that.”
He ground out the words between his teeth.
“You said it was just an accident! You don’t even remember that time clearly, so why do you speak so carelessly?”
“You’re right. It was an accident, just as Ruellin’s murder was, and my awakening as The Purifier, Vincent.”
Calamities and natural disasters—no one can prevent them.
So I said I wouldn’t resent you, yet why do you resent me?
His eyes wavered helplessly as I drew the parallel to our current situation.
I met his gaze and spoke more calmly.
“You don’t seem to remember, but you apologized to me before I purified you.”
“…!”
“I accepted that apology.”
Perhaps it was something he never expected to hear.
For a moment, Vincent’s breath stopped.
His face began to contort.
“I thought that even if I couldn’t forgive you immediately, there might still be room for us to forge a new connection someday…”
“…Edith.”
“I was mistaken.”
“Don’t go.”
As if he still had more to say, he reached out his hand toward me.
I stepped back, avoiding his grasp.
Then I turned away, shaking my head slowly.
Perhaps it was because I had done so little, yet stood for so long facing the fierce sea breeze.
My mind felt profoundly weary.
I was about to turn back and soak in warm water to ease my exhaustion when I took another step forward.
“So what am I supposed to do now?”
A frightened voice, like that of a lost child, suddenly seized my footsteps.
“Ruellin is dead, and now you’re abandoning me too.”
“….”
“Every time I close my eyes, I dream of all those moments when she used to purify me—except in the dream, it’s you instead of her!”
“….”
“What exactly do you expect me to do―!”

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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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