A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 106

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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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106.

I had no choice but to stop again at his cry—something between a scream and a plea.
‘A dream…?’
My mind froze solid, and my chest sank.
Rigid as ice, I slowly turned my head.
Vincent was glaring at me, breathing heavily and ragged.
His expression blurred as though he might weep.
His eyes swirled with despair and confusion in chaotic tangles.
I couldn’t understand why he looked at me that way.
As though he’d just remembered something.
“What….”
“….”
“What are you talking about? A dream?”
I stammered, asking in a panic.
Then Vincent’s mouth fell open slightly.
He hesitated for a long moment, as though unsure what to say, before finally forcing the words out with visible strain.
“…Ever since coming to the island, I’ve had the same dream every night.”
“….”
“A dream where you… purify me every time I lose control.”
I drew in a sharp breath at those words.

― In the dreams, it was always like that. You came to me first and held me.

Dylan’s words from Volner echoed in my ears.
And the dream I’d had last night.
Edith Blake’s dream—where I was manipulated by Ruellin to purify Vincent….
I steadied my reeling mind and forced myself to speak.
“…Dreams are just dreams. There’s no meaning to them.”
“I know, I do!”
He shouted abruptly, his face contorted.
“I know it’s just a dream…!”
“….”
“How can I help being confused? How can I help being angry when I see you!”

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He had only recently gone berserk, and his unstable state caused the number above his head to spike abruptly.
I opened my mouth urgently.
“Vincent, calm down….”
“I’m angry.”
As if I had snatched away a toy he’d been playing with, he glared at me with eyes flushed crimson.
“That I didn’t save you that day. That you lost your memories because of it.”
“….”
“That you want to sever our friendship. That you no longer love me.”
“….”
“I’m so angry I can’t bear it.”

― I’m so angry I can’t bear it. That look in your eyes.

His words were strikingly similar to what Dylan had said, and I was somewhat taken aback.
But soon my irritation settled into something colder.
Unlike Dylan, whose anger was nearly incomprehensible to me, Vincent’s was far too transparent.
His shallow desires were laid bare before me.
“What are you so angry about? Are you saying I should spend my entire life trailing behind you like some lovesick fool?”
At my sharp words, Vincent flinched.
It seemed I’d struck the mark.
His golden eyes wavered uncertainly.
He finally averted his gaze from mine, lowering his head and muttering softly.
“You… Edith Blake, you shouldn’t do this to me.”
“Why? Because you’re my friend of thirteen years? Because you’ve followed me around so relentlessly it’s become unbearable?”
“….”
“That’s just greed. You’re throwing a tantrum because things aren’t going your way.”
“…That’s not it.”
“Your toy broke, but you don’t want to discard it. Yet you’re too possessive to let anyone else have it either. That’s what this is.”
“That’s not it, so why are you…!”
“Then what is it? Why should I remain as I was? Do you even love me?”
As I cut him off and turned the question back on him, I saw his crimson lips close tightly.
There it is.
“You don’t.”
“…If you love me.”
“….”
“If you say you love me, can things go back to how they were?”
He spouted nonsense in a voice thick with desperation.
“Ha.”
For a moment, I forgot my anger entirely, and a hollow laugh burst from my lips.
What kind of joke was this?
‘So does that mean she loves me? This isn’t even charity….’
Emptiness crashed over me.
I resented every second I’d wasted trying to have a conversation with this fool.
I wiped the smile from my face in an instant, letting my displeasure show without restraint.
“Stop spouting nonsense. There’s barely any affection left between us as it is, and you’re only making it worse.”
“Edith Blake.”
He hesitated as if to approach me.
But he stopped immediately when I took a step back.
To him, staring at me as though he’d forgotten how to breathe, I offered one final piece of advice.
“Come to your senses. At this point, words like that are just deceiving people, Vincent.”
….
“To me, and to Ruellin, whom you once loved.”
And to the Edith Blake who loved you.
Fortunately, Vincent didn’t try to hold me back anymore.
Having finally severed that long, stubborn thread of connection, I left the beach at once.

I retraced my steps quickly.
By now, the sunset had faded, and a pale twilight had settled over the land.
I had to hurry back before it grew any darker and my dedicated maid came searching for me.
‘Just a simple dream? Or the end of her ability’s effect?’
My mind was a complete mess the entire way back.
I was so distracted that I’d forgotten the shoes I’d left behind, and the moment I stepped onto the forest path, a branch stabbed the sole of my foot hard.
“Ow! Damn it!”
Hopping on one foot like an idiot, I swallowed my curses and found my shoes to put them back on.
After that, all my energy drained away.
“Sigh….”
Not knowing what Ruellin’s true ability actually was—this was driving me absolutely insane.
Standing before Vincent, who’d been rambling about dreams, I couldn’t figure out what stance to take.
In any case, the fact that it had seamlessly replaced the memory Edith Blake had purified suggested it was definitely a mental-type ability.
But could the ability’s effect wear off as time passed?
‘…Either way, it’s probably best to keep pretending I don’t know.’
It was all in the past anyway.
What good would it do to expose that Ruellin was a villain impersonating The Purifier now?
People probably wouldn’t even believe it, and besides, the culprit to be punished was already dead.
Moreover, I had absolutely no intention of reconciling with Vincent and the other male leads, nor of taking over Ruellin’s role.
‘Living as Edith Blake is already killing me, and now you want me to be Ruellin’s substitute?’
Taking turns dealing with men who did nothing but cause trouble, obligated to purify them as a matter of duty?
The very thought was horrifying.
‘I need to find some way out of this, fast!’
Anxiously gnawing at my lip, I crossed the forest path and soon reached the side gate set into the castle walls.
The moment I tried to ascend the staircase beyond it.
“…!”
I stopped short, startled by the sight of a large silhouette leaning against the wall.
Silver hair caught in the soft lamplight gleamed as though moonbeams had been finely ground and scattered across it.
“…Brother?”
Recognizing the figure standing on the staircase as Ethan, I reflexively tensed.

86%

His rampage index was quite elevated.
I stared blankly at it.
“Are you finished talking?”
Ethan asked abruptly.
I immediately lowered my gaze from the top of his head.
His face was expressionless, yet an icy chill emanated from it.
‘…He saw.’
Perhaps he’d overheard part of the conversation.
The beach where I’d stood with Vincent was quite distant from the side gate, but an S-rank Awakener’s hearing would have been more than sufficient to eavesdrop.
“Since when….”
“Since you said that Vincent and I are the same.”
He answered immediately.
Correction—it seems he heard most of it, not just part.
‘If he’d seen us talking, he could have simply stepped away. Why lurk about eavesdropping like that?’
And what was the meaning of that posture, as though he’d been waiting for me?
He wasn’t the type to confront me about speaking ill of him behind his back.
I exhaled a short sigh and muttered in a weary voice.
“…I didn’t realize you had a hobby of eavesdropping on others’ conversations.”
“Was I.”
“….”
“That kind of person to you?”
Ethan completely ignored my words and asked abruptly.
It was an awkward question.
“…Must I answer?”
“Answer.”
“As you heard.”
He demanded an answer, so I gave one.
It was somewhat difficult to say to his face, but it wasn’t untrue.
‘Did he really think I would naturally trust him?’
If that’s what he believed, wasn’t that rather shameless of him?
Despite taking control of Tollen Gate, Ethan had neglected me throughout my time on Equinox Island.
His confrontation with the male lead 4 seemed less about protecting me and more about clashing with him out of pride.
“….”
He said nothing in response to my candid answer.
He simply regarded me quietly with darkened eyes.
“…If there’s nothing more you wish to say, I’ll take my leave.”
I wasn’t sure why he’d waited for the conversation to end here, but I had no energy left to continue.
My mental reserves for today had already been exhausted by the memorial service and Vincent.
I was just about to bow my head and pass by Ethan to climb the staircase when—
“You.”
He called out to me once more.
“You awakened right after you rushed into the Magi to save Vincent the other day, didn’t you?”
At his somewhat abrupt question, I paused and turned to face Ethan.
His eyes, which met mine across the gap of one stair, had grown sharp and piercing.
I attempted to discern his intent for a moment, then gave up.
“…Yes.”
“That’s strange.”
“What is?”
“That I couldn’t stop you in that moment.”
I regarded him with confusion.
‘Wasn’t it because Serge blocked me with telekinesis?’
His words sounded as though he hadn’t stopped me of his own volition.
As I tilted my head in bewilderment—
Ethan suddenly whispered as if speaking to himself.
“Why did I think that you….”
“….”
“Had already awakened long ago?”
“….”
“Do you know why?”
He asked me this, having overheard my entire conversation with Vincent.
“…No.”
I answered with a thin cry and passed by him to climb the staircase.
A persistent gaze followed in my wake.
Just as I reached the top of the stairs, a sudden premonition made me squeeze my eyes shut.
This is bad.
The memories of the male leads that the female lead had manipulated were returning to them, one by one.

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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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