A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 115

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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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115.

A sharp crack echoed through the air!
In that same instant, I thrust my hands downward.
‘Stop! Stop it!’
I desperately tried to halt the ability, but the violet orb had already shattered into countless fragments.
Naturally, the radiant light pouring from both my palms showed no signs of ceasing.
Like shards of a Sephiroth’s core, dozens of fragments scattered in all directions.
The moment Marquis Clonella and the staff member witnessed this, their faces drained of all color.
“The, the mana core has… been destroyed.”
“How, how is this possible…!”
Both of them stared at the fragments and then at me, their eyes wide with disbelief.
I had caused a catastrophic accident.
Standing there awkwardly with my two hands dangling at my sides, still emitting green light, I finally regained my composure.
“Can… can something like that actually break?”
Marquis Clonella turned to look at me with an expression that screamed ‘how could it?’
Yet it hardly felt entirely my fault.
“But isn’t it strange? I don’t even possess an offensive ability… so how could a mana core be destroyed by purification power?”
“There has been no precedent for such an occurrence until now….”
The Marquis trailed off. It seemed there were no contingency plans or regulations regarding such an incident.
“What about Ruellin?”
I suppressed my confusion and asked calmly.
“Did you hear a cracking sound back then, or was there any other unusual sign?”
“No. Ruellin displayed similar patterns to other S-rank Awakeners.”
“There’s no way to know. We’re both Purifiers, so why did this only happen to me? And Ruellin was S-rank….”
Frowning as I examined the ancient dragon’s heart, my eyes suddenly widened.
“But….”
“….”
“It’s still beating, isn’t it?”
I reflexively raised my hand to point, but stopped short when I saw the two of them flinch.
The purifying light was still leaking from my palms.
I shrugged once and murmured softly.
“Didn’t you say it’s still pulsing because of the mana core?”
Thump, thump.
Just as I said, the ancient dragon’s heart continued to twitch intermittently, suspended in the air.
The Marquis muttered with a bewildered expression.
“What on earth is happening here….”
“Director. Shall I verify whether it’s functioning properly?”
At that moment, the staff member who had been carefully examining the heart asked a question.
“Yes, go ahead.”
With the Marquis’s permission, the staff member cautiously extended one hand.
Shortly after, a brilliant flash—!
As he began channeling his ability, two strands of golden light leaked from his palm like thin, undulating threads.
The two beams of light immediately wrapped around the ancient dragon’s heart in spiraling coils.
Then, almost instantly, as if a fluorescent light had switched on, black liquid suddenly filled the left atrium with a sharp ‘click.’
Followed by the right atrium, then the left ventricle, each darkening in succession with that same inky substance.
I observed the phenomenon with fascination—it was my first time witnessing such a thing.
The ancient dragon’s heart showed no further darkening beyond the left ventricle.
The staff member’s rank was ‘B.’
Once he ceased channeling his ability, he turned to face both me and the Marquis.
“Fortunately, the artifact appears to be functioning normally.”
“Hmm… but there’s no way to verify whether it’s truly functioning properly.”
Having destroyed the only artifact of its kind, there was nothing more to say on the matter.
Yet on the other hand, it was equally frustrating for those who had relied solely on this single heart for hundreds of years.
I watched their expressions carefully before speaking up cautiously.
“…Would it be alright if I tried once more?”
Unlike the staff member who showed immediate results, I had detected no abnormalities in the ancient dragon’s heart until my mana core shattered.
I still had no way of knowing my own rank.
At my words, the Marquis seemed to deliberate for a moment before responding.
“I believe I need to consult with the others first.”
Apparently finding this matter too difficult to judge alone, he promptly headed toward the large window.
I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a hidden door beside the window.
After opening it and stepping outside, the Marquis sat down and began conversing with those who had been observing.
The room seemed to be well soundproofed, as no sound reached us inside.
However, while most of them wore serious expressions, Serge alone kept grinning and interjecting comments here and there.
The way he occasionally glanced at me and gestured with his eyes left a bad taste in my mouth.
‘What are they saying?’
Then Ethan spoke up with a grave expression.
Surprisingly, Dylan said nothing at all. He simply gazed at me with dark, unfathomable eyes.
‘Why does that bastard have to look at me so uncomfortably?’
Some time had passed.
Finally, the Marquis finished his consultation and returned inside the Measurement Chamber.
As if they had engaged in a heated argument, he spoke to me with a somewhat weary expression.
“There should be no need to re-measure your rank, Princess.”
“Pardon? But… then what is my rank?”
“We have a separate classification prepared specifically for situations such as this.”
“Situations such as this…?”
“Yes. Cases where an ability’s power is so overwhelming that it destroys the artifact.”
At the Marquis’s words, my eyes widened in surprise.
Fortunately, it seemed there wasn’t a complete absence of countermeasures.
However, I couldn’t fully comprehend the situation.
‘The power of an ability was so strong it caused destruction…?’
I privately suspected the artifact was simply too old.
It was destined to break eventually—I just happened to be the unlucky one it happened to.
After all, they’d been using this single device for rank measurements all this time.
Even the sturdiest machines corrode with age; how could there be no limit to the durability of a dead creature’s organ?
And yet.
“Your rank, Young Lady, is….”
“….”
“EX has been determined.”
“EX…?”
“It means a special grade that cannot be measured by any currently existing method.”
My jaw dropped at a grade I’d never heard of before.
S is S, D is D—what in the world was this special grade supposed to be?
“…Wouldn’t it be better to try measuring again? If it’s working fine, maybe we’d get a proper result this time.”
“Rather than risk completely destroying the artifact through reckless experimentation, we unanimously concluded it would be better to give you special treatment.”
What is this?
I don’t want special treatment…!
As my expression visibly deteriorated, the Marquis hastily added more.
“N-No, it’s wonderful! There’s only one such grade in the entire Empire, so how prestigious is that? Even S-rank Awakeners haven’t achieved this grade!”
“…Yes, I suppose so.”
They hadn’t destroyed the artifact like I did, after all.
I exhaled a short sigh and murmured.
“I’m terribly sorry. It wasn’t intentional, but… if you wish to claim damages, I’ll do my best to compensate you.”
“Oh, no! Damages, you say!”
The Marquis waved his hand dismissively.
“I believe it was an accident that was bound to happen eventually. There’s only one method for rank measurement, and our information on ancient dragons is extremely limited… Still, it’s fortunate that it’s still functioning. Please don’t worry about it.”
“Is that so?”
Privately worried about how much compensation might be demanded, I quickly agreed.
Marquis Clonella’s expression became slightly disappointed.
He’d said not to worry, but he clearly hadn’t expected me to wipe my hands clean so readily.
‘I’m broke too, sir….’
Having declared my independence, I couldn’t very well go back to the Duke’s Mansion with my hand out.
If I was going to survive on my own, I needed to be as frugal as possible.
‘Perhaps this isn’t entirely a bad situation.’
When the orb shattered earlier, I was at a loss, but now that I had breathing room, my perspective shifted.
I’d been worrying about how to explain this anyway….
“Since things have come to this, I have something to tell you, Marquis.”
“Huh? What do you….”
“As you can see, I’m still clumsy with handling my ability.”
I held up both my hands, still leaking purifying light.
“And on days when I overuse it, I collapse without warning. You saw it yourself on Equinox Island, didn’t you?”
The Marquis nodded with a puzzled expression.
I drove the point home by adding that he could ask my Healer about the manifestation after my second awakening.
“Using my ability strains my body greatly, so I can’t use it recklessly. That’s why, unfortunately, I won’t be able to purify just anyone, anytime, like Ruellin does.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that….”
“I can only use my ability in truly urgent situations, like on Equinox Island. For example….”
“….”
“Situations like right before an Awakener goes berserk.”

***

Rumble, CRACK—
Thunder and lightning strike relentlessly across a sky dyed deep violet.
The rift that had opened closed futilely, and beside it, two new rifts materialized.
All of them were Gates.
The woman wearing the Deer-Masked Maid turned around at the sudden presence she sensed from afar.
“Sephiroth.”
Three Awakeners appeared silently and prostrated themselves before her.
“We have explored all the Gates you commanded, but we found no nested Gate among them.”
“You have done well.”
The Deer-Masked Maid showed no disappointment as she addressed her devoted followers.
“For now, return to the base and focus on missionary work….”
She paused mid-sentence.
Behind the lifeless deer eyes, hidden pupils widened sharply.
“…The curse.”
“…?”
“The curse has been broken.”
Muttering thus, she spun around and rushed frantically across the vast expanse.
An elongated altar before the corpse of an enormous dragon that would not decay.
Upon it lay a single undecaying corpse, resting peacefully.
The woman passed by it without a glance and went straight toward the dragon’s elongated head.
A massive eye, large as a well, still glistening vividly as if alive despite five hundred years of death.
As she gazed quietly into the yellow pupil, slashed sharp as a rift in the sky.
Suddenly, brilliant light poured forth from the dragon’s eye.
Soon an image began to manifest like a phantom.

“Director. Leaving early again today?”
“Yes. I have an evening appointment with family.”
“You never used to contact them at all, so I suppose you’ve made peace? Oh! You didn’t forget what I asked you for, did you? Could I get Yu Ji-han’s autograph….”

At the other person’s words, the short-haired woman broke into a radiant smile.
The name tag on her white coat read “Director Yu Sol.”
Sephiroth, whose eyes never blinked as he stared at it, stretched his mouth wide in a grin that mirrored the woman’s.
“…Found her.”

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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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