A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 125

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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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125.

Ayla led me to the outer edge of the village, where the Magi churned restlessly.
It was the same spot where Ethan, Kalen, and I had come before.
A woman in a white robe, who had been standing at the cliff’s edge gazing into the distant void, slowly turned around.
“Welcome, Edith Blake.”
The unsettling Deer-Masked Maid—unchanged from what I’d seen on Equinox Island.
And.

999%

The number hovering above her head—shocking no matter how many times I saw it.
As I hesitated at the sight, Ayla knelt submissively before Sephiroth.
“Sephiroth.”
“You’ve worked hard, child.”
“Not at all. I’m truly grateful that you granted my wish.”
Sephiroth raised a hand and gently stroked the back of Ayla’s head.
The two of them conversing quietly before me resembled a warm mentor and devoted student.
Something felt wrong.
“Are you feeling better?”
“Yes. Much better.”
“Your resolve hasn’t wavered?”
“No.”
“Then let us meet again in Paradise.”
“Yes.”
Crack.
In that instant, a sickening sound accompanied Ayla’s sudden collapse.
Sephiroth had abruptly snapped her neck.
I stared blankly at the two of them before a sharp scream tore from my throat at the sudden turn of events.
“What—what are you doing! Ayla!”
I rushed over to check, but Ayla had already breathed her last.
Her face, eyes closed as if in peaceful slumber, wore an oddly serene expression.
Standing dazed above Ayla’s body, I heard Sephiroth speak.
“This is what the child wished for. To sleep peacefully without suffering after her revenge.”
“Regardless, who do you think you are to so casually steal someone’s life? Do your followers revere you so much that you’ve begun to think yourself a god?!”
“Unlike the original owner, you seem quite compassionate. To show such concern for a child you’ve only known for a couple of hours.”
It was less concern for Ayla than shock at the casual manner in which he had killed her.
But Sephiroth paid no attention to my reaction and continued speaking.
“I felt the same way. That’s why I started looking for a method to transplant abilities.”
“….”
“I thought it only made sense for abilities to go to those who truly needed them, like this child, rather than allowing garbage to wield power they didn’t deserve.”
“….”
“Don’t you think the same way?”
Rumble, crash――!
Suddenly, a deafening roar shook heaven and earth, and lightning struck down behind her.
Flash!
A brilliant flash of light erupted.
Unfortunately, it was a sign that a Gate was opening.
Between my vision flickering white, the towering deer antlers rising up looked like a scene from some horror film.
After carefully setting Ayla down on the ground, I rose slowly to my feet, glaring at her.
“…Did you open the Gate?”
“No.”
Surprisingly, she denied my suspicion easily.
“Regarding the double Gate, don’t you know more about it than I do? Edith Blake.”
“….”
“Or perhaps it’s more familiar to call you Yu Sol?”
Since I’d already heard it once from the Space Ability User, it wasn’t as shocking as it had been then.
I still asked her with a cautious tone.
“How did you know my real name?”
“That’s the wrong question. You should be asking how you can return first.”
“….”
“Aren’t you curious? Whether you can truly return to your original body. If it were me, that’s what I’d be most curious about….”
“What I’m most curious about is why you’re playing the role of a cult leader.”
I added immediately in a cold voice.
“Are you tired of playing the Purifier?”
“….”
“Ruellin.”
At my words, Sephiroth’s body stiffened slightly.
But only for a moment.
“Haha! Hahaha!”
She suddenly burst into laughter, her shoulders shaking.
“You’re more perceptive than I thought….”
“….”
“Aren’t you?”
Then she slowly removed the Deer-Masked Maid mask she was wearing.
As her face was revealed, my eyes widened.
Soft chestnut-brown hair, large emerald eyes, a gentle face.
I had my doubts, but it was truly her.
The female lead, Ruellin.
“How did you know?”
She asked me with a gentle smile.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from that face as I replied like a sigh.
“…If you wanted to hide perfectly, you should’ve disguised your voice too.”
“I didn’t think that far ahead. Most people wouldn’t assume she’s the same person just by looking at this mask.”
That was true.
If I hadn’t been listening carefully, I wouldn’t have noticed immediately either.
If she weren’t the female lead but just one of countless extras, I wouldn’t have cared whether she was a villain or anything else.
“…How did you manage it on Equinox Island?”
“I know you might not believe me, but I really am not Ruellin. That girl’s body was truly pierced by a blade back then.”
I frowned at her ambiguous answer.
“Then, is Ruellin dead?”
“No. She’s very much… alive.”
“Where is she?”
“I wonder. Are you curious?”
“No.”
I had no intention of falling for whatever scheme she was playing without revealing her purpose.
I shook my head firmly.
“Truth is, I’m not that curious. I came to you only to confirm whether Ruellin is dead or alive.”
That was all my business with her.
Only then could I determine how to survive in this damned place going forward.
Until now, I had failed to adapt here, living in a half-suspended state of mind.
That I had possessed a body in a novel, that the female lead was dead, and that I had become the sole Purifier tasked with purifying the male leads and other Awakeners.
I could scarcely believe it.
Perhaps I had been denying reality all along.
But now was the time to accept it.
The female lead was dead, the novel’s plot I knew was nearly false, and for the rest of my life I would have to live in this damned place as Edith Blake.
As the Purifier.
Suddenly, my chest grew heavy as darkness crept into my vision.
Whether Sephiroth sensed my despair or not, he asked in a subtle tone.
“Whether you can return to your original body, perhaps?”
“I can’t.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“Because I’m dead.”
I was sucked into a Gate, so there’s no way I could be alive.
Even if I miraculously survived, I would have starved by now.
Three months had already passed since the soul inside me entered this wrong body.
“Hmm… From what I can see, you’re very much alive.”
Yet as I fell into despair, Sephiroth smiled enigmatically.
“Working hard and having fun with the staff every day. Sharing meals with my family from time to time.”
“As if that would happen.”
I let out a scoff.
“Even if I died and came back to life, I’d never share a meal with those people.”
“Is that so? Then who is this Director Yu who decided to conduct clinical trials of cure-1 on your stepbrother?”
“…What?”
“Yu Ji-han… wasn’t it?”
At the familiar name, I froze in an instant.
That moment.
Rumble, crash――!
Thunder and lightning crashed down with another deafening roar that shook the earth itself.
Crack―
And with a sound like something splitting, a fine fissure appeared across the night sky.
A Gate.
“Since there’s nothing to lose anyway. Why not take a chance and verify it?”
“…”
“Whether your original body is dead or alive.”
“How did you know about cure-1? Yu Ji-han?”
I pressed forward urgently, my body rigid with tension.
Unlike me, Sephiroth answered with ease.
“Because I saw and heard it.”
“How?”
“Using a dragon’s crystal?”
She extended her hand toward me, speaking as if in jest.
“It’s the same rare dual Gate as when you arrived here, Doctor Yu.”
“…”
“An opportunity that doesn’t come around just any time.”
That hand wavered before my eyes like bait luring prey.
Perhaps this was a trap aimed at my life.
Maybe she was reading my memories with some power I didn’t understand and toying with me.
But still.
Even knowing it might be dangerous.
‘Yu Ji-han—that bastard can’t die, no matter what!’
I couldn’t help but grasp that hand.
Snap―!
The moment I seized her hand, the smile at the corners of Sephiroth’s mouth deepened.
Whoooosh…
In that instant, both my feet suddenly lifted into the void.
As if boarding a hot air balloon, we began to drift slowly upward toward the night sky.
Crack, crack―
At that very moment, the crack in the sky grew wider, becoming a full-fledged fissure.
Soon, dark Magi and monsters would pour forth from within.
“Don’t be afraid.”
As if sensing my tension-stiffened form, Sephiroth gently stroked my hand and offered a kind smile.
It was when roughly half the distance to the Gate remained.
“Edith―!”
Suddenly, I heard my name called from a distance.
Startled, I looked down to see Ethan Blake riding toward me on horseback.
Reaching the cliff’s edge, he hastily leaped from his mount.
“Come back, Edith!”
“….”
“You can’t―!”
It wasn’t as though I were rushing toward death.
Yet he called out with such desperate urgency, his expression twisted as if he were about to lose me right before his eyes.
‘When has he ever cared whether I lived or died….’
Even as I thought this, something felt strange.
“Do you care for Ethan Blake?”
Sephiroth suddenly asked.
I was about to scowl and demand what nonsense that was.
Whoooosh―!
A brilliant light suddenly engulfed my vision.
Before I knew it, I stood before the Gate.
Whoosh!
My vision flickered as I felt myself pulled forcefully inward.
Blink.
When I opened my eyes again.
Sephiroth and I stood alone in a desolate desert.
Enormous monsters resembling scorpions swarmed all around us.
“Ugh!”
“Don’t worry. Those creatures cannot harm us.”
Sephiroth spoke to me as I recoiled in fear.
True to his word, the monsters strangely fled in panic, as if they had spotted a predator.
Inside the Gate, it was midday with blazing sunlight.
In the center of the blue sky, an enormous black hole gaped open.
“It’s a nested Gate.”
Before I could even ask if entering there would return me to my original world, something happened.
Whoosh―
At that moment, my feet lifted off the ground again.
Unlike when we entered, Sephiroth halted in mid-air, some distance away from the nested Gate.
Then he withdrew something from his embrace.
It was a pristine crystal sphere.
Soon after, it vibrated with a sharp hum and shot a white beam of light toward somewhere.
“What…”
“Look over there.”
Sephiroth pointed toward the double Gate.
The crystal sphere’s beam was shooting toward the Gate.
Remarkably, an image materialized above the massive opening like a screen.
My eyes widened at the familiar faces reflected in the image.
It was me.
The me from reality, whom I’d believed dead all this time.
I, Yu Sol, was alive and well, eating a meal.
…Cozily, in that damned household, with those damned people.

“…So you’ve decided on clinical trials with Ji-han and Do-un.”
“Yes. I submitted the report the other day, so please approve it, Father.”
“Then why don’t you contact me more often and visit to greet me? Do you think you became director so easily on your own merits?”
“That’s why I’m here now.”
“This cure-1 thing—it really works, doesn’t it, sister?”

After Father, Yu Ji-han, Yu Se-hwa, and Yoo Do-un.
The faces of that ‘clan’ of repulsive people appeared one after another in the image.
My vision turned crimson.
How did I sever my ties with those damned people…
How did I escape from that household…!
“That… who is that?”
I pointed at the image, breathing heavily as though suffocating.
“That, surely not…”
“…”
“…Ruellin?”
Sephiroth nodded quietly, as if to say bingo.
“Insane.”
A surge of emotion—whether rage or absurdity—rose to the tip of my throat.

Three months into the possession.
The female lead had possessed my body.

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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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