A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 127

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

127.

“Your Grace the Grand Duke…?”
So that’s why everything felt so rigid.
Before I knew it, I had been caught in the arms of the male lead number four, cradled like a princess.
My gaze met his—those pitch-black pupils that seemed to contain the very essence of magic itself.
Reflected in them, I saw myself with eyes wide as saucers, utterly incredulous.
“H-how did you…?”
“I heard the young lady had been abducted by a cult, so I came to rescue her.”
“Inside the Gate…?”
“Why? Are you so moved you can’t speak?”
The man raised one eyebrow with a smirk.
I offered no response, merely wearing an expression of reluctant gratitude.
It was certainly kind of him to come to my aid.
On the surface, I appeared to have been kidnapped by Sephiroth and dragged into the Gate, after all.
But since I had been in the middle of a crucial conversation, Serge’s crude intervention hardly felt welcome.
‘I can’t exactly tell him I was having a serious discussion with the cult leader…’
Contemplating this awkward predicament, I surveyed my surroundings with clouded eyes.
Serge stood atop the rocky terrain directly opposite where Sephiroth had been sent flying.
As he observed the spot from which wisps of smoke were rising, he suddenly clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, she escaped.”
“She escaped?”
I hastily turned my gaze in that direction at his words.
Through the gradually dispersing smoke, I could see the impact crater where Sephiroth had been driven into the rock.
The hollow depression in the stone wall was truly empty.
“Hah…”
I let out a hollow laugh, thinking of the woman who had vanished without a trace.
‘Insane. She brings me here and then just leaves?’
I hadn’t even managed to ask what that prophecy was about or how to find it…
Perhaps because I had only just learned the way back.
My heart felt utterly unsettled.
I glanced back at Serge and asked.
“What do we do now?”
“What do you mean what? We find the leader, kill them, and get out.”
“Please put me down first.”
Fortunately, he obediently set me on the ground.
“The Gate is right there, conveniently.”
As I was straightening my clothes, he suddenly pointed toward the enormous rift suspended in the sky.
“That’s not the exit.”
“Then what is it?”
“A dual Gate connecting to another dimension. According to Sephiroth, anyway.”
“Hmm. I see.”
At his composed reaction, I found myself staring at him in surprise.
“You’re… not very shocked?”
“Gates have been appearing for five hundred years now. It’s about time something new showed up.”
He added the remark with utter indifference.
“The problem is we can’t see the leader of those creatures, Princess.”
“The leader of the monsters?”
“Yes. It seems to have already crossed over to the other side. That’s why the numbers here seem rather sparse.”
To my eyes, the monsters swarmed everywhere, yet to him, this appeared to be a meager count.
‘If it crossed over… chaos must be breaking loose over there too.’
I couldn’t decide whether to be grateful that the leader hadn’t crossed into my world.
Standing with a heavy heart, gazing up at the sky.
“Wait here, Princess. I’ll scout around and find if there are any other Gates.”
Serge left me behind before I could even grab him, vanishing in an instant.
Using telekinesis to propel himself, he bounded across the rocky terrain with effortless strides and disappeared from sight in moments.
Just as worry began to creep in about being left alone, he mercifully returned.
“Found it. Let’s go.”
“Kyaaah!”
Without another word, he hoisted me up and slung me over his shoulder like a sack of cargo.
I let out a sharp cry, then shouted in indignant protest.
“Do we really have to go like this?!”
“Would you prefer to walk?”
“No! But there are more proper ways to carry someone!”
“Ha! You dare treat a Grand Duke like a pack mule?”
With that, he leaped off the rocky outcrop without warning.
“Ahhhhh!”
The dizzying sensation of freefall seized my entire body, and I had no choice but to scream as I clung desperately to his waist.
Serge paid me no mind whatsoever, bounding lightly across the stones like stepping stones.
The Gate connected to Acarna lay in the heart of the Sand Desert.
Whiiiiing—!
A colossal sandstorm swirled around it, already drawing in everything beyond the Gate.
Thud!
By the time Serge landed in that vicinity, I dangling from his shoulder was utterly disheveled.
“Kiiiiiek!”
“Kyak!”
Boom, crash—!
Like moths drawn to flame, the monsters rushing toward the Gate were effortlessly obliterated by him.
Thanks to telekinesis, the debris didn’t scatter toward us, but the corpse fragments spreading in all directions were utterly revolting.
Already nauseated from all the turbulence, and now there were monster carcasses flying through the air.
“Ugh… I think I’m going to be sick.”
I mumbled weakly, fighting back the urge to retch.
“Go ahead. If you want to eat it again afterward.”
Even as he said such a thing, he hastily lowered me to the ground.
He clearly didn’t want me vomiting all over his shoulder.
Feeling a twinge of disappointment, I turned my head toward the sand storm raging above the chasm.
Following the swirling tempest, massive boulders and trees sucked up from the ground spun at terrifying speed.
I couldn’t muster the courage to leap into that maelstrom.
“…We’ll have to wait until the Gate opens completely, won’t we?”
“Unless you want to get hit and broken, yeah.”
Boom, crash—!
He replied with irritating nonchalance, detonating a scorpion monster that had drawn near.
Watching him, I noticed something odd.
Serge only destroyed monsters that approached close enough to threaten us—he didn’t go out of his way to kill more than that.
It was unlike a monster slayer.
Normally, closing a Gate requires exterminating the entire horde of monsters.

55%

I checked the number above his head belatedly, but it was in the stable range.
It had risen considerably compared to when we were on Equinox Island, but not enough to make him hesitate using his ability out of concern for a rampage.
I tilted my head and asked.
“Why aren’t you killing them all?”
Boom!
He detonated another one and let out a scoff.
“I went through the trouble of entering the Gate myself to rescue the Princess, so should I also clean up someone else’s territory for them?”
His cheap reasoning made my brow furrow involuntarily.
He glanced at me sideways as if amused.
“Your older brother out there deserves a chance to show his worth too.”
“…”
“He’s been pacing back and forth, unable to decide whether to enter the Gate.”
My mood became complicated in an instant.
It sounded like while Ethan was deliberating whether to enter the Gate, Serge had entered without hesitation.
If Sephiroth hadn’t revealed such an enormous secret.
If I hadn’t seen that madwoman Ruellin doing whatever she pleased with my body, would I have been moved by what he said?
I don’t know.
Right now, I’m just too confused and angry.
I thought I’d been reincarnated into a novel, but it turns out it wasn’t a novel at all—and right now, someone else is inhabiting my real body.
I found it all but impossible to believe.
That was when it happened.
Whoooosh….
The terrifying sand storm that had been raging suddenly began to subside.
Boom! Thud—!
Along with it, the various objects that had been spinning and dancing within the tempest crashed to the ground one by one.
“Your Highness, the sand storm….”
“It’s stopped.”
Had the Gate already opened completely?
After waiting for all the dangerous debris to fall from the air, we rushed toward it immediately.
Within the deeply carved sand pit, a brilliant light seeped through a fissure.
But it was only open about one-third of the way, and it wasn’t circular.
This meant the Gate hadn’t opened fully.
Yet I couldn’t fathom why the pulling phenomenon had ceased.
“In any case, let’s return through this gap.”
Serge extended his hand toward me.
I didn’t take it immediately, instead lifting my gaze to look up at the sky.
The black hole still gaped wide open.
The Gate connected to the modern era where I originally lived.
‘…If I had thrown myself in recklessly back then, could I have returned?’
Belated regret washed over me.
Of course, I knew well that it wasn’t possible.
Setting aside Sephiroth’s warning about bodies potentially merging with other life forms.
With another person inside my body, there was no way I could return safely….
Yet with a passage home right before my eyes, my feet refused to move easily.
“Why that expression? Don’t you want to go? Would you rather live here?”
Serge asked, finding my vacant stare at the sky peculiar.
“No.”
Who in their right mind would want to live in a desert teeming with monsters!
I furrowed my brow.
And I murmured in a somewhat subdued voice.
“It’s such a rare phenomenon… I was wondering if I’d ever see it again.”
“Don’t worry.”
“…?”
“You’re a Purifier now anyway, so you’ll have to travel through Gates until you’re sick of them, won’t you? When that happens, you’ll see it again soon enough.”
What in the world….
It was unclear whether his words were comfort or mockery.
Yet strangely, his words brought me solace.
It was a curious thing.
‘That’s right. As long as I’m alive, there will be plenty of chances to return.’
After repeating it to myself several times and nodding, he smirked and snatched my hand.
“Stop hesitating.”
And without a moment’s pause, he leaped into the pit below.
“Ahhh!”
I screamed reflexively, wondering why on earth this man had come to rescue me.
‘At least say something before you drag me down, you bastard…!’
Soon, a brilliant light flickered before my eyes.
When I opened them again.
Thud!
I was cradled in Serge’s arms as we landed hard on solid ground.
“Edith Blake―!”
Just then, someone called my name from a distance and rushed toward me urgently.
It was Vincent.
And Ethan right behind him.
In an instant, I found myself surrounded by male leads one, two, and four.

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