A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 144

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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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144.

It wasn’t particularly surprising news, given that I’d threatened to expose everything to the Emperor and the Security Bureau immediately.
Vincent had already harbored suspicions about this once before.
‘Is it finally time for the memories to return?’
It seemed Ruellin’s mental manipulation ability wasn’t permanent after all.
I regarded Dylan with an impassive expression and asked.
“What made you come to that conclusion?”
“…Until now, I believed the Young Lady appearing in my dreams was merely a hallucination or a manifestation of my unconscious mind.”
His voice grew darker as he continued.
“But…after learning that the Young Lady purified Equinox Island and then Acarna, I suddenly realized something.”
“….”
“Ruellin has never once purified a contaminated zone using the same method of summoning rain as the Young Lady.”
“….”
“I don’t know what exactly Ruellin has done, but it seems she’s been deceiving everyone all along, stealing the Young Lady’s abilities and impersonating the Purifier….”
He spoke quietly, then suddenly fell silent.
For a moment, his ashen eyes flickered intensely.
“…You already knew, didn’t you?”
I hesitated briefly before nodding slowly.
“To some extent.”
“How….”
“I had dreams too, just like you.”
In that instant.
Crack.
Like a mask shattering, Dylan’s expressionless face contorted violently.
He stared at me with eyes wide in disbelief, then asked in an intense voice.
“Why…why didn’t you tell anyone about this?”
“Tell whom?”
“People…the Security Bureau, the Awakeners. Or at the very least, you could have confided in me…!”
“Tell you…why?”
Why should I have told you of all people?
I genuinely didn’t understand, so I asked back—and Dylan flinched as if struck without warning.
Then, in a trembling voice, he stammered.
“…Whenever you had troubles you couldn’t speak of, didn’t you always confide in me first?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about from years ago.”
“Aren’t you angry? Ruellin…that vulgar witch dared to deceive and manipulate you with her mysterious sorcery…!”
“A vulgar witch…haha.”
Watching Dylan grow more indignant than I was, a hollow laugh escaped me without my realizing it.
Of course, from his perspective, it was more than enough reason to be angry.
He’d been deceived by Ruellin for years, so it made sense that he felt betrayed and confused.
‘But why would you confess to him of all people?’
Who do you think you are?
I wiped away the weak smile that had been playing at my lips and fixed him with a cold stare.
“You’re infatuated with that vulgar witch, wavering over a proposal, ignoring me whether I live or die—and you expect me to confide in someone like that?”
“…”
“What could possibly make you worthy of my trust?”
Dylan flinched visibly.
In his ash-gray eyes, which had been burning with determination, I caught a fleeting glimpse of pain, regret, and wounded pride.
He bit his lower lip hard, then spoke with a choked voice.
“I was deceived too.”
“…”
“No matter how favorably I viewed Ruellin at the time, if I had known you were suffering such injustice…!”
“Lord Frederick.”
I raised a hand to cut off his meaningless excuses.
“Haven’t I told you this before? A cup once broken cannot be mended and used again.”
“…Edith Blake.”
“It’s all in the past now. With the person involved gone, whatever you say now holds no weight—there’s no evidence to convince anyone, no way to persuade them.”
“…”
“The past must remain buried.”
If the one standing here now were the real Edith Blake instead of me.
Perhaps she would have been moved by Vincent or Dylan finally awakening to Ruellin’s true nature and her crimes, and with their help, she would have tried to expose everything to the world somehow.
But me?
Already branded as the last remaining Purifier.
I couldn’t see what benefit such troublesome efforts would bring me.
At best, I’d receive pity and sympathy from people I don’t even know.
The shallow trust and love of those who suddenly claim their feelings for Ruellin were never genuine the moment she disappeared—the very person they were so desperately devoted to.
What use would any of that be to me?
“…Then how will your honor be restored?”
That was when.
Dylan looked at me with dark eyes and spoke.
“The distorted reputation and rumors about you. The injustice you suffered because of Ruellin, the tears you must have shed…”
“…”
“Even if all of that remains buried, you don’t care?”
I narrowed my brows and asked sharply.
“Why would you concern yourself with that?”
“Should I not?”
Dylan didn’t back down and answered immediately.
“If I could atone to you now, if I could repent…”
“…”
“Am I not even permitted to admire you, Edith Blake, on my own?”
Dylan’s blunt words left me momentarily speechless.
Unlike before, he showed no inclination whatsoever to conceal his feelings.
It was an audacious, selfish, and utterly absurd confession.
‘Admire? Why on earth… what do you know about me, and how much have you truly seen?’
I refused to believe the nonsense that his feelings toward Edith Blake were actually love rather than hatred.
He avoided even chance encounters with someone he claimed to love, despised her.
He had even turned a blind eye to her fate, indifferent to whether she lived or died.
No matter how much his mind had been manipulated, such a thing could never be called love.
‘Then when did it start? After I possessed this body?’
Because I didn’t cling to him with tedious persistence like Edith Blake, because my demeanor had changed?
‘What, you’ve never met a woman who treats you coldly before? That kind of sentiment?’
Whatever the reason.
Along with my displeasure came an indescribable feeling.
‘You should have done so long ago.’
Before I was dragged into this cursed world.
Before Ruellin, that damned bastard, killed Edith Blake with some ridiculous soul-exchange technique or whatever nonsense it was.
With that thought came a belated realization that struck the back of my head.
‘…She was ultimately killed by everyone.’
Not by playing the role of a despicable villain as written in the Book of Prophecy and meeting a tragic end.
She died because of Ruellin’s greed to cross over to the modern world where I lived and the male leads’ twisted affection mixed with inferiority complexes.
And all of that became the cause of my being dragged into this cursed world.
Upon realizing this, one corner of my heart froze over with desolation.
‘Can all of that be brushed aside with nothing but the fact that I was deceived by Ruellin?’
I don’t know.
What mattered was that I had no concern for the feelings of those who contributed to my being dragged here.
“…Well, your feelings are entirely your own, of course. However.”
I regarded Dylan with cold, frozen eyes and spoke bluntly.
“I would prefer that you not use me to ease your own conscience under the guise of atonement.”
“I’m not trying to use you. There is no such intention whatsoever…!”
“I don’t understand why you keep excluding yourself.”
I cut off Dylan’s words and added coldly.
“Whether you were deceived by Ruellin or not, you are also one of the perpetrators who dragged my honor and reputation through the mud.”
“…!”
He drew in a sharp breath.
His reddish-brown pupils dilated harshly.
It was at that moment.
“His Imperial Majesty the Emperor has arrived―!”
With the grand announcement, the Ballroom erupted into commotion.
“I should head back now.”
I turned away from Dylan coldly, who stood frozen and unable to speak a word.
He did not reach for me again as I made my way toward the Ballroom without hesitation.
It was a rejection as absolute and unmistakable as they come.

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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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