A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 153

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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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153.

“…Edith Blake?”
Ruellin stared at me with a rather vacant expression.
It seemed she hadn’t received any advance notice of my arrival.
I decided to close the door I’d left open first.
Through the narrowing gap, I could see Ethan watching me with unmistakable suspicion.
Unlike the cheerful greeting he’d offered moments before, my face was now expressionless—a stark contrast that made him furrow his brow.
For an instant, as if he wanted to warn me about something, his lips moved.
Thud—
I shut the door firmly in his face, as if to spite him.
Turning back around, I saw a woman hastily gathering her blankets to rise from the bed.
“Just stay there.”
I walked slowly toward her.
There happened to be a chair placed beside the bed.
I didn’t need to guess whose seat it was.
‘So he spent the entire night here, nursing her with such devotion.’
I suppressed the bitter twist in my chest and collapsed into the chair.
Ruellin, who had been half-rising, settled back onto the bed at my words.
I leaned back against the chair’s support and asked slowly.
“How are you feeling? Any better?”
“Um….”
Ruellin nodded, then added timidly.
“How did you… come here, Edith Blake?”
“Why? Am I not allowed to visit you while you’re ill?”
“That’s not it, but I didn’t hear that you were coming.”
Ruellin fell silent, quietly gauging my reaction.
My sudden arrival seemed to have caught her quite off guard, making her nervous.
Her large emerald eyes swept over me ceaselessly.
I met that gaze unflinchingly, returning it with perfect composure.
“….”
A tense, breathless probe of each other’s intentions followed.
Truth be told, before entering the room, I’d harbored considerable concerns.
‘What if she can still manipulate minds?’
In the real world I’d observed through the crystal orb, her abilities clearly weren’t functioning properly.
But I couldn’t dismiss the possibility that her body’s transformation was responsible.
So direct confrontation was my only option.
I’d wanted to gather indirect confirmation through those I’d encountered before entering the room, but unfortunately, none of them had proven helpful.
Serge and Vincent appeared no different from usual, while Dylan’s inscrutable expression made it difficult to gauge anything from him.
Ethan, who had kept vigil at my side through the night, seemed the most likely candidate, so I swallowed my frustration and forced myself to engage him in conversation—but to no avail.
I learned nothing.
While the others had come to their own realizations about Ruellin’s true nature, Ethan had remained characteristically silent from the start.
Whether he was feigning ignorance or denying it to himself, I couldn’t say.
Perhaps his mind had been tampered with anew during the night, or perhaps something else entirely.
‘Useless bastard. Not worth a damn.’
I clicked my tongue softly, my brow furrowing.
It was then, as my gaze drifted absently toward Ruellin, that my eyes widened abruptly.
‘It’s… gone.’
The difference was so stark I couldn’t fathom why I hadn’t noticed it sooner.
Above Ruellin’s head…
There was nothing.
Her Magi reading was invisible—just like an ordinary person’s.
‘This can’t be right…’
I distinctly remembered her Magi level hovering near 93% when I last saw her on Equinox Island.
She had returned in the same body, yet her power had vanished?
‘Could it be… she’s not actually Ruellin?’
I kept my eyes narrowed, studying the space above her head repeatedly.
“So… how have you been?”
It seemed Ruellin had finished her initial assessment and broke the silence first, opening the conversation.
I snapped back to awareness.
“…Fine. Getting by.”
Whether her ability was truly mind manipulation, and whether she could still use it, remained unclear.
I needed to keep my wits about me from this point forward.
Ruellin spoke casually, as though greeting an old friend she hadn’t seen in ages, seemingly oblivious to—or perhaps aware of—my inner turmoil.
“I heard you awakened as a Purifier right after I was kidnapped. Late as it is, I really do congratulate you, Edith.”
“Who told you?”
“Huh?”
“Who did you hear that from?”
“Oh… from Ethan…”
So he’d already spilled everything?
It wasn’t a grave mistake to have disclosed my awakening, yet somehow everything about it rubbed me the wrong way.
Noticing my displeased expression, Ruellin fidgeted and added hastily.
“W-was it supposed to be a secret? Ethan did nothing wrong! I pestered him to explain what happened while I was gone, so he told me.”
“…”
“Is it… still not going well between you and Ethan? Did you two fight because he couldn’t come home yesterday because of me?”
Her eyes gleamed with hope and subtle encouragement, as if she were wishing for exactly that.
Ruellin’s intentions were transparent as glass.
I wondered what the real Edith would have made of this.
Should I have let myself be provoked by Ruellin’s manipulation, shouting at the top of my lungs for all to hear: “Who are you to speak of what lies between us?”
Or perhaps I should have ostentatiously displayed my familiarity with Ethan, earning her pitying mockery disguised as sympathy.
But unfortunately, he held far too little value for me to play along with her desires.
“We’re hardly children, and there’s nothing wrong with our relationship. We simply crossed paths briefly outside your door.”
“Ah….”
A sound escaped Ruellin—whether relief or disappointment, I couldn’t quite tell.
But it was short-lived.
Her expression shifted strangely at my next words.
“I wanted to tell you about my awakening directly, actually. I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance.”
“….”
“My awakening might very well be thanks to you, Ruellin. Don’t you think?”
I finished speaking with a twisted smile.
At my meaningful words, her bright eyes wavered once.

― By now, Edith Blake should be impersonating me. The soul-swap spell definitely succeeded back then…?

That insane scheme is precisely why I’m standing here now.
At first, I resented being reincarnated as a villain, enduring all manner of humiliation.
I was sick of dealing with those contemptible fools who seized every opportunity to provoke me.
But now, looking back, it was a blessing that the soul-swap spell only half-succeeded.
Had I possessed that body instead, I wouldn’t have been able to purify those wretched male leads, and my identity would have been exposed far sooner—or worse, I’d have been forced into a genuine romance with them alongside Ruellin.
The mere thought made my stomach churn with nausea.
I genuinely wondered how Ruellin would react to my words.
Would she play innocent and feign ignorance?
Or would she suspect whether I was truly Edith Blake, as she had in the crystal orb?
The latter would certainly make conversation easier.
But then.
“…You know, Edith Blake.”
Ruellin truly had a gift for saying the most unexpected things.
“I don’t resent you. I’m not jealous either.”
“…What?”
“What happened in Tollen was dangerous, yes, but it’s all in the past now, isn’t it?”
“….”
“You’re fine now, and you’ve even awakened as the Purifier you always dreamed of becoming—so maybe my prayers were answered after all!”
“…What prayers?”
“I often prayed that everyone would be happy. You’re my precious friend, after all, Edith Blake.”
Ha.
A laugh escaped me at that radiant face, as though she harbored not a single ulterior motive.
Yet she paid no mind to my reaction whatsoever, continuing to chatter away.
“How are things with Vincent these days? There were so many visitors I never got a chance to talk with you properly.”
“….”
“Every time she went to the Gate and returned, she needed purification, didn’t she? That must have been tedious.”
“….”
“Dylan tends to hold things in for a long time before speaking right before he goes berserk—did you purify him properly when the time came? Ethan is fine in every other way, but his obsession with cleanliness means he hates anyone else’s touch, so….”
“Enough.”
I couldn’t listen to any more of this.
I shot up from my seat, cutting her off mid-sentence.
“So. What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Huh? I, I was just….”
“Are you curious how I managed what you abandoned?”
Ruellin looked up at me with wide, startled eyes.
Her expression crumpled as she fumbled for words.
“To just abandon it like that… I was so worried you’d been carrying too much alone all this time. I’m sorry.”
“….”
“Even though you hated me, I still thought of you as a friend….”
“A friend? You call that….”
At this rate, we’d spiral endlessly like a broken record, trapped in circular conversations that led nowhere.
This sort of leading interrogation was never my style.
“Ruellin.”
I leaned forward, bringing my face close to hers.
Then I whispered quickly and softly enough that my words wouldn’t carry beyond the chamber walls.
“There are limits to audacity. Are you really in a position to say such things to me?”
“What do you….”
“If you were so concerned, you could have purified me yourself the moment you saw me. Why can’t you do it now?”
“I, Edith Blake.”
“Because you can’t steal my ability in secret using that damned mind control of yours anymore?”

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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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