A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 166

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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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166.

“I’m dying….”
After spending the entire day crammed in a shabby public carriage, my condition had deteriorated to its worst by the time we reached Volner.
Alongside the crushing fatigue came bitter regret—questioning whether all this was truly necessary.
Fortunately, Nancy had thoughtfully packed Eston’s fatigue recovery elixir; without it, I might have collapsed in the street, retching.
I hastily retrieved it and swallowed it down, then donned the mask Sephirot had given me.
‘I need to keep my wits about me from here on.’
Unlike the Capital, where most shops shuttered after evening, the streets of Volner blazed bright as midday even as midnight approached.
I drew upon my memory and made straight for the tavern district where S-Class Beer was located.
The alleyway was fairly deserted.
Staggering drunks and visibly dangerous tattooed men appeared sporadically, but none paid me any attention.
It seemed to be due to the peculiar deer mask adorning my face.
‘Whether to count that as a blessing….’
With mixed feelings, I stepped into S-Class Beer, where the elderly Tavern Owner was tidying the empty establishment.
“I apologize, but we’re closed for the evening.”
“….”
“Wait, where are you going——!”
Ignoring him, I headed straight for the back door, and I heard him click his tongue in bewilderment behind me.
But as before, the Tavern Owner made no move to stop me.
Fortunately, the Guide sent by the Detective Agency was waiting as promised in front of the back door.
“Follow me.”
The Middle-aged Man, built like a bear, took the lead without further words.
Throughout our journey through the tedious slopes and alleyways, the Guide remained silent.
His fierce countenance ensured that no one we encountered dared provoke us.
Moreover, he seemed to know the slum geography better than that shoe-shiner, allowing us to reach our destination considerably faster than before.

I cannot provide a reliable translation for this text as it appears to contain corrupted or garbled Korean characters that don’t form coherent words or meaningful content.

After crossing through a dark alley where not even a rat would dare venture, a desolate abandoned building came into view.
The fallen signboard, shattered windows scattered here and there, and cobwebs draped across the entrance—all exactly as I had seen them in my dream.
To be honest, I didn’t even want to approach it, let alone enter.
The only consolation was the surprising fact that lights were on inside.
Moreover, the door stood wide open as if the place were actively operating.
“You must come out by 3 o’clock at the latest. I’ll wait nearby.”
The Guide, scrutinizing the building with a clearly displeased expression, gave me his instructions.
Apparently as reluctant to linger in this ominous place as I was, he vanished swiftly down the alley the moment I nodded in acknowledgment.
With even my reliable companion gone, tension suddenly crashed over me.
Would I truly be able to return safely if I went inside?
‘I don’t want to go….’
The instant that thought crossed my mind, I shook my head firmly.
‘But what choice do I have? Is there any other way?’
At this point, my only option was to meet Sephiroth directly and ask him how to use the Book of Prophecy.
Steeling my resolve, I forced my reluctant feet forward.
Ducking low to avoid the cobwebs and passing through the entrance, I found someone sitting at the counter.
I felt a brief moment of relief that there was an owner, but my hopes instantly deflated when I saw they wore the same mask as mine.
Tap.
The Deer-Masked Maid handed me a key without uttering a single word upon seeing me.
Room 410.
The exact same room number I had seen in my dream.
It was the very room where Edith Blake, controlled by Ruellin, had purified Vincent.
Whether by coincidence or design, I silently snatched the key.
As I climbed the stairs hesitantly, faint moans echoed from somewhere.
“Uhhhhh….”
“Ughhhh….”
Damn it.
Eerie moans like funeral dirges drifting from various corners of this derelict building in the dead of night.
It was more than unsettling—I felt as though my sanity might unravel.
I would have preferred the sound of people chanting Sephiroth’s name in prayer, like when I went to that place with Serge.
Suppressing the urge to bolt immediately, I forced myself up to the fourth floor.
And finally, I could locate the source of those moans.
“What in the world….”
As I absently crossed the corridor and peered into an open room, I was utterly horrified.
Most of the guest rooms contained a single person each.
In some rooms, figures lay motionless on beds as if dead; in others, people crawled across the floor in convulsions.
In yet another room, someone stood before the door, staring at me with vacant, unfocused eyes.
A chill ran down my spine, raising every hair on my body.
Not a single sane person remained.
They were all uniformly Erosion Infected.
Humans infected by the Magi barrier stood within a wide-open door—without even the minimal safety of bars or restraints.
‘Is he out of his mind?’
What was he thinking, leaving the door open like that? If those creatures burst out into the corridor…
Yet whatever measures he’d taken, the Erosion Infected didn’t rush at me savagely upon seeing my face.
That didn’t mean I could relax.
If all these creatures attacked me at once, I couldn’t guarantee my safety until I purified every last one of them.
‘Could I even purify them all?’
I hadn’t seen it directly, but the other floors surely held similar numbers of infected.
Every floor I’d passed on the staircase had its lights on.
This building itself was nothing short of an Erosion Infected nest.
‘I need to leave. Now.’
If Sephiroth had summoned me here to trap me, it was brilliantly executed.
No matter how well I could use purification, I couldn’t handle this many.
Whatever he’d done, the infected in the room still showed no signs of rushing at me.
This was my chance.
It was the moment I forced my stiffened legs to take a half-step backward.
“You’re just going to leave?”
A soft voice suddenly echoed from the end of the corridor.
I lifted my head with a start, and at the far end of the opposite corridor, a shadow appeared as if materializing from thin air.
A deer mask—unnaturally vivid and lifelike, starkly different from my own pale, smooth reflection.
It was Sephiroth.
“If you’re afraid of those children, don’t worry. They won’t attack you.”
“….”
“My creations, you might say. Halfway successful ones.”
I didn’t need to ask—I already knew those creatures he casually called ‘children’ were the Erosion Infected locked in the room.
At the same moment, my mind, frozen like stone, began to turn, dredging up unwanted information.
That injecting an Awakener’s blood into an Erosion Infected didn’t just cure them, but temporarily granted them supernatural abilities. The experiments conducted in the Imperial Palace on Awakeners without backing.
How Ruellin had been extracting blood from the male leads through mental domination and offering it freely…
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Gathering Erosion Infected like this… dangerously… why bring me to this place…”
Faced with such an absurd situation, my words came out fragmented and disjointed.
The deer-headed figure at the corridor’s end tilted its head quizzically.
“What’s the problem? I thought you roughly understood what I was doing…”
“….”
“Anyway, it’s safe. Come in. We have things to discuss.”
With that, the figure turned and entered the room at the very end of the corridor.
Undoubtedly Room 410.
Naturally, I couldn’t follow easily.
I’d thought it was a trap, but his composure created confusion instead.
In truth, Sephiroth had no immediate reason or motivation to kill me.
I had never antagonized him or done anything to provoke him enough to warrant such action.
There existed a possibility he might kill me and seize the Crystal Orb and the Book of Prophecy, but if that were his intent, he wouldn’t have summoned me here.
‘So why call me to this place of all locations?’
I had no curiosity about what he was secretly orchestrating, nor did I wish to know.
Whether he dreamed of the world’s destruction as Ruellin had said was none of my concern.
Yet standing here idly would accomplish nothing in uncovering his schemes.
If I wasn’t going to retreat, direct confrontation was my only option.
“Haa….”
I exhaled deeply and began moving forward, step by careful step.
“Hweeeek….”
“Grrrrgh….”
The grotesque cries of the Erosion Infected continued to seep through the open doorway.
I braced myself, fully prepared to purify them the moment they lunged, yet strangely, the creatures within remained docile.
Had the experiment—or whatever it was—succeeded as Sephiroth claimed, restoring some semblance of reason to them?
Was such a thing truly possible without purification?
‘But the last one was like that too. What was her name… Ayla?’
As I recalled the corpse-like appearance of that girl I’d seen at the Duke’s Castle in Acarna.
I finally reached the end of the corridor.
The door to Room 410 stood wide open.
Unlike the other rooms, Room 410 remained dark, its lights extinguished.
Only moonlight filtering through the window cracks illuminated the space within.
I stood before it and quickly surveyed the interior.
The scene differed little from what I’d witnessed in my dream.
A shabby bed and table—that was all that furnished this modest-sized room.
The difference lay only in this: upon the bed lay not Vincent but someone else wearing the same deer mask as myself, resting quietly, while before the window stood a pseudo cult leader instead of Ruellin.
“Welcome, Edith Blake.”
“….”
“Or would you prefer I call you Dr. Yu?”
Then, Sephiroth removed that grotesque deer mask and turned toward me.
A face identical to Ruellin’s.
As even that single distinguishing feature I’d noted vanished, I felt as though I were trapped within Edith Blake’s own nightmare.
A very long, terrifying one at that.

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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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