A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 168

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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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168.

“…What?”
“The Book of Prophecy exchanges half your lifespan for the method to grant your wish. Then it takes the remaining half once you’ve achieved it.”
“Ha.”
The price for such a grandiose wish left me utterly speechless.
“Why are you telling me something this important only now!”
“If your desire is desperate enough that you wouldn’t need to be told—if you’d willingly die the moment your wish is granted—the Book of Prophecy resonates with you and you naturally come to understand this truth.”
“….”
“And you have failed.”
Sephiroth recited the bare reality of my situation with clinical detachment.
Failed.
At that word, it felt as though a heavy stone crashed down upon my head with a resounding thud.
“No, that’s not it.”
I denied it irritably, gnawing at my lip.
Failed, my foot.
What I wished for back then was merely….
Just a casual attempt on a whim, half-doubting whether it would even work. Nothing more than that.
Had I known there were such grave conditions involving the exchange of my lifespan, I would never have made such a pathetic wish.
“…I’ll go back and try again.”
That will work. There’s no need to panic. I still have forty-one days left.
As I muttered to myself like a madwoman, staring into empty air, Sephiroth exploited the opening.
“What if you fail again?”
I snapped my gaze toward him, my voice dropping to something sinister.
“…Then you’re the one who pays the price.”
“….”
“You failed to uphold the terms of our deal.”
Perhaps he sensed some resolve in the way I stared at him without blinking, without wavering.
Sephiroth subtly averted his gaze from my seething stare.
“…There is a method, though.”
“A method?”
“Only, you won’t be able to return to the form of Yu Sol that you desire.”
“What do you mean by that….”
“You may already know this, but I intend to create Paradise soon.”
“….”
“My wish is to redistribute the power that’s irrationally given and create an equal society. A world where humans, plants, animals, and Erosion Beings alike all have the chance to thrive—fair, peaceful, and happy.”
I furrowed my brow at this abrupt non sequitur.
“Whether you create Paradise or Hell, what does that have to do with me going back?”
“For everyone to be equal, shouldn’t we start by eliminating the Gates that open so haphazardly?”
A scoff escaped me at what sounded like the same naive drivel Ruellin would spout.
“How exactly would you eliminate them? Are you a god?”
“It’s simple. We just need to unify all the dimensions connected through the Gates.”
“Unify…?”
“Yes.”
The man nodded, speaking with such casual lightness that he might as well have been recommending a trip to a nearby amusement park.
“Then you could easily travel back and forth to where you originally lived.”
Suddenly, exhaustion washed over me.
I lifted my hand to brush back the hair that had fallen across my forehead and asked slowly.
“So what you’re saying is… you want to merge my original world with this one?”
“Not just those two—all dimensions connected through the Gates.”
“God, this is insane….”
Why was I even listening to this nonsense?
I’d struggled so hard to escape the Grand Duke’s Residence and made it all this way, only to gain absolutely nothing.
I had no immediate way to return home, nothing but the unlucky news that my body had only forty-one days left to live, and the knowledge that using the Book of Prophecy would require paying some burdensome price.
‘World destruction, he says.’
When I’d heard it from Ruellin, it was absurd enough, but hearing his own stated objective was far more ridiculous.
What was I supposed to say to something so delusional, the kind of insane rambling a cult leader would spout?
“…I’d rather world destruction be just a dream.”
“Why would we destroy the world when we’re just trying to make a living?”
Sephiroth rolled his eyes as if hearing something tediously dull.
His attitude—as if he genuinely believed this would come to pass—unsettled me.
“…Fine, let’s say everything happens exactly as you say. But what about the monsters? They’ll attack humans, won’t they?”
“They’re all living creatures too, and if we provide them with separate habitats to settle in, we can prevent unnecessary killing.”
“What about wars between the humans from each world? How will you prevent that kind of chaos?”
“I told you—we’ll redistribute power.”
“Power isn’t something only Awakeners possess.”
I wasn’t sure if he knew this, but in the modern era where I came from, there were countless weapons beyond what Awakeners wielded.
From swords and guns to cannons, torpedoes, missiles, rockets, and nuclear weapons….
In other unknown dimensions, there might exist weapons far more devastating than any of these.
But I couldn’t press the matter further.
The way Sephiroth wore that strange smile made him seem like someone for whom such details were utterly irrelevant.
And so his preposterous talk of unifying dimensions felt all the more genuine, all the more sincere.
“…What do you gain from doing something like that?”
“I wonder.”
“….”
“Do you want to rule as king in this new world….”
My tone was light, almost joking.
For someone planning something so mad, there had to be some desperate motivation, some driving purpose behind it all.
Yet for some reason, he merely shrugged as if he himself wasn’t entirely certain.
“The real issue is that the current reality—where only some Awakeners are granted power—is profoundly unjust. Haven’t you felt that way before?”
“What do you—”
“Rather than a pathetic ability like purification, wouldn’t it be better to possess an ability that could directly punish the humans who torment you?”
I tried not to show my agitation, but I flinched involuntarily.
It was as though he had peered directly into the depths of my soul.
“When you learned about Edith Blake through the Book of Prophecy, how did that feel? Didn’t you ever think it was pitiful that she suffered such brutal discrimination simply for failing to Awaken?”
I didn’t even need to go as far as Edith Blake.
My life before the possession was already a complete mess.
“Think about it. Wouldn’t it be more advantageous to step forward with that body rather than remain as powerless as Yu Sol?”
“…”
“No one would dare disrespect The Purifier, and you could complete your research far more easily.”
“…”
“If things unfold as I say, everything becomes possible.”
It was sophistry. Discrimination existed even before Awakeners came into being.
Even if the world were turned upside down tomorrow and Gates and abilities vanished entirely, social status, class hierarchy, and wealth disparity wouldn’t disappear.
And yet, I acknowledged it.
The absurd world he dreamed of sounded remarkably plausible.
Honestly, I was tempted for a moment.
During my time as Yu Sol, I yearned to become an Awakener more than anyone.
My biological father’s abuse, my step-siblings’ contempt, and the world’s discrimination against non-Awakeners had been brutally harsh.
So… his cunning tongue shook me with ease.
The dreamlike scenarios he described formed effortlessly in my mind.
The General’s daughter—once an ugly duckling—returning triumphantly as The Purifier.
Cleaning up the mess Ruellin had created, finally succeeding in commercializing cure-1, and becoming fabulously wealthy.
‘But what good would any of that do?’
The real Yu Sol was dead, after all.
A blonde woman with blue eyes stubbornly insisting before my biological father that she was ‘Yu Sol’ flashed through my mind.
When asked how she could possibly be Yu Sol, stammering excuses about how a malevolent demon’s soul-exchange spell had failed, forcing me into a different world, and in the meantime Yu Sol had died.
All of it seemed trivial and sordid.
Dreams are beautiful precisely because they remain dreams.
Besides, hadn’t he just taught me this lesson firsthand?
That every deed demands its corresponding price.
“…So what is it you want from me?”
As if to prove that nothing in this world is free, Sephiroth’s eyes gleamed with an eerie light.
“Your purification ability and a small measure of cooperation.”
“Ugh…”
Just as his words ended, the Awakener on the bed convulsed with a pained groan.
The bucket that had been half-full sloshed precariously, threatening to overflow.
According to his words, I too should have been lying there in such a pitiful state, being drained of blood.
Everyone must be treated equally and fairly, so abilities need to be redistributed.
But who decides who receives new abilities?
What about the Awakeners who lose their powers while standing idle? Are they not supposed to feel the injustice of it?
Sephiroth, who claimed he’d rule as king in a world without discrimination—what about you?
By your own logic, you shouldn’t even be revered as a cult leader.
“Ha ha….”
Endless questions bubbled up inside me, and laughter spilled out unbidden.
But it was short-lived. I wiped the smile from my face and sneered.
“Then start by extracting your own power and giving it to the Erosion Infected.”
“…What?”
“You said you’d redistribute strength to create an equal world, didn’t you? You possess such tremendous ability that you can withstand the combined assault of every Awakener. Shouldn’t you at least make a show of leading by example? Otherwise, why should I believe a word you say?”
Had he not anticipated such a response?
The mask-like, expressionless face finally cracked—a hairline fracture appeared.
Those green eyes, which seemed unmoved by anything I said, wavered with confusion.
That expression was identical to Ruellin’s from yesterday… and it made my skin crawl.
“Why? You don’t want to? Because you’re too precious and special? Because you’re such an extraordinary being who must merge dimensions and create Paradise?”
“….”
“I see now why I hated you from the start. You and Ruellin are disgustingly identical in your selfishness….”
“….”
“You’re repulsive.”
“….”
“You’re vile.”

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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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