A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 171

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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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171.

The green flames continued to consume the entire building for another hour before gradually subsiding.
Throughout the chaos, I examined Dylan, who remained motionless.

37%

The drastically reduced number caught my eye first.
I hadn’t intended to purify Dylan, yet I’d ended up preventing his rampage once again.
Whether he’d been dragged from the Count’s estate or not, he wore loose casual clothes instead of the rigid armor I usually saw him in.
His face was deathly pale, likely from blood loss.
Finger-shaped bruises in a sickly blue color marked his neck where Sephiroth had choked him.
‘…He’s not dead, is he?’
Fear seized me, and I hastily pressed my finger beneath his nose, then checked his wrist pulse multiple times.
Fortunately, both his breathing and pulse seemed normal. Though I’m no doctor, so I couldn’t be entirely certain…
While I was at it, I removed the syringe embedded in his arm and pulled his cravat loose to apply rough pressure to stop the bleeding.
Honestly, I had no idea why I was doing this.
I could have simply left the moment Sephiroth disappeared.
But I’d heard that unsettling sound.
‘Petty sympathy?’
To summarize: Dylan Frederick had become an Erosion Infected while saving his former master, Edith Blake, in the past.
Sephiroth had brought him here and resurrected him as an Awakener through human experimentation.
The blood injected into him came from his biological father, the Previous Count Frederick, so he likely manifested as an S-rank Awakener without much difficulty…
And the rest was a story I already knew well.
Ruellin appeared and manipulated his mind, making him despise Edith Blake.
“…So what?”
Should I accept it as justified just because he had a tragic backstory?
It all happened long before I possessed this body anyway. What does it have to do with me?
Bitterness rose alongside increasingly twisted thoughts.
Perhaps I was angry that his existence had become a tool Sephiroth used to coerce me.
Or perhaps I was contemptuous of how he remained shackled to the past despite Ruellin’s abilities disappearing, dragged along helplessly.
Maybe I was resentful of my own pathetic self, lingering here out of some foolish concern that he might die because of me.
“Who am I to pity anyone?”
Unlike someone exhausted, he appeared to be in deep sleep—and it infuriated me.
I gazed down at his serene, handsome face with irritation.

— Am I not even permitted to atone and repent now? To harbor affection for you alone, Edith, in solitude?

How could I possibly speak of atonement or longing when I didn’t even know how my own body had been exploited all this time?
‘…But wait, is he actually alright?’
He’d been forcibly transformed from an Erosion Infected into an Awakener without any purification process—I wasn’t sure if he could even be called a proper human anymore.
Of course, he’d received purification from Edith Blake and myself multiple times since then…
That was when it happened.
His delicately closed eyelids suddenly trembled, and gradually, ash-gray eyes were revealed.
“Master…”
Dylan gazed at me with a drowsy expression, as though wandering through a dream.
Surely it should have been difficult to recognize me with the mask on.
Yet somehow he seemed to recognize me immediately, offering a faint smile.
“…Are you… alright?”
“…”
“I was worried. I feared you might have been hurt because of me…”
His voice, rendered excessively hoarse from his injured throat, continued as though it might break at any moment.
“Are you… attending the masquerade?”
“…”
“Forgive me. I was so presumptuous to delay… I’ll get up right away and help you prepare. Just give me a moment…”
Thud.
The hand extended into empty space, as if seeking my permission, finally fell limp and powerless.
Unable to overcome the drowsiness washing over him, his eyelids closed once more.
“Ha…”
Only then did I exhale the breath I’d been holding.
For some reason, I couldn’t move or breathe while he was speaking.
The way he looked at me with concern, despite being unable to even support his own body—it was far too warm, too gentle.
It felt as though I’d glimpsed something I shouldn’t have seen, and the feeling was…
“Focus on your own body.”
I snapped irritably, furrowing my brow.
“Get your head straight and handle situations like this on your own. It’s not like I’m going to feel sorry for you anyway…”
Your master is dead now, after all.
I barely swallowed the words that were about to slip out.
For some reason, it felt like I shouldn’t say that.
Even if I told the sleeping man, he wouldn’t remember anyway…
“What am I even doing here right now…”
Suddenly, a wave of existential dread washed over me.
In any case, I’d purified him and tended to his wounds—surely that fulfilled my moral obligation to someone dragged into this because of me.
‘And it’s not like this is entirely my fault, is it?’
Strictly speaking, it was that deranged cult leader’s doing.
Having cast off my sense of debt, I promptly left Room 410.
Unlike when I’d arrived, the corridor was now silent.
Whether the Erosion Infected throughout the building had all been purified along with the raging flames, lifeless forms lay scattered in the guest rooms.
Not a single person made an odd sound or twitched even slightly.
Only then did the tension drain from my body with a sharp exhale.
The backlash from overusing my ability manifested just as I was about to climb the landing to head downstairs.
“…Ah.”
My vision blurred and dizziness crashed over me without warning.
If I hadn’t reflexively grabbed the railing, I would have tumbled down the stairs without a chance to stop myself.
Blood drained from my entire body downward, and my legs lost all strength.
I collapsed right there and gasped heavily for a while.
Only after the dizziness finally subsided did my blurred vision return to normal.
‘I need to move quickly.’
Unsteadily rising to my feet, I hurried to check the window in the corridor first.
Damn it—dawn was breaking.
I’d been so focused on wrestling with that unreasonable charlatan that I hadn’t noticed time slipping away.
‘I was supposed to be out by 3 o’clock… The Guide must have already left.’
The thought of escaping this ant-hill of a slum made my vision darken.
Could my body even hold out until I reached the Main Road?
With nothing but the resolve to get out of the building, I gritted my teeth and descended the staircase.
But regrettably, my ordeal was far from over.
“There! That woman!”
Five or six people wielding clubs greeted me in the First Floor Lobby.
All of them wore the same white Deer-Masked Maid masks.
They were cult followers.
‘So there were more besides the one at the counter.’
Of course—one person couldn’t have moved all those Erosion Infected that filled the rooms.
While my exhausted mind was processing this, the followers rushed toward me.
“Hey! You did this, didn’t you? Are you the Purifier?”
“Sephiroth said our son was about to become an Awakener, but what is all this?!”
“My sister too! What is this—you ruined everything! The previous Purifier never did anything like this….”
Before I could respond, accusations and laments poured down on me.
They appeared to be families of the Erosion Infected.
I understood the situation well enough, but I had no idea what to say.
I’d only done my duty as the Purifier—why were these people so furious with me?
As if they were becoming Awakeners through legitimate means.
When it came down to it, all of these people were criminals conspiring with Sephiroth.
Too exhausted to argue, I just stared blankly, when one of them pointed an accusing finger at me.
“You’re not one of our followers, are you? Are you a dog sent by the Security Bureau?!”
“She’s definitely a spy! Take her to Sephiroth right now!”
“This damned wretch! Take responsibility! My son’s life—you’re responsible!”
They surrounded me as if they would drag me away that very instant.
I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity.
I’d barely managed to drive Sephiroth away, only to find myself being dragged right back toward him.
But unfortunately, I possessed virtually no combat or defensive abilities whatsoever.
Even if I had, my current physical condition made it impossible to face multiple opponents.
So when they roughly seized both my arms and restrained me, I found myself surrendering to resignation.
‘Fine. Drag me away then. Go ahead.’
As I was hauled out of the Hotel, my vision began to blur.
I felt certain I would lose consciousness any moment now.
With each step, my legs buckled beneath me.
‘They’re not actually going to drag me like this, are they?’
Please, at least a Carriage, or even a cart….
That was the moment it happened.
Suddenly, my right arm felt loose.
Boom―!
With a deafening crash, one of the people holding me vanished.
I didn’t even have time to comprehend what was happening.
Boom, boom! Boom―!
A succession of thunderous impacts echoed as bodies were slammed into the ground, the Building, and the Perimeter Wall.
In an instant, everyone surrounding me disappeared, leaving me alone.
Having lost the support that kept me upright, I collapsed helplessly to the ground.
Or rather, just as I was about to fall.
Whoosh―
“You should settle your debts properly before you leave, Princess.”
Someone caught me by the waist, pulling me back.
“You seemed so meticulous about settling accounts, so why this? You’re making me misunderstand.”
“….”
“You kissed me without any price, then disappeared. And now some naive fool like me gets all excited and flustered, and if I end up clinging to you alone out of misunderstanding… what then, huh?”
With the rising sun at his back, the man seemed to cast no light whatsoever.
Hair like ebony, eyes like the abyss.
Amid all that darkness, only his crimson lips held any color, curving upward in a cruel smile.
“Did your little outing prove entertaining?”
It was Serge Belnak.

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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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