A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 175
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
175.
***
Count Frederick was dead.
He’d slaughtered every villager without exception.
How many he’d killed was irrelevant.
What remained unclear was why he’d died.
I’d searched his decomposing corpse countless times, but aside from minor contusions, there were no fatal wounds that could have caused death.
Not suicide. Not murder.
He’d contracted some unknown illness, yet if he’d possessed the strength to slaughter so many people, it meant he couldn’t have been so frail as to die immediately.
Then why?
Why had he died at all?
Even as I set the village ablaze to destroy the evidence, I clutched his corpse and pondered endlessly.
“There must be a way to undo this.”
Magic was magnificent, after all.
Perhaps there existed a method to resurrect the dead, or to transfer his soul into another’s body, or even to turn back time itself….
But regrettably, I possessed no knowledge of magic whatsoever.
The Emperor had taught me nothing of the sort, and yet I could wield magic as naturally as breathing without such knowledge.
Seeing how the Second and Third Princes had torn out their own hearts, there must surely be numerous texts related to magic within the Imperial Palace.
I should have learned something—anything—instead of squandering my days in foolish bliss during my time at the Imperial Palace.
I regretted it again and again.
Then, a keepsake Count Frederick had left behind suddenly came to mind.
‘The book that grants wishes…!’
That’s right, I had it!
I immediately opened the carelessly discarded box and retrieved the book.
And I made a wish. With desperate fervor, with absolute sincerity, offering my very life.
“Please return Theo to me. Please show me how to resurrect my husband!”
A soft rustling sound.
I felt my life draining from my body with vivid clarity.
It didn’t matter. As long as I could bring him back.
Had my desperate wish been granted?
Words began to inscribe themselves upon the previously blank pages as if by illusion.
【How to Restore Your Husband】
It had a title now.
Ruellin flipped through the book frantically, reading.
The method to bring Count Frederick back was, in essence, simple.
When humans died, their souls wandered the world before crossing dimensions to be reborn, and to open those dimensions, one had to find the Dragon that governed them.
Ruellin followed the instructions written in the book.
Remarkably, the Dragon dwelled deep within the Caspian Gorge.
She carried her husband’s corpse and descended into that hellscape of her own volition.
Scaling cliffs, barely surviving swarms of demonic creatures, she finally reached the cavern where the Dragon lay hidden.
“Open the dimension where my husband’s soul resides.”
At Ruellin’s words, the Dragon let out a scornful snort.
“I do not know where that is.”
“What…? You’re a Dragon! If you don’t know, then who possibly could?”
“My purpose is merely to seal the dimensional rifts that exist here and maintain the world’s balance. The circulation of souls is the natural order and principle of existence.”
I could not comprehend what it was saying.
Unsurprisingly, the Dragon did not open the dimension for me.
I scraped together my meager magical power and attempted to dominate the Dragon’s mind, but it was futile.
There was simply nothing I could do.
So Ruellin killed the Dragon.
It was thanks to the Book of Prophecy noting that the Dragon’s weakness lay in its eyes.
Ruellin’s magic could not control the Dragon, but it could induce a moment of carelessness.
Following the book’s instructions to exploit its weakness and threaten it, she tore out both of the Dragon’s eyes, yet it refused to grant her wish until the very end.
And so…
Ruellin tore out the Dragon’s eyes and split open its chest to extract its heart.
If the Dragon would not open the dimension, then I would open it myself.
To do that, I needed the Dragon’s power.
She then split open her own left chest and embedded the Dragon’s heart into the hollow cavity.
It was agonizing and excruciating, but her indomitable will made it succeed.
Thump.
As the Dragon’s heart, forcibly transplanted into her chest, began to beat, she lunged forward and devoured every drop of blood the Dragon shed.
To absorb as much power as possible—stronger, more abundant.
Throughout that brutal carnage, the Dragon remained alive. It did not resist.
Perhaps it had been dreaming of this moment all along.
The Dragon, who had spent countless ages secretly maintaining the world’s balance, appeared utterly weary and exhausted.
“Arrogant and foolish child. Do you truly believe you can properly control my authority?”
“It doesn’t matter. As long as I can save my husband.”
“For slaying a Dragon and bringing chaos upon the world, you shall never achieve your desire.”
The Dragon left a curse as it died.
“You shall never wield that wicked magic again, and no one shall love you or trust your words…”
Rumble—!
With the Dragon’s death, a deafening roar shook heaven and earth.
The dimensional rift he had been holding back tore wide open, and the world’s balance began to crumble.
Just as the Dragon had prophesied, I could not control it.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
None of it mattered anymore.
Even if I could never cast magic again, it was worth it if I could bring my husband back to life.
But unfortunately, just as the Dragon said I wouldn’t know where he was, even with that creature’s power, I couldn’t locate my husband’s soul.
So I simply tore open dimensions recklessly, searching for him everywhere.
Chaos descended upon the world.
Incomprehensible Gates opened across the continent, and monsters poured through them.
Thousands upon thousands of people perished.
While some were driven mad by the encroaching Magi, others awakened with strange abilities like the imperial princes, becoming Awakeners.
Later, people would come to call this the emergence of Gates and the birth of Awakeners.
I repeated this countless times, but I could never find my husband’s soul.
Even if I had found it, there was a problem. Dimensions could only be crossed in soul form, so there was no way to bring his soul back with me.
Even if I somehow managed to retrieve it, what was I to do about his body, rotted away by the Magi?
The Dragon’s Ruins contained all manner of ancient texts and secret techniques, including soul summoning arts, but none were immediately useful.
Moreover, those who had been reborn with newfound abilities constantly interfered with me and tried to kill me.
Like the Dragon’s curse, everyone hated me, despised me, distrusted me.
There were far too many mountains to climb and misfortunes to bear.
So many that at some point, I forgot why I had even started this.
Whether my husband’s soul even existed at all.
My happy memories with him faded bit by bit….
I simply searched blindly for a way, fought, and endured.
And so, at some point, I reached the conclusion that I had to merge all dimensions and eliminate the Gates and Awakeners.
Then everything would return to how it was.
This was the story of the Imperial Family member who first opened a Gate, the sinner who killed the Dragon and stole its name and power.
Sephiroth’s story.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————