A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 177

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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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177.

***

A large, warm hand swept across my forehead.
Fingers that had hesitated while toying with my hair suddenly drew near, brushing against the bridge of my nose.
The touch was impossibly light and ticklish, like the stroke of a feather.
His hand traced downward from the bridge of my nose to its tip, then finally came to rest upon my lips.
Hot fingertips lingered there for a long moment, alternating between my upper and lower lip as though searching for some imperfection.
Had he applied even the slightest pressure, I would have jolted fully awake.
Yet his touch remained cautious and ticklish—utterly unlike him.
‘Pervert.’
Groping at someone while they slept, no less.
Even in my drowsiness, I furrowed my brow and twisted my lips in displeasure.
A soft laugh echoed in response.
“Still ferocious even in sleep, I see.”
His deep voice resonated against my ear.
Before I could retort that he was the worse offender, his hand withdrew from my lips as though nothing had happened.
If I felt disappointed by that, had I truly lost my mind?
The man simply watched over me in silence for a time, doing nothing else.
His gaze, fixed upon my face, burned with intensity.
Though I considered opening my eyes, this moment felt far too warm and intimate to abandon.
As I exhaled evenly, drowsiness crept back over me.
I wavered between surrendering to it and resisting.
A whisper, thin as a thread, descended like a sigh.
“…What am I to do with this.”
What do you mean, what?
If I do anything, you need only stop caring. Why ponder it so unnecessarily?
You’re not even my guardian or anything….
‘You said you didn’t like me.’
Reflexively, that thought followed, and I suddenly understood.
I was far more bothered by those words than I’d realized.
But what could I do about it?
The price of our deal was absurd—that ridiculous k… anyway, we did such a thing.
I’d pretended it meant nothing, but it couldn’t possibly mean nothing, could it?
As my thoughts continued, a sudden question arose.
What if he had given a different answer back then?
What would I have answered?
I fumbled through my thoughts, but my drowsy mind quickly hit its limits.
I was simply exhausted.
Knock, knock.
“Your Grace, Grand Duke. Forgive the intrusion….”
At someone’s call, the man rose silently from his seat.
I fell into a deep sleep.

***

Along with the acrid scent of medicinal herbs, someone bustled about nearby.
I furrowed my brow.
It was hardly courteous to touch an unconscious person so carelessly, let alone wake them with such commotion.
The footsteps that had receded drew near once more.
The moment I noticed the shadow falling across my face, my eyes snapped open.
The hand hovering in the air was remarkably slender.
Behind it appeared a pair of round, wide-set brown eyes and a diminutive frame.
With such a different presence, why had I instinctively assumed it was him?
Even I felt an inexplicable sense of discord.
I opened my mouth reluctantly.
“…Eston?”
“At last, our sleeping princess has awakened.”
Eston, who had hesitated, collapsed into the nearby chair with visible relief.
“What were you doing?”
“As you can see, I was attempting to change the young lady’s clothes.”
She gestured to the garments cradled in her arms and sighed.
“Someone sent the maid away alone, leaving me to care for the patient in someone else’s home.”
“Why not ask another maid? Doesn’t the Grand Duke’s Residence have servants?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. There are dozens of maids, yet I’m forbidden from touching them….”
She trailed off, catching herself mid-sentence.
Then she narrowed her eyes and regarded me with suspicion.
“When did you and the Grand Duke become so close?”
“…What nonsense are you talking about?”
“I’m asking when you two became intimate enough for him to attend to your illness. For someone who looks like they wouldn’t bleed if pricked, he was quite devoted.”
“What….”
“He never left your side until this morning.”
Her words brought back forgotten memories in a rush.
He had even pursued me to Volner, rescued me from the cult members’ grasp, and then awkwardly carried me to the carriage….

― I won’t leave you behind, so stop now.

Just before losing consciousness, the tender whispers that had echoed at my bedside and the scorching fingers that had traced my lips in my drowsy state came flooding back.
With each successive memory surfacing, my face grew inexplicably warm.
I lifted my hand to my flushed cheeks, smoothing them as if to conceal the blush.
“…It’s not like that.”
“Yes, yes. Since you understand, please eat something.”
“That’s enough. I’ll bathe and change on my own.”
“Is that so? Shall I prepare your bath and assist with your toilette?”
Eston quickly set down the garments she’d been holding onto the bed.
Despite her reputation as a capable Healer, she possessed absolutely no talent for attending to others. Nor did I welcome it.
I found myself longing for the devoted care of my personal Maid, whom I’d sent ahead to the Duke’s Mansion.
It was then that I suddenly realized the unfamiliarity of the chamber around me.
This was not my room in the Duke’s Mansion, but rather the bizarrely vast and ornate guest chamber of the Grand Duke’s Residence.
‘Why on earth was I brought here again?’
While I was grateful for being rescued from danger, surely a person who fell ill should be returned home to recover properly.
Muttering about what poor character he must possess, I promptly questioned Eston.
“How many days was I asleep?”
“Four days, my lady.”
“Only that long? Better than I expected.”
“I’m sure it felt that way to you.”
Eston’s sarcasm emerged for the first time in a while, apparently exhausted from healing me in this unfamiliar place where no one knew of my condition.
Yet I spoke with sincerity.
For someone who had expended such tremendous power, my recovery truly had been remarkably swift.
After purifying Arcana previously, I had lain in a comatose state for a full week.
Compared to that, four days was nothing.
Moreover, unlike that time when I awoke only to suffer from muscle soreness and dizziness, my body now felt extraordinarily light.
There was no pain anywhere, and my mind felt as refreshed as after a deep sleep.
I could have used my power again without strain.
‘Have I truly leveled up?’
Consoling myself with this rare piece of good news amid the misfortune that had befallen me, I sat up abruptly.
“So, where did the master of this house go?”
“He left in such a hurry that I’m not entirely certain. From what I gathered, something happened at the Imperial Palace….”
Eston, who had shrugged her shoulders, suddenly handed me an envelope that lay upon the side table.
“Oh, this, by the way.”
“What is this?”
“I’m not sure myself. I was told to give it to you when you awoke.”
I didn’t bother asking who had instructed her—it was obvious enough.
The envelope felt quite substantial.
I immediately opened it to examine its contents.
Inside lay a thick bundle of papers.
Whether they were ancient documents or not, the paper was faded in color with its edges cracked and worn.

[Report on the Treason Case of Reurin Arkelion]

I froze upon reading the title of the document written on the first page.
‘Arkelion…?’
That was a surname used by the Imperial Family.
But wasn’t Ruellin of commoner birth?
Of course, according to the Book of Prophecy I had read—that is, 【How to Save an Abandoned World】—she would eventually become the Emperor’s adopted daughter, but that was an impossibly distant prospect for now.
I hurriedly turned the pages.
The contents written in the report were clearly not about the Ruellin I knew.
This was probably.
‘Referring to Sephiroth.’
It was unexpected that the pseudo-cult leader’s real name was Ruellin, but it wasn’t important enough to dwell on.
I spent considerable time meticulously reading through the documents.
The report detailed all the atrocities that Reurin Arkelion had committed in the past.
She had conspired with enemies through dark power to threaten the Royal Family, the predecessor to the Empire, and after the continent’s unification, she had brainwashed the Emperor and thrown the state into chaos, even attempting to assassinate the imperial princes who were heirs to the throne.
What followed was an account of how the imperial princes, who miraculously survived and returned, punished her and her husband for their treason.
How the most heinous criminals in the world had fallen to ruin.
Since the report was written entirely from the Imperial Family’s perspective, I couldn’t take it at face value.
Filtering out what needed to be discounted, the remaining information amounted to the fact that Sephiroth was of royal descent and that she had used magic.
‘…So magic really did exist.’
When I heard that from Marquis Clonella during the ability-grade assessment, I thought it was absurd.
Possession wasn’t enough—now magic too?
No matter how much of a fantasy novel this was, the setting felt too poorly constructed.
‘Is merging dimensions motivated by revenge?’
I didn’t know how much was truth, but at first glance, the humiliation she had suffered was quite cruel.
Not only was her heart stolen, but she was tortured and ultimately thrown down into the Caspian Gorge.
That husband of hers must surely be dead.
If he were alive, he would be at her side even now, but every time I saw Sephiroth, she was alone.
She didn’t even regard Ruellin, who was like a fragment of herself, with particular affection.
‘But if she wanted revenge, she could just destroy the Empire or the Imperial Family—why merge dimensions specifically?’
The questions continued endlessly.
‘And this era seems to be before the Gates existed… How did she even become able to open a Gate?’
Eston asked curiously as I turned over the documents I had already read, my expression grave.
“What exactly is written there that your expression is like that?”
“I’m curious how the criminal who opened the Gate for the first time was able to do such a thing.”
“If that’s what you mean… it’s said the criminal was a Dragon Slayer and received punishment for it.”
“A Dragon Slayer? You mean she killed a Dragon?”
“Yes. I picked up this story when I worked at the Imperial Palace—apparently, as the price for killing a Dragon, she committed an unforgivable sin that brought chaos upon the world.”
“Really… how extraordinary.”
Possession, magic, and now dragons too?
There was no way to immediately determine whether the title “Dragon Slayer” was genuine or simply a baseless epithet attached to him.
I clicked my tongue in disapproval and carefully returned the documents to their envelope.
It seemed best to return home and read through them more thoroughly.
“Let’s wash up and leave.”
As I gathered the clothes Eston had brought and headed toward the bathroom, she widened her eyes.
“Now?”
“Yes. What’s the point of staying in a house with no master?”
“They seemed reluctant to let me go so easily….”
She mumbled evasively, her expression uncertain.
But what could they do if I insisted on returning to my own home? Besides, there was no reason to remain here any longer.
After a quick wash, I slipped out of the Grand Duke’s Residence without delay.
Fortunately, since Nancy had taken most of my belongings when she left, I had nothing to pack.
There was a brief altercation with the Butler at the entrance, but he ultimately couldn’t stop my stubborn resolve.
Leaving behind the bewildered servants of the Grand Duke’s House, as though they’d lost an entire nation, I boarded the carriage Eston had arrived in.
Yet the Duke’s Mansion, which I returned to after several days, was absolute chaos.
“How dare you set foot in this place!”
The moment I stepped down from the carriage, the Duke’s thunderous roar echoed across the courtyard.
At first, I flinched, wondering if his words were directed at me.
But the ashen-faced servants and the silver-haired figure kneeling in the center of the courtyard made it immediately clear.
The Duke’s fury was directed at none other than Ethan.
“Even so, I tried to take responsibility for you until the very end. Even knowing you’d driven my daughter to ruin! For the sake of our past bond, for your father’s honor!”
“….”
“Leave at once, Ethan. From this moment forward, you are no longer a member of this family.”
“….”
“As of today, I disown you and strip you of your name and all titles that come with it.”

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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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