A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 180

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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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180.

The man who had avoided my gaze continued speaking hesitantly, his eyes downcast.
“…You reconciled with them, didn’t you?”
“….”
“You converse with them naturally, maintain proper appearances, so why only toward me….”
“….”
“You treat only me this way. As though facing me is abhorrent, repulsive.”
“….”
“Like some stranger you’ll never wish to see again.”
His eyes squeezed shut, as though the words spilling from his own lips were unbearable.
‘Ridiculous.’
So this was what he meant by treating only him harshly.
I was beyond exasperation—laughter had abandoned me entirely.
He claimed I found facing him abhorrent and repulsive, that I treated him like some stranger I’d never wish to see again?
Then I had observed him perfectly accurately.
Since my possession, I had encountered them in turn and treated all of them with what I considered fair and impartial regard.
The only difference was that Dylan and Vincent fell to their knees and clung to me desperately the moment they escaped Ruellin’s influence.
To me, that was nothing but unilateral coercion and pleading.
Ethan had not even done that much.
And now he dared ask why I was so harsh with only him?
“Truly… you possess not a shred of conscience.”
Just this morning, I had felt my body light and refreshed for the first time in ages.
But conversing with him, a crushing fatigue descended upon me.
The person who deserved to hear such pitiful excuses was long dead, so I could not fathom why I was subjected to this humiliation.
I swept back the hair that had fallen across my forehead and rose from the bench.
Closing the remaining distance in a few swift strides, I stood before him.
“Please, recall what you did to me.”
I jabbed his left chest with my index finger.
Though I had not applied much force, he trembled as though pierced by a blade.
His helpless agitation at such a trivial touch seemed almost innocent.
Like a child unskilled and immature in emotions they had never learned.
Was that why he could be so cruel?
“The moment Ruellin was involved, you lost all reason and rushed to condemn me, desperately insisting I was the villain who had committed some heinous act.”
“….”
“Of course I understand. It was the only way to justify your own actions.”
“….”
“But tell me—did those others do the same?”
The figure who had been trembling faintly went rigid at my question.
It was a point he hadn’t anticipated—his pupils dilated as though they might tear.
A man who had lost his parents early in childhood and grown up eating scraps from the Duke’s Household.
Lucky enough to awaken as S-rank, yet his inferior birth had always held him back among arrogant nobility and raw-talented Awakeners.
On top of that, a stepbrother who treated him like a thorn in his side time and again.
To avoid being cast out, Ethan’s choice to don an early armor of coldness and rationality was only natural.
The immature emotions that never had a chance to mature accumulated layer upon layer, twisted beyond recognition.
No one had ever pointed this out to him, who had been so composed since childhood.
Vincent had his biological father to rely on, Dylan had Edith Blake.
So it was only natural that Ethan had been influenced most deeply by Ruellin’s indoctrination.
Ignorance is not a sin. But it cannot be an absolution.
I explained it to him as simply as one would to a child who knew nothing.
“Think carefully. Did you act like this after Ruellin died? No, right?”
“….”
“Just five days ago you were causing all that chaos, and now you’re going to recite all the things you suffered back then and expect me to nod and understand you?”
The frozen figure barely moved his lips as he listened to my words.
“…So, I did apologize.”
“I said I don’t need that pathetic apology. I won’t accept it.”
As I coldly rejected him, his eyes contorted as though pierced by a blade.
“You run your mouth saying everything’s fine, and then later you apologize like you’re doing charity work and think it’s all over? You’re not a child—take responsibility for what you’ve done.”
“….”
“Even after I tell you this, you still don’t understand what you did wrong, do you?”
“….”
“You did what you always did, and now that I won’t accept it anymore, you don’t know what to do.”
That was exactly how it appeared.
This was the first time his apology had been rejected, and Ethan truly didn’t know what to do.
The past Edith Blake had been the same way, and after possessing this body, I had always let things slide.
He was my older brother in name only, yet family I couldn’t avoid seeing.
Perhaps that advantage, more than anyone else’s, was something he kicked away with his own feet until the very end.
“Just live like that. Don’t try to do anything more….”
“….”
“No matter how much you make excuses like this, I won’t purify you.”
I withdrew my hand that had been pressing against his chest.
I passed by him and exhaled like a sigh.
“Honestly, after going so far as to smuggle Ruellin out of the Imperial Palace, isn’t it shameless to do this to me?”
Just as Eston had said, there was only one reason to return to the Duke’s Household and dredge up the past.
Purification.

96%

The last person I’d seen was truly reaching his limit now.
But it wasn’t my concern.
In the moment I quickened my pace to escape before he lost control—
“That’s not it.”
“….”
“I wasn’t trying to get purified….”
Behind me, Ethan’s voice cracked with desperation.
“At the Tollen Gate, I didn’t deliberately leave you there to die. I was deceived too… I was deceived as well.”
Deceived, he said again.
Even as those words echoed in my mind, I didn’t turn back.
Yet he continued speaking.
“This situation too—it wasn’t because of Ruellin… A knight witnessed me wandering in a state of lost reason. I couldn’t just stand idle and let myself be thrown into the Security Bureau’s underground facility….”
“….”
“I couldn’t remain at the Imperial Palace. I knew the Duke was preparing for my disownment. The moment I was dragged away, everything would end without a word. That’s why I fled. Not because of Ruellin….”
“….”
“I just wanted to set foot in the Duke’s Household one last time and see you.”
His rapid-fire confession ended when we reached the Greenhouse entrance.
Before opening the door, I glanced back one final time.
I didn’t bother mentioning that if his method hadn’t involved taking Ruellin and fleeing, we might have had a more civil conversation.
It was far too late for that now.
Ethan made no move to follow me, standing motionless in that spot.
Those clear, crystalline eyes that once shone with such clarity were now stained pitch black with the Magi.
Gazing at me with everything crumbled to ruin, pathetic and wretched.
“…Edith Blake.”
“Congratulations. You’ve achieved your goal.”
Since this was the end, there was nothing left to hide.
After holding his gaze for a moment longer, I finally opened the Greenhouse door.
A group of knights in golden armor came rushing toward us.
It was the same armor Ethan had worn when he fought so gracefully protecting me at Acarna Castle.
“Young Lady!”
They rushed over and urgently questioned me.
“We are knights of the Security Bureau. We’ve come upon hearing that Ethan is here. He is currently under suspicion of aiding the escape of a person under Security Bureau protection.”
Without answering, I gestured toward the inside of the Greenhouse.
Then someone who appeared to be a superior hesitated before asking me.
“We received a report that Ethan appears to be showing signs of an impending rampage. Did anything unusual occur?”
“Well, our conversation seemed normal enough, but I’m not entirely sure.”
I gave a vague answer, unwilling to be entangled in the bothersome suspicion that I’d neglected my duties as the Purifier.
Given Ethan’s current state, it would be exposed soon enough anyway—it was better to discuss this directly with the National Director later.
The moment I stepped away, I heard the heavy footsteps of multiple soldiers rushing into the Greenhouse.
I didn’t bother confirming Ethan’s arrest.
I disliked him, certainly, but I had no desire to witness the pathetic downfall of someone I once believed to be the male lead.
Contrary to my expectations of some commotion, the space behind me remained silent.
He neither rampaged nor resisted arrest.
With this, my tedious and bitter entanglement with the male lead was finally over.

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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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