A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 193

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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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193.

I couldn’t believe what my eyes were witnessing.
Crunch, crunch-crunch!
As though devouring an enormous piece of candy, Ruellin shoved a fist-sized heart grotesquely into her mouth.
No blood flowed from the organs of an already-dead creature.
Gulp.
And so Ruellin’s lips remained pristine even after swallowing the heart whole.
“An, an artifact….”
A chilling silence descended upon the chamber.
Despite the ongoing confrontation with the monster, no one dared move carelessly.
An artifact that had measured the ranks of Awakeners for centuries had vanished into someone’s belly in a single day—it was shocking enough to justify the paralysis.
“Heh. What kind of absurdity is this.”
Only the Grand Duke remained unfazed.
He let out hollow laughter in disbelief, muttering crookedly.
“First the monster, now it looks like I’ll have to carve open a human belly to get it back.”
At his declaration to recover the artifact even if it meant splitting open her abdomen, Ruellin’s shoulders trembled.
“H, how could you say such a thing to me…!”
Oblivious to her own actions, she glared at Serge with resentful eyes.
Those green eyes, which I’d normally have thought clear and pristine, now gleamed with an eerie light.
The moment I sensed something was wrong.
Whoosh―!
From somewhere, a shard of ice honed to a razor’s edge hurtled toward Serge at tremendous speed.
It happened in an instant.
“…!”
Before I could even comprehend what was occurring, the man who keenly sensed the killing intent directed at me narrowly dodged by the skin of his teeth.
Crash―!
The ice shard embedded itself where Serge had been standing moments before.
I widened my eyes.
‘Why… isn’t he unconscious?’
Ethan’s body, which Ruellin had carelessly draped atop the monster, hung limp.
He didn’t appear to have regained consciousness yet.
Then how exactly had that ice attack targeted Serge specifically?
But before that thought could fully form.
Crash, bang―!
Ice shards identical to the previous one suddenly erupted from all directions in a barrage.
“Aaaagh!”
“Damn it, take cover!”
The Awakeners, entranced by Ruellin’s audacious display, scattered in panic.
A sharp crystalline sound pierced the air.
Unlike Ethan’s precise attacks unleashed upon the monster, jagged ice pillars erupted simultaneously—as though they were weapons still taking form.
A roaring inferno swept through.
Dylan’s flames followed in immediate counterattack.
‘Ruellin.’
I couldn’t fathom what manner of relic she’d consumed, yet I watched as this woman wielded Ethan’s ability to unleash a sweeping assault upon the Awakeners.
Consumed by the creation of ever more ice, her expression bore the grim resolve of one who’d made a momentous decision.
Less than thirty minutes had passed since she’d declared her love and desire to protect all the Empire’s people—yet now she wielded the relic’s power without the slightest hesitation.
“How amusing you are.”
Serge, who’d been casually evading attacks directed solely at me, suddenly flicked his hand as though irritated.
In that instant, the crudely formed ice shards that had been spawning chaotically froze mid-air in perfect unison.
Then came the spectacular sight of them all cascading down upon a single point.
‘Can she block it?’
In that fleeting moment, I realized Ruellin would surely die.
She wasn’t yet accustomed to wielding Ethan’s ability—there was no way she could evade or defend against such a torrent of ice shards.
“SCREEEEEECH―!”
Yet before Serge’s redirected barrage could tear through the walls.
The half-severed monster surged forward at tremendous speed in a final, desperate gambit.
Its writhing body fluidly evaded the cascading ice, and the creature’s maw gaped wide as it lunged directly toward me.
“…Edith Blake!”
Serge called out my name a fraction too late.
A roaring inferno erupted.
Dylan’s fireball struck the monster’s gaping maw just as it descended.
A sharp whistle cut through the chaos.
The monster that had been charging toward me suddenly changed direction.
It tore through the Bunker’s entrance, which had been corroded by the venom it had spewed, with brutal force.
A deafening crash echoed through the structure.
The building seemed to collapse as the stone-scaled creature destroyed everything in its path.
“Princess!”
Only as Serge rushed to my side did I realize that Ruellin had escaped.
Yes, she’d fled.
After laying waste to the Security Bureau, stealing the relic, and abducting Ethan….
“…I’m fine.”
I pushed away his frantic hands as they searched for injuries.
Startled though I was, I remained unharmed.
Having nearly died multiple times today, my hands no longer trembled as they had before.
I felt only bewilderment.
‘She was trying to kill me.’
Ruellin had deliberately redirected the monster toward me—she’d meant to end my life.
Yet I couldn’t fathom why she’d suddenly changed her mind and fled.
Perhaps it wasn’t her will at all, but the monster’s own.
The moment it attacked me, escape alive would have been impossible.
‘An S-rank monster, yet does it possess intelligence? Or perhaps, having succeeded in stealing the artifact, did its original master command it to return….’
As I continued these mundane thoughts, Serge grasped my face with both hands once more.
“Your face looks terrible. Did poison touch you?”
At his still-crude manner of speaking, I furrowed my brow.
As if that were possible—he’d seen plainly enough. Poison, my foot.
I shook my head firmly, brushing away his hands, and hurriedly spoke the words I hadn’t finished before.
“Your Majesty. Sephirot is trying to merge dimensions.”
….
“His talk of destroying the world doesn’t seem like mere nonsense. I think stealing the artifact during all this chaos today was for that very reason. We should pursue him immediately….”
“Whether dimensions merge or the world crumbles, what’s it to us? Taking care of your body comes first.”
Despite the gravity of my words, he seemed to hear them only in passing.
After examining my body with exaggerated concern following my face, he narrowed his brow.
“This is ridiculous—you’re not made of paper, yet you look ready to collapse at any moment.”
His clear worry toward me felt unfamiliar.
No one had ever cared for me in such a manner.
Not in Yu Sol’s life, nor in the life after possession.
Logically, all I’d done since the monster appeared was hide within the White Room—I shouldn’t have been injured at all.
Yet my heart beat with an unpleasant rhythm.
Like when he’d rushed toward me during the battle and removed my shoes.
I desperately attributed this churning emotion to his sudden shift in speech.
“…But why have you been speaking informally since earlier?”
“Does it bother you? Then speak informally too.”
He said it with a smooth smile, utterly shameless.
“Come to think of it, I’ve called you by name countless times. Yet I just spent all that time running around, bleeding myself dry trying to protect you—isn’t that unfair?”
By my own eyes, he had never run once.
Except when the monster’s tail threatened to engulf the White Room, and now.
…I couldn’t deny that these were moments entirely connected to my safety.
I asked carefully, my expression awkward.
“…Are you hurt anywhere?”
I’d expected him to boast naturally that he had no injuries whatsoever.
Or rather, it wouldn’t have been boasting—it would have been truth.
Though he’d stood close against the monster, I had no memory of any effective blow landing on him like it had on the other Awakeners.
Before that could happen, he’d frozen everything with telekinesis, then immediately reversed it.
“I’m hurt here.”
Yet Serge extended one hand as though he’d been waiting for exactly those words.
As my gaze drifted downward, I saw a thin red laceration cutting across the back of his hand.
It wasn’t a deep wound—the affected area was broad, but no blood was visible.
Even at a glance, it was nothing more than a scratch.
“It hurts. Blow on it for me.”
Yet the man feigned injury as though he’d sustained some grievous wound.
Faced with such ridiculous theatrics, I coldly averted my gaze from the wound.
“A healer will arrive shortly. Please bear with it.”
“If you won’t blow on it, what about licking it? A little saliva and it’ll be healed in no time.”
Spouting such nonsense, he appeared perfectly fine.
I looked toward the entrance as though I hadn’t heard him.
‘I need to purify and leave.’
It wasn’t a massive amount, but I still had to deal with the collapsed Magi.
I wanted to finish quickly and escape this suffocating underground facility.
‘What kind of hell is this because of one lunatic….’
I was exhaling a sigh and moving toward the exit of the White Room when it happened.
“Your Highness.”
Someone approached silently and delivered a report.
“The exit is blocked. It appears the staircase collapsed as the monster passed through.”
Flaming crimson hair.
The figure with a somewhat pallid complexion, likely from the battle with the monster, was Dylan.
Serge issued his command as though it were obvious.
“Then break through it.”
“The bunker walls are quite thick, so external assistance appears necessary. As you know, the internal personnel are somewhat exhausted from the combat….”
“Ha, what did they do to get tired? They were too busy squawking and running away. The one who actually killed the monster is someone else.”
“….”
“Move.”
As though intending to carve the path himself, Serge struck Dylan’s shoulder and passed by.
I couldn’t fathom what kind of temperament he possessed.
Despite being struck without warning, Dylan showed no displeasure.
His weary ash-gray eyes soon turned toward me.
“…Are you injured anywhere?”
“No.”
I nodded obediently.
It felt somewhat awkward.
Just before arriving here, this was the man who had boldly declared he would expose Ruellin.
Yet because of the sudden monster commotion, not only did the exposure fall through, but his appearance had become a complete mess. His heart must be aching.
I was moving to give him space, considering his state of mind, when it happened.
“…I apologize.”
He suddenly blocked my path and whispered the words.

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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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