A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 216

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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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216.

***

I wanted to rest deeply while unconscious, but the moment I awoke, I found myself drowning in an endless tide of tasks.
I had to purify the Awakeners who had exhausted their entire abilities in response to the appearance of an unprecedented colossal Gate, moving from place to place.
After that came the detailed statements about my encounters with Sephiroth, followed by report writing.
Doing work I hadn’t touched since my days as a junior researcher left me fumbling and stumbling, but it was still an essential process.
A disaster of this magnitude could never be allowed to repeat itself.
The Caspian Mountains were sealed off.
The Gorge remained a battlefield.
Several Gates still stood, and the fierce clashes between monsters and human forces continued unabated.
Ethan, once he regained consciousness, actually managed to crawl all the way to the Capital.
And he brought with him Ruellin’s remains, which Vincent had divided into several pieces.
Mercifully, it seemed she harbored no lingering attachments.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been divided among three magical boxes retrieved from the Dragon’s Lair.
After surrendering those boxes to the Security Bureau, he reportedly walked into temporary imprisonment of his own accord.
Vincent vanished without a trace.
The last time I sought him out for purification, he remained unconscious due to the aftermath of severe injuries.
The moment he regained consciousness, he apparently left Marquis Leandro’s Estate immediately.
Rumor had it he even packed his belongings and went to recuperate in my Territory, though whether his wounds had fully healed remained unknown.
I’m still deliberating whether to attempt contact once my pressing duties conclude.
Dylan, who had taken on the new position of Security Bureau Director, was also nowhere to be found after his inauguration ceremony.
Unlike Vincent, he wasn’t deliberately avoiding me—he was simply incomparably busier than I was.
Rebuilding the collapsed Security Bureau, conducting occasional reconnaissance missions to the Caspian Gorge, attending post-incident strategy meetings.
He was managing a schedule so brutal that even two bodies wouldn’t suffice.
Yet whenever I caught glimpses of him from afar, he seemed to be managing without complaint.
‘That’s good.’
Who would have thought that he, a former servant and bastard son who had been scorned, would become the second-in-command of the Imperial Palace itself?
For a male lead from a doomed novel, it was quite the happy ending.

These days, I couldn’t afford to rest even after finishing my daytime duties.
There was somewhere urgent I needed to go the moment I returned home.
“…Do you really have to go? Haven’t you already made a sufficient show of propriety by now?”
The Duke, who had followed me to the entrance hall after dinner, grumbled with a distinctly displeased expression.
By now, I’d grown accustomed to this daily repetition.
“What’s so charming about that reckless fool….”
“Oh, the carriage is here!”
I hurried toward the Duke, greeting the carriage that hadn’t quite arrived yet.
Smack.
“I’ll be back soon, Father.”
“A grown woman like you just brushing me off with a single kiss every time…!”
The moment my lips touched his cheek, the Duke’s face flushed crimson and he burst out indignantly.
Still, he no longer clung to my skirts on the first day, wailing “That scoundrel won’t do, he absolutely won’t do!”

***

The carriage, which had been racing swiftly, soon came to a halt before a grand mansion.
“Young Lady, you’ve arrived.”
The servants greeted me respectfully as I descended from the carriage.
I glanced sideways at the Butler, who always wore the same expression as he guided me.
“…How is His Highness?”
“He remains unchanged, my lady.”
Tsk.
I clicked my tongue in displeasure at the identical answer I’d been hearing for a week.
The Butler then smiled gently and offered me reassurance.
“He will awaken soon.”
But when exactly is this “soon”?
As I brooded irritably, we arrived at our destination.
“Please enjoy your time in peace.”
The Butler, having opened the door, bowed and withdrew.
I entered directly.
Though I’d been coming here daily for a week, the sparse chamber with only the bare minimum of furniture never felt comfortable, no matter how many times I visited.
‘He lives with just a single bed, yet why does he furnish the guest room so lavishly?’
In any case, even in his normal state without rampaging, he was hardly a man of sound mind.
I shook my head and walked toward the bed sitting alone in the center of the spacious chamber.
On the bed—large enough for four people to sprawl comfortably—lay the sleeping black-haired prince, resting peacefully.
The face that the Grand Duke’s Healer had diligently restored was not merely handsome; it gleamed with vitality.
Though I hadn’t examined him closely, the body that had been torn apart like rags by those human beasts was surely in similar condition.
I gazed down at his serene face with closed eyes.
His sharp jawline, already prominent, had become even more defined as he’d lost weight during his sleep—cutting like a blade.
With his lips sealed like that, he truly resembled a prince who had stepped straight out of an animated film.
Though I found it rather charming at first, the unfamiliar silence pushed my anxiety to its breaking point.
“It’s been a week already. Do you understand?”
“….”
“When exactly are you going to wake up?”
His runaway body had been purified, and his deep wounds had healed completely.
Yet the reason he hadn’t regained consciousness was not merely frustrating—it was infuriating.

― His vitality has been severely depleted, and there’s a strong possibility it’s due to sleep deprivation and malnutrition.
― Pardon? Malnu… what?
― Malnutrition. Before his departure, he rarely ate proper meals.
― Really? Could the Grand Duke’s House be facing financial difficulties? Or perhaps he was dieting… trying to lose weight?

Where could there possibly be fat to lose from a body already packed solid with muscle?
The young Healer hesitated before finally divulging her diagnosis to me, who clearly couldn’t grasp the situation.

― In my professional opinion, it appears he may be suffering from longing sickness.

That was it.
The Grand Duke, who wielded absolute power over the Imperial Palace, had suddenly fallen victim to sleep deprivation and malnutrition for none other than…
longing sickness.
Damn it.
“…But why starve yourself? Instead of sneaking over someone’s perimeter wall in the dead of night without sleep, you could have invited me to dinner.”
Though exasperated, the sight of his darkened eye sockets and hollowed cheeks made my chest ache, and I couldn’t help but let harsh words spill out.
That was when it happened.
Tremor—
As if answering my words, the man’s tightly shut eyelids quivered.
I froze in place.
When I carefully looked again, his eyes lay deceptively still.
‘Did I imagine it?’
Of course I did.
Just as I was about to resign myself after a week of repeated false hope.
Dark pupils met my gaze.
“…Have I, by any chance, arrived in heaven?”
He murmured with a dazed expression.
His voice, which hadn’t emerged in so long, was rough and hoarse.
“No, that can’t be. You and I could never be in heaven, so this must be hell.”
“….”
“Why that expression? If you’ve chased me all the way to hell, you should behave accordingly. Smile.”
Only then did I take a deep breath that I’d been holding back.
“His Highness going to hell is only natural, but why me? What crime did I commit?”
“Hmm. Judging by how you’re spouting only irritating things, it doesn’t seem to be a hallucination.”
Who in their right mind would say such a thing?
Overwhelmed with emotion, I extended my fist and struck his forehead.
Thwack!
“Ow!”
“Still think you’re hallucinating? Should I hit you again?”
“No!”
Only then did he seem to fully awaken from sleep.
He rubbed his reddened forehead and glared at me.
“…Why didn’t you leave?”
“After waking up after a week, is that all you have to say?”
“I naturally assumed you’d already gone back.”
“….”
“Didn’t you say you couldn’t possibly stay here and settle down?”
When was that conversation?
Watching him repeat like a broken record about something that ended in the Caspian Gorge, I felt utterly exasperated.
“So someone who was rampaging and going mad must have grabbed your pant leg and begged, I suppose.”
“You did something so admirable?”
When I shot back curtly, he instead bared his teeth in a grin.
He was truly a consistent madman.
“The rampage turned out to be quite a worthwhile affair.”
“Shut up!”
At his shocking words, my eyes felt like they were rolling back.
“Do you know how much I suffered because of you back then…!”
“Ugh….”
Just then, he suddenly groaned and pressed his abdomen.
I forgot my anger in an instant and rushed to check on him.
“A-are you alright? Wait, I’ll call the Healer right away…!”
“No.”
Click—
He grabbed me as I turned my body in panic.
“Lying down makes it hard to breathe… Could you help me sit up?”
“Of course.”
Taking his words at face value, I approached him immediately and bent at the waist.
I was truly naive beyond measure.
The moment I placed both hands on his shoulders, whoosh!
My vision inverted.
“Kyaaah!”
I, who had walked into the demon’s jaws of my own volition, was helplessly dragged into the blankets.
When I came to my senses, I was lying beside him, held so tightly I couldn’t move a muscle.
“What are you doing right now!”
“Hah… I finally feel alive.”
The man buried his face against my hair and breathed deeply.
I thrashed about, but it was utterly futile.
“Will you let go?”
“Give me a moment. I thought it was all a dream this whole time.”
At the exhaustion in his voice, I found myself hesitating without meaning to.
How pathetic.
Yet my heart trembled foolishly regardless.
“While I was asleep… did you dream about me?”
“Yeah. What was it again…”
…
“That you wouldn’t let me leave. I think I called you a bastard, a fool, things like that.”
Since those were words I’d actually spoken, my chest stung with guilt.
When I flinched involuntarily, he chuckled softly.
“Well, you can say it to my face right now if you want.”
“I’m not such an inconsiderate person.”
“Edith Blake.”
Suddenly, he called my name.
Hearing my name from his lips—when he’d always called me “Princess” or “you”—felt strangely unfamiliar.
“As you know, I’m a very greedy person. I have to have everything I want. So…”
…
“Whatever reason you stayed for, whatever change of heart you had, I won’t particularly concern myself with it from now on. I clearly gave you a chance to escape.”
Holding my breath as I listened, I suddenly felt a surge of emotion and protested.
“Like I said then, I had no way to leave even if I wanted to. My wish didn’t work, and I couldn’t cross the Gate either…”
“So what? That’s your karma for having a handsome and magnificent lover. Bear it.”
“Ha! A lover?”
“If we’re lying in the same bed, what else would you call it? Spouses?”
“Ugh!”
At those chilling words, I made a face and thrashed about again.
Of course, I couldn’t break free.
Instead, the arm wrapped around my back only tightened further, so I finally surrendered.
“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!”
Only then did the crushing force ease slightly.
Thwack!
I wrenched my arm free from where it had been trapped against his shoulder and struck his chest with my fist with all my strength.
“You said you didn’t like me? That you didn’t know?”
Even now, just thinking about it keeps me awake with indignation.
If only he’d been honest back then.
If that were the case, I wouldn’t have wept so pathetically in the Gorge back then.
Unlike me, who was sniffling, he annoyingly let out a soft laugh.
“Me? I don’t think I ever did.”
….
“If I had said I loved you, that would be different.”
The words shifted so naturally, as if slipping over a ridge, that I could no longer refute them.
Because what he said was not a lie.
Ah.
Who was calling whom mad, anyway?
As I silently lamented my fate, he murmured low.
“If you understand, close your eyes.”
Before I could even close them, his hot breath rushed in relentlessly.
‘I don’t know.’
When has this damned world ever flowed according to my will?
So now it seemed I could indulge myself as I pleased.
After all, I had eliminated all the villains with my own hands.
I, with a heart somewhat bewildered and somewhat racing,
quietly closed my eyes and embraced the karma given to me.

A World Where You Are the Villains – Complete

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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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