A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 3

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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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03.

― …Vincent! Dylan!
― ….
― Take me with you! Please? I was wrong about everything!
― ….
― Brother! Ethan, brother! No, I’m scared. Please don’t leave me alone! Someone, save me… Ahhhhhhh―!

“Gasp.”
A sharp scream jolted me awake.
I had suffered through a deeply unpleasant nightmare.
Suddenly possessing the body of a novel’s villain, I was relentlessly beaten down before becoming trapped within the Gate, where those damned people refused to save me, and I ultimately died before awakening in a coffin….
As the dream’s fading fragments drifted through my mind, I was seized by an icy chill at the sunlight stabbing my eyes.
“What time is it? I’m going to be late for work…!”
As I scrambled to my feet in panic, I froze at the unfamiliar sight before me.
Unlike my cramped Dormitory room with only a single bed and makeshift desk, an expansive space stretched before my eyes.
A sprawling bed large enough for three to sleep comfortably, a canopy dripping with lace, glittering ornaments….
The moment I saw them, clarity washed over me like ice water.
“…Right. I really did possess someone’s body.”
Sigh.
I exhaled deeply and splashed my face with dry hands.
I had thought it was all a fever dream, but everything was real.
My possession into the novel’s villain was real.
And the fact that I had awakened during her funeral was real too.
‘Isn’t it usually the opposite?’
People possess the bodies of the living after dying, not the bodies of the dead while still alive.
As I reached that thought, I realized the flaw in my own logic.
‘Or did I die?’
The horrific circumstances that had preceded my possession flickered through my mind.

― Just hold on a little longer, Dr. You! We can’t both get swept away and die pointlessly, can we? Someone needs to call for rescue outside.
― You’re smart, so you’ll be fine if you hide somewhere safe.

The day after finishing that cursed book, I got caught up in a Gate that suddenly opened at a site I was visiting for investigation.
My memories cut off right after Ethan, my biological father’s first adopted son, abandoned me and fled.
‘…I must have died.’
If I’d miraculously survived and been rescued, I wouldn’t be here.
As that thought sank in, my mood plummeted rapidly.
“So a dead person has come back to life in another dead person’s body? What am I, a spare?”
Damn it, I have no idea.
I’d rarely read novels like this before, so I couldn’t quite grasp how this possession even worked.
But what worried me most was the seminar scheduled for next week.
It was finally my chance to show my biological father up—right when I was supposed to announce the commercialization of cure-1…!
“Could Edith Blake have taken over my body? No, a character from a book wouldn’t have a soul… Damn it, I should have asked Kim to back everything up earlier…”
I was tearing at my hair in distress when, after a long while, I finally looked around at where I was.
“…But where is this? The Duke’s Mansion?”
Yet Edith Blake didn’t die at the Duke’s Mansion—she died in the Capital.
I was trying to piece together the vague plot of the novel I’d skimmed through.
Click.
The door suddenly opened and someone entered.
“Oh, Miss…?”
A woman in a maid’s uniform, hurrying in with a basin, stared at me sitting there blankly with her mouth agape.
Then, with a clang—!
“B-Butler! Physician! Miss Edith Blake has awakened!”
She dropped the basin and rushed out of the room in a panic.

A moment later.
The empty room filled with people the Maid had brought in.
“Miss, could you open your eyes wide for me? Yes. Now, if you’d open your mouth….”
An elderly man who appeared to be the Physician examined me with somewhat hurried hands.
It was a bit uncomfortable, but I complied obediently.
After all, this body had been brought back from death, so I was curious whether everything was truly fine.
After collecting my blood and hair as a final measure, the Physician opened his medical bag with brisk efficiency, offering no commentary on his findings.
‘What is this? Are they running genetic tests?’
Were they worried someone might have switched corpses and taken my place as the Duke’s daughter?
The fact that my essence had indeed been swapped made me feel slightly guilty.
‘But do they even have genetic testing in a place like this?’
My budding curiosity was interrupted by what came next.
“Miss, would it be alright if I examined your body for a moment?”
A young woman standing behind the Physician approached, white light radiating from both her hands.
‘…An Awakened?’
As if it wasn’t a question, she placed her hands on my body before I could even grant permission.
“Ah.”
I frowned at the intrusion, but was soon overwhelmed by the strange energy emanating from her hands.
Warm light swept across every corner of my body as though conducting an inspection.
‘…A healing-type Awakened.’
My body felt lighter somehow, and my mind seemed to grow clearer.
‘Being born into a wealthy family does have its perks.’
Yet despite being born into that wealthy family, I had never encountered a healing-type Awakened before, which made me smile bitterly.
‘Is Edith’s situation at least better than my childhood was?’
In any case, they must have paid a considerable sum to summon a healer out of concern.
Since most abilities manifested in forms suited for combat, healing-type Awakened were rare enough to command premium prices.
Given that this world borrowed a modern setting, the circumstances here were likely similar.
“This is remarkable.”
At that moment, the woman withdrew her hands from my body and turned urgently toward the back.
“Miss, your body shows no internal injuries, no external wounds, no trace of trauma whatsoever. This is truly… miraculous.”
She spoke to the two men standing at a distance from the bed, her face filled with astonishment.
I glanced at the two men who had been radiating an oppressive, expressionless presence since earlier.
A platinum-haired middle-aged man who bore a striking resemblance to Edith, and a young man with gleaming silver hair.
Without needing to ask who they were, the physical descriptions from the novel were enough for me to identify them.
‘The biological father, the Duke, and the adopted heir brought in to replace the biological daughter.’
Even upon hearing that their daughter—or rather, their younger sister’s—body showed no abnormalities, their expressions remained rigid.
They didn’t look like happy people at all.
‘Isn’t this too much? Even so, the dead daughter has miraculously come back to life….’
Though in truth, she hadn’t come back to life at all—her whereabouts were completely unknown.
It was quite possible she was already dead.
As I frowned slightly, the Physician hurried over from the corner where he’d been working and approached the Duke.
“Mana corruption was not detected either, Your Grace!”
“….”
“There are no signs of necrosis in the extremities, and bodily functions are normal, so we can conclude there is no mana corruption whatsoever. Observe!”
The Physician held out a glass vial to the Duke.
Inside the vial—the one into which my blood and hair had been placed moments earlier—small goldfish swam leisurely alongside shimmering water.
“As Miss Ruellin said, fortunately the young lady appears to be in perfect health.”
“….”
The Duke fell silent, barely glancing at the vial.
I gazed at the vial and pouted inwardly.
‘What? A mana test instead of a genetic examination?’
Well, such a thing wouldn’t be possible here anyway.
While it was fortunate not to be suspected, the fact that they’d checked for mana exposure still left a bitter taste.
Exposure to the black fog—or what the book called mana—led to the same outcome: madness, decay, and death.
There was no way to hide it just by looking; they wouldn’t need to draw blood to confirm.
I’d heard some parents even offered up their organs trying to save children exposed to mana.
And here was the Duke, unable to rejoice at his daughter’s resurrection, only checking for mana corruption.
‘The treatment is really….’
I knew well enough that I was Edith Blake’s daughter, but facing it directly only left me feeling hollow.
‘If I was going to possess someone, why couldn’t it have been the heroine?’
Why did I have to crawl all the way here just to be treated like a burden?
As I swallowed back an irritated sigh, the silver-haired, handsome man standing beside the silent Duke suddenly spoke.
“They say she was found inside a monster’s mouth. Is such a thing even possible?”
“Since he was at Miss Ruellin’s side until the incident occurred, she may have been affected by his purification….”
“So your death diagnosis was a misdiagnosis, then.”
“A, a misdiagnosis!”
At the sharp man’s words, the Physician flinched and waved his hands frantically.
“No, Your Highness. I confirmed multiple times that the young lady was not breathing!”
“If it wasn’t a misdiagnosis, then how do you explain that situation?”
The man gestured with his chin toward me, sitting on the bed.
The Physician answered, cold sweat pouring down his face.
“I… suspect she experienced such a severe shock that it caused temporary cardiac arrest….”
“Cardiac arrest lasting over three days.”
The man let out a cold scoff.
“Do you know what they’re saying outside?”
“What….”
“That the young lady was exposed to mana for so long she became a monster and was resurrected.”
“That, that’s…!”
“The nobles who attended the funeral are in an uproar, wondering if they too were exposed to mana. What will you announce? That it was cardiac arrest, but not a misdiagnosis? This is….”
“Enough. That’s enough, Ethan.”
At that moment, the Duke stepped in to block the man who had been relentlessly pressuring the Physician.
“In any case, it’s fortunate that no magical contamination was detected.”
“But Father, the Imperial Court’s envoy has already arrived at the scene….”
“Edith Blake.”
The Duke abruptly called out my name, cutting off the man’s words.
I had been silently listening to their conversation and assessing the situation, so I lifted my head to meet his gaze.
“What possessed you to drag the Purifier all the way to the Gate’s origin point?”
“….”
“Do you have any idea how many people have suffered because of your recklessness?”
I could only blink.
Even if I were truly a burden to this family, I never expected to be blamed the moment I came back from the dead.
‘Well, the Purifier must be female. Regardless, it seems the people who attended the funeral have caused complications.’
So what was I supposed to do about it?
It wasn’t even my doing.
Even if the real Edith Blake had been here, she wouldn’t have foreseen this outcome.
“You don’t have nine lives, and you certainly don’t possess any special abilities. What on earth gave you the audacity to commit such a reckless act!”
“….”
“If the Purifier had died because of this, how would you ever atone for it…!”
The Duke’s voice grew increasingly sharp with reproach, his anger mounting in waves, until he suddenly furrowed his brow.
“…Why are you just staring blankly without saying a word?”
Because I had nothing to say.
Since I couldn’t admit that, I resorted to the only cliché I knew.
“I’m sorry, but who are you?”

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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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