A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 35

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

35.

The man held the candlestick I had extinguished.
He was positioned as if shining a flashlight from below to startle someone—a classic scare tactic.
Only half his face was visible through the crack in the door.
His eyes were inorganic and darker than the deepest black.
“…Found you.”
“Ahhhhh―!”
Thud!
I screamed reflexively as if I’d seen a ghost and stumbled backward in panic.
But only for a moment.
“…Mmph!”
A large hand clamped over my mouth with brutal force.
“Shhh….”
“….”
“If you make too much noise, the search party will come. You don’t want to be dragged to the Underground Interrogation Room, do you?”
“…!”
His words snapped me back to reality.
I stared at him with trembling eyes, then slowly nodded.
He removed his hand from my mouth.
Then he opened the wardrobe door wide and stepped aside.
“Come out.”
I had no choice but to obey.
Male Lead 4 watched with narrowed eyes as I awkwardly scrambled out of the wardrobe.
For some reason, I felt utterly pathetic.
Once I finally stood on my own two feet, he tilted his head slightly.
“What were you doing in here?”
“….”
“Edith Blake.”
“….”
“The Duke’s daughter, correct?”
My heart lurched as he called out my name with perfect accuracy.
His expression made it clear he wouldn’t believe a denial even if I offered one.
I had no choice but to mutter in a resigned voice.
“…I came looking for Ruellin.”
“Why?”
Because you suspected me.
Or because this damned novel’s plot is unraveling in the most absurd way possible…!
“I have something to say.”
“Hmm… but why were you hiding in the wardrobe like a frightened mouse?”
My face flushed at the blunt question.
Just imagining how ridiculous I must have looked cowering in that wardrobe made my head spin.
‘…Damn it.’
I swallowed hard and offered a hasty explanation.
“…I saw the state of the room and panicked, thinking something terrible had happened. I was about to leave when I heard footsteps approaching, so I just…”
“Ah. So in that situation, hiding in the wardrobe was the obvious choice.”
He bared his teeth in a mocking grin.
The taunting tone made my chest tighten with indignation.
“If someone saw me here, they might get the wrong idea and cause trouble.”
The words spilled out before I could stop them, sharp as an accusation.
Realizing my mistake too late, I quickly lowered my head.
“Anyway, I apologize for the intrusion. I’ll be going.”
Staying entangled with this madman was the last thing I needed.

95%

Beyond his violent temperament, the glowing rampage gauge hovering above his head felt genuinely threatening.
I tried to slip past him like I was fleeing for my life.
But then.
“Hey, you’re not getting away that easily.”
“…!”
He suddenly blocked my path.
Narrowing one eye, he spoke in a low voice.
“I still have business with the young lady.”
“W-what…”
“You weren’t at the Ballroom, so I was looking for you… and here you are, hiding away.”
So I hadn’t imagined our eyes meeting earlier.
I stepped back, watching Serge with wary eyes.
“Why are you looking for me?”
“You should know that better than anyone.”
“I don’t.”
“The Duke didn’t tell you that I’ve identified you as a suspect in The Purifier’s kidnapping?”
He had.
“And coincidentally, I found you hiding in The Purifier’s room, so naturally my instincts are screaming that I’m onto something, that I’ve finally caught the culprit, wouldn’t you say?”
‘…Damn.’
I had nothing to say.
The man I’d seen earlier seemed like a reckless brute acting on impulse, yet here he was, laying out his logic with perfect clarity.
I bit my lower lip and answered immediately.
“As you can see, it is not me.”
“That’s something we can’t know for certain.”
Serge chuckled softly, shrugging his shoulders with an amused smirk.
“Perhaps you’ve returned to destroy evidence. After all, isn’t there a saying that criminals always return to the scene of their crime?”
“If I’d paid someone to kidnap her, I wouldn’t dirty my own hands with evidence destruction.”
My legs trembled with anxiety, but I met his gaze directly and refuted him calmly.
“And I wouldn’t have left such messy traces behind.”
“I don’t know. Given the Grand Duchess’s track record, that’s hardly convincing.”
“Then don’t believe me.”
I lifted my chin and responded with haughty defiance.
“An investigation will reveal everything anyway.”
It was better to act confident and unbothered, as if I had nothing to fear.
Or rather, if I didn’t conduct myself this way, I had an ominous feeling I’d be swept up in his pace.
“Hmm….”
That was when it happened.
He, who had been stroking his chin in apparent contemplation, suddenly bared his teeth and grinned like a villain.
“Then may I arrest the Grand Duchess immediately?”
“On what evidence?”
“Trespassing into a room without an owner should be a crime, shouldn’t it?”
It was nothing but sophistry.
But for him, it was entirely possible.
I gritted my teeth and shot back.
“Doesn’t the same apply to you, Your Grace?”
“I entered with explicit permission to investigate The Purifier’s disappearance.”
“The Emperor and Crown Prince seem unaware of this, don’t they? Whose permission did you obtain, exactly?”
“Oh. Not only do you hide like a mouse, but you eavesdrop quite well too.”
My words drew a short exclamation from him.
But it was brief.
“Let’s end the word games here.”
His smile vanished in an instant, and he asked with a cold expression.
“I’m in a bit of a hurry, Grand Duchess. Where is The Purifier?”
“I’ve already told you—I don’t know.”
“If you keep this up, I’ll be disappointed. I thought I’d shown you enough of who I am at the Ballroom….”
“….”
“Was that not enough?”
It was more than enough.
‘But what can I do when I genuinely don’t know!’
This was maddening. And I was terrified.
But as the sole Grand Duchess of this Empire, even a Duke could not treat me carelessly.
‘Kill me then, what else can you do? I’m the Grand Duchess, I’m the Grand Duchess, I’m the only daughter of Duke Blake….’
I forced myself to stay calm, striving not to let fear show on my face.
“Your Grace, are you threatening me right now?”
“Threatening? Ha ha.”
But the man let out a hollow laugh as if he’d heard some joke.
Then he shook his head with a dismissive gesture.
“Crown Prince, princess… yes, yes, that’s the problem with those raised so delicately. They can’t understand a simple thing the first time it’s explained nicely.”
“….”
“If you don’t want to talk, then don’t, princess.”
Mimicking my earlier gesture, the man tilted his chin up and smirked provokingly.
“There are plenty of other ways to get what I need without hearing it from you.”
“What do you—gasp!”
In that instant, my breath caught sharply.
As if someone were strangling me, I raised both hands to my throat, gasping.
But I felt nothing.
“Princess. From now on, blink once for yes, twice for no.”
He looked down at me coldly as I bit my tongue and struggled to breathe.
“Hee… huff….”
At the same moment, my breathing opened fractionally.
It was barely enough to draw air through a needle’s eye, yet the sensation of my throat being crushed remained.
‘That bastard…!’
Only then did I realize he was using an ability.
He was strangling my throat with telekinesis!
“If you lie, breathing will become progressively harder at my discretion. I hope you’ll cooperate willingly before you suffocate.”
“…!”
“Really, you don’t listen. I said blink once for yes.”
As I glared at him, my airway suddenly constricted again.
Blink.
I frantically blinked once.
Then my airway opened slightly again.
I gasped in desperately, and seeing my pathetic state, he smiled with satisfaction.
“Good, princess.”
“Huff, gasp….”
“You know the Purifier disappeared suddenly after the Tollen Gate incident, right?”
Blink.
I blinked frantically, terrified he might strangle me again.
“Did you know the Purifier wasn’t actually gone, but in a coma?”
Blink, blink.
He nodded at my answer.
“Right, you wouldn’t know. The Emperor kept it so secret that even I only found out just now.”
“….”
“Then, Your Highness. Did you have me kidnapped to kill The Purifier when the Gate opened in Tollen?”
When death by suffocation could come at any moment, there was no time to weigh and deliberate over such matters.
Blink, blink.
And so I answered with complete honesty.
Having lived through this as the actual party involved, I was certain that Edith Blake had never intended to kill the female lead.
Though she had grown into a lawless tyrant who indulged in wickedness, she lacked the ruthlessness required to commit murder.
‘If anything, she possessed an unexpected gentleness.’
The way the Butler and Nancy, along with the other Servants, treated me.
My relationship with Dylan as seen through dreams and such—all of it reinforced my conviction.
‘Besides, if she had truly resolved to kill, she would never have prepared so carelessly.’
She would not have recklessly followed the female lead directly to the Gate’s origin point.
So I simply denied it truthfully—or so I thought.
“Gasp!”
As if my denial had been merely a demonstration, a colossal force suddenly seized my throat, threatening to snap my neck.
‘Why! Why is he doing this―!’
Blink, blink, blink, blink.
I blinked frantically in confusion.
Then he tilted his head and muttered softly.
“Hmm… that doesn’t match what I investigated.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————