A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 55

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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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55.

On the bed in the shabby room.
Dylan hung desperately onto the frail woman beneath him, his breathing ragged, black blood trickling from his nose.
And the woman whose shoulders he gripped.

― Poor thing… There, there. It’s alright. I’ll make it easier for you.

Edith Blake tenderly caressed the filthy man’s face.
He exhaled a soft moan, his eyes closing.

― In dreams, you were always like this. You always came to me first and caressed me.

Just as Dylan had described the dream.
“…Insane. What is this?”
The moment I muttered reflexively.
Pop―!
The vision vanished as if it had never been.
Instead, what filled my vision was Dylan’s face, eyes peacefully closed.
“Ugh!”
Startled by how eerily similar this was to the vision or whatever I’d just witnessed, I jerked my hand away from his face.
And stared at him for a moment with trembling eyes.
Dylan lay motionless, lost in deep sleep.
My mind was utterly confused.
“What on earth… was that just now?”
A strange sense of déjà vu washed over me.
‘I’ve experienced something like this before.’
When I first opened my eyes at the Duke’s Residence and had a private meeting with Ethan.
I’d seen a strange vision then too.

― Ugh…!
― Ethan, it’s alright. Breathe in, breathe out, slowly. Good boy….
― Edith Blake! Edith Blake…! Please, help me… Gasp!
― There, there….

I quickly forgot about it.
I assumed it was merely a dream Edith Blake had while in a coma, or perhaps an unconscious wish she harbored.
After all, Edith Blake had envied Ruellin for purifying the male leads.
At that naive age, such imaginings were certainly possible.
Wasn’t she at precisely the right age for such fantasies?
But then.
“What if that wasn’t it…?”
A similar hallucination repeated twice.
Dylan, who claimed to have dreamed the same scene.
I suddenly drew a sharp breath at a hypothesis that had sprung unbidden into my mind.
“Could it be….”
Not a dream or mere imagination….
But Edith Blake’s actual memories?

***

I couldn’t remember how I’d managed to escape the Slum.
I’d left Dylan lying unconscious in that Alley and made my way out alone.
There was no choice.
‘I couldn’t possibly carry such a massive frame on my own….’
In any case, I needed to ask someone to retrieve him.
Fortunately, the One-Eyed Boy wasn’t my only guide.
Not long after wandering through the maze-like Alleys, I discovered a group of Street Girls playing with straw dolls.
“Girls, might I ask for directions?”
“….”
“I’d be especially grateful if you could guide me to the center. In return, I’ll give you this.”
The moment I produced a gold coin, the children’s eyes lit up with sudden interest.
I felt a pang of melancholy seeing how well they understood the value of money at such a young age.
“Me! I’ll do it! I know the way well!”
The oldest-looking child among them stepped forward eagerly.
She appeared to be roughly the same age as the One-Eyed Boy.
I followed her and finally managed to escape that ant-hill of a Slum.
“Once you get through this Alley, you’ll reach the Main Road right away.”
The girl pointed toward the end of the Alley.
True to her word, carriages were passing along the road.
“Thank you.”
“Now give me the money.”
The girl held out her hand with practiced efficiency.
Having learned a lesson from the One-Eyed Boy who’d abandoned me and fled earlier, I’d made a point of arranging payment upon completion.
As I reached into my pocket to fulfill my promise, I caught sight of familiar armor passing by.
“Hey, kid. I’ll give you two gold coins if you do me one more favor.”
“What is it?”
“Go tell those knights over there…”
The boy, who had readily agreed to my request, bolted out of the alley.
Moments later, several knights in golden armor rushed urgently into the alley where I stood.
The knight leading them looked familiar.
It was the Adjutant who had been conversing with Dylan earlier.
“Good.”
Once I confirmed they were scrambling up the narrow slope, I handed the boy two gold coins as promised.
Then I quickened my pace toward the Carriage Station.
Eston was pacing in front of the station.
“Young Lady!”
She brightened upon spotting me.
It seemed she had grown quite anxious, worried I might be late or not arrive at all.
“What time is it?”
“Exactly three-thirty.”
“Let’s go.”
I climbed directly into the carriage I had arrived in.
Any further delay, and the Duke’s watcher stationed outside the Dress Shop would grow suspicious.
“Sigh…”
Only after the carriage began moving did I allow my exhausted body to fully collapse.
From using my ability, my vision swam as though I might collapse at any moment.
But I had to endure somehow until we returned to the Dress Shop.
Seeing how excessively fatigued I appeared, Eston asked with concern.
“Are you unwell? Your face is far too pale.”
“I’m fine.”
“Did you accomplish what you needed to?”
“No.”
“Then what were you…… No, never mind.”
Eston, who had been about to ask what I had been doing, quickly fell silent upon seeing the grim expression that had settled over my face.
‘What I needed to accomplish……’
My only objective was to find that damned heroine.
‘I didn’t find her. All I did was purify things. Damn it all……’
All I had gained was the insane revelation that the Blue Moon Guild mentioned in the original work was actually a cult.
Since there was nothing Eston could do about it anyway, I saw no reason to tell her I had used my ability.
Instead, I brought up a topic of conversation to keep myself from losing consciousness.
“Eston. Do you happen to know anything about the Sephiroth Sect?”
“The Sephiroth Sect…… You mean the cult that’s been spreading recently?”
“Yes.”
I had no idea if it had spread recently, but it was the only cult I knew of.
Fortunately, Eston seemed to have heard something about it as well.
“I don’t know the details either… but all the rumors I’ve heard are nothing but absurd nonsense.”
“For example, what kind of things?”
“Well, that Sephirot is a god who created this world. That he prophesies in advance when and where the Gate will open…”
“….”
“And those believers say they can live in a paradise without Gates or monsters.”
Hmm. Up to this point, it wasn’t much different from the doctrines of any other religion.
But at the next words, I frowned.
“And what else… they say if you bring them the Corrupted, they’ll restore them to normal? They’re not even The Purifier, and it’s ridiculous.”
Eston let out a scoff, but I couldn’t laugh along with him.
It was because it aligned perfectly with what the Tattooed Man had said.

— Why did those cult bastards come looking?
— Well, you know? Every month, some woman from the Capital claiming to be The Purifier or something comes and does a damn good job of stirring things up.

‘So the Blue Moon Guild is the Sephiroth Sect?’
If my suspicion was correct, the rumors Eston mentioned couldn’t simply be dismissed as absurd.
Ruellin might have actually purified the Corrupted.
‘The heroine is part of a cult? Does this even make sense?’
The drowsy haze of my mind suddenly cleared at the absurdity of it all.
I fell into deep thought.
Actually, when I thought about it, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
As far as I knew, this country—the main setting of the novel—had no official state religion.
But seeking divinity in the face of calamity is as natural to humans as breathing.
Even in modern times, cults were abundant.
And Awakeners who secretly believed in them as well.
‘As long as it doesn’t cause harm, what does it matter? Religion is a matter of personal freedom after all…’
I myself was an atheist most of the time, but when desperate, I’d call out to God, Buddha, some crazy novelist, anyone at all.
‘The heroine must have struggled too. When things are hard, you can turn to faith.’
With that thought, peace settled over my mind.
Right. In a world where even dead villains come back to life, what’s a little cult?
It would be boring if the protagonist were too perfect…
“But I still don’t understand why they chose the name Sephirot. It feels ominous.”
Just then, as if to shatter the peace I’d barely recovered, Eston grumbled.
I paused and turned to look at her.
“…What is Sephirot?”
“You don’t know the story of Sephirot? Oh, right. You lost your memories.”
She, now accustomed to understanding my situation on her own, kindly explained.
“Sephirot is the name of the criminal who first opened the Gate.”

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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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