A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 68

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

68.

I’d been so caught up in my verbal sparring with Vincent that I hadn’t noticed a thing.
Somewhere along the way, the sun had risen, and morning had broken.
“…Ah, Father.”
I barely managed to squeeze out words that refused to come.
“Good morning, Your Grace.”
Vincent suddenly released my arm and offered the Duke a respectful bow.
And then.
“I happened to pass by and stopped in to see Edith Blake for a moment. Given the hour, I borrowed the back door briefly. However….”
“….”
“She was just arriving.”
He turned to look at me, his smile dripping with malice.
His golden eyes, brilliant as they reflected the morning light, gleamed with pure wickedness.
‘…Are you angry, Edith Blake?’
His lips moved silently.
Though he spoke no actual words, I heard the phantom voice as clearly as if he’d shouted them aloud.
“…What, what did you say?! Edith Blake!”
The Duke’s furious roar echoed distantly, growing fainter.
Eeeeeee――.
A sharp ringing suddenly pierced my ears.
My chronic affliction—the one that visited me whenever I faced unbearable circumstances, whenever stress reached its breaking point.
The deafening tinnitus, Vincent’s demonic smile, the Duke’s bellowing voice, Ethan’s piercing gaze….
Everything swirled together in chaos, fragmenting and crumbling.
I couldn’t breathe.
I’d reached my limit.
Perhaps the aftereffects of purifying the fourth male lead were only now manifesting.
“…Hah.”
I didn’t care anymore.
With a sharp exhale, I lost consciousness.

***

Thud.
The three men froze in unison as Edith Blake, who had been standing perfectly fine moments before, collapsed silently to the ground without warning.
“E-Edith!”
The Duke was the first to snap back to his senses.
He rushed forward in a single bound and carefully lifted her head from where it lay in the grass.
At the sight of his daughter’s deathly pale face, he went ashen and cried out.
“Edith! My dear, open your eyes! What’s happening to you?!”
“….”
“Butler! Head Maid—!”
“Father, I’ll carry her.”
“Never mind. Go fetch the Physician or a Healer at once!”
The Duke scooped Edith Blake into his arms and rushed toward the mansion.
“W-Your Grace! What in the—!”
“W-Why is the Young Lady—!”
“Summon the Physician immediately!”
The Butler and servants who came running at their master’s urgent call gasped in shock at the sight of Edith Blake cradled in his arms.
Ethan followed close behind, his face rigid and expressionless.
As everyone rushed toward the mansion in a state of panic, only one person remained rooted to the spot.
“…What.”
Vincent stared after the retreating Duke’s family, muttering blankly.
His expression was peculiar.
His lips remained curved upward in that same bitter smile he’d worn while facing Edith Blake, yet his eyes told a different story entirely.
His golden eyes, bloodshot and wide, trembled like a candle flame before the wind.
His gaze clung stubbornly to the Duke’s receding figure.
More precisely, to the thin wrist jutting out from his sleeve.
The very arm I had been holding just moments before.
It swayed lifelessly in the empty air, gradually disappearing from view.
If this were merely an act to escape the situation, she could never have moved with such meticulous precision.
The conclusion was inescapable.
“She really… collapsed?”
In truth, when Edith Blake had suddenly crumpled to the ground, he’d assumed she was putting on a show.
He’d naturally believed the Duke and Ethan would see through it just as he had.
He’d expected them to demand an explanation, to ask what she thought she was doing.
To command her to get up at once….
“…Ah.”
A sudden, splitting pain shot through his skull.
Vincent let out a short gasp and pressed both hands to his temples.
His head burned.
Rage consumed him.
A rage he could not bear.
It had always been my role to frustrate Edith Blake and keep her on edge.
“What am I doing here, right now?”
I began watching her after the Imperial Palace banquet.
At a Social Club comprised solely of high-ranking Awakeners and young male nobles, I heard something peculiar.

― There’s talk that The Purifier wasn’t simply hiding, but was abducted.
― Grand Duke Belnac is searching with fierce determination. Yet the most likely suspect is supposedly the Blake Young Lady.

Initially, there was genuine protective intent behind it.
After waking from her coma, Edith Blake had become far too strange.
They said she’d lost her memory, and she truly behaved like a child cast adrift on a riverbank.
Grand Duke Belnac was a dangerous man—unpredictable in any direction.
There was nothing to gain from becoming entangled with him, whether positively or negatively.
As a secondary measure, I discreetly assigned guards to verify whether her ‘amnesia’ was genuinely truthful.
But then.

― The target is moving from the Dress Shop rooftop directly into the adjacent Accessory Shop.
― She boarded a carriage that had been waiting for an hour. The destination appears to be Volner.

Within mere days, Edith Blake had escaped the Dress Shop through an extraordinary method, and suddenly she was heading toward Volner of all places.
It was precisely the city where Ruellin had been periodically volunteering for the past three years.
My anxiety and suspicion toward her surged, but I forced myself to suppress it.
‘There must be a reason. There are many merchant guilds in Volner, and she might be searching for an errand runner.’
Indeed, many nobles visited that place discreetly for such reasons.
I still trusted her until the report came that Edith Blake had entered the Slum.
Before everything fell apart because of that damned Dylan Frederick who suddenly appeared.

― Count Frederick is pursuing the target.

S-rank Awakeners with exceptional physical abilities were extremely sensitive to any presence.
To avoid detection, my surveillance team had no choice but to withdraw immediately.
The moment I received that report, I wanted to rush to Volner and demand to know what the two of them were doing.
Yet I barely restrained myself.
I had found no evidence that Edith Blake had lied, and I wanted to give her a chance.
To confess what she was hiding and return to her former self.
To become my Edith again—the one who would trust and follow my words even if the heavens split in two.
‘If that happens, perhaps I could even forgive her for impulsively kidnapping Ruellin again.’
But unaware of my magnanimous heart, when I received word that she had met with the Grand Duke, I could no longer contain myself.

― The target exited through the back door around 11 o’clock and is heading toward Legion Street by carriage.
― Contact established with Grand Duke Belnac. Target disappeared via spatial displacement. Withdrawing.

The moment I saw that message, I bolted from the house and sprinted toward the Duke’s Residence back door.
While waiting through the night for Edith Blake to return, my mind spiraled through countless possibilities.
Why had she met the Grand Duke? Where had she gone? What were they doing together? Why hadn’t she come back yet….
Ruellin’s abduction had slipped to the back of my mind, though I didn’t realize it.
I simply stood rigidly beneath the perimeter wall, anxiously watching for the gate to open.
And before long, dawn broke.
Then finally, the moment I saw Edith Blake shuffling through the gate with an exhausted face.
My vision went white.
Suddenly, I heard something snap inside my head….

― What did you talk about with Dylan Frederick?
― What the hell have you been doing all night with Serge Belnak, that bastard, before crawling back here?

When I came to my senses, I was shouting at Edith Blake like a madman.
Thud―
That was when a deep shadow suddenly fell at my feet.
“What are you still doing here? Why haven’t you left?”
Vincent, lost in thought, slowly lifted his head.
“…Brother.”
Ethan, who had returned at some point, was regarding him with a cold expression.
“Edith Blake is….”
“The Physician is examining her.”
“Why?”
“….”
“She’s not faking being unconscious, is she?”
At the urgent, sharp tone of the question, Ethan’s brow furrowed.
“…Didn’t you see it yourself at the Imperial Palace? Ever since she woke from that coma, she’s been collapsing like this from time to time.”
“….”
“Go back to the Marquis Leandro’s Estate.”
Vincent’s lips trembled slightly, as if his words had been stolen.
Ethan, who had been regarding him with indifference, then turned away.
It seemed he had come only to deliver that single command: leave.
A perfect treatment of a stranger.
Without thinking, Vincent clenched his teeth and spoke with bitter sarcasm.
“Still, I’m a guest. Won’t you even offer me a cup of tea?”
“Vincent Leandro.”
Ethan, who had been heading back to the mansion, stopped and turned to face him.
“Keep it reasonable. You’ve crossed the line.”
“So you’re saying I’m the one at fault?”
Vincent let out a sharp, hollow laugh before his voice rose sharply.
“It’s Edith Blake who’s in the wrong. That girl had no sense—wandering outside at midnight, staying out all night, and only now returning home!”
“….”
“Aren’t you angry, brother?”
“I am.”
“Then why…!”
“But that’s a family matter. It’s not your concern, is it?”
At Ethan’s words—cold enough to freeze the blood—Vincent irritably ran a hand through his hair.
“Now you’re talking about family? When did we ever draw such distinctions between us….”
“I heard you wanted to sever ties.”
Vincent’s mouth snapped shut abruptly.
After a long silence, he grumbled irritably.
“That was… just something I said. Don’t you know how she is?”
“A few days ago, you swore an oath in front of Father with a wine glass in hand. That you no longer cared about her, and would never be entangled with her again.”
“Do you believe that?”
“How could I? Should I believe you, who was pressuring someone who clearly rejected you?”
Ethan, who had been responding monotonously throughout, suddenly struck with cutting precision.
In that fleeting moment, his face was crossed by unmistakable hostility and contempt.
“…Brother.”
Noticing it, Vincent’s golden eyes began to waver slightly.
And with that, the bond they had built over so long through their shared ‘common enemy’ Edith Blake began to crumble helplessly.
“Why are you like this? She’s Edith Blake. The one who lied constantly every day, who bullied Ruellin. Just because she’s lost her memory—do you think her true nature will change?”
“The Edith Blake I know.”
“….”
“Is not someone who makes a habit of lying.”
“What would you know.”
Before Ethan could finish, Vincent spat out his words bitterly.
Having abandoned even the minimum courtesy, he now laid bare his true self entirely.
“I met her first. You were nothing but a servant’s son—what could you possibly know about her…!”
“She has no reason to lie, nor any need to. She’s never been in a position where she would. Didn’t you see the Duke’s expression just now?”
Ethan spoke with absolute certainty.
And for some reason, a faint smile crossed his face.
“If you’ve been misunderstanding all this time, then you’ve wasted thirteen years of your life.”
At those words, Vincent’s breath stopped.
Seeing his face harden with shock, Ethan turned away without hesitation.
The reason his footsteps toward the mansion seemed so remarkably relieved.
No one could have known.

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