A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 83

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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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83.

Is this hand truly extended for my sake?
I gazed at it pensively, my thoughts churning.
In that moment.
“Hardly. It looks rather poor.”
Dylan spoke with that characteristic apathy, transforming my suspicion into certainty.
‘As expected.’
I mocked myself inwardly.
Unfortunately, my instincts were far too sharp to be swayed by such trivial gestures.
Hostility and disdain flickered faintly in those ashen eyes—irritation barely concealed.
It felt as though I had returned to that first encounter in Tollen.
Eyes brimming with wariness, yet desperately grasping at courtesy as befitted his station.
‘Charity? Or perhaps the bare minimum of chivalry?’
Did he pity my predicament—abandoned by my childhood friend and even my stepbrother?
Or was he simply trying to earn points with Ruellin?
‘Fine. Go ahead and bask in that ghost’s affection.’
I rose to my feet under my own power, ignoring the hand Dylan offered.
For some reason, all four of them watched me in silence until I stood firmly on both legs.
As if I cared.
I gripped the pillar and gingerly rotated my sprained ankle.
Each movement sent tears to the brink of my eyes from the pain.
Yet it was not so severe that I couldn’t walk at all.
I believed I could manage to reach where Eston was below.
Just as I released the pillar and began to turn carefully away.
Before I could take even a single step, the blue-haired fool blocked my path.
“Where are you going?”
Vincent asked eagerly.
I answered with an expressionless face.
“To the Healer.”
“Aren’t you going to apologize to Ruellin?”
“Ha….”
I thought there was nothing more absurd than making the heroine cry while sprawled on the ground.
Yet here was this fool, acting as her spokesman and demanding an apology—a deep sigh escaped me.
“…Honestly, I’m sick of this.”
As I muttered under my breath, the golden eyes that had gleamed fiercely at me faltered for an instant.
But I no longer fell for such meaningless physical reactions.
I tore my gaze from him without hesitation and turned toward the heroine, whose shoulders were hunched in bewilderment.
And without delay, I spoke.
“I’m sorry, Ruellin.”
“…!”
All the male leads flinched at my clean apology.
Vincent seemed to be the most shocked among them.
He hadn’t expected me to yield so readily to Ruellin.
‘Ridiculous bastard.’
I had no idea why he wore that expression of someone who’d been struck again when he was the one who asked me to apologize.
If it were the old Edith Blake, perhaps.
But I could offer insincere apologies without hesitation to escape this cursed situation.
“I think I saw something that wasn’t there for a moment. I haven’t been feeling well lately.”
“….”
“And I’ll apologize for everything I’ve done to you before. Would you forgive me with a generous heart?”
Words poured out as if I were reciting a script I’d written.
Having practiced it several times with the Duke, it came far too easily.
“….”
Yet for some reason, the heroine they called angelic didn’t readily open her mouth to my apology.
Was it because there was no precedent for this, so I couldn’t retrieve the data?
Those green eyes fixed on me looked exactly like they had been just before rolling in all directions.
It was utterly chilling.
‘Right. If she’s going to roll them, let her do it in front of all these people!’
It would have been better that way.
I desperately hoped Ruellin would perform that eye show for me once more.
Yet, as if she were selective about her audience, she merely blinked her wet lashes intermittently.
It was so natural and sorrowful that I could almost believe the entire conversation where she hadn’t moved her eyelids at all had been a dream.
‘Damn it. Was she doing that on purpose to scare me?’
It was enough to drive me mad, but there was no way to prove it.
Grinding my lower lip, I had no choice but to end the conversation.
“…Well, if you don’t want to forgive me, then don’t.”
Honestly, I just wanted to get away from that creepy lunatic as quickly as possible, proof or no proof.
With only that thought driving me, I walked with all my effort.
I wanted to escape this space quickly, but my ankle throbbed, making my pace frustratingly slow.
It was after I’d limped forward a few steps that it happened.
Thud, thud.
Pathetically, someone caught up and grabbed my arm.
“Let me support you.”
“Let go!”
Crack—!
Perhaps because I was so on edge.
Without thinking, I flinched and wrenched the grasping hand away forcefully.
Ethan stared at me with a look of surprise.
I exhaled several shaky breaths as though I had sprinted at full speed, and with difficulty, I composed myself before speaking.
“Please don’t touch my body so carelessly, would you?”
“….”
“Since I lack common sense, I might scream if something makes me uncomfortable.”
“Edith Blake.”
When I mimicked his words back at him with a mocking tone, his lake-blue eyes darkened ominously.
For a moment he stared at me in silence, then his gaze drifted downward.
“…How did your ankle end up in that state?”
“It seems you’re only curious about it now.”
I was simply bewildered.
He had been so preoccupied with checking if Ruellin was all right after seeing me collapsed.
‘Why now?’
If he was belatedly trying to play the role of an older brother out of concern for the Duke, his timing was appallingly poor.
I tilted my head to the side.
“I wonder. How did my feet end up like this?”
“….”
“Perhaps, as you all suspect, I accidentally tripped while slapping Ruellin’s cheek.”
I let my eyes sweep slowly across the male leads one, two, and three in succession, then finally fixed my gaze on the heroine.
Meeting her eyes required considerable courage in that brief moment.
“Isn’t that right, Ruellin?”
At my question, Ruellin flinched, her shoulders trembling.
Then she began to whimper and babble.
“That, that’s….”
“….”
“Edith. Why are you telling such a lie….”
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, or so they say.
The heroine, who had been mindlessly repeating past dialogue regardless of context, had finally said something that made sense.
I smiled faintly and asked as gently as I could.
“Then would you like to tell the truth? Why did I fall?”
“Hey, you… that’s enough.”
But the answer came from an unexpected source.
I immediately erased the faint smile from my lips and turned my gaze away with an expressionless face.
“‘Hey’? Marquis Leandro.”
When I drew the line with such cold precision that my warmth evaporated entirely, his puppy-like gentle eyes shot upward.
“…Edith!”
“Princess, or Miss Blake.”
“….”
“Please show proper courtesy and treat me with the respect due to a lady. Your father boasts so much about how your manners are flawless.”
I used the very words the Duke had spoken, shrugged my shoulders, and finally turned away.
Dylan’s expression, glimpsed in passing, was peculiar.

— The Princess, or Miss Edith Blake.
— Does Count Frederick’s Household not teach proper etiquette when addressing a lady?

It seemed much like something I had heard before.
I was limping forward, attempting to continue my stride, when it happened.
Tap-tap-tap!
Hurried footsteps rushed toward me, blocking my path once again.
I had grown so weary of these interruptions that I was beginning to lose patience.
Perhaps I had half-anticipated that he would do something like this.
When I glanced up, I saw the second male lead with his face flushed crimson.
“You really….”
“….”
“Are you going to keep acting so childishly like this?”
“Vincent, stop.”
“Stop what? Don’t butt in, brother—just stay out of this!”
Vincent shouted without even glancing at Ethan.
He seemed to have maintained some restraint until now, which was unexpected.
The one who had been grinding his teeth roughly now poured out words like machine-gun fire.
“What exactly is your problem? Isn’t asking someone who’s crying to apologize reasonable? Why does telling you to stop pressing someone who’s already terrified bother you so much?!”

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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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