A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 95

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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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95.

Drip, drip….
In that same instant, a thin stream of black blood trickled from Vincent’s lips.
As if he were spitting out words born from boiling blood itself.
I held my breath, staring at him in a daze.
The second male lead who was always glib, constantly hurling ridicule and sarcasm.
That he—the one who would have a fit of rage at the mere mention of the first character of “severing bonds”—would speak those words first was almost impossible to believe.
And with such a tender, melancholic expression on his face.
Moreover.

99%

True to his word that he would endure as long as possible, his rampage meter never rose beyond that point.
Leaving just 1% remaining.
Vincent held on with every ounce of his strength.
For someone like me, who had only ever witnessed most Awakeners lose their reason around 95% and watch their numbers spike in an instant, this was an utterly unfamiliar sight.
Strange and stranger still.
He was the one I would have expected to lose his mind first and rampage wildly upon reaching that threshold….
“…Vincent.”
I called out to him, releasing the breath I’d been holding.
“Yeah, Edith.”
Vincent answered like a gentle lamb.
Looking at him with unfamiliar eyes, I spoke honestly.
“No matter what expression you make when you say it, it doesn’t move me one bit.”
The only pitiful one in this wretched world is me.
Rampaging and self-destructing?
That’s something all Awakeners must accept the moment we’re born.
But to suddenly possess the body of a villainess overnight and be subject to criticism from the entire world,
and now I have to purify others in place of the heroine?
What sin have I committed to deserve this?
“…What?”
At my words, Vincent’s expression became peculiar.
Soon after, he let out a hollow laugh as if utterly dumbfounded.
“You’re really too much to someone who’s suffering.”
He grumbled while wiping beneath his nose with one sleeve.
I cast a brief glance at his pale blue tailcoat, now stained with dark fluid, then spoke flatly.
“Sorry for killing the serious mood.”
“….”
“Our connection ended the day you said you’d been suspecting and watching me as Ruellin’s kidnapper.”
“…Edith Blake.”
“Still.”
I drew in a deep breath and exhaled, offering a slight smile.
“I’ll accept your apology.”
“….”
“This time, it doesn’t sound like you’re joking.”
Vincent’s eyes widened gradually.
He asked in a trembling voice.
“You’ll… forgive me?”
“No.”
I denied it firmly.
“I’m only accepting your apology. Nothing changes.”
“….”
The subtle hope that had glimmered in Vincent’s eyes faded once more.
But there was no helping it.
No matter how much he apologized or begged forgiveness, it was impossible.
I could not forgive him.
Because I was not the real Edith Blake.
And he would never receive forgiveness from her.
Because the Edith Blake he knew had died long ago.
‘How unfortunate. If I were the real Edith Blake, I would have forgiven him and been overjoyed….’

― …You’ll never see the old me again, will you?

Just as he had said moments ago, he would never meet his childhood friend again, nor would he ever receive her forgiveness.
The thought that he would remain forever ignorant of their parting made Vincent seem almost pitiable to me.
“…That’s strange.”
It was then.
He, who had been staring up at me with vacant eyes while rigidly frozen, suddenly spoke.
I snapped from my reverie, responding with confusion.
“What is?”
“You’re supposed to be a phantom….”
“….”
“Why does this feel so real?”
Because it is real, that’s why it feels real.
I didn’t bother telling him the truth, merely smirking with a slight smile.
It was petty of me.
Vincent’s pupils wavered helplessly.
“Edith Blake couldn’t possibly be inside the Magi….”
“Well, whether it’s a phantom or reality—you can ponder that gradually from now on.”
Clap!
I clapped my hands together, clearing the air around us.
There was no time to delay further.
Before someone actually died from a concussion due to this tornado party, I had to stop it.
I reached out and placed my hand atop his blue hair.
Vincent’s shoulders flinched at the sudden contact.
“When you wake up, I hope you won’t forget the resolve you hold in this moment, Vincent.”
As I spoke in hushed tones, the pitch-black pupils fixed on me wavered once.
“An ending isn’t necessarily something to view as only tragic, is it? As long as you don’t die, there will come a chance to begin anew someday.”
“….”
“Our bond, too.”
Vincent’s eyes widened in an instant.
“…Edith Blake.”
He called my name in a voice thick with emotion.
In his eyes, which had been losing their light as hope was denied, a glimmer of possibility rekindled.
Soon after, through the palm resting on his head, I felt a tremor like that of an aspen leaf quivering.
Drip, drip.
Black tears began flowing anew from his eyes, falling onto his tailcoat.
Like someone weeping in silence.
It wasn’t forgiveness I was offering.
‘Then is it comfort? Or hypocrisy?’
I don’t know.
Perhaps my lingering resentment toward him would never fade, and this would become nothing but false hope.
Yet one thing had become undeniably clear.
I have now decided to purify Vincent of my own volition.
Not for myself, nor for someone else, nor because I was forced by circumstances beyond my control.
I am choosing to perform this purification entirely of my own will.
‘I swore countless times that I would never purify this bastard, even if it killed me….’
I have no idea how it came to this.
I exhaled a deep sigh, and then whispered softly.
“Sleep well, Vincent.”
“What….”
“Purification.”
Whoooooosh―!
In that instant, my palm pressed against Vincent’s head grew hot, and a brilliant emerald light exploded outward.
Simultaneously, a refreshing wind swept through with a sharp gust.
The luminous aura sparkled like a living aurora, leaving shimmering afterimages as it swiftly enveloped Vincent’s entire body.
And it began to greedily absorb the Magi leaking from his body.
Along with that.

99%
95%
89%

His rampage gauge, which had reached its peak, began to drop rapidly.
“….”
Vincent’s wide-open eyelids trembled slightly, then gradually began to close.
Soon, with his eyes completely shut, his expression became peaceful and docile like that of a sleeping child.
If only he would keep his mouth shut, Vincent was objectively a fair-skinned, delicate pretty boy.
Born into wealth, raised without ever hearing a single curse—the very image of a sheltered young nobleman.
Looking at this face alone, it bore no resemblance whatsoever to his true self, poisoned and twisted as a dagger.
‘…If only he were this quiet all the time.’
I clicked my tongue in disapproval, then watched the steadily decreasing numbers and thought.
‘It would be nice if I could purify all the Magi while I’m at it.’
Since the Gate had only recently opened, the Magi hadn’t yet spread extensively.
So now was the opportune moment to purify it.
However.
‘…It probably won’t work.’
I’m not some extraordinary ability user like the heroine.
Besides, even the heroine’s Magi purification in the novel takes several days to complete.
Yet here I am, already feeling my strength wane from purifying just Vincent alone, and my head is beginning to throb.
With regret, I stare at my hand, from which the emerald light continues to pour.
Suddenly, Eston’s words came back to me.

― “Using an ability as an Awakener is just like moving your arms. When your brain sends the command, you can control it freely like this.”
― “But you, Princess, are unconsciously telling yourself that you don’t have arms. Or that even if you do, they won’t move.”

“How in the world am I supposed to do that?”
Muttering in frustration, I swung my other arm—the one not touching Vincent—carelessly through the air.
“Like this?”
Whoosh!
In that instant, emerald light burst forth from my empty palm as if a blocked channel had suddenly ruptured.
Whoooooosh—!
The thick beam of light shot straight upward, following the motion of my raised hand, piercing the sky in a perfect line.
It looked as though I had planted a pillar of green light in the center of my palm.
The purifying light immediately began devouring the Magi.
Like a drill boring through a pitch-black tunnel, the black mist around the light column gradually grew thinner and thinner….
Then, suddenly, a hole tore wide open.
“…Huh?”
Through the gap, the night sky became clearly visible.
“It’s… this easy?”
I was utterly dumbfounded.
Who levels up like this?

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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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