Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 14

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

#14.

The murmurs in the hall grew louder.
Kelsedny Admiral, who had just hurled Prince Dominic away, turned his head as he felt all eyes upon him.
Everyone stared at him with expressions of pure shock.
To any observer, he appeared to be an angry man defending his woman.
“That was incredibly cool.”
It was especially unbearable when Octavia gazed up at him with her large violet eyes wide open in wonder.
I felt so ashamed I wanted to slap my own cheek.
“…Because a disturbance was caused in the Sacred Temple.”
I offered a belated excuse, though I knew full well it was futile.
“Who is causing a disturbance in the Sacred Temple?”
The High Priest, who had arrived late and failed to grasp the situation, fixed his gaze upon Octavia, clearly identifying her as the culprit.
“Is it Octavia again? If you do not wish to be expelled….”
“It was the Admiral, Your Eminence.”
Octavia, having been pointed out, raised both hands gracefully and gestured toward the Admiral.
The High Priest, who had been adjusting his spectacles, widened his eyes as he discovered the grim-faced Admiral standing and Prince Dominic crouched upon the floor.
Unable to dare reprimand the Imperial Family, he pretended to have seen nothing, clearing his throat as he rang the bell to signal the beginning of the service.
‘What in the world is happening? The scandal cannot possibly be real….’
Everyone who had believed Octavia would be exposed as the perpetrator of a false scandal and face consequences held the same thought. The Princesses, and even Prince Dominic with his suddenly broken arm, shared this bewilderment.
“Your Highness, are you unharmed?”
A Healing Priest rushed forward to examine Prince Dominic’s condition.
“I apologize for the inconvenience, Your Highness.”
Prince Dominic rose to his feet with an apology. Before the Imperial Family of the ruling nation, royal pride was irrelevant.
‘What is this?’
Yet confusion still clouded my mind.

***

I leaned toward the Admiral sitting across from me, my gaze fixed straight ahead without a word.
As if responding to my movement, his body tilted in the opposite direction.
“You didn’t agree to pretend to be my lover, but you did agree to take my side.”
He turned his head toward me, his eyes that had been fixed forward.
“What’s the purpose of this.”
I couldn’t tell if he was angry or genuinely curious.
The Royal Family, descendants of the Apostles, seemed to have dulled emotions—their expressions and vocal tones were so restrained that it was difficult to read them.
“Because I want to live.”
I brought my face close to the Admiral’s composed features.
From his neck, where I expected the scent of heavy sandalwood or smoky musk, came an unexpectedly warm and clean soap fragrance.
I found it oddly surprising that we shared the same scent preferences.
“To be more precise, I want to live like an ordinary person.”
We were close enough that our breaths mingled.
I gently widened my eyes and tilted my head.
“Is that what you want too, Admiral?”
I asked while lightly brushing my fingertips across the back of his hand.
Like a small stone cast into a still lake, I saw his night-sky eyes ripple ever so slightly.

Favorability Increased [+1,000]

A deep shadow seemed to fall across Kelsedny Admiral’s eyes as he fell silent, then slowly turned his head to gaze at the Pulpit ahead.
His long, straight fingers, adorned with a metal watch, tapped against his knee twice before stopping.
No answer came to my question.
‘Did my question just touch on something?’
I smiled softly as I looked at his drawn profile.
“Ahem.”
The Priest was watching me with a disapproving gaze. Fearing I’d be thrown out if I made more noise, I pretended to focus intently.
The handsome Bishop continued his sermon in a mellifluous voice.
“In the beginning, the God of Order granted the authority of the Apostles to four humans, and they divided the seven evil gods of Chaos and sealed them away. Afterward, the four Apostles took root in each continent, and the Decart Apostle, who settled on the Western Continent, established an empire governing six kingdoms for the sake of purification, thus marking the beginning of the Lucifer Empire’s history….”
This place, Acedia, which belonged to the imperial territory, was one of the six kingdoms, and the story was that the human Apostles who saved the world from destruction by Chaos were our ancestors. It was a worldview explanation disguised as a sermon.
“Yet through the betrayal of a single individual, we came to bear the sin of defying order and coveting the power of Chaos.”
One of the four Apostles who received the authority of Order committed betrayal and stole the power of the evil god of Chaos, granting Esper abilities to humans.
In short, humans acted like humans.
The direct descendants of ‘Apostle Decart,’ who slew the traitorous Apostle and were permitted to rule over the Espers, were none other than the Decart Imperial Family sitting beside me.
“This is the consequence of sin, the punishment humanity receives for disrupting order.”
Those who had returned after completing their subjugation missions against the Chaos entities of the Chaos Realm appeared on the Podium where the Bishop pointed. They were those dispatched from the Esper Division to which they each belonged.
Here, the Chaos Realm was a dungeon, Chaos entities were monstrous beasts, and Gates were dimensional passages through which Chaos entities invaded.
At the same time, sighs echoed from all around.
‘…How tragic.’
I watched them stumble forward in a pitiful state, not a single part of them left unscathed, and I sighed inwardly.
An officer with bandages wrapped tightly around his right arm and half his face raised his left arm in salute.
“During this operation… a total of thirty-two soldiers have… returned to the flow of order, seeking atonement.”
His blood-stained fingertips trembled uncontrollably.
I spotted my cousin Cedric Ravishi standing among the Holy Knights who looked like broken toy soldiers.
He had volunteered for the Holy Knight Order and participated in this mission, and like his younger sister Camilla, he possessed red hair.
Thanks to wearing Ludovisi’s new defensive armor, he appeared the least damaged of them all.
“Ugh… uuugh….”
Yet his mind was far from intact.
Cedric’s pants were soaked through as he suffered from indescribable terror and agony.
“Haha, that’s good! We don’t have to fight anymore, right?”
Some laughed vacuously after losing an arm, while others experienced panic or delirium.
“Derek and Fred are dead! Aaaaah! Dead! They’re dead!”
One mistook the Bishop for a chaos entity and lunged, only to be subdued.
Setting aside that they should have been hospitalized as critical patients, none of them were in their right minds.
‘Mental collapse from erosion.’
Every esper possessed an ‘Esper Core’—the vital apparatus that connected to their inner consciousness, generated magical power, and activated their abilities.
When espers overused their abilities or suffered severe mental and physical damage during combat, chaos erosion would begin.
As erosion progressed, body and mind would enter the realm of disorder and begin to collapse.
Symptoms varied from person to person, and the unlucky ones could fall into abnormal states that even holy power could not cure.
To use an analogy, it was similar to radiation exposure.
Once completely consumed by chaos, they would rampage and die a gruesome death.
This was the price and punishment humanity paid for defying order.
‘They’re displaying people broken by missions like examples. How typical of these control fanatics.’
All espers were bound by the strict doctrine that they must ‘sacrifice their lives for the world’s order,’ and from the moment of their awakening, they were driven not only to missions but to battlefields against the Allied Nations that followed the Chaos Faith.
The contradiction of it all—fighting with the same chaotic power over opposing beliefs of order and disorder.
The one who retained the most composure was Kimihee, the priest who had once been insulted by Octavia, though his priestly robes, which should have been white, were now stained entirely with dark crimson blood.
His pretty face was covered in wounds.
The silver hair that everyone praised was drenched in red blood.
Even the white eye patch covering his right eye bore scattered traces of blood.
“Haa, haa….”
His left olive-colored eye was deeply sunken. Judging by how his withered face drew ragged breaths, he seemed to be barely holding on through sheer willpower.
“Only clergy chosen by order can suppress the chaos within and restore order.”
As the priest spoke, a woman in white vestments embroidered with silver thread appeared.
Uriana—the almighty Saint called the divine representative, blessed with powerful holiness.
Her clear, pristine face and long hair nearly white in color added to the sacred atmosphere.

Her sacred domain deployment, barriers, and protective abilities were overwhelmingly superior even among the saints.
‘But she would eventually be expelled from the Sacred Temple.’
Uriana concealed the fact that she was gradually losing her divine power, until eventually she was discovered and stripped of her position—such was her role in this narrative.
The one who would ascend as the new saint in Uriana’s place was none other than Chloe, the protagonist, who was not present in this chamber.
“I shall now commence the Ceremony of Order.”
As Uriana shook the bell in her hand with a clear, melodious voice, the priests ascended the podium.
Ding—
The pure chime of the bell resonated throughout the Sacred Temple.
“First Rite: Scripture of Purification.”
Soon, a sacred silver barrier unfurled from the saint’s fingertips, enveloping the espers in their chaotic state.
“Second Rite: Scripture of Atonement.”
As the priests grasped the hands of their respective espers and recited prayers, the anguished expressions on their faces gradually softened into peace.
“The benevolent God of Order has gathered the remnants of chaos.”
At Uriana’s declaration concluding the purification ceremony, everyone applauded and praised the saint’s sanctity.
In truth, it was merely a matter of holding hands once—there was no need for such grandiosity.
It was the same principle I had often witnessed in past-life guide novels: channeling divine power through contact to purify.
The reason for doing it this way was obvious: a theatrical display showcasing the Religious Order’s magnificence.
“Thank you, thank you.”
The Holy Knight with his severed arm wore an expression of salvation. I hoped they had found his severed limb and successfully reattached it.
What followed was a lengthy sermon from the High Priest, essentially conveying: “Sinners, isn’t our God amazing? Make generous donations and you’ll receive priority special care.”
“Yawn.”
I yawned from boredom, only to lock eyes with Kimihee.
I offered him a warm smile as a gesture of reconciliation, but he continued to regard me with a cold gaze.
As Kimihee descended from the podium amid applause and cheers, he reached into the inner fold of his vestments, rummaged about, and withdrew his hand.
With a smirk, what he produced was a hand with the middle finger raised rigidly upward.
‘…?’
The irreverent gesture was directed squarely at me.
A properly-behaved priest had just publicly given me the finger—me, a VVIP devotee from a family that had donated a total of 11.2 billion in contributions, including bribes. How utterly unseemly.
I smiled and waved cheerfully as he made his dignified exit to receive treatment for his injuries.
“Kimihee, I’ve placed that ‘Heart-Throbbing Pink Bunny Pajamas’ you requested in your chamber. I do hope you sleep well!”
If that was how he wanted to play it, I had no choice but to respond in kind with something equally unseemly.
Everyone, including the Bishop and the priests, stared at him with eyes wide as saucers.
Kimihee, who had inadvertently become a man who slept in adorable bunny pajamas, gazed at me quietly for a moment before finally departing.

Favorability Decreased [+50]

I left behind a reward brimming with resentment in my wake.
‘Don’t presume to act carelessly toward me.’
Just as I was inwardly reveling in my triumph, a sharp prickling sensation made me turn my head.
For reasons I couldn’t fathom, Kelsedny Admiral was regarding me with an enigmatic expression.
This time, when I met his gaze and smiled, he didn’t look away.
“What is it?”
“I don’t concern myself with the past, but as I warned you before.”
He held my gaze in silence for a moment, then slowly parted his lips.
“It would be better if you… tidied up your affairs with other men.”
The man who disliked me had apparently become thoroughly convinced by the rabbit pajama gift.

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