Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 3

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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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#3.

Dawn was breaking across the sky.
I blinked up at the dimly lit ceiling.
‘I never imagined a situation like this would occur.’
The Admiral, whose frame was considerably larger than mine, had held me through the entire night. His arms wrapped firmly around my waist, making escape impossible.
Of course, the cliché of “spending a passionate night with a man who despises me” had not come to pass.

“I don’t know what to do. I….”
“I think I’m losing my mind.”

After those disjointed, pitiful laments, the sexy drunkard had fallen asleep while holding me tightly.
The man I had witnessed last night seemed like a completely different person from the ruthless Admiral I knew. As if he possessed a split personality.
‘Could this be the mental collapse symptoms that ability users experience from chaos erosion?’
The distinction in this world, unlike other genres featuring abilities, was that ability users’ overload began with mental illness.
But I had heard that the Royal Family possessed the highest-tier chaos immunity, provided nothing was broken?
‘Perhaps he was drunk and mistook me for another woman.’
But would the strongest person even get drunk?
Since the dislike meter meant no narrative of him having liked me in the past or falling for me at first sight applied, I would simply assume he wasn’t in his right mind.
“Mm.”
At the low groan and the sound of him regaining consciousness, I flinched and shrank back.
I had no way of knowing what reaction he would show upon waking.
It would be one of two things: either he would grow angry and try to kill me, or he would demand I take responsibility and pursue me with affection.
From my perspective, both were catastrophic.
‘Straightforwardly, I should escape.’
After deciding to slip away through the loosening grip of his arms, I finally succeeded in extracting myself.
It was just as I was quietly trying to leave the bed.
Thud!
“Oh.”
The bedsheet rustled loudly as my body lost balance and tilted backward.
My vision spun, and I found myself face-to-face with the expressionless Admiral.
He loomed over me, pinning both my wrists with a single hand in a restraining grip.
“…Octavia.”
The voice calling my name, the sharp gaze—both were menacing beyond measure.
Within his dark eyes, the golden light encircling his pupils gleamed with crystalline clarity.
“There have been those foolish enough to sneak into my chamber before.”
It seemed the alcohol had worn off and he had returned to his senses.
“What do you think happened to them?”
They all died, surely.
I felt the pressure of his grip on my wrists intensifying steadily.
Perhaps it was the oppressive aura unique to the Royal Family, but my voice froze in my throat—I could barely speak.
“Ow, that hurts.”
The moment a whimper escaped my lips, I heard him draw a sharp breath.
I watched his black pupils, engulfed in golden light, dilate and contract.
He furrowed his brow as if struck by a headache, then loosened his grip on me.
I gazed at the Admiral in bewilderment as he lowered his head. When he slowly opened his eyes, he glared at me as though he could kill me with a look.
“What did you do to me? If you don’t speak truthfully, I will kill you.”
Though it seemed I was the one being done to.
Staring into his murderous gaze, I found myself spiraling into exponential disdain—I couldn’t decide whether to cry or laugh.
In any case, since I felt like I might actually die, I needed to make excuses.
I couldn’t simply say ‘I came to retrieve the letter I sent you’—there was no good reason for that, and besides, I’d stolen another letter too.
‘Should I pretend to be a member of the Skeptic Fan Club?’
Just as the saying goes that love is a mental illness, there were naturally deranged perverts who risked their lives hiding in his bedroom. I had no idea what became of those mad, lustful demons.
Their fate was certainly grim, so I’d best avoid claiming to be one of those perverts.
He pressed down on my shoulder with one hand, urging me to answer.
“Speak.”
“Yes.”
His lips twisted again as he watched me avert my gaze.
“I’m asking what you did to me last night.”
This drunkard, speaking like a military drill sergeant—he doesn’t remember.
I arranged my expression to look sympathetic.
“You don’t… remember?”
“Remember what?”
I closed my eyes and turned my head away, adopting a deeply wounded, pitiful expression.
“Last night, when we made eye contact while you were completely drunk… you pulled me into your bedroom first…”
It was a classic obsession flag, but I had no choice if I wanted to escape this situation immediately.
Before I could even embellish the story in Ropan fashion without adding a single lie, he tilted his head slightly.
“You slept together?”
“Yes. You said you felt like you were going mad.”
I spoke only the truth, worried he might have some lie-detection ability.
We did sleep together, and he did say that.
I donned the expression of a pitiful, worn-down heroine once more and asked, “Did you perhaps mistake me for another woman? Or was it the alcohol?”
But my pitiful act seemed entirely ineffective on him.
“Do you think I’ve heard such lies once or twice?”
His eyes, holding me completely captive, drew closer as though they were meticulously searching through my innermost thoughts.
“I’m not so deranged that I embrace any woman when drunk.”
From my perspective, the man from last night was certainly deranged enough. Yet if he didn’t remember, how could he be so certain?
“Even if, by some chance, that were the case.”
He, who had vehemently denied it, added coldly,
He added coldly, despite his vehement denials.
“It was a mistake. Leave.”
I stared at him in shock.
Heavens, not only does he shatter the cliché, but he speaks as though he bears no responsibility—like absolute trash.
“Ah, yes. I shall graciously overlook the Admiral’s adorable little mistake.”
‘Thank you, divine providence!’
Phew, I thought I’d lose my precious life and my walking dislike generator.
Of course, it was I who snuck in uninvited, and I’ve done nothing to warrant responsibility, but regardless—what a blessing.
Given that I’m in a position where I must avoid at all costs the trope of “the strongest villain with a death flag, the doomed villainess’s nemesis, becomes obsessed with me after a single night together,” if he doesn’t take action, I’ll have to resort to my own trashy tactics.
Just as I was about to slip away under the guise of this convenient misunderstanding, it happened.
“Huh?”
A rectangular window materialized before my eyes.

…▒▒, ▒▒ contact increases stat

Target – Kelsedny Decart

The system window, which had only ever reported rises and falls like stock prices, offered me a hint for the first time.
The remaining words were corrupted and illegible, but one thing was certain: the Admiral was my primary target.
‘And contact?’
Without thinking, I bolted upright and placed my hand over his large one.
In that instant, the oppressive aura and murderous intent that had enveloped the space dissipated like wind-scattered dust.

Dislike increased [+1,000]

Reflecting on everything that had transpired, I realized that every touch since our first meeting had raised the counter by one thousand.
And if I summed the dislike he’d inflicted upon me after regaining consciousness.

Current total dislike [5,500]

Like discovering hope at the bottom of Pandora’s box where only misfortune spills forth, the world suddenly appeared beautiful.
‘Could it be that the favorability decreases based on the level of physical contact, like some kind of purification here?’
The urge to experiment surged within me, but seeing the ferocity that had crept into that man’s gaze, I sensed that saying something like “I need to confirm something, so let’s just kiss once” would end in disaster.
“By the way.”
Suddenly gripped by curiosity, I asked the Admiral, whose expression had turned glacial.
“Why did you catch me at the Banquet yesterday? Were you afraid I’d get hurt?”
He despises me by a thousand favorability points every time we touch, so why?
Besides, I knew he wasn’t the altruistic type to help others.
His lips twisted slightly.
“Whether you fall or crack your skull, I don’t care. Let go.”
He immediately thrust my hand away.
In his mind, it was probably a gentle push, but compared to that final weapon of a man, my body had the durability of a reed.
Just as my body was about to topple like wind-swept grass and tumble off the Bedroom—
Snap!
Just as he had at the Banquet, he caught my hand with a reflexive motion.
With my body precariously draped half off the Bedroom, I wore an expression of utter bewilderment.

Favorability decreased [+1,000]

That number was enough to throw me out the window and still have room to spare.
Whether my head and body hadn’t reached an agreement, or something was broken somewhere.
He stared at me expressionlessly and posed an utterly senseless question.
“Why are you doing this?”
That was exactly what I wanted to ask him.
“Perhaps.”
With my head tilted back, I exhaled a long sigh. Then, keeping my eyes downcast, I fixed my gaze upon him.
“Do you need someone to go to the Mental Hospital with you?”
I was beginning to genuinely worry about his mental health.
The saying came to mind—when you die and go to hell, they gather all the garbage tastes and rub them together for you.
Could it be that I’m supposed to conquer some unprecedented combination of misanthropy, alcoholism, destitution, and a beautiful man in a warm garbage uniform?

***

I hastily slipped out of the Annex and changed into fresh clothes.
The fact that he hadn’t shackled me in chains or taken my life suggested he’d decided to overlook the incident as a mere mistake.
Since I’d already secured the letter that could become my weakness, I’d accomplished the essential objective—or so I thought.
“How vexing.”
I hadn’t accomplished it after all.
It must have fallen beneath the Bedroom. The hiding spot was cramped and dark, so I hadn’t even attempted to read it.
“Such things happen. I’ll have to seize the next opportunity.”
I would continue meeting the Admiral, and I already possessed the suspicious coded letter Dominic had sent.
I was not someone who succumbed easily to failure.
Even in defeat, I would always attempt again, obsessing over my objectives and devising every conceivable stratagem through sleepless nights—a diligent schemer befitting a villain. As someone who once served as Chief Research Officer, I was precisely the sort of person suited to villainy.
Besides, I’d just established a history of thousands of dislikes last night.
Though I couldn’t fathom why he despised me so intensely, I could only feel grateful for it.
‘But what if we had actually… shared a bed last night?’
Human greed knows no bounds, yet there was no need to pursue matters to such extremes, so I shook my head.
Simply holding his hand whenever opportunity arose would suffice for now.

“If I’ve driven him to madness, I must take responsibility for it.”

The Admiral’s visage from last night kept circling through my mind unbidden.
‘Was there truly a bewitching woman who drove him to such a state—one who didn’t even appear in the original work?’
The Admiral’s private life remained largely unknown, as he scarcely appeared in the narrative, yet it was certain he harbored some tragic tale that had transformed him into a melancholic beauty whose mind and body operated independently, a man consumed by decadence.
Or perhaps he suffered from a split personality.
Lost in thought as I stepped into the Garden Corridor, I suddenly halted.
Another question had surfaced in my mind.

“…Octavia.”

Had I ever told that man my name?

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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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