Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 35

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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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#35.

Chloe glanced down at her necklace in alarm.
The potent blessing that had purified the vast Contaminated Zone and banished chaos with a single word had vanished without a trace.
‘What’s happening…?’
She realized her divine power had reverted to its previous ninth-tier level.
The temporary elevation granted by the enhancement technique had expired.
Unaware of this truth, she merely swayed with her face drained of all color.
‘Why is she like that?’
Dominic, who had been anticipating Chloe’s prowess, regarded her vacant stance with bewilderment.
Then it happened.
Kwaaaack—!
The chaotic energy erupted like an explosion, swirling violently into the air.
As if tearing through dimensions themselves, a dark fissure materialized in the void and slowly widened.
The shockwave sent cracks spiderwebbing across the holy barrier.
“Danger!”
“Is this a runaway precursor? We need to leave now!”
Panic rippled through the crowd as people began evacuating one by one.
From the gaping rift, shadowy hands stretched forth and seized Prince Jeriel’s body.
“Prince Jeriel, don’t give up! You can’t!”
Saint Uriana cried out desperately, reaching toward Prince Jeriel as he was engulfed by the shadow’s grasp.
Runaways occur when an ability core resists being consumed by chaos, but some ability users choose self-termination instead of runaway.
That method meant releasing everything and vanishing into the chaos.
Saaah—.
The fingers that touched the chaos charred pitch-black.
The child was following the chaos’s whisper, urging him to abandon his suffering and find liberation.
In her tear-filled eyes, the child’s serene smile bloomed.
“Saint, I don’t hurt anymore. Thank you for visiting me every day. Please tell my Mother I’m sorry.”
A silent scream escaped her breath as Saint Uriana’s eyes widened.
‘I preached sacrifice and devotion, yet I myself couldn’t relinquish my desires and succumbed to fear. Meanwhile, this child….’
The child’s warm words—having chosen to disappear for the sake of saving others—drove the dagger of guilt deep into her heart, she who had thought only of her own safety.
Matteo, who had been watching, rose to his feet.
“A ninth-tier blessing ability user and a Saint who has lost faith… a total catastrophe, it seems.”
He could not save the child, but he intended to at least minimize the damage from the runaway.
Kelsedny Admiral turned his gaze toward Octavia.
Then, confirming her seat was empty, he looked back toward the Altar.
Octavia was rushing toward Prince Jeriel.
“Your Highness!”
Octavia pulled Prince Jeriel into her embrace.
Searing agony assailed her, but having endured countless sufferings before, this was nothing to her.
Amidst the swirling black ash, Prince Jeriel’s eyes snapped open as he felt Octavia’s warm embrace.
“…Octavia?”
Octavia held him close, whispering softly against his ear.
“You must have been so lonely all by yourself, haven’t you?”
She understood well the isolation of dying alone.
Yet she harbored no intention of perishing alongside him. She was merely an odd creature who feared no risk, who transformed even failure into fresh data.

“In our Free Faith Church, we define human life as punishment, and we survive by fueling ourselves with hope born from suffering. Then, what is it that pure children desire most and fear most?”

She recalled the words of the Two-Headed Priest. Saving a child required neither grand sanctity nor transcendent technique—it ultimately depended on an adult’s affection.
‘To prove it, I must throw myself forward. How terribly inefficient.’
I have no choice. I’ve always been weak to children and animals.
In my past life, I was a sinner who placed the vulnerable on the scales of life and death under the guise of experiments for humanity.
“…It hurts.”
Octavia closed her eyes and pulled Prince Jeriel tighter into her arms.
Small hands gripped the hem of her garment with desperate force.
As ash spiraled chaotically around them, the dark wave swelled into an even more violent vortex.
Kwaaaaaaaa—!
Before anyone could react, the two figures vanished into the chaos.
“Your Highness! Octavia—!”
Saint Uriana’s anguished cry pierced through the air.

***

“No!!”
After the two vanished into the shadow of chaos, only Saint Uriana’s anguished cry filled the space.
Meanwhile, Matteo gazed at Kelsedny Admiral with an expressionless face.
“Isn’t Octavia someone the General meets with?”
“No.”
His face was as indifferent as if he were hearing gossip from a distant neighborhood.
Yet the perceptive saint managed to discern the faintest shift in the Royal’s emotions.
His dark eyes, ringed with golden light at their centers, had grown even darker than usual.
“I’ll pretend not to notice, so perhaps the General should consider his options.”
“My power is specialized for annihilation, not salvation. If I’m careless, the entire city could be obliterated.”
His constitution was attuned to destruction, so even his sacred abilities carried a destructive nature that ordinary humans could not withstand.
“Aren’t you concerned? What one chooses by their own will belongs to order, so sacred power alone cannot save them.”
The saint stared intently at the Admiral, who answered without emotion. Noticing his lips twist slightly, the saint turned away.
‘Is he conflicted? How like a coy young master.’
Matteo, stepping toward the altar, caught sight of Chloe nervously biting her nails.
He had already grasped how the situation was unfolding.
“I heard this was your first ritual, but you seem surprised it’s different from what you expected?”
At the saint’s piercing question, Chloe’s green eyes trembled greatly.
Her second-tier sacred ability had vanished, and the shadow was stronger than anticipated. With her plans completely unraveling, Chloe offered no response.
‘It’s that incompetent woman’s fault for being so greedy.’
She felt only anger toward Saint Uriana.
The helplessly weeping saint clung to Matteo.
“Saint of Mercury, please help us!”
“Saint. Those who seek salvation must never abandon hope until the very end.”
Saint Uriana gazed at the sacred bell that had fallen to the floor, wiping her wet eyes.
“I have no right to save anyone. Please, just save them both.”
“Once one enters chaos, everything depends on the heart. For those within chaos to possess the will to survive, the sincere intention of the one seeking to save them must be conveyed….”
Ding—.
“Hmm?”
Hearing the bell’s chime, Matteo turned his head.
Kelsedny Admiral, who had drawn near without notice, exhaled a sigh as he picked up the sacred bell.
It appeared as though he had been forcibly drawn into this.
“You two incompetents, deploy the ‘Book of Guidance.'”
“General, if the Prince has abandoned his will, the Book of Guidance would be useless.”
“But the one seeking salvation entered with him. Unfortunately, she fell into the Abyss Sea.”
The saint, recalling Octavia who had been swept up alongside him, nodded.
Given how threatening the rampage had been, there was ample justification to interfere in the Kingdom Church’s affairs under the pretext of ‘protecting General Kelsedny.’
The Admiral likely stepped forward under the pretext of ‘protecting the saint, who is the High Priest’s retainer.’
“I see. However, a non-ability user’s mental fortitude won’t last long.”
“She possesses a mental world that rivals chaos itself. Even Royal pressure won’t work on her.”
He explained Octavia’s peculiar mental world and durability to Saint Uriana, then handed her the bell.
‘Anyway, he clearly cares about her. I wonder if she can actually endure the Abyss, where even the Apostles couldn’t survive.’
Matteo pinched himself inwardly and placed his hand on his earring, a sacred relic.
“Admiral, Saint. I can help too.”
Seeing Chloe step forward, thinking this was her moment, Kelsedny Admiral’s eyes turned cold. He then gestured toward the remaining Priests.
“Get rid of that.”
Chloe’s face, referred to as “that,” stiffened rigidly.
She, wearing an expression of incomprehension, pointed at Saint Uriana.
“The one who should be removed is the unqualified Saint Uriana. That Saint’s sanctity has fallen into corruption.”
At Chloe’s accusation, Saint Uriana, clutching the wooden cat figurine that Prince Jeriel had dropped, lifted her head.
“That is true. I have betrayed God and committed countless transgressions, a sinner stained with sin. I will bear any price….”
She rose unsteadily and gazed up at the magnificent divine statue.
“Grant me one final sanctity to guide the wretched.”
The moment Saint Uriana’s tears, streaming down her cheeks, touched the ground, a transmutation circle blazed not with silver light but gold, forming an intricate and complex pattern.
The sacred bell in the Saint’s hand flashed brilliantly.
Matteo’s eyes widened at the sight.
‘An amplified transmutation circle.’
Uriana’s sanctity was dozens of times stronger than before she had lost her divine power.

***

Whiiiish—
A warm, fragrant breeze blew.
I sat upon a hillside where the wind stirred waves of emerald grass. The sensation of rustling blades tickling my ankles felt vivid and real.
“This is chaos? It’s paradise.”
It was a peaceful place that bore no resemblance to words like disorder and chaos.
It felt somewhat like the early part of my past-life experience—that section where they said, “Imagine yourself in a meadow and feel the grass and wind….”
“By the way, where did Prince Jeriel go….”
“Whimper.”
Just then, a brown puppy appeared, fluttering its large ears, and tugged at the hem of my clothes.
It resembled the beagle I had secretly taken care of in my past life.
“A guide dog? How adorable.”
“Woof!”
Following the puppy across a clear stream that babbled gently, I spotted the entrance to an ancient tunnel, its vines and branches intertwined.
As I emerged from the tunnel, following the splashing footsteps of the puppy, a dark, desolate city appeared—as if the world had met its end, reclaimed by nature.
“This really is a past-life experience.”
It was my hometown from my past life, the city abandoned after the nuclear reactor explosion.
Skeletal remains in outdated military uniforms could be seen leaning against the walls.
The city, consumed by nature, was wrapped in green moss and flowering vines. A two-tailed squirrel scurried past my feet and fled.
I continued forward.
Click.
The moment my foot touched a certain point, my vision lurched, and my consciousness felt as though it were being violently torn from my body.
In an instant, the landscape shifted—no longer the decaying city, but a white hospital ward.

“We love you, Teacher.”
“Thank you, Teachers.”

Post-it notes clinging to the walls and children’s drawings. It was the Children’s Research Ward of the Military Research Institute where I had worked in my past life.
Beyond the glass, people in protective suits were visible. We immune individuals wore relatively unrestricted research uniforms.
I had entered not Prince Jeriel’s consciousness, but the shadow dwelling within my own heart.
Suddenly, I felt a tug at my sleeve and lowered my gaze.
“Teacher.”
Instead of a brown puppy, a small child in white clothing smiled brightly up at me. White bandages covered their face and arms in profusion. Beneath the visible collar and beyond the edges of the bandages, blackened, rotting skin was exposed.
“My bracelet changed! It’s blue now! They said if I wear this bracelet, I can go see the blue sea!”
My face drained of color as I gazed at the identification band wrapped around the child’s delicate wrist.
I stared into the void with hollow eyes and whispered.
Ah, the Abyss.

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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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