Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 36

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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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#36.

My trembling vision fixed on the text within the blue identification band.

「Special Disposal Target」

It meant the child’s life had little time remaining.
By tomorrow at the earliest, all the children who had been administered the experimental drug due to the failed trial would be dead.
“Teacher, when can I leave? I want to see Mom and Dad, and my friends too. I’m lonely being alone.”
“That is….”
It was all a lie, really.
Your friends and your parents are already dead—only you survived.
A great war broke out across the world, and nuclear winter arrived. The blue sky and sea no longer exist.
You, dead from radiation exposure, won’t even be buried in the ground—trapped in a lead box, not a single grain of ash will escape outside.
Instead of the cruel truth, I held the child close and told them a beautiful lie.
“You can leave as soon as tomorrow. Your friends and family will come to pick you up. You won’t hurt anymore, and you’ll be able to go out freely and see the sea. You might even meet the dolphins you saw in photographs?”
“Wow, really? Teacher, thank you!”
I couldn’t save you.
Spinning dreamlike lies as usual was a courtesy to let the children close their eyes within a happy fantasy—and a prescribed protocol.
The children believed the deception of adults trying to ease their guilt.
Fools who easily forgave the adults who hurt them and gave them affection.
The child’s innocent smile and laughter grew increasingly distorted, mixing with noise as if multiple voices were speaking.

“Liar.”

I flinched and stumbled backward.
A jet-black × mark appeared, obscuring the child’s face.
Soon a crimson wave spread, and a dolphin drawing sketched by a child, words of affection in clumsy handwriting, syringes and lollipops floated in the air as a twisted space unfolded.
It felt like being trapped in a nightmare of garish colors.
Only an old television crackled, emitting the sole source of light.

“There’s no sea anymore, is there.”

Trapped within the corroded television, emitting an eerie voice—the child with bandages wrapped tightly around their face… was me.
Soon the television channels flipped rapidly as harrowing memories overlapped.

“The new drug has no effect whatsoever. In fact, if we repurpose it as a biochemical weapon—”
“Woof! Yelp!”
“Teacher, am I going to die?”
“You died because of the new drug you developed! Villain! Murderer!”
“A person who researches efficient ways to kill humans creates medicine to save lives? Aren’t you a psychopath?”
“Critical situation. Emergency protocol activated.”

The trauma from my past life clawed and tore through my consciousness relentlessly.
Confronted with the regrets and sins of my former self, I clutched my head, suffering from a splitting headache.
The shadow consuming my mind was indeed a trauma.
Ding—
The moment I recognized the source of the shadow, a clear bell chime echoed from somewhere.
And a familiar voice brushed past me like an auditory hallucination.
“Octavia.”
I saw a blurred silhouette like a shadow extending a hand toward me. Without thinking, I grasped it in return.
“All of a sudden…?”
Why was I hearing the Admiral’s voice? He wasn’t even someone who should be a source of trauma.
The unexpected question pulled my consciousness out from beneath the weight of trauma.
I regained my senses and escaped the panic. The translucent silhouette wavering before me vanished.
Soon the nightmarish space dissolved, and light connected to somewhere appeared.
It was linked to the golden chain wrapped around my left wrist.
“Still… I must continue.”
Humanity in my era pursued technology and efficiency, losing what mattered most.
I was no exception.
‘So I want to reclaim it, even in this world.’
I ran toward the light connected to the chain.
Even if every word I spoke became a lie, and every action I took descended into sin.
It didn’t matter if everyone condemned and hated me.
I was a villain who would never give up.
I would endlessly observe and prove, grasping the best outcome among countless possible fates.

***

Logan, who had just arrived at the Ceremony Hall, questioned the Holy Knights about the situation.
“Prince Jeriel and Octavia have vanished into the Chaos Space.”
“What?”
The Crown Princess who had followed behind went pale.
Dekima Crown Princess maintained her composure as she stared at the lingering shadow imprint that remained.
The place where the Prince disappeared was a kind of Subspace—the probability of surviving in such disorder was slim.
“Octavia—why that woman?”
When Logan questioned the Holy Knights accusingly, Kimihee, the Priest who had been maintaining the barrier, stepped forward to explain.
“She was caught up in it while trying to save Prince Jeriel.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can hardly believe it myself.”
Kimihee’s expression was a tempest of conflicting emotions as he calmly conveyed the situation.
Logan felt the same. That selfish woman, thinking only of herself, had thrown her body forward to save the child?
If her aim had been to gain fame and profit, she would never have risked her own precious life.
“We can save them, can’t we? We have two Saints, and a second-class consecration mage as well.”
Kimihee gazed at Logan, who clung to this fragile hope, with a bitter expression.
“I’m afraid not. The Saint has fallen, and the consecration mage is not second-class.”
“What?”
Seeing Logan’s face drain of color, Kimihee added hastily.
“However, the Admiral has taken action, so do not despair or weep. It brings bad fortune when a man cries.”
Meanwhile, Princess Dekima maintained her rigid, elegant posture as she fixed her gaze upon the shadow’s imprint.
Her eyes, which bore an unusually crimson hue even among the royal family, flickered as though burning away.
The veins in her neck stood taut as she fought to keep herself from wavering.

“Neither the holiness of a Saint nor the techniques of arcane engineering can resolve this. What keeps Prince Jeriel tethered to this world may well be the desperate longing of those he holds dear.”

She had arrived at this place through Logan’s persuasion.
Yet it was already too late?
‘I must be cold. The children must not become my weakness.’
The Crown Princess, who could not even freely love her own child, took a deep breath and struggled to maintain her composure.
Before the shadow imprint where the two had vanished, the Saint and the Saint Man were conducting the Rite of Guidance.
“Kimihee, explain to me in detail what has happened.”
Dekima Crown Princess asked Kimihee in a measured tone.
Kimihee exhaled deeply and lowered his eyes.
“The Prince accepted the Chaos of his own volition.”
“Of his own volition?”
The Crown Princess, who understood the weight of those words, held her breath.

“Mother is the most wonderful person in this world.”

Recalling Prince Jeriel’s innocent smile, the Crown Princess’s lips parted slightly.
I once thought that unconditional love came not from parents, but from children.
‘…Could this be a decision he made because he judged himself as an existence that should disappear?’
“What should I do?”
My composure wavered, and my voice trembled at the end.
At that moment, someone tugged at my sleeve.
“Mother.”
It was Lucas, who had remained alone even as most had fled at the first signs of a rampage.
“Please save Prince Jeriel.”
Tears filled the eyes of the older brother who had always been overshadowed by his younger sibling’s shadow, and who had always been cold toward him.

“Your Highness, please take good care of our children…”

I recalled the final image of Ortega, who had returned mortally wounded while trying to save his son.
“Someone, please…”
The Crown Princess’s lips trembled violently. Cracks began to form in the coldness that had locked away genuine emotion her entire life.
“Prince Jeriel-!”
“It’s dangerous, Your Highness!”
“Let me go! Unless you want to become ash!”
I hurled aside the knights who tried to stop me and rushed toward the shadow’s afterimage.
I had questioned whether something even saints could not accomplish could be resolved by mere desperation. But because I had failed to convey even that heart properly, wasn’t the child now denying himself and trying to leave?
“My child! Come back to Mother!”
My desperate cry, stripped of all calculation and control, echoed through the space.

***

Whiiiish—
The wind passing through the passage stirred my hair.
I was inside a dark tunnel.
On the opposite side, toward the outside exit, a bright light gleamed.
“Are you going?”
At my question, Prince Jeriel, whose hand I held, nodded.
His skin, which had been blackened and rotting, was now clean and clear.
The child with soft honey-colored hair, a pale complexion, and crimson eyes that resembled his mother, Princess Dekima, squeezed my hand tightly.
“I don’t think I can keep the promise to marry you.”
Prince Jeriel smiled apologetically.
“I thought I’d be able to see Father, but it seems I won’t.”
A bat perched on his small shoulders washed its tiny face with its front paws. Animals gathered closely near the exit.
Whether they were waiting for Prince Jeriel or blocking his path, I couldn’t tell.
He loosened his grip on our clasped hands and spoke.
“I have to go now. Otherwise, a rampage will occur and everyone will be in danger.”
The child, who chose to disappear alone into the Chaos Space instead of rampaging, waved his hand with a lonely, faint smile.
“Octavia, go quickly. You can return. Someone is holding you back, after all. Unlike me.”
My left hand was bound by a golden chain, unable to advance further. The mysterious golden chain extended from the opposite entrance.
“Why is there no one holding onto the Prince? You’ll disappoint the person who came to grab him directly.”
I waved my right hand, the one holding Prince Jeriel’s hand.
“And your mother is calling for you.”
Ding.
A bell’s chime carried on the sound of the wind.
Beyond the entrance where the chain led, I heard the echo of a mother calling for her child.
“Jeriel—! Come back to Mother!”
Prince Jeriel’s crimson eyes widened.
“My baby! Mother was wrong!”
The child’s small lips, which had been closed, opened slightly.
Though he couldn’t express it, Octavia’s words that he was loved were not a lie.
“Shall we go? Mother and your brothers are waiting for you.”
“Yes.”
With just one word of apology, the child immediately forgave his mother.
The shadow hand that had grasped Prince Jeriel’s ankle slowly withdrew.
“When you’re all better, what do you want to do first?”
“I want to play rock-paper-scissors with my brother while climbing the stairs.”
We held hands and began walking through the entrance.
Speaking of a possible future, not a fabricated hope.
As I walked holding Prince Jeriel’s hand, I suddenly sensed something and turned around.
I saw children in white clothes wearing blue identification bands waving their hands, and my eyes widened.
The puppy that had guided our way was with them too.
“I’m sorry.”
I barely managed to part my trembling lips and offered my apology.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, sorry for lying that you’d recover and be able to meet Mother and Father. I wanted to keep apologizing, but I didn’t have the courage to….”
“Teacher, goodbye! Thank you—!”
The children laughed innocently as they turned and ran away, vanishing in a shimmer of light.

Leaving only the sound of their cheerful laughter behind.

***

First

Sin
–

Trial
Result

–
Rate
Predecessor
Half
1
Verdict

Outcome
class

–

Line
wife

Disfavor consumed through the Law of Equivalent Exchange [4,000]

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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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