Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 75

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

#75.

I looked around at my surroundings.
The last thing I felt was consciousness slipping away as if anesthesia had taken hold.
‘Am I dreaming?’
The sound of waves carried the faint, aged scent of the sea.
When I lifted my head, a vista of azure waters spread before me.
Boats bobbing gently on the surface, white foam from waves crashing against the breakwater rising from the Coastal Area, buildings and a Fishing Village arrayed along the shoreline.
It was the neighborhood where I had lived as a child.
I believed this to be a dream because this place had long since vanished from the world.
I sat upon the seawall and gazed quietly out at the sea.
“Is this not a dream, but death after exhausting all my Disfavor?”
If death were like this, it would not be unwelcome.
My previous life was trapped in a dystopia, and this one in a world ravaged by Chaos.
Was this what they meant by peace descending after death?
‘It’s exactly as it was when I was young.’
With my sharp memory as both blessing and curse, I observed my surroundings and traced through distant recollections.
The number of ships departing, the color of the lighthouse, the shops that existed then.
‘Could our house still be standing?’
I rose and made my way toward the Alley.
The moment I saw my childhood bicycle standing intact in the middle of the Alley, my pace quickened.
“Mother.”
The path home remained vivid in my memory.
The image of my younger self, running toward home with a schoolbag on my back beyond the Alley, was etched into my mind.
Whether this was a dream born from past memories or a return to the past itself, I decided to consider later.
As I ran forward with emotion overriding reason, something caught hold of my skirt.
“Whine, whimper….”
A small brown Puppy was tugging at my skirt, as if telling me not to go.
“A Dog?”
“Yelp, yelp!”
Seeing the Admiral’s Puppy pulling with all its might, my sense of reality began to awaken bit by bit.
If I turned the corner and headed in the direction of our house, I had a premonition that I might never return to reality.
The system that had put me on trial would never grant me such a merciful death.
‘This must be within Chaos.’
Chaos always shows you the sweetest things.
I stared quietly beyond the Alley, then slowly turned my body around.
I returned to my original position and sat gazing at the sea. The Puppy settled quietly beside me.
I stroked its fluffy, soft fur and spoke.
“I had a Dog once too. It was my only family. Everyone said it was ugly, but to my eyes, it was adorable.”
“Woof.”
“I wanted to show her my favorite sea too. It’s ironic—she loves it, yet she can’t even swim.”
“Woof.”
The puppy suddenly sprang to its feet, spinning in circles and causing a commotion.
“What’s wrong?”
What could possibly be so delightful?
Seeing my bewilderment, the puppy paused, then sat beside me with a slightly embarrassed expression. It gazed quietly out at the sea, as if committing this moment to memory, its nose twitching as it inhaled the salt air.
“Still, I’m grateful I can love you freely.”
Emotional metrics applied only to humans.
It meant I could exchange affection with adorable creatures without restraint.
Then did Logan, who showed no metrics at all, count as a beast?
“Ah, I should head back.”
Thoughts of Logan and the people of reality surfaced in my mind.
Those I could call my comrades, and the family I had newly found.
And Kelsedny Admiral, who seemed intent on pursuing me even into the afterlife for vengeance.
I gazed into the undulating depths of the sea beneath my feet.
“Let’s go. There’s still much to accomplish in that world.”
Once I concluded this trial with the system, perhaps I could seize the life I had failed to live.
I hesitated, cradling the puppy in my arms, then summoned my courage and dove into the sea.
Splash—!
From my previous experience, I roughly knew the exit from the Depths of Unconsciousness.
It was confronting the thing I feared most.
I closed my eyes tightly, feeling the puppy’s warmth pressed against my chest.
‘It might have been harder if I were alone.’
I, who had died submerged in the coolant of a nuclear reactor, actually fear deep water like the sea.

The
Fifth

Sin
,

I’m sorry.
,

Life
Warning
Alert
Level
1
Deep

Guilt
Innocence

–

Not
Guilty

***

My eyes snapped open the moment icy water wrapped around me.
Seeing the peaceful sunlight streaming through the Quarters ceiling and the dancing shadows of the curtains, I felt a wave of relief wash over me.
Outside, everything was quiet and undisturbed.
After the reverse Alchemy Circle deployment succeeded, it seemed my beautiful slave girls had handled the aftermath on their own.
“Hmm?”
As I tried to rise with a satisfied heart, I felt something catch around my wrist.
The moment I turned my head, sensing a gaze on my cheek, I saw my wrist bound to the bed with a crimson silk ribbon.
It was the ability-blocking ribbon I had modified myself.
Beyond it, golden eyes met mine—eyes that belonged to a man resting his chin on his hand, watching me quietly from above.
“Are you alright?”
The seductive dark-haired man, dressed in a sleeveless formal vest and shirt, asked.
His lazy voice and tone, his cool yet gentle smile, and those golden irises that consumed his entire gaze.
Seeing Keldi’s personality emerge, it seemed I had died and come back to life after all.
But the fact that both my hands were bound to the bed was an entirely different problem.
He wraps me up like a gift and then asks if I’m alright?
“But I’m curious why I’ve been gift-wrapped in the first place….”
I had a fairly good idea of the reason, but having that insane personality do this was troublesome. He tilted his head slightly with a crescent-moon smile.
“You know but you’re asking anyway?”
The perceptive man feigned displeasure, lowering his eyes as he sighed.
“Why won’t you ever listen to me?”
“I won’t run away, so will you untie me?”
“Besides, there’s nowhere to run to anyway. I can’t even return to the Kingdom.”
He gestured toward the window as he explained.
“Another Gate has appeared and created a Chaos Erosion Zone. No one can escape beyond its boundaries.”
Could it be that before the Gate is destroyed, escape is absolutely impossible, and one must endure infinite waves of randomly-conceptualized trials and periodic surges of Chaos entities?
It was fortunate that I had prepared potions in abundance, just in case.
Suddenly, a hand touching my cheek dispersed my other thoughts.
“And you can’t leave me either.”
Only then did I realize I was in a state where movement was difficult.

Current total Disfavor [128]

Perhaps because I had become an economic criminal who bankrupted countless people, my Disfavor rating had fortunately risen.
Whether that man knew about the Disfavor rating or simply sensed that he was necessary to me remained unclear.
Yet for some reason, he wore a lonely expression as if he stood in the opposite position.
“…Am I the one who can’t leave?”
As he turned his head, shadow sharpened across the opposite side of his face.
Soon after, as if nothing had happened, he showed me a bright smile bathed in sunlight from the front.
“Keldi. You said I can’t escape anyway, so why did you bind me?”
I shook my bound hands up and down as I asked.
“What should I call it—timid revenge?”
He stroked his chin and curved his lips in an odd way.
“It looks good too.”
So that was his taste. I exhaled a sigh.
He slowly rose and climbed onto the bed sheet, then untied the ribbon bound around my wrist.
My gaze traced from his knees fixed on the sheet, across his broad chest and shoulders, to the loosely-knotted tie and the collar of his shirt that swayed.
Even as he focused on untying the ribbon with our bodies overlapping, a pleasant scent still emanated from him.
Then our eyes met as he untied the ribbon.
Our steady breathing filled the silence between us.
“Octavia.”
His gaze, which had remained fixed on my eyes throughout, descended toward my lips along with a shallow breath.
“Can I kiss you?”
Despite restraining me like some crazed domineering male lead, he asked permission like an innocent boy—yet with the fierce gaze of a passionate man.
“You said I could do as I please, didn’t you?”
At my indifferent counter-question, he drooped his eyebrows and let out a soft laugh.
“Do as you please while bound? What do you expect me to do?”
He slowly brought his cheek against mine and drew in a breath. Then he lifted his head slightly and met me with a smiling face.
“You’re not even afraid of dying, it seems.”
What was he saying? I had desperately accumulated Disfavor to survive without being executed…or was that not it?
“You nearly died trying to save someone else this time too, didn’t you?”
The following words altered the trajectory of my consciousness.
In the end, while pursuing my goal of surviving and seizing what I desired, I had ended up saving someone else.
“Do you want to die beautifully, perhaps?”
“If I must?”
To my answer, I hear what sounds like a faint laugh tinged with mockery, before it fades away.
Within those golden eyes—whether harboring resentment or longing, I cannot tell—the black pupils narrow in an instant.
“Then what about me?”
The man posing this chilling question is no longer smiling.
Why does he speak of me as though I were someone of consequence?
Why does his question make my chest throb with an aching sensation?
“Selfish creature.”
He suddenly spits out the accusation, then presses his lips against mine. As our lips meet and brush together, he whispers like honeyed sweetness.
“Trash.”
The man uttering the very same words the Admiral once did swallows my lips as I attempt to form a rebuttal.
Coherent thoughts dissolve into haze.
Regardless of his psychological state, kissing a handsome man is quite pleasant—such a vapid observation alone fills the meaningless void.
As I sink into a dazed sensation and my breath grows shallow, I pull my lips away and ask.
“Do you hate me?”
His eyes widen sensually as he draws several ragged breaths.
“I wonder—do I like you?”
He slowly lowers his gaze, pressing delicate kisses along the curve of my neck as he continues.
“Enough to resurrect you again and again, only to kill you once more.”
It’s a mad metaphor that makes no sense—how much does he truly despise me?—yet his decadent expression and voice, stained crimson at the eyes, hold such allure.
I, a human who feeds upon the hatred of others, find this quite appealing.

Disfavor increased [+20,000]

My emotional collateral and Savior tilted his chin upward with an elegant smile.
“It would be troublesome if my precious trash were to die on a whim. Better to die comfortably by my hand, wouldn’t you say? You understand, don’t you?”
He pressed his forehead against mine, his arms wrapped around my waist in a possessive embrace.
Golden eyes stained with obsession and madness drew closer, expanding in my vision.
“You will submit to me. Now it’s finally possible.”
“What?”
The brainwashing manipulation that Kelsedny Admiral had once attempted on me and failed flashed through my mind.
The thought of becoming a puppet dancing to this madman’s tune was utterly unpalatable.
He observed my expression from a slight distance, then covered his mouth with his hand and chuckled darkly.
“Did you truly believe you could wield my power without cost?”
Had the disfavor I’d accumulated from this man been transmuted into the Apostle’s power?
‘Damn this equivalent exchange….’
The moment golden chains began coiling around my body, I felt the wrongness and tried to push him away, but it was futile.
“Even your death belongs to me.”
“A usage fee? What kind of insane nonsense is that?”
“You already know I’m not in my right mind.”
As tremors coursed through my entire being, his languid voice coiled around my ears.
“Soul Domination.”
Simultaneously, my vision blurred.
In another sense, he and I were each other’s saviors and devastatingly mutually destructive.

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