Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 83

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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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#83.

Ethan felt as though he were plummeting from a great height, his body crashing into the earth below.
Chloe’s dirt-stained shoes filled his vision.
When he managed to lift his gaze, he saw a towering figure wielding an enormous scythe standing behind the smiling Chloe.
The being was beautiful as an angel, yet emanated a terrifyingly hollow aura—one that drew closer to death itself.
“Your sin demands your life.”
Chloe’s voice was devoid of all feeling, yet no words escaped his lips. He could not even scream.
Ethan’s consciousness ended there.
His headless body collapsed forward with a dull thud.
Chloe gazed down at her brother’s final breath with eyes as inorganic as stone.

“Chloe, you too were shackled by the chains of family, living as a slave, weren’t you? In the end, you’ll make the same choice as I did.”

Uriana’s curse suddenly surfaced in my mind.
“As expected, I feel nothing.”
He was nothing but a filthy, vile pest to me.
My emotions had always been dull, making it difficult to distinguish between good and evil.
So I had spent all this time learning society’s rules and order, mimicking the words and deeds of those praised as most virtuous.
Without anyone to teach me properly, I followed my mother’s words from childhood like doctrine.
When I collided with the contradiction between goodness losing in reality and what I had learned, I reached my conclusion only after punishing evil with equal evil.
‘The justice I have upheld was wrong.’
All this time, my goodness had been merely a tool to manage my reputation, a kind of social awareness to avoid offending others.
‘Establishing justice was the strongest evil of all.’
A desolate wind stirred my violet-hued hair.
The moment I acknowledged that I was not virtuous, the emotion I felt was not self-loathing, but liberation.
I gazed into the void and began to speak.
“Do you know? You and I are not family, nor anything else. I never had family to begin with.”
I knew they were pests, yet there had been times when I hoped they would become my family.
Had there been no catalyst, I might have lived out my days content with this false family charade.
I continued speaking like a soliloquy, words meant for no one’s ears.
“My mother’s true name is Netasha Anaksi. She is descended from the Condemnation Apostle.”
The Savior my mother spoke of in childhood was not Baron Arses.
“My father is Leopold Ginesa Second Prince. He was descended from the Betrayal Apostle.”
He was my mother’s savior and her betrayer.
The moment Chloe ceased her pretense of virtue, the truth naturally revealed itself.
It was a memory my mother had implanted in me before her death.

“This is a truth you will come to understand when you one day achieve enlightenment.”

My mother was a illegitimate princess of the Eastern Continent’s Royal Family—a descendant of the Condemnation Apostle among the four apostles.
Princess Netasha, who possessed extraordinary divine power, was captured by the Chaos Federation Empire through someone’s machinations.
They called themselves “followers of freedom,” claiming that those who believed in the God of Order were oppressed by the cruel Control Evil.

“What the apostles sealed away was not an evil god, but a true deity who sought to save humanity and grant them freedom. Only the Ginesa Apostle awakened to this truth. Because of this, the descendants of Order became sinners, eternally condemned to punishment.”

Their official name was the Free Union Empire.
Unlike alchemy, which was despised across every continent, this place had achieved advanced technological development based on alchemy as its foundation.

“Welcome to the paradise of freedom, Your Highness!”

The Empire’s people neither persecuted nor controlled Princess Netasha.
Before arriving here, she had harbored prejudices that the Chaos Federation Empire would be a terrible place.
Yet the Empire was a place as innocent and beautiful as a child’s dream, living up to its introduction as a “paradise.”
They specialized not only in magitech engineering but also in bioalchemy, dimensional design that opened Gates and the Chaos Realm, and mental disciplines that formed the foundation of supernatural abilities and magical power.
A beautiful boy in cute attire guided her through various places, introducing the Empire.

“Have you ever seen a Chaos Entity deliver sermons? That’s the ability of our Second Prince. Originally it was meant for missionary work—showing free dreams—but now it’s been repurposed for punishment, shattering minds with trauma.”

Everyone treated her with kindness.
Her time as a clergy member of the Free Faith Religion was far more peaceful than when she lived as an illegitimate princess.

One day, the Second Prince of the Ginesa Imperial Family came to find her.
Like Chloe, he had dark violet hair and green eyes, with delicate features.
He showed her the largest painting hanging in the Imperial Palace lobby.
On one side was a heart, and on the other was a sacred image of a woman holding a golden scale containing a soul, and another woman holding a great scythe.

“There’s a fact unknown to your nation. Beyond the four apostles, there is one more chosen by the divine—a Sage-class Alchemist whose very existence is a constructed formula.”

The two figures in the painting were the Sage and the Ginesa Apostle.
The great Sage, called the progenitor of alchemy, capable of decomposing and reconstructing every supernatural ability in existence.
In short, an alchemist who appears once in a thousand years.

“The being who designed human supernatural abilities alongside the Ginesa Apostle—that is the Sage.”

The Sage was also called the Mother of Chaos, having birthed the chaos that exists between order and freedom.
After that, the Second Prince continued to seek her out and speak with her.
Having lived a life of discrimination and solitude, and arriving in an enemy nation where she knew no one, Princess Netasha quickly opened her heart to his kindness.

“Princess Netasha. If our child—born of two Apostles’ bloodlines—were to be born, would we not end this endless war and restore freedom to those who have been ruled?”

There existed a prophecy in this place that the Sage and the Ginesa Apostle would manifest in the world once more.
She believed that her child with the Second Prince might appear as a reincarnation of an Apostle or the Sage.
There was also a sense of mission—that she, who had been treated as insignificant, could make a great contribution.
Even in this place where peace seemed to reign, there were fierce internal conflicts.
It was a struggle between the Crown Prince and the Second Prince factions, each vying over the methods of mercy, condemnation, and salvation.
The Crown Prince insisted on annihilating and resetting all descendants of the remaining four Apostles, while the Second Prince sought victory in war against Control Evil to save the sinners.
Ultimately, the Second Prince was killed by the Crown Prince in this battle of convictions.
Princess Netasha escaped to the Acedia Kingdom with the help of the officers who served him.
At that time, she was already carrying the Second Prince’s child.
As she passed through the Chaos Realm connected to the Kingdom, she suddenly felt doubt.

‘Did he truly love me?’

If he had, he would not have made a choice that endangered the woman he loved and their child.
She recalled that descendants of Apostles prioritize their mission above all, and are beings incapable of loving anyone. She herself, though born of wedlock, carried Apostle blood.

‘We mistook our mutual usefulness for love.’

The first Ginesa Apostle and the Sage, who were called soul companions, likely harbored no genuine affection either.
The Princess hid all the truth and became the second wife of Baron Arses, whom she met at the border.
The child born from this union was none other than Chloe.
The Baron, upon seeing Chloe with her black hair and his own green eyes, could not dispel the suspicion in his gaze.

“Chloe. Do not believe in love.”
“I pray you do not walk the painful path of misguided kindness.”

It was a selfish mother’s wish—that her daughter would never suffer from loving someone.
Chloe traced the memories transferred from her mother, gazing at the formidable mana gathering in her own hands.
The sanctity of her mother, which had dimly offered hope throughout her life, had vanished.
“Chloe Ginesa.”
She pronounced her true name—the one she had lost—over and over, then slowly closed her eyes.
Chloe had decided to abandon every principle her mother had taught her.
“Mother, farewell.”
The phantom of her mother, who had always kindled hope in her heart, smiled faintly and dissolved into nothing.
Chloe’s power did not stem from virtue or righteous faith.
Her strength came from the despair and death born of human sin.

***

Walking past Ethan’s corpse, Chloe suddenly turned her head at a familiar fragrance brushing against her nose.
Upon discovering the platinum-haired woman leaning against the Pine Column, her brow furrowed slightly.
It was Octavia.
Her expression was inscrutable—whether she was staring at the blood pooling on her knees or lost in thought.
“Did Ethan do this?”
Chloe asked.
Octavia, recalling the Admiral who had seized her with contempt before departing, nodded.
“Essentially, yes.”
She could barely walk, her ankle twisted.
Chloe retrieved a sacred potion and approached her.
With her pallid skin, sorrowful expression, and platinum hair cascading down, Octavia was beautiful—like an angel fallen from the Heavenly Realm.
After treating Octavia with the sacred potion, Chloe asked.
“Can you walk?”
Chloe extended her hand.
She had expected the proud Octavia to spurn the kindness with shame.
But instead, Octavia wore an expression of relief.
“No. I’m dizzy. Could you support me? I’d be even more grateful if you’d carry me.”
She, a commoner, spoke casually to anyone without regard for station.
Yet Chloe found herself responding with formal speech, which struck her as peculiar.
The shameless way she made demands even in dire straits drew an involuntary laugh.
And yet, witnessing this sharp-clawed kitten helpless without her aid stirred an odd sense of superiority within her.
“Octavia, why do you trust that I’ll help you?”
“Isn’t that why you came all this way? You brought a potion, and you know what your brother did.”
As if struck by an unwelcome truth, displeasure crossed Chloe’s face.
“What if I meant to harm you? No one would know if you died here.”
Octavia, who had pressed her forehead against her dizziness, opened her eyes.
“That’s impossible. You need me.”
“Necessary?”
“The grounds for your righteousness, proof of existence, the object of usurpation—things like that.”
She spoke as though she were a sage who had mastered all worldly affairs.
But her words were not without merit.
Chloe had no desire to make Octavia a pitiful victim, even if society had decreed her death like an execution.
Chloe was curious about the entity dwelling within Octavia.
She wanted to witness the moment that entity revealed its true form, the moment it clung to her seeking salvation.
Octavia could not die before she was satisfied.
“Rise.”
Chloe extended her hand toward Octavia.
The moment their hands clasped, Chloe’s body trembled and her eyes widened.
“…!”
As their hands met, the silhouette of a woman holding scales in one hand appeared behind Octavia, then vanished like a phantom.
It resembled the image of The Sage from the memories her mother had transmitted to her.

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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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