Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 85

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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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#85.

Crack!
Before I could fully register the notification window that had materialized before my eyes, a jet-black liquid erupted from the Chaos Entity’s body like a geyser.
It resembled fuel far more than blood.
Boom!
The remaining Chaos Entities hovering in the air exploded and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Crackle!
Between the forms being bisected by enormous talons, I locked eyes with a ferociously gleaming gaze.
Slit pupils of a sickly yellow hue stared at me without blinking.
“Grrr….”
The massive black wolf form wore a halo of golden light around its neck—it resembled golden bars aimed at its throat.
The black liquid of the Chaos Entity dripped steadily from its enormous fangs and razor-sharp claws.
The peculiar aura enveloping its body was enough to raise goosebumps merely from sight.
Yet unlike the Chaos Entities that weaponized even their death cries, this creature bore emotion in its eyes.
“Are you… a puppy?”
“Whine.”
The being staring at me was Samsik—the Admiral’s dog, once my own puppy in the past.
This lingering existence that had strayed from its rightful place and defied order was, in essence, no different from a vengeful spirit or a demonic beast.
The moment Samsik sensed my fear, she nudged away the stone pinning my broken leg with her snout, then turned away.
She understood well that humans adored small, adorable puppies.
“Don’t go.”
I limped toward Samsik on my fractured leg.
Explosions continued to sound from the sky, but I paid them no mind.
“You saved me, didn’t you? You clever thing. I knew something was extraordinary about you. The way you resonated with the bracelet’s magic—are you some kind of living equipment? Or perhaps a divine beast?”
“Grrr.”
“Thank you.”
I pulled the assassin before me into a tight embrace around her neck. Despite her fearsome appearance, her fur was wonderfully soft and fluffy.
“Ah, this is the charm of a large dog. Even in this form, you’re absolutely adorable.”
Her massive tail began to wag slowly at last.
I knew this being was the Admiral’s dog, but I had no idea she was Samsik, returned from the afterlife.
I had assumed she was merely a familiar transformed by the influence of Chaos, or perhaps a chimera created through transmutation.
I interpreted the resonance message as related to that.
“Your height is perfect for embracing. You’re so cute, so very cute.”

“What? You say our puppy is ugly? Isn’t that more a reflection of your eyesight? She’s the most adorable sprite in all the world.”

Yet the words she spoke resembled the gentle kindness he had heard in the past, so Samsik closed his eyes and rubbed his nose against her cheek.
In that instant, sensing a chill of mana, Samsik seized the back of Octavia’s garment in his jaws and swiftly dodged away.
Immediately after, a blade of frigid air came slicing through.
Boom—!
A brilliant blue explosion erupted where Samsik had been standing. Beyond the crystalline shards of ice scattering in all directions, a man’s voice rang out.
“Octavia!”
The moment Octavia, dangling from his jaws, caught sight of someone, her expression darkened considerably.
‘So he didn’t flee like a coward after all?’
It was Prince Dominic, sword in hand.
Octavia looked up at Samsik, who appeared unmistakably like a demonic beast to any observer. Given humanity’s tendency to trust their eyes over a hundred words of explanation, persuasion seemed impossible.
“Puppy, you can return to your original form, can’t you? Hide for now and come back later.”
As Octavia whispered, Samsik carefully set her down and vanished into the depths of the forest.
Dominic rushed over and steadied Octavia.
“Are you hurt? Your leg is injured.”
“Why did you come back? I heard you were the first to flee the moment everything went wrong.”
“Do I look like someone who would abandon his responsibilities and run?”
“Absolutely.”
“I got caught up in the Chaos Realm that appeared suddenly. I barely found the exit and escaped.”
Of course, that was only half the truth.
When the instant-death Gate summoning first began, Chloe had rushed to the prince in desperation, telling him that everyone might die and that he had to stop it.
Honestly, with only minutes left before death claimed them all, what power could possibly prevent it?
At that moment, Dominic weighed his own safety against the value of lives.
The children of the powerful, families of key supporters, bloodlines of high-ranking imperial nobility—and so forth.
Most of them were volunteers simply trying to fulfill the mandatory service hours the state had imposed.
So he had attempted to escape with them, using every means of transportation available.
‘Those who can live must live.’
He prided himself on having made a cold and rational choice.
Even if they were still trapped in the Chaos Realm.
Dominic examined Octavia’s wound and asked.
“I heard an instant-death Gate that drains life force was about to open, and Chloe used her holy power to prevent people from dying?”
“No? The ability users I brought all worked together to stop it.”
“Why have you been speaking casually this whole time… Anyway, surely Chloe must have done something alongside them?”
“She couldn’t do anything.”
“That can’t be right.”
He, who had thought that holy power might manifest again in another crisis like before, wore a puzzled expression.
In the original story, before the instant-death Gate opened, Chloe was evacuating people when she faced a desperate crisis.
In the despair of watching people die, driven by the desire to protect Prince Dominic, she awakened the power of the Condemnation Apostle and safely evacuated everyone.
‘Is it really my fault for twisting fate? You’re the one who fled without believing in Chloe’s potential. Even though you knew she was descended from an Apostle.’
Octavia muttered irritably to herself.
Prince Dominic knew that secret, yet he had kept it hidden.
His deception began with a letter that Chloe’s Mother had sent to the current Queen Regent before her death.

「Your Majesty the Queen Regent, I am Princess Netasha Anaksi.
Do you remember me from when we met long ago at the Imperial Order Holy Temple?
By the time you read this letter, I will no longer exist in this world.
I have one daughter named Chloe. Baron Arses is keeping her.
Your Majesty, I humbly beseech you to conceal her identity and protect her until the child, a descendant of the Apostle, comes of age and awakens.
Otherwise, the Royal Family of Ginesa will set their sights on my daughter.
You are the only one I can trust, Your Majesty the Queen Regent.」

For some reason, this letter never reached the Queen Regent and lay buried in the Royal Archives.
It was Prince Dominic, now grown to adulthood, who discovered it by chance.
When Chloe later learned that he had concealed the truth, she suffered tremendous disappointment and heartbreak, and she left him.
Yet Prince Dominic was forgiven without bearing nearly the karmic weight of his transgression.
He was the male lead disqualified by his own actions—the one who had caused my past self, Octavia, to leave a comment twenty years ago on a completed novel: “Author alive and male lead changed, Side Story Day 134.”
“Don’t bother. I’ll find my own way.”
Octavia, dwelling on her contempt, brushed away his hand as he tried to support her.
Dominic watched her limping figure recede into the distance, his expression vacant.
He too had begun to question why Chloe’s awakening continued to be delayed.
‘I was certain she would awaken after coming of age. Was that letter fabricated?’
Because he could not fully trust, Octavia had likewise held back, weighing her options without fully letting go.
In his anxiety, he belatedly discovered the corpse of the Chaos Entity.
Near the torso, which was crumbling to ash and fading away, claw marks from some beast remained, torn crudely into the flesh.

***

The endless torrent of Chaos Entities finally ceased.
Everyone was exhausted, having slain the last of the creatures and completed their annihilation.
Thanks to the protection of the Ludovisi Family’s weapons—Matteo and Febrien—they had suffered no catastrophic losses.
When dozens of Grade 2 Chaos Entities poured forth at the end, I truly believed it was over, but they detonated mid-air before we could even escape the Gate and reach the Surface, vanishing into ash.
It was overwhelming firepower that could only belong to the Royal Family.
“Hah, hah. Damn it. I can’t take anymore.”
Logan, drenched in black blood from head to toe, wiped his face with a handkerchief and collapsed onto the ground.
A suffocating, anxious sensation washed over me like drowning, accompanied by a splitting headache.
Naturally, with their ability cores overloaded and most corrupted by the Chaos, many were suffering from mental collapse and agony.
“Want an injection? It’s a sedative—works instantly when administered intravenously.”
Octavia, holding a syringe, approached someone writhing in pain from the headache.
“No, thank you. I’ll wait for the Saint’s purification instead.”
True to a worldview that trusted potions and holy power over medicine, most refused the injection.
“Aaaaah! A beautiful Chaos Entity is trying to stab me!”
Those suffering from hallucinations and delirium frequently mistook the person holding the syringe for a Chaos Entity.
“Oh, you think I’m beautiful? Thanks. But your case is urgent, so I’ll have to poke you. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt a bit.”
“Aaaah! A mad doctor stabbed me! I’m going to be turned into a half-human, half-beast!”
“What on earth do you think about all day?”
As Octavia forcibly inserted the needle, she collided with the thrashing patient’s arm and tumbled forward.
Logan immediately rushed over and helped her up when he noticed bandages wrapped around her legs as she steadied herself on crutches.
“What happened to you?”
“A stone crushed my leg and broke the bone, but I reset it. Fortunately, it was a clean break, not a comminuted fracture.”
Logan stared at Octavia, who answered so casually, with bewilderment.
“You could have just asked for healing.”
“It’s not serious enough for that. I can handle emergency treatment myself. Even a great Saint would collapse if they poured out holy power all day, wouldn’t they?”
She seemed to be showing consideration for the clergy members who had worked hard with limited numbers.
‘Thinking of others first… she really is a good person.’
Suddenly recalling a hallucination of her execution, Logan’s shoulders trembled at the subtle pain coursing through his veins.
“Does it hurt at all?”
Octavia smiled beautifully. As he gazed at her, mesmerized, he suddenly noticed a syringe needle embedded in his own arm’s vein.
‘Is she a poison needle specialist?’
She had used such an advanced skill, flicking the needle like a dart, that he hadn’t even realized she was administering the injection.
“Have you seen the Admiral?”
Octavia’s expression seemed slightly odd as she asked about his whereabouts.
“Well, at the end he air-burst dozens of Grade 2 Chaos Entities and then disappeared.”
The moment I answered, her face grew even paler.
She looked like someone who had just heard that a critical patient had consumed massive amounts of forbidden food.

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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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