Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 87
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
#87.
All this time, the Gate had been spewing forth crude lower-tier Chaos Entities as its so-called trials—spherical orbs and animal forms that burst with cotton when struck.
No matter how simple they were, the sheer volume and repetitive patterns drained both physical stamina and mental fortitude completely.
The same applied to resources.
Supplies had shifted to differential distribution based on performance, and our own reserves were dwindling by the day.
“Saint Chloe, now that the Prince has returned, couldn’t we receive more supplies?”
After Ethan and his gang perished entirely, only lower and mid-tier Team Members remained.
They all belonged to Dominic’s Team, and there was hope that with the Prince’s return, we might receive more than others.
“We’ll continue receiving the same amount. If you want more, meet your performance quotas. We can’t be exceptions.”
“With all the senior Team Members dead, how are we supposed to increase our performance? Saint, you’re still… weak yourself.”
She had not revealed her awakening to anyone.
Not even to the Prince who had abandoned her. Right now, she had no desire to ask him for help.
“Chloe, how could I leave you alone? I only evacuated the people whose deaths would have been problematic.”
It was a shameless lie.
Mother’s advice to use people rather than love them seemed to have been correct.
“Saint, do you not consider at all that your convictions are causing your subordinates to die?”
Chloe, who had been lost in thought, finally looked at the Team Member who was ranting with an agitated expression.
“Dying because of my convictions?”
“How desperate must the Team Members have been to steal supplies and die?”
“Isn’t that just natural consequence? Why are you blaming me?”
At Chloe’s counter-question, the atmosphere around her turned frigid.
She was aware that the Team Members looked down on her. Beyond rank and grade, the excessive consideration and understanding she had shown only contributed to their contempt.
One Team Member glared at her with sharp eyes.
“You’re the one in charge, aren’t you? Our comrades died because you’re weak. It happened because you, a mere 9th-grade Holy Ability User, took a position that doesn’t suit you!”
Chloe, who had been listening silently, lifted her chin and asked him.
“You helped the dead Team Members steal potions. Because of that, many suffered. Do you have any remorse?”
“What are you talking about? That never happened.”
Chloe, resting her chin in her hand with a look of disgust, slowly parted her lips.
“Self-judgment.”
The moment her words ended, the Team Member who had been blaming and questioning her drew a dagger and pierced his own heart.
He collapsed like a wooden log.
It was the Apostle’s divine decree—judgment upon the unrepentant.
“W-what…?”
At what had transpired in an instant, the other Team Members’ faces drained of all color.
“That’s right. What harmony ultimately requires is overwhelming power.”
Just look at how Octavia maintained order by controlling not only powerful personnel but all resources.
Without that, it would have devolved into a plundering war where everyone killed and was killed.
There was a time when I believed compromise and concession were the answer, but ultimately, her selfish approach proved correct.
“I will continue to pursue goodness going forward.”
Chloe’s face bore a merciful expression that seemed utterly at odds with the chilling situation.
“Therefore, submit to me unconditionally as the stronger one.”
She offered a serene smile as she gazed upon the Team Members trembling in terror.
“Defy me, and you will die.”
***
Before even half a day had passed, the Gate disgorged another Chaos Entity.
Just as despair threatened to consume everyone—denied even a moment to recover their strength—Dominic stepped forward.
“It’s small and merely a low-grade specimen. I can annihilate it alone. Do not overexert yourselves.”
Matteo, who had emerged after purifying those afflicted by the chaos state, nodded in agreement.
“Indeed, you are one returned by divine will. Then I shall entrust this entirely to you with full confidence.”
He folded his arms, leaving behind words that could have been mockery or encouragement.
‘This Saint will report to the Empire, so I must perform flawlessly.’
It would also dispel any suspicion that he had fled the Gate site.
A crimson Alchemy Circle materialized across the Prince’s chest as he assumed a valiant stance.
Saaaa—!
He drew forth a frost blade that blazed with white light from the Alchemy Circle, then turned to regard his subordinates.
“I leave our rear to you.”
With those grave words, he unleashed a slash toward the Gate, from which butterfly-shaped Chaos Entities poured forth.
The frigid mana transformed into a crescent-shaped shockwave that cleaved through the swarm of butterflies.
Kwaaaaa!
His destructive power was so overwhelming that he could sever dozens in a single strike.
Between the glimmering shards of ice, the beautiful butterflies dissolved—a sight that seemed almost transcendent.
“So the Sword Saint is indeed a Sword Saint.”
“Perhaps he might even sever the Gate itself.”
Just as a few marveled at abilities unbecoming of a Second-Class hunter, Octavia appeared with an expression of disdain.
She had recovered her broken leg with Matteo’s assistance.
“Who exactly gave you the title of Sword Saint? Did you bestow it upon yourself?”
Her tone was unmistakably mocking. In the Kingdom, such insolence would warrant rebuke, but the Team Members dared not answer back to her, who wielded authority in this place.
Octavia clicked her tongue disapprovingly.
“And yet you can only use that slash technique three times.”
This was why he remained Second-Class despite wielding an enhanced weapon.
While his firepower was excellent, his deficient ability core could not generate sufficient mana.
“Chloe.”
Just as Octavia had anticipated, Dominic’s mana was already depleted as he glanced back.
The Chaos Entities continued to pour from the Gate.
It was not merely his weapon that had compensated for his meager mana reserves.
Though faint, a blessing to stabilize the mind and aid mana recovery was essential to him.
Yet Chloe, who had been doing her utmost to help him until now, stood idle and merely watched.
“Chloe, why aren’t you blessing me quickly?”
Despite his urging, she shook her head with a regretful expression.
“I’ve exhausted my capacity helping those in pain. I have no strength left to bless.”
Dominic furrowed his brow and leveled his sword toward the Chaos Entity.
Under the gaze of his other team members, he cut down the Chaos Entities pouring out beyond the Gate.
However, he had never participated in the Trial Battle before, leaving him ignorant of the Chaos-corrupted Gate.
Thus he believed he could annihilate hundreds of the lowest-tier Chaos Entities alone.
‘If I approach the Gate and strike at its core, that should do it.’
Following the orthodox strategy, he advanced toward the Gate using frozen moisture in the air as footholds when disaster struck.
“Ugh—!”
The problem was that his stamina couldn’t keep pace with his depleting mana.
As a result, the ice he had stepped on crumbled helplessly as his mana ran dry.
Crash!
He plummeted without climbing far, tumbling ungracefully to the ground.
Those who had expected the Prince to shine looked at him with disappointment.
“What? You’ve already exhausted your mana? Besides, that’s the direct assault method Ortega already attempted and failed.”
“Sigh. Having to fight right after rising from a sickbed. There’s no helping it.”
Dominic, sensing that everyone was thinking ‘I’m better than the Prince,’ clenched his teeth.
In this extreme situation where everyone was isolated and could die at any moment, there was no reason to mind the sensibilities of nobility.
This place now operated entirely by the logic of strength.
Then people heard something and simultaneously looked up at the sky.
Uuuuung—.
Dozens of drones hovering in the sky circled in a wide formation.
Soon they began scattering countless thin threads.
“Be careful not to get your heads blown off.”
Octavia’s calm voice rang out.
Fzzzzzt—!
The moment the threads wound around the bodies of the butterflies in the air, electricity crackled and surged.
Soon hundreds of butterflies ceased their wing beats simultaneously and plummeted to the ground.
Crackle, crackle.
Smoke billowed from the main bodies rolling across the floor, and the smell of charring began to spread.
It was another version of the technology that had neutralized the security of the Underground Prison where the Two-Headed Priest had been confined.
‘A non-lethal weapon evolved from EMP electromagnetic attacks that paralyze enemy forces.’
It operated on the same principle as the ‘carbon fiber electrostatic rounds’ used in her past life.
“W-what’s happening?”
“If we touch those threads, do we die too?”
Octavia, holding the controller, turned to the frightened people and explained.
“I neutralized them with mana-disruption threads made by combining ability-blocking rope materials. These Chaos Entities may look like living creatures, but they’re actually machines.”
“H-how did you know that?”
“Can’t you tell by looking at the pattern?”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind. The object’s characteristics are… actually, I’ll skip the detailed explanation.”
According to the Two-Headed Priest who appeared as the Chaos Commander, a “disordered medium” was the Gate’s master.
The Gate connected a dimension destroyed by Chaos to this world.
And judging by how this Chaos Entity was a biological weapon, the connected dimension must be a place where machinery had flourished.
‘Seeing how it just keeps repeating simple Chaos Entity rushes, it seems the master of this hastily-constructed Gate on their end isn’t bothering to act.’
Either they lacked that level of intelligence, or they bore no malice—one or the other.
The types and forms of Chaos Entities followed the Gate master’s psyche, and most were said to be beautiful like an idealist’s imagination, but…
‘The forms that have appeared so far are angels, birds, butterflies… childishly pure.’
Soon the butterflies that had completely ceased functioning began to oxidize and scatter as ash.
Someone watching the butterfly-shaped Chaos Entities plummet as they emerged from the Gate entrance asked a question.
“So we don’t need to fight directly anymore?”
“For now, focus on securing resources for survival.”
Humans instinctively follow and revere those who wield power.
They were beginning to recognize the omniscience of her knowledge.
‘She grasped the nature of the Chaos Entities and found a strategy to annihilate them in one fell swoop. Isn’t that even more impressive than an ability user?’
Octavia flinched at the rising favorability she’d accidentally created by making herself sound great.
Soon she wore a menacing expression and spoke like a thug.
“If you don’t surrender all your resources to me, you won’t escape a bloodbath from my vicious Physical-Type Faction slaves.”
The people looked aghast as they glanced at Ewain and Logan, who had been designated as Physical-Type Faction slaves, and Matteo, who had been watching.
‘Of course. When a villain is intelligent too, it’s a disaster!’
Fortunately, Octavia’s character controversy remained intact.
***
Chloe gazed down at a single butterfly that had fallen before her, its wings trembling.
The moment she brought her hand close to the butterfly, it began emitting a strange sound like a broken phonograph.
-We are not enemies. We wish to free you all… crackle. From the demon right beside you…
-The demon is… crackle. Right next to you all…
The conversion ability manifesting in the Chaos Entity.
It was devised long ago by the Second Prince of Ginesa, who had opposed the Crown Prince’s extermination plan.
No matter how it was dressed up, it was nothing but a killing tool masquerading as a beautiful converter, and the meaning of peace had long since faded.
‘…Peace cannot be achieved through dialogue alone.’
Father’s method of salvation had already failed long ago.
I watched his remnants turn to ash and scatter away with a lonely heart.
“Chloe.”
It was Dominic’s voice as he approached me.
“If you continue acting this way, I’ll have no choice but to seek out Octavia again.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Torryy
Lol. This Prince is rotten to the core.