Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 89

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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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#89.

The backyard carried the scent of early winter on its wind.
Samwol felt Octavia’s body trembling as she held me close.
‘Is she cold? Or is she afraid because I’m not really a dog? I’ll be a good dog from now on.’
Samwol licked her hands earnestly to reassure her.
Of course, there was no fairy tale where being good or having my sister recognize me would make me a real dog.
I also knew I could never be with her forever.
‘I’m sorry. Because of me, my sister’s friend is suffering.’
Samwol recalled the scent of Kelsedny Admiral’s blood clinging to the tip of my nose.
Right now, maintaining my appearance as an ordinary dog was thanks to the Admiral.
Samwol could feel his suppressive power weakening as time passed.
Even though he could easily eliminate the Gate’s master, he was expending tremendous mental energy to give the dog and its owner time together.
I couldn’t acknowledge him as father yet, but he was a good friend to my sister.
“Whine.”
Samwol lifted my nose to look up at Octavia.
She sat in a small chair, lost in thought.
‘It must be her working time.’
The dog, remembering that my sister did “thinking work,” remained as still as possible in her embrace to avoid disturbing her.
Her habit of absently stroking the dog’s head while deep in concentration remained unchanged.
Then, just as Samwol began to doze off intermittently, Octavia started murmuring to herself.
“The Gate’s master is both a medium and an observer of the system. The effective Hamiltonian (α) of the barrier region is dependent on the state variable α of the Gate master. The Allied Empire could manipulate the Chaos Entities to preach to Enemy Nation’s converts because it’s a variable system. If we apply a state transformation operator U(α) rather than a phase factor to map the system’s eigenstate to a different basis, thereby altering the directionality of interdimensional connections… huh.”
“The state variable α of the Gate’s master is dependent on (α). The reason the Allied Empire was able to manipulate the Chaos Entity into preaching to the Enemy Nation’s converts must be because it’s a variable system. If we could apply a state transformation operator U(α)—not a phase factor—to map the system’s eigenstate to a different basis, thereby changing the directionality of interdimensional connections… huh.”
“Bark!”
From a dog’s perspective, she muttered strange things that even cats wouldn’t say.
Understanding nothing, Samwol responded earnestly as always.
“Has someone already intervened in the Gate master’s psyche? Were they maintaining the nature of the Gate and Chaos Entities as purely a dog?”
This was on an entirely different level from simply making Chaos Entities spout sermons.
If an ability user were executing this, they would be operating tens of thousands of mechanisms ceaselessly even now.

“There isn’t much time remaining.”

Recalling the Admiral’s words, Octavia’s gaze drifted toward the toy ball resting on the floor.
“Dogs do love their balls.”
“Woof.”
She looked down at Samwol.
“…Want to play fetch?”
“Woof woof!”
Samwol bounded down to the floor, rear end raised high, tail wagging with unbridled joy.
Even if she couldn’t remember who I was, happiness came simply from my touch and the throw of a ball.
Whoosh—!
Samwol raced after the ball with pure delight.
As Samwol turned to return with the ball in her mouth, she caught an ominous scent and lifted her head.
“Octavia Ludovisi.”
Dominic and his team members stood with hardened expressions.

***

“Where are the missing members of the Northern Squadron?”
Dominic lowered his voice as he asked.
Octavia recognized that he was absolutely convinced of her involvement in the disappearance of the Northern Squadron members.
Beneath it all lay the desire: ‘I must make this woman the culprit for my own benefit.’
Yet he seemed to possess solid evidence.
True to her sharp intellect, she quickly grasped his reasoning.
‘He believes the squadron members’ disappearance was the work of Samwol’s true form, which he witnessed that day, and that I’m connected to it.’
“Why ask me? They’re not even my team members.”
Watching Octavia’s expression remain unmoved, the Prince let out a hollow laugh.
“Shameless. You’re the one who did it.”
“Spare me the wild accusations. Do you have any proof?”
“You demonstrated the strategy to suppress a massive number of Chaos Entities in one fell swoop—why ask me?”
“The Admiral taught me that.”
Octavia, for whom greatness would be inconvenient, always attributed every achievement and glory to the Admiral.
Since she had adopted the conversational style of ‘So what’s the real point?’ and ‘Just tell me what matters,’ winning an argument with her had become nearly impossible. The Prince made a sand-chewing face and gestured to his team members.
“Dig there. There should be corpses buried.”
He pointed to the ground where he had previously confirmed Ethan was buried.
Octavia, who had been silently observing, tilted her head.
“But… what kind of criminal buries a body in their own home? If it were me, I’d bury it in the courtyard of someone I hated.”
The Prince ignored her sarcasm and pointed to the exact location.
“Here. If you use your abilities, the evidence will be destroyed, so you’ll have to dig manually.”
The team members nodded and began shoveling. They were the ones who had aligned themselves with the Prince with an eye toward the future.

“All resources and facilities will fall under my authority anyway. I’ll ensure my followers receive ample support, and once we return to the Kingdom, I’ll personally oversee their rewards.”

Should evidence emerge, the Admiral and Saint Man who had cooperated with her would naturally consent to her execution.
After stripping her of everything she possessed, if she were promised mercy, she would undoubtedly return to her former devotion.
Dominic’s expression grew increasingly rigid as he watched the team members transfer soil with their shovels.
It wasn’t buried particularly deep, yet there were still no signs of it surfacing.
Then, a welcome sound reached his ears.
“Ah, there are bones here!”
Dominic rushed over as if he’d heard the good news he’d been waiting for. Octavia examined the long bone held in the team member’s hand and spoke.
“Those are deer bones from a meal we had before. They belong to our puppy, so leave them.”
They were bones that Samwol had buried.
The team members, confirming the bones were from an animal, let their shoulders slump in disappointment.
Even after digging as deep as a tunnel system, nothing else emerged.
‘Wow, they’re digging so hard. I should use this as an air raid shelter.’
Only Octavia was delighted. Samwol wagged her tail at her smile.
‘Sister is smiling, so I’m happy too.’
Setting aside her secret identity, Samwol was a dog with exceptional olfactory senses.
She naturally knew that people were buried in her territory.
Moreover, as an intelligence test dog, she possessed superior intellect even compared to Border Collies, which were known to have the highest IQ among dogs.
‘Sister gets sad when she sees the dead.’
In the previous world, Samwol had detected a deep sadness in her scent when watching the funerals of dead children.
Dead = Sister is sad.
So the dog had secretly exhumed those buried here and reburied them on the hillside according to human funeral rites.
As the situation didn’t unfold as expected, Dominic clenched his bangs in frustration.
‘I should have had someone with detection abilities.’
He regretted excluding search team members, thinking the task would be completed quickly.
“Dig up this entire area.”
At the crude order, the dirt-covered team members’ faces went pale.
By then, Octavia was already playing ball with the puppy.

The excavation continued until sunset.
The team members found themselves hoping a new crisis would emerge, giving them reason to mobilize instead.
“Your Highness, it truly seems to be gone.”
Dominic, who had been digging the earth himself out of frustration, wiped the sweat from his brow and turned to look at Octavia.
“Woof, woof.”
“Come on, show me your strength. You’re one incredibly powerful puppy, aren’t you?”
She was playing tug-of-war with the puppy.
‘Damn it, the decisive evidence has vanished.’
Just as he was thinking they might have to return empty-handed, Chloe approached with a dark expression.
“My brother… you still haven’t found him?”
Dominic shook his head as he looked at her gaunt face.
To him, it seemed Chloe was protecting her worthless brother and trying to preserve the bonds of family.
‘She must be devastated. Despite all her efforts, he never changed and ended up dying as a thief.’
Chloe’s eyes gradually grew wet, and soon she covered her face with both hands and sobbed.
‘I should have called people immediately when I found him. Did my greed make me lose the opportunity?’
Internally, he sighed, lamenting his own judgment.
Soon he approached the puppy being petted by Octavia.
“Octavia.”
Chloe suddenly approached Octavia and shoved her shoulder, sending her tumbling.
Thud—!
“Woof!”
‘Don’t bully my sister!’
Samwol bared her small fangs and barked ferociously at Chloe.
“You killed my brother! You framed him in the Knight Order, expelled him, and sent him to prison!”
“What benefit would I gain from killing something so worthless—worse than a dog? The only one who benefits is you.”
Octavia rose to her feet, brushing off her clothes as she continued.
“Even if I had.”
This time she leaned her face close to Chloe’s and whispered.
“I wouldn’t do it myself. Unless I made you kill him with your own hands.”
Twist.
Chloe felt a visceral rage wrench through her insides.
When she traced the sequence of events, it all came back to Octavia.
Chloe, feigning sorrow over her brother’s death, shed tears as she seized Octavia’s throat.
“Octavia, I hope you don’t die carelessly.”
After those precious to me disappear, you’ll have to stay alive until you die by my hand.
“Woof! Woof!”
Samwol’s barking grew louder.
Behind Chloe, an angelic figure wielding a scythe—visible only to Samwol—had appeared.
‘A sense of discord?’
Octavia suddenly sensed something strange and looked down at Samwol.
A line formed down the center of Samwol’s forehead as she tugged at Chloe’s hem, and another eye opened.
“Samwol, don’t….”
The suppressive force maintaining her in puppy form had expired.
Octavia, sensing this, reached out urgently. The mana stone bracelet adorning her extended wrist flashed with brilliant light.
Uuuuoooong-!
Beeeep beeeep-!
A bizarre, discordant siren wailed through the Gate.
It was a modern alarm announcing the highest level of emergency.

-The Gate’s trial is commencing.

The mechanical voice sounded like an evacuation announcement.
The sun vanished.
The surroundings transformed instantly into the Ash-Gray City.
Soon, white ash-like snow swirled down, and a freezing cold swept over everything.
It was a sight far too familiar to her.

-Emergency Crisis Level 3 has been declared. Time is running short. We hope you will share final farewells with those dear to you.

She recognized which Destroyed Dimension was connected to the Gate.
“…So the world I once lived in has finally perished.”
She murmured softly, staring into the void.
That’s right—when only selfish humans remain in the world, it crumbles.

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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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