Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 91

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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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#91.

Outside the Barrier.
The Ludovisi Representative had abandoned everything, camping near the Barrier that held his daughter captive, desperately seeking any means to rescue her.
He had exhausted vast sums of money and magical power, deploying every conceivable method to shatter or nullify the Barrier, yet nothing had worked.
“Representative, we’ve failed again.”
“Hah… hah…”
Having poured all his magical power into deploying the Alchemy Circle for Barrier dissolution, he bent forward, breathing heavily.
His secretary Lothear steadied him and offered a medicine bottle.
“The Chaos Corruption has begun. If you push any harder, your mind will start to collapse. You’ve barely slept at all.”
May, who had rushed here the day the crisis erupted, wore an expression of deep concern.
“Ludovisi Representative, if you ruin your health like this, Lady Octavia will be heartbroken.”
In this unprecedented catastrophe where the Second Prince, the Saint Man, and the Prince had all been trapped within the Barrier, not only May but April as well had come to this place.
The Temple and Royal Family had scrambled to assemble personnel and rush here, but in truth, there was nothing they could do.
“We have no choice but to wait for them to annihilate the Gate Owner from within and escape safely.”
“But it’s strange. If the Admiral were involved, he would have found and destroyed it by now. Why is it taking so long…?”
April’s expression grew puzzled.
The Ludovisi Representative, steadying his breath, turned his gaze toward the Barrier.
Beyond the semi-transparent glass-like Barrier, only the silhouettes of forest landscape and barracks were visible—no people could be seen.
The interior lay as silent as if reality’s scenery had been cut and pasted there.
Even though they should be experiencing absolute chaos from the Destroyed Dimension summoned through the Gate and the Chaos Entities.
‘Octavia would surely have attempted to send a signal outside. By any means possible.’
The Ludovisi Representative gazed down at the xylophone connected by strings to a small tree—one of the communication methods mentioned in Octavia’s letter.
In truth, he had already reached his conclusion.
‘The inside and outside of the Barrier are completely severed. Neither sound nor light can escape.’
No interference possible. No perception possible.
His judgment yielded only one verdict: ‘impossible.’ Yet he knew that even this futile effort could not be abandoned.
He felt helpless, wiping his face as if washing it dry.
“To be a father and unable to do anything…”
Having barely slept, his eyelids heavy as lead, he sank into an outdoor chair, rubbing his eyes.
Waves of headache and dizziness crashed over him.
With his mental fortitude depleted and his ability core overloaded, the Chaos Corruption had begun to take hold.
Since abilities and the psyche were intertwined, he too had suffered from mental collapse for a time after the shock of losing his wife.
Back then, he had neither taken medicine nor received purification.
Even now, he did not take the medicine in his hand.

“My dear.”

Just as she used to appear and speak to him like this.

“You think it’s logically impossible, don’t you? Just as we cannot return to yesterday.”

The woman sitting beside him wore the same smile as Octavia.

“My dear. Nothing is predetermined. In the end, everything depends on what we choose in our hearts.”

He posed a futile question into the void, as he had done countless times before.
“Then, was leaving me truly your heart’s desire?”
It was a question he had asked innumerable times. The phantom wearing her face answered him.

“No. It was my best choice.”

He shut his eyes tightly, remembering the moment he let her go.
There had been an order to send her to the Temple, suffering from Shadow Corruption as she was.
Even though she had lost her sanctity, she remained a Holy Ability User, and the intention to eliminate her before she went berserk was obvious.
But he defied the order and hid her somewhere no one would find.

“If you fall as well, what becomes of the children left behind?”
“Please, let me go now. I’m begging you.”

She was no longer of use, and she begged him to release her from suffering so that he might protect the family that remained.
Clinging to her as she endured excruciating pain and mental collapse was nothing but selfishness.
Could that be called love?
And in the end, could granting her request in that impossible situation also be called love?
“Marcel….”
He covered his face and turned back to her.
“Was the forbidden alchemy I performed also an act of love?”
After losing his wife, he had gone mad for a time. Mad enough to perform the forbidden alchemy that resurrects the dead.
She brushed back her sunlit hair and smiled gently.

“You failed at the forbidden alchemy of resurrecting ‘the one you love.’ Rewinding time was no different.”

No resentment colored her expression or voice.

“But in another sense, you succeeded. Someone else inherited your will and completed what you could not.”

“Success? I….”
The law of equivalent exchange never came to pass, and I lost nothing.
My wife did not return to life.
The forbidden art of defying physical law and rewinding time also failed.

“You said that to obtain what you desire most, you must lose equally in return.”

“I don’t understand, Marcel. All I’ve lost is you.”
She rose from her seat and grasped his hand holding the medicine bottle.

“It means you’ve already paid the price for saving your beloved child.”

Her voice and smile were surely nothing more than words born from my own subconscious, yet I still could not comprehend.
“Saved the child?”
A pill now rested in my palm.
It felt like a final farewell—a promise never to meet again in illusion.
I gazed quietly at the pill lying in my hand.
Then, as if sealing my lips shut, I swallowed it and lifted my head.
The sky was a piercing blue, just as it had been the day I let her go.
“Octavia.”
I recalled the moment my daughter was born—when Samuel and Vittore and I discovered the tiny angel cradled in her mother’s arms.
The vow I had sworn: that I would protect my children, even if it meant my death.
“My beloved daughter.”
Soon the world around me began to fade into white light.
From within the barrier that had always looked the same, a brilliant flash erupted.

***

I surveyed the blank expanse surrounding me.
Based on my investigations so far, I had concluded that the space within the Barrier was completely severed from the outside world, similar to what lay beyond an event horizon.
My solution had been to harness the minerals brought from the Contaminated Zone as material, generating tremendous energy to sever the Gate’s connection point.
That such a thing was possible with merely incantations and mana—how truly convenient these supernatural abilities were.
Had such abilities existed in the world I came from, I would have returned to Primitive Earth long ago.
I had covered the Air Raid Shelter with the same material as the Stone Coffin that blocked harmful energies, and had also requested Febrien to establish a separate protective Barrier.
And the result was….
I turned to survey the empty space once more, murmuring to myself.
“It’s been reset.”
It meant the Gate Owner had vanished.
I lifted one hand and gazed down at it.
The sensation of soft fur lingered at my fingertips, and the warmth I had held remained.
Normally, I would have first assessed where I was, but now emotion surged ahead of reason.
“Samsik!”
I began running desperately.
“Let’s go back together with Sister!”
For those with a pragmatic mindset, probability differs little from hope.
I had twisted the dimension, not erased it.
Even if it were a mere 0.01% chance, it still meant possibility existed.
“I’m sorry for leaving you alone when you were my only family!”
My vision blurred, and tears I thought I had lost began to overflow.
“I’m sorry for realizing too late, even though you came all this way.”
The only being with whom I could freely exchange affection—my dear Puppy who had crossed dimensions for me.
I understood intellectually that I had to let go, since it was no longer a living being.
Thinking of Father and my Older Brothers worrying beyond the Barrier, I had to give up and return.
Otherwise, the family here would….
“But….”
You were family too.
The image of my Puppy waiting for me, never to return, was etched into my heart.
I collapsed in the Pure White Space where running and running only kept me in place.
“I don’t know the answer.”
It was a problem I could not solve. I simply remained seated, wiping my wet eyes with my sleeves.
That was when it happened.
“…Bia, I found your Puppy.”
A quiet voice came from behind me.

***

Octavia turned around immediately.
Kelsedny Admiral came into view, cradling a puppy in the form of the original Samsik.
Within a face marked by exhaustion, his complete golden eyes had darkened—it was Keldi’s consciousness.
“Thirty seconds. This is all I can manage.”
Octavia immediately understood Keldi’s words as he exhaled with effort.
He had been maintaining Samsik’s heart and appearance for her sake all this time.
“Woof!”
Samsik, standing on the ground, dropped something from his mouth with a soft click.
Then he began pressing it repeatedly with his front paws, as if activating a button.

—I love you

It was the sound of a voice recording from long ago.
Octavia’s eyes widened.

—I love you
—I love you

At last, having conveyed the words he wished to share, the puppy returned to Heaven where the angels dwelled, dissolving into radiant light.
“Love…”
Why must everything I cherish disappear?
She murmured while reaching her hand toward the scattering luminescence.
Keldi gripped her trembling shoulders, his voice choked with sobs that reached his chin.
He then bent forward and drew her into his embrace.
His heaving chest gradually stilled.
Coughing blood, he rested his head weakly against her shoulder.
“I also…”
She waited for him to finish, but his voice scattered without completing the thought.
Octavia gently stroked his hair.
“Why would you do this much for me?”
In response to her question, he lifted his head and wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand before speaking.
“Octavia, I loved you.”
He smiled with his eyes as he gazed into her wide, astonished gaze.
“Just as at the beginning, now and always, forever.”
At his confession, delivered with calm yet devastating sincerity, Octavia blinked slowly. Tears that had gathered on her corneas traced down her cheeks.
“How do you know those words?”
They were the final testament her mother from her past life had spoken.
“I remember everything you hold dear.”
As she watched him wipe away tears that welled up once more, she was seized by an uncanny sense of déjà vu.
He spoke as though he had known her since long ago.
‘Why does this sorrow feel so familiar?’
She could never have known that Keldi’s consciousness belonged to an existence from a different worldline.
His lips pressed firmly shut, holding memories only he possessed—now lost to time.

“That’s quite a difficult name to pronounce. I’ll call you Keldi from now on.”

She was extraordinary. In all the wrong ways.

“You prefer formal speech, don’t you? I understand.”
“Then I’ll speak formally with you too. But why don’t you use a soldier’s tone? You’re wearing the uniform, after all.”

He had grown fond of her.

“Admiral, can love be an emotion that can be proven?”

He, who could not love another, had tried to prove his love to her.
An eternal riddle that did not end even after her death.

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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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