Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 94

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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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#94. Echoes of the Past (3)

The two of us had slipped away during the ceremony and entered the Royal Palace’s guest chamber.
“Keldi, what’s the one thing you want to do most?”
At Octavia’s question, he shook his head while sitting across from me with his legs crossed on the sofa.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing you’ve tried before?”
“Plenty.”
Octavia understood the state of soldiers who had returned after wandering battlefields for so long.
Even if they desired peace more than anyone, once they stepped away from the adrenaline-soaked heat of the Battlefield, they fell into a vicious cycle of boredom and emptiness.
‘That’s why he showed interest in my absurd proposal.’
With that assessment, Octavia smiled with her eyes.
“I’m the same way. So then, shall we try doing things together that we haven’t done before?”
“Sure.”
He answered in an indifferent tone.
It was merely light curiosity on his part as well; he didn’t expect much.

***

Though she seemed like an eccentric who would do something quite strange, her proposals were surprisingly ordinary.
Going to a fine Dining Room to eat together—though the dishes she chose were peculiar—taking walks in nearby scenic locations, or watching theatrical performances and magic shows.
The Admiral stared with an expressionless face as the Magician pulled something from his hat.
It was a small magic show that commoners came to see. However, because the Royal Family of the Empire attended without warning, the nervous Magician trembled and made mistake after mistake.
“A, a rabbit… I was supposed to pull out a rabbit?”
“Meow.”
But what sprang from the hat was not a rabbit, but a cat.
Only Octavia laughed loudly at this.
“Ahahaha, a representation of Schrödinger’s cat—unknowable until observed and extracted? A scientific joke. How delightful.”
I couldn’t understand what part of it was supposed to be humorous.
‘Still, it’s not bad.’
More precisely, it was her delighted reaction and smile that made it so.
The stories she told me were quite fascinating as well.
“Do you know about the event horizon? Just as we cannot go back to yesterday, there is a boundary we can never return from. But perhaps this world might be an exception.”
She often spoke of difficult subjects like parallel universes, quantum mechanics, and dimensional interference. It was also the reason why Dominic and she considered themselves ‘unable to communicate with each other.’
“Bia, then would it also be a form of quantum entanglement if we influence each other even after parting or dying?”
However, the Admiral, unlike Dominic, immediately understood her explanation.
Octavia looked at him with an expression of admiration.
“A man who can have a real conversation? Beyond preference, he’s my ideal type.”
“Thank you.”
At this, the Admiral offered only an indifferent expression of gratitude.
After the two of them had experienced nearly every leisure activity that ordinary people enjoyed, she wore that solemn expression once more.
“Now it’s time to indulge in some transgression.”
“Serial murder, that sort of thing?”
“What kind of person do you think I am?”
And for the first time, he broke his schedule and skipped an Executive Meeting.
Afterward, he cooperated with childish pranks—like destroying a newly purchased car belonging to Dominic, or secretly drawing a mustache on a Saint’s portrait hanging in the Temple.
They raided the Underground Black Market Auction House and smashed everything to pieces, acquiring valuable items; they rescued a Saint who had lost her power and faced execution; they even bombed the Night Monastery that exploited the Clergy—all under the guise of righteous causes.
“Keldi, isn’t this fun?”
“I suppose.”
The Admiral, who had somehow become a two-person villain alongside her, wore an expression devoid of excitement.
At this very moment, Dominic was grinding his teeth as she commandeered his newly purchased car and drove recklessly.
“When I was young, I always wanted to fly through the sky like a bird.”
She gripped the steering wheel and pressed the accelerator hard.
Crash!
The car, hurtling at tremendous speed, smashed through the railing at the cliff’s edge.
The vehicle immediately plummeted beyond the cliff.
“So the only thing left is suicide?”
Even as the car plunged downward, the Admiral asked in a measured tone.
“No. I wanted to try something like this. Accounting for gravitational acceleration and air resistance, we should hit the ground in roughly two seconds.”
“Right.”
Crash!
The car struck the ground and shattered into pieces.
Of course, they were neither injured nor dead.
In the dim night, the Admiral’s silhouette was illuminated by flames erupting from the vehicle’s wreckage, Octavia cradled in his arms.
He exhaled softly, gazing down at Octavia nestled against his chest.
Sensing his gaze, she lifted her head and met his eyes.
Those lilac eyes, which always appeared weary, now sparkled with vibrant life.
“Peak dopamine.”
Why did she look so joyful?
“But there’s something I don’t want to do.”
For the first time, he expressed refusal.
For some reason, an unfamiliar sensation lingered near his chest.
It was connected to how fragile and light the woman in his arms felt.
‘I don’t want her to die.’
Perhaps it was because of her warmth, fragrant as sunlight.
He interlaced his fingers with her slender ones, joining their hands.
That sensation he had felt when first touching her—the one that had scattered like mist ever since—now seemed to slowly regain its shape.
“Let’s do something else now.”
“What would you like to do?”
“That thing you originally proposed. Nuclear fusion, was it?”
His initial proposal was physical union.

***

Keldi’s Room.
Octavia’s cheeks flushed an unusual crimson as she stood hesitantly, her expression wavering with uncertainty.
“Truth is, I’ve never experienced physical intimacy with a man beyond holding hands.”
The Prince had attempted it several times, but her heart had never responded, so she’d resorted to the conservative excuse that “such things are meant for after marriage.”
“I haven’t either.”
He drew closer to her, who was consciously maintaining distance.
“I’ve studied it. Since it’s not instinctual for me.”
For the Royal Family, relations between men and women stripped away emotion and pleasure—existing solely for the purpose of producing heirs.
“I know how to be considerate so neither dies nor is injured, but I don’t know how to provide satisfaction.”
“I have knowledge too, you know?”
As the silence deepened, the air trembled subtly. It was because Octavia’s breathing grew increasingly uneven.
She bit her lip, her eyes darting about before slowly closing them.
He gazed at her quietly. From her small frame came a trembling sound.
Remaining still in contrast, he brought his face close and pressed his lips against hers.
When soft, tender lips met, Octavia’s shoulders flinched.
“Open your mouth.”
His tone was languid, as if teaching her something unfamiliar step by step.
He took her slightly parted red lips into his own. He felt her breathing quicken further.
As he gently wrapped and loosened her rigid, trembling tongue, she naturally intertwined hers in response to instinct.
Each time he traced along her even teeth and touched her mucous membrane, she flinched and exhaled in quick gasps.
After the brief kiss ended, he gazed at her, breathing heavily with excitement.
“Wow.”
Her eyes unfocused, she uttered an exclamation.
“That felt incredibly good. So much better than throwing myself off a cliff.”
“I see.”
In contrast to her heightened state, he—feeling nothing—offered a response devoid of emotion.
“Keldi, why are you so skilled?”
“It’s not like I studied that hard.”
He swept back his jet-black hair, adding with a sense of futility.
“I’ve heard that someone like me requires considerable effort.”
“Why?”
Instead of a detailed answer to her question, he gestured downward with his eyes.
“Because of this.”
“Ah.”
Shock and fear flooded her eyes. Even she, who had experienced everything, was terrified by how extraordinary it was.
Observing her reaction, he tilted his head slightly and asked.
“Will it work? I can control the Apostle’s power, so I won’t die.”
“No. You can’t control the size.”
Octavia flatly rejected the notion.
Soon, her expression growing slightly forlorn, she placed her hand over his heart.
As expected, it remained still.
“You don’t feel anything at all, do you?”
“No.”
The terrible weapon that had cast such a massive shadow had long since fallen dormant.
“I still intend to continue, though.”
He smiled beautifully, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
“It doesn’t seem so bad, this feeling of giving unilaterally.”
He, who had lived his entire life without even the thought of satisfying another, had discovered something new.
Each touch brought quickened breath and soft gasps, flushed cheeks and the pulse transmitted through her body, and that rapturous expression.
Visual satisfaction. That alone was enough for him.
The reason he spoke in such an unfamiliar formal tone was because of her words—that a man who spoke formally was cool.

***

「Kelsedny Decart, Admiral. Octavia Ludovisi. The incomprehensible relationship between these two people.」
「Kelsedny Decart, Admiral and Octavia Ludovisi—the masterminds behind the recent city terrorism?」

Having never cared for others’ opinions and doing as they pleased, rumors and articles naturally proliferated.
As expected, the two paid no mind to what anyone said.
“Keldi. Isn’t the location somewhat… inappropriate?”
“Do you dislike it?”
“No, that’s not it at all?”
Octavia, drawn into the garden during the evening banquet at the Royal Palace, wore a bewildered expression.
She had never imagined engaging in such an embarrassing act outdoors.
She trembled at the sensation of his lips pressing delicately against her neck and turned her head away.
“You say you can’t feel anything with words, yet your actions betray you like no other man…”
“I wanted to see your flustered reaction.”
He wanted to see her various expressions. Especially this one—her bewildered, helpless face—pleased him most.
He gazed at Octavia’s blinking eyes, her pressed lips, her flushed cheeks, and her disheveled platinum hair as he spoke.
“I’ve discovered my preference.”
“What is it? Something strange?”
Keldi’s lips curved loosely upward, revealing neat teeth beneath his beautifully raised smile.
“It seems to be you. Small and beautiful.”
He pressed his lips firmly against her flushed cheeks, now widened in surprise, and whispered.
“When will you marry me? Tomorrow would be fine.”
Shocked beyond mere surprise by his successive confessions, she stared at him with wide eyes.
“…What? Me?”
“You’ve become my only hobby and preference. And you won’t take responsibility? After kissing me over and over.”
Her brain, drenched in depravity and pleasure, snapped back to clarity in an instant.
Could a member of the Royal Family truly marry a powerless commoner?
“You hate me.”
At her prolonged silence, his expression turned bitter.
“No, that’s not it.”
Octavia’s heart softened at the handsome man’s pitiful expression, and she was about to make some excuse.
“Then I’ll remarry your father instead. We can be together for life just the same.”
He, whose thoughts were far from ordinary, uttered the most insane words imaginable.

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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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