Don’t Look for the Resurrected Villainess - Chapter 171
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 171
The emotion of envy and jealousy toward those who knew an Anelli that he didn’t know, their bond of camaraderie.
‘…This is difficult.’
He couldn’t gauge how much he was allowed to ask, how much he was allowed to desire.
Was first love originally this difficult?
Eventually, Jeon sat back up and roughly rubbed his face with both hands.
Anelli, who had awakened after just a few hours, said that everything had ended well. Seeing Samuel’s relieved expression and the other Dura’han acting cheerful, her words seemed to be true.
So now it was time to let her rest properly. Anelli had returned home and was probably in bed by now.
‘If I contact her, I’ll just wake her up for nothing.’
Jeon couldn’t bring himself to activate the ring and just fidgeted with it before finally getting out of bed.
He crossed his arms and glanced at the dark window outside while pacing around the room for no reason.
He wanted to ask what kind of illusion she saw in that final attack, why she woke up so late, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask her tired face such questions.
He also had a premonition that even if he asked, he wouldn’t get a proper answer.
So would now be any different? Her fatigue couldn’t have been relieved in just a few hours, so it was better to let today pass and ask casually when she had more time later.
Even while thinking this way, Jeon kept placing his hand on the ring.
‘Even if it’s just an illusion, no. I don’t even know what she’s doing right now, so I can’t just jump into a vision recklessly.’
What Anelli needed was quality sleep. Not the kind with a trashy fiancé appearing, but deep sleep without even dreams.
Jeon had already asked his Teacher whether there were aftereffects from Lusaka’s attacks, and received the answer that ‘there are no aftereffects remaining in the body.’
So that means, but wait.
“No aftereffects remaining in the body means there are some in the mind?”
His pacing steps stopped abruptly. Jeon turned his head to look out the window. Perhaps because of the pitch-black outside, his pale face was reflected particularly clearly in the window.
Come to think of it, this was an inn in the capital. Not the Imperial Palace where people would cause a commotion if magic was used.
And Jeon was a mage. A considerably skilled mage who was the successor to the Mage Tower Lord.
His decision was quick.
“…I just need to quietly check if she’s okay, I don’t necessarily need to contact her through the ring, right?”
He could find Anelli’s room since he had been there once. Jeon put on his hood and made a resolution.
He would just peek through the balcony, very quietly, just see her face and come back.
* * *
Fatigue weighed down my entire body, but I couldn’t close my eyes.
‘In Father’s Office, my whole body felt so heavy I thought I’d collapse at any moment.’
But when it came time to actually sleep, it was difficult to even lie down comfortably.
I pressed my throbbing temples firmly and sat carelessly leaning against the bed, then glanced up.
Usually I kept at least one Dura’han by my side, but when sleeping, I cleared the bedroom.
However, today this silence was particularly bothersome. Would it be better if I summoned someone?
Jigol or Tristan, or even Minte or Mori.
As I thought of Dura’han who could stay in the bedroom, I let out a long sigh. Having Dura’han nearby didn’t seem like it would suddenly make me sleepy.
After staring blankly at the empty bedroom, I suddenly looked down at my palm.
When I clenched my hand tight and then opened it, green energy rippled in my palm.
‘Divine power.’
The divine power I had retrieved from Lusaka. The power that the former Captain had given to Mori was now in my hands.
As I quietly watched the faint green light, I remembered what had happened earlier.
The final attack that the Lusaka, who had merged together into a massive form, had inflicted on me. The illusion I saw through that final attack.
In it, there was no Maxel who had become Emperor.
‘To think they would attack in that way.’
Showing similar illusions repeatedly at the beginning seemed to be intended to make me let my guard down while simultaneously wearing me out.
I had to admit it. I had been looking down on Lusaka too much.
“In the end, I won, so…”
The illusion I had just seen wouldn’t leave my mind, making it impossible to brush everything off with the words ‘I won, so it’s fine.’
It started ordinarily. Just a green meadow.
The high sky and gently blowing breeze, warm sunlight and fresh flower scents.
Even though I had already been attacked and fallen into illusions several times, I almost fell for those vivid sensations.
「They must have prepared carefully this time.」
Even so, Maxel who had become Emperor would probably pop out from somewhere again and spout nonsense.
Standing blankly in the meadow, I muttered indifferently and started walking. As I walked, I thought that the scenery looked somehow familiar.
Even though all I could see was sky, grass, and trees.
There was no Maxel who I expected to pop out immediately, no bothersome palace servants from the Imperial Palace, no noblewomen waving fans or pretentious gentlemen putting on airs.
「What is this exactly?」
Since nothing they showed me worked, were they just going to abandon me in this empty field?
Just as I was having such doubts, something popped out from between the bushes.
「…Tristan?」
A black bumblebee. That was Tristan. Tristan circled around me.
A little later, this time something like a black earthworm passed by my feet. It was Mori.
The things that revealed themselves one by one like this were my Dura’han.
Thanks to this, I could tell that this illusion wasn’t like a dream I might have had before being beheaded. Things like Maxel becoming Emperor wouldn’t appear.
「But something feels a bit strange.」
I stared intently at Nadab who was digging around, then turned my eyes to Palides. Palides in his black armor stood blankly like a doll.
I felt some kind of strange sense of unease. I looked at each of the Dura’han who had revealed themselves, checking them carefully.
It didn’t take long to realize the source of the unease.
「This is a bit, not good.」
The Dura’han weren’t speaking. Not a single word.
Thinking of how noisy and chaotic it usually was when these guys gathered together, the current scene was strange to the point of being quite unpleasant.
In the quiet, there was occasionally the rustling sound of grass being stepped on as the Dura’han moved.
‘Wasn’t it supposed to make you dream dreams you didn’t want to wake from?’
I had been certain that Lusaka’s method was to tempt opponents with dreams they desperately desired, dreams they would never want to wake from.
But the scene unfolding before me now was somehow strange. It wasn’t a situation where I could feel happiness to the point of not wanting to wake up.
Rather, the emotion I was feeling now was…
‘Displeasure?’
Yes, it was close to displeasure.
I could converse with the Dura’han whenever I wanted, and the Dura’han had always shown me absolute favor.
Even Mori, who had initially been distant from me, had gradually started to show me respect, hadn’t he?
But in this illusion that should have been happy, I felt like the Dura’han were treating me awkwardly instead.
「What?」
Even knowing it was an illusion, a sharp question burst out.
Palides stared at me like that, then slowly stepped back. Palides, who used to answer brightly that he was glad to meet me, was creating distance between us.
「Palides?」
It wasn’t just Palides. Jigol who had been circling around me, and Tristan, Mori, Ganic, Minte, Bak, even Nadab…
I unconsciously reached out toward them. Then Mori, who had been nearby, noticeably avoided my touch and quickly disappeared into the grass.
I calmly turned around to try to catch another one. Minte leaped away in an arc. Following that, Bak with his heavy body moved away, then Ganic, Palides, even Tristan.
I looked with bewildered eyes at the Dura’han who turned their backs on me without answering, then let my arms drop.
Now only Jigol and Nadab remained in front of me.
Still, neither of them said anything.
「What kind of…
illusion is this?
The moment I spat out the trailing words in a crushed voice, Jigol flew high and disappeared into the sky. Now only one black horse remained in front of me.
Smoke rose from the horse standing blankly. It soon enveloped Nadab’s body, and a Dura’han wearing heavy black armor revealed himself.
「Nadab.」
I remembered my first meeting with Nadab.
Nadab, who had said he was glad to meet the Captain, stood blankly in front of me in silence. He looked down at me like that, then slowly drew his sword.
He was going to swing that at me.
I was so shocked I couldn’t even think of dodging and froze, when someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me back.
“Anelli!”
A massive greatsword barely grazed past my nose and plunged into the ground. Cold sweat ran down the back of my neck at the resounding thud.
Before I could even feel relief at having my life saved in that split second, Nadab, who had been right in front of me, was engulfed in flames.
“Nadab!”
Nadab writhed as if in agony. I wanted to approach him, but the hands gripping both my arms from behind pulled me further away from Nadab instead.
“What is this, let me go…!”
I shook off the hands that firmly held my arms and turned around, then came to an abrupt stop.
“…Jeon.”
At my bitter murmur, Jeon in front of me smiled with a pale face.
“It couldn’t be helped in order to protect you, Anelli.”
I stared blankly at Jeon’s face as he said he had no choice but to kill Nadab for my sake, then gritted my teeth.
“You’re fake.”
“Those things are monsters in the end. Your journey with those creatures has a predetermined ending.”
“You’re not Jeon.”
Nadab, engulfed in flames, was writhing and dying, and it was Jeon who had burned Nadab to death. No, someone wearing Jeon’s face…
From the beginning, all of this was entirely illusion and falsehood. The Dura’han who had left, the dying Nadab, even Jeon with his unfamiliar expression.
“But Anelli, you’re a monster too.”
Even knowing it was all fake, my breath caught in my throat.
“Stop your pathetic imitation.”
“I’m human, after all. How could I possibly be with monsters?”
“Hand over the pendant and get lost.”
“Poor Anelli.”
Jeon opened his mouth wide and laughed. From deep within his gaping throat, I could see a familiar light faintly seeping out.
“A pitiful woman who became a living corpse, unable to escape even in death and being used!”
I realized it. This wasn’t a dream too blissful to wake from, but a nightmare too vicious to escape from.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————