For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 129
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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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Chapter 129
She was here. That insufferable Raina Hart.
Simona observed the eleven weak Disciples standing fearlessly before her—Raina Hart’s Disciples. Variables created by a variable.
So she had intended to keep them contained until the task was complete.
“Was the fishbowl too small? Everyone’s come out.”
“….”
Her sudden remark silenced everything around them. Several of them burst into incredulous laughter.
“I didn’t like the bathroom.”
“My goodness.”
Simona exhaled a sigh of pity at Din’s words.
“Listen, you seem to have time for conversation?”
Ban and Stale attacked Simona again.
Crackle! Whoosh!
This time it was a coordinated assault. Ban’s flames and Stale’s lightning merged together, hurtling toward Simona.
The two attacks dissipated against the black veil Simona had conjured. As her shadow advanced toward Ban and Stale, mana gathered behind the counterattacking Simona. The light of teleportation. While Ban and Stale diverted her attention, someone appeared to strike back.
The one who materialized in mid-air was Jo, a 4-Circle mage. The necklace Raina had crafted swayed at his neck.
Jo from the Fourth Circle appeared in midair, the necklace Raina had made swaying at his neck.
“Just once…!”
All the Disciples fighting shadows throughout the area silently cheered Jo on.
The Disciples fighting shadows everywhere all cheered Jo on.
‘Please.’
Please.
But.
“Cough….”
“What a shame.”
Jo hung suspended in the air, bound by Simona Asperada’s magic.
“Now that barrier has grown tiresome.”
When there was no elegant way to dismantle a Grand Mage’s barrier, sometimes crude methods served just as well. Like today, when I’d slipped through Zenia’s barrier by cloaking myself in shadows. Simona’s shadows wound tightly around Jo.
The shadows, tainted with toxins by the necklace’s barrier, began shifting into the Subspace, yet they multiplied at an even faster rate.
As shadows vanished and new ones formed, their hands stripped the necklace from Jo’s neck, letting it fall to the ground.
Simona drew a short blade from her bosom—a plain dagger with no magic inscribed upon it.
When Simona released it, the blade fell in a straight line, its tip piercing precisely through the necklace’s ornament.
As Simona released the dagger, its tip fell in a straight line and pierced precisely into the ornament of the necklace.
The inscribed ornament shattered into fragments.
The ornamental decoration engraved with ritual patterns shattered into pieces.
The only weapon against the Dark Mage had vanished. Despair settled across the Disciples’ faces.
The only weapon to stand against the Dark Mage has disappeared. Despair settled on the faces of the Disciples.
“…cough.”
Even as he coughed painfully, he gazed at her without a trace of fear.
Even as he coughed painfully, he looked at her without a trace of fear.
“Mother, please stop. Raphael is crying.”
Simona bent at the waist and picked up the fallen blade.
Simona bent down and picked up the sword that had fallen to the floor.
“…Stop her!”
“…stop it!”
Simona rose to her feet. Dagger in hand, she smiled at Jo with her eyes.
Simona sat up. Holding a dagger in her hand, she gave Jo a knowing smile.
“….”
“….”
The shadows binding Jo’s neck and limbs sneered.
“No!”
“Jo!”
“Damn it! Let go of him! If you kill Jo, I’ll kill you too!”
The sharp edge of a dagger that had shattered the necklace pointed toward Jo’s heart.
The Disciples cried out.
“Who—”
That was when it happened. Time itself began to flow impossibly slowly.
A single tear hung suspended in the air for an eternity, while eyelids moved as gently as opening flower petals. Within that decelerated world, there was only one who moved at her own pace.
“My Master—”
“Like a violet.”
Pale lavender hair swayed with each step. Pearl-white skin and silver eyes as clear and transparent as flawless gems.
Among the scene the Disciples witnessed, only she moved. The surreal moment felt like a dream.
“You torment my Disciples?”
Her monotone voice carried a fury that made skin crawl.
“….”
The Disciple who had emerged from the Villa alongside her captured the scene in his blue eyes.
His eyes were reddened, unlike before. The returning light dwelled in his own world.
Thump, thump. Kevenriak’s heart resonated with Raina Hart’s heart, beating heavily. It was proof that the two of them shared a life.
“Simona Asperada. I have had many questions about you.”
Raina Hart brought her hand to Simona’s slowly moving hand. Blood dripped from Jo’s upper body, pierced by the dagger’s tip, staining his garment crimson.
Raina Hart withdrew the dagger from Simona’s hand and continued speaking.
“Why you took the place of Duchess Asperada. Why you annihilated the Heteroven Royal Family. Why you killed me.”
Whether she was a Prophet, or living a new life.
Raina Hart’s silver eyes regarded her coldly. Simona’s lips moved very slowly, as if she had something to say.
“Still, I don’t think I can let you live if you’re going to hear that.”
Thwack.
The sound of a blade piercing flesh echoed through the air.
***
Simona’s body, her heart impaled, crumpled to the ground. Her eyes never even closed before her breath ceased. Beneath her lay a shadow.
Simona’s form blackened and dissolved into that shadow along with her soul.
‘Tsk.’
So that hadn’t been her true body after all. Whether the shadow had read my thoughts or simply anticipated them, it spoke to me.
[So it’s you?]
A sinister chuckle emanated from within the shadow.
[You were the only variable.]
I didn’t respond, instead channeling mana beneath my feet.
In the same instant, the shadow fled across the ground at tremendous speed. My mana pursued it. The chase that unfolded as we descended the mountain came to an abrupt halt near the City Walls of Jenia.
Thousands of people formed a procession—those departing Jenia by imperial decree. Simona selected one shadow among them and concealed herself within it.
I spread my mana broadly across the shadows of the crowd, then withdrew it. Nothing was caught.
‘I lost her.’
I gazed coldly at the ground where Simona had vanished.
‘The only variable is me?’
What had she seen when the blade pierced her….
Cough.
“Master!”
“Master!”
But there was no time to dwell on it. With the shadow gone, my Disciples, now unrestrained, rushed toward me. My sides—my sides throbbed with pain.
“You all, we already did this earlier….”
Hadn’t we embraced at the villa just moments ago? I protested defensively, but my words fell on deaf ears. How could they possibly refrain from embracing when they witnessed the real Raina Hart moving before their very eyes?
Sob. Sniffle. Whimper.
Kevenriak and Vivian, standing before the villa, watched the tearful, mucus-streaked reunion unfold.
More precisely, they watched Raina Hart nestled among her disciples.
“This place….”
Moments earlier, there had been a brief incident in the room. Everything had proceeded according to plan until I reclaimed my body and Kevenriak ceased the dark magic.
But when I opened my eyes, I behaved like someone else entirely for a moment.
“…Who are you people?”
“…Raina.”
“Who is that… ugh….”
I had regarded Kevenriak and Vivian with sharp eyes, but confusion flickered across my gaze as I looked at them. Then my head throbbed, and I clutched it with a groan.
“Raina!”
“…Keri?”
….
“Ah…! Has the life transfer stopped?! My body—how is my body?!”
Then I recognized him. Kevenriak’s heart sank so profoundly that he found himself kneeling without thinking.
“…And Raina?”
“I seem to be fine.”
Raina Hart had safely returned to her original body. How anxiously I had worried that something might go wrong with her.
Kevenriak wept, heedless of Vivian’s presence beside him.
The completion of the life-sharing ritual had taken dozens of minutes. Because it demanded such intense concentration, the time had felt brief to both mages.
Vivian, lacking a mana heart, had spent that time watching the two mages’ luminescent mana mingling in the air.
After completing the life-sharing and opening the door, the moment we stepped beyond the soundproof barrier, a cacophony erupted.
Through the window, we could see the disciples and Simona. Everything that followed unfolded as expected.
“…The duchess, Simona Asperada, is still alive.”
Since she was my stepmother, it seemed only proper to inform Vivian standing beside me of her status. Vivian nodded. She had sensed the shadow carrying Simona’s soul attempting to flee.
But someone else had captured Vivian’s attention entirely.
“So you really are the Grand Mage.”
Kevenriak glanced at Vivian, noting the sparkle in her eyes and the flush of excitement on her cheeks. She looked as though she’d just glimpsed a hero, prompting him to ask.
“Do you know my Master?”
“I met her once when I was young.”
Vivian eagerly recounted her first meeting with Raina Hart.
“She caught me just as I was about to fall—”
Crack. Crack.
“…!”
At the eerie sound that suddenly pierced the air, Vivian startled and quickly surveyed her surroundings.
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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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