I Cured the Mastermind and Failed to Run Away - Chapter 30

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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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Episode 30

The sudden shift in topic caught Chedwin off guard; his lips twitched into something that wasn’t quite a smile.
“Are you here to withdraw your partnership request to me?”
“No.”
Chedwin’s answer cut through the air like a blade the moment Levelin finished speaking. His languid posture, slouched against the seat, straightened.
“You came to see me and kept talking about that woman you met yesterday and the blonde noblewoman you spotted before, so I thought maybe you didn’t want to go to the party with me.”
“No. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
He leaned forward, his response urgent.
“I didn’t consider how my words might sound to you. I apologize.”
Oh.
More effective than she’d expected.
Levelin pressed her advantage, deliberately widening the hurt in her expression.
“And we haven’t even coordinated our Dress Code yet with the party coming up.”
This should keep him from bringing up the Victory Banquet or what happened yesterday, at least for now.
“……Dress Code? Is there such a thing?”
Chedwin muttered the words awkwardly, as though they were foreign to him.
“I’ve never done it. I don’t care about parties.”
It was well known that Chedwin attended parties alone, without a partner.
In the original story, he would have left the Capital long ago and gone to places where Contaminated Areas existed.
‘That makes sense.’
Levelin, who had barely attended social gatherings since becoming known as a Rank 10 Purifier, could understand that.
“It’s been a long time for me too, attending a party with a partner.”
“Didn’t you come to my Victory Banquet? The Ethelion Household was on the guest list.”
“I went with Father and my brother that time. I didn’t dance. So I don’t really know the dances that are popular these days. If that’s what you were looking for, I can recommend someone else even now.”
“Surprising. I’d have thought many people would want to partner with you. Did you reject all of them?”
“No. No one asked to partner with me.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a Rank 10 Purifier.”
When Levelin pointed to herself matter-of-factly, Chedwin’s face contorted in confusion.
She was used to this reaction; there was nothing surprising about it anymore.
“So? What does that have to do with anything?”
Typical of a man who’d been away from the Capital so long he knew nothing, cared nothing for rumors or other people’s opinions.
“We’re going to a party, not a Contaminated Area to purify.”
“That’s true.”
But among Purifiers, a Rank 10 Purifier was mocked as a disgrace and a hollow, incomplete thing. Others kept their distance, watching their step carefully.
And with Mila glaring so sharply, everyone avoided being seen with Levelin.
“I’ve also avoided it because I don’t like drawing attention from people, and I didn’t want them talking about me.”
Chedwin didn’t ask further.
He seemed to grasp the situation well enough and nodded, then leaned closer.
His lips came into her line of sight—softer than she’d thought, no, this was crazy.
Levelin’s eyes darted away into empty space.
“I won’t let you worry about anyone around you.”
With his legs slightly parted and his arm resting on his thick thigh, Chedwin bent forward, and his uniform pulled taut across his frame.
Her gaze that had fled into the void slowly crept back.
‘Is he doing that on purpose?’
She couldn’t look away.
“People won’t dare speak of my partner. They value their lives too much.”
That wasn’t a boast.
“And I don’t need Purification from anyone personally, so I don’t need to watch what others think.”
Wait—why was he steering the conversation in that direction? No, no!
Keep the private Purifier by your side and get purified!
“There’s no need for that. You’re frequently exposed to Contaminated Areas, Your Grace, so you absolutely must receive Purification—”
“I can handle that myself.”
No, you can’t! That arrogance is what gets you killed and takes my brother with you! I told you yesterday to properly protect yourself, and it seems it went ignored after all!
Levelin’s fists clenched.
“Doesn’t that have nothing to do with it? If Mana seeps in and the Contamination Index rises, problems occur.”
“Maybe. But should I really bow my head and grovel before Purifiers who bother my partner just because of that?”
Levelin’s eyes darted left and right. Why was the conversation going this direction?
“You’re talking about other people again. Forget the Purifiers—let’s talk about us. Whatever the Dress Code is, just tell me what’s needed and I’ll match it.”
…Was this actually resolved well?
She’d managed to dodge the interrogation, but something felt off.

* * *

After hours of discussing the party with Chedwin and sending him off, Levelin collapsed onto her bed, completely drained.
She’d decided on the Dress Code herself—being fashion-conscious—and told him she’d send the details separately.
He hadn’t mentioned the Victory Banquet, the Commoner Purification Center, or anything else about other people at all.
That was a relief, but she worried it meant he’d developed a bias against other Purifiers.
‘My poor relationship with the other Purifiers is my problem, not his.’
Was it because of the communal life in the Knight Order?
He seemed to regard Levelin, his partner, as a fellow soldier fighting alongside him.
‘No interest in anything else, but loyal as they come.’
The image of him looking after his subordinates at the Commoner Purification Center surfaced in her mind.
“Since I’ve lowered the Contamination Index to a safe level, let’s just leave it alone for now.”
Yesterday’s kiss—no, that medical procedure—flashed through her mind, so she shook her head vigorously and checked the Rank Verification Mana Tool she’d confirmed earlier.
Rank 3.
It was Rank 3.
She’d risen from Rank 4. Now a Rank 3 Purifier.
“My limbs were trembling, but I wasn’t dizzy, and yet my rank went up.”
Her rank, which had refused to climb no matter what she did, had finally risen.
‘Finally!’
Everyone knew about Levelin now—the Commoner Purifier ‘Lu’—but that was fine anyway. Her rank had risen, after all!
Levelin laughed sharply. Rank 3 Purifier. She’d finally made it to Rank 3.
She got out of bed, checked the Rank Verification Mana Tool once more, and tucked it deep into a drawer.
‘Now I finally understand how rank progression works.’
She’d vaguely thought that Mana was simply necessary for a rank increase.
She’d believed that just as a swordsman practices Swordsmanship every day without rest, or academy students study daily to raise their grades, a Purifier’s rank would climb by gradually and frequently purifying Mana.
That wasn’t it.
‘It wasn’t just from purifying Contaminated Areas.’
She probably wouldn’t have risen in rank even after years of purification at the Commoner Purification Center.
“Your rank rises when you exhaust your power completely and then recover.”
Chedwin’s foolish behavior—ignoring his own body while looking after others—had infuriated her precisely because it resembled Arent’s.
So she’d poured nearly everything into the purification, trembling so badly she could barely crawl.
She’d felt the power she’d completely expended recover and its total capacity increase.
Power increases. That means rank rises.
So it made sense that buying contaminated items at auctions to purify them, or purifying a person or two at the Commoner Purification Center wouldn’t raise her rank at all.
‘Which means to rise to Rank 2, I’d need to exhaust all of a Rank 3 Purifier’s power in one go.’
The question was… could she even do that?
When she’d used Rank 4 power, she’d felt it was in a different league entirely from the previous rank.
In the morning she’d purified contaminated people, then purified one Contaminated Area entirely alone. Only after pouring her power into the knights and then Chedwin had she reached the bottom of her Rank 4 reserves.
Without Chedwin, she probably couldn’t have exhausted her power yesterday no matter what she’d done.
If Rank 4 was like that, could she even manage to use all of a Rank 3 Purifier’s power?
‘Dangerous Contaminated Areas with dense Mana won’t appear for a while.’
Ranking up was becoming harder and harder.
Even if by sheer luck she somehow used all of her Rank 3 power and became Rank 2, what then?
‘Could I even become a Rank 1 Purifier?’
No matter how much she thought about it, in the original work she’d rarely seen Sophia—who was Rank 2—struggle during purification.
Only when she first awakened, when she failed to purify Chedwin whose sanity had collapsed, and when Arent died from Mana contamination.
Except for those three times, Levelin had never seen Sophia fail at purification or strain herself by using all her power.
Because it was a cathartic novel, and the heroine faced no such trials!
Instead, Arent and Chedwin confronted their trials and ended up dead.
Levelin lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. The bright light from the chandelier pricked her eyes.
Knock, knock.
The door opened and Sophia entered.
“Young lady, you didn’t go out today? Are you departing for the Temple tomorrow morning?”
Throughout Levelin’s visits to the Temple, Sophia accompanied her without fail. Though Levelin said it was fine—after all, they couldn’t enter the Prayer Room together anyway—Sophia couldn’t bear to let her go alone, consumed by anxiety.
“Yes, I’m not going anymore.”
The reason for visiting the Temple was to slip away from her guards and family to reach the Commoner Purification Center.
Since the fake persona “Lu” had become famous, she could no longer purify there—it had become pointless.
“I think I’ve prayed enough at this point.”
She’d never been particularly devout anyway, so no one would suspect anything if she suddenly stopped.
“Did those priests give you some kind of hint, Miss?”
Hm?
Sophia’s voice had turned sharp and cold. Levelin, who’d been focused on raising her Rank, turned in alarm.
“Did those bastards dare tell you to stop coming?”
Sophia’s teeth ground together as if she might burst through the door that very instant.
Where had this misunderstanding come from?
Levelin bolted upright from where she’d been lying.
“No, no! No! Sophia!”
Levelin grabbed Sophia’s collar in a panic, as if seizing the leash of an uncontrollable hound.
She wondered if this treatment befitted a heroine, but she didn’t let go.
“I’m not going—I’m not!”
“Please don’t lie for my sake, Miss! I know better than anyone how hard you prayed. You came every morning and stayed until sunset.”
That wasn’t true. She came in the morning and snuck out through the back to purify at the Commoner Purification Center, then returned.
“I’ll go set the Temple on fire for you.”
“That’s a crime!”
At the word “crime,” Sophia hesitated, then nodded with grim resolve.
“I’ll do it secretly, then.”
“It’s a crime either way.”
“I won’t let anyone trace it back to you, Miss.”
“Every nobleman in the Capital knows I sponsor you.”
“Should I wear a mask?”
The Sophia from the original novel—pure, innocent, tearfully wounded—was nothing like this.
Now, at the first sign of someone bothering her, she’d transformed into a spirited girl ready to commit arson.
‘Though I suppose it’s better than watching her cry over being bullied.’
Still, she couldn’t let Sophia become a criminal.
Levelin tightened her grip on Sophia’s collar.
“Sophia, sit.”
“But Miss, I’m really good at not getting caught! I’m nimble!”
“Good for you. Now sit on the sofa.”
“Was it that guy who said something to you?”
Sophia’s head whipped around.
“Who?”
“That bandit-looking one who guided you to the Prayer Room on your first visit to the Temple!”
That bandit-looking one who’d shown her to the Prayer Room the first time?
“…You mean Ranua? The Holy Knight?”
“I don’t remember his name. The one with brown hair.”
Sophia remembered one of the male leads she would grow to love by his hair color alone.
Levelin went silent in exasperation, and Sophia nodded knowingly.
“Next time, I’ll pour wine into the Holy Water Fountain.”
She’d have to steer clear of the Temple grounds for a while.

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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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