I Cured the Mastermind and Failed to Run Away - Chapter 7

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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 7

What? Why is she running?
Rebelin jolted upright in confusion.
“There wasn’t supposed to be any ‘fleeing female protagonist’ plot point!”
I’m not some obsessive second male lead! So why is she bolting?
Rebelin was pushing herself up from her seat to chase Sophia back when it happened.
The ground lurched as if space itself had fractured.
“Gasp!”
Rebelin, startled, grabbed the Workshop shelf to keep from falling.
Even though her feet pressed against solid earth, she felt suspended in mid-air.
The world darkened in an instant, and thick Magical Miasma rolled through the space, churning her stomach.
Rebelin clenched her eyes shut against the sickening vertigo of weightless drift.
—Shrieeeeeeee!!
Before she could even assess the situation, a grotesque cry echoed from somewhere distant.
Rebelin’s eyes snapped open and she jerked her head up.
A Demonic Beast.
Rebelin’s shoulders shot upward. Beyond the Workshop window lay only darkness.
A Contaminated Area.
It had emerged exactly as the original story described.
But there was a problem.
“…Am I alone?”
Rebelin scanned her surroundings in disbelief. The Workshop was pristinely, utterly empty.
The maidservants and the knight were posted at a distance, so of course they weren’t here. And Sophia, who’d bolted without warning, wasn’t a trace to be found.
Rebelin found herself laughing hollowly, words failing her.
“This… wasn’t part of the plan.”
The original plan was for Sophia and her to be swept up in the Contaminated Area together, then secretly perform just enough Purification before handing the rest off to Sophia as the story prescribed.
Then slip away quietly and return safely to check if her Rank had increased.
Rebelin would stay safe. Sophia would awaken as a 2nd-grade Purifier and become widely known. The original story would remain unchanged.
But instead—
“Uh… how am I supposed to handle this alone?”
She’d been abandoned in the Contaminated Area.
In the original story, it took considerable time for the Knight Order and mercenaries to arrive.
A Contaminated Area had emerged almost simultaneously in the nearby Marquis Family Territory as well.
Though this location ranked higher in danger classification, it had been deprioritized because it was a district inhabited by commoners.
“…Could it be that I’m going to die instead of the Workshop owner?”
No. Her brother had distinctly said that even if she were dragged to a Demonic Beast’s lair, if she kept her wits sharp, there was a way to survive.
So if she just kept her wits sharp—
—Crack!
A Demonic Beast landed on the Workshop roof, and the wooden beams supporting it collapsed inward.
‘There’s… no way out.’
Rebelin clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle any sound that might provoke the beast.
Suddenly, the memory surfaced—the Academy graduation exam when she’d nearly been torn to shreds by a Demonic Beast. Her heart sank like a stone.
It felt as though someone had seized her heart in an iron grip; she could barely breathe.
‘No. Not here.’
Rebelin forced her eyes wide open.
‘If I die here, my brother dies. Father dies. Everyone dies.’
I am the vital person who will save our family.
Rebelin wiped the sweat pooling in her palms onto her thighs and surveyed her surroundings.
A large cabinet loomed within the Workshop.
‘There.’
She crept forward on all fours, moving silently to the cabinet and sliding open the drawer. She emptied it of every object inside. It was stuffed with peculiar things.
‘A Brooch? Why would they keep something like this here?’
Rebelin crawled inside the cabinet and quietly shut the drawer behind her.
‘Sophia had hidden in here and waited until the Demonic Beast left.’
The Workshop would crumble as time passed, but by sheer fortune, this cabinet where Sophia had taken refuge remained intact. That was why, after the beast withdrew, Sophia had emerged to purify the Contaminated Area.
‘All right. I’ll do the same as Sophia.’
After all, the goal isn’t to purify the entire Contaminated Area—just to understand what conditions trigger a rank increase.
‘To purify this Contaminated Area, we’d need at least six 5th-grade Purifiers.’
Entry into a Contaminated Area was possible from the outside, but exit from within was impossible until the Purification was complete.
So if the Demonic Beast wandered far enough away, she could purify the area a little, then hide safely until people came searching.
‘My plan to leave the rest to Sophia fell apart, but it’s fine. I can survive this.’
Rebelin clasped her cold hands together tightly.
Above, on the Workshop roof, she heard the Demonic Beast thundering and stomping.
Moments later, something crashed with a deafening sound, and the Workshop collapsed.
“……!”
The drawer cabinet shook violently.
Bang! Crash! Boom!
Materials tumbled down with tremendous noise. Rebelin bit down on her lip to stifle a cry and squeezed her eyes shut.
Unlike the original story, she’d worried the drawer cabinet might shatter, but thankfully it held.
Beyond the cabinet, she heard the Demonic Beast thrashing about, searching for prey.
Rebelin steadied her trembling breath and strained to listen to the sounds outside.
Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
Time dragged on.
The Demonic Beast’s sounds grew fainter and fainter. Rebelin didn’t move hastily; she waited for the moment she could be certain of safety.
When all sound had vanished entirely, Rebelin carefully opened the cabinet door.
The surroundings were silent.
After scanning the area, she crept out cautiously.
The Demonic Beast was gone.
‘Good.’
Rebelin surveyed the space, then crouched and pressed both palms flat against the earth.
She channeled her power the way she did when purifying someone contaminated by Magical Miasma. The thick miasma rooted deep in the soil like tree roots answered to her Purification, drawing toward her palms.
The viscous miasma writhed and resisted, as though alive, crawling upward in defiance.
“Ugh.”
It was a sensation foreign to Rebelin, who had lived as a 10th-grade Purifier.
A cold miasma crept up her arm. Her body tingled as if she’d plunged ice into her veins.
Still, she didn’t yield; she pushed her power into the earth as if confronting an opponent.
Her trembling arms grew weaker with each passing moment.
“Hhgh, gasp.”
Her breathing was ragged. Sound seemed to vanish from her ears.
‘In the original story, Sophia didn’t struggle like this—I must be different because I’m a 5th-grade Purifier!’
True, Sophia had suffered for days after purifying the Contaminated Area alone in the original, but it had been described as sacred and beautiful.
Nothing like the harsh reality facing a 5th-grade Purifier like Rebelin.
‘If my rank doesn’t go up after this much suffering, I swear…’
Rebelin squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated.
“Urrgh, kgh.”
It was similar to purifying Chedwin. The miasma coursing through her body was cold as ice, yet when she spent power, her gut felt as though she’d swallowed burning fire.
Cold and hot.
The sensation of her body freezing and melting was alien and unsettling.
Her vision blurred and cleared in cycles. She felt all the contamination embedded deep in this land simultaneously.
Untangling the miasma as if loosening a badly knotted rope, she had no sense of how much time was passing.
When she regained awareness, her power was already completely spent.
“Gasp.”
How much time had actually gone by?
Rebelin lifted her head sharply.
A memory surfaced from Academy lessons: if you concentrated too hard on Purification, your sense of time would vanish—you had to be careful about that.
The plan had been to purify just a little and hide, but somewhere along the way, she’d kept going until her power was completely drained.
‘Stop. I have to stop.’
Using Purification beyond one’s limits could kill a Purifier through overload.
Rebelin’s limbs trembled violently as her power gave out.
With no experience purifying on this scale, Rebelin was struggling to control her strength for the first time.
Just as she was trying to cut off the power flowing into the earth, she heard the Demonic Beast’s cry.
Kieeeee!!
She whipped her head up toward the sound.
The Demonic Beast—wings spread wide. Their eyes met.
‘I’ve been discovered.’
The Demonic Beast’s eyes gleamed as it spotted prey. With its jaws gaping wide, it dove at her in an instant.
The sequence diverged from the original story. Sophia had slipped away undetected by the beast, but Rebelin was not so fortunate.
‘My Purification takes longer than hers.’
That difference had altered everything.
‘So knowing the original story doesn’t make you the female protagonist after all.’
It would take more time for the Knight Order to be dispatched to this Contaminated Area.
She had to run. Rebelin yanked her hand from the ground in panic.
Her legs buckled beneath her as she tried to stand, all strength draining away.
“Gasp!”
And when she severed her Purification abruptly, the world tilted and spun before her eyes.
“Haugh, ha, haugh.”
Her entire body had gone slack—she couldn’t move so much as a finger, only managing labored gasps of breath.
Rebelin forced her head up to track the incoming beast.
She could see it bearing down at horrifying speed, yet she remained frozen on the ground, helpless.
‘Is this really how I die?’
The beast’s fangs were visible now. The memory of being gnawed on during the Academy exam flooded back.
The phantom pain of sharp teeth tearing through skin, the terror of death itself, crawled across her body like creeping frost.
The beast drew nearer, its mouth yawning open.
Rebelin braced for the agony to come and squeezed her eyes shut.
“…….”
She clenched them tighter.
“……?”
But no pain came.
What…?
Slowly, Rebelin opened her eyes.
The Demonic Beast that had been hurtling toward her only moments before now hung rigid in the air before her, jaws agape and motionless.
“Huh?”

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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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