I’m a Villain, but I Want to Live a Long Life - Chapter 128
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The surroundings suddenly brightened and my vision returned.
Thick dark clouds covering the sky, and moonlight glowing softly beyond them.
I blinked blankly and realized I was still collapsed on the ground.
That’s when it happened.
“Kerus, can’t we just kill him?”
A young voice came from right next to my ear.
I flinched in surprise and only moved my eyes to stare in the direction of the sound.
Since my body wouldn’t move at all, I couldn’t see properly, but a small boy with silver hair was standing next to me.
He looked to be about seven years old at most.
“We need to show those bastards that we can kill humans too.”
My heart sank with a thud.
Perhaps noticing that I had regained consciousness, the boy quickly turned his head.
Then I could see the child’s appearance in more detail.
Silver hair covering his white forehead. Cool light green eyes beneath it.
The boy’s brow slowly furrowed. His lips twitched and then the boy suddenly shouted.
“Lord Kerus! This one finally opened his eyes! Let me kill him, I want revenge!”
It was a murderous intent that didn’t match his young voice.
‘What the hell is this…’
Cold sweat beaded on my forehead.
Just moments ago, I had definitely been seeing hallucinations of my past life.
A painful and lonely existence.
But…
‘How does it make sense that I open my eyes and see some kid…!’
Don’t tell me it’s another possession? Or is this also a hallucination?
But in the midst of all this, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘Those creatures seem to show hallucinations while absorbing magical power.’
Estelin’s words suddenly flashed through my mind.
But something seemed strange for that to be the case.
‘I shouldn’t have any magical power to absorb though? How are they showing me hallucinations.’
I raised my trembling gaze and carefully examined the child before me.
Hair the same color as the magical beast’s fur.
His statement about ‘we can kill humans too’ and even his choice of the word revenge.
Could it be,
‘Diermant?’
My mouth slowly fell open.
I didn’t know what the reason was, but it seemed like the Diermant was taking human form.
If that wasn’t the case, there was no way to explain the current situation.
I struggled to somehow open my mouth. But my arms and legs wouldn’t move at all.
Then a low, serious voice rang out from above my head.
“It’s not time yet, Rael.”
It was the calm, deep voice I had heard when waking from the hallucination.
Only then did I see someone else looking down at me from near my feet.
Silver hair the same color as the child next to me.
But much deeper in color than the child’s, with vivid teal eyes.
“But Lord Kerus!”
“There is a time for everything.”
At the deliberately stern voice, the child closed his mouth as if frustrated. Then he turned his head this way.
Soon a pale face was thrust right in front of me. The child’s eyes were glaring at me fiercely.
“You, are you in cahoots with those bastards from earlier?”
I was so flustered that I just gaped. The child’s light green eyes glinted coldly.
“Answer me.”
The child pressed me. But no matter how much I moved my lips, no voice came out.
The child slowly frowned. Then as if understanding, he made an ‘ah’ sound and snapped his index finger.
Then like magic, rough breathing burst out from beyond my throat.
Strength also returned to my body that hadn’t been able to move as if bound by something.
“Hueok—!!”
I frantically sat up. Then I crawled backward while pressing against the ground.
The child quietly looked down at me.
Over the child’s shoulder, I could see the man with teal eyes standing facing this way.
“I freed your body too, so now answer. Why did you try to kill me?”
I blinked blankly, feeling cold sweat running down my back.
Why did I try to kill him?
I had never tried to kill this brat, no, this magical beast.
Of course, since the test assignment was to obtain magical stones, it was ambiguous to say absolutely not…
“I, I…”
Just as I was about to speak, the child took a step closer to me.
“You’d better answer properly. What exactly do you people want? Is it really war?”
“Rael. Stop it.”
Just as his voice was rising. The man with teal eyes restrained the child.
I reflexively looked up at the man.
The man who had somehow come close to me was incredibly tall.
His expression was so cold that it seemed like coldness was dripping from him even when he was still.
“That human is not part of the group that attacked us before.”
“He’s not?”
“Exactly as I said. That human knows nothing.”
The child looked back and forth between the man and me with a confused face. Then he tilted his head and asked.
“Then why did you spend so long looking into this human’s memories? I thought you were looking for clues about the attacks from the past few months.”
My mouth fell open without me realizing it.
That man had looked into my memories?
My brow furrowed.
The reason I had seen those past memories was probably because they had been looking into my memories all this time.
Then, the man said to the child.
“I was just observing because that human is under an interesting curse.”
“A curse…?”
When I repeated his words, both the child’s and man’s gazes turned toward me simultaneously.
“Yes, a curse. It seems you didn’t know about it yourself.”
One corner of the expressionless man’s mouth lifted slightly.
“But even if you knew, nothing would change. You’re going to die soon anyway.”
“…They must be crazy, really.”
I let out a deep sigh.
Where I was located was inside a huge cave brightly lit with torches.
The magical beasts, no, that kid and the strange man had spouted a bunch of incomprehensible words about curses and whatnot and dragged me to this place.
Since I was dragged here with my eyes covered, I couldn’t gauge the exact location,
‘But I can tell with my eyes closed that this is the Diermant’s stronghold.’
Another deep sigh welled up. I wondered how things had gotten to this point.
Moreover, the conversation the man and child had been having.
That conversation made my head hurt even more.
‘We need to show those bastards that we humans can kill too.’
‘Let me kill them. I want revenge!’
I furrowed my brow as I recalled what the kid had said.
Looking down, I could see my arms and legs bound with rope.
They had been so thorough that they’d wrapped my body tightly with rope and tied me to a large pillar inside the cave.
‘…Escape is out of the question.’
Given that the man with teal eyes had said he would kill me, the situation was clearly not good.
“What should I do.”
I made a groaning sound and leaned my head against the cave pillar.
From my neck to my back and limbs.
There wasn’t a single place that didn’t ache. The large and small scratches on my skin were laughable in comparison.
‘I wonder if Rosette and Estelin arrived safely.’
Since Anita and I had properly drawn the magical beasts’ attention, they probably made it back to the central building safely.
‘They both received treatment, right?’
I squeezed my eyes shut as I recalled the faces of the two I’d seen before we parted.
‘Both of them looked to be in bad condition.’
Estelin had healed not only Rosette but also the fallen classmates one by one.
Even though she pretended to be fine, she probably exhausted an enormous amount of mana.
My fists clenched involuntarily.
‘Anita Solb…’
To think that she had stolen the sacred relic that I thought I’d lost while being chased by Dearmant.
I don’t know how she got her hands on my sacred relic, but
‘She definitely experimented to see if it would strengthen her abilities.’
It meant she had definitely suspected the sacred relic’s effects, my secret.
“It was just trash that was of no help to me anyway, so why would I?!”
Recalling that voice made my head ache. But there was something even more concerning.
‘Was it that obvious that I’ve been using the sacred relic for my abilities all this time?’
Anita knew everything with chilling accuracy.
‘…I thought I had hidden it thoroughly all this time.’
That alone wasn’t nearly enough.
With just a little thought, one could realize that the timing of when I obtained the sacred relic overlapped with when I became able to use abilities.
‘She probably already spilled everything about me.’
Perhaps everyone had already been told that my abilities were fake.
That wasn’t all. I was at a loss for how to find the lost sacred relic, and if I found it, how to protect it going forward.
‘If I can’t find it, Adam and Amon are…’
My mind went blank. So blank that all the strength drained from my body.
Ever since seeing those damned hallucinations, I could hardly muster any motivation.
Especially the scene of the company collapsing in my previous life. Watching that scene brought countless thoughts.
And I realized something.
‘I am not Selene.’
Right, I am not Selene.
From the beginning, my purpose in entering this body was simply to maintain a normal, long life.
“…But I got into this mess because my greed was excessive.”
The greed to enter the Academy.
The greed to punish the temple that had incited Selene to commit terrible acts in the original story.
The greed to restore Father and the noble house.
The greed to not want to repeat the same life… as my previous one.
I could feel my head cooling down.
“It’s almost like there’s someone in the noble house who knows the future.”
That’s what Anita had said. But she didn’t seem to suspect yet that I might have come from another world.
‘…I need to resolve this before everything else is revealed.’
I had to abandon any further excessive greed and clean up my surroundings.
House of Tigris had already recovered the Emperor’s trust to some extent. It meant there was no longer any worry about the family’s destruction even without my intervention.
‘At home… it would be best to leave as quietly as possible.’
I couldn’t predict how Father would react.
However, fortunately, there were many people at the manor who were close to me.
‘I’m not sure about Walter, but if I ask Anna or Ansun… I might be able to reach a conclusion that isn’t too disruptive.’
And also, Rubel is…
I bit my lip and shook my head.
‘It’s okay. He found his family now.’
Rubel was no longer alone.
Hadn’t a reliable grandfather appeared who was never revealed in the original story?
“Now, even if I’m not there beside him…”
I trailed off and let out a long breath.
Right.
There was no clearer conclusion than this.
Yet somehow my nose felt tingly.
Just as I deliberately turned my blurring vision toward the sky.
“H-here, this is where that human is?”
From far away near the cave entrance, a young voice could be heard.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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