I’m a Villain, but I Want to Live a Long Life - Chapter 130

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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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“…None.”

Aleon muttered lowly. At the same time as those words, Walter urgently turned his head and asked Rosette.

“Lady Grimaldi. Are you certain this is the place?”

Rosette, who was being supported by a medic, nodded with a pale face.

“This is definitely the right place. Selene said she would come back here after shaking off the Dearmant…”

She lifted her trembling gaze and looked around.

The classmates who had been collapsed on the ground were being loaded onto stretchers one by one.

It was thanks to her bringing people at just the right timing.

“Since Anita isn’t here either, maybe they’re still being chased by the Dearmant?”

Estelin asked worriedly. Rosette shook her head.

“Selene had a tracking magic device with her. If she had been moving while continuously tracking our location, she should have arrived by now.”

“But all the magic devices installed by the Academy have stopped working too. Maybe the magic device Selene was carrying is also unusable.”

“If that’s the case, then it would be fortunate, but…”

Rosette trailed off while coughing lightly. Blood was still seeping from her mouth.

Aleon, who had been glaring into the darkness with a cold face, turned around and asked a nearby knight.

“Haven’t you found any traces of the magical beasts yet?”

At those words, Gaspard, the captain of Duke Haren’s royal guard, stepped forward.

“Not yet. As if they’re determined, not a single one is showing itself…”

“Find them anyway.”

Gaspard flinched and raised his head.

The eyes of Aleon Tigris, called the Empire’s killer, glowed fiercely right in front of him.

“By any means necessary. Without fail.”

Gaspard’s complexion darkened at the voice that seemed to contain tightly suppressed anger.

He immediately bowed his head, then turned around and shouted to the army arranged in four rows.

“Everyone search this area thoroughly! Search every jurisdiction without exception and you must find Lady Tigris…!”

He suddenly stopped speaking as he was giving orders like a vow.

It was because he felt a presence from the opposite forest shrouded entirely in darkness.

Narrowing his eyes, he could see someone staggering toward them.

“Ah, Anita?!”

Estelin, who recognized her first, rushed forward.

At the same time, Anita, who had been limping out from between the trees on the opposite side, collapsed to the ground.

Aleon’s eyes widened. The others were the same.

“Se, Selene? Where is Selene? You left her somewhere and came alone…!”

Estelin’s urgent voice echoed through the forest.

But Anita didn’t answer.

She only trembled with a deathly pale face and muttered quietly.

“I, I don’t know…”

Estelin’s face was covered with shock.

“What? You don’t know? What do you mean…?”

Anita’s frightened eyes slowly swept around the area.

Thanks to the torches the soldiers were holding, their surroundings were bright.

Indeed, this place was safe. There were no damn magical beasts, and also…

She finally spotted Hanod lying on a stretcher covered with a thick blanket.

Soon her face filled with relief.

Estelin, who had rushed over urgently, roughly shook Anita’s shoulders.

“Anita! Answer me, where is Selene…!”

“I said I don’t know! Lady Selene ran away!”

Estelin froze with wide eyes. A cold silence descended around them.

“Selene ran away?”

Suddenly Anita made a ‘gasp’ sound and lowered her head. Then she bit her lips as if troubled.

Soon tears began flowing down her cheeks.

“Everyone… I’m sorry to everyone. I was stupid. I shouldn’t have said such things to Lady Selene…”

“Such things? What exactly…!”

“Actually, it seemed like Lady Selene was lying to people…”

As Anita hung her head low, Aleon strode over.

His face was expressionless but clearly filled with tension.

He lowered himself to look directly at Anita.

“Lying.”

Anita gulped.

“There’s no time, so answer quickly. What lies did my daughter tell, and where did she run to?”

“Th, that’s…”

Anita, who had been frozen, moved her lips several times, then squeezed her eyes shut and spoke.

“Se, Lady Selene wasn’t qualified to take the Rishion entrance exam! Because she was unmanifested!”

People’s faces turned to shock. Anita looked at each of them.

“Bu, but she had been pretending to be manifested and deceiving everyone all this time. While we were alone in the forest, I accidentally noticed that fact…”

“…”

“When I brought it up, she suddenly ran away somewhere without saying a word, sob…”

The life gradually drained from Aleon’s face.

“I, I’m sorry… sob, I tried to comfort her saying it would be okay if she just told the truth, but it was completely useless…”

Anita hung her head low with a sad expression.

“Lady Solv, are you lying in front of His Grace right now?”

Then Walter, who had been standing next to Aleon, stepped forward and spoke. His voice was slightly trembling with anger.

Anita raised her head. Walter continued as if dumbfounded.

“Lady Selene manifested her protective abilities long ago! It’s a fact everyone knows, so what nonsense are you suddenly…!”

“What if that was also deceiving everyone?”

Anita, who had been cowering, cried out miserably. Then she sobbed and said.

“Isn’t it strange…? A young lady who couldn’t manifest any abilities until she was seventeen suddenly became able to handle numerous abilities!”

“…”

“Sob, I didn’t want to believe it either! How much must I have agonized dozens of times about whether to just hide Lady Selene’s secret even after knowing it!”

Rosette and Estelin’s faces stiffened. Anita weakly touched the ground as if about to collapse.

“But… but Rishion Academy is that kind of place. Only those who are more honest and sincere than anyone can enter!”

“…”

“If I turned a blind eye to Lady Selene’s secret, I was afraid it might become an act of mocking Rishion…”

Walter closed his mouth with a greatly shocked face.

“Still, if I had known Lady Selene would run away like that, I should have just turned a blind eye… It’s all my fault! Sob, I’m sorry, really…”

“…Stop crying.”

Inside the huge barracks.

Rosette, who was leaning against a pile of luggage, muttered.

“Estelin.”

Only then did Estelin raise her head. The area under her eyes was dyed bright red.

“Like this… what if we can’t find Selene?”

Rosette frowned and turned her gaze toward the half-open barracks entrance.

She could see Anita receiving first aid from a medic in front of the campfire.

“Do you believe what she’s saying?”

At the whispered voice, Estelin raised her head that had been hanging low.

“…Believe?”

“Do you believe that Selene ran away?”

“Ah…”

Estelin closed her mouth blankly. Then after maintaining silence for a moment, she answered in a crawling voice.

“If, if… what Anita said is all true…”

“The story that Selene’s ability might be fake?”

Estelin hesitated and looked at Rosette. Rosette sighed and opened her mouth.

“Whether it’s fake or real, it doesn’t really matter.”

Estelin’s eyes widened.

For the past few months, Rosette had been more serious about ability training than anyone else.

She always admired strong and high-level abilities. She was someone who constantly worked to reach such heights herself.

In fact, she was among those who developed their abilities remarkably fast compared to her peers.

Yet from her mouth came the words ‘whether the ability is real or fake doesn’t matter.’

While Estelin couldn’t respond, Rosette turned her head that had been facing outside the barracks.

“I just can’t believe it. Do you know what Selene said to me before?”

Estelin held her breath.

“…Ahem, it’s a bit embarrassing to say.”

“…”

“Before I developed my ability this much, there was a time when I couldn’t think straight because of pointless impatience, you know?”

Estelin blinked blankly.

“She told me not to live so tiredly. She said that even if you obsess over abilities, nothing remains when you die anyway.”

Having finished speaking, Rosette stood up from her seat with a serious expression.

Seeing her stagger, Estelin quickly approached and supported Rosette.

The two gazed outside the barracks together. Rosette muttered as if whispering.

“Would someone like that run away just because her ability is fake or whatever? Give up on the exam and everything?”

“Rose…”

Rosette looked straight at Estelin. And she spoke with a voice full of conviction.

“You know what kind of person she is too. Selene definitely said she would come back. She was overflowing with the will to escape from here.”

And then she added.

“She might be a bit stubborn… but she’s not someone you can’t trust.”

A moment of silence followed. Estelin slowly nodded her head.

“You’re right. Rather, it was Anita who kept causing a commotion and hindering our escape.”

“Exactly! That’s why I can’t believe it.”

They turned their gaze to stare at Anita again.

Anita was still sitting in front of the campfire outside the barracks, drinking warm tea and warming her frozen body.

For someone who had left a person behind, she looked quite pleased.

“No matter how I think about it. It seems like she’s lying after leaving Selene somewhere.”

“Then is the story about Selene’s ability being fake also made up?”

“Ah, that’s a different story.”

“Different?”

Rosette quietly touched her lips.

“Selene’s ability is probably fake. No, calling it fake is a bit ambiguous.”

“What do you mean…?”

“Earlier in the forest when we were confronting the magical beast. You saw Selene’s expression too, right?”

Estelin, who had been frowning, made an ‘ah’ sound and raised her head.

“I saw it. She suddenly seemed very flustered when her mana was depleted. She kept looking around searching for something…”

Estelin gasped and trailed off. Rosette nodded.

“Right. It wasn’t mana depletion, Selene lost something in the forest. From what I could see, it looked like a necklace. You know, the one she always wears.”

“Then…”

“At first, I didn’t think much of it either. Since it’s such a strong ability, I thought maybe she had mana depletion. But the more I recall her expression, the stranger it seems. Her reaction was too extreme for just losing a necklace.”

Estelin closed her mouth blankly. Now that she heard it, Rosette’s words seemed really right.

The necklace that Selene always wore. That expression of extreme panic when the necklace disappeared.

“Also, if you think about it, the mana depletion came right after she lost that necklace.”

Rosette glanced outside the barracks and whispered very quietly.

“Maybe it wasn’t mana depletion at all. That necklace was just the secret to how she used her ability all this time.”

“…”

“That’s why she panicked so much when that necklace was gone, for sure.”

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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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