I’m a Villain, but I Want to Live a Long Life - Chapter 177

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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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Planting dreams.

That was Hemera’s ability.

Since it was a special ability that severely depleted mana, she didn’t use it often, but she could manipulate dreams.

“With your ability?”

“Yes. If Sharlina plants the future you saw into Selene’s dreams.”

The ability that would later brainwash Selene was incredibly powerful.

So to break it, an equally intense shock was needed.

“It was a terrible future. If she sees it in a dream, the shock will surely be great. Maybe she’ll come to her senses.”

It was a newly opened possibility.

Sharlina’s eyes grew distant once again.

Hemera and Kione watched Sharlina with serious eyes. Soon Sharlina regained focus and spoke.

“Yes. As you said, she would be able to come to her senses. But… *cough*!”

Suddenly she covered her mouth with her hand.

Red blood trickled down through the gaps between her fingers.

Kione hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and approached Sharlina.

Hemera silently clenched her fists tight.

The last time they gathered here, Sharlina had also coughed up blood at the end.

It was a side effect that appeared when peering into the future too much.

Kione shook her head and spoke in a trembling voice.

“…Hemera. I don’t think we can continue anymore.”

“…”

“It’s too much strain on Sharlina.”

Hemera bit her lips tightly.

She knew it too.

That peering into vast amounts of future would strain Sharlina’s body.

But even knowing this, it felt like her insides were burning because this was all they could rely on.

Then Sharlina shook her head.

“I’m fine. I’m going to die anyway. There isn’t much time left.”

“Sharlina…”

“I’ve resented this ability my whole life, saying I didn’t need foresight. At least now I can use it to my heart’s content.”

She wiped the blood from her lips and smiled faintly.

“If I can save the children, just the children, this little bit of blood is nothing.”

Hemera silently closed her mouth. Sharlina looked up at her.

“Hemera, you’re right. If we show her the future, Selene will awaken. But there’s a problem.”

“…”

“That child who comes to her senses will be gripped by extreme fear. She might live an even more ruined life than before being brainwashed. Despair will hold her back.”

Hemera’s expression gradually hardened.

She could understand exactly what Sharlina’s words meant.

Living according to someone else’s will while brainwashed, then one day waking up to find your predetermined future is death.

“Besides… by then, she’ll have already lost you.”

The reason Selene had been helplessly susceptible to brainwashing in the first place was

because that child’s mental state was terribly unstable after losing her mother, Hemera.

Aleon couldn’t comfort that child. He wasn’t in his right mind either.

Hemera reflected once more on the future she had heard from Sharlina.

After she died, Aleon couldn’t take care of Selene to the end.

He ultimately failed to open that child’s firmly closed heart.

‘That can’t happen.’

After she leaves, he should at least steel his mind and protect the child…

Of course, she didn’t blame Aleon entirely.

Hemera knew. How deeply he loved her.

Aleon was someone who had risen to the ducal position covered in his own father’s blood.

After that, he lived deflecting countless blades of death aimed at himself.

A person who precariously walked a tightrope over the blazing fires of hell.

‘You are my everything. I wouldn’t trade you for anything in the world.’

When that man of few words and blunt manner whispered love, her heart felt like it would burst from overwhelming emotion.

She was her husband’s only sanctuary.

‘Promise me, Hemera. That you’ll stay by my side forever. That you won’t leave.’

She had promised him. But in the end, she couldn’t keep that promise.

As a result, Aleon had collapsed.

Hemera raised her head.

“…Yes. Simply showing her the future isn’t enough. Even if we can break the brainwashing, it won’t give her the strength to live again.”

Sharlina nodded.

“Most importantly, she needs the will to live again. So…”

Hemera fell deep in thought.

She needed to find a way, how to do it.

“A way to make her feel again… that life is precious.”

Then.

A very small light appeared in Kione’s eyes, who had been silent all along.

“Come to think of it, I…”

“…”

“My past life was the driving force of this life.”

Hemera and Sharlina looked at Kione.

“The memories from my previous life, from when I lived in another world, made this life precious…”

“…”

“I told you before, didn’t I? That my dream is to live here for a long time, happily.”

“…Yes.”

“The reason I was so desperate was because of my previous life. When I first came here… I was truly happy.”

Silence continued.

Hemera’s voice echoed through the long stillness.

“You’re certain that we can prevent the tragedy if we just break Selene’s brainwashing, right Sharlina?”

Sharlina nodded.

She hadn’t seen a specific future because she couldn’t establish precise assumptions.

But when she imagined Selene breaking free from brainwashing and regaining the will to live,

She could glimpse brightly smiling faces.

Selene, Estelin and Eria, and even Rubel whom she loved dearly.

Hemera spoke.

“Then let’s do this. Plant Kione’s past life into Selene’s dreams.”

As if thinking the same thing, Kione also nodded.

“With that method, we should be able to show the child the future too…”

“If she knows the future, she’ll live differently. Foreseeing and preparing for the dangers ahead.”

The three women looked at each other.

Time passed quickly.

Days that were no different, yet strangely filled with tension, continued in succession.

Meanwhile, the Empire that had lost its throne shook restlessly.

The nobles split into dozens of factions, and shouting matches broke out in the assembly hall almost daily.

During this time, Empress Charlotte Irina passed away.

The cause of death was suicide.

As soon as the funeral ended, Hemera and Kione met again, avoiding prying eyes.

“I really thought it was a useless ability.”

Kione laughed with a voice hoarse from crying.

A faint light was seeping from her hand clasped with Hemera’s.

“I’ve never used it except when putting the kids to sleep. An ability to show desired scenes to others…”

“Haven’t you ever used it on Calypso?”

Kione lifted her gaze to look at Hemera. Then she let out a hollow laugh.

“…I won’t tell you.”

Kione’s ability was ‘transmission’.

Whether memories or imagination, the scenes she drew in her mind were transmitted directly to others.

Hemera, who had been watching her, replied in a choked voice.

“…But funny thing is, it’s the same for me. When I was at the Academy, I only made kids I disliked have nightmares.”

“And you’ve never used it on Aleon?”

“I won’t tell you either.”

This time Hemera smiled softly. Both their eyes were completely swollen.

“Sharlina asked us to… take good care of Rubel.”

Those were the words Sharlina had said when they last met here.

‘Please. So that a future where Rubel can be happy will come… I’ll leave the rest to you.’

She had peered into the future until her body was completely battered, imagining dozens, hundreds of possibilities.

That image of her smiling weakly with a pale face was clearly etched in both their minds.

“Since Sharlina entrusted it to us and left… we must succeed, Hemera.”

Light slowly spread around Kione as she spoke.

Hemera felt Kione’s memories flooding into her mind like a tide.

Kione had always spoken jokingly about remembering her past life.

When asked specifically, she rarely answered,

so she had always been curious about what kind of life she had lived before.

Hemera’s expression changed moment by moment as she absorbed the memories.

“You said it was difficult.”

Her grip on their clasped hands tightened slightly.

“…You really lived such a difficult, earnest life.”

Kione was born under a father with a trivial ability and a mother who was a non-manifester.

She came from a humble provincial baron family.

Her life was never smooth.

But she was exceptionally intelligent and had more abundant magical power than others.

So she was able to enter the Academy, where she met Hemera, Calypso, and Aleon.

“I always wondered how you could be so cheerful all the time.”

Tears faintly welled up in Hemera’s eyes.

After graduating from the Academy, the looks Kione received when she came to the capital were not kind.

After her wedding ceremony with Calypso, who was Count Laurent, even more malicious rumors spread.

Rumors that she was a cunning woman who had ensnared the naive young count to reverse her fortune.

However, Kione was always steadfast.

She casually brushed off people who pretended to accidentally spill wine on her dress and never lost her spirit.

“Such things are nothing. Compared to my previous life, they’re laughably trivial.”

Back then, she hadn’t understood what those words truly meant.

The memories of Kione that Hemera absorbed were a continuous series of enduring, persevering, and resisting life.

Kione spoke with a calm smile.

“Hemera. Do you know? People who have lived hard lives have a tenacious will to live.”

“…”

“Those who have lost everything can’t help but know the preciousness of what they have.”

Their eyes quietly met.

“So Hemera. My life that you’ll plant in Selene… it might be a nightmare for that child.”

“…”

“But it’s okay. It will be a nightmare that will lift that child back up.”

“…”

“After enduring all of that, she’ll surely want to live again like me. For a long, long time, ordinary and happy.”

Hemera nodded.

Not long after, Kione passed away from illness.

The sudden illness rapidly worsened and ultimately took Kione’s life.

Hemera maintained a calm expression throughout the funeral.

Sharlina’s foresight.

The memories Kione had passed on.

The future to be changed with those two things was now within reach.

“…Aleon, remember this.”

On the way back from the funeral, she said.

Aleon, who was firmly holding her hand, turned his head.

“No matter what happens, you at least must not crumble.”

Hemera swallowed the words she couldn’t say and barely managed to add.

“It’s to protect Selene.”

I opened my eyes.

Turning my head with my trembling body, I saw the profile of someone leaning against a small makeshift chair beside the bed.

“Father…”

As soon as I confirmed that face, my breathing became uncontrollably rapid.

Hot tears poured down both my cheeks.

Father’s eyelids, which had been closed as if asleep, slowly opened.

I felt his red eyes slowly turning toward me.

“Selene!”

Soon Father caught and supported me as I staggered down from the bed.

I opened my lips while trembling.

“I… I, I…”

“Selene…?”

When I couldn’t control my body and collapsed to the floor, Father hurriedly knelt down to meet my gaze.

I began to cry loudly.

Because I couldn’t look directly at the face of Duke Aleon Tigris, no, our dad.

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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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