I’m a Villain, but I Want to Live a Long Life - Chapter 200
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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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When Pector nodded his head, another group of Belmart soldiers transformed into monsters.
The grotesquely shaped monsters quickly surrounded us without leaving any gaps.
No matter how much we cut, cut, and cut again, their numbers never decreased.
Pector slowly stroked my cheek.
“I didn’t know you would want your mother back so desperately.”
“Get away from the young lady!”
Casian approached at the speed of light and pushed Pector away. However,
“Urgh…!”
As soon as he touched Pector’s body, his skin turned dark and mottled.
“Stay back! You must not touch the High Priest carelessly!”
Kopel’s urgent shout could be heard.
I stared at Pector with a hardened expression.
Unlike Casian, my cheek where Pector’s hand had touched was perfectly fine without a single wound.
“What a coveted power. To be this strong even after sleeping for eons.”
His pitch-black pupils scanned me from top to bottom.
“It’s regrettable that I have to kill you here.”
Dark energy slowly gathered in Pector’s hand.
The energy soon transformed into the shape of a pitch-black awl.
“Selene!”
The people who had turned pale rushed toward us but were knocked down by an invisible barrier.
“Now rest in eternal sleep, child of Pluma.”
Pector grinned wickedly as he raised the awl high.
Suddenly, a sound like something cutting through the air came from above.
“…!!”
Pector and I simultaneously looked up.
Something enormous was flying toward us.
A fierce wind immediately began to swirl.
Kwaagwang-!!
With a heavy explosive sound, Pector’s barrier shattered into pieces.
And,
“Krugh!”
Something covered densely with black scales struck Pector’s body.
He rolled across the ground and crashed into a pile of nearby monster corpses.
When the dusty cloud that had risen cleared, dark gray eyes were revealed in the darkness.
The vertically elongated pupils seemed to glint for a moment, then the massive beast finally landed on the ground.
One priest collapsed to the ground with a thud and muttered.
“Dr, dr…”
“…”
“It’s a dragon…!!”
The dragon’s roar as it crouched its body shook the earth.
It was a sound that seemed like it would deafen us.
Then someone took a step forward beside me.
Rubel stood there with a coldly hardened expression, staring directly at Pector.
Terrifying sword energy rippled from the great sword in his hand.
“How dare you.”
Rubel raised one hand.
Pector’s body, which had been sprawled out, was helplessly dragged over.
Rubel grabbed Pector by the throat and lifted him into the air.
The hand touching his skin burned red, but he didn’t care.
“A mere demon, with those filthy hands.”
His golden eyes rippled with rage.
“Daring to lay hands on whom.”
With a crackling sound, demonic energy sparked from Rubel’s hand.
The blood vessels that had sprouted on Pector’s body instantly swelled up.
“Kugh. Cough…!”
Pitch-black chunks came gushing out of his mouth.
Pector’s gaze trembled violently.
“How, how is this possible.”
“…”
“The body my master gave me, to mere human demonic energy…!”
Pector frantically looked around.
The black patterns carved on his body instantly darkened.
The movements of the surrounding monsters became more agile.
“Kyaaaak!”
That wasn’t all.
Even the monsters that had already died and fallen to the ground seemed to recover their strength and rose from their positions.
“The monsters-!!”
The soldiers became busy.
Soon one monster with amplified aggression charged toward us.
“Kieek-!”
However, another monster nearby blocked its path.
Pector’s pupils stiffened with a start.
“How is this happening…”
Taking that as a signal, countless monsters began pouring out from the nearby thicket.
From small undead monsters to skeletons, and even ogres.
“Did you think only you could use such power?”
Rubel pressed Pector down to the ground with his hand rippling with demonic energy.
“How can a mere human possibly…!”
“Your tongue is too long.”
Kwaagwang-!!
The wave of magical power emanating from Rubel’s body pressed Pector’s body down to the ground.
Sensing danger, the monsters charged at us.
However, they couldn’t get far before having their throats torn out by other monsters.
The Belmart soldiers’ faces turned pale.
Paul’s urgent shout could be heard.
“Pr-protect His Holiness! Keep that bastard away!”
The Belmart soldiers began charging toward us hesitantly.
Among them were several who had become monsters, those who had once been human.
“Charge-!!”
“Rescue His Holiness!!”
At that moment, hot wind whooshed overhead.
If not for Rubel’s barrier, it would have been intense heat that could have melted our entire bodies.
The Belmart legion, which had no barrier, took the direct hit of that heat.
“Aaaaak-!!”
Terrible screams erupted from the front.
The Belmart soldiers and monsters were suffering while engulfed in flames.
“Don’t be mistaken.”
Rubel looked directly into the eyes of the immobilized Pector.
“You’re not the only one chosen by a transcendent being.”
The magical beasts from the rift crumbled to ash and disappeared under the dragon’s strike.
The Belmart army was as good as annihilated, and Pector, subdued by Rubel, was bound by chains of holy power and could no longer use his abilities.
Everything was Rubel’s doing.
However,
“Your Grace, please….”
Walter sobbed.
The curse that had pierced through Father’s chest showed no signs of improvement.
Mother was the same.
Though she was no longer under Pector’s control, she had no consciousness and simply sat there like a doll.
“…I missed Mother.”
Rubel, who was beside me, looked at me.
“Especially after my memories returned… after I began to think that Mother might still be alive….”
“….”
“Every single day, I missed her so much I thought I might die.”
My eyes grew heavy again.
I could taste the metallic flavor of blood from my tightly bitten lips.
“Father was the same.”
“….”
“Searching all of Sorad, frantically reinvestigating the attack on the castle….”
My head slowly dropped down.
“To meet the people I longed for so much after 12 years, only to face this situation.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks, falling drop by drop.
Then Rubel’s warm hand covered my eyes.
“Selene.”
At his gentle voice, I weakly raised my head.
Rubel said.
“Next to the Imperial Palace, there’s a chapel on the 1st floor basement of the annex.”
“….”
“It’s a place equipped with a holy water stand, temporary altar, and even divine stones.”
I looked at Rubel with trembling eyes.
“Selene, you succeeded in the ritual to awaken Fluma’s power. Yet you still can’t use that power now.”
“….”
“What do you think is the reason?”
I slowly closed my mouth.
As Rubel said, I had succeeded in the ritual.
As Amicus had said, a pillar of light opened in the sky, and I could feel the holy power filling my body.
But whenever I tried to draw it out, my body ached as if it would tear apart and became unstable.
At first, I thought it was because my body couldn’t handle the ability.
But as time passed, something felt strange.
This wasn’t simply my body being unable to handle Fluma’s power.
The pain that came whenever I tried to use the ability was like some kind of prohibition….
I startled. Then muttered quietly.
“…Prater.”
“….”
“Prater is blocking it.”
I was certain.
The conversation I had with Amicus while preparing for the ritual came back vividly.
“Prater is incomplete. He couldn’t completely destroy Lord Fluma at the final moment.”
“Incomplete?”
“Yes. Prater’s power can never reach you.”
In the final battle I witnessed, humans were divided into two factions.
Those who betrayed Fluma and turned to Prater, and those who did not.
Prater could exercise absolute power over the priests and humans who had sided with him.
“For instance, planting specific desires in their hearts, or speaking to them.”
However, even such a Prater had things he couldn’t touch carelessly.
“Dias and Saira who fought for Fluma, the other priests. And you, who was in Saira’s womb.”
“….”
“Prater cannot manipulate them at will. Especially you, who would become Lord Fluma’s vessel, he can never track. That’s why you’re still alive.”
Amicus was right.
If Prater had known that I was the body meant to house Fluma, he would have eliminated me long ago.
But Prater, the temple, did not do so.
Though they were hostile toward me, it was for entirely different reasons.
‘The situation became complicated when the Empress and the Belmart family got involved.’
Grace tried to eliminate me, Lady Tigris, to elevate her own and her family’s power.
The temple naturally became hostile toward me while serving as her tool.
They probably didn’t know that I was the vessel meant to house Fluma.
At least not at first.
I slowly raised my head.
Now I thought I knew what I had to do.
“What did you just say?”
Duke Belmart’s angry voice echoed through the chapel.
“I said it would be difficult to provide military support.”
It was Marquis Bon, who usually couldn’t even make eye contact with Duke Belmart.
“Our family is the same. We apologize, but we currently don’t have the capacity.”
“We too would find military support difficult.”
Duke Belmart’s eyebrows rose higher and higher.
“Look here. Do you lords know what you’re saying right now?”
“….”
“You’re saying you’ll just stand by and watch the traitors who devoured this empire!”
Duke Belmart continued angrily.
“Those wicked scoundrels kidnapped His Majesty! The Empress is imprisoned, and the Prince’s whereabouts are unknown!”
“….”
“Yet you so shamelessly say you won’t provide military support?!”
Just as everyone held their breath at his furious roar.
“You said traitors who devoured this empire?”
Duke Layard, who had been listening to the shouting with an expressionless face, opened his mouth.
Fine wrinkles were etched between his brows.
Duke Belmart looked at him with suspicious eyes.
With a thud, Duke Layard placed something on the table.
It was an official document stamped with the Tigris family crest.
The name ‘Jane Tibon’ gleamed clearly in the sender’s space.
Duke Layard said.
“Then I would like to ask.”
“….”
“Twelve years ago, you colluded with the Temple to elevate Grace Belmart to Empress.”
“….”
“For that purpose, you harmed the Former Emperor and Former Empress, disguising their deaths as illness and suicide respectively.”
“….”
“Was that not treason?”
Duke Belmart’s eyes trembled slightly.
His gaze slowly moved to the official documents on the table.
The sources of various evidence and testimonies were from the Imperial Palace. Oscar had gathered them.
Jane had handled the drafting of the official documents.
The delivery was handled by Anna and Peony, along with other servants of Tigris.
The sharp gazes of the nobles poured down upon Duke Belmart.
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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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