I’m a Villain, but I Want to Live a Long Life - Chapter 33

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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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“…Ugh.”

Casian opened his eyes with a low groan.

As his vision cleared, the unfamiliar surroundings came into view.

A fire was blazing brightly in the fireplace beneath a ceiling made of thick logs.

Casian turned his head with a confused expression and unconsciously bit his lips tightly.

He felt a sharp pain in his thigh.

“Casian!”

At that moment, someone approached him with a tearful voice.

Selene, wearing a loose robe that seemed too big for her shoulders, was looking down at him with tears welling up in her eyes.

“Casian, are you coming to your senses?!”

“Ah… Miss?”

Casian, suddenly remembering what happened before he collapsed, was startled and tried to sit up.

However, someone pressed firmly on his chest to prevent him from getting up, causing him to fall back down weakly.

A strange man was looking down at him.

“You are…”

It was when Casian’s face hardened with wariness.

“How can you press down on a patient so hard!”

“…It’s better than having his wound tear open from getting up recklessly.”

“Still! This is the person who saved my life. I’d like you to treat him preciously.”

When Selene scolded with a deliberately stern voice, the man reluctantly nodded.

Casian looked back and forth between the two with narrowed eyes. Then he soon made an ‘Ah!’ sound.

“So this is that friend of yours!”

At those words, the man’s gaze slowly turned toward Selene.

Selene glanced at him with a somewhat embarrassed expression, then cleared her throat and nodded.

“Uh… yes, that’s right. We, we met by chance in the forest…”

“By chance in the Cursed Land?”

Casian, who had been looking puzzled, soon smiled brightly and nodded.

“Indeed, what an incredible coincidence! Meeting a friend by chance in the Cursed Land. I’ve never heard such a story before.”

Selene stared at him as if dumbfounded. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she slapped Casian’s shoulder.

“Ugh…”

Casian let out a low groan due to the wound where Selene had hit him.

But Selene, seemingly unaware of this, only looked at Casian with resentful eyes.

“Casian. Why didn’t you listen to me back then and foolishly fought the monster? You almost died, you know?!”

“But, but I couldn’t abandon you and leave, Miss. As I told you then, if I had done that…”

Casian’s face turned pale, imagining who knows what.

“I might have met an even more terrible end than being killed by a demon…”

“Even so! It was fortunate that we met Ru… I mean Tatio, otherwise we would have definitely become monster food!”

Selene said while gesturing toward the black-haired man beside her. Casian turned his gaze to him with a deliberately puzzled look.

“This person helped us?”

Selene nodded.

“That’s right. Fortunately, his ability is animal taming.”

“Taming…?”

“…Yes. Though I didn’t know that demons were included among animals.”

“What?!”

Casian looked at the man before him with wide eyes.

“That, that’s what the first Emperor possessed…”

The man gazed at him indifferently with golden eyes.

“Right, it’s the same thing. Though it’s not quite a great ability yet.”

Casian muttered with a dumbfounded expression.

“I, I heard it’s an extremely rare ability. To think that Miss’s friend would possess it… This, this is also an incredible coincidence…”

Selene, who had been looking down at Casian with frustration, let out a deep sigh.

“That’s not what’s important right now. Casian has a hole in his thigh.”

“Ah…”

Only then did he become aware of the pain he felt in his leg and frowned.

Selene held his hand tightly with a worried face and said.

“Dawn will break soon. Then let’s leave the forest together and go to the village. I think we need to find a doctor…”

Her expression gradually darkened.

“Whether there’s a doctor who can use healing abilities in this rural village…”

Then Casian, who had been listening, spoke with bright eyes.

“Ah, don’t worry about that! There’s a healing potion that Lord Ansun left at the inn! I received a bottle just in case.”

Selene’s expression brightened noticeably.

“Really? But will that be enough to heal it? The wound is deeper than I thought…”

“Before becoming an elite soldier, I saw someone’s half-mangled arm reattach after drinking that medicine. It should probably be fine!”

Selene’s complexion, which had shown surprise with wide eyes, gradually brightened.

She quietly muttered.

“…As expected, it really is useful.”

“Pardon?”

Selene quickly erased her expression and shrugged.

“It’s nothing. For now, Casian, get some more sleep. There’s still time left until dawn.”

Casian looked at Selene with a confused face.

But when she covered him with a thick blanket up to his neck, he soon fell into a deep sleep as if fainting.

Under the bluish dawn sky, Rubel, who had been walking quietly, muttered.

“You said you came to help me.”

They were on their way to the village as soon as day broke.

Selene asked from behind.

“…Is he that heavy?”

“Well, why don’t you try carrying him once.”

On Rubel’s back, who smiled slightly, Casian was sleeping while hanging limply as if unconscious.

He was even breathing evenly and comfortably, as if his position was quite comfortable.

Selene, who had been watching that sight for a while, quietly shook her head.

“I, I really want to take turns carrying him, but if I carry him, Casian’s legs would probably drag on the ground, so I’ll pass.”

The corners of Rubel’s mouth rose faintly.

“It’s not simply because you don’t want to carry him, right?”

Selene cleared her throat unnecessarily and shook her head.

“Of course not!”

And then quickly added.

“I, I’ll repay you a hundred times, no, a thousand times later for the trouble you went through because of me and Casian today. I may not look it, but I absolutely repay my debts.”

Her voice was so resolute that Rubel finally couldn’t hold back and let out a small laugh.

He looked back at Selene with the corners of his eyes curved and muttered as if he couldn’t help it.

“I really don’t know whether you’re smart or stupid.”

“What?”

“Think about it. You’re not in a position to ask favors of me.”

Selene’s eyes widened. Rubel’s face still held a gentle smile.

“Because you’re holding my weakness.”

At the quiet voice that followed, Selene’s eyes widened in surprise. Her mouth slowly opened.

Breaking through the silence, Selene spoke.

“…Wow, I’m not that much of a thug.”

“Thug?”

Selene nodded. Her face showed an expression that looked utterly wronged.

“Using someone’s weakness for blackmail—that’s exactly the kind of thing I hate. Oh, of course there are moments when such methods are necessary. But would I really do that to you? What exactly do you take me for…”

“…”

“Wait. Have I seemed like that kind of person all this time?”

Selene asked back with a serious expression.

Rubel looked at her, then quietly turned his gaze forward. He felt like he might burst into laughter again.

He pressed down the corners of his mouth that were trying to rise and answered in a stifled voice.

“…No, it’s not like that.”

But Selene strode ahead to overtake him and asked urgently.

“Your expression says otherwise though?”

Finally, the corners of Rubel’s mouth crumbled.

“Really. You said you came to help me. I believe those words. That’s why I followed you.”

However, he soon added in a slightly bitter voice.

“And it seemed like it wouldn’t be too bad to receive someone’s help for once.”

Selene, noticing that subtle change in expression, closed her mouth. Then after a few seconds, she carefully spoke up.

“I have something I’m curious about.”

“Tell me.”

“…The name Tatio—did you choose it yourself?”

Rubel silently shook his head.

“No, Mother gave it to me.”

His eyes slowly sank as he answered. He remembered the moment he received the name ‘Tatio.’

The night after Father passed away and they had barely finished the funeral.

It was a day when a sudden storm brought harsh rain and thunder crashing down from the sky.

That day, Mother fastened his collar tightly with a sad face he had never seen before and said:

‘Rubel, from now on your name is Tatio. It means hope… my beloved son.’

That voice was extremely calm and serious. So Rubel knew he had to leave.

No, it would be more accurate to say he knew he had no choice but to do so.

He left the Imperial Palace as if being pushed out. After barely escaping the Empire, he rode for a very long time.

When he was too exhausted to continue the journey, he would stop somewhere and spend a few days, then set off again at dawn to travel for hours—this life continued repeatedly.

After riding for days and nights like this, when he arrived in Plau, the person Mother had sent with him left him behind and departed.

From then on, he was completely alone.

For the first few months, he could barely sustain his life by begging in the back alleys of the market.

Time passed slowly, and just when he had managed to secure a place to stay with the help of the village people.

News came from the Empire that felt like the world was collapsing.

It was news that Mother had also followed Father and left this world.

‘Have you heard that story? It seems the country is about to fall.’

‘I heard. The Empress has passed away, but there’s not a single person to hold the funeral…’

‘Is the Prince’s whereabouts still unknown?’

‘Prince, what! Don’t say such things. Don’t you know that a bloody wind is already blowing in the Empire over a new emperor?’

Listening to the merchants’ whispered conversations, Rubel thought.

If he had known things would turn out that way.

If he had known he would never see Mother again.

…He wouldn’t have left.

He would have somehow stayed in the Imperial Palace, by Mother’s side.

That night when he left Mother behind became his regret.

A tremendously deep regret.

But he didn’t even have enough time to grieve properly.

He had to survive on his own somehow.

Prince Rubel Albertine was dead, and there was no place to return to.

So after his abilities manifested, he began going in and out of the Cursed Land.

That place, dangerous to others, was the safest for Rubel.

The land where people’s footsteps had ceased was fertile, and he monopolized the resources of that forsaken land.

Consciously trying not to recall the past he had left behind in the Empire, he had maintained his livelihood that way.

‘…It’s already been 10 years.’

His gaze turned toward Selene, who was following behind him.

‘So suddenly like this.’

Rubel Albertine.

It was a name that had become so faded that he had completely forgotten it and lived without it at some point.

Rubel recalled the image of Selene standing in front of the inn in the middle of the market, her long hair flowing in the wind, and furrowed his brow.

Among all those people, strangely that bright blonde hair had caught his eye. It had been unusually difficult to look away from their meeting gaze.

As if he had known in advance that this would happen.

Rubel withdrew his gaze that had been directed toward her. And he shook his head to dispel the thoughts that were stirring in his mind.

But at that moment, a bright and cheerful voice came from behind. Exactly the same as he had heard during the day.

“Then I’ll only call you Rubel when we’re alone together. It’s such a pretty name, it would be a waste.”

Selene smiled warmly, the corners of her eyes crinkling.

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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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