I’m Sick of the Kind Protagonist, so I Might as Well Just Die - Chapter 39
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#39
The tip of the finger one uses when cursing—that’s what I am.
As I settled into my position with considerable satisfaction, Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike’s voice reached my ears once more.
“Either the Professor gets thoroughly beaten by the Ancient Gods and returns to forcibly terminate this world, or you unearth some truth so unimaginable that this world itself spits you out… From what I can see, those are our only two paths to escape this world.”
“Since we’re already here, we might as well practice evading curses. This world has no purpose or substance anyway.”
Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis offered the suggestion cautiously. I nodded and asked.
“Fine. Then tell me about your roles first. I have no memory of what I am. Do you know what parts you play?”
“Our roles have been consistent from the beginning. He’s the Grand Duke who usurped the throne.”
Bilateia pointed at Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis and answered bluntly. Indeed, his face was perfectly suited for a traitor or usurper. She then lifted her chin and adorned herself with grandiose titles.
“I’m a princess from a neighboring Kingdom staying in the Imperial Palace to aid Leonas’s rebellion and become the Empress of the new Empire.”
“But why do I have no information except the setting ‘ordinary extra maiden’?”
At my murmur, both Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis and Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike fixed me with an odd gleam in their eyes.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Just now… information was input.”
“What? Did Perenustus come back?”
Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis, who had been rolling his eyes without answering, let out a small cough before speaking.
“You are….”
“The last collateral imperial bloodline of this Empire, whom this lecherous Grand Duke became infatuated with at first sight and brought here practically by abduction, keeping you confined.”
“…What?”
I scrunched my face in displeasure. Finding my expression amusing, Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike giggled mischievously.
“I mean, since it’s just us… why are the settings in both this world and that world like this? Why do princesses and noble daughters always have to flee, be confined, and be forced into marriage? Why does he always strut around committing serious crimes like they’re something admirable?”
Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis nodded with genuine sincerity, agreeing with my grievance. Indeed, for an aspiring hero whose hobby was studying, shuttling between the roles of criminal and would-be criminal couldn’t be pleasant. But Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike nudged his ribs and rolled her eyes at him.
“Hey! Don’t you start nodding along with her too! You’re the top student—don’t get dragged into this!”
“…Oh.”
Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis, embarrassed, wiped his face and silently guided us out of the Dark Space. I followed at his heels and began teasing the two of them.
“You two are hilarious. The last time things got rough, I saw you both completely devoted to each other, so proud of it. And now you’re using me as an excuse?”
Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike’s face flushed crimson.
“Loving Leo— Ow!”
The moment I recited the very words I’d been itching to tease her with, Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike struck my forearm with all her might. The sharp blow made my body stagger. It seemed this current body was even more fragile than Estella’s.
As I lost my balance and stumbled, my foot crossed the boundary of the Dark Space.
“Wh—what?”
My wavering body fell straight to the ground. Onto a jagged stone jutting upward.
Crack.
My head struck the stone with a sharp, explosive sound, and sparks burst across my vision. A sickening crunch of vertebrae breaking preceded the onslaught of pain.
‘…Ah, seriously.’
Such a stupid, shameful death. Being struck by a carriage could at least be called an accident, but this had no excuse whatsoever. Amid pain so intense I wished for death, a humiliation far worse than the agony washed over me.
As my consciousness faded, Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike’s voice calling my name in shock echoed like a farewell. Surrendering to a sensation I never grew accustomed to despite dying repeatedly, I called out the name of the person I most desperately needed in that moment.
‘Perenustus! Is this how stupidly the world you created is supposed to function? Are you really going to stand by and watch this?’
Despite such desperate pleading, no response came from Perenustus.
And so death came again, without warning and in a manner utterly devoid of dignity.
Sharp wooden beams that porters were carrying slipped through my body, or arrows flew from hunting grounds while I strolled through the forest, or I swelled up entirely from an allergic reaction to nuts.
‘This time I even broke my neck slipping on the bathroom floor! Have the Ancient Gods lost their minds? How can the ways people die be this pathetically ridiculous?’
Proportional to the absurdity of each accident, death arrived ever more slowly, accompanied by increasingly excruciating agony. I absolutely despised it.
‘I can’t stand pain… I really can’t…’
At least there was one consolation: these deaths weren’t entirely useless. By experiencing countless ridiculous deaths in varying forms, we finally managed to harden several hypotheses into certainties.
“First. This world is perfectly fixed. Whether you start as a commoner or nobility, you ultimately converge into the same triangular structure: ‘Aurelia, the collateral imperial princess,’ ‘Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike, the neighboring kingdom’s princess,’ and ‘Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis, the Grand Duke who succeeded in rebellion.'”
“Yeah.”
“Second. This isn’t a simple system error—it’s an extremely vicious and malicious prank.”
I sighed while burning the memo Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis had shown us in the fireplace. We had now grown bold enough to gather openly in my bedchamber in the Imperial Palace rather than sneaking into the Dark Space, as though daring the world to do its worst.
“If I’m going to die anyway, I’d rather die spectacularly. Like when I was Princess Estella.”
“Which is precisely why it kills you so pathetically—because of your taste in deaths, I’d say.”
Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike quipped while folding her ornate fan. Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis, having set down the poker, collapsed onto the sofa and picked up her thread.
“Your physical abilities and stamina being set so poorly is the same kind of cruel joke as the manner of your deaths.”
I lacked even the energy to respond, merely nodding. A body that couldn’t maintain balance, a pathetic constitution that left me gasping for breath after thirty minutes of walking—it ground what little remained of my pride into dust.
“Damn it. I’ll build up my basic fitness somehow and take my revenge, I swear it.”
“You might trigger a curse just by grinding your teeth like that.”
Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike, who had been responding in an exhausted tone, suddenly furrowed her brow deeply.
“Hey! You! Sit up straight and look at me!”
“What now?”
“Aurelia, you… you’ve become beautiful.”
“…I was never that ugly to begin with, was I?”
Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike ignored my response, grabbed my shoulders, and hauled me to my feet, dragging me before the full-length mirror. I couldn’t believe how easily I was dragged along by her—a testament to my pathetic weakness.
“Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis, come here and look at her. She’s become beautiful, hasn’t she?”
“Only if she’s beautiful would there be any plausibility in the Grand Duke kidnapping and imprisoning her.”
Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis, who had no interest whatsoever in such vulgar romantic entanglements, replied flatly.
“Look properly and answer sincerely! Don’t respond without feeling!”
Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike kicked his shin without mercy. Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis finally frowned and looked at the mirror properly. If beauty were the measure, his crimson eyes sparkling like transparent jewels in the early morning light were the most beautiful thing.
Slowly, a glimmer of vitality began to return to eyes that had been filled with exhaustion and self-loathing.
“You really have changed.”
“You’ve been kidnapping and imprisoning me while plastering me with all sorts of gold and jewels. Of course I’d look beautiful when you’ve wrapped me in everything precious in the world.”
“No? The typical Female Lead character is supposed to have the setting that a fresh, makeup-free face is more beautiful than anything else in the world. Exactly like you are now.”
“…I’m not the Protagonist. You two are the Protagonists, and I’m just a supporting character.”
“Ha!”
Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike twisted her lips and let out a loud scoff.
“Everyone except you treats you as the Protagonist. People like me who reek of heavy perfume and fragrance, who exist to torment the Protagonist—that’s what we call supporting characters.”
“I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you in my entire life. Do you not look in mirrors?”
I picked up a hand mirror lying carelessly on the table and held it up to her reflection.
“Throughout all the worlds I’ve experienced, you’re the most splendid and beautiful. Isn’t the most beautiful person supposed to be the Protagonist?”
At my sincere compliment, Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike pouted her lips with an expression that wasn’t entirely displeased.
“Anyway, you get prettier every time you die and come back to life. Is that why you keep dying?”
“You’ve been spouting absolute nonsense this entire time….”
“Anyway, this works out perfectly. Since you’ve become even softer, let’s wear that lace-covered dress you refused to put on last time!”
Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis deliberately averted his gaze, pretending not to see the desperate plea in my eyes. The heartless bastard.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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