My Disciples Became Scoundrels - Chapter 64

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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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I ran with Bella resisting in my arms, searching for a place where no one could hear us. Reading the currents of air proved harder than I’d expected.
As I ran, I found myself in a corridor. The Underground was wider than I’d anticipated. A dust-covered Chandelier hung like a corpse from the ceiling.
As I looked around for an escape route, eyes gleamed suddenly from the darkness.
—Twang!
A Crossbow bolt grazed past me. Enemies emerged one by one from the adjacent passage.
“Wait—is that Beatrice…?”
They seemed startled for a moment, but soon raised their Crossbows again nonetheless.
I fled from them. I regretted leaving my sword behind because of the invitation. Or perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered anyway—I was carrying Bella.
“Leave me behind! No matter how much of a master you are, we’ll both die this way!”
Behind us, bolts flew relentlessly. Bella stopped struggling, but she still rejected me.
“If I leave you, you’ll die.”
“I don’t care if I die!”
“Don’t say such things.”
I pulled Bella close against me.
“Never say that to your master—not ever….”
It was fine if she shot at me or cursed me out. But those words—that she didn’t care if she died—I could not bear to hear them.
The footsteps of our pursuers grew in number. Bella held onto me and spoke.
“Put me down. I can run on my own.”
Her voice was calm. After darting behind the wall on the opposite side, I set her down. The shadow made her expression hard to see.
“Head that way and you’ll reach outside. There are a few traps deeper in, so be careful.”
A faint path appeared through the darkness. I moved forward first to clear the traps.
As I entered the narrow passage, darkness closed in. In that moment—
—Bang!
A heavy sound of something falling. I turned back; the passage was gone. A door had shut.
Beyond the wall, I heard Bella’s voice.
“There are no traps. Just keep running and you’ll find the exit. Go.”
I slammed my fist against the stone wall. Without a sword, I couldn’t cut through it.
“Open it, Bella! You’ll die like this!”
“Master, it’s fine if I die.”
Her voice carried a strange familiarity, as though she had known this all before.
“I’m a Returner.”
I stopped pounding the wall. A Returner?
Suddenly, it came back to me—her skill at gambling. The way she’d wielded the gun, a weapon I’d never seen before.
“I die and come back to life. So it’s fine.”
“It is not fine!”
I felt blood welling up on the edge of my hand. Even knowing it was foolish, I could do nothing but strike the wall again.
“Whether you regress or resurrect, it doesn’t matter. I cannot accept my student dying.”
Even if I don’t remember it, even if Bella returns to life—how could I possibly be at peace with my student’s death?
The wall never opened. After a long time, instead, her composed voice came through.
“In the next life, don’t meet me, Master.”
With those words, her footsteps retreated. I screamed Bella’s name until my throat raw, but no answer came.
* * *
Bella hated her birthday. In a way, it was inevitable. Every time she died and opened her eyes, she found herself back at the morning of her birthday.
Someone in her bloodline—her parents, her ancestors—must have wielded Time Magic.
She had hated her birthday, but after Dein died, she came to despise it even more.
‘Why was I born on the third of March?’
March second. The day Dein died. Shortly after his death, Bella was attacked and lost consciousness.
When she opened her eyes, a day had passed. It was her tenth birthday.
When you died, you returned to the birthday of whatever age you had been. She even tried to take her own life, hoping—but when she opened her eyes, she was ten years old again, back to the day after Dein’s death.
‘If only I’d been born a day later.’
In a world without Dein, Bella had to go on living. But she never lived long. Neither she nor her siblings.
The first time she died at the hands of the Guardian was at sixteen, shortly after Cesare, who had scraped together money, came to collect her.
After that, she sought out her other siblings. All of them had gathered once, except Hayden.
She thought that together they could withstand the Guardian. Until the sixth total annihilation.
‘If I had only been stronger, like my other siblings.’
Each time she returned, she trained and prepared, but it was never enough. Cesare, Jenia, Arkel—they all died protecting her as she faltered.
‘If I hadn’t existed.’
Bella began to act alone. Knowledge of the future, and endurance. These alone were her only weapons.
She interfered with the Guardian’s schemes, died, gathered information, died, exploited the future, died….
‘Last time, my master died protecting me from Garcia.’
Bella stood before a closed door. Beyond it, Dein was shouting her name.
What had her master’s corpse looked like after Garcia murdered him? Was it warm? Did it reek of blood?
She couldn’t bear to live through it again. Better to die and Regress herself.
“In the next life, let’s not meet, Master.”
She turned her back on Dein and moved deeper into the building. Garcia had to die.
Garcia would annihilate Balanus in the future. Before he grew stronger, before her family fell—it had to end now.
“There’s blood here!”
“Get over here!”
The voices of organization members echoed through the space. Bella drew the gun from her waist.
Bang!
The bullet lodged in the member’s forehead. But there was more than one. They faltered but didn’t retreat.
“Defensive Magic caster, begin the incantation!”
Bella fired and ran. A Mana Sphere flew at her; she barely ducked behind a pillar. She clicked her tongue.
‘If only I’d been blessed with superior mana or combat ability.’
Regression was her only exceptional gift. She could handle ordinary people, but no matter how hard she tried, she could never fight as well as her siblings.
She slid a fresh round into the chamber. Then she heard a voice.
“Beatrice.”
Something cold seemed to wrap around her throat. She glimpsed past the wall and saw Garcia standing there.
He smiled silently.
“What are you doing, spiriting away our guest?”
“…….”
“I’m deeply disappointed. That you tried to kill me. Weren’t we on good terms?”
Bella’s grip tightened on the gun. She had to finish this before the Defensive Magic casting completed. She sprang from behind the pillar, raising the weapon to fire—
Slash!
A dagger raked across Bella’s flank. Blood erupted. She staggered backward.
Garcia appeared before her in an instant. He could have killed her then and there, yet he only smiled.
“Being betrayed by the woman you love—that’s quite bitter.”
“Stop spouting nonsense.”
“But you’re so consistent. I can’t help myself.”
Garcia raised the dagger again. Blood dripped steadily from its blade. And from Bella’s waist as well.
“Beatrice, are you ready to die?”
Bella aimed the gun at Garcia. Her eyes gleamed crimson.
“Always.”
Bang!
The gun fired. But her target wasn’t Garcia. It was above.
There hung a chandelier no longer in use. It plummeted and shattered with a tremendous crash.
But Garcia wasn’t beneath it.
Thud!
Bella was kicked in the abdomen and tumbled across the floor. Garcia stood before her now, unmarked.
“Your mind has always been useful. Good at business, good at running shops, good at dreaming up new ventures.”
Garcia’s tone was leisurely. He grabbed her by the hair and began dragging her across the ground.
“I’m sure you’re still good for something. If I hang your head up, it might even be quite…….”
Crash!
A wall collapsed. Something bestial bore down on Garcia.
“Damn it, get your hands off my sister!”
It was Cesare. Garcia released Bella. In the next moment, someone seized her from behind.
“Bella, forgive me. Have I come too late?”
She didn’t need to turn around to know. Her master was there.
“Why…….”
Why had he come to save her? Why was he apologizing? The questions caught in her throat.
The clash of spear and blade rang out violently. Cesare unleashed a furious barrage, but he wasn’t gaining ground.
The underground corridor was too narrow to wield a spear properly. But that wasn’t the only problem.
Crash-crack!
The Life Force emanating from Garcia’s body was extraordinarily dense. Dein realized he had reached the 4th Tier Cultivation.
“Cesare! Go!”
Dein extended his hand to Cesare. The moment Cesare grasped it, the air around them shifted.
The three of them were suddenly outside. They stood near the Carriage Rental. Cesare stumbled and dropped to one knee.
“Ugh, moving two people at once is…….”
From performing Spatial Teleportation with multiple bodies, his face had gone deathly pale. Jenia and Arkel, who had been waiting inside, came rushing over.
“Are you hurt, sister? I have a Recovery Potion here.”
Jenia rushed to apply the potion to Bella’s wounds. But the cuts were deep, and the healing came slowly.
Arkel handed a blade to Dein and spoke.
“The potion has its limits. Should we find a healer?”
“No. We need to get out of here now.”
“Stop.”
Bella lowered her head. She couldn’t bear to see their faces. Couldn’t look at them.
“It will all end if you leave me behind.”
If she returned to Garcia, everything would be finished. It didn’t matter if she died. Wasn’t she used to it by now?
Then someone took her hand—soft, tender fingers. Bella lifted her head carefully.
In Dein’s golden eyes, Bella saw her own reflection. His gaze was steady, radiant, unshaken.
“I want to spend your birthday with you.”
When Bella tried to pull her hand away, Dein gripped it more firmly.
“I want to share a cake with you and sing you happy birthday. So……”
His grip tightened.
“Please come with me. I will protect you, no matter what.”
Bella remembered the first time she’d met those eyes.
A winter day when snow fell across a barren field. At seven years old, Bella was being hunted by beasts.
She thought this was it—this was how she’d die. She’d lost count of how many times.
A poor, powerless orphan could not escape what fate brought. The future was a time denied to Bella.
Then the beast’s cry cut off abruptly. When she turned, someone stood among the fallen creatures.
It was Dein. He took her to Balanus.
Dein sheltered her from the cold, from hunger, from beasts. Because of him, Bella lived to be eight, nine, ten.
Because of Dein, the future began. She recalled his voice then, whispered across that snowy field.
That warmth-filled voice she heard for the first time—one she would never forget, even if she died and was reborn countless times.
“I will protect you. Come with me, Bella.”

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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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