The Abandoned Villainess Takes Everything This Time - Chapter 149

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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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149.
“Ugh!”
Reaching the resting room was the limit of Ren’s endurance.
He didn’t want to disappoint Lillian, and he had to persevere to stay with her to the end, as he’d promised.
But.
“Gasp—!”
“Your Highness, Ren!”
With each blink, unfamiliar scenes scrambled his mind.
‘Damn it.’
He understood now.
That bastard—his other self—was inflicting Mental Corruption on him.
And while showing him old memories shared with Lillian…!
‘I don’t want to see.’
Have I lost my mind? Why am I—
Why should I witness the woman I love and that creature in moments of happiness?
Yet Ren was seeing exactly what he didn’t want to see.
Memories of that dog of a man and Lillian.
A life that had undoubtedly existed once.
A small barracks built during wartime.
Two people clinging to each other as if neither could exist without the other.
‘Don’t leave me like this.’
That version of the bastard had pleaded desperately.
Lillian, held in his arms, said nothing.
But Ren saw that beloved face.
And he understood.
Lillian.
You actually wanted to be in that moment.
Ren let out a hollow laugh.
Ah, so when I found you through the resonance in the Black Magic—
There was that slight hesitation.
The man you first fell in love with.
The man who never wanted to part from you—
‘You wanted to live with him.’
Just as he couldn’t imagine Lillian, his first love, ever leaving him.
But Lillian.
I.
I…
I only wanted it to be the two of us.
In our garden, forever.
Waiting for flowers that would bloom next year.
…I suppose I should apologize that this has become a dream I can never realize.
* * *
“Your Highness! Your Highness, are you all right?”
Ren’s eyes had lost their focus as he surveyed his surroundings.
Was he all right? Him?
‘Looks like I put a hole in the wall.’
The wall must have looked like that bastard’s face.
Well, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway—I was never in very good condition to begin with.
At least the debris didn’t hit Lillian.
He gazed at the woman frantically shaking him with a lazy smile.
“…Lillian. So you’re leaving me.”
Who are you running to.
‘That garbage you call your heart?’
Ren recalled the text inscribed on that accursed ring.

It was what that creature had sent to Lillian.
‘Damn Mental Corruption.’
In the hallucination, he even saw Lillian’s reply to him…

Damn it.
So that was it, and again.
“Ha.”
Damn it. Damn it, damn it.
If this is love, I can’t fathom why humans go mad for love songs and poetry.
When it tears at your throat like this? Humans don’t seem to suffer at all—maybe they have masochistic tendencies…
If it’s like this, I don’t understand why I’m called a mad dog.
Rather, it seems like humans should be called that.
“Haha!”
His mind was beginning to fracture.
His body was beginning to collapse.
What little remained of his intact instinct sent a warning.
‘Get Lillian to safety.’
This woman comes first. She’s my life’s priority.
Before I destroy everything here.
But after evacuating her, where would Lillian go?
Where?
Lillian seized his cheeks urgently.
Her control no longer reached him.
The emotion he felt through those palms…she was the one who first taught him what happiness was.
But he felt nothing from her now.
Snap. The threads holding his mind together snapped one by one.
“Ren, come to your senses! We—”
“You made me unable to exist without you.
The Imprint clawed at his brain, desperate to survive.
“So tell me, where are you going?”
He knew the answer, though.
She was going to him.
That everything had started with that creature’s appearance…
“…Haha.”
Ren’s shoulders trembled.
Everything he’d suppressed, everything he’d endured against his own nature, collapsed at his feet.
He gazed at the woman before him with eyes wide open, his gaze full of love.
I’m truly sorry.
“My life is ruined too.”
Because Lillian was all of his life.
Now that he was certain she loved another more, everything would crumble.
‘But Lillian.’
“…You’ll be ruined with me.”
Your wish to reach that creature will never come true.
Ren cradled Lillian’s cheeks in his hands.
This would probably be their last kiss.
* * *
“Mental Corruption inflicted on so many at once…!”
Gasps of amazement echoed through the Arena.
People glanced toward the Tillard Ducal House’s spectator seats and whispered among themselves.
Ah, to let such a person slip away!
And to suffer such humiliation on top of it—how galling it must be!
“But where did Lillian and His Highness go just now?”
“The match is still ongoing…”
Even during a rest period, wouldn’t it be better to maintain their presence and build momentum?
“Wait!”
Someone in the lower rows of the spectator seats called out loudly.
“They’re coming back!”
“Ah…!”
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
That silver hair—it could only be Crown Prince Evren!
“Is the Crown Prince returning?”
“Hmm? He’s not coming from the direction he left…”
“Where is Lillian…?”
Even his uniform color is different.
The atmosphere radiating from him felt subtly like a different person…
Just then, Kail, who had been receiving treatment in the Arena, gritted his teeth and approached.
“You…!”
“……”
“What are you doing? Are you mocking me?”
Kail’s face twisted.
What was that attack just now?
It wasn’t the poison attack he’d set up.
“How dare you use such filthy tricks!? Even if it’s to make Lillian shine…!”
“……”
“And where did you suddenly—”
Snap.
His voice cut off in that instant.
Kail collapsed to the ground.
The Arena fell deathly silent in an instant.
After the Second Empress let out a thin, breathless cry of “Kail!” she collapsed.
Screams erupted from all around.
* * *
Evren regarded the panicking humans with no malice.
Countless grains of sand on the field…
Each one meaningless.
‘But necessary evils.’
He needed mouths to praise Lillian and hands to applaud her.
So even if they’re loud, let me observe for now.
Evren breathed in and out slowly.
Before Lillian could die in his arms.
‘After this is all over, marry me.’
‘First, let’s win. I don’t like losers.’
Evren laughed silently, his throat trembling. It was a memory he’d recalled thousands of times, yet it never grew old.
So lovely…
He gazed around with a faint smile on his lips.
Times and circumstances had changed slightly.
But.
“In the end, this will do.”
You said we’d talk after winning anyway.
“…I am Evren Tarandia Perniers.”
He took a step forward.
“Crown Prince of the Perniers Empire, rightful heir. And the Saint’s true companion.”
He turned to face the direction Ren and Lillian had entered.
He knew this would reach them.
“So come out, impostor. Come with Lillian, who is not your match.”
The entrance of Evren—the worst Ability User in all of Tarandia’s history.

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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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