The Abandoned Villainess Takes Everything This Time - Chapter 176

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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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176.
Lillian only blinked as he pulled her into his embrace.
She felt rather foolish for it, but there was nothing to be done.
Why was he calling her Lili?
Right now, only one person called her that.
‘He’s supposed to be sleeping in a coffin underground in the Castle…….’
She’d gone to see him after Count Karkin Pavil asked her to pay her respects, that was the last time, and even then she hadn’t been able to look properly.
Even then, she couldn’t bring herself to look at him properly…….
Yet the man holding Lillian emanated the scent of the forest.
“Why? You didn’t forget the promise we made, did you?”
“Ah…….”
“To see the flowers in our garden again next year.”
Lillian opened her eyes deliberately wider.
After she’d ugly-cried in front of His Majesty the Emperor, she had no desire to cry again.
Especially if this was really Ren — she wanted the face he showed her after all this time to be presentable.
She didn’t want to meet him with a crumpled, red face.
She had that much vanity, at least!
But his left eye narrowed.
A cobweb pattern marked the corner of his left eye as a bonus.
“Did you really forget?”
“…….”
“What is this. Are you really trying to abandon me?”
“…….”
“Lili. Where exactly do you think you’re going, abandoning your fiancé?”
Please don’t let it be that.
If the rims of her eyes grew hot, her voice would come out nasal, so she was trying to control it.
Humanly speaking, couldn’t a person at least be given time to clear their throat—.
“Even if you resent me for coming to fetch you late, I can’t lose you. I die and come back to life unconditionally just to find you first.”
“…….”
“I’ll follow you to the very end of this world, so if you had any thought of abandoning me, give up now.”
“……Ugh.”
Abandon him…….
In the end, the tears came. Why did tears come when she saw this man’s unwavering face?
A fiancé who had been so tender once, even when she’d found him obsessed with the number sixty and seemed cruel.
Lillian wrapped her arms around his neck and forced out her words.
“……I do.”
“Hmm?”
“I love you, Ren.”
“…….”
She wanted to say again what she’d said while holding his cooling body.
Now she couldn’t afford to wait for the right moment in a beautiful place.
She’d learned that good words must be spoken while you can, because you never know when you’ll part.
“How much I love you — so much that I changed all my life plans.”
“……Your life plans?”
“Ugh, yeah.”
Lillian held him tight and sniffled.
The fact that the other person was alive wielded enormous power.
Was that why? Whatever the matter, things she’d meant to keep secret her whole life just kept spilling out.
“Actually, on the day we first met, I was planning to go to Tenebrin. But — your forest scent. That’s what ruined my life.”
“……Ah, you’re saying your life was ruined by meeting me……?”
“Ugh, yeah!”
“…….”
“I only planned to be useful enough and then escape. But then—.”
Lillian didn’t even notice her grip tightening around him.
“I’m happy you came to find me…….”
She’d lived a life where no one came looking for her first.
During her time in Perniers, everyone turned away from Lillian.
When she lived in the modern era, she’d sworn to herself she’d live well alone.
Yet she’d always hoped, in her heart, that someone would be there with her.
Without even knowing who she wanted.
“Even on this snowing day, I was so happy you came to find me…….”
Having traveled through all the timelines, her heart had ached terribly.
But every single time, this man had come to find Lillian.
This time too, even now.
Ren sighed and kissed Lillian’s tear-soaked cheek.
“……I love you too, Lili. I’m the fiancé who ruined your life plans, but I’ll do well by you.”
“Sniff, sniff…….”
“Let’s go back now. We should go home.”
“Yeah…….”
Our home.
It was an unfamiliar word, yet hearing it alone brought such joy.
Lillian leaned against him and walked with him through the snowy path.
If they’d been the ‘original selves,’ he would have forcibly dragged her to the Barracks from here.
And after that, Lillian would have died alone because of Caspian and the Revenant gang.
‘Now that I think about it—?’
The Emperor was certain that Ren was the one who turned back time.
Yet even he hadn’t managed to discover how Ren had reversed time itself.
But in the case of the vanished ‘Evren’…….
‘I changed the past that was turned back by Dark Magic, so strictly speaking, he didn’t resurrect me, did he?’
Lillian had died because of Caspian, so a Regression existed.
Then the very first person to turn back time was, after all……?
“Ren, you know…….”
“…….”
“Do you remember now, perhaps……?”
What those original selves were like.
But Ren adjusted her in his arms to make her comfortable.
“Later. For now, you should rest.”
“But—.”
“You look so exhausted people would believe you were from the octopus clan instead of being Butterfly.”
“…….”
“Sleep now, my fiancée.”
How infuriating…….
Yet at his gentle voice, Lillian decided to relax at last.
After performing Silver Soldering Work six hundred times, she’d fixed the world’s distortions. She had earned the right to rest and sleep.
Lillian closed her eyes for the first time in ages, surrounded by the phytoncides of the forest.
She no longer believed in pseudo-science, but relief filled her heart so deeply it felt full.
* * *
‘Tower of Spacetime.’
Ren entered the Tower carrying Lillian in his arms.
The Emperor watched the two people approach in silence.
“So you’ve finally met.”
“Just how much did you plan to work her to the bone.”
“…….”
Ren paid no mind to his father’s expression.
The Emperor likewise had no emotion toward his son, so he didn’t concern himself either.
“Did the Creator God himself entrust this Tower to your care?”
“……Yes.”
The Imperial Family’s position had been given to Tarandia among the Five Families, placing upon them the duty to stand foremost against the threat to the Empire.
The Emperor had never believed his sons would be interested in such a thing.
So he opened his eyes wide at Ren’s words.
“I’ll take that role on, so you can stop now.”
“……?”
“I can navigate this place far more easily. Even if guarding this space means risking your life, I’ll endure longer than you.”
“You?”
“Obviously.”
Ren gazed affectionately at the woman in his arms.
The other hateful version of himself had merged with him through the Creator God’s aid, and he’d seen everything.
What Lillian had been doing in his absence.
How desperately she’d worked.
How she’d grieved over parting from that man, yet focused so intently on mending the broken world.
“……Normally I wouldn’t care about the world at all.”
He honestly couldn’t care less about anyone else’s survival if he just had a space to live with Lili.
Whether it was him or ‘Evren,’ they were the same soul in the end, identical in that regard.
If anything, it had grown worse.
‘Hmm. Lili wouldn’t like it if she heard that.’
If he said he’d lost interest, she’d probably go mad.
“But it’s a world that Lili protected…….”
So it was his role to see it through to the end.
Above all, Ren’s eyes were filled with sincere, burning covetousness.
“That role is one I can’t entrust to you either.”
“…….”
“You’ll have to return this time too. How much Lili frets over you has bothered me for quite a while.”
The Emperor regarded his blood relative with eyes like glass marbles.
Now that the same soul had mended the broken places, it seemed his jealousy had intensified twofold, not just his power.
Any ordinary person would have found such jealousy unbearable.
But since it was Lillian who held the leash, and Evren Tarandia would gladly surrender it until he went mad, it should be fine.
……Probably.
While the Emperor sighed, Ren wiped away the tears from Lillian’s eyes.
He gently erased from her memory only the details of their last conversation using the Power of Annihilation.
“I’m sorry, Lili.”
I can’t answer what you were about to ask.
‘Do you remember now, perhaps……?’
Seeing you cry makes my heart ache so.
If I tell you that story, you’ll cry again.
“From now on, you only need to smile at good things.”
But I will need to wake Lillian soon.
Soon we’ll leave the World Tree, where Silver Flower Petals fall like snow everywhere, and she’ll hear the cheers of those waiting for her.
The brilliant world that lay ahead belonged to Lillian.

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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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