The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 70

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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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Creak―

The carriage that departed from Parnon stopped in some deep forest in the dead of night.

The mage, Chloe, opened her dazed eyes.

The fox-like man sitting in front of her muttered.

“Good. The carriage carrying the servants has left. They must be going to manage the duke’s residence in the capital for the founding festival.”

Was his name Carlos?

He continued his monologue with an anxious expression.

“The Duke of Alchemiya has a weak constitution so she would have gone to bed early, and the lights in the servants’ quarters have gone out too… Now’s our chance.”

Carlos, who had been rolling his eyes around with an uneasy gaze, irritably threw down the telescope he was holding.

“Hey, wake up! You know what happens if this goes wrong, right? Huh? Both you and I are dead!”

Carlos raised his voice as he coldly watched Chloe shakily get up.

“Listen carefully. There’s an atelier to the northwest. You just need to take the memories of a man named Nicholas who’s there. Got it?”

“…”

“Hah, is your mouth glued shut with paste? After you extract the memories, we’ll rendezvous here again. If, just if the rendezvous fails, come straight to Pagnon County. But that won’t happen, as long as you don’t run away.”

Carlos bared his white teeth and shook a button.

“Don’t forget that this works even from a very long distance. If you understand, get out!”

It was raining.

Chloe, pushed out of the carriage, blended into the rain and darkness.

“Huu, huk…”

Even though she tried to hold back her tears, they kept spilling out.

The mage Chloe wiped her eyes with the dirty edge of her sleeve.

Dragging her robe that had become damp from the mixture of rainwater and tears, she arrived at the darkened Alchemist’s Mansion.

Chloe, who had been looking up at the manor with vacant eyes, looked down at her wrist.

A holy relic restraint.

She closed her eyes tightly and let her magic flow.

“Uurgh…!”

But what returned was not the sound of it clicking open, but only pain.

Could she escape?

If she just did this job, if she just took the memories of that person named Nicholas, could she end all of this?

No. Under normal circumstances, she would have known.

That woman with those cold light purple eyes would never let her go.

But pain and fear had narrowed Chloe’s thinking.

“It’s all my fault. I’m being punished. …I’m receiving punishment like this for dabbling in dark magic…”

She shouldn’t have done it.

She absolutely shouldn’t have done it.

But it was too late to regret it now.

The worst choices from her past had piled up layer by layer, leaving only a path toward the worst possible future.

‘My right hand has already been consumed by dark magic.’

Her left hand was bound with restraints.

She had no choice but to draw spell formulas with her right hand that had already been consumed by dark magic.

But if she used dark magic again…

‘What part will be consumed next? My shoulder? My heart?’

The pain from the collision between the holy power of the sacred restraints and her magic was a secondary concern.

A body consumed by dark magic no longer belongs to oneself.

Not only does it move on its own, but it continuously manipulates the host to use dark magic.

Right now only her right hand was consumed so she was barely holding on, but what about next time?

Could she endure it even if her shoulder, heart, or brain were devoured?

‘If I had a special-grade mana stone, I could heal it, but…’

There are two ways to purify dark magic.

Either dilute the dark magic with pure magic contained in special-grade mana stones, or receive help from the temple to purify it with holy power.

But for Chloe, who was a mage, the second option was impossible.

She hung her head.

‘Whatever my intentions were, it’s true that I tried to steal a special-grade mana stone. …There’s no room for excuses.’

Special-grade mana stones are no longer produced.

She had searched everywhere but couldn’t obtain one and was about to give up in despair.

Then she heard rumors that the Rionet Ducal House, which owned mines, had special-grade mana stones.

She knew that Rionet’s mana stone mines had already been depleted, but she headed to the ducal house grasping at straws.

She knocked on their door, begging them to let her buy a mana stone.

‘But they said they wouldn’t sell to me. They said they wouldn’t sell no matter how much money I offered. So…’

The night she infiltrated the duke’s vault in a half-crazed state.

What Chloe encountered was a group of people and,

“Caught you.”

A woman named Rosaline who was smiling while holding shining restraints.

‘So this is the atelier…’

She had finally arrived.

The door to the darkened atelier wasn’t locked.

Chloe stared blankly at the door that had been pushed open so easily, then looked around.

It was full of beautiful paintings and artworks, but she couldn’t bear to look at them and lowered her eyes.

She felt ashamed.

She felt like she wasn’t worthy to stand before those beautiful and bright paintings.

‘Please, please don’t be here. Please be somewhere else, I hope that man Carlos was wrong.’

But Chloe’s wish, who only made bad choices, was not granted this time either.

In the workshop where only a small candle flickered dimly, there was a brown-haired man.

The man with his head down while holding a brush seemed to be dozing.

“Huu…”

Chloe wiped her face with trembling hands.

Magic related to memories was her specialty.

Reading fragmentary memories or peering into dreams, that is.

But what she had to do now, magic that extracted and transplanted memories, was dark magic.

Not only stealing memories to turn a person into an empty shell.

But also implanting those memories into another person, turning them into a doll that draws pictures without a sense of self – terrible dark magic.

She had never even used it on a person before.

She had tested it on animals, but remembering how horrific those results were…

“I’m sorry.”

A tear dropped from Chloe’s eyes.

“For coming here, I’m truly sorry…”

Her uncontrollably trembling right hand seemed to whisper.

Do you want to live like this for the rest of your life?

Whatever happens to this man in the future isn’t your concern.

Whether this man becomes a cripple or not, you need to save yourself first, don’t you?

Why are you pretending to be clean? You’ve already dirtied your hands!

The whispering hallucinations all shouted at once.

「Remember ‘Tanya’!」

‘Tanya.’

Tanya.

The name of the animal Chloe had used black magic on for the first and last time.

‘Tanya…!’

It was the name of her only family.

The moment she thought of Tanya, Chloe collapsed with a thud.

“No, this isn’t right. I can’t do it.”

「You did such things to Tanya too, so why can’t you do it?」

“I… I can’t do it! I won’t repeat such a mistake!”

「A mistake? A mistake, you say? What you did wasn’t a mistake. It was simply wrong, a sin. Do you think a sinner like you can be forgiven just by repenting now?」

“Even if I can’t be forgiven, I don’t care. I… absolutely will never…”

「Do it! Just do it! Like you always have, make another bad choice this time too! That’s how you’ve lived your life!」

Chloe, who had been sitting collapsed, muttered.

“Yes, that’s how I’ve lived.”

「Ahaha! Hahaha!」

“But not from now on. From now on… I won’t live like that.”

「What, what did you say? Wait, wait…!」

Chloe picked up the painting knife from the desk.

And she brought it not toward the man with his head down.

“…Thank goodness. There’s still one good choice I can make left…”

She brought it to her own throat.

Just before the blade could sink into her skin.

“No, Chloe!”

Chloe thought blankly.

Who is calling my name so desperately?

Is it a hallucination? Have hallucinations ever called my name before…

However, that voice had substance.

“Ah…”

The man who had been bowing his head suddenly shot up like lightning and knocked the knife away.

No, it wasn’t a man.

The person filling Chloe’s vision was.

“Pull yourself together. It’s okay now!”

A woman with pale violet eyes wearing a wig.

Pale violet eyes. Eyes that looked exactly like Rosaline’s.

Chloe, who had suddenly come to her senses, tried to back away frantically.

However.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come faster. Oh no, it must have hurt…”

The moment she saw tears welling up in those pale violet eyes.

It was the moment she saw eyes filled not with cold stares but with compassion, felt the warmth of a hand that grasped her blackened right hand tightly instead of slapping her cheek harshly.

“Sob, hic…”

Chloe burst into tears like a fool in her embrace.

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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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