The Male Lead Is Targeting Me, Not My Younger Sister - Chapter 16

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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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The Male Lead Targets Me, Not My Younger Sister — Episode 16
Four hours earlier.
“Waaaaahhhhh!”
Left alone at home after Lydia’s graceful departure, Sylvia wept inconsolably.
“Miss, please don’t cry. Your elder sister promised she’d take you somewhere even nicer later.”
“I don’t want to! I’m going with my sister!”
Whimper!
No amount of coaxing from the servants helped.
“I can go to the Banquet Hall too! I practiced dancing so hard! I could dance with my sister! Waahhh!”
Just as the servants were growing helpless and bewildered,
an uninvited guest suddenly appeared.
“Where’s Lydia?”
Ricardo.
Once a rake of high society, now a man devoted to earnest love—or so he claimed.
“Ricardo…?”
The moment she saw his familiar face, Sylvia quickly wiped her tears away.
Sylvia’s mind, practical only when necessary, swiftly sized up the situation.
Hair swept back with care.
A dress coat gleaming with formality.
An appearance far more elaborate than usual.
“…Are you going to the Banquet Hall today too?”
Ricardo, oblivious, answered readily.
“Yeah, that’s why I came to pick up Lydia.”
To pick up her sister?
Sylvia’s eyes sparkled.
“Then… couldn’t I go with you?”
“What, you want to go to the Banquet Hall?”
“Yeah. I wanted to go too… but my sister left without me. She said I couldn’t go yet.”
Ricardo paused, thinking for a moment.
Then he grinned.
“Why not?”
And so the incident had begun.
‘This… this mad fool!’
The fact that Ricardo was her partner was all Lydia needed to piece together almost everything, and she didn’t hesitate.
“Oh! There she is!”
Spotting her approaching, Sylvia beamed and waved her hand.
“Sister!”
“Oh, Lydia!”
Unfortunately, Ricardo—a man with loyalty but no tact—cheerfully waved as well.
Standing before them both, Lydia—
“You… you…!”
“Eeeeek, sister!”
—grabbed Sylvia’s soft cheek and pulled it taut.
“You… you thoughtless thing!”
“Sister, it hurts!”
“It’s supposed to hurt!”
When Lydia snapped, Sylvia’s face crumpled.
“Why! What did I do!”
Meeting Sylvia’s wounded gaze, Lydia flinched for a moment, but—
“Don’t you dare talk back! I told you to stay home and behave yourself for just one day!”
Wahhhhh!”
She didn’t stop the scolding.
After launching into a full tirade until Sylvia’s face turned dark as ash, Lydia took a deep breath.
‘Calm down. Calm down.’
The moment she saw the very situation she’d fought so hard to prevent unfold before her, she’d lost her composure and flared up—but truthfully, there was no time for this.
One fact alone filled her mind.
She had to get Sylvia out of here.
“Sylvia, come with me now.”
“Why? Where are we going?”
In the brief silence, Sylvia’s eyes drooped as she guessed their destination.
“Come on, you’re the worst! I’ve made it this far anyway—can’t I just have today to enjoy myself? Please?”
Sylvia whined, but her voice never reached Lydia’s ears.
‘Damn it. How much time do I have left?’
The time she’d spent outside on the Terrace with Ludwig had eaten up more of the evening than she’d bargained for.
The original story’s event could start at any moment now—nothing would surprise her.
‘I’ll just get her into a carriage and send her home fast. As long as she’s far from the Imperial Palace, everything should work out.’
Lydia signaled to an attendant to open the door and moved toward the exit.
But that very instant—
A low hum filled the air.
A strange sensation rippled across her skin, and her heart plummeted.
‘No. Not already?’
Lydia reached forward urgently. There was nothing blocking the empty space before her; her hand should have moved freely.
Yet.
As if an invisible barrier were there, the air itself repelled her fingertips.
‘……It’s too late.’
It had already begun. Until this was over, no one in this hall would be leaving.
Sylvia tilted her head, noticing her sister’s darkening expression.
“What are you doing? By the way, didn’t you hear something strange just now? Like a whoosh?”
There was no time to hesitate.
Lydia made her decision.
“……Sylvia, listen to me very carefully from now on.”
She grabbed her bewildered sister by the wrist and pulled her along.
Then she lowered her voice.
“We’re going to play hide-and-seek. I’ll be it, so you hide. And no matter what you hear, don’t come out until I call you.”
“What? But…….”
Sylvia, about to protest as she normally would, caught sight of her sister’s set jaw and flinched without meaning to.
“Understand?”
Lydia’s eyes held more gravity than they ever had before.
Sylvia swallowed hard, squeezed her eyes shut, and nodded frantically.
“Good.”
Lydia took her sister’s hand and led her toward a corner of the Banquet Hall.
Behind a pillar. A blind spot.
Given the open layout of the space, this was the best hiding place available.
“Wait here. No matter what sounds you hear, don’t come out. Don’t peek either. Close your eyes tight and stay hidden. Got it?”
“Mm…….”
Sensing something was terribly wrong, Sylvia answered hesitantly.
After repeating her warnings several times, Lydia turned to go.
As she turned away, Sylvia’s hand stretched out from behind and caught her arm.
“You…….”
Lydia glanced back over her shoulder.
“I’ll be good and stay quiet, so you have to call for me soon……, right?”
Like that day long ago, when she’d made the decision to protect Sylvia.
Without a word, Lydia reached back and stroked her sister’s hair.
Then she turned and walked forward without hesitation.
‘……Stay calm. Nothing has to change.’
Yes, Sylvia had ended up at the Banquet Hall against the original plan, but that didn’t matter.
She would make sure it didn’t matter.
Hadn’t she been working toward this all along?
“Hey, what’s wrong with you all of a sudden? And why are you dragging your sister away?”
Ricardo, who had finally come to his senses, approached and whispered urgently.
Rather than answer his question, Lydia said something else.
“Ricardo, where’s the Ability Control Device right now?”
The Imperial Palace always ensured that Transcendent Beings wore an Ability Control Device to prevent them from freely using their Transcendent Abilities.
“Huh? Uh…… here.”
Ricardo pointed to the brooch on his chest.
In the original story, the Transcendent Beings hadn’t been able to use their power precisely because of this control device.
Something had gone wrong—the emergency signal was broken, so the device wouldn’t unlock.
And that was why Lydia had prepared a solution for this problem today.
‘So far, everything’s going as planned.’
Lydia’s eyes moved slowly around the hall.
The Banquet Hall remained peaceful still.
Opulent and lavish within its grand expanse.
Gentle music flowing, the laughter of guests.
Unaware of the terrible tragedy that would unfold moments hence, bright smiles adorned every corner of the room.
Then Lydia’s gaze fixed upon a single figure.
‘Kronbelt.’
The true villain of this story.
Though the man had crossed into his later years, he carried himself with a robust frame and an air of vigor. His immaculate bearing befitted one who stood at the apex of nobility—an authority that radiated from him without effort.
But then……
‘……I can’t afford to focus on him right now.’
Lydia tore her eyes away and swept her gaze methodically across the hall once more.
‘So here……’
Thump.
……Who is the Ain Species?
Her heartbeat quickened.
After today’s incident, everyone will learn that the Ain Species possess intelligence surpassing humanity, and that they can Mimic human form.
In other words, somewhere in this very hall lurks an Ain Species masquerading as human.
Lydia’s eyes moved swiftly across the ‘people’ around her.
The banquet had reached its zenith, a crescendo of merriment.
Only Lydia felt the crushing tension of the calm before the storm, her fists clenching.
Her nails bit painfully into her palms.
And then it happened.
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”
Suddenly, a shriek of agony tore through the air.
Every head snapped toward the sound.
At the center of the Banquet Hall.
A young man, until now unremarkable, writhed violently, his body contorting in grotesque convulsions.
“Heh…… Hah……”
He clamped a hand over his mouth, breathing heavily in ragged gasps.
And then.
The moment he raised his head.
“My…… my eyes……!”
Both his pupils blazed crimson.
Immediately, every muscle in his body began twisting unnaturally.
“Kyyyyaaahhhhh!”
“F—fall back!”
“Get away!”
The Banquet Hall descended into pandemonium, a wide circle forming around the man. With a sickening crunch, his utterly warped form standing upright, he revealed himself.
“……An Ain Species?”
He bore unmistakably the form of something other than human.

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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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