The Male Lead Is Targeting Me, Not My Younger Sister - Chapter 4

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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 Sister — Episode 4
The surroundings fell silent in an instant.
Lydia, who had braced herself for the Creature’s attack and shut her eyes, opened them cautiously when no blow came.
The Creature’s massive body crumpled before her eyes.
Thud.
The severed head rolled across the ground and came to rest against Lydia’s feet with a soft thud.
‘……Ah.’
Though it was only a fleeting moment, Lydia understood at once what had happened.
The cut was impossibly clean.
In this world, those who could wield an Ability were called Awakeners.
Among them, those with power on an entirely different plane were called Transcendents.
Of all the various Awakeners, only a Transcendent could channel an Ability with such pure potency.
And if there was only one Transcendent who could be here……
‘It had to be him.’
Lydia turned her head slowly to regard the one who had saved her.
Ludwig.
Blood dripped steadily from the blade in his hand.
Yet his appearance remained oddly immaculate.
From hair to heel—not a thread out of place, not a whisper of disorder, as if he hadn’t just fought for his life.
‘……A monster.’
Moments like this drove home to Lydia just what he was—the Male Lead.
‘He’s grown even stronger.’
Since her days at the Military Academy, she had witnessed Ludwig’s overwhelming power countless times.
Though she had few points of contact with him—not being an Awakener herself—she knew the terror of his Ability in meticulous detail.
‘I really don’t want to get tangled up with him……’
In that very moment, Ludwig turned and looked at her.
Cool blue eyes fixed upon her directly.
Lydia flinched sharply.
Then Ludwig walked toward her.
“Lydia.”
At the sound of his low voice, her entire body prickled with goosebumps.
“……Thank you. I’m alive because of you.”
Lydia bowed her head composedly and offered her gratitude.
‘Keep my head down.’
“If you hadn’t helped, I might truly have died. I will never forget this kindness.”
Separate from her wariness of Ludwig, he was absolutely someone she could never afford to turn into an enemy.
‘He already dislikes me for no reason—I can’t afford to make it worse.’
If she gave him a real reason to hate her on top of his baseless dislike, there was no telling how he might treat her.
Yet Ludwig offered no response to her words.
‘What? Didn’t he hear me?’
Perhaps he was simply ignoring her. He had never liked her anyway.
Not that it mattered.
Satisfied that she had shown sufficient courtesy, Lydia bowed once more, politely.
“Then I’ll take my leave. Goodbye.”
But Ludwig’s words came faster than her footsteps.
“……You’re hurt.”
What?
For a moment, Lydia doubted her own ears.
A pleasant, low voice continued, cutting through her frozen bewilderment.
“You should receive treatment before you go.”
His tone was kind and considerate.
‘What? Have I finally lost my mind?’
Hearing words she would never have expected from him left her utterly speechless.
Ludwig was fundamentally courteous, but he didn’t show goodwill indiscriminately.
Or rather, he maintained an equal distance from everyone through his civil demeanor—which made it all the more remarkable that Lydia had drawn even a hint of contempt from him.
‘He’d mock me before he’d worry about me.’
Yet as she thought this, her bright crimson palms suddenly entered her field of vision.
‘……Ah.’
Now that she thought about it, she had been coughing up blood just moments ago.
That someone like Lydia—essentially a civilian—had struggled against the Creature and vomited blood made his suggestion of treatment only natural.
Of course, it wasn’t damage from a Creature—it was a side effect of drawing on her Life Force.
“This is… I’m fine, really. It’s not a serious injury, so I’ll visit a civilian doctor. Thank you for your concern.”
Lydia drew the line quickly.
‘He’s probably just being polite.’
Even if it was Ludwig, he couldn’t very well send a woman in this state back on her own—it was just something he felt obliged to say.
In situations like this, she needed to be tactful enough to refuse on her own!
‘I must look absolutely dreadful right now. If even he’s reacting like this…’
Ludwig’s brows narrowed slightly in that moment, though Lydia was too pleased with her own prudent handling to notice.
“Sister!”
Just then, a desperate voice called out from the distance.
“Silvia?”
“Sister!”
Silvia, her face blotchy from tears, rushed forward and threw her arms around her older sister.
“Thank goodness… I thought you were dying…”
Lydia hurriedly patted Silvia’s back to comfort her, but this only made her cry harder.
‘So she didn’t leave after all.’
Lydia had seen the maid lead her away and thought it was safe to use the Ring, but from the sight of Silvia’s tears, it was clear she’d witnessed everything.
“I’m fine. I just… coughed up some blood.”
“How is that fine!”
It wasn’t working.
Silvia always grew unexpectedly sharp when it came to moments like these.
As Lydia was trying to soothe her sister, who cried like a child, she suddenly realized something.
Lydia’s eyes widened.
‘Wait… Ludwig is still here, isn’t he?’
Stiff-necked, she forced her head to turn.
And finally she saw it.
Ludwig watching the two sisters with keen interest.
‘No!’
The situation had unfolded so quickly that she’d completely forgotten.
All the effort she’d made to keep the Male Lead away from her sister—and it had gone up in smoke just like that!
Lydia hastily pushed Silvia behind her and bowed stiffly at the waist.
“Thank you so much for everything. I’ll be going now.”
Then she yanked off Silvia’s shawl and threw it over her head.
“What? Sister, what are you doing? Are we playing a game?”
“Yes. Now hurry up and let’s go home. What are you waiting for, move!”
Lydia bowed once more to Ludwig, then quickly tried to lead Silvia away from the scene.
Or rather, she tried to.
“Ugh!”
If not for the surge rising from her stomach, she would have made her escape cleanly.
Lydia reflexively clapped a hand over her mouth and staggered.
‘Damn it.’
Blast.
Whether from the sudden release of tension or from forcing her body too hard—
the blood that wet her palm again was bright red.
‘This is bad.’
Her stomach churned and the world tilted.
She couldn’t collapse here…
“Sister!”
Silvia gasped in alarm and quickly steadied Lydia.
“Excuse me, please help my sister. Please? I’m begging you.”
No! Who exactly are you asking for help!
But Lydia’s desperate inner cry never made it past her lips.
After some exchange she couldn’t quite hear, large hands lifted her into their arms.
Through the blur of her vision, looking up at Ludwig, Lydia thought:
‘I should have just run away before. Forget propriety…’
* * *
Soft fingers brushed through her hair.
‘Mother?’
That couldn’t be.
The mother she remembered before possession was gone forever, and Lydia’s biological mother in this life had already passed long ago.
‘…Not so bad, really.’
She didn’t know whose hand it was, but for Lydia it was a comfort she hadn’t felt in quite some time.
Most days she was the head of her household, and her sister’s guardian.
She lived too busily to afford even a moment of self-indulgence.
Not that she’d ever truly complained — yet it would be a lie to pretend she’d never known fatigue.
‘Just a little longer.’
Lydia luxuriated in drowsy sleep, now feeling warmth caressing her cheek.
It was a rare respite. Though consciousness hadn’t fully returned, she knew instinctively.
Once she opened her eyes, she’d return to a relentless routine with barely a moment to breathe.
‘Take care of Silvia, develop the Purification Agent, earn money, manage the household…’
Of course, by household matters she meant something closer to rebuilding the family’s reputation.
The thought of her constrictive reality drew a sigh, and her mind naturally drifted toward her daily obligations.
‘I just want to sleep deeply. When was the last time I slept in? I don’t think it’s happened at all since I was ten.’
That thought made her even more reluctant to wake.
A soft quilt, a plush bed, perfect temperature and ideal humidity.
This sleep-optimized space was so perfect she would’ve paid a fortune to have it installed at home.
‘Hmm?’
Wait.
‘Pay to have it installed at home?’
That meant this wasn’t her home.
Suddenly she was lucid.
‘Now that I think about it… why was I asleep in the first place?’
Once awareness crystallized, the moments before she’d collapsed rushed back through her mind.
An outing, a Rift that appeared from nowhere, Silvia, a repugnant Creature.
And…
‘Ludwig!’
Snap.
Lydia’s eyes flew open.

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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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