The Male Lead Is the Villain, and I'm the Only One Who Knows - Chapter 58

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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 Is Actually the Mastermind, and Only I Know It — Episode 58
……What were we talking about just now?
‘What was that?’
In the brief span where we’d traded words back and forth, the thread of conversation had slipped through my fingers entirely.
As my silence stretched on while I wrestled with the thought, Iban’s eyes—which had been studying me intently—narrowed to a faint gleam.
“Did you already forget what you were doing, preening and taunting me?”
A small, incredulous laugh burst out from close by, as if to say *How could you possibly forget?* His expression suggested that my boldness in approaching him first had caught him rather off guard.
“Or perhaps it meant nothing to you.”
What followed was a tone tinged with subtle displeasure. Fortunately, my danger sensors were functioning properly, and I quickly shook my head at him.
“I was just curious and asking, that’s all.”
“Curious, you say……”
He seemed to be contemplating something for a moment, then slowly nodded.
“Whether Magic Power absorbs faster when our lips meet, is that it?”
His next words suggested he could explain, if I wished—though the tone certainly didn’t promise a mere explanation.
‘Those eyes…… he looks like he’s having the time of his life……’
Gazing at Iban’s curved green eyes, I swallowed hard, mustering an awkward smile.
“Just…… holding hands is fine. That’s enough.”
Fearing I’d truly be devoured if I pushed any further, I hastily drew a line in the sand.
‘What am I doing, flirting with a demon like this? Rene, do you have no sense of self-preservation at all?’
He was right. I shouldn’t rush toward him so recklessly again like before. Hmm….
“That’s unfortunate.”
Unlike me, whose words and actions often diverged, Iban was quite the practiced actor. He was genuinely clicking his tongue in disappointment.
“……I thought you had no interest in humans.”
“That’s right, I don’t. But I do have preferences. Want to know?”
The moment his question reached me, my danger sensors activated once more. I immediately clamped my mouth shut.
Don’t ask anything more. Let’s just end this here.
As I kept my lips sealed and shook my head again, Iban leaned back against the sofa, regarding me at an angle.
“Setting that aside, there’s still an answer I need to hear from you.”
…An answer?
Now that I thought about it, Shana had burst in during that terrifying Q&A session, interrupting it briefly.
I’d barely dodged a bullet, and now it was coming back……
I was quietly staring at him, wondering what else he wanted to ask, when Iban measured me with his gaze and slowly opened his mouth.
“What did Karahan say to you beneath the platform earlier?”
He’d definitely seen my lips move slightly, Iban said, raising one eyebrow.
If I told him here that Karahan knew about his identity as a Great Demon and had revealed it to me, so now I knew too……
‘Mmm~ the scent of catastrophe. The stench of a trainwreck.’
There had to be a reason he’d introduced himself as merely a demon at the beginning. If he’d kept it even from me—his collaborator—it must be something sensitive.
So I’d better brush past it lightly. I opened my mouth with a composed expression.
“He said that if we stayed there much longer, we might get hurt, so we should leave. I did as Barat advised. You were there watching anyway, so you’d see.”
For something I’d improvised on the spot, it was a fairly solid answer. I’d genuinely tried to slip away into the crowd with Karahan’s hand right after that.
Things only went wrong when I lost my Robe, but regardless.
……
Iban didn’t react otherwise. His gaze was so dry that I couldn’t read a thing about what he was thinking.
His deep, dark green eyes held the cool of a forest in the dead of night.
“…I’ll give you a chance to answer again, Rene.”
His lips slowly curved upward. His smile, lifting like that, appeared at first glance warm and gentle, but……
‘Oh no…… I really am useless at lying, aren’t I? His expression says he saw right through me.’
His gaze had gone slightly unfocused and turned inward—five seconds until the scolding barrage arrived, no, four, three……
“Karahan told you about my identity.”
“……Uh, no?”
“That’s, right?”
Iban mimicked my fumbling tone, laughing openly. Damn.
“Well, I expected as much. That bastard wouldn’t have been pestering me all these years for nothing.”
Hmm. It’s true…… they were clashing constantly even at that Temple not long ago……
“……When we first met in the Imperial Palace Garden. You got a burn on the back of your hand from that cheap Holy Water I brought, remember? Was that an act?”
I could still vividly see his hand reddening as it burned. Since I’d properly used the Filth ability for the first time then, it wasn’t a scene I’d easily forget.
‘I thought he was just an ordinary demon because he was hurt so easily by Holy Water. If I’d known he was such a big shot, I’d have run away long ago.’
To my question, tinged with that strange hint of regret, Iban rolled his eyes as if recalling that day with interest.
“No. To verify the Filth ability, I couldn’t have faked the injury.”
“……Then if I hadn’t possessed the Filth ability back then, would you have actually been burned?”
“Well, quite right.”
He nodded readily, accepting the logic without protest. His calm indifference toward his own injury remained unchanged.
A Great Demon of his caliber emptying the Demon Realm—this was no trivial matter.
If any ordinary human learned of it, execution would be the inevitable consequence.
‘Iban would do far worse.’
At that thought, worry for Karahan began to creep in.
“Your eyes betray much thought.”
As I sat silent, lost in tangled reflection, he bent slightly at the waist and tilted his head up to meet my gaze from below.
The moment I parted my lips to speak, his long index finger came to rest against my skin, gentle yet deliberate. The pressure was steady rather than harsh, but far from ignorable.
“No more lies, Rene. Don’t test my patience.”
His voice was soft, but the words behind it were not. I stiffened slightly, wet my parched mouth, and reluctantly nodded.
“So now you’ll answer?”
“…I asked Duke Barat why he dislikes you. He said it’s because you’re a Great Demon.”
“Ah, how wounding.”
…Ridiculous. He was laughing, his face unmarked by any real hurt.
I exhaled deeply, watching Iban with his smile still in place.
“…Your Highness, are you going to kill Duke Barat?”
A villainess killing the male lead? Complete narrative collapse in five seconds….

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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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