The Male Lead Is the Villain, and I'm the Only One Who Knows - Chapter 73

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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’s True Identity is the Mastermind, But Only I Know It — Chapter 73
At Evan’s chilling words that the culprit could only be caught through my verification, I had no choice but to nod.
Evan gestured, and Banel’s face turned cold as ice as he swiftly opened the door. Through it came several maidservants with bound hands and feet, ushered quickly into the inner chamber.
They all kept their mouths shut, heads bowed, trembling pitifully from head to toe.
“Lift your heads. I need to see your faces.”
As Banel’s stern declaration that those who looked at the floor would be punished echoed through the room, the maidservants began slowly raising their faces one by one, their eyes clouded with bewilderment and dread.
“Wait, that girl….”
Leaning against the headboard, I’d been studying the unfamiliar faces when my eyes went wide at a familiar one.
A rather young-looking woman with dark blue hair and brown eyes—plain enough in appearance, but there was a reason I remembered her.
‘That’s the maidservant who was washing my body in the bathroom this morning.’
Suddenly, the hazy voice of the elderly head maidservant from not long ago, casually introducing her as a newly arrived junior maid, flashed through my mind.
“That’s the one.”
The moment my words left my mouth, Evan’s hand lifted lightly, and before I could even open it again, he swept his Military Jacket over my head in one swift motion.
As if keeping to some old promise to let me see only good things.
Moments later, an unfamiliar, scraping sound reached my ears.
“Evan? What are you—!”
I still couldn’t tell whether that dream from just moments ago was merely a nightmare or a forgotten memory surfacing.
‘Did he actually kill her? I only said one thing!’
My vision was still dark with confusion, and from the unseen space before me came the sharp, chilling sound of terrified maidservants throwing themselves to the ground, begging for their lives.
To steady my spinning mind, I needed to see. I grabbed at the jacket.
“Banel. Clean it up.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Noticing my intention, Evan pressed my head down firmly with his large palm, preventing me from removing the jacket.
“What are you doing? Let go, Evan.”
“What just died wasn’t a person—it was a Farmer. Since it’s not a Humanoid Beast, you can’t Purify it. It’s a demon.”
His firm voice carried a clear message: don’t waste energy feeling guilty.
“Now, all of you listen.”
I heard Banel casting something like an incantation toward the surviving maidservants. He seemed to be using a memory-erasure spell.
“Now go and attend to your duties.”
“Yes, Secretary.”
Shortly after, at Banel’s instruction, the maidservants gave vacant replies and one by one slipped out of the chamber.
In the quiet room now emptied of so many breaths, Evan slowly removed the Military Jacket from my head. Before my eyes lay an immaculate bedroom, as if nothing had ever happened.
Clean walls and floors without a trace of blood, without the mark of the dead, without any sign at all—a cleanliness that felt deeply wrong.
‘How did they do this so fast? They really cleaned it up perfectly.’
As if nothing had occurred, everything had vanished without a trace.
“The person who just died—I mean, the Farmer. Where is it? I don’t see it.”
Could they really have disposed of a corpse in such a brief moment? I looked up at Evan with confusion in my eyes.
“Unlike Humanoid Beasts, Farmers are demons, so they leave no corpse when they die. They simply dissolve away.”
Evan gestured with his chin toward the maidservant’s uniform draped across Banel’s arm—the very uniform worn by the maidservant I’d identified moments before.
This immediately proved that she was indeed the real Farmer. Unbelievable. I had no idea. A Farmer had been among my own maidservants all this time.….
“…I don’t understand. You said that only Humanoid Beasts can’t approach if they receive Your Highness’s Magical Power.”
Because Humanoid Beasts wear human disguises, we can’t block their malicious approach, but ordinary beasts and demons can’t get close, so it should be safe—isn’t that what you said?
As I stared at Evan with doubt, his green eyes grew all the more composed. His long fingers gently brushed aside my disheveled hair.
“Beasts lose their fear when they’re cornered.”
“That means….”
Sensing something ominous in his subdued tone, I ended up unable to finish my sentence. Banel, who had been quietly observing us from the side, opened his mouth carefully.
“It appears the Farmer faction has become aware of Rene’s presence. We suspect word spread after you Purified Josh Natwell’s Magical Contamination last time. We’re gathering relevant information, so it would be best if you stayed with His Highness until after the Founding Festival.”
Once Banel finished speaking calmly, he deftly manipulated the dark shadows pooling on the floor, issuing them brief commands in an unfamiliar language.
Despite the hour being just past noon, the shadows that had wavered without losing their darkness vanished in a rush beneath the pale winter sunlight.
“I told you, Rene. The existence of Filth is fatal to the Rebel Forces, so you’ll become a target the moment you Purify it.”
Evan recited his earlier warning, reminding me once again of reality.
I’d summoned my courage to stand before people for the first time, and what came back was a Farmer’s attack. The world was unbearably cruel to me.….
“Evan, about the nightmare I had. Is that really just a ‘dream’?”
My frustration aside, I actually needed to verify the facts. This was a memory completely foreign to me—why did it feel so ominous and so familiar?
Feeling as if I needed to understand what had happened to ease my troubled mind, I faced Evan carefully and asked my question.
‘More than anything, I’ve never seen Lion cry like that before. He didn’t even cry at our grandfather’s funeral, the one who loved us so much.’
The sorrowful face of Lion holding me close, solemnly swearing he would never let me fall into danger again—I couldn’t shake that image from my mind.
In truth, Lion was a ‘man’ who had grown up alongside ‘me’ inhabiting a child’s body.
Of course, after all these years of bickering with Lion, it felt more familial than simply being strangers, but.
‘Why does that crying face hurt my heart so much….’
After so many years together, it was perhaps natural that emotions would stir between us.
“I suppose. First, I’d better hear what you’ve been dreaming about.”
Evan’s words drew a nod from Banel, who pressed a warm teacup into my hands.
“Rene. As I’ve mentioned before, Farmers employ a technique that touches the darkness within the human heart and gradually collapses one’s mind. For this reason, only you can know whether what you experience in your ‘inner self’ is illusion or reality.”
With promises to listen and help me sort through it, Evan and Banel exchanged a look and stood watching me in silence as I leaned back against the headboard.
“……It was me as a child. I was locked behind iron bars on what looked like a stage, and people seated in the audience were bidding on my body. It was just like an auction house.”
Speaking of the dream wasn’t difficult. The vividness of it all made my account flow with remarkable detail.
The color of eyes behind countless masks watching me, the faint smell of oak rising from the wooden floor, the stench of cheap cigars mingling with expensive perfume, even the Blue Lace Fan someone was holding.
The more I spoke, the colder the expressions on Evan and Banel’s faces became.

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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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