The Male Lead Is the Villain, and I'm the Only One Who Knows - Chapter 76

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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 — Episode 76
Lion’s crimson eyes blazed with fury as he seized Evan by the collar in one fluid motion, his handsome face turning cold as ice as raw anger consumed him.
“Tch.”
Despite Evan’s considerable height, Lion’s rigid posture kept them at nearly eye level, and he fixed the man’s emerald gaze with a lethal glare.
Even with his collar caught, Evan’s only response was a brief, almost amused exhale.
“You’ll wake Rene at this rate.”
His face remained utterly composed, his voice maddeningly calm and unhurried—a deliberate provocation that made Lion’s jaw clench.
“Say that again. Whether you’re joking or not, my mood is beyond terrible right now.”
Genius mage of the century or whatever—the carefully cultivated noble image Lion had crafted shattered to pieces in mere seconds.
Then Barnel, who had stood silent at his side, stepped forward with a flash of pale blue eyes and gripped Lion’s wrist firmly.
“Watch your tongue. Get yourself together. Lion Astel.”
Instead of getting himself together, Lion laughed coldly and shot Barnel a glacial look.
“Let go, you bastard. Barnel, you knew too, didn’t you?”
Lion wrenched his wrist free with a sharp, violent motion, unable to fathom how such a thing could be hidden.
Barnel offered no defense to the accusation; his silence alone was answer enough, hanging in the air like a confession.
Yet the heavy, oppressive aura he maintained to subdue Lion’s rage continued to flow unabated. Lion ground his teeth and fixed Evan with a piercing stare.
As crown prince, Evan was perhaps the man most constantly surrounded by others in this entire realm.
That such a man would be engaged to Rene struck Lion with instant, gut-wrenching certainty that this could never have been his sister’s willing choice.
“Mmm…….”
All three men’s eyes snapped toward one point.
It was the sound of Rene stirring beneath the blankets—a soft, drowsy whimper escaping her sleeping form.
“See? I told you Rene would wake up if you kept making a racket.”
Evan gave Lion a reproachful look, as though reminding him of something he should have already known.
Though the deep sedative should have kept her asleep for some time yet, if the noise continued, she might actually wake. Evan’s gaze lingered on her sleeping figure for a moment.
Fortunately, it had been only a shift in her sleep; Rene soon settled back into deep slumber, motionless and silent.
“Hah.”
That single, trivial murmur stripped away Lion’s fury as though peeling off a layer of paper—his eyes, which had been blazing just moments before, returned to something approaching normal.
“……Explain yourself. What’s happened and how. From beginning to end, in detail.”
His voice had grown quieter, and with a slow, measured breath, his heartbeat returned to normal rhythm. Lion righted an overturned stool and dropped heavily onto it.
Evan, who had been leaning against the wall, finally pushed himself upright and took a seat on the sofa across from him. Lion exhaled and spoke again.
“Tell me exactly how you managed to manipulate our princess.”
Under ordinary circumstances, Evan would have dismissed such a pitiful human threat entirely and gotten straight to business. But he found this situation far from disagreeable.
He knew such trivial entertainments rarely came his way. More than that, the thought that Rene might wake made his emerald eyes gleam with a subtle, twisted pleasure.
“Manipulate? That wounds me, brother-in-law. We simply met naturally, as any couple might.”
“B-brother-in-law?!”
Oh, the back of my skull… I’m done. I’m finished…
The rest went unheard. It was the single, earth-shattering word that had landed like a blow—one so shocking it burned—that made Lion grip his forehead as though he might faint.
“Haaa…….”
A thousand curses rose to the tip of his tongue, but with Rene sleeping beside him, he swallowed them and exhaled a long, measured breath.
Evan watched Lion’s suffering with no small satisfaction. He shared enough resemblance with Rene that observing their similar mannerisms and disposition was genuinely entertaining.
“Now then, answer my question. The Auction House—tell me what you know.”
Under normal circumstances, the man Evan was would have simply dug through Lion’s mind and extracted the desired memory without asking twice. But he waited, patient and still.
After all, this man was Rene’s blood relation, and remarkably similar to her at that. It warranted some restraint.
“……At the time, the Auction House was an ordinary establishment that opened its doors to general clientele during the day.”
Lion finally opened his mouth, though it clearly pained him to do so.
He explained that the auction house operated as a legitimate venue for jewels and jewelry during daylight hours, evading imperial law enforcement, while transforming at night into an illegal black market for slave trading.
“Because it was situated in a district overseen by the Grand Temple, no one suspected—or rather, no one could suspect. It was a festival day then as well, and while our parents and I turned our attention away for a moment, Rene disappeared.”
As Lion spoke, Barnel silently withdrew a particular document from the folder he carried and passed it to Evan.
It was a page from the Guard’s Incident Record, documenting a child abduction case from thirteen years prior.
“While tracking Rene’s traces through Detection Magic, we reached an underground level beneath a certain building and discovered the auction house’s existence.”
Evan reviewed the Guard’s Incident Record dated Imperial Calendar Year 642, which matched Lion’s account precisely. He noted the location of the Auction House from thirteen years ago written on the document.
Evan drew a sharp breath and calculated the location based on current geography. It wasn’t difficult to recall. It was a coordinate he’d seen many times before.
“The Newly Built Annex attached to the Grand Temple, then. That was the only structure expanded exactly thirteen years ago.”
“The Newly Built Annex… Now that I consider it, that’s one of the areas my reach hasn’t extended to. There was so little of interest above ground that I merely skimmed it. My apologies.”
Having just learned of the basement’s existence, Barnel turned slightly and swiftly dispatched the shadows waiting in standby toward that location.
“At the time, Rene believed she was dying and revealed her true identity to me, but fortunately she recovered quickly. The difficulty is that whenever she draws public attention, her body reacts—the trauma manifests as hyperventilation.”
This was the moment Evan confirmed that Rene’s hyperventilation truly stemmed from her past trauma.
Rene herself, having had her memories erased by Lion, didn’t understand the cause and had vaguely attributed it to fear of being watched, unaware of her trauma’s true origin.
“Lion Astel, if you returned to that place now, could you recognize it?”
“Of course, but there’s nothing left to recognize—I burned it all down.”
“No, there is. It’s not the sort of place that would collapse from something as trivial as fire.”
Mere scorch marks wouldn’t bring it down so easily.
While trying to unravel the mystery haunting Rene’s nightmares, Evan had inadvertently found himself tracing Farmer’s hidden movements.
This was an unexpected bonus.
“Your Highness, it seems our affairs and Rene’s past may be connected somehow.”
Barnel appeared to share the same thought, his whisper carefully measured and cautious.
“Yes… we should verify it.”
When exactly had this deceptively frail yet resilient woman stepped into their world?
Evan’s gaze fixed sharply on Rene, who had begun to stir, drifting toward wakefulness.

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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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