The Male Lead Is the Villain, and I'm the Only One Who Knows - Chapter 79

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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 the True Villain, and Only I Know — Episode 79
“Come on, both Iban and Banel are being awfully harsh with Chahil, aren’t they? He came forward offering to help, after all.”
Chahil hadn’t done anything particularly reckless yet, and he was working diligently as a servant, so I found myself shaking my head in disapproval.
Banel met my gaze calmly, wearing a kind smile.
“You mustn’t trust demons, Miss Rene. Especially not a half-breed like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because he possesses both the arrogance of demons and the greed of humans. A lowly creature without a vessel large enough to contain it all.”
His voice came coolly, stripped of any emotion. It was a dry tone, as if merely listing facts.
“You’ll understand soon enough. One way or another.”
Banel fell silent as he watched Chahil approach, his gentle explanation ending there with room left for future elaboration.
“Master, I found a trace! It’s faint, but it should be enough to tell us where they’re hiding.”
Chahil came over with an excited face, holding something in his hand, and I glanced back at Iban. He watched quietly from where he stood, as if nothing were amiss.
“Now, Master. If you look here…”
Chahil approached my side with a soft laugh, showing me broken fragments of stone wall he held in his palm.
“Hm?”
I couldn’t fathom what trace could possibly be in a mere stone like that, so I simply stared at it — when suddenly Chahil clenched his fist and shattered the fragments in one swift motion.
“…Chahil?”
The question barely formed on my lips before—
Through the pale, eerie gust of scattering dust, mysterious blue magic circles rose up one after another before I could even draw a breath.
It was truly instantaneous. Just a few seconds—the most extreme fraction of a moment.
“Rene!”
“…!”
Iban’s cool fingertips brushed dangerously against my dress sleeve.
In that instant, a brief message flashed across his lips.
If I hadn’t been mistaken, it looked like he’d said, “I’ll come get you.”
With Chahil’s casual sigh of “Oops” ringing in my ear as the last thing I heard, I lost consciousness.
— Coo-coo, coo-coo. Coo-coo.
— Coo-coo-coo, squeak-squeak. Coo…
Ugh… so itchy. And something damp…?
In my half-awake state, I felt something warm and tiny rubbing against my face over and over.
“Mm. What is…”
— Coo-coo-coo!
As if urging me to wake, Dust rubbed its small body furiously against my cheek, its tears dripping in tiny droplets.
So that’s where the dampness came from…
“…Dust?”
— Coo-coo-coo!!
Dust’s loud chirp struck my eardrums, and I finally began to come to my senses.
“What kind of situation is this…?”
Beneath a faint orange lamp flickering as if it might die at any moment, I lay sprawled on the floor of an Underground Passage.
The surroundings were deathly quiet and my body didn’t ache, so it didn’t seem like I was in immediate mortal danger—small blessings.
‘Hmm… I can feel it now… that signature scent of the second act of melodrama that comes from a trashy work where the male lead is the true villain…’
There had to be a reason for the sudden change of location. It seemed Chahil had done something to me earlier…
‘Or perhaps there was an accident.’
It felt even more suspicious because Banel had just warned me not to trust Chahil.
I sighed and pushed myself up, but no matter how much I looked around, all I could see was a rusty underground ceiling with water dripping from it, passage walls covered in filthy marks, and a cold stone floor.
‘It’s too dark to see well.’
There was only one lamp hanging on the wall, but even it was growing dim, flickering precariously.
“Hmm, there’s a Mana-Blocking Barrier here.”
As a result, no matter how tightly I clenched my fists or opened them again, I felt nothing at my fingertips. It seemed I couldn’t use Teleportation Magic, let alone Light Magic.
“I need to get up at least. The floor is soaked.”
Though I did manage to stand, the musty smell permeating the entire space kept assaulting my nose, and with no wind blowing, I had no idea whether to go forward or backward.
“Mm. It’s too dark—I think I need some light to move around…”
— Coo-coo?
At my words, Dust, who had been tilting its body, slowly began to glow.
Oh, for goodness sake.
“…First a dust bunny, now a dust firefly.”
Why was my Dust so versatile!
Like a firefly, Dust’s body emitted a pure white light as it hovered gently in the air, willingly serving as a lamp.
Thanks to that, the dark space finally brightened, and I was able to look around freely at last.
The first thing that caught my eye was…!
“A gasp—”
Without thinking, I clapped my hand over my mouth before a scream could escape, my heart hammering wildly in my chest.
The initial shock faded almost as quickly as it came, but I barely registered it—I simply left the dust clinging to my cheek and crept toward the nearest wall.
“Are these… human bones?”
Skulls that unmistakably belonged to humans lay scattered haphazardly throughout the Underground Passage. Worse, fresh blood—still wet—spattered the ground in multiple places.
“But I was clearly possessed into a Healing Novel……”
Wasn’t I?
Something about this genre mix was getting increasingly wrong.
— Whimper, whine!
Dust suddenly snuffed out the light from his body. Darkness swallowed the Underground Passage in an instant, and it became a genuine horror scene. God help me. I want to go home.
I was about to tell Dust to turn the light back on when the unmistakable sound of footsteps echoed down from the ceiling above, creeping into my ears.
Definitely human. From the sound of it, not just one person—maybe three.
“Sigh… do we really have to come all the way out here?”
“The Cardinal ordered it. Who else would do this kind of work if not us rank-and-file priests?”
“I’m not complaining for nothing. You know as well as I do—the junior priests have been disappearing at an unusual rate lately. We could be next, for all we know.”
“Ugh, stop with the ominous talk and just start cleaning. He doesn’t like this place getting dirty.”
“Let’s hurry. Once the sun sets, we can’t stay here anymore.”
Bright lanterns approached from the distance, and three men in dark robes with faces carefully wrapped in black cloth appeared, immediately setting to work with practiced efficiency, cleaning supplies in hand.
The blood that had streaked down the walls, the bone fragments scattered across the floor—all of it vanished without a trace under their skilled movements.
“By the way, I’ve heard there have been screams coming from the new Annex every night lately… have you noticed anything?”
“There you go again! Stop spreading rumors and scaring the others. I know of more than one person who had nightmares because of you yesterday!”
“Hmm. Maybe it’s not just a rumor. I’ve heard those screams too.”
“What? Really? Well, what did they sound like? Like the mournful wail of a vengeful spirit?”
“Actually… it sounded like human screams to me. Children’s screams, if I had to guess.”
“Come on, what children would be in that empty Annex? Your ears must be going bad in your old age.”
The men, bickering among themselves, finished their cleaning quickly and disappeared down the passage. The hurried, almost hunted way they left struck me as deeply suspicious.
— Whine.
“… This place really does seem like a Temple, doesn’t it? With all the cardinals and priests and everything.”
— Growl.
Dust nodded, shaking his body, then clamped down on my collar and tugged me urgently in the direction the men had gone.
“All right, all right. We can’t stay here anyway. Let’s get out.”
— Yelp!
I was taking my first careful step forward into the light Dust provided when it happened.
“Good to see you again, Rene.”
That unpleasantly familiar voice struck me from behind.

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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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