The Male Lead Is the Villain, and I'm the Only One Who Knows - Chapter 98

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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 Mastermind, but Only I Know It — Episode 98
A sharp whip cracked through the air, its recoil whipping against his grip, and a piercing sound lashed across my hearing—my eyes snapped shut reflexively.
“Ah, Iban…!”
I opened my eyes at once, looking up at Iban, who held me lightly in his embrace, and let out a cry of surprise.
He patted my back in an irregular rhythm as if to reassure me, then swept his gaze over me quickly with an odd expression.
“Any injuries.”
A careful, meticulous scrutiny fell across my entire body, examining whether anything was wrong. His gaze was kind yet seemed cold, warm yet somehow cutting—and it struck my thundering heart in ways I couldn’t fathom.
“None.”
“Good.”
The familiar scent of a winter forest, delivered in his clipped reply, brushed against my nose more intensely than usual.
“Rene, I think you should rest for a moment.”
At once, a cold hand—yet paradoxically warm—descended like a suffocating weight over my ear.
“Wait, what are you—”
“It won’t take long.”
His drowsy, murmuring promise echoed and reverberated at the crown of my head.
‘Ugh, suddenly so drowsy…’
All sound faded with eerie swiftness, and I sank into darkness.

* * *
“Your Highness, I have him.”
“Throw him down there.”
Banel seized Chahil by the back of the neck—the man who had lost consciousness from the violent rupture of the Concealment Barrier—and hurled him to the floor.
With a heavy thud, Chahil’s sturdy frame fell limp across the bedroom carpet.
Iban carried Rene like a sack of grain and frowned. Every time he lifted her, he thought the same thing: she was far too light.
He then fixed his gaze on something pale white on the floor.
‘I’ll need more time to assess his exact capabilities… but he’s quite interesting.’
‘None of the humans you’ve found interesting have ever been sane.’
‘Watch him for now. Especially when he’s in contact with Rene.’
‘Yes, Your Highness.’
The intelligence Iban had ordered Banel to gather on Chahil months ago had now borne fruit. Iban nudged the unconscious man’s body with the tip of his shoe, then clicked his tongue.
Outside, the hour had long since passed midnight. A pale blue full moon, tinged with desolate cold, hung frozen in the deep blue expanse of sky.
“A fine night for dealing with strays.”
Like the founding festival, or perhaps even more fraught with complications, the Hunt Festival loomed—barely a day away.
This oblivious, pale whelp was gradually revealing his true colors to Rene with each passing moment. Iban could no longer abide it.
In the Hunt Festival, where all was permitted and chaos reigned without end—a lawless wasteland if ever there was one—he had no idea what this creature might do.
Demonic Energy, a shade of red unknown to mortal eyes, coalesced effortlessly at Iban’s fingertips. Without hesitation or deliberation, he meant to end it in a single moment.
“Your Highness, Lady Rene will grieve.”
Just as the sphere of Demonic Energy transformed into a sharp spear aimed at Chahil’s heart, Banel’s voice drifted through—and Iban’s brow furrowed slowly.
The fact that Banel had spoken at all, knowing how volatile Iban became at any mention of Rene, meant he was serious in his objection.
‘I am the only servant favored by the Master. She will despise you. For quite some time. Perhaps forever.’
Chahil had thrown those words at him like a dagger during a pointless verbal sparring not long ago. At the time, Iban had scoffed—but he hadn’t managed to ignore that disagreeable memory, which now flickered through his mind.
“Whether Rene grieves or not is no concern of mine.”
“Yet the moment you sensed the Concealment Barrier at the Imperial Palace, you didn’t even look back before you Warped to Marin Palace…”
Iban deliberately traveled by horse or carriage everywhere—whether to the Imperial Palace or elsewhere—to avoid any suspicion of being a Mage.
But the instant he detected the barrier, he had abandoned Banel and Warped alone to Marin Palace. His body moved before his mind could decide. A truly painful blunder.
“At least no one saw. We were lucky—it could have become quite troublesome.”
At Banel’s relentless recitation of facts, the corner of Iban’s mouth twisted downward.
“And?”
“I will move him to the Annex. He cannot possibly wake in Lady Rene’s bedchamber.”
Meeting Iban’s chilling gaze, Banel swallowed hard, dragged Chahil by the legs, and vanished from the bedroom in an instant.
Agility. It was why Banel had survived so long at Iban’s side.
“Everything ready?”
Iban’s casual question stretched toward Sis, who had been waiting in the background. Was Rene prepared to depart for Ruby Palace?
Understanding his meaning without difficulty, Sis lifted a shallow basket containing Rene’s sleeping clothes and lowered her head.
“All preparations are complete. This incident occurred just as we were about to depart.”
“So he wasn’t deliberately loitering, then.”
“Chahil had been waiting outside Lady Rene’s bedchamber.”
“Quick report. When did Biloje start bungling things like this?”
Iban’s deep green eyes narrowed coldly. Sis and the others had seemed sharp enough in their reports since the Tea Party with Rene, yet lately there were small gaps here and there.
Nothing serious—all petty matters—yet he couldn’t explain why they so irritated and needled him.
“I will make amends.”
Khan, who had drawn close to Sis without warning, bowed his head alongside her in silent apology.
“I’ll handle this.”
Iban, cradling Rene, accepted the basket from Sis’s hands and slipped out of Marin Palace without another word.
……
Making his way toward Ruby Palace in the biting night air, Iban exhaled a long breath tinged with relief he hadn’t consciously summoned.
The moment he sensed the Concealment Barrier, he’d lost his reason for an instant and put Rene to sleep to kill Chahil — but Banel had spared them both from catastrophe.
“…What does this woman think she’s doing.”
He was a wreck. In all his long existence, he’d never before found himself swallowing his pride, unable to kill some worthless creature because he was watching the face of a human woman.
Yet there was no denying it: the thought of Rene growing sad, or of her turning away from him, sat poorly with him.
A senseless thought seized hold of his mind — that it was better to go on like this, watching Rene’s every expression, than any alternative he could imagine.
“Your Majesty.”
“Later.”
Banel, returning from the Annex with something to report about Chahil, hastened near; Iban cut him off with a glacial stare.
Banel, reading the dismissal, withdrew. Only after Iban reached Ruby Palace and laid Rene safely in her sleeping chamber did the Great Demon finally speak again.
“In Chahil’s bedchamber, we found a Forbidden Book bearing the seal of the Demon Realm Library — it concerns Contracts.”
Iban’s eyes, which had been resting on the sleeping Rene, finally turned toward Banel.
That a Forbidden Book, which should have been gathering dust in the Library, had fallen into Chahil’s hands meant one of the other two Great Demons — not Chahil himself — had conspired with him.
This suggested Chahil’s earlier temptation of Rene regarding the Library had not been mere baseless boasting.
Iban murmured softly, as though working through a thought.
“…If it were an accident, Rene couldn’t blame me for it.”
Then at least she wouldn’t hate him. Because it would be an ‘accident.’
The Hunt Festival, which had held not the slightest interest for him until now, finally captured Iban’s attention. The soft hair of the deeply sleeping Rene flowed through his long fingers like water.

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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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