The Obsessive Maniac Is Trying To Confine Me - Chapter 181

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 181

The hand that Rihardt had grabbed was hot. I twisted to shake off that hand, but the more I did, the more persistently he tried to bind me.

“Won’t you let go?”

“I don’t want to.”

“What are you trying to do?”

“I’m asking you to cherish me.”

How shameless…!

How is this in any way a gesture asking to be cherished?

“Since doing this won’t make you cherish me, shall I tell you about what you asked before?”

“…”

“You asked about the Benefactor.”

The Benefactor.

The real Benefactor ‘Sian’, not ‘Roji’.

“I searched for his whereabouts, but he wasn’t found anywhere in this area. He disappeared like the wind.”

Sian disappeared after throwing me into the furnace.

No trace of him was found even at the place where we were kidnapped together.

‘Where did he go?’

Why did he appear before me in the first place?

And why… did he give me the pendant before disappearing?

I threw it into the sea, so how did he retrieve it?

“How did you come to know the Benefactor?”

“If you want to hear it, this time you answer my question first.”

“…What are you curious about?”

“What’s your relationship with the Benefactor?”

What’s my relationship with Sian?

A concise sentence wouldn’t come to mind easily.

“We knew each other briefly in the past.”

Rihardt looked down at me as if unsatisfied with that answer.

“We knew each other in my hometown. We studied together.”

“By hometown, you mean the place you lived before coming to Herthas?”

I nodded roughly.

Since I lived in Korea before coming to Herthas, it’s not a lie.

“If it was just that kind of relationship, why did he appear before you? You must have parted when you were very young.”

I was the one who was curious.

Why did Sian appear before me?

We weren’t that close. Wasn’t he just one of those passing connections?

“I don’t really know what that kid was thinking either. We just had a tender relationship in the past.”

“Tender?”

His expression turned cold as if he’d heard something unpleasant.

“…He was a kind child who tried to give hope to me when I was struggling.”

That’s how it was back then.

Our relationship became strange after he hid the fact that Mother had died, but at least he was a good kid.

“I think that’s enough of an answer. Now you answer me. What’s your relationship with the Benefactor?”

“Fine. Now I’ll tell you my answer. It’s been almost 3 years now.”

He seemed unsatisfied with my response, but began his story.

After escaping from Evantes to the ‘Maze Garden’, he was in the Cursed Land.

At that time, he was severely injured and nearly dying due to the Cursed Land that suppressed the transcendent’s power.

That’s when Sian appeared.

After that, he said if he would fulfill a ‘condition’, he would not only save him but put everything in his hands.

“What was that condition?”

What did Sian want?

“Your scent.”

“What?”

“To let him smell your scent. That was the Benefactor’s condition.”

What kind of bizarre condition is that?

Why would he need my scent?

“…Was that why you couldn’t smell my scent?”

Rihardt nodded.

“Back then I thought it didn’t matter what I gave as long as I could meet you again, but now I regret it.”

He grasped my hair in his hand and kissed it.

“I should have refused even if it meant dying.”

“…”

“Or maybe killing the Benefactor to get it back would be fine too.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Why?”

I had only said something obvious, but he asked back with an expression that said he didn’t understand.

I wondered if there was any point in continuing this conversation.

“He often spoke to me in my head.”

“…?”

“After being saved by the Benefactor, as if connected to him, he often spoke to me in my head. But at some point, I stopped hearing his voice.”

“…”

“I wonder why.”

His eyes looked at me as if I was the reason.

Blue eyes filled with almost certainty.

“I don’t know how you think of the Benefactor, but it would be better not to harbor too deep feelings.”

“What do you know to say such things?”

“…I don’t know much, but the moment I figure out your feelings, I don’t know how I’ll react.”

I think he might be a demon.

* * *

A week passed.

The fact that the Lord was the culprit behind the disappearances in the village was revealed.

Moreover, when it was discovered that he was plotting treason, Lord Ruad met a miserable end.

His head was hung in the town square.

Next to it, I saw several familiar faces.

Hanna. She too had plotted terrible things with the Lord and didn’t remain safe.

“You came. I thought you wouldn’t.”

Anri spoke as if surprised to see me arrive at the square.

“Does this mean you’re willing to have a conversation with me?”

I silently held out a crumpled paper to him.

“Look at this first. If you can explain what this is, I’ll consider it.”

“This is…”

Anri began reading the paper I handed him.

It was a paper I found while searching Lord Ruad’s chamber.

The letter contained only very brief content exchanged between Rose and the Lord.

[Lord, are the preparations going well?

You must do well so that the ceremony to be held in a month can be more grand.

Then let’s wait for good news.]

The letter mentioned ‘ritual’ frequently.

However, it didn’t specify what that ritual was.

“What’s the ritual?”

“Ah, you saw this.”

His expression showed he knew what this was about.

“It’s something the Benefactor has been planning for a very long time. She’s trying to summon something truly terrible through this ‘ritual’.”

“Something terrible?”

Anri nodded.

“The Lord said so. That this is all for inciting rebellion.”

“It could be, or it might not be.”

It was an ambiguous answer.

“The Benefactor saw right through what her people wanted. And she tells them it’s necessary to achieve the utopia they desire.”

“Then what about you? What did the Benefactor tell you?”

“To me…”

Anri couldn’t answer readily.

“I never followed the Benefactor. It wasn’t me but Emily who followed the Benefactor.”

“…Emily?”

It was a connection from long ago.

I vaguely remembered meeting her after fleeing from Herthas, and how she had taken care of me attentively.

“Emily thinks of you as very special.”

“…Why?”

Wasn’t it just a passing connection?

But why does she think of me as special, and why is she following the Benefactor now?

If the two siblings who are heads of the Ascent Family are Anri and Emily, I had suspected Emily might be connected to the Benefactor…

“About 6 or 7 years ago, I think. Emily and I once met a woman long ago. Her name was Selline, your mother.”

“…You met Mother?”

“Emily and I received help from her. That’s why Emily thinks of her like a benefactor.”

The time Anri mentioned… that’s when Selline left Herthas after my identity as her fake daughter was discovered.

“Do you remember? Seven years ago, there were rumors going around about experiments that could turn ordinary humans into transcendents.”

“…”

“Emily and I were experimented on back then. And Selline saved us.”

“…”

“That’s why Emily helped you when you had nothing. Because you’re her benefactor’s daughter.”

My head was throbbing.

Things were flowing in a direction I never expected.

Those two knew Selline?

“…Aren’t you a demon worshipper?”

When I was working as a maid in Evantes, Anri told me that demon worshippers would attack.

Anri is definitely a demon worshipper.

“But you’re saying you met Selline?”

Was Mother involved with demon worshippers?

I knew that Selline had abilities similar to demon worshippers. She was a sorceress who used her power to cast spells on the pendant.

“I’m not a demon worshipper. I was once involved with them, but not now. And before being saved by her, I wasn’t a demon worshipper either. I told you, didn’t I? That I was experimented on somewhere.”

“Then Mother…”

“I don’t know much about your mother. Emily, who followed that woman devotedly, would probably know well.”

To think such a reason was hidden… for a moment, breathing became difficult.

“So you want to save Emily?”

“Yes.”

Anri’s story seemed plausible, but I couldn’t trust it hastily.

“Don’t you want to hear about your mother?”

“…”

Of course I was curious.

After much deliberation, I made a decision.

‘I need to meet Sian.’

I need to find out why he gave Roji the position of Benefactor, and what he’s thinking.

“Do you know where the Benefactor appeared from?”

“I do.”

The answer came quickly.

Perhaps Sian might be where Roji came from.

“Shall we go there?”

A troubled expression crossed Anri’s face.

“Is there some problem?”

“Rather than a problem… we need permission to go there.”

“Permission? From whom?”

The moment I heard Anri’s answer, I froze completely.

Count Evantes.

Arzen.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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