The Villain Who Will Kill Me Is Too Handsome, It's Troublesome - Chapter 105
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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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Episode 105.
Artiela watched Kirien with anxious eyes. In that moment, Kirien’s face went slack.
Artiela looked at the sacred tree. And at the fruit hanging from its branches—the fruit that was them.
It was still there, unchanged.
So nothing catastrophic had gone wrong.
Cautiously, Artiela drew her sword and checked Kirien’s condition.
“Ah.”
Artiela sank to the ground.
And wept. For a long time, bitterly.
“Ati!”
“My lady.”
People came rushing from behind them.
“Ushiel.”
“What happened? What was that light just now?”
“It was the sacred tree, just then—it…”
Artiela hiccupped, forcing the words out.
How Kirien had fallen back under the dominion of the source of evil, and the sacred tree’s prophecy—that she should use the Tears of Goddess.
“So I used it, but…”
Artiela turned her head. Slowly. Very slowly.
Then she saw Bertia. But her demeanor had changed. Her posture was upright, rigid. It was a knight’s bearing.
Realizing this was Bertia herself, Artiela threw her arms around her.
“You said if I did it wrong, Kirien would die, but… but…”
“It’s all right, my lady. No—you did beautifully.”
“Waaah, drop the formal speech, Mother.”
Ushiel went to Kirien’s side. His eyes narrowed as he held his hand beneath the other man’s nose.
‘This is real.’
A living, breathing person, and yet she had mourned him as dead. Ushiel closed his eyes and communed with the sacred tree.
“The curse is purified.”
Artiela nodded.
“Of course it is. I made a swift and precise decision, after all—”
Ushiel’s hand came up.
“Then why are you crying? You’re going to scare people half to death!”
“My heart just… I really thought he was dying.”
The dread had been real. She hadn’t believed it would actually work.
She had seen his soul through Bardo Vision. Where once it had gleamed like black obsidian, now it shone pale and bright.
Yet still Kirien did not open his eyes.
“I was afraid he might end up like the Emperor.”
That had been her deepest fear.
Artiela covered her back and continued to hiccup.
Then it came.
“Forgive me, instead…”
A faint voice, but unmistakable.
“Kirien!”
“Please strike me, Holy Maiden.”
Kirien had awakened. The moment he did, his first instinct was to blame himself—which meant his memory was intact.
“For goodness’ sake.”
“Kirien!”
As Artiela rushed toward Kirien, Ushiel watched Bertia. Her expression was joyful and yet somehow still sorrowful, and that troubled him.
“Are you all right? Is there nowhere that hurts?”
“I feel drained, but I think I’m fine.”
Artiela untied every binding that held him. While doing so, she never stopped observing his soul, checking his Aura, fretting over every detail.
It was irritating to watch and yet perfectly understandable, so Ushiel waited in silence.
Once she had freed him entirely, Artiela looked at Ushiel.
“But he left something strange unsaid.”
“What?”
“He thanked me. Said it wasn’t so bad, this way.”
Why would severing a curse bring gratitude? Artiela turned to look at Bertia. Slowly, she lifted her head.
This time, both Kirien and Artiela could see Bertia’s soul overlaying Bertia’s face.
“Every soul trapped in the Demon Tower, and Kirien here—they are all my children.”
“What?”
“What do you mean by that?”
Shadow fell across Bertia’s face.
“The source of evil entered Kirien’s body when he was still a fetus, before his soul had taken root.”
“And then?”
Artiela moistened her dry lips.
Then what was Kirien, standing here before her?
“When I realized it too late, I split both their souls in two and sealed the wicked half in the Demon Tower. But since they had been one, the separation was never complete. The twisted half shared all of Kirien’s senses.”
“I see…”
“To truly separate them, they had to merge again. So that Kirien could remain wholly human.”
Kirien’s eyes widened.
“Forgive me, Kirien.”
“Then what you’re saying is that the curse has now been lifted…”
A chill ran down Artiela’s spine.
“The source of evil survived by stealing the feelings and desires of humans across countless lifetimes. In doing so, it grew ever more human itself.”
And so the source of evil, having grown human, came to love the last Holy Sword’s master. Loved her enough to offer his heart.
“What he wanted was love that was true and complete.”
He had believed that sacrifice would make her understand his heart.
But it hadn’t.
“Rejected, he corrupted himself again.”
“Yes. Perhaps he longed to become inhuman once more, to shed his humanity entirely.”
This was bad.
They’d granted him exactly what he wanted.
Artiela laughed hollowly, and Bertia reached over to stroke her hair.
“But it’s also your final chance to destroy the separated source of evil. The Holy Sword forgives those who understand sacrifice, doesn’t it?”
This was Bertia’s true meaning.
“A chance to cleanse evil from existence.”
The real battle was only beginning now.
* * *
“Sigh…”
Artiela drew a long breath as they made their way toward the Demon Tower.
“Will you be all right?”
Doubt still gnawed at her.
But I have the golden Holy Power now, and beside me stand those I love.
“If it doesn’t work, I’ll abandon the Holy Sword and seal it away instead.”
Ushiel offered the advice without ceremony.
“I think I could manage that.”
Artiela gathered her resolve and began walking again.
Soon they arrived at the land where Mana had vanished. Kirien recalled the location of the Lock he had discovered before and shone the Mirror of Truth upon it.
As the three of them approached the Lock, the priests and knights on expedition began to pray in unison.
A purification barrier.
They had surrounded the Demon Tower and sealed it so that no wicked energy could escape.
“I’m counting on you to guard the rear.”
“Go carefully, Saint. Commander of the Holy Knight Order.”
Buoyed by everyone’s encouragement, the three unlocked the Lock.
“It’s so cold.”
Inside was far colder than outside.
And darker too, with no light to pierce the gloom. Bright as the afternoon was.
Artiela poured golden Holy Power into the Bardo and illuminated the staircase. Then Kirien narrowed his brow and spoke.
“It must be at the top.”
“Truly?”
“Yes, I’m certain. When I lost my memory briefly just now, I saw that place. There was a black shadow there. A space vast and deep as a lake spread across the summit.”
Trusting Kirien’s word, the three climbed the stairs with purpose.
And yet as they climbed…
“There’s nothing here.”
“Ah, Bertia’s prediction was correct after all.”
No black shadow. Not even an ordinary one cast itself across the space. The sky opened wide above them—there was no place for shadows to fall.
“After borrowing Kirien’s body to escape, it must have intended to hide itself once the curse was severed.”
“Damn.”
This is worse than I thought.
If things continue like this, it will surely…
“So it’s started consuming human bodies and souls directly?”
Unlike before, when it relied on the Dark Sorcerer’s power.
“And across the entire continent…….”
That’s the problem.
Until now, it had operated within the Empire, but every calamity and disaster that occurs from this point forward could very well be connected to it.
“Well, what can we do? Still, it seems Mana is returning to this land.”
Ushiel looked up at the sky. Then the wind blew.
Dandelion seeds drifted on the wind that rushed toward him—as if they carried hope itself.
“We’ll do what we’ve always done: fight with everything we have.”
A dandelion seed came to rest on the ground.
Ushiel poured his Holy Power lavishly into the seed. In an instant it sprouted, bloomed into a flower, and scattered fresh seeds across the surrounding earth.
As if spreading hope far and wide.
* * *
“You have come, our sovereign.”
“We have awaited you, great divinity.”
A wicked land that some called the origin of Dark Sorcerers, and others called heresy.
A beautiful man—the master of the highest seat—sat with his legs crossed. He displayed his lethal beauty as he asked.
“Are the preparations complete?”
“Yes. As the Emperor of the Empire requested, we plan to send demons to the border.”
“But there is something to do first.”
The beautiful-faced evil god—or rather, the source of all evil—smiled.
“What is it, divinity?”
The source of evil pointed to one location on the map. It was a fertile region, even by the Empire’s standards.
In other words, the Lufel Duchy.
“In any war, you eliminate the food supply first. That’s priority one.”
Now, at last, it was time to truly restore his epithet.
Kirien, the bringer of calamity. That creature who possessed everything he had wanted to possess—it had to be destroyed again.
The love of parents. The woman he sought across every reincarnation.
That being possessed them all.
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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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