The Villainess Hid Her Identity, and Now Everyone is Misunderstanding - Chapter 118

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

The Villainess Hides Her Identity, and Everyone Misunderstands
Chapter 118

A low voice reached my ears.
“I pointed it out countless times, yet you feigned ignorance. I thought perhaps you would never understand, not in a lifetime.”
“….”
“Whether I should be grateful you’ve finally grasped it, or call you callous—I truly cannot say.”
Rakiel exhaled the words like a sigh, his chest rising and falling once. The tremor transmitted through my palm.
Then he lowered his eyelids slightly, his lips moving.
“Eve.”
The moment his softly curved lips shaped my name, I stared blankly before answering a beat too late.
“…Yes?”
“I love you.”
“…!”
My mind crumbled entirely in that instant.
“Though this is hardly the place to say such things.”
A small laugh echoed from above my head.
Yet his words continued without hesitation, his tone serene—as if discussing lunch plans during an evening stroll.
“I cannot say precisely when it began.”
He chose his words slowly.
Water dripped through the cracks of fallen stone—drip, drip—a sound so clear my mind had gone utterly blank.
“At first, it was concern. You were always reckless. Incapable of protecting yourself, yet you threw yourself into danger without hesitation whenever someone else was threatened.”
A faint sigh was woven into the tail of his words.
I nearly made an excuse—something about quests—but I closed my mouth instead.
It had started that way, certainly. But if asked whether that was all, I could not nod with confidence.
I said nothing, only my fingertips trembling slightly.
“So I found myself watching. Whether you were safe that day, what trouble you might have caused. I tried not to care, but my heart would not obey.”
He exhaled softly.
“What came after was stranger still. You began to see into me. You noticed my emotions, carelessly spilled like complaints, and you understood them.”
“….”
“And it did not end with understanding. You comforted me.”
Rakiel let out a bitter laugh.
“How absurd. I, who had never relied on anyone in my life, suddenly felt my breath open up at a single word from you.”
Comfort….
Was he speaking of how I clumsily tried to soothe him?
“From that moment, I was lost. Everything about you became a mystery I needed to solve. I wanted to know what you were thinking, what you had done, where you had been. I could not bear the hours of your life I did not know.”
The memory of him trailing after me flashed through my mind.
I looked up at him, barely able to breathe. There was not a trace of playfulness in those crimson eyes. If anything, that fact terrified me more.
“That’s why I kept wanting to hold onto you. I wanted to make you look back at me whenever you turned away, and if you thought of something else, I wanted to tear through that mind of yours and fill it entirely with my name.”
“…Your Highness.”
“Perhaps because of that, your deception was forgiven in an instant. I tried desperately to find betrayal within it, but the emotions that had already grown consumed it all. Foolishly.”
My fingers trembled slightly.
All the lies I had told him felt as though they were returning to strike me. There was truly nothing I could say.
But Rakiel soon let out a soft laugh and continued.
“The moment I saw you fall today, I couldn’t think of anything else.”
His low, languid voice brushed against my ears.
“Not the throne, not the Crown Prince, not today’s plans.”
His eyes narrowed slowly. His expression was achingly tender.
“Only a single thought remained.”
He pressed down on my hand, which rested against his chest.
Thump, thump, thump.
His heart raced wildly beneath my palm.
“I don’t want to lose you.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“So understand this, Eve.”
His forehead touched my hair.
“That it’s not merely affection I feel for you.”
And in an almost whispered voice, without the slightest hesitation, the words spilled out.
“I’m obsessed with you.”
Thump.
This time it wasn’t his heartbeat—it was mine, skipping a beat.
‘…Ah.’
My mind went completely blank as I stared into his eyes.
I couldn’t even process what I should say, or rather, how I should accept what I had just heard.
This man had a talent for confessions that left one utterly breathless.
I barely managed to swallow. I had to say something.
“I, Your Highness. Your….”
The moment I opened my mouth, a strange sensation swept over me.
Rakiel’s hand holding mine was far colder than it should be. Unnaturally so for human warmth.
I blinked and slowly lowered my gaze.
The darkness made it difficult to see clearly, but a faint, damp sensation was spreading across the back of my hand. I thought it must be water from the fountain where I had fallen….
‘It’s sticky.’
Panic surged through me, and I frantically felt along his hand. Tracing his wrist, his sleeve, an endless amount of liquid clung to my fingers—damp and sticky.
It was blood.
“Your Highness?!”
I gasped and tried to sit up, but my head struck the stone and I lowered it again. Even so, my fingers continued to frantically search his body.
It was clear that he was seriously injured somewhere. At this rate, it might not be just one place.
“Wait, wait. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“…It’s nothing serious.”
The voice of someone claiming it was nothing serious was far too strained. It was completely different from the tone that had been laughing so glibly until moments ago.
“How is this nothing serious! Your hand is this cold!”
My voice rose without my realizing it, but Rakiel was smiling faintly.
I was utterly dumbfounded that he could smile even in this situation.
“I didn’t want to alarm you.”
“Even so, this is…!”
As I clenched my teeth, the back of my throat burned intensely.
“Your Highness, stay with me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine!”
I cried out almost in a wail.
My fingertips trembled and my mind went blank. The confession from moments ago had long since blown away.
“Your Highness, don’t lose consciousness. Look at me, okay?”
I frantically tapped his cheeks. His damp hair clung to the back of my hand, and I felt the cool touch of his skin.
Rakiel blinked slowly, but his breathing was becoming noticeably labored.
“Eve, listen to me.”
“Don’t listen to anything. Don’t speak—you’re losing more blood.”
“I…you….”
“Be quiet!”
I couldn’t find where the bleeding was coming from. There was nothing I could do here anyway.
‘…Severe hemorrhage. If he loses consciousness like this….’
Then, faintly, I heard voices from a distance.
“…Over here! Check this area too!”
“…Your Highness! Prince Rakiel!”
The murmur of people’s voices and the sound of footsteps treading on debris drifted toward me.
The moment I heard those sounds, my eyes flew open.
“We’re down here!”
I screamed until my throat tore.
“We’re down here! Someone, help!”
“Eve….”
“Don’t speak!”
Even as I frantically felt his cheeks like a madwoman, my voice choked and I screamed upward again.
“Is anyone there?! There’s someone here! Prince Rakiel is injured!”
Soon, the sound of people rushing in grew closer. Someone began frantically clearing away stones, and through the gaps between them, I could dimly see people moving back and forth.
“Evelyn! Are you there?!”
It was a familiar voice.
“Duke Cashen!”
Before I could even wonder why he was here, I cried out through tears.
“Duke Cashen! Over here!”
Moments later, as light flooded in and revealed our forms, gasps erupted from above. The blood streaming down Rakiel’s back was far too vivid.
“Summon the Physician!”
“Prince Rakiel is gravely wounded!”
People rushed forward with outstretched hands, but I remained dazed, clinging only to Rakiel.
My fingertips were ice cold.
Terrifyingly so.

* * *

I was trapped in a nightmare.
Enormous palms, layered upon one another, pressed down upon him.
Those hands held him motionless, suffocating, and began to steal away everything within his grasp, one by one.
Whether it was a cherished toy from childhood, a beloved horse he had cared for with affection,
(愛馬)
or a loyal servant who had always looked after him—it mattered not. What those hands desired was ‘everything’ that clung to his side.
Gasping for breath beneath those palms, struggling desperately, he screamed and jolted awake.
“Gasp…!”
The ceiling was familiar.
After catching my breath and steadying myself, I sat up. I noticed my fists were still clenched, and when I relaxed them, I felt the dampness—cold sweat drenching my small palms, those of an eight-year-old.
My small hands, appearing to be about eight years old, were soaked with perspiration.
“Did you have a nightmare?”
A calm voice came from beside me.
“…Mother?”
I murmured in a daze.
Black hair and crimson eyes.
A woman bearing my exact likeness sat beside the bed, embroidering.
“Another nightmare, it seems. This won’t do—you need proper sleep to grow tall and strong.”
Her gentle voice continued. Though she appeared gaunt and her skin was parched from poor nutrition, her expression toward me was tender.
She was Agnes Garcia, the First Concubine.
“Mother!”
I cried out joyfully.
“Are you well today? I thought you might be indisposed and we wouldn’t meet.”
My mother, Agnes, was frail, and even stepping outside her own quarters was always arduous for her. Because of this, seeing her was never easy for me either.
Just as I was about to throw off the blanket and rush toward her, the space suddenly warped, and the surroundings shifted in an instant.
Now I was twelve years old, walking through the ornate Corridor of the Imperial Palace. Though I should have sensed something amiss, I accepted everything without question.
As if it had always been this way.
Clutching a book to my chest, I walked briskly down the empty Corridor when I suddenly stopped at a corner.
“Is she wandering the Garden alone again?”
A voice drifted from around the corner.
“Yes, it seems he’s been going there since morning. To the Aerial Garden above the Banquet Hall. Without a single servant, just carrying one book by himself.”
“Tsk, is it really acceptable for a member of the Imperial family to behave that way?”
“Acceptable or not, what does it matter? No one looks after him anyway. The Emperor himself avoids even laying eyes on him.”

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