The Villainess Hid Her Identity, and Now Everyone is Misunderstanding - Chapter 120

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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 Villainess Hides Her Identity, and Everyone Misunderstands
Chapter 120

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“Mmm….”
As I lifted my heavy eyelids, the ornate bedding came into view first.
It was Rakiel’s Chamber.
‘Ah, I must have fallen asleep.’
I’d dozed off while nursing him. Having not slept properly, a yawn escaped my lips.
“Haaah….”
Three full days had passed since that accident.
The Physician said we’d barely made it in time—any later and it would have been catastrophic. The critical danger had passed, but now everything depended on his will alone.
‘But why won’t he open his eyes?’
Rakiel’s pale face remained motionless, his eyelids firmly shut with no sign of opening, and that characteristic smug smile I saw every day had been absent for far too long.
Just three days, yet….
“He said he was fine, but he’s nothing but a liar….”
I was muttering complaints as I tried to rise.
“Hm?”
The hand clasped with Rakiel’s wouldn’t move. When I turned my gaze with confusion, I realized he was gripping my hand firmly.
Even when I relaxed my grip, I couldn’t pull free—it was certain.
…Was he talking in his sleep?
During the time he couldn’t wake, he’d groaned as if caught in nightmares more than once or twice. This was probably similar.
But this was rather troublesome.
Unconsciously, I traced my gaze along his arm to his shoulder, and then to the face above it.
“…Your Highness?”
Wide awake.
Those heavy-looking eyelids were open, and crimson eyes were looking directly at me.
A moment of silence passed.
My eyes, which had been staring blankly at him, gradually filled with astonishment.
“Your, Your Highness?!”
“You’ll deafen me.”
“Goodness, you’ve awakened?!”
“As you can see.”
He let out a faint groan and raised his upper body slightly. I hurried to support him, then realized my hand was still being held by him.
“You should have woken me if you were awake! Everyone is so worried right now… No, this isn’t the time. I must fetch the Physician at once-”
“That’s why I didn’t wake you.”
“Pardon?”
He chuckled softly, lifting the interlaced fingers they’d been holding to shake them gently. As if to say, look at this.
“My fiancée is holding my hand like this—how could I possibly wake up? The moment I do, you’ll be calling for the Physician and causing an uproar.”
“That’s… that’s nonsense…”
I stammered, tugging at his hand. It didn’t budge an inch.
I’d taken his sleeping hand because he appeared to be trapped in a nightmare.
‘How could I leave him alone when he’s drenched in cold sweat and groaning like that?’
Holding his hand seemed to calm him like magic, so this time was no different. Though I’ll admit, I did murmur a few things to him while he was sleep-talking.
Things like where he thought he was going without me, or threats that if he died after all this, I wouldn’t let it slide—half-coercive remarks, really.
With a soft thump, he lowered their interlaced hands back onto the blanket and rested his head against the pillow.
“So I’m staying like this for now. Things will get chaotic soon enough anyway, so I wanted at least a moment of peace.”
“…”
I studied his expression for a moment, then finally collapsed back into the chair. If I called the Physician, people would undoubtedly flood in, so it seemed better to give him at least a brief moment to gather his bearings.
“…I understand.”
“Good thinking.”
I gazed awkwardly at the hand holding mine, then lifted my eyes upward.
Rakiel had shielded me as we fell during the collapse, so stone fragments were embedded deeply in his back and sides. That’s why his upper body remained wrapped in bandages.
‘And yet he acts as though nothing is wrong…”
The saving grace was that those were his only serious injuries. Apart from the various cuts and scrapes scattered across his body, he was intact.
Moreover, considering the amount of blood he’d lost then, the fact that he’d survived at all was extraordinary. I’d been certain he would die.
I’d even prepared myself mentally to go back to the beginning if he did.
This inhuman monster.
As I glared at him with that thought, he smirked.
“I can see exactly what you’re thinking.”
“What could I possibly be thinking?”
“That I’m a monster. Isn’t that right?”
How did he know?
At my caught expression, he laughed softly.
“More importantly, judging by your reaction, quite a bit of time has passed. How many days since that day?”
“…Exactly three days. I really thought you weren’t going to wake up.”
“Three days… It seems my condition was better than expected.”
“Your condition was better than expected?”
I repeated his words, eyes widening.
“And you’re acting perfectly fine knowing that?”
I was so exasperated I nearly laughed despite myself.
“Do you have any idea how worried I was? Blood pouring out, your voice growing fainter and fainter, and you spouting delirious nonsense like a dying man!”
If we’d been even slightly later!
What everyone would have found was already a cold, lifeless corpse!
Yet Rakiel remained serene, as though he either understood the situation perfectly or didn’t care at all.
“What… was that?”
“The Physician said so too! If Your Highness had been even a moment later, you would have already been dead. He said to imagine what I felt while holding you as blood poured from your body. No matter how helpless I was in that moment, how could you be so indifferent… like that…!”
As if imagining the situation from back then, her emotions flared up in an instant. The despair I had tasted at that time would haunt me for the rest of my life.
It was a moment when she was pouring out that anxious heart, pressing forward relentlessly.
“Please, never tell such a lie again-”
Whoosh!
“Ah, I understand. I apologize. I’ve done something terrible.”
“…!”
A soft voice fell upon my ears.
The moment he gently pulled the hand he had grasped, I lost my balance and tilted forward sharply. Thanks to reflexively bracing myself on the bed with my free hand, I barely avoided falling… but.
With a soft rustle, silver hair cascaded down my shoulder. Coming to my senses, I found myself leaning forward with both arms spread wide, Rakiel’s body between us.
Even my interlaced hands rested on the sheet by his pillow, leaving me in a posture where I was inevitably looking down at him as if confining him.
Naturally, our faces drew close enough for breath to mingle.
Close enough for our noses to touch.
Flustered, I instinctively lowered my gaze, and his crimson eyes curved slowly. At the same time, the corners of his mouth lifted in a subtle smile.
“But I feel rather wronged. Nonsense, you say… where was there any nonsense in what I said?”
He whispered.
“I meant every word, Eve.”
“What… wh-what…?”
“And you? It seems I haven’t yet received your answer.”
“…”
My lips wouldn’t move.
Whether from panic or because my heart was pounding too loudly, I couldn’t say. My mind had simply gone blank on what to say.
‘An answer… you say?’
What answer was I supposed to give?
Looking into his eyes right before me, I felt as though I would suffocate. The emotion visible within them was so immense that I couldn’t dare to answer.
‘What do I…?’
What was it that I wanted?
There was only one thing I wanted. To reclaim my freedom and escape this cursed regression loop.
In that process, he was simply one of the people who could help me. A means by which I could escape from here.
‘But…’
Could I still say he was merely a means to me?
The answer was no.
The radius he occupied in this life had already grown far too wide. If I were to lose him, I would be willing to abandon everything and return to the beginning—he had become that important to me.
But if one were to ask whether that was truly ‘love’…
Unable to part my lips, I pressed my mouth shut, and Rakiel’s brow furrowed slightly, as if displeased with my reaction.
“Surely you’re not thinking of feigning ignorance again.”
“Th-that is…”
“Eve.”
The mere sound of him calling my name made my shoulders tremble.
He interlaced his fingers and pressed them against the back of my hand, caressing it with deliberate slowness—as though to prevent me from slipping away.
“Answer me. All this time, when you looked at me, did you truly feel nothing? Not even once?”
“I….”
“While my feelings grew to consume me, your heart remained unmoved?”
He chuckled softly.
“I don’t believe that for a moment.”
“Your Highness, you’re being so sudden about this….”
“Sudden? How convenient to blame me for your own lack of awareness.”
At the sound of his quiet laughter, heat flooded my cheeks once more.
“But it really is too sudden! I still don’t fully understand my own feelings-”
Smack.
“…!”
My eyes widened at the soft sensation against my cheek. Rakiel gazed down at me with an expression of perfect composure, as though nothing had occurred.
“If you won’t answer, I’ll do it again.”
“W-what did you just-?”
Smack.
This time, the other cheek.
I startled and tried to pull away, but his interlaced fingers held me fast. If I lifted my other hand to brace myself, I would simply collapse onto him.
Instead, I could only squirm awkwardly above him.
“Your Highness!”
“Hmm, still no answer, I see.”
His crimson eyes curved with playful amusement. Yet the heat smoldering beneath them was anything but playful.
Smack.
The third kiss landed somewhere between my cheek and the corner of my mouth.
My breath caught. Now, the slightest movement would bring our lips together.
“R-Rakiel….”
His name escaped my lips unbidden.
He smiled with satisfaction, then slowly let his gaze drift to my lips. And with agonizing slowness, he tilted his face toward mine, hesitant and deliberate.
My heart thundered wildly in my chest.
Just as his lips were about to meet mine, suspended in that moment of tension with my eyes squeezed shut—
Knock knock.

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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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