The Villainess Hid Her Identity, and Now Everyone is Misunderstanding - Chapter 85

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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 85

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Damn these rumors.
I tried to slip through quietly, but these cursed “believers” never let anything pass without making a fuss.
Ding!

[Would you like to designate a religion name?]

I said no….
I irritably pressed my temples.

[Current Empire Population Survival Rate – 89.3%]

Roughly 1% remained before Quest failure. I’d forgotten that while the mortality rate was low, diseases with high transmission rates saw increasing deaths as time passed.
If I’d known that… well, there probably wasn’t much I could have done anyway. Either way, it meant I had no time to waste dealing with these people right now.
I paused for a moment to collect myself, then turned around immediately. There was too much to do right now.
“Eve!”
At the sound of someone calling me, I stopped in my tracks.
My eyes searching urgently for the source of the voice came to rest in one place.
“Hagen?”
“Come this way, quickly!”
I swept an anxious gaze across the crowd before hurrying toward where he was pointing. It was a space with fewer people.
After confirming that no one was paying attention to this spot by looking around, I grabbed his arm.
“Rakiel… What about His Highness? Has there been any contact from His Highness?”
“Shh, calm down.”
He scanned the surroundings once more.
His sharp eyes swept across the gathered crowds, and then with a stern expression, he spoke to me.
“A riot will break out soon.”
“…!”
My eyes widened.
It was more sudden than I expected.
“A riot? But there haven’t been any signs of that yet….”
At my quiet murmur, Hagen shook his head. He too seemed caught off guard, his face anxious.
“Hurry and escape. Or rather, wasn’t it Maren? You’d be better off going to that Knight. Leave this place at once. Returning to the Ducal Mansion wouldn’t be a bad choice.”
“Wait, please. The people are quite rough, but it wasn’t to that extent.”
My vision blurred.
Hagen bit his lip tightly, then continued speaking with a troubled expression.
“There’s been a group I’ve been watching for some time now. They’ve been inciting people so blatantly that I’ve found it suspicious.”
Hagen spoke in a low voice.
“It seems someone acting under the Crown Prince’s orders has infiltrated their ranks.”
“…!”
“He must have seized the opportunity while His Highness was away. He’s exploited everything—the spread of the disease, the unrest among the people.”
So Ludwig had made his move after all. I never thought he’d remain idle. The timing was simply faster than I’d anticipated.
Hagen clenched his teeth for a moment.
“I should have noticed this sooner.”
His face bore the weight of deep responsibility.
As Rakiel’s right hand and the highest authority here in his absence, Hagen couldn’t control everything. Especially not when Ludwig was acting directly like this.
If Ludwig was moving personally, it was even more impossible.
‘Rakiel shouldn’t have left his post. All because of me….’
I bit my lip and exhaled sharply.
Hagen, who had taken a short breath, quickly lifted his head.
“In any case, I’ll bring troops to suppress this soon. It’s entirely my responsibility for failing to manage this situation while His Highness is away.”
“But—”
“That’s not what’s important right now.”
He cut me off decisively.
“His Highness asked me. If anything happens, get Eve out first, no matter what.”
“What do you mean by—”
“Leave right now. If you stay any longer, it’ll be dangerous.”
He spoke urgently, but my feet wouldn’t move.
The way he spoke so frantically made it clear time was running out, yet I couldn’t simply flee like this.
Even if a riot broke out this very moment, what would I gain by running? Just my own life?
‘I have to stop the people….’
Wait.
I opened my eyes wide and turned my head.
“…I can’t go.”
“Eve!”
“Genie is… Genie is here. I can’t leave her behind.”
Once the people started rioting, everything would begin to crumble.
The Management Office was barely holding together as it was, and I couldn’t even imagine what would remain.
Besides, how could I leave her in the midst of all this when she was already exhausted from fighting the disease? I couldn’t abandon her.
Never.
The moment my words left my mouth, Hagen’s expression hardened, and I was already turning away.
“Wait…!”
“I’m sorry! I’ll just grab her and get out of here right away!”
I pushed through the crowd and moved forward. Genie wasn’t far away.
“Evelyn?!”
The moment Maren cried out, I rushed into the tent.
Even if someone called me a coward for only looking after people I knew, I had nothing to say in my defense. Because I too had someone precious to me.
“Genie!”
The inside of the tent was filled with the damp smell of medicinal herbs and oppressive heat.
As I entered, breathing heavily, Genie, who had been lying on a makeshift bed, struggled to lift her head. Her pale face was covered in cold sweat.
I immediately dropped to my knees.
“Genie, wake up. We need to leave this place right now.”
With trembling hands, I carefully helped her sit up.
“Evelyn… ma’am…?”
Genie’s eyelids barely opened. Her eyes couldn’t even focus properly.
Dark red blotches covered her skin, and her body, wasted from not eating properly for days, was so emaciated that her bones were visible.
I could barely remember how she used to smile brightly and chatter away just a short while ago.
“Don’t talk. Just get up.”
I hastily pulled away the blanket and tried to lift her. As I wrapped my arm around Genie’s shoulder and forced her body up, she weakly resisted.
“No, I can’t…”
“You can.”
Something felt wrong with my mind.
“We’re going to the Ducal Mansion. We’ll find a way once we’re there.”
I knew we shouldn’t go to the Manor looking like this. My head understood it, but my body moved on its own.
“Evelyn…”
Genie’s hand clutched at my sleeve. It was trembling faintly.
“I… can’t.”
“Be quiet. I’ll handle it. That’s an order.”
“I’m already sick. If I go out, it won’t work… If I go in…”
Just as I was about to lift Genie’s now impossibly light body, almost cradling her—
The tent flap was thrown open roughly.
“Evelyn!”
It was Maren. He spoke urgently, breathing heavily.
“There’s a riot! The people have started a riot! We must leave this place immediately!”
At the same time, the shouts of people could be faintly heard from outside. If it could be heard all the way here, in the most remote corner…
I gripped Genie’s arm more firmly.
“Maren, help me support her.”
Just as he hesitated and approached—
Thud!
Genie pushed me with all her strength.
Caught off guard by the sudden force, I stumbled back and lost my grip on her. Unable to control even her own body, she collapsed onto the blanket.
“Genie!”
I was startled and reached out to support her, but a hand blocked me. It was Genie, her eyes bloodshot and fixed on me.
I stammered in confusion, struggling to find words.
“What are you doing—”
“Leave.”
She gasped the words out between ragged breaths.
“Please, just go. I’m already finished anyway.”
“…!”
The firmness in her voice was impossible to believe from someone who had been dying mere moments ago.
Her usual bright tone had vanished entirely, replaced by something grave and heavy.
Faced with this unfamiliar side of her, I forced my expression into cold indifference and shot back.
“Are you really refusing my orders right now?”
“Orders?”
Genie repeated the word with a bitter smile.
“That’s exactly the problem, Evelyn.”
“You….”
I stood there, mouth agape, unable even to muster anger.
‘Is this really Genie I’m looking at?’
Watching her struggle to her feet despite the cold sweat pouring down her face, as if she had something she absolutely had to say, left me dazed.
The illness had already progressed so far that she should be in unbearable pain.
“You were always like this, Evelyn. You treated everything as worthless and vulgar, acting as though you alone were precious in this world, yet somehow you never let anything go.”
“….”
“You dismiss things as vulgar… so why do you keep caring?”
I had no answer.
Genie let out a hollow laugh. Her breathing was labored and her words kept breaking off, yet she forced herself to continue.
“At first… I really thought you were that kind of person. Always complaining, throwing tantrums, threatening, glaring like you wanted to kill us… I thought people like us didn’t even register in your eyes.”
Wait, she’s not going to have this heart-to-heart conversation now, is she?
The moment I frowned, she continued.
“But that’s not it.”
“…Genie.”
“Every time I fell ill, it was you who prepared my medicine. When I collapsed after working through the night, it was you who called the Physician.”
I stood in silence, unable to speak.
Because it was true.
‘But….’
I did all of it because of the Quest. It wasn’t genuine….
I could have said it wasn’t genuine, yet somehow I couldn’t refute her.
“So I know.”
Genie drew in a labored breath.
“That you don’t really think we’re worthless.”
“….”
I felt suffocated.
I couldn’t even be sure if the “Evelyn” Genie spoke of was me, and I couldn’t clearly remember what I’d been thinking while undertaking the Quest all this time.
Genie closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again.
Outside, the voices of people were drawing steadily closer. There was no doubt that several of them were searching for me.
“That’s why I hate it even more.”
“What?”
She gripped the blanket with trembling hands.
“Evelyn… you’re not someone who should die here because of someone like me.”
A dull, shattering sound echoed from somewhere.
“Leave me behind and go. You have to survive, Evelyn. And who says anyone dies if I stay here? They probably don’t even care about me anyway.”
“Genie.”
My throat tightened.
My heart lurched as if I might retch, and my vision kept blurring before my eyes.
Deep down, I already knew. Unless Rakiel arrived this very moment with medicinal herbs, the light of her life was gradually extinguishing.
‘It’s remarkable that she’s lasted four days in this condition.’
But that didn’t mean I could abandon her.
There was no option to discard her. From the moment I opened my eyes in this cycle, from the very instant I resolved my first Quest…
I clenched my teeth and moved toward Genie.
But at that moment, Genie’s and Maren’s gazes briefly met. It was a short but unmistakable connection.
It was the instant Maren’s jawline tightened firmly.
“Pardon the intrusion.”
Maren’s arm suddenly gripped my waist firmly.

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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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