The World Mistakes Me for Terminally Ill - Chapter 100

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

The World Thinks I’m Terminally Ill Episode 100

Inside the theater.

“Thirty years ago, there was a great actress who was active mainly in the West. Since her masterpiece was [Swan Lake], she was called the ‘Swan.'”

Jon brought up an old ghost story to persuade the children who didn’t want to go outside.

“But, well, her end wasn’t very good. She got caught up in a messy scandal and died under mysterious circumstances.”

It was a story he couldn’t bear to tell the children in full. After all, it was a love triangle mixed with the coercion of power.

The actress had a lover who was an unknown painter, but a nobleman who had unrequited love for the actress found out and began scheming.

In an instant, rumors spread throughout the entire empire that the unmarried woman had a child, and given the social climate of the time, such an image was extremely damaging to an actress.

It was even worse because the actress had the nickname ‘Swan,’ which emphasized purity.

‘Booo! We don’t need a corrupted swan!’

‘Die! We don’t want to see your performances anymore!’

They say the deeper the love, the greater the sense of betrayal.

Her supporting fans turned their backs on her in an instant. They hung dead swan banners everywhere and cursed the actress.

Ironically, the only opportunity left for her after falling from the top to the bottom so quickly was a single theater owned by the very nobleman who was the source of the rumors.

The nobleman called the actress to the lakeside, promising to give her a role—

The actress never returned.

“Later, the actress’s drowned body floated up from that lake… Surprisingly, she looked as if she had peacefully fallen asleep. Flowers and black swans were floating around her.”

However, even with the death of an actress who was once beloved throughout the empire, no proper investigation was conducted.

The case was concluded as an ‘accident,’ and the painter who was the actress’s lover went mad.

That was the background behind the birth of the cursed painting, [Black Swan Lake].

“The mad painter began painting, claiming that the actress had only died physically, but her soul was still alive.”

“That’s [Black Swan Lake]?”

“Yes, that’s right. People say the painter made a contract with a demon to gain unholy power and preserved the actress’s soul in the painting. To live there forever.”

However.

The painter swallowed and said.

“[Black Swan Lake] is an unfinished work. It was confiscated before completion.”

“Why?”

“…From one day on, people who claimed to have seen that painting began appearing, and every single one of them,”

His breathing grew heavy.

“Went mad.”

Those who saw [Black Swan Lake] left behind incomprehensible words like ‘I must go to the lake…’ and fell into comas.

Some of them even went missing, and the first to disappear was the very nobleman who had framed the actress.

“That’s how the story of it being a man-eating painting came about. Do you understand? Since it was confiscated by the ducal family, there’s no way you could have seen it. Just in case, hurry back—”

Thud.

Jon, who had been speaking, suddenly collapsed.

Almost simultaneously, a lump of paint was shot at Kai as well.

“…!”

Kai sensed something and urgently rolled across the floor to dodge.

“Oh my! I could have sent you off peacefully, what a shame. How did you notice?”

Ruone smiled while spinning around.

No, it was something wearing ‘Ruone’s’ shell.

Kai saw the red eyes signifying hypnosis and gritted his teeth.

Just before the enemy in Ruone’s form attacked, Kai heard a familiar voice.

—Kai. I didn’t abandon you.

The gentle voice that always came through his horns.

—Kai, can you hear me?

As if a blocked passage had finally opened, countless messages Elisia had sent earlier reached the boy.

—If you’re listening, stop crying. To become a cool adult, you have to dig your claws into the enemy’s face before you cry.

Is this really the time for such words?!

Just as Kai felt a surge of emotion.

—So, be careful of Ruone. I let him out because he’s a child, but we still don’t know much about that kid. It’s also strange that he’s the only one unaffected among all the people under mass hypnosis.

The voice that had been coldly analyzing the situation, separate from being soft on children, became gentle like a spring breeze again.

—I’ll be out soon. Just wait a little longer.

Right after that, Ruone’s obvious betrayal allowed Kai to avoid the crisis.

More precisely, it would be the black mage possessing Ruone.

Kai, who had grasped the situation from the information Elisia shared, glared at the black mage with wary eyes.

The black mage, who belatedly realized there was a crack in the barrier, chuckled as if amused.

“You’ve already found the painting, I see. As expected, actress!”

“…If you waste your power like that when you’re just a fragment, you’ll disappear quickly, won’t you?”

“Ahaha! That doesn’t seem like something the heretic who inherited my legacy should say.”

The two exchanged sharp words for a while, as if they knew of each other’s existence.

Kai flared up.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Father is, Father is different from you.”

“Of course he would be. I couldn’t call someone who made such a choice for mere humans… myself, could I?”

“Ugh!”

“So would you please disappear now? Heretic.”

The black mage declared with arrogant eyes.

“That position was never yours to begin with. You merely squeezed through a gap in history and settled there on your own.”

Flash!

As if signaling the climax of a play, the theater’s old lights turned on behind the black mage, illuminating the two of them.

Creeak, the sound of something rusty swaying overhead. The flickering light of the sputtering illumination.

All of it transformed this place into a stage. A scene from the past forced its way into his mind.

‘Baby, wait just a little longer. Mommy will follow soon. Mommy will follow, my baby. Let’s sleep just a little.’

After that, the sound of a hummed lullaby brushed past his ears like a hallucination.

‘Sleep well, my baby.’

Kai unconsciously squeezed his eyes shut.

‘Lies. And then… you didn’t come for a hundred years.’

Ruone’s shadow in the light changed into the form of an adult man with a gentleman’s hat and cane.

In front of him was the figure of a wounded young boy.

The masked gentleman whispered maliciously.

“You will be abandoned once again in the end.”

Just as the gentleman’s shadow smiled grotesquely and was about to engulf the boy’s shadow.

—Kai!

Kaiseus opened his eyes wide.

—I need your help. I’m going to complete the painting from outside to create a passage. For that, I need a painter, and he’s right there with Ruone, isn’t he?

The crouched boy raised his head.

—Ruone was the key! He was the last disciple that the unknown painter, who was the actress’s lover, took in before dying to complete the painting in his place. Ruone can complete Black Swan Lake in a different way.

To fulfill his mother’s wish.

That young blind devotion remained unfaded no matter how wounded and stained it became.

—We’ll destroy the original from inside to create a void. You complete the new painting before the first bell of dawn rings.

Then…

—We can meet again.

Suddenly, a powerful wind of mana blew through the theater.

“…!”

As the black mage unconsciously hesitated and stepped back, the boy slowly rose from his position.

The lights flickered, creating a shadow behind his small shoulders.

The shadow of a massive dragon.

Kaiseus’s red eyes blazed fiercely.

“I command.”

No matter how much he had inherited this name by exploiting a gap in history, the one currently using the title ‘Kaiseus’ was him.

As his mother said, this is the current difference in their perspectives.

Moreover.

“Get out of that child’s body right now. You fragment.”

Kaiseus was somewhat, no, quite arrogant, taking after his father.

At the absolute dragon’s words, the Black Mage’s shadow was torn to shreds.

Rewinding time a little, right after meeting Shubel trapped in [Black Swan Lake] with Snow Fairy’s help.

Splash—!

We fell into the vast lake within the painting.

Shubel took the full impact of breaking through the water’s surface with his entire body.

As if he wouldn’t let even the slightest shock reach me, he held me in an almost desperately tight embrace.

I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut in preparation for the impact, then saw him groaning softly and tried to pull away in panic. Shubel hugged me tighter.

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