The World Mistakes Me for Terminally Ill - Chapter 102

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The World Thinks I’m Terminally Ill Episode 102

Erban had been trapped in one place, unable to move at all, ever since the midnight bell rang.

“Ugh, how tiresome.”

It was a very small space.

A pitch-black place barely large enough for him to lie down, with iron bars on all sides and not even a shadow to be found.

It was the filthy Dden Jang that the young fox had burned to ashes.

Erban chuckled softly.

“How did I end up here again? What a life I have.”

The time in Lunein had been so peaceful that he had forgotten.

His fear of darkness.

Near his newly prepared room at the Grand Duke’s Castle, lights were always kept on even at night. He knew exactly whose consideration that was.

That’s why he acted even more foolishly in front of her. Like a beast wanting to be loved by its master. Don’t push me away.

Whether he was a sorcerer or an assassin, he had lived life as it came, not caring whether others despised him or not.

But there was just one person he didn’t want to be hated by.

Like a pushover fool, like an easy-to-use tool, like that, like that, he had been holding his breath.

“Should I quit?”

Seeing this darkness made everything tiresome again. Helplessness consumed him.

As his will to live weakened, the impulse he felt every time he was captured by sorcerers and subjected to various torture-like experiments came back to life.

Let’s end it here. Let’s stop this tedious life.

Erban grabbed his own throat with a wax-like expressionless face, not his usual playful expression.

But.

“…”

He could no longer do it.

He frowned slightly and looked at his hands as if he couldn’t understand.

He was a tool. A tool must perform as commanded.

But now that tool was making its own judgment.

“Am I broken…”

There was one time like this before.

When he was captured and living with the sorcerers. The desire for revenge to tear those bastards apart became the driving force that prolonged his difficult life.

Then why now? When his revenge was already over, what lingering attachment remained?

The answer was actually very simple.

‘I’m your employer, not your master. You’re the master of your own life, so figure it out yourself.’

Because the moment he heard those words, he transformed from a tool into a human.

Because he became a free person named ‘Erban’ instead of hey, you there, you, slave, 99.

Unlike a tool, Erban the human had so many things he wanted to do.

There were many things he wanted to eat because of the bastards who starved him whenever they got the chance as a child, he was playful enough to want to gently tease the kid who jumped at the slightest touch, and also, also…

‘I want to live.’

Erban wanted to live.

So he couldn’t die.

If he died now, the formation here would collapse and the barrier over the entire ballroom would break.

Then Elisia, who was trapped somewhere else in the ballroom, would get hurt.

Black magic requires sacrifices.

Just like how he bled every time he summoned shadow foxes.

As soon as Erban was trapped here, he realized he had become a living sacrifice maintaining this ridiculous black magic called the ‘World in the Painting.’

Since dying right now would be problematic, he had to change his approach to minimize harm to Elisia.

“Can’t be helped. If I explode just before my life force is completely depleted to create an opening, hmm, big brother will handle the rest, right?”

Just as he was humming an unknown tune and making an irresponsible plan to waste his life.

Something unexpected happened.

“Erban.”

Whoosh!

A gentle ray of light spread through the pitch-black darkness.

The darkness retreated and light arrived.

As Erban blinked blankly without realizing it, Elisia was looking down at him sideways with an incredulous expression, holding a candle.

“Deciding to quit on your own? You know you’ll get scolded when you go home too.”

Crash!

The Dden Jang that had imprisoned him shattered into pieces.

As soon as I arrived at the underground chamber where Erban was trapped with Shubel’s help, I was dumbfounded.

‘This is maddening.’

Why don’t the people around me listen?

There’s the person who throws himself in front of my eyes after I told him not to get hurt.

And the person who immediately risks his life first when I said safety was most important.

They’re all people who make me want to leave handprints on their broad backs.

‘Even a seven-year-old wouldn’t be this disobedient.’

Well, our Kai listens so well.

I had just informed the chirping Kai of future plans when the Bluetooth(?) connection was restored earlier.

I smiled contentedly to myself, then put on a serious face and spoke to the two men.

“Reflect on yourselves. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am…”

“Yes, master…”

After tightening the loosened discipline, I examined the dark chamber.

When I illuminated the floor, I could see a magic circle drawn in red paint.

“So if we destroy this, the barrier maintaining the ballroom will break and we’ll become lost children in the play?”

“…Yes.”

The one who answered my question was neither Shubel nor Erban, but a third person.

The actress from 30 years ago. The one who helped us find this hidden chamber.

‘Of course, she probably doesn’t think of it as help.’

After rescuing Shubel, I focused on the fact that Erban’s whereabouts were unknown.

The Black Mage had clearly suggested that those two each had their own ‘roles.’ So I was certain that Erban must have been given something too.

While the Black Mage had maliciously confused information for me, he never spoke lies with his own mouth.

He just cleverly twisted his words so they could be interpreted differently.

‘For example, he said Shubel would be trapped when the play was completed, but he never said he’d be trapped when the painting was completed.’

He deliberately scattered other information beforehand to make me think that way and intentionally caused confusion.

It was chillingly intelligent.

“You, how did you know I would come looking for this guy?”

So after being certain that Erban had something, what did I do?

I looked for the actress who was somewhere in the ballroom. Because I guessed she would go find Erban.

“You want to complete the play. But [Swan Lake] is a play that absolutely needs a male lead, and since Shubel refused, I thought Erban would be the only one who could take the role.”

I focused on the point where she had called the statues ‘supporting actors’ in Shubel’s account.

If those originally in the ballroom were supporting actors, it meant only the new characters who came from outside could take the leading roles.

“I also have business with you.”

“…Me?”

She looked back and forth between me and Shubel, then made a wary expression saying ‘a couple together…’

It was exactly the look one gives crazy people, but that must be my imagination.

“What business could you have with a dead person who should have been buried in the ground long ago?”

“I wanted to ask you to hand over your role.”

“…What?”

The actress became serious.

“What are you talking about?”

“As you said, the dead should remain in the past and the living should move forward.”

“…”

“No matter how brilliant you once were, your stage ended 30 years ago.”

I declared arrogantly.

“Now is my era.”

At my words, her eyes wavered.

“That’s….”

“Don’t take it too unpleasantly. I’m in a bad mood because you took my husband without permission, so my words aren’t coming out nicely.”

“I’m, sorry about that….”

The actor apologized dejectedly.

I inwardly clicked my tongue seeing that Swan, who had once dominated an era, had her self-esteem shattered from being trapped here for such a long time.

‘Well, this was her last chance to complete the play, so she must have been desperate.’

It can’t be helped. I’m originally weak to beauties who are proud on the outside but soft on the inside.

I graciously accepted her apology.

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