The World Mistakes Me for Terminally Ill - Chapter 89

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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 089

At the same time, Shubel activated his magic.

“Did you just hear something?”

Whoosh.

A cool frost wind blew.

A mouse that had been in the corner of the second floor felt the chill and fell to the ground in surprise.

Squeak!

The servants who had been looking up this way with suspicion saw the mouse and turned their heads away again.

“It was just a mouse.”

“Let’s go. We need to get back quickly.”

They disappeared, each carrying paint cans in both hands.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“So, sorry…”

Kai apologized with a nasal voice, his nose still seeming itchy.

I pinched Kai’s nose bridge affectionately and said.

“It’s fine. You didn’t do it on purpose. Is it still hard to breathe?”

“Sniff. I’m okay.”

Shubel looked at us with a strange expression.

I belatedly realized I was still in Shubel’s arms and stepped back, a little flustered.

“Ahem. Thank you, Shubel. That was an appropriate measure.”

“Don’t mention it.”

We came back down to the first floor of the storage room.

I looked at the paint cans that were still endlessly stacked despite what the servants had taken, lost in thought.

‘So the masquerade ball was a means to steal people’s life force.’

Whatever the case, it was extremely suspicious. There must be a reason why those with such evil purposes took the paint cans.

I pondered for a moment, then discovered something and strode toward it.

Squeak!

I picked up the mouse that had fallen earlier from the corner.

“Eek! You caught a mouse with your hands!”

Kai, despite being a country (Lunein) baby dragon, acted like a city-born dragon and buried his face in my skirt in horror. The fact that he was scared but wouldn’t let go was the cute part.

I didn’t know why a dragon would be afraid of a mouse, but I dropped the mouse I was holding into a paint can.

Splash!

The struggling mouse soon sank into the paint.

A few seconds later, when the disappeared mouse reappeared, it looked quite different from the timid and fearful creature it had been before.

“What do you think?”

“When it was just paint, it wasn’t noticeable.”

Shubel naturally took my hand that had held the mouse and wiped it with a handkerchief as he spoke.

“Now that it’s touched a living creature, the effect is showing. It’s emotional mutation.”

The mouse staggered out of the paint can and showed aggression, bristling its fur in a way unbefitting the lowest prey in the food chain.

Squeak!

The mouse’s eyes were red as blood as it fearlessly attacked Kai.

“Waaah! Mouse! Mouseeee!”

Kai flailed and ran away.

Squeak, squeak! The mouse under the dark magic chased the young lizard demon as if it were a beast of prey.

Shubel grabbed the scruff of Kai’s neck as he was about to trip over his own feet while running away.

The mouse squeaked below, staging a sit-in protest.

And 30 seconds later, the mouse, freed from the dark magic, came to its senses and fled to a corner.

“The paint itself doesn’t seem to have a very strong effect. If it’s 30 seconds for a weak-minded creature, an ordinary human’s mental strength probably wouldn’t be affected by just touching it.”

I narrowed my eyes at Shubel’s words.

‘Emotional amplification followed by emotional mutation. There’s a lot of emotion-related dark magic.’

Paint, life force, and dark magic.

I wondered what connection these might have, and for now, asked the man beside me to help collect evidence.

“I think we should take one as a sample. Shubel, could you pick up that red paint can over there?”

“…”

“Shubel?”

Finding his lack of response strange, I turned around to see him staring blankly at the paint cans with an expressionless face.

Perhaps sensing my puzzlement, he smiled calmly and picked up a paint can diagonally positioned.

“This one?”

“Ah, maybe it’s hard to see in the dark. Not that one, the one on the right.”

“Yes, my lady.”

This time Shubel picked up the correct paint can.

I glanced at him with a strange feeling, then saw the man still smiling as if painted on and dismissed my suspicion, thinking I might have been mistaken.

We took it and came out through the door opposite to where the servants had entered earlier.

Whoosh.

A light wind blew, indicating where the door led. Whoosh- the candlelight on the wall flickered.

Thanks to the light creating shadows, I set the paint can down there, and a pair of hands emerged to take it.

It was Erban, who had finished investigating the front area and returned.

The reason shadow arts were perfect for manual labor. Erban could hide a certain amount of objects in shadows as long as there were shadows. He was literally a walking subspace pocket.

“But this is strange. Considering the total area of the theater, I thought just the ballroom alone would be tight. To think there’s a back passage like this.”

Looking at the newly revealed corridor before us, I slightly frowned and asked Erban, who had emerged from the shadows.

“Were there other rooms in the front?”

“Yeah. Tons of them. I couldn’t see the end, so I came back halfway.”

Then he added with an “Ah.”

“There was a room where I heard children’s voices.”

“…!”

My expression hardened at those words.

“You didn’t mishear? Like they were with guardians?”

“Hmm, I don’t think so. The servants carrying this paint went in and out of that room. I don’t think their intentions were good.”

It was definitely suspicious.

I had to decide whether to continue my original purpose of ‘investigating dark magic’ here, or split my limited time to check on the children.

Should I pursue practical gains, or maintain my humanity?

“For now.”

Everyone looked at me.

“Let’s split into teams. Shubel and Erban, please investigate the dark magic side. Kai and I will check on the children-“

“Master, wait a moment.”

Erban interrupted with a rarely serious expression.

“The funeral flowers I planted are withering.”

“What?”

“This shouldn’t be possible. Unless the stealth is discovered, they shouldn’t wither…”

“Maybe they were just discovered?”

“For my serious stealth to be discovered, it would take at least S-rank. Or the spell would be dispelled by going into perfect darkness where shadows can’t be created.”

Erban muttered lowly.

“But now all the ones I planted have withered. All at the same time.”

Dong-

At the same time as those words, a bell rang.

The first bell announcing the approaching end of the masquerade ball.

At exactly 12 o’clock, when the third bell rings, the masquerade ball would come to an end.

I felt a chill for a moment and turned my head.

Whoosh.

In the long corridor, candles flickered precariously.

“There is one more exception.”

At that moment, Shubel spoke up. Everyone in our group, including me, looked at him.

Shubel still spoke in an unwavering, calm voice.

“If this place, this ball, is truly absorbing life force, then it’s possible. Though we’d need a few more clues to determine what’s being used as the medium for the dark magic.”

Ah! His words made me feel like the clumsy puzzle pieces had finally clicked into place.

The Funeral Flowers under Erban’s spell are essentially plants.

It would make sense if the Funeral Flowers themselves had withered from having their life force stolen, regardless of concealment.

“Then you’re saying dark magic is currently active throughout the entire ballroom?”

“Most likely.”

I bit my lip and gripped Kai’s hand tightly.

“I’m changing the plan. We rescue the children and escape immediately.”

“Yes, ma’am. But one last thing I should mention – the structure of this place has changed.”

“What did you say?”

I turned to look at Shubel in surprise.

The masked man showed only his sharp jawline. His smooth lips moved without any inflection.

“The space expanded the moment the bell rang. By roughly ten times.”

It sounded like an emotionless declaration somehow.

“Ah! How delightful. Truly delightful!”

Tap, tap, tap.

Light footsteps moved gracefully to the rhythm as if dancing.

Inside the pitch-black room.

The spotlight shining down for a single being was dazzling.

Under that eerie radiance, someone cried out in ecstasy.

“How thrilling!”

With his angular gentleman’s hat and luxurious suit, clean white gloves and the cane held in those hands, he looked exactly like a courteous gentleman.

But where his face should have been, there was only a pure white mask with no decorative additions whatsoever.

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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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