Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 104

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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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Chapter 18. Truth Belongs to Each Person (8)

The confessions were made to everyone in turn.

Once she had decided to spill everything, there was no hesitation.

She planned to tell all of Edelaine’s kidnappers about her past life and the full story of her existence.

‘This feels so refreshing.’

It was as refreshing as breathing in the phytoncide-rich forest air after living in the city’s exhaust fumes.

The dozen or so years of struggling alone with things she wanted to say but couldn’t flashed briefly before her eyes. She could even let go of all the curses she had hurled in the past, frustrated at protagonists who had mouths but couldn’t speak.

‘The humiliating reality that I was the idiot I used to curse at so much…’

If it weren’t for the variable of other people getting dragged into danger, Edelaine wouldn’t have carried such a secret and suffered heartache.

‘If I had confessed earlier.’

First, she would have asked her parents and siblings to absolutely never indulge her whims.

She could have told them that if ‘Edelaine’ ever tried to go crazy like in the novel, they should slap her to bring her to her senses. After all, if you took away the family background from the early villain ‘Edelaine’, she’d be left with nothing.

She might have been able to find a way to avoid the predetermined ending without breaking off the engagement.

It would have been quite fun to band together with the villains from the novel and scheme without telling Shane, the protagonist.

‘Though Shane probably would have joined in somehow anyway…’

Edelaine added a realistic guess.

Even looking back at those childhood days when she thought of him as just a kind and gentle fiancé, there were many persistently stubborn aspects. Now she had shed much of her rose-colored glasses regarding Shane.

The hardest part about revealing secrets was the first word.

But once the floodgates opened, nothing after that was difficult. Having done it twice now, she could continue speaking quite skillfully.

The reactions were varied.

Her parents, Emma, and Gregory listened to Edelaine’s words with serious expressions throughout. Emma never cried or let her expression crumble. She didn’t ask questions like Shane and Lloyd did. She just nodded occasionally, understanding.

She waited for Edelaine to finish speaking, then confirmed just one thing.

Whether no one would torment her anymore.

Edelaine answered yes, and her parents said that was enough.

“Princess Mia was just caught up in it. Please don’t hate her.”

“She still looks like an accomplice to me, but fine. I’ll try.”

Patrick shook his head. It should have been frustrating that Father readily nodded at his youngest’s single word when he wouldn’t even listen to what Patrick had to say, but he only smiled quietly.

Patrick and Jeff also confirmed just one thing.

Jeff was particularly focused on Keith’s corpse.

“I was planning to go check it out myself soon anyway, so this works out well. I’ll go confirm with my own eyes, even if it’s a rotting corpse.”

“Take the sacred relic that Saint Genevieve blessed.”

In case of accidents, it was better to be thoroughly prepared.

After the Bertrand Family members left, Edwin and Saint Genevieve came to visit.

Seeing them standing side by side, Edelaine tilted her head.

‘Saint Genevieve doesn’t seem to match with anyone she stands next to.’

While Saint Genevieve, who came running and calling her name before the door even opened, felt like a cute puppy, whoever stood beside her always seemed awkward.

Only Saint Genevieve, who had become more mature and dignified, sparkled brilliantly while her surroundings seemed invisible.

‘My female lead really is the best.’

Saint Genevieve was someone who knew how to absorb hardships and grow from them rather than just ending them as pain. Pretty and strong too – how could anyone not love her?

Edwin, on the other hand, was somewhat awkward. He spoke less and his attitude felt somewhat distant.

“Why are you pretending to be taciturn when it doesn’t suit you?”

“It’s my face, so a taciturn handsome man would suit me well too.”

“Having confidence is important, yes…”

He must be tired from being busy. When work gets too hard, people can talk nonsense. When tired, they can’t manage their expressions either.

Edelaine decided to be understanding. Edwin did seem incredibly busy, and he had come when called despite that, so she could show that much consideration.

To these two, she explained everything and even told them about the ending they would have faced if things had proceeded according to the novel.

When she told Edwin the story of how he was a playboy sub-male lead who couldn’t stop loving the female lead even though she had a male lead as her lover or husband from the beginning, Edwin smiled bitterly and said:

“Couldn’t give up until the end?”

“Well, anyway, you became emperor in the novel too, so you would have married someone.”

Just not the female lead. Edwin laughed self-deprecatingly as if he had expected as much.

“Having lingered by her side for life, there’s no way I could have given up.”

“I guess that’s karma. The price for making women cry your whole life, the cost of loving a friend’s girlfriend. Fortunately, that’s just a story in a novel, and Your Highness Edwin didn’t end up having unrequited love for Saint Genevieve. Lucky, right? That you didn’t start some endless one-sided love.”

Edelaine nodded as she thought.

In the novel, after the sub-male lead realized his feelings, he never missed a chance to appeal to himself whenever there was a rift between the male and female leads, and the female lead quickly noticed the sub-male lead’s feelings. But she couldn’t accept them, so she rejected him, apologized, and wished him happiness as a friend.

Kind Saint Genevieve would have had no choice but to feel sorry for Edwin once she knew his feelings.

How fortunate that didn’t happen. For Saint Genevieve.

Saint Genevieve and Edwin’s gazes met in the air.

Reading the sympathy in Saint Genevieve’s eyes, Edwin smiled smoothly and answered:

“Right. Very fortunate.”

“I’m… fortunate too.”

Saint Genevieve said in a trembling voice.

The more Saint Genevieve listened to Edelaine’s explanation, the paler she became. Her face looked so shocked that Edelaine wondered if she might vomit. Edelaine stopped several times to ask if she was okay.

She had listened with amusement to the part about Edelaine originally being the role that tormented her. She even agreed that it made sense.

But when it came to Edelaine’s ‘purpose’, her face gradually hardened.

“If it’s an ability that only awakens when someone dies, wouldn’t it be better not to have it?”

And the man she would gain through that was Shane Blancarde.

“Then all of that, everything was actually…”

“Shane, Edwin, Lucian, even the dead mage – they all fell for you.”

“…”

“Saint Genevieve?”

“I think… I’m going to throw up…”

“What! Did you eat something wrong? Do you have indigestion?!”

“*sob* I’m sorry, Lady Edelaine…”

“To me? For what?!”

“All of that went to Lady Edelaine!”

“…”

“I’m so sorry, what should I do…”

Edelaine was confused for a moment about whether this was Saint Genevieve’s joke and couldn’t say anything.

But Saint Genevieve really did dry heave a few times, then tearfully apologized to Edelaine repeatedly.

“Even if it’s just a novel, that female lead has no eyes, right?”

“Huh?”

“Or maybe she got beaten so much that even her fear became numb?”

“…”

“That can’t be right. I know from experience – the more you get beaten, the more your sense of crisis develops. You can tell just by looking. Ah, this person could kill me. Or this person will only beat me but won’t kill me…”

Don’t talk about such sad things so matter-of-factly like you’re reading a thesis, Saint Genevieve…

“Maybe she got hit wrong by her father and bumped her head.”

“That… that probably wasn’t it, Saint Genevieve.”

“Otherwise, how could she fall for someone like His Grace the Blancarde Duke at first sight? And that’s not enough – Your Highness Edwin too? There’s nothing about me worth Your Highness falling for.”

Edwin tilted his head and said mockingly:

“My range of taste is as wide as the sea, Saint Genevieve. I could love you too.”

“Ugh…”

Edelaine quickly placed her hand under Saint Genevieve’s chin. Of course, it was just dry heaving so nothing came out, but Saint Genevieve looked moved. She sniffled and said:

“Even Lord Lucian! The boss of a criminal organization who kills people when things go wrong! The me in the novel wasn’t blessed by a goddess’s love – I was cursed!”

“That’s true. That female lead was pitiful… It’s better not to receive anything from Lucian.”

“And the mage too…?”

“The mage in the novel was probably that woman’s twin. That man fell for you too.”

“How ridiculous…”

Saint Genevieve made a brief cynical comment. Then she took Edelaine’s hand and said:

“If you had told me earlier, I would have risked my life to protect you so no one could curse Lady Edelaine.”

She might fall for her.

Edwin shook his head as he watched Genevieve sobbing and Edelaine who was busy comforting her.

If what Genevieve received in the novel was a curse, then what was it that Edelaine had received now?

In the end, unlike the male lead in the novel, Edelaine had married Shane who had gone completely mad, and though she didn’t know it herself, she was receiving Edwin’s unrequited love. There was no way to know what Lucian was thinking, but he probably had feelings similar to friendship at least.

Otherwise, there was no way that money-obsessed person would help her several times without compensation.

‘The Mage from the novel and the twin Mage…’

Edwin recalled Kaitlyn, who had seemed absent-minded.

Kaitlyn had been confined.

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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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