Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 12
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 3. The Villainess is Resurrected (1)
The male lead is a villain, the villainess has been kidnapped, and the female lead married another man.
So what genre is this novel now?
‘It’s a horrible hybrid…’
At least now, this couldn’t be called a romance fantasy anymore.
Edelaine squeezed her eyes shut. With fraud, kidnapping, and confinement appearing, was this a crime thriller?
‘The only common point is that my survival rate is shitty low.’
Whether as a villainess in a romance fantasy or a victim in a crime thriller, they were all roles with slim chances of survival.
‘My damn fate.’
Currently, Edelaine was kidnapped and confined in an unknown location, and her future depended on the hands of the world’s greatest villain who had gone completely insane.
She didn’t think she had committed any particular sins in her past life, so why was her current life so damn awful?
‘It seems unlikely Lloyd will come to rescue me. No, he shouldn’t come.’
Considering Shane’s eyes overflowing with resentment toward her and his cold threats, it didn’t seem like he would spare Lloyd’s life.
Moreover, Lloyd was talent whose true calling was as an assassin, more suited for agile and stealthy combat rather than frontal battles.
So what should she do now?
Edelaine struggled to turn her sluggish mind. Perhaps because she had eaten and played thoughtlessly during her seclusion, her thoughts weren’t connecting well.
In fact, there were no sharp solutions. All of Edelaine’s cards had disappeared five years ago.
‘Is there no choice but to beg desperately? Pride doesn’t put food on the table, and if I can just survive, what’s the big deal.’
She could kneel and apologize as much as needed, but the problem was that this method didn’t seem likely to work on Shane.
Her stomach was stinging. It seemed like stress-induced gastritis was acting up.
Anyway, nothing could be resolved by just staying still.
Edelaine resolutely shook herself and got up from the bed, determined to beg desperately even if it meant crawling on her hands and knees.
Since Saint Genevieve had just walked in, it didn’t seem like there was a locking mechanism on the door. It could be a display of confidence that they could catch her wherever she ran, or they might have put the entire manor under surveillance.
Either way, she didn’t want to lie in a windowless room any longer. She felt like she might develop depression.
However, as soon as Edelaine got up, the door opened again.
Thinking it would be Shane or Saint Genevieve, Edelaine looked up and froze stiff. The other party was the same.
“Oh, my goodness.”
A thin voice trembled. Edelaine also made a strangled sound.
“Mother…”
Her mother, Marquis Bertrand’s wife Emma, was much thinner and more gaunt than Edelaine remembered. Her pale complexion and sunken cheeks made her look like a patient.
“Is it, really, really Edelaine…?”
“…”
“Edelaine, my daughter!”
Emma rushed over and embraced Edelaine. Edelaine couldn’t bring herself to push away her mother, who was so thin she seemed like she might crumble if pushed wrong.
“You’re alive, you were alive. Ah, Edelaine!”
“Mother…”
“Sob, sob, let me see your face. Your face…”
The palms cupping her cheeks were cold and rough. The fingertips tracing her eyes were trembling so much that Edelaine felt like she might burst into tears too. Emma was pitifully emaciated.
Not knowing what to do, standing still without even breathing, three more familiar faces appeared behind Emma.
Her father Gregory, first brother Patrick, and second brother Jeff.
And behind them followed Shane and Saint Genevieve. Seeing him smirk brought her back to her senses.
“Mother, please step away.”
Patrick said in a cold voice.
“What an unpleasant thing to do, Blancarde Duke.”
Gregory then clicked his tongue and pressed his nose bridge firmly. Jeff snorted.
“You found a woman who looks similar quite well. You said you’d show us what Edelaine left behind, and this is all you were planning to do?”
“I personally put my sister’s body into the coffin with these hands and buried her. What a truly unpleasant thing to do. Regarding this matter, I will formally…”
Shane put Saint Genevieve forward and said.
“The coffin buried in the ground was empty. When she went into the coffin, she was almost as good as dead. That was the limit of the Saint’s power at the time.”
Shane spun lies without batting an eye. Beside him, Saint Genevieve clasped her hands together with a truly saintly expression befitting ‘the Goddess’s first servant’ and said.
“I had just awakened my abilities, so I was very lacking.”
Still embraced by Emma, Edelaine’s eyes widened.
Saint Genevieve, you too!
Saint Genevieve avoided Edelaine’s gaze, lowered her eyes, and said sweetly.
“But the Goddess heard my five years of prayers. I needed time, but like this…!”
Saint Genevieve was even skilled at controlling the pace of her acting. She was worthy of a Best Actress award.
“I was able to revive Lady Edelaine, my benefactor…!”
The eyes of Gregory, Patrick, and Jeff wavered, swayed by the seasoned Saint’s showmanship. Ah, no.
She had to open her mouth immediately and deny it. She had to say it was fake, that this crazy male lead and female lead had kidnapped and confined a perfectly healthy person and were spouting nonsense.
But the grip strength of Emma holding her was so pathetically weak that the words wouldn’t come out.
“Why didn’t you say that from the beginning?”
“Did you give me a chance to speak? You blamed me saying Edelaine died because of me, but you wouldn’t even listen to what I had to say.”
“That’s…”
“Besides, for five years, Edelaine was as good as dead. I couldn’t be certain if the revival would succeed… I thought it wouldn’t be too late to tell you after it succeeded.”
Lies flowed smoothly from his lips without hesitation.
‘That bastard, that, that, that! The crazy bastard is putting on a show!’
However, Gregory, Patrick, and Jeff wouldn’t be easily fooled.
Gregory had a suspicious nature befitting the family of a villainess in a novel. To put it nicely, he was aristocratic; to put it badly, he was sinister.
Patrick, who had helped his father manage the marquis territory since childhood, and Jeff, who had traveled the continent doing business, were not people to be taken lightly either.
They would surely get angry saying not to talk nonsense, that they wouldn’t believe such a double, and storm out. Edelaine believed this…
“So that’s why you didn’t formally break off the engagement.”
Gregory murmured lowly. No. Edelaine screamed silently. At those words that seemed ready to accept the explanation, Patrick and Jeff’s eyes began to change too.
“I told you. I have no intention of marrying anyone other than Edelaine.”
“…Yes, you did.”
“Because Edelaine didn’t die.”
No, you thought she was dead too.
Edelaine couldn’t expose Shane’s lies as lies and only moved her lips slightly. Shane, who met her eyes, smiled slightly, but only Edelaine could see it.
Saint Genevieve, who met eyes with the shocked Edelaine, gave an apologetic look.
And drove in the final nail.
“I can swear in the Goddess’s name. The person here is definitely Lady Edelaine Bertrand. I treated her with my own hands…”
You did treat me, but I wasn’t sick to begin with! There was nothing to fix!
“I even changed her clothes and cared for her with my own hands.”
So that’s why you insisted on changing my clothes. Even though I said it was fine, you insisted it would be uncomfortable to sleep in a dress…
“It’s definitely Lady Edelaine.”
“If there’s even a grain of falsehood in those words.”
“I would immediately be abandoned by the Goddess and never be able to use divine power again.”
I wish you wouldn’t stake the Saint’s divine power, upon which the continent’s fate depends, on my identity…
“But I’m still the Goddess’s servant like this.”
It was a perfect finish.
Edelaine trembled with a sense of betrayal.
Instead of doing the romance they were supposed to do, the male and female leads were working together to screw her over.
“But the body we confirmed that day was definitely…”
“That’s enough, Patrick.”
Gregory said. His voice was hoarse and scratchy.
“When they say that much, we can’t doubt anymore. …Edelaine.”
“…”
“I’m truly sorry. People, when a wish they desperately wanted comes true, they tend not to believe it… No, this is also an excuse. I’m sorry.”
Edelaine couldn’t say anything like a child who had swallowed honey. Seeing the solemn Gregory, the crying Emma, and Patrick and Jeff gradually breaking down.
“You really came back well. Really, so well…”
“…Yes…”
Her conscience, grown thick with hair, cried out in pain.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————