Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 58

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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 11. The Villainess Has Grit (7)

 

In front of Lucian lay a man who had rolled his eyes back and fainted.

 

He poked the unconscious man with his foot a few times. There was no movement at all.

 

“Please handle him gently so he won’t get hurt.”

 

“You don’t seem to have handled him all that gently either.”

 

“I didn’t leave any external injuries.”

 

Lloyd set down another man he had carried over his shoulder like a sack onto the floor. He certainly hadn’t left any wounds, but his touch had been quite irritable.

 

There were fifteen of them in total.

 

Men, women, and even children were included. All had lost their minds to black magic.

 

Those afflicted by black magic could only return to their right minds by either precisely carrying out the caster’s commands or receiving purification from a Saint.

 

Ordinary people couldn’t easily meet a Saint, and even Saints couldn’t easily possess the purification power capable of lifting curses. So unless someone had the mental strength or magical power to avoid being affected by black magic from the start, once cursed, they couldn’t be freed until death.

 

However, these people were lucky.

 

Edelaine said that if they gathered and confined them all together, she would bring a Saint to purify them.

 

“How on earth did she know?”

 

Edelaine had provided exact locations and descriptions of the individuals. All Lloyd and Lucian had to do was have people simultaneously monitor them and knock them unconscious the moment they showed suspicious behavior.

 

“I don’t know either.”

 

“Really, just when I’m about to lose interest, she does something like this.”

 

“….”

 

Lloyd looked at Lucian as if he were staring at something disgusting.

 

“The master is not your plaything.”

 

“Of course she’s not something so trivial.”

 

Lucian chuckled. A plaything was something he would hold a superior position over, play with until he got bored, then discard.

 

Edelaine and Lucian were equals.

 

When debts were incurred, they were repaid, and compensation was paid equal to the value of what was used. Whether it was money or something intangible, they offered things that satisfied each other. It wasn’t a one-sided relationship like between a toy and its owner.

 

When Lucian arbitrarily decided he was getting bored and tried to end their arrangement, Edelaine would come with something unexpected and thrust it at him. As if asking, “Isn’t this interesting?”

 

It was coincidental that it wasn’t intentional timing.

 

Even this time, Lucian had thought he would never see Edelaine again after she was taken away by Shane. His plan to relocate his base hadn’t been a lie either.

 

“When will she finally show me her bottom….”

 

“She’s already at rock bottom right now.”

 

Irritation seeped into his tone.

 

Unable to sleep peacefully for even a single night, groaning and wasting away—if that wasn’t rock bottom, then what was?

 

A swamp perhaps? A swamp would be fitting too. She looked like she might suffocate and die soon.

 

“Edelaine doesn’t tell you much either. Still a long way to go.”

 

“Don’t interfere. If you came and saw the master’s condition, you wouldn’t speak so nicely either. If I had known it would come to this, I should have prevented her from returning to this damned land….”

 

Lloyd irritably kicked at the floor.

 

Lucian looked at Lloyd, who was silently throwing a tantrum, as if he found him adorable. In his eyes, Lloyd looked like a kitten angrily thumping its tail on the ground out of dissatisfaction.

 

To think she had taken a child with no sense of self and raised him into such a cute creature.

 

It showed just how much Edelaine cherished Lloyd.

 

If Lucian had kept him, he couldn’t have grown up to be so human.

 

Lloyd probably had a vague idea that Edelaine was hiding something. But he would never ask what it was, and Edelaine kept him by her side knowing this.

 

That was why she took Lloyd with her and cut Lucian off midway.

 

Having an unsolved mystery stolen from him twice was irritating.

 

If he couldn’t solve it, he should at least see the end.

 

He wouldn’t be left alone in a room where no one comes.

 

Lucian hummed a tune as he made this resolution.

 

***

 

“Why are you so irritated?”

 

Empress Viola looked at her son with a crooked smile.

 

“What are we to do if the protagonist is sulking like this?”

 

Edwin snorted.

 

“Am I really the protagonist?”

 

“That’s a statement lacking confidence for a son of mine.”

 

“I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you, but I don’t even want to compete with that bizarre spectacle.”

 

“….”

 

Viola and Edwin both fixed their gazes on the same spot.

 

It wasn’t just the two of them—it was a spectacle monopolizing the attention of everyone attending the welcome party.

 

Even Viola had gaped with her mouth wide open, forgetting her dignity when she first saw it, so she could more than understand the feeling of being unable to look away.

 

Shane Blancarde laughing carelessly.

 

Was he a different person?

 

Did the Blancarde Duke have twins? Or was she seeing an illusion?

 

With a sweet smile added to his handsome face, it seemed to sparkle with light.

 

But only the foreign guests were entranced by his beauty.

 

Those who had known Shane Blancarde originally were so shocked by the bizarre sight that they couldn’t even look at his face properly.

 

Viola never thought she’d live to see such a thing. In fact, she hadn’t wanted to see it.

 

If the deceased princess had seen that face, couldn’t she have loved her child a little? Viola thought for a moment then shook her head. If she had been alive, Emma would have already spirited her daughter away, so such a sight wouldn’t have been possible.

 

“I’m not thinking about marriage yet anyway.”

 

Viola’s eyes widened.

 

“Wouldn’t it be advantageous for you to marry soon?”

 

“The current situation isn’t particularly bad either.”

 

“How long do you plan to only do things that benefit your father?”

 

Instead of answering, Edwin just chuckled. It wasn’t that he wanted to benefit his father—his presence was simply so minimal it wasn’t even bothersome.

 

“I’ve waited as long as I could wait. The crown princess must be decided before the Founding Festival ends. If you won’t choose, I’ll just grab anyone….”

 

“Do as you please.”

 

“What?”

 

“Anyone is fine. If it’s Queen Mother, you’ll choose well.”

 

“Are you really my son? My son who suspects everything first unless he does it himself?”

 

“How do I look?”

 

Edwin only raised his eyes to look at his mother. His face, deliberately wearing a deep eye-smile, looked angelic, but Viola wasn’t fooled.

 

“Seeing you wave around the pretty face I gave you in all the wrong places, you seem to take after your father.”

 

“….”

 

“Abandon your unseasonable lingering attachment. I’ll overlook your uncharacteristic behavior until today.”

 

Viola patted his shoulder as if his feelings were transparent, then left.

 

Edwin sighed without hiding his weary inner thoughts.

 

The next emperor would be him without needing to be anxious about it.

 

Since it was a position he could accept anytime, Edwin was rather relaxed. He wanted to enjoy his current freedom a little longer.

 

‘Lingering attachment.’

 

Viola seemed to guess that Edwin was acting foolishly because he loved Saint Genevieve.

 

It wasn’t entirely wrong, so she was seeing her son correctly to some degree.

 

If Saint Genevieve had chosen Edwin, he would have married her without hesitation.

 

But Saint Genevieve had not chosen Edwin.

 

It was the same even after his fiancée disappeared.

 

Unlike Shane, who had only chased after Edelaine since childhood, Edwin had enjoyed free romance regardless of his engagement to a foreign princess. He mainly chose women who wouldn’t cause trouble later.

 

Edelaine had once clicked her tongue at him and said:

 

“If you live like that, you’ll regret it later.”

 

“I’ve never done anything worth regretting.”

 

“You’re earning resentment. Meeting this woman and that woman.”

 

“I’ve explained everything thoroughly, and I only meet people who can understand. I’m also careful about contraception.”

 

“Wow, what trash.”

 

“Edelaine, you just said that out loud.”

 

“Oh, that was a mistake. I’m sorry.”

 

“I’ll forgive you. I’m a generous person, after all.”

 

“Since you’ve forgiven me, let me say one more thing. If you keep acting like trash, you won’t even notice the stench coming from yourself, so it would be best to come to your senses now.”

 

“I put on cologne, though. Is it not good?”

 

“Playboy sub-male leads always end up crying later. No woman with any sense would give you a chance.”

 

“You think I’ll end up crying?”

 

“Laugh while you still can…”

 

Saint Genevieve was a woman with sense.

 

She wouldn’t even glance at a man who had a fiancée, and naturally cut off her feelings for Edwin as well.

 

Only Edwin was clinging to his lingering attachment with shapeless emotions.

 

‘What’s so important about that anyway.’

 

Saint Genevieve married Harrison as if picking anyone at random. It was obvious she married him as an escape.

 

Yet now she was allowing Harrison into areas she wouldn’t let him enter, and also…

 

Edwin cut off the chain of thoughts that threatened to continue.

 

‘Why am I so irritated.’

 

None of this had anything to do with Edwin anyway.

 

Whether Saint Genevieve was happy with Harrison or not.

 

Edwin made eye contact with a woman who had been persistently sending glances his way.

 

The woman, who had lost her husband shortly after marriage and was now alone, had been in a relationship with Edwin for a long time.

 

She was tight-lipped and didn’t show possessiveness, making her the longest-lasting among those he could call lovers. As always, she naturally stood up when their eyes met.

 

He knew it wasn’t an appropriate situation, but he wanted to vent his inexplicable irritation.

 

Shortly after, meeting in an empty room of the Imperial Palace, they clung to each other without hesitation.

 

“Will someone among the people gathered here become the Crown Princess?”

 

“Probably.”

 

Edwin said indifferently as he slipped his hand under the woman’s skirt.

 

“I’ve served Your Highness for a long time…”

 

“Nothing will change.”

 

Until that moment, Edwin hadn’t given it much thought. But the next instant,

 

“I could endure it because you belonged to no one!”

 

The woman’s voice trembled violently.

 

Then she pulled out a dagger she had hidden in her clothes and raised it high.

 

The woman was already on top of Edwin. Moreover, she was filled with murderous intent and fierce momentum.

 

Unlike Shane, Edwin was far from trained and couldn’t subdue the woman without causing a commotion.

 

But he also couldn’t create a scandal about nearly being killed while enjoying a secret rendezvous with his lover at a party where Crown Princess candidates had gathered.

 

‘I made a mistake.’

 

Just then, someone pounded on the door as if to break it down.

 

Taking advantage of the woman’s startled moment, Edwin pushed her away, and the door burst open.

 

Edwin let the woman escape.

 

“Nothing’s going right, damn it.”

 

He couldn’t punish her anyway, and this was his own karma.

 

Someone entered through the open door. He didn’t know who it was, but thanks to them, he could handle the situation. Edwin raised his head.

 

There stood Edelaine.

 

Edelaine looked at Edwin with his shirt half-removed and clicked her tongue.

 

“Look at this. I told you you’d regret it.”

 

She smiled as if looking at the most pathetic person in the world.

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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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