Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 62

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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 13. The Villain is Half (1)

 

Just a little more.

 

Just a little.

 

Show me your face.

 

Who are you….

 

Edelaine struggled to open her eyes.

 

However, with her neck gripped and her upper body submerged in water, air bubbles continuously obscured her vision.

 

But she couldn’t just stop breathing either.

 

She knew this was a dream, knew that death would end it, yet the instinct to struggle for breath was pitiful.

 

If this was something she had to endure anyway, it would be fine to give up a little, but Edelaine could never learn how to give up on life. She didn’t want to either.

 

Who are you, trying to kill me.

 

If you’re going to kill an innocent person, you should at least let them know who you are.

 

Don’t hide cowardly behind the face of someone I love….

 

Wandering through endless dreams, Edelaine desperately gathered clues.

 

In some dreams, she couldn’t open her eyes at all and died futilely, in others she was too distressed and crying to do anything, but she persevered stubbornly.

 

That way she prevented accidents that would have endangered Shane, and even stopped Edwin’s injury incident that she didn’t need to save him from.

 

‘I shouldn’t have saved Edwin.’

 

It felt like going to remove a wart only to get another one attached, but she couldn’t just leave him knowing he’d get hurt, so she decided not to regret it.

 

However, she couldn’t catch a single clue about the most important ‘Mage.’

 

Now she was feeling stubborn and didn’t want to die obediently.

 

Especially in dreams like this one where someone whose face she couldn’t see suddenly tried to kill her.

 

The hands were too small for Lloyd, Shane, or Edwin.

 

Judging by the slender wrist gripping her neck, it was definitely a woman, but the hands were too large and strong for Genevieve.

 

‘Genevieve always cries when she tries to kill me, no matter when or what situation….’

 

She wouldn’t strangle her while looking at her face from the front.

 

Through experience, Edelaine had found patterns in how she was killed.

 

If Genevieve attacked while crying, Lloyd mainly used poison. Whether intending to preserve the corpse intact, he would kill her in one blow if possible.

 

Edwin would use people around him to avoid dirtying his own hands, and usually was with someone who controlled him.

 

Shane was the complete opposite of Edwin.

 

He always tried to kill her directly. Like in the first dream, hunting her in the forest, or slitting her throat with a sword in front of the burning Bertrand Estate.

 

80 percent of the massacre endings were all Shane’s doing.

 

Edelaine instinctively knew that this person strangling her was the Mage she had been searching for.

 

If these dreams she was having showed one of many future branches, perhaps he too had undergone some change of heart.

 

‘Toward killing me directly….’

 

Edelaine keenly realized what this meant.

 

Most of those who tried to kill Edelaine were people she loved.

 

Sometimes they used others’ hands, but the murderous intent all stemmed from some emotion they held toward her.

 

Whether hatred, love, or pity.

 

Except when used as tools, people who didn’t know Edelaine had never tried to kill her.

 

The reason she couldn’t see the ‘Mage’ in her dreams until now was because he hadn’t tried to kill Edelaine directly.

 

What wind was blowing that made him try to kill her directly when he’d only hidden behind others until now.

 

‘Who do you think you are!’

 

What did I do that you dare try to kill me.

 

If things had proceeded according to the novel, they would never have met.

 

Unlike the characters deeply entangled with her for better or worse, Edelaine and the Mage had no connection whatsoever.

 

There could be no more disgraceful death than being killed by someone whose face she didn’t even know attacking without reason. Even if she had to die, she couldn’t die quietly. She flailed her nearly exhausted limbs.

 

When she grabbed the long hair caught on her fingertips and pulled hard, the grip strangling her neck loosened for a moment.

 

Edelaine didn’t miss the opportunity. She kicked the stomach of the person pressing down on her and rolled to the side.

 

Coughing and spitting up water, she desperately gasped for oxygen when someone approached the crouched her.

 

She raised her head.

 

It was a woman.

 

A woman with long black hair….

 

“Crazy bitch, you should die quietly instead of struggling uselessly.”

 

Look who’s talking, damn it….

 

Something heavy struck her head.

 

***

 

Edelaine woke from sleep with a sharp intake of breath.

 

Shane’s collar was clutched in her tightly clenched fist. Shane was holding her with his eyes closed. Edelaine carefully rested her head on his firm arm, being careful not to wake him with her breathing.

 

‘Does his face emit negative ions or something….’

 

Seeing how her heart became peaceful looking at him, maybe it really did.

 

As if entranced, Edelaine reached out and gently rubbed Shane’s eyebrow with her thumb. It was an eyebrow that made his delicate features, which could have looked pretty, appear strong and sharp instead.

 

When something displeased him, only this eyebrow would shoot up pointedly – she had secretly laughed since childhood, wondering if this was a male lead specialty.

 

Shane Blancarde was a consistent person.

 

While chasing Edelaine who ran away and pushed him back, he straightforwardly said he liked her, that he loved only her.

 

Edelaine simply hadn’t believed him.

 

Thinking about it, Shane had always loved her with his utmost effort.

 

How could he possibly be so consistent?

 

If Edelaine were Shane, she felt like she would have lost all affection for such a troublesome woman long ago.

 

She had never believed his words of love, pulled off an unprecedented scam and ran away, even giving him trauma. She had lied so much that she wouldn’t believe anything he said, yet still made him plead for her to say she loved him.

 

‘What exactly does he like about me…?’

 

The more I think about it, the worse it gets…?

 

Being able to love someone like that is too amazing…?

 

In contrast, Shane was overflowing with lovable qualities.

 

At least to Edelaine he was.

 

The way he handled everything skillfully as if nothing was difficult was annoyingly cool, his indifference to others’ attention because he knew how great he was seemed arrogantly cute, and even his occasionally irritable and sensitive temper was lovable.

 

Though he acted as if duties and responsibilities meant nothing, he faithfully performed his given role and naturally took responsibility for his subordinates, which was admirable.

 

Shane didn’t show visible kindness, but he was a fair superior.

 

He didn’t take out emotional frustrations on those weaker than him and accurately assessed what needed to be evaluated.

 

That’s why people continued to gather around him despite his indifferent attitude.

 

Moreover, Shane wasn’t just a cold person.

 

He was someone who could say he liked what he liked, straightforwardly. He was someone who knew how to face love head-on and cling to it without turning away or avoiding it.

 

‘He’s much more of a proper adult than I am.’

 

Edelaine loved Shane’s devoted, gentle, and ultimately yielding weak side.

 

Though he wasn’t without his fierce aspects.

 

He just needed to be gentle with the person he liked….

 

Edelaine deliberately ignored the very big and important flaw that Shane loved no one in the world but her.

 

If he had loved someone other than her long ago, he would already be happy.

 

Still, she was glad he didn’t give up on her. It was unreasonable selfishness.

 

“Sorry for being troublesome….”

 

Sorry for being such a bothersome person who can’t even say she likes you. Edelaine murmured softly.

 

She was the one who said they should be honest, yet she felt sorry for only spouting lies.

 

Not being able to confess the truth was perhaps simply due to lack of courage.

 

Since many parts of the nightmares had changed, even if she confessed the truth, they might not all die. But Edelaine couldn’t risk even a one-in-ten-thousand possibility.

 

Reality wasn’t a dream.

 

She had resolved to kill the Mage, but if….

 

‘If I can’t kill him, will I die?’

 

She couldn’t do the cruel thing of confessing her feelings while knowing she had to die.

 

Sometimes kissing and exchanging playful words would make her heart understand, but…

 

‘Even if he doesn’t say it in words, it’s no different from conveying that he likes me with his whole body.’

 

This might seem irresponsible too, but if she didn’t cling to him like this, she simply couldn’t bear it. Unlike in her dreams, Edelaine needed the certainty that Shane liked her. She wanted to know that this was reality.

 

In doing so, she had somehow ended up toying with him.

 

She was a wicked piece of trash who played with his heart without giving him any definite words, wasn’t she?

 

“If you’re sorry, then hold me.”

 

“…Weren’t you sleeping?”

 

“I woke up.”

 

“Then why were you keeping your eyes closed?”

 

When Edelaine threw a tantrum out of embarrassment at being caught talking to herself, Shane spoke as if asking why she was questioning something so obvious.

 

“Because you were touching me. Why would I do something so wasteful as to interrupt that?”

 

“…You’ve gotten better at being charming…”

 

“I figured out that this works best on you. You’re weak to my face, aren’t you?”

 

Shane smiled like a large feline showing affection. What a confident culprit.

 

“If you pity me, kiss me, Edelaine. That’s all I need.”

 

What the most brazen confident culprit in the world…

 

Edelaine smiled bitterly and pressed her lips to the pitiful man’s lips.

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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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