Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 64
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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 (3)
“No, there’s no way I failed. I never have before.”
Kaitlyn had firm faith in her abilities.
She had survived until now purely on talent and skill alone.
Kaitlyn and Keith had nearly been murdered by relatives before they even turned ten. If they hadn’t learned dark magic, they would have died long ago.
Their birth parents taught them dark magic, telling them this was a secret only they should know.
They said that in a world where being weak alone made survival difficult, one must keep at least one hidden weapon that no one else knew about.
Back then, Kaitlyn and Keith only knew the world their parents protected, so they couldn’t understand those words.
The world their parents protected was peaceful, comfortable, and well-fed. They believed they would live that way forever.
But after their parents died in an accident, the twins came to clearly understand the ‘world’ their parents had spoken of.
During the funeral, the relative who whispered that they would take in the twins, that they would protect them now so they should grow up well, and kissed their foreheads, tried to kill the twins that very night. It was all for the title and fortune the twins would inherit.
If they hadn’t hidden their ability to use dark magic as their parents had advised, the twins would have died helplessly.
Running barefoot across frozen ground, the twins vowed never to trust anyone.
The only people they could trust were each other.
No one could be trusted except each other, who had shared the same flesh and blood in their mother’s womb.
Kaitlyn never forgot that day’s resolution.
Though they were miraculously rescued when discovered by foster parents who hunted monsters, gratitude and trust were separate matters. Kaitlyn tried to love her foster parents while never forgetting that they could betray her at any time.
In fact, the foster parents wouldn’t have adopted Kaitlyn and Keith if they hadn’t had talent for dark magic.
And they noticeably favored Kaitlyn, whose talent was more prominent.
Keith had talent, but it couldn’t compare to Kaitlyn’s.
His innate magical power was ordinary and his personality too gentle for dark magic. He was good at magic requiring delicate manipulation, but that went against the essence of dark magic. It was also an ability the foster parents didn’t need.
Still, the foster parents gave the twins shelter and new identities. That alone was reason enough for the twins to love them.
Kaitlyn knew Keith was being discriminated against.
But she didn’t think it was wrong.
It was natural for superior people to stand above those who weren’t. Keith was her younger brother by just a few minutes, and she thought she could protect him to make up for what he lacked.
Keith would smile awkwardly whenever Kaitlyn tried to protect him.
‘I’m scared you’ll ruin yourself someday, Kaitlyn.’
‘You worry about useless things.’
‘You’re sometimes like a wild boar that can’t see left or right.’
‘…Did you just insult me?’
‘Ah, you caught me.’
‘Don’t think everything’s a compliment just because you say it nicely!’
Her kind younger brother died because he failed to objectively recognize his own abilities.
‘And because he used needlessly troublesome methods.’
Keith thoroughly hid behind other people. That was safe, but sluggish and uncertain of success. So he often failed.
But Kaitlyn was different.
Kaitlyn had never failed. At least not until coming here.
This was already the second time.
When the light accident she’d prepared upon arriving at the port ended in failure, she thought it was just a mistake.
There had been so many people, and she’d made eye contact with her intended targets for too short a time, so she thought the hypnosis had worn off quickly.
‘Princess Mia kept talking to me so I was distracted too…’
The sight of some boy carrying away her missed target as if he’d been waiting for it bothered her, but she tried to think of that as coincidence too.
But this time was a clear failure.
Kaitlyn bit her lips hard and looked to the side.
“Are you listening to me? Kaitl…”
“Yes, of course. Your Highness.”
“Mmm…”
Mia blinked slowly with a dazed expression. Kaitlyn took that opportunity to shake off Mia who was clinging to her. Then she cast light hypnosis on everyone she made eye contact with. To make them feel inexplicable fondness for her.
Manipulating people was such an easy thing.
If she couldn’t control them directly, she could work on their surroundings.
Kaitlyn smiled at the nobles of Delmez approaching her, hiding her anxiety.
***
“I’m telling you I’m fine!”
“Do fine people cough up blood?”
“I don’t understand it either, but it’s true!”
Edelaine was about to beat her chest in frustration when Shane grabbed her wrist. He held Edelaine’s wrist firmly and spoke with a stern expression.
“I told you not to hide it when you’re hurt.”
“I’m not hurt…”
Her stomach, which had been churning like motion sickness, felt refreshingly clear after coughing up that last bit of blood, as if by magic.
In fact, her body felt much lighter than before coughing up the blood.
It was almost like the bloodletting she’d only heard about.
But even though this was a world created by a Korean author, it was still based on Western culture, making it difficult to explain the concept of bloodletting.
The problem was also that the amount of blood she’d coughed up was too much for bloodletting.
“I really don’t hurt anywhere! My stomach feels better too!”
“So your stomach was uncomfortable?”
Jeff interjected, pointing this out.
“Brother, don’t butt in. I just had a little indigestion.”
“If not now, when should I butt in?”
At his unusually stern voice, Edelaine, who was about to respond playfully, closed her mouth. Not only Shane, but Gregory, Patrick, and Jeff all had serious expressions.
Gregory swept up his sweat-dampened graying hair and sighed.
“Edelaine… Look at yourself right now. Emma would have fainted if she saw you.”
“I just bit my tongue wrong…”
Patrick shook his head.
“If this much blood flowed from your tongue, you’d have died from excessive bleeding.”
“But I really am fine, so what am I supposed to say if you won’t believe me when I say I’m fine.”
Shane lightly squeezed Edelaine’s wrist then released it. It was a signal asking her to pay attention to him. When Edelaine looked at him, he spoke in a suppressed voice.
“Please don’t say anything until the healer comes. I’m so angry I don’t think I can choose my words.”
“…Yes…”
It seemed she’d have to wait until a healer or whoever came quickly to prove she was fine.
Edelaine herself wanted to know most what had happened. She’d never seen such a case even in dreams.
But seeing the blood that had turned Shane’s shirt completely red, she could understand why they had to be shocked. Someone who already looked frail suddenly coughing up blood – anyone would be shocked…
Edelaine raised her hand to fix Shane’s fallen bangs. Because they looked like they’d poke his eyes. While she was at it, she rubbed away the bloodstains on his neat face with her finger. Shane briefly frowned as if about to throw a tantrum, but obediently offered his face.
He probably wanted to ask if now was the time to wipe away bloodstains, but couldn’t bring himself to lose his temper in front of Gregory. Because as he’d just said, he’d get angry if he opened his mouth.
Then Edwin burst in with a healer.
Edwin, who flung open the door, was covered in sweat and panting. Edelaine was a little surprised.
‘This from someone who said his lungs and legs were delicate and fragile and couldn’t be overworked.’
Despite the dramatic entrance, Edwin stood there catching his breath, then let the healer behind him enter first. The startled healer’s shoulders pitifully shrank at the fierce gazes of the people gathered in the cabin.
“I heard you collapsed quite dramatically. Your complexion doesn’t look bad though.”
“I’m tired of saying I’m fine, so please just examine me first.”
She tried to let go of Shane’s hand so the healer could examine her more comfortably, when she noticed her bare wrist.
“Huh?”
The thin gold bracelet Genevieve had given her was gone.
“What’s wrong?”
“I lost the bracelet Genevieve gave me as a gift… I must have dropped it.”
“I’ll buy you an identical one.”
Jeff flaunted his wealth. Edelaine glared at him with annoyance.
“Genevieve personally blessed it too. That’s strange. Even if it was thin, it shouldn’t have broken.”
Shane exchanged glances with Edwin and Jeff.
Blessed items wouldn’t break unless their power was exhausted. If an item that the Saint had blessed with all her heart had broken, it meant it had blocked an attack or curse of that magnitude.
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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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