Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 69

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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 (8)

“This is your doing, isn’t it? I know everything.”

Princess Mia glared at Kaitlyn with an unprecedentedly cold expression.

“What are you saying I did, ugh!”

“How dare you talk back?”

With a sharp crack, her head turned to the side. Kaitlyn grabbed her stinging cheek and widened her eyes.

“Did you think I’d be happy if you used magic to manipulate men into acting like they were infatuated with me?!”

Did I just get hit?

Kaitlyn let out a hollow laugh.

“You might see me as an empty-headed woman, but I have things that are important to me too.”

“What would that be? Your pride?”

“Kaitlyn.”

“You said you’d seduce men and settle down in the Empire. I was trying to grant your wish, so what’s the problem?”

“Your shallow schemes will eventually be exposed!”

Kaitlyn, her pride wounded, swallowed hard. Mia sneered sarcastically.

“You think you’re sitting on top of people’s heads, controlling them with the tip of your chin. But which one of us is truly ignorant right now?”

“Watch your words, Princess Mia!”

Mia was astounded by Kaitlyn raising her voice.

Who was shouting at whom right now?

Kaitlyn looked pathetic, arrogantly raising her eyes and demanding answers.

Anyone watching would think Kaitlyn was the princess. Well, Kaitlyn herself probably naturally assumed she was more precious anyway.

I let her act high and mighty, thinking the flattery I gave her was genuine, and that’s what ruined everything.

“If it weren’t for Keith, you’re just a stupid girl who would have been abandoned long ago, yet you’re causing trouble without knowing your place!”

“What?”

“Word came from home. If you don’t return immediately, Keith’s corpse won’t remain intact. Stop your foolish acts. You wouldn’t want your twin’s body thrown to wild beasts as feed.”

Keith had coordinated opinions between the royal family and Kaitlyn to proceed with matters. Though Kaitlyn might not know it, Keith was the only one the royal family trusted.

When Keith’s name came up, Kaitlyn screamed frantically.

“Don’t you dare touch Keith!”

“Keith is already dead. What’s left is barely a lump of meat.”

“No!”

Kaitlyn ground her teeth fiercely. She could tolerate anything else, but touching Keith was unforgivable.

Mia snorted and said.

“Do you know who Jeff Bertrand is?”

“Bertrand…”

“Yes, Jeff Bertrand. You seem to have some idea. Because of that man, Brubewin will have nothing to eat starting this spring. Our goods’ value plummeted due to his new business ventures, and he told merchants never to trade with us again. After distributing all our prepared winter food supplies, both the royal family and citizens will starve to death!”

“…”

“Thanks to you stirring up trouble without knowing your place, your precious talent has become completely useless, Kaitlyn. The commodity value we could have gained because of you has become worthless. Naturally, you’re no longer needed either.”

Mia looked down at Kaitlyn with momentarily pitying, sorrowful eyes.

That brief gaze was more humiliating than the slap she’d received.

“I knew you looked down on me.”

“…”

“We grew up together since childhood, and I considered you a friend in my own way, but you thought I was stupid. It wasn’t bad. I certainly wasn’t as smart as you and had nothing I could do.”

“That’s…”

“You probably thought it unfair that I received better treatment than you simply for being the king’s daughter, but the reality that you, smarter than me, must eventually bow your head to me doesn’t change. I could overlook however you felt inside.”

Because that’s the magnanimity a royal should show.

Even knowing she occasionally looked at me like a clueless idiot while pretending to be generous, I let it slide. Mia rather wanted to leave the tiresome Brubewin without knowing anything, and she pitied her for being deceived by the royal family’s sweet words and working herself to the bone.

Yes, Mia pitied Kaitlyn.

‘Come away with me, Keith.’

‘I can’t do that, Your Highness.’

‘Why? Because you need to repay your foster parents’ kindness?’

‘That’s part of it.’

‘Or is it? Because of Kaitlyn?’

‘…’

‘Kaitlyn won’t be able to leave Brubewin. Her parents will never let her go.’

‘Without Kaitlyn, I don’t exist either.’

‘Keith.’

‘I’m not the one who will make you happy, Your Highness.’

‘…But I like you.’

‘I’m sorry.’

Mia let out a small sigh.

“My arrogant friend, this time you’ve crossed the line.”

“…”

“I thought you’d realize how wide the world is once you left the nest. Just how great do you think you are? What can you do without Keith?”

At least Keith was good at knowing his place.

“Without Keith, you’re nothing but half a person. It’s about time you realized that.”

Mia spoke loudly for her to hear and then left. Along with orders to pack and return home as soon as possible.

Keith is, knowing one’s place.

Her head was pounding. It felt like her heart was beating inside her skull.

Mia hadn’t just insulted her but had bundled dead Keith with her and struck them both. How dare she, Keith. Keith.

Kaitlyn, humiliated by the person she’d looked down on most, bit her lips until they bled.

She didn’t even remember that she too had looked down on Keith.

The fact that her belief in being superior to Mia and Keith was just her own delusion, and that everyone actually thought she was stupid, was unbearable.

“How dare, how dare…”

Kaitlyn now had nothing left to protect.

Her only sibling was dead, and the Brubewin royal family she’d devoted her life to serving had abandoned her.

Not content with abandoning her, they even threatened her by holding her most precious twin’s corpse hostage.

They told her not to act rashly and to return home immediately, or they’d cut Keith’s body into pieces and throw it to wild beasts as feed.

The future she rightfully should have enjoyed had also crumbled like a sandcastle in an instant.

Where exactly did everything start going wrong?

Kaitlyn was someone who deserved to have everything. She was a high-ranking mage who could control not only people but even monsters at will. Even royalty feared her power…

Because they can’t survive without me. Because I’m amazing. Because I can dominate people.

The cheek Princess Mia had slapped still stung.

She never imagined that foolish woman would be reporting all her actions. Kaitlyn had underestimated Mia too much.

“Ha, haha.”

When cornered, even a mouse will bite a cat.

“Maybe this is for the better…”

Kaitlyn laughed weakly like a deflated balloon.

Yes, with nothing left to protect, she felt rather liberated.

Perhaps Kaitlyn’s fate had been sealed the moment Keith died.

Kaitlyn called upon her final stronghold that she hadn’t contacted until now.

***

“Sir, your wife is waiting for you.”

Shane turned his gaze to the adjutant whose tension was clearly visible.

Since he’d been summoned by the Empress, he expected to be detained for quite a while, but it seemed he’d been released surprisingly quickly.

‘Or perhaps he refused early and came back.’

It was Edwin who had summoned Edelaine using the Empress as a pretext. The reason Shane had left it alone despite seeing through the obvious scheme was because he knew all too well how difficult it was to reach Edelaine’s heart.

Edelaine was the one who hadn’t acknowledged him even after he’d chased her for years, confessing directly that he liked her, that she was the only one for him.

She hadn’t just failed to acknowledge him—she hadn’t believed him either.

‘If she were someone who would understand without me having to say it, I wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble.’

Edelaine had a severe tendency to see only what she wanted to see. Despite having eyes, she often acted as if she couldn’t see what was right in front of her. Whether to call it stubbornness or obstinacy, she had her own established truths that she believed in as firmly as gospel.

Unless those beliefs were shattered, no matter how sincerely he whispered his feelings, they would only be dismissed as nonsense.

Shane put on his coat and left the office.

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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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