Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 75

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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 14. Deceiving and Being Deceived (4)

It was getting dark, and it was time to go to bed.

Following Patrick and Jeff, Gregory also stopped by to see her briefly. He couldn’t speak as affectionately as usual and just paced around awkwardly.

When he asked if she needed anything and was told that Jeff had already bought plenty of supplies, he just nodded with an embarrassed expression and left.

It was absurd how they locked her up so she couldn’t leave, yet came to visit like they were visiting parents at a nursing home, but Edelaine had committed sins too and couldn’t be too harsh.

If she hadn’t felt guilty, she would have thrown herself on the floor long ago and protested about what kind of inhumane crime this was.

But she had become too much of an adult for that now.

“Shall I sleep with you?”

Lloyd spoke first as if doing her a favor.

Edelaine, who had finished preparing for bed, looked at him and chuckled. Why didn’t everyone recognize that cute child’s expression? He was being so honest.

“But your face says you’d hate it to death?”

Sometimes he was annoyingly honest.

“I do hate it. But wouldn’t it be better to have some warmth?”

“I can just hug a pillow to sleep. I didn’t particularly need warmth…”

“If you really have trouble falling asleep, please let me know.”

He spoke so solemnly as if offering his body for sacrifice that it was funny. It’s not like I’m some magistrate forcing you to serve me…

“I’ll call you if I need you. Sleep well.”

“Yes, well, if you insist…”

Chunhyang Lloyd closed the bedroom door with a coy expression and left.

Even after putting her head on the pillow, she couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.

She didn’t want to sleep.

‘So the mage was from the Kingdom of Brubewinn.’

Since the accident happened from the day the ship arrived, she had suspected there was a mage among the invited guests.

Though she had only recently learned it was a woman, even if she had searched, the mage hadn’t immediately attacked her, so she couldn’t have been proactive. The biggest reason was that she couldn’t move at all because Genevieve had prescribed convalescence.

‘She didn’t have a change of heart after all…’

She just didn’t know because it ended in failure, but it seemed she had been plotting something.

If so, that was rather fortunate. The case where the mage had reformed would be the worst situation.

Far from trying to kill her, she couldn’t kill a mage who hadn’t even committed a crime just so she could live happily. That was impossible for Edelaine.

But if she didn’t kill the mage, the unprecedented possibility wouldn’t disappear, and the ‘world’ that couldn’t tolerate the existence of something that shouldn’t be alive would continue to guide her toward eliminating the impurity.

She would have to live with nightmares until she died.

However, perhaps fortunately, the mage hadn’t reformed and still seemed to be trying to kill the Saint. She couldn’t be certain whether the nightmares would end or not if the mage disappeared, but at least one major possibility would vanish.

‘…? Wait, why is she trying to kill me?’

Edelaine had never done anything to earn resentment from someone she didn’t even know. She wasn’t a public official or person in power, so she couldn’t have done anything influential. Unless the mage was moving under orders from the world, it was strange for her to try to kill her without any personal grudge.

There was so much she didn’t know that she felt like she’d die of frustration.

‘Damn early-game villain stats, shit…’

In games, once you progress past the midpoint, you level up and get good equipment, but Edelaine had been dragged to the ending stage with just the wooden club given at the beginning.

Trying to keep up with the main characters who flew around with fragile bodies was tearing her legs and lungs apart.

She sighed and leaned her head against the pillow when she suddenly sensed someone’s presence.

She sat up and looked ahead to see Shane.

“You lock someone up and only come now?”

She asked grumpily, but there was no answer.

Buried in darkness, it wasn’t easy to gauge his expression. She should have left one candle burning. Edelaine was anxious that Shane’s eyes might still have nothing reflected in them.

“Shane. Say something.”

“…You’re the one.”

Shane, who would normally have approached, remained at a distance without moving.

“The one who should be saying something isn’t me, but you.”

“…”

“What you know.”

As she blinked, she became more accustomed to the darkness and her vision became clearer. Edelaine looked straight at Shane and involuntarily drew in a breath.

Shane looked like someone interrogating a criminal. With blue eyes devoid of any emotion and an expressionless face, he was observing her sharply as if trying to find something out.

“I’ll admit it, Edelaine. I absolutely couldn’t figure out what you were hiding. Won’t you teach me now?”

Even his gentle, coaxing tone carried cynicism. The inside of her throat felt stiff and sour as if she had swallowed ice.

“It wasn’t Lucian Call, nor Lloyd. Even they knew nothing. You’ve hidden something tightly away only in that little head of yours.”

Shane tapped his temple with long fingers and changed his expression to create a slight smile.

It would have been better if he had remained expressionless.

If he had created that as the face he usually smiled at her with, Shane’s acting skills were quite terrible.

“I did well, didn’t I? Didn’t I seem trustworthy?”

“…”

“I waited silently and obeyed like a dog. You seemed to rely on me quite a bit too.”

It was more than just relying on him.

The reason Edelaine could remain unbroken even by terrible nightmares was solely thanks to Shane.

It was because she had promised him.

She could endure it because she wanted to overcome everything and live with him.

“Yet you still can’t trust me.”

“And you.”

“…”

“Do you trust me?”

In the sharp silence, Edelaine bit her lips hard.

It sounded like all the moments he had been affectionate were just means to pry into her heart. Edelaine knew that wasn’t the case. She didn’t think Shane’s blood-like sincerity was false.

It was because his blue eyes speaking of love were earnest that even Edelaine’s hidden and suppressed true feelings were laid bare. The tears he shed while holding her dying self and his trembling fingertips couldn’t have been fake.

She knew it was her fault for not giving him trust. It was natural that he couldn’t trust her either. She knew that.

But even knowing everything, she couldn’t help being angry after hearing him speak that way.

“You don’t tell me anything either, so what am I supposed to trust you based on?”

When he suspected everything she said first.

Even if he pretended to believe her lies, it wouldn’t be pleasant.

The emotions she had suppressed, telling herself to endure even if it was unfair because she had committed sins, burst out. She had covered them well with her hands, but they leaked through the gaps between her fingers.

You don’t know my heart either.

You don’t know how I survived either.

You don’t know how hard it was either.

I endured it because you said you were having a hard time because of me. I was sorry for hurting you, for breaking you. So even when it was unfair, I didn’t say anything and accepted it. I endured it.

I just wanted to live, but you don’t know that. So why am I the only one who did wrong? Why am I the only sinner? Why?

It’s not like I wanted to leave either.

This world rejected me.

Why do I have to keep being sorry? That was my best effort. I was struggling too.

To keep the promise I made with you, I gritted my teeth and tried hard.

Edelaine couldn’t hold back and screamed.

“You can’t trust me either! That’s why you keep locking me up! So how can I trust you!”

How shallow was the trust between them?

Even though they slept in each other’s arms every day, frequently kissed each other’s eyes, nose tips, foreheads, cheekbones and chin tips, beside the lips, and earlobes, and sometimes completely surrendered their bodies to share kisses, there was no trust between them.

Shane watched her calmly and said.

“I can’t trust you. I never have.”

His voice was dry too.

Tears burst out like they were broken. Edelaine wiped away the tears gathering on her chin with her sleeve because they were bothersome. But it was useless once or twice as tears flowed endlessly.

At other times, Shane would already be wiping away her tears with his large hands and stopping her rough rubbing hands, saying it would hurt her skin. But Shane still just looked down at her like a stranger, keeping his distance.

“Crying won’t help, Edelaine. I won’t comfort you until you tell me what you know.”

“I never wanted, hic, that anyway.”

She hadn’t wanted comfort. But the clear change in attitude made her sad.

“The promise to return to you, did that sound like nonsense too?”

“No. I wanted to believe it wasn’t nonsense.”

Shane let out a low breath.

“I was afraid you would hate me.”

“….”

“So I clung to your side, hoping you would like me even just a little. I was happy when our eyes met and you smiled at me, when you held me in your sleep, when you leaned against me. What could I have done? I could only cling to you like an idiot and beg like a dog for you to please love me.”

His blue eyes that had lowered and then opened seemed to have shed a layer. Edelaine saw deep blue anger within them.

“But I had forgotten. What I fear most isn’t you disliking me, but you dying.”

He had forgotten that.

Buried in the sweet expectation that he might be loved.

“Hate me, despise me, do whatever you want, Edelaine. That doesn’t matter.”

Compared to you dying.

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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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