Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 76

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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 (5)

“Tell me. What exactly are you so afraid of?”

Edelaine stubbornly kept her mouth shut.

What could she possibly say?

That what she feared wasn’t the mage, but this world that wanted her dead?

That nightmares followed her every night at the edge of shadows?

That if she revealed everything, the listener would also be in danger?

That in her dreams you killed me dozens of times, and I’m afraid someday you’ll really kill me?

In the end, it was just a dream, merely an illusion.

Perhaps it was all delusion.

But to Edelaine, it was desperate reality and terrible truth. That had been her lifelong problem.

Shane approached and gripped Edelaine’s chin.

Tears that wouldn’t stop like something broken kept blurring her vision, but she tried not to avoid the blue eyes looking down at her. She had thought people who used tears as weapons were cowardly, yet here she was doing the same. She didn’t want to cry, but she simply couldn’t control it.

As she bit her lips stubbornly out of spite, he slipped his index finger between her lips.

His cold gaze remained as if looking at a stranger.

Shane, who had been meeting her eyes for a moment, touched her plump lips and asked.

“Still don’t want to talk?”

“…”

If it had been a story she could tell so easily, she would have confessed long ago and felt relieved.

“Right. I didn’t expect someone as stubborn as you to be scared just because I confined you. I only came to give you a warning today.”

“…What warning.”

Her voice was muffled, choked with tears.

“If you won’t tell me anything, I have no choice but to eliminate everything I can think of.”

“Going to threaten to kill everyone again? Aren’t you tired of it?”

“I am tired.”

Shane suddenly burst into dry laughter.

“I’m tired and annoyed.”

“…”

“How could I not be tired of holding you trembling every night and having my heart burn?”

“…”

“How could I not be annoyed by you who cries in cold sweat but then hugs me when you wake up, lying with that pale face saying you’re fine?”

“…”

“Look at this. You’re keeping your mouth shut again. Just that alone makes me the most miserable and powerless bastard in the world, damn it!”

Shane, breathing roughly, covered his face with his palm and stepped back two paces. He was angry and didn’t know what to do with himself, yet he kept his distance for fear of accidentally hurting Edelaine.

After breathing roughly in and out for a while, he bit his lips and irritably ran his fingers through his hair. Then, glaring at Edelaine with sharply cold eyes, he said with a sigh.

“Princess Mia of the Kingdom of Brubewinn will be named as the poisoner.”

“What? Wait, Patrick oppa said that person wasn’t involved! He said he was watching her! The evidence too…”

“There’s no evidence. But it’s already been decided. Who the actual perpetrator is doesn’t matter.”

“What bullshit?! It was at a gathering with the Empire’s Crown Prince! It could have killed the Crown Prince too, and you’re going to frame someone without evidence? Does that make sense? If it becomes the princess’s doing, it’s not just one person’s crime but…”

Edelaine stopped mid-sentence and gasped.

The statement that who the actual perpetrator was didn’t matter explained everything.

They intended to use the poisoning attempt as a trigger.

They had ‘decided’ it would be so.

‘You crazy bastards!’

Edelaine shot up with a bloodless face. She had to get out of here right now and meet Edwin or Viola. She had to meet them and tell them this was insane.

But Edelaine’s legs couldn’t even leave the bed.

Edelaine, who was forced to sit back down by a strong grip on her shoulder, screamed out loud.

“Y-you crazy bastard, if you’re going to be crazy, at least be gracefully crazy!”

“I have gone crazy.”

“What good does it do to just know you’re crazy, you lunatic! Don’t drag innocent people into this and go stop it right now, the princess did nothing wrong!”

“Are you certain the princess is innocent?”

“She is! No one is guilty! You’re really not in your right mind… Who would allow this? Her Majesty the Empress would never allow it!”

“You seem to forget that Her Majesty the Empress was close friends with your mother.”

“His Highness Edwin is.”

“Fortunately, you’re not the only man who’s fallen for you.”

Shane chuckled. If Edwin hadn’t fallen for Edelaine, he would have chosen to handle things without making a big deal out of it. He preferred rational and efficient handling of affairs.

But this time was different.

“Sit here and watch carefully how many people you’ve driven crazy.”

“Shane, please!”

Edelaine grabbed Shane’s wrist with trembling hands.

Shane looked at the wrist she had grabbed, then gently removed it and said.

“Then tell me. What is it that you’ve been afraid of all this time?”

“…Please.”

“Then I’ll stop.”

“Please, Shane. Don’t do this. Please have mercy, please.”

“Poor Edelaine. This is your last chance.”

“Shane Blancarde!”

But Shane didn’t let himself be held back by Edelaine.

Edelaine was left alone.

Whether she closed her eyes or opened them, she was in a nightmare.

*

Edelaine covered her face with her palms as if washing it and took a deep breath. Had her tear ducts really broken? She didn’t know why they wouldn’t stop.

She felt trapped in a terrible recurring song.

This was the price of covering up conflicts without resolving them and only looking at surface peace.

From the moment she arrived in Delmez and was captured, Edelaine had fought with Shane.

Confined, fought, confined again, and fought.

But back then, her heart wasn’t this painful.

She wasn’t hurt by his cooled gaze, insincere sighs, or sharp words. Even knowing it was nothing special, her heart didn’t feel like her own.

He said she was annoying and tiresome. That he was miserable because of her.

She had no words even if he said he was completely fed up this time. The thought she had right after being confined—that he probably hadn’t completely given up on her while he was angry—was contemptible.

‘Even being selfish has its limits…’

Shane didn’t directly explode his angry emotions.

He kept his distance even in the midst of it all, afraid it might hurt her.

He seemed unable to hurt someone who only made him tired, annoyed, and miserable, even though he was prepared to be hated by her.

She didn’t want to create a situation where Shane might lose his life. Such things were enough in terrible nightmares.

She hated dragging someone who could have been happy if not entangled with her into this damn bind.

Even if he had truly grown tired of her this time.

But even so, she couldn’t just stand by and watch an unspecified number of people get swept up in war.

‘How am I supposed to bear all that karma?’

Edelaine was afraid of death itself.

Both her own death and the death of loved ones frightened her.

That’s why the mere possibility that someone might lose their life solely because of her was horrifying even as just a hypothesis.

It wasn’t a joke.

War was a disaster that could start from the smallest spark. The Greenwinsor Empire was a confederation several times larger than the Kingdom of Brubewinn. Even just the forces from the western frontier estates could reduce everything to ashes in mere days.

In truth, there shouldn’t even be anything to consider.

Hesitating itself was absurd.

To put just a few people’s lives and war on a scale. To hesitate over mere possibilities seen in dreams was ridiculous.

Edelaine had cursed at protagonists in novels who groaned and agonized without being able to speak about what kind of great secret they had while reading.

Even if it meant bearing some degree of risk, wouldn’t it be much more efficient to reveal the secret and find a way to overcome the situation together? Why didn’t they understand that?

She knew. Edelaine knew too.

But the protagonist was also human. Edelaine was human.

Humans were beings who were swayed more by emotion than by greater causes.

It’s human nature to value the few people by your side more than the lives of tens of thousands whose faces you don’t know.

While saying they couldn’t kill an innocent mage just to save themselves, humans could weigh the possibility that their precious people might be in danger against tens of thousands of lives. If only the anguish ended there, it would be better.

When asked if she would truly turn away from everything and protect only her people, she couldn’t answer yes.

If she kept her mouth shut like this.

‘Damn it, are you even human?’

Edelaine had to reveal everything.

At least if she wanted to be human.

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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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