Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 96

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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 17. There Was No Happy Ending (4)

What do you know? You know and still act like this?

When her tearful face finally couldn’t hold back the tears and crumpled, something scraped through his insides.

It was a pain that resembled pleasure.

Even though tears were proof that he had hurt Edelaine, Shane didn’t find it so bad.

It meant she liked him enough to be hurt by his attitude and words.

The burning pain as if someone had cut his heart with a knife was also bearable. Rather, he welcomed it. It was familiar too.

Only Edelaine had ever made him hurt.

Only what she gave was real.

He was aware that part of his mind was broken.

But his senses had grown so numb that he couldn’t even accept that much as pain.

To Edelaine, a person called ‘Shane Blancarde’ had no meaning or value, so he had grown accustomed to being discarded.

Edelaine was someone who ran ahead alone.

She had been like that since childhood.

Shane sometimes thought Edelaine was like the protagonist of some heroic tale. A protagonist who lives for a great cause doesn’t realize that the people around them who love them are sad. She was exactly that type.

Edelaine clearly had her own goals. Like an ambitious politician burning with ambition, she lived as if she could only see that one goal.

In the blink of an eye, she would leave him behind and go far away.

The hand that had briefly held him out of sympathy would be lightly released, and she would take another’s hand. He had taken comfort in the fact that she wouldn’t stay long, but in truth, that too was just a meaningless action to her.

Because she was someone who gave love to everyone while staying with no one.

So even if it meant hurting her, if she would stop and cry because of him, that alone would have meaning.

Even if those tears strangled his neck, he would gladly drink them down.

Shane gazed endlessly at the sleeping Edelaine.

Just how much had she suffered? She had fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

And then she didn’t wake up, not moving an inch as if she wasn’t even dreaming.

Sometimes Shane would place his finger under sleeping Edelaine’s nose. He needed to feel that she was really alive. The five years she had vanished like smoke had been that significant.

Edelaine generally couldn’t wake up easily once she fell asleep. On nights when she had nightmares, she would break out in cold sweat but still couldn’t open her eyes. It was as if someone was holding her consciousness captive.

Her body was in his arms, but his voice couldn’t reach her.

How maddening that was.

Waiting endlessly while claiming not to expect anything was like being abandoned in a desert without a single drop of water.

If it were just waiting, it would be easy. But watching the one person he cherished and loved suffer while he could only watch was like watching mice gnaw at him starting from his fingertips.

Even as he felt his patience gradually wearing thin, he waited as Edelaine ordered, as she wished.

As a result, he nearly lost her entirely.

Whether he was obedient or not, love was something he could never grasp.

She taught him in various ways that it was like flowing water that couldn’t be held.

Even if he dragged the hiding Edelaine out and imprisoned her, even if he bound her with family and name, she could disappear at any time.

Just how much does this person need to toy with me before she’s satisfied?

Sometimes Shane felt like a monster guarding a labyrinth.

A foolish idiot who believed a non-existent treasure existed, and believing it was his, growled trying to protect it. Living hidden in darkness with his ugly form, wandering in delusion and possessiveness.

Shane hadn’t lied.

As much as he loved Edelaine, he was tired of the reality of being swayed by her. Every word he had said to her was sincere.

Dead or alive, he would never give up on Edelaine.

He wasn’t unaware of how terrible this would be for Edelaine, who didn’t love him.

Even if she didn’t love him, even if she found it terrible, as long as he could keep the living Edelaine by his side, that was enough.

He couldn’t help but hope she would love him… but that wasn’t what mattered anymore.

Shane was prepared to be hated by Edelaine for the rest of his life.

Because of that, Shane now had nothing left to protect.

When he thought he didn’t need to worry about being hated by Edelaine, Shane actually became freer.

Because he could kill everyone.

If Edelaine hadn’t confessed, Shane would have locked her up by now and headed for the Kingdom of Brubewein.

Like a mastiff released on the streets without a muzzle, he had planned to bite and tear at everything that annoyed him.

The moment Shane learned he had been struck from behind by Harrison, his mind was filled only with thoughts of how to get revenge on him.

Lucian and Jeff talking about deals were merely amusing.

Shane already had no muzzle.

Since he would be hated by Edelaine anyway, there was no reason to hold back.

“Is it… really Shane?”

When he found Edelaine, she was sitting collapsed on the floor.

Thanks to Saint Genevieve’s divine power, her skin was clean without any tears, but the traces alone were enough to tell what had been done to her. Her disheveled platinum hair, bloodstains around her nose and lips, her thoroughly dirtied and torn clothes.

When you’re angry to the very tips of your hair, you actually become coldly calm.

Shane was truly angry and wanted to tear apart and kill anything.

If her green eyes, which had never been broken, were wet enough to seem crumbling, what on earth had been done to her?

Edelaine was the being who gave Shane the most vivid emotions.

Love, misery, thirst, happiness, hatred, and now even rage.

He had decided from the beginning to kill them all, but now even room for compromise had disappeared.

He couldn’t forgive the culprit who dared try to kill Edelaine, the Brubein Royal Family that had been her cradle, or even the kingdom the royal family tried to protect.

Edelaine would cry telling him not to create innocent victims, but it would be a worthwhile sacrifice since he could show her that someone dies when she goes wrong.

Though it would make her truly hate him, and that would be agonizing enough to die.

Still, it was better than losing Edelaine again.

He would never again let Edelaine die before his eyes.

He had stupidly hoped for love and could only watch Edelaine grow cold again.

Now he wouldn’t expect anything more.

Whatever Edelaine said, he would dig into what was inside, tear it apart, find out everything, and devour it.

I won’t trust you again, knowing you swallowed poison.

Whether what I receive from you—who makes me trust you and then makes me watch you die again—is love or hatred, yes, what does it matter as long as you’re alive?

‘But who would have thought she’d confess while crying.’

It was an unexpected gain.

With just those words, all the poison drained away.

Even Edelaine seemed bewildered by it, but the most amazed person was none other than Shane himself.

It was just one sentence.

That she liked him, that she liked him too.

Just that, and Shane didn’t care about anything else anymore.

All his thirst was quenched.

Of course, he couldn’t avoid taking some revenge on the culprits, but at least the black resentment and rage that seemed like it would only be resolved by killing everyone had vanished completely.

Many tasks and questions remained to be solved… but those were matters for later.

If you come to my side, I don’t need anything else.

But would this really be a happy thing for you?

I’m glad you like me.

Still, I prefer it when you smile.

If you had no choice but to hate me, I would never have been able to see your smiling face again…

Shane carefully, very slowly pressed his lips to Edelaine’s round forehead.

The warm body temperature and soft skin texture lingered as if clinging to him.

Only the love was real, but everything else was somehow twisted and distorted.

The people left behind in the place Edelaine ran to achieve something were all like that.

For Edelaine personally, this would be a very terrible thing.

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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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