Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 97

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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 18. Truth Belongs to Each Person (1)

I was bedridden for a week.

I had felt it during the hand-to-hand combat I’d never experienced before in my life, but the early villainess stats were truly terrible beyond comparison.

Stamina, strength, endurance were all pathetic, and durability was rock bottom too.

The only good things were environment and wealth.

Edelaine, who had accumulated mental and physical fatigue, could barely get out of bed.

I had the motivation. There were many things I wanted to get up and see with my own eyes.

I needed to check if Lloyd was okay again, and I was worried about Genevieve too.

I also wanted to reassure my parents and siblings.

However, everything just circled around in my head.

My body, which had only motivation, couldn’t even lift my eyelids.

Those were days when I learned how long a person could sleep. I barely ate even while sleeping, so I didn’t even need to go to the bathroom. I just slept continuously.

It was practically fainting.

I somehow knew that several visitors had come and gone while I was half-conscious.

But even when I was conscious, all Edelaine could do was listen to sounds.

“She’s just sleeping. No matter how many times you ask, my answer is the same.”

“There’s no way a person can sleep this long…”

“Madam Bertrand, Lady Edelaine is healthier than ever.”

That’s exactly what I mean, Genevieve…

Sleep without nightmares was sweet and deep.

During the five years of seclusion, even without nightmares, I had restless nights filled with anxiety, regret, and sometimes longing. Edelaine was getting the deepest sleep since her reincarnation.

I might have slept well when I was very young and didn’t know this was inside a novel, but let’s leave that aside.

The Bertrand couple and Genevieve came to visit every morning.

Patrick and Jeff took turns coming to see my face once each, and Edwin didn’t come. According to Genevieve’s explanation, he was incredibly busy sending back the bride candidates he had invited and handling matters related to the Kingdom of Brubewein.

Shane came back every night and gently told me about what had happened during the day, but since I was asleep more often than awake, I barely remembered any of it.

In fact, Shane must have been just as busy as Edwin.

Genevieve was the same.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say these three were the most important people in the Empire.

The Empress and Prince who held all power in place of the Emperor, who hadn’t returned to the Imperial Palace for years, whether for convalescence or exile.

A Duke who was close blood relative to the royal family, like a brother.

And the Saint, the treasure of the continent who had absolute support from the people.

Sometimes Edelaine couldn’t believe she was close to all of them.

The days when I only heard news of them from far away felt more real. I comforted myself by being relieved that I was far from the protagonists and telling myself I couldn’t associate with them anyway.

‘I was scared.’

From the moment nightmares mixed with reality, ‘novel’ to Edelaine was like black waves rushing to swallow her.

When I discovered Lloyd sitting in the alley.

When I discovered the injured Lucian.

When Shane brought Genevieve.

Cold faces mixed with contempt overlapped the affectionately smiling faces of everyone who knew me.

I said I wouldn’t be greedy and would willingly step back, that as an N-year romance novel reader I knew what the wise choice was, but in truth I couldn’t trust the reality I knew even a little.

‘What a coward…’

Only after learning that everything was twisted did I realize that even what I believed to be correct was all a mistake.

I thought the genre had changed, but from the beginning, my life had been a misunderstanding.

The misunderstandings resulting from that were now Edelaine’s burden to bear.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Shane and Genevieve sitting side by side.

Now when I looked at them, they no longer seemed like a well-matched pair.

Genevieve was nodding with a serious face, and Shane was frowning with a face that looked somewhat angry. There was no sweet atmosphere between them.

Such a thing had never existed.

If you forced them together it would be a hate relationship, but there were no seeds that could develop into romance no matter what.

They work well together, they can’t abandon their duties, so they work together even if they dislike it… that was the limit.

‘Has there ever been such a bleak Saint and Guardian in history…’

Saints who appeared once every hundred years didn’t always marry their Guardians.

But when the Guardian was male and of suitable age, they almost always married and became companions. Cases where they didn’t were when the Guardian was female or when there was too much of an age gap, making them more like parent-child or grandparent-grandchild relationships.

Even if they didn’t become lovers, tender feelings existed between Saint and Guardian.

But the current Saint and Guardian, despite being a man and woman of marriageable age, had proven over the past few years that not only was there no possibility of them getting together, but not even fragments of tender feelings existed.

‘When I removed the male lead, female lead framework and looked at them as individuals, it was this clear.’

Thinking about it, I had almost no memory of looking at characters without their frameworks.

Male lead, female lead, second male lead, supporting character, villainess, villain…

I looked at people by attaching roles before names.

Shane, noticing Edelaine’s gaze, smiled gently and said.

“Are you awake, Edelaine?”

“Lady Edelaine, are you awake?”

Not to be outdone by Shane, Genevieve also offered a greeting.

While Edelaine worried about her appearance after not washing for days, she couldn’t help but smile broadly at the two people who bloomed like flowers, their expressionless faces from moments before seeming like lies.

Opening my eyes to see the smiling faces of people I loved first thing – how could I not be happy?

“I slept well…”

A voice like a hundred-year-old man’s flowed out. Genevieve smiled brightly and took my hand. My body, which had been heavy with sleep, felt a little lighter.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“Not yet.”

“I’ll have something soft prepared. You need to eat something.”

I wasn’t inclined to put anything in my parched mouth or chew and swallow, but Shane was firm.

“Oh, wait. The one preparing it isn’t Lloyd, is it?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let him bring fish soup.”

Shane suppressed a laugh and kissed Edelaine’s forehead. Then he got up and went outside. He was going to call Lloyd.

Genevieve waited for him to leave before speaking.

“I managed your condition while you were lying down, so you shouldn’t be in pain anywhere, but your stamina has dropped considerably. Please gradually build up your strength with the mindset of being a newborn.”

“A newborn…”

Genevieve looked at me with pitying eyes as if seeing something pathetic.

“Your muscle strength was so weak…”

“…”

It was a comment I didn’t want to hear from someone who tears and heals muscles in real time.

“You don’t need to sleep more?”

“Yeah. I feel like I’ve slept enough to last a lifetime.”

“That won’t do. Lady Edelaine needs to maintain regular sleep. Your under-eyes are still dark.”

“…I wasn’t really saying I’d never sleep again…”

When it came to health, jokes didn’t work.

Genevieve nodded with a slightly relieved face.

“Then that’s good. After the Founding Festival ends, I’ll be busy too, so it’ll be hard to visit daily.”

“After the Founding Festival ends, weren’t you supposed to depart on the Purification Expedition?”

“The expedition will be postponed for the time being.”

Edelaine tilted her head.

Because Genevieve’s face as she said it would be postponed didn’t look very pleasant.

Edwin’s postponement of the Purification Expedition was partly due to personal stubbornness, but also because someone was targeting the ‘Saint.’ Now that it was revealed the initial attack was an internal Church problem with a mage behind it, there was no reason to postpone the Purification Expedition.

Also, Genevieve was on the side of not disliking the Purification Expedition.

Although she was being overworked without rest, she had once said that if she had to work anyway, it was better to be away from Delmez. She said Shane and Edwin worked people more harshly.

Of course, she did say she was glad the Purification Expedition was delayed because she wanted to stay by Edelaine’s side.

Did she have lingering aftereffects after all? Genevieve was human too.

“So Genevieve, you have aftereffects too, right? Well, you got beaten up pretty badly too…”

“I recovered long ago, and I didn’t get beaten as much as Lady Edelaine…”

“….”

“I was just subdued, that’s all.”

Now that she thought about it, that made sense too.

“Then what happened?”

“Ah, I’ve decided to become the Pope.”

“Huh, what?”

“I’m telling you it’s become troublesome….”

What?

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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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