Chapter 36

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: Chapter 8. Find the True Villain (4)

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엔딩인 줄 알고 돌아왔더니 장르가 바뀜

42화

The hand patting her shoulder belonged to Shane.

"What are you doing, Edelaine?"

"People-watching."

Edelaine wasn't surprised either.

She couldn't tell if she felt relieved or disappointed.

In the novel, it was the warlock who patted the heroine Genevieve's shoulder.

'Well, I'm not Genevieve, after all.'

It seemed she really wasn't destined to meet the warlock.

Was the warlock trying to kill Genevieve not truly the novel's villain after all?

She pulled out her watch and checked the time. It had been just over three hours since she and Lloyd had left the Bertrand estate. That meant it had taken them this long to notice her absence and track her down.

Edelaine looked up at Shane standing behind her and said,

"I thought you were busy."

"You still have to eat. It's lunchtime."

Shane kept his hand on her shoulder, sliding the back of his hand along her neck and chin. He pulled out the chair beside her and sat down, adding,

"Fever's gone down."

"It wasn't that bad."

The medicine had worked just fine. Edelaine swallowed the rest of her thought.

She had taken the medicine Lucian prepared and told Emma about her fever early that morning.

'They've got eyes on me no matter where I go or what I do.'

Still, it seemed her contact with Lucian hadn't been discovered. They didn't know about the medicine, at least.

Shane furrowed his brow as he looked at her, then gently tugged her nape with his large palm and kissed her. Edelaine pulled her head back and said,

"No lewd acts in public."

"It's a kiss of affection."

"Kids are watching."

Shane glanced at Lloyd.

"How old are you this year?"

"Seventeen."

"All grown up. How about setting him free?"

"You told me not to go anywhere alone."

"If you wanted to go out, Jeff was around. He could've kept you company."

"No thanks. He's in cahoots with you."

Edelaine snorted.

It wasn't just Jeff. Her whole family was the same.

They wouldn't let her attempt anything risky, and they'd watch her like hawks if anyone suspicious came near.

She didn't want to worry them, but with them around, Edelaine couldn't do a thing.

That's why she needed Lucian and Lloyd.

"Are you mad, Edelaine?"

"Not really?"

"That's your mad face."

Edelaine rubbed her furrowed brow.

"This is just my face."

Villainess faces were all like that... Objectively speaking, Edelaine was pretty.

But her role as the antagonist gave her a cat-like image rather than a puppy's—sharp eyes and lips that looked angry when pursed.

"I thought your family home would be better than locking you up, but I guess not."

"Doesn't it seem like a problem that you're always trying to confine me?"

"Don't be too angry."

Edelaine really wasn't angry.

Even if he did confine her, she couldn't muster genuine fury toward Shane. She was hopelessly soft on him. Even when she thought he belonged to the heroine, it was like that—now it was even worse.

She felt like she'd forgive him no matter what he did, and that scared her.

'If I could just find and kill the warlock, I could tell him right away that I've always liked him too.'

I've given up on being loved by you.

I just can't let you go—that's all. I've given up on being loved.

It was a desperate, pathetic plea.

Edelaine was frustrated that Shane kept speaking as if she hated him, but she didn't have the right to correct that misunderstanding yet.

Confessing her feelings to him was only possible after she was sure she could live a decent lifespan from here on out.

She feared death, but if confessing meant she'd die soon anyway, better to never say it.

If she couldn't escape the story and was doomed to die, Edelaine planned to make Shane hate her utterly this time.

She'd do something so cruel he couldn't even nostalgically remember her—make him think he must've been insane to love a woman like her.

Maybe that's what this world wanted from 'Edelaine'.

'And with my trust at rock bottom, he might not even believe me if I said I liked him now...'

It was her own doing.

If Shane had liked her since childhood, what she'd done was truly unforgivable.

Telling him to ignore their engagement, setting him up with other women, recommending them, even pressuring him.

Edelaine suddenly realized. Wait a minute...

'...Am I total trash?'

Undeniably trash.

Her brow furrowed deeper as she reflected on the past. Shane removed her fingers from her brow and kissed the spot.

"I know there's nothing for it if you're angry... but you're in a better mood when you're not, right?"

"......"

What was this sweet nonsense?

Shane had become quite the scoundrel himself.

Locking her up, restraining her, stalking her without a care, then sweetly coaxing her when she got mad...

The problem was, she didn't hate it.

Edelaine let out a hollow laugh, and Shane smiled back.

Lloyd watched them with utter disdain.

Her outings continued for a few more days.

Edelaine left the estate in the morning and spent the afternoon at the cafe terrace.

She occasionally had lunch with Shane or Jeff.

And in the evenings, she returned home for dinner with the family. Gregory, Emma, and Patrick knew about her outings but pretended not to. Edelaine stopped taking the fever-inducing medicine too.

Today's lunch was with Jeff.

"There's a legend from the eastern borderlands of the Brubewin Kingdom about a warlock who controls monsters."

"Where's the Brubewin Kingdom...?"

"A kingdom at the far end of the empire's western border. At the foot of the Mifan Mountains, so seventy percent of its land is mountains. No wonder it's poor."

"You wouldn't have gone there, Brother."

"How'd you jump to that?"

"You're not interested in poor countries."

"Cheeky. Acting like you know me."

Jeff flicked her forehead with his finger. It made a loud snap but didn't hurt.

"I barely found it, but it's just a legend. The land's barren and rugged, full of monsters, so it might be people's wishful thinking."

"Is controlling monsters that impressive?"

"Of course. There are so many of them. Imagine them all as your army. Mages and high knights are rare."

"That's horrifying..."

"It is."

That danger must be why he could be the true villain in the novel.

She resolved to cherish Genevieve more.

Shane's investigation team was focusing on the summoning circle at the venue, he said.

Shane casually shared internal details every lunch they had together.

When she asked if Genevieve was properly protected, he said she was enjoying walks by secluded lakes with her husband or vacations in forest cabins. She was thrilled, even.

'I'd love to see her husband's face...'

But opportunities never arose.

The cafe terrace remained quiet. Even when Edelaine waited alone, no one approached her. No suspicious customers either.

Though she knew it was futile, she investigated every visitor from her first day at the cafe.

Nothing. A couple of mages, but all white mages—and women, at that.

It'd be great if there really was no warlock.

Like how the heroine married her guard knight and the hero the villainess, maybe the warlock hadn't reached that level for some reason and had already been slain.

"Haa..."

"You'll scare away your luck, Edelaine."

Edelaine just glanced up at Jeff.

"If luck runs from a sigh, it'd run even if I stayed still..."

"Don't chase it away, then."

He looked like he'd never buy into superstitions.

'Maybe because the author was Korean—this world's superstitions feel Korean too.'

That was another clue this world was the author's creation.

Jeff, peering at her darkened expression, looked past her shoulder. Edelaine knew who he saw from the mischievous glint in her second brother's eyes.

"Edelaine."

A large hand cupped her neck, tilting her chin up. As she leaned back, her gaze met Shane's blue eyes. Her eyes closed just as his lips met hers.

A soft smack as they touched and parted.

Shane grinned. Looking at her like a beast presenting prey for praise, he said,

"I caught the culprit."