Thought It Was 'The End', Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 81
That day, five years ago.
No one came to the place Lucian had prepared.
Entering the empty house, Lucian let out a hollow laugh.
Adeline, who had insisted that only by being genuinely injured would it have any meaning, had sustained a fatal wound.
Even though she had taken a paralytic and painkillers in advance, the deep wounds would not have been lessened. The fact that she managed to deceive him and disappear to an unknown place with that body was purely astonishing.
The fact that she still had the energy to escape even while near death.
Well, she had been a girl whose thoughts were unfathomable since they first met.
“If you sleep there, you’ll freeze to death.”
“It’s the middle of summer…”
“Oh, right.”
“Get lost if you don’t want to die.”
“I can’t. I have to live too. You’d better just accept your life debt.”
“…Is this a threat or what?”
The soft, pale hand extended before him had a fragrant scent he had rarely encountered. Lucian quickly realized that the girl, who looked about five years younger than him, was a precious daughter from a noble family, completely out of place in such an alley.
If his body had been in good condition, he would have already killed her and stolen her valuables. It was a pity he was dying.
Whether she knew he regretted not being able to kill her, the girl smiled brightly, revealed her name and status, and told him to find her once he recovered. She reminded him not to forget that she considered it a debt.
Lucian lit a cigarette and took a drag.
He had cooperated with Adeline’s absurd plan because he owed her his life. But more than that, he wanted to see how far her clumsy plan would succeed.
And he was curious why a girl who seemed to have everything, with no apparent ambitions, was trying to stage her own death.
He had even asked her directly once. Adeline, looking exhausted and with dark circles under her eyes, had answered half-heartedly.
“That’s my role.”
“Did someone tell you to do this?”
“Something like that.”
At that time, Lucian thought Adeline was trying to escape due to Shane’s pressure.
He assumed the young duke who had discovered the Saintess found his wealthy fiancée bothersome and intended to kill her since annulling an engagement approved by the Emperor would be troublesome.
But that wasn’t it either.
Adeline, genuinely attacked, was pushed to the brink of death, and Lucian, disguised as a healer, witnessed Shane’s anguished cries up close. If it was an act, the man should seriously consider going into the business of theater.
And Adeline’s determination to escape was also genuine.
She risked her life to flee.
Lucian realized that Adeline’s real corpse might have ended up in the coffin instead of the prepared body if things had gone wrong.
Seeing her laugh and say she should have used a stronger paralytic was infuriating. If Lloyd hadn’t been there, he might have spitefully stomped on her wounds.
Which would probably have killed her.
Lucian stubbed out the cigarette on the floor. The place was deserted and had no use beyond serving as an ashtray.
Life debt, my arse.
Lucian wasn’t the type to repay debts honestly. In his view, the debt he owed wasn’t significant. He had already settled the score.
Despite this, he helped because Adeline had confided only in him.
“Lucian, help me.”
She asked for help, her face looking like death.
It was something Adeline had never said to anyone else.
Lucian received that one request as his payment.
***
The priest’s attack was unexpected and not something from the novel, but the appearance of the ogre was different.
There had been a similar incident.
It happened in the early part of the novel, set five years ago.
‘It was an episode that showed Genevieve awakening right after my death.’
In the novel, Genevieve single-handedly defeated the monster summoned during a party and instantly shed her reputation as a fake saintess.
Right after that, the people at the party changed their attitudes as quickly as flipping a switch and started treating her kindly. Seeing that hypocrisy, Genevieve became disillusioned and, feeling depressed, went to the town square alone.
‘It’s like saying she bought bread because she was sad.’
Adeline couldn’t understand how disillusionment led to going to the square alone, but she accepted the plot. Feeling down can make one want to be alone… The saintess’s security probably wasn’t usually that lax, but maybe it was on that day.
The female lead met the real villain in the square for the first time that day.
