WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up

Chapter 027

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27. Stained in the Shadows (1)

《 Resurrecting at checkpoint. LOADING… 》

Having resurrected as usual, I left the holy city of Aquilian.

I had expected to be able to leave comfortably, as it was still a long time before curfew, but.

“Mr. Dian? What brings you here?”

Just my luck, Rangel, the guard on duty, spotted me and approached.

“…I came for something I needed to do.”

“Something you needed to do? Is it an assignment from the Captain?”

“…….”

I could have simply lied once and passed, but something felt like it was festering inside me, preventing me from speaking.

“Move.”

“…!!”

Even though I knew I shouldn’t, I pulled Freud’s Fang from my clothes and aimed it at Rangel.

Altair had tried to forgive me, and fleeing that spot was purely my own choice.

A sense of guilt that I no longer wanted to pretend to be a good person constricted my entire body.

As Rangel slowly stepped backward, completely clearing the entrance, I began to run without looking back.

If I returned to the Altar of Lamentation like this, what could I even do?

Me, who was worse than a worm, only betraying the goodwill of others…

“Ugh…!”

At that moment, I collided with someone in a robe who was walking towards the city, and stumbled backward.

I tried to move quickly again, but my left ankle seemed to be badly sprained, and the throbbing pain made me collapse to the ground.

“…….”

Unlike me, who had fallen upon impact, the person in the robe calmly walked up to me and knelt.

Then, extending a hand, they seemed to be trying to help me up.

“…I don’t need it.”

I slapped away the extended hand, glaring, intent on refusing any goodwill.

“You haven’t changed… That’s you, isn’t it.”

At that moment, from inside the robe, a familiar… unforgettable voice flowed out.

Slowly, the robe covering the face dropped, revealing Eirene, whose hair now reached below her shoulders.

“Does pretending to be such a bad person make you feel better?”

“…Eirene?”

Ignoring my words, Eirene met my gaze intently.

Her eyes, which had once shone with spirit, now held no emotion at all.

“Here.”

Eirene took out a pocket watch from her clothes and showed it to me.

The hour and minute hands of the open pocket watch were pointing at me.

“I came to find you after seeing this.”

At the same time, Eirene’s hand reached out, and as I stared blankly, she didn’t wait and forcibly pulled me up.

“Don’t think about dying like before. I can find you no matter what.”

“….”

Eirene, embracing my arm, began to move somewhere.

Meeting her again after a long time, my anxiety was escalating.

I felt like a knife would be plunged into my neck at any moment. And a cold attack would engulf my entire body, turning me into a living snowman.

“I won’t kill you. There’s no reason to anymore.”

Noticing my trembling breath and increasing cold sweat, she squeezed my hand, as if to calm me.

In this twisted relationship where only emotions were hurt.

I couldn’t understand Eirene’s sudden show of goodwill towards me.

To me, Eirene was nothing more or less than an unexploded time bomb.

Fearing that her hand would strike me if I resisted, I quietly matched her pace, and in my mind, I began to devise a plan to escape.

Then. Eirene stopped and released my hand.

“Dean, do you… want me to die?”

“…….”

A gentle breeze blew through the forest.

Her pure white hair, tinged with a faint blue, gently fluttered, creating the illusion of a flower blooming.

At the same time, she took out a broken dagger with her pure white hand and brought it to her neck.

She moved to stab it into her lifeless skin.

Suicide.

That was the only word that came to mind at the sight before me.

“……Dean?”

Unconsciously, I blocked Eirene’s arm as she attempted suicide.

Eirene’s eyes held darkness.

This darkness was not created from within her…

It was a darkness created by me… a darkness due to me.

“Let go. I’ll die right now.”

“……….”

“Dean, you want me to die too, don’t you?”

The voice filled with hollowness was not directed at anyone.

Carried by the cold wind. Slowly echoing somewhere and disappearing.

I grabbed the blade of the dagger Eirene was holding.

If left alone, she would surely take her own life. But that wasn’t the outcome I wanted.

I had surely wished for her death countless times.

I had lived so tenaciously because I hated her so much.

Yet, I couldn't think of any reason to explain why I was stopping her suicide now.

“Ah…!”

As blood flowed from the hand holding the blade, Eirene dropped the dagger and trembled with anxiety.

Only after I snatched the dagger and threw it to the floor did her rigid body take out a bandage from her clothes and crudely wrap my bleeding hand.

“Are you… are you okay? Did it hurt…?”

Only after using up all the bandages, making it look as if I was wearing a glove, did she seem relieved and smiled at me.

It truly seemed that her decision not to judge me as evil was genuine.

“Eirene.”

“…Uh, huh?”

“…Why did you do it?”

I gripped her shoulders and quietly conveyed my hatred.

A monster created by me.

A woman broken by me.

There was no reason for her to push herself to such an extent, to be broken like this.

“…Why did you kill me?”

If she had lived, defining me as eternal evil, this wouldn’t have happened.

“I’m sorry, Dean…”

Eirene carefully placed her hand on my cheek.

Her approaching touch, unlike her cool eyes that had lost the ability to convey emotion, was incredibly warm.

“Back then, I… didn’t know anything…”

Was the Eirene who I killed in the 1st Playthrough truly the same person as her now?

Was the me who killed her in the 1st Playthrough truly the same person as me now?

Eirene’s confused thoughts seemed a little more organized now, unlike before.

“Dean.”

“….”

“Shall we… die together?”

The request she carefully offered, with life returning to her eyes, was sincere.

“….”

“Don’t worry. Dean, I know how to die.”

Just as I lost my words and gaped, Eirene uttered a shocking truth.

Death.

A way to break the Möbius strip of endless resurrection.

Eirene knew that?

“…A lie.”

That couldn’t be possible.

I was the one who resurrected even after dying hundreds of times.

“It’s not a lie. Dean… do you know about Soul Transfer?”

“…!”

“As expected, you know.”

Soul Transfer.

A system within Desperado Reunion that allowed one to abandon their existing body and switch to a new one.

Simply put, stat redistribution.

It was incomprehensible that the system used to redistribute the stats of a character one had raised until now could break the cycle of resurrection.

“If the reason Dean keeps resurrecting is because of that body…”

“…That won’t work.”

“How do you know if you haven’t even tried?”

The reason why I couldn’t die even through Soul Transfer was too simple.

Because that, too, was ultimately just a system appearing in the game.

Even if my body changed, even if my stats were redistributed.

The curse binding me wouldn’t disappear.

“No. It’s certain.”

“…No! Don’t lie to me!!”

When I told Eirene the truth, she shouted in indignation, as if she wouldn’t believe it.

“I didn’t want Dean to suffer anymore… so I spent two months searching for a way…!”

As her composed emotions began to waver, the surrounding air started to freeze.

“But… it won’t work?! How do you know that! You haven’t even tried…! What do you know, you who can do nothing but die!!”

Her scream echoed loudly through the forest, freezing all life around us.

In the forest, where all life except me was frozen, there was no sound, as if even the wind had frozen.

“Dean. Didn’t you want to die?”

“….”

“Even if it’s impossible. You won’t know until you try, right…?”

Eirene slowly approached me and quietly nestled into my embrace.

“Shall we… not die together?”

Her shoulders trembled gently, and a quiet sadness was conveyed.

Having returned alone after experiencing the ruin, I was the only one with whom she could share her loneliness.

Her gaze towards a murderer had twisted and intertwined, imbued with the emotion of love, transforming her into someone no different from a madwoman.

“You’re crazy.”

“…I know. I don’t even understand what I’m doing.”

Because she was the one who had agonized more than anyone, Eirene was aware that she had personally chosen the worst option among a jumbled array of choices.

“But this feeling is sincere… I’m lonely without you now, Dean.”

“…….”

A sticky, clinging darkness enveloped her.

“It’s okay if we don’t die together. Then just… stay by my side.”

Because that darkness had already enveloped my existence without a gap.

Eirene willingly became tainted by the darkness that was me.

As the emotions of the woman in my arms settled into silence, the frozen surrounding scenery slowly began to melt.

“I like you. Dean… I know it’s repulsive, but…”

Eirene’s soft voice reached me.

“Yeah.”

Even though her sincere confession didn’t truly resonate with me.

I quietly replied and gently embraced Eirene’s shoulder.

In this repulsive reality where the one who hated me the most now desired me the most.

Feeling pity for her who had sought an unwelcome refuge, I couldn’t readily push her away.

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