WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

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◈ I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up

Chapter 031

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31. Stained in the Shadows (5)

A week passed after cleaning up the bandits’ corpses.

I was no longer the only one living in the Altar of Lamentation.

“Going for firewood alone again?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go together. I’ll help you.”

Though still awkward, a woman had appeared who cared for each other in her own way.

When I carefully extended my hand to Eirene, she shyly took it.

If there was any significant change in daily life because Eirene was here.

“Let’s take this. The stem is thick, so it seems it can be used as a rope.”

“If you boil and eat this grass, it’s sweet and delicious.”

“This flower will grow cotton that can be spun into thread later, so let’s plant it in front of the altar.”

Perhaps it was that receiving much help with daily life greatly improved the quality of life.

“I’m going to wash up. Dean, do you want to come too?”

“Go alone.”

“…Hmph.”

…It couldn’t be said that there were no problems arising from cohabitation between a man and a woman.

Because sometimes, I often felt a heavy emotion in Eirene’s gaze towards me.

For me, who could no longer feel any rational attraction, such situations were simply uncomfortable.

Left alone at the altar, I sat in front of the entrance, gazing blankly into the expansive forest.

In the dark forest where not even light could penetrate. Would a woman in a dancer’s outfit appear?

I often imagine her holding my shoes in her hand and presenting me with the shoes I had prepared.

“…Carmen.”

For some reason, Carmen’s image kept flickering in my mind.

Rather than longing due to love, it was closer to a personal desire to see the end of an unfinished episode.

As time passed, not the woman with light red hair, but a woman with sky-blue hair close to white, walked gently, soaked with water.

“….”

As water clung to her clean white uniform, which had its stains removed, her inner skin peeked through, making me avert my gaze.

I wondered where her usual underwear had gone; if I had focused my gaze even a little, parts that shouldn’t be seen would have been.

“Dean.”

“……Dry off and come. There’s a fire lit at the altar.”

“Who is Carmen?”

Killing intent.

I instinctively frowned as I felt a killing intent strong enough to instantly trigger my trauma.

My entire body’s muscles tensed, and I felt a pain as if my heart was contracting.

“Tell me. Who exactly is Carmen?”

The gleam vanished from her pure white eyes, and a void that absorbed everything approached.

I gasped for breath, a sensation like insects crawling up my legs.

“Dean. Is Carmen a woman?”

“…Haaah. …Keueuk.”

“Answer me.”

Staggering backward from Eirene, my leg soon caught on a log chair, and I sat down abruptly.

She then climbed onto my lap, facing me.

Our cold breaths met, and my breathing began to freeze.

“She’s… a woman.”

“Are you close?”

“…No.”

“Then why do you keep muttering that bitch’s name to yourself?”

“………Shoes.”

“Huh? Why shoes? You’re wearing them fine now.”

Eirene lowered her gaze, seeing my perfectly fine shoes, and her expression became puzzled.

This was because I had previously received a training uniform from the Aquila Knights and was no longer barefoot like before.

“…There’s something I need to get back.”

“You stole them, didn’t you?”

Her cunning conjecture, lips pressed to my ear, reached me.

I should tell her I didn’t steal them.

I should explain that we aren’t like that.

Dominated by Eirene’s killing intent throughout my body, I feared my life would be threatened if I answered.

“It’s because you stole them, isn’t it? That’s why you keep calling that bitch’s name…”

“…Don’t call her ‘bitch.’”

As she continued to insult Carmen without reason, my mood soured. I forced myself to overcome my fear and retorted lowly.

“…….”

Reading the emotion in my voice and realizing Carmen was not someone to be dismissed, the gleam in Eirene’s eyes returned to a calm state.

Jealousy towards Carmen, who received treatment she herself did not.

And regret for emotions she couldn’t reach.

Engulfed in complex emotions, she silently stroked my cheek and bowed her head.

A cool breeze blew, and Eirene’s hair swayed.

Soon, the woman who had lost her reason and raged was nowhere to be seen; instead, a gentle voice was heard.

“Dean, are you waiting for that person?”

“……….”

“If you wait…, will she come back? A lot of time has passed, you know.”

“I believe she will return.”

“……Oh. I see.”

“There’s still… something I haven’t said.”

When I made Carmen escape from the Abyss.

I wanted to tell her.

That she wasn’t alone. That I was by her side…

I knew it was meddling. But precisely because of that, it was a deeply ingrained, tingling scar.

“Am I… that kind of person to Dean?”

“…Eirene.”

“Tell me. Just… I like Dean, so…”

Eirene, not hiding her feelings, carefully asked about her place.

Her question, moving forward knowing she would be cut, to cross the sharply drawn line.

“…I don’t know.”

“……….”

Due to the indirect refusal imbued with many meanings. Only the result of another wound being etched remained.

Eirene silently met my gaze.

A close distance where our noses almost touched. Her lips slowly approached.

“…Hold my hand.”

Eirene, who stopped at a distance where our lips would touch if she moved a little closer, asked for the only allowed intimacy.

As I slowly raised my hand as if to consent to her request, her warm hand intertwined with mine even sooner.

“Still cold, aren’t you.”

As if hiding a melancholic emotion, a meaningless joke faded away on the gently blowing breeze.

From her still undried, pure white hair, transparent water droplets flowed and fell onto my shoulder.

“…….”

Eirene’s afterimage rushed over, in rhythm with the gently falling ripples.

A subtle scent of skin, flowing like a wave, moved as if to violate my sense of smell.

Subsequently, a dizzying yet thrilling pain arose.

Soon, as blood gently trickled from my lips. Eirene savored the bitter scent of blood with her seductive tongue.

Whenever Eirene felt lonely, she would wound my lips like this and lick the blood.

When I had lightly asked before, she told me it was an act of taking the other person’s blood into her body to connect the threads of fate.

As a bonus, she explained it was a blood ritual performed by her kin with their beloved.

Eirene, who had been slowly stroking my lips with her tongue, then closed the distance further and kissed me.

I tightened my grip on Eirene’s hand that was intertwined with mine.

Though I didn’t love her. I couldn’t refuse the desire to share affection.

For the deficiency born from being hated by someone. Had become a void that couldn’t be filled without being loved by someone.

Eirene, who approached until the log chair was almost overturned, climbed into my lap and shared her emotions.

“I like you.”

“…….”

Unlike my past self, who was plagued by suspicion towards the emotion of love, I now knew her feelings were truly sincere.

…Precisely because of that, I didn’t want to reciprocate.

Rather, I hoped she would grow tired and leave.

I hoped we would remain merely a relationship of convenience.

“…Embrace me.”

Eirene slowly approached, shedding her clothes one by one, then nestled into my embrace and closed her eyes.

So she could embrace me even a little closer.

If a place in my heart wasn’t permitted, then at least our bodies could touch.

I carefully placed my hand on Eirene’s shoulder.

Eirene always used to say something at times like these.

She was probably preparing to say those words now too.

“…Dean, you’re colder than me.”

Than Eirene, who possessed a body colder than an ordinary person due to her ability to control the very concept of cold.

My body was even colder.

If my heart weren’t beating, even I would doubt if I was truly alive.

Leaving Eirene, who was nestled in my embrace and catching her breath, dark clouds slowly gathered in the sky.

As a drop of stillness fell onto my cheek.

Soon, transparent lines that broke the stillness streamed down to the ground.

As I couldn’t stay out in the rain like this, I carefully picked up Eirene’s clothes, which lay neatly beside her, then gently lifted her into my arms and headed towards the Altar of Lamentation.

With my Strength stat now at 21 after leveling up, carrying a person in my arms was no longer difficult.

Eirene didn’t seem to mind her bare skin being touched either. She had fallen asleep and hadn’t woken up.

Upon entering the altar to escape the rain, the rain intensified, creating an eerie atmosphere.

Worried that the water might overflow and fill the altar, I closed the Altar of Lamentation’s door and descended the stairs.

In the center of the altar, a softly burning bonfire radiated warmth.

The altar, no longer shrouded in darkness as before, possessed its own unique atmosphere.

Leaving behind the pleasant sound of wood warping from the intense heat, I carefully tried to lay Eirene down on the newly made bed.

“…Mmm.”

But she seemed unwilling to leave me, reaching out to wrap her arm around my shoulder and burying her head.

“…….”

Unable to do anything about Eirene, who wouldn’t leave my embrace, I eventually lay down on the bed with her.

A pleasant scent spread from her body, fresh from a bath.

As I subtly smelled the lingering scent, a sensual desire I had tried to ignore seemed to bloom.

Eirene was sleeping as if wanting to be stained by the shadow that was me, completely unbothered.

The faint sound of rain from outside the Altar of Lamentation and the roaring flames filling the space rang the alarm in my heart even louder.

“……Eirene.”

Even when I carefully called her name, all that returned was a seductive breath that created an illusion.

I considered waking Eirene, who seemed to have no intention of waking up, by touching her, but thinking it wasn’t a good idea, I let out a light sigh and forced my eyes shut.

…I was certain I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep easily tonight.

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