WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up

Chapter 032

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32. Stained in the Shadows (6)

The night I couldn't fall asleep was long, oh so long.

Listening to Eirene's breathing, the silent sound of rain, and the crackling of the bonfire, I had the illusion that my mind was drifting away.

Every time I felt the touch of the woman sleeping defenselessly in my arms. I self-tortured to avoid crossing the line.

Since Eirene was holding me tight and I couldn't escape, I pinched my thigh whenever the thread of my reason was about to break.

Feeling the pain seemed to help me hold onto my reason, but Eirene would cling to me even more explicitly, putting me to the test.

At this point, it seemed like she was deliberately doing this without sleeping, yet there was no hint of acting.

….

“…Dean, good morning.”

Finally, Eirene opened her eyes only when the rain had stopped and the warmth of the bonfire had completely faded.

Having been tormented by this trial for the long hours until today's sun rose, unable to sleep a wink, only then did I taste the relief that permeated my entire body.

She, who had unreservedly shown her body to a strange man, then slowly picked up her clothes, which lay neatly nearby, and put them on.

Still half-asleep, she rubbed her eyes like a cat.

Watching her disheveled hair gently fluttering with complex emotions, I wordlessly tried to steal a moment of sleep to make up for my lack of it.

“It’s morning…. Are you going to sleep?”

“Just for a moment.”

“Hmm…. Alright, sleep well.”

My eyelids slowly descended, revealing Eirene's shadowed face.

Despite the gloomy gaze, almost to the point of worrying about her virtue, fatigue accounted for a greater portion of my feelings than that.

“…….”

After enjoying a long sleep that left my body stiff, when I opened my eyes, Eirene was toying with my fingers beside me.

Curious if she had been doing something, I cautiously cast my gaze, and when our eyes met, she stood up as if nothing had happened and ascended the altar's circular stairs.

Feeling that she wanted to go outside now, desiring me to open the door, I, too, got out of bed and exited the Altar of Lamentation with her.

“Dean. Is this man someone you know?”

And not long after, I discovered a familiar face collapsed in the front yard.

Rangel.

A guard of the Holy City Aquilian, and a knight of the Aquila Knights.

He was unconscious in front of the Altar of Lamentation for some unknown reason.

Having been exposed to the rain all night, his lips were deathly blue, and he seemed to be in danger of hypothermia at any moment.

“Should I kill him?”

“…No. He’s someone I know.”

After stopping Eirene, who was about to pull out a broken dagger from her clothes, I examined the fallen Rangel.

The memory of having pointed Freud’s Fang at him flashed through my mind, and I felt a pang of guilt.

I never imagined I would see him again like this.

“…Dian…sir?”

“…….”

Rangel, who had barely opened his eyes despite his battered body, spoke upon seeing me.

He repeatedly coughed up bloody phlegm, then staggered to his feet and grabbed me by the collar.

“Aren’t you going to let go of my hand…!?”

At his aggressive action, Eirene instantly emitted a cold aura in anger, but I, noticing that Rangel’s action held another meaning, calmed her down.

“…What brings you here, Mr. Rangel?”

“The Captain…. She’s gone….”

“……What did you say?”

The words that reached my ears from Rangel’s mouth were shocking.

“A week ago…. After you disappeared…. The Captain….”

From the day I disappeared, Altair had vanished.

It was, in a way, natural for chaos to ensue when the former pillar and core of the Aquila Knights disappeared.

“…What does that have to do with me?”

However, because her disappearance wasn't directly linked to my own, I narrowed my brows. Rangel, unlike his formerly good-natured appearance, now had eyes filled with hatred.

“A letter. Your name was written in the last letter the Captain left…. She told me not to look for her. To resent herself for having to sacrifice the lesser good for the greater good….”

Rangel released my collar and threw a letter, soaked with water and smeared with ink, at my face.

With a thud, the letter fell from my face and landed neatly in my hand.

“…….”

Upon reading the letter, the contents were indeed as Rangel had described.

『 It has been a long time since I lived as a pillar of the Aquila Knights.

If a subordinate finds this letter, I will already be far away.

A greater cause has arisen. For it, resent myself, who had no choice but to sacrifice you, the lesser good.

Dian. If you clear all your karma with that man…. I will hope for the day we can smile and see each other again in the Aquila Knights.

With sincerit-. 』

The last sentence was blurred by water, but it was unmistakably Altair's handwritten signature.

Rangel's words were true.

Altair had indeed abandoned the Knights herself to set out on a journey to find me.

“I don’t know what you did to our Knight Captain…. But if you feel guilty, please help the Captain. Don’t hide and live in a place like this.”

He uttered words that pierced like daggers with every syllable, then disappeared into the forest.

The dreamlike day at the Knights.

That time flashed through my mind, and guilt began to well up.

I had been the one who had rejected Altair due to a misunderstanding.

Unable to understand why she would look for me, I crumpled the letter, and Eirene suddenly thrust her face close.

“……Dean, how do you know the Guardian of Aquilian?”

“…….”

“Tell me. First that Carmen person, and now Altair of the Aquila Knights…!”

Before the complex situation could be properly interpreted, Eirene clung to me, demanding an explanation.

How was it that I, who had clearly lived the life of a villain, was acquainted with the Knight Captain of the Aquila Knights, an individual for whom the word 'righteous' was insufficient?

“You…. You’re hiding something from me, aren't you?”

Eirene began to pressure me, as if seeing through my silent thoughts.

“Before returning…. What kind of life did Dean live, exactly?”

“…….”

Should I explain?

What the world I had enjoyed as a game looked like.

The worry that she wouldn't believe me sealed my lips, but I couldn't keep silent about the truth forever.

As time passed, shouldn't someone know the truth?

“…I saved the world.”

In the end, I explained without any room for misunderstanding, yet with a nuance that left much room for misinterpretation.

“You saved…, the world?”

“Yes.”

“Then why did you kill me…?”

“……….”

“Dean? Tell me. What was the reason I had to die…!”

Just as subjective interpretations always veer in a twisted direction, Eirene felt a great sense of betrayal and her voice grew louder.

“Are you really…, were you a bad person, Dean?”

The cruel truth I could offer her was nothing but silence.

Killing everyone and alone witnessing the end of the story was entirely my choice.

Even if there was a conclusion of saving the world at the end, the fact that Eirene herself wasn't there caused questions and confusion to swirl within her.

Soon, confusion turned to anger, and anger, due to the time spent with the man before her eyes, became futility.

“…….”

Eirene lightly pounded my chest with her weakly clenched fist.

There was no strength in her hand. But each time her fist struck my chest, a sense of guilt, as if my heart was tearing, seeped in like poison.

“Eirene. I….”

With the sensation of drowning in mud and suffocating, I tried to offer Eirene a belated excuse.

“…Get lost.”

She pushed me away, then bowed her head with a look as if she was about to cry.

Her shoulders gently trembled. Her sorrow was conveyed to me as well.

Eirene, slowly backing away step by step, emitted a strong chill as if telling me not to approach, creating a massive pillar of ice.

“…The me who liked you…. The me… I hate so much….”

As if unleashing all the emotions accumulated towards someone she had decided never to see again. She spoke words of farewell from behind the opaque ice pillar.

“And…. I still like you….”

At her final lament, the line that had been drawn in my heart instantly snapped.

The line that had not allowed anyone to approach vanished without a trace.

I was overcome with a shame as if I was standing naked on a grand stage, being ridiculed.

Eirene, who had gifted me the emotion of shame in my arrogance, turned her back as if nothing had happened, and melted into the darkness of the forest.

“……Eirene.”

If I ran now, I could stop her.

I could resolve the misunderstandings and emotions that had arisen.

But my petty pride wouldn't allow it, and my legs wouldn't obey.

“Don’t go….”

For a week. Eirene had wanted to resolve our misunderstandings.

But I, even with the thought that I should atone to her, far from accepting her sincerity, kept pushing her away and acted despicably.

As the ice pillar blocking my path melted like snow. I was already running in the direction she had disappeared.

I won't stop.

I ran continuously in the direction Eirene had vanished.

I didn't want to make irreversible choices anymore.

Eirene’s words to me once seemed to echo in my ears.

‘Dean, are you… really that murderer I know…?’

Eirene had chosen to face her own truth and overcome the past.

She didn't choose to stay stagnant and run away without growing.

Eirene, Carmen, Maeve, Altair.

Even Maeve, who had relentlessly pursued me for her objective.

Unlike them who chose to grow, only I remained stagnant.

Always running away, never thinking of fighting back. Always thinking weak, like a loser.

That existence was like looking at myself from my childhood, after losing my father and refusing to accept reality.

I should have realized through my mother's love that self-lashing brought no benefit.

Why was I repeating the same mistakes here?

Before, I thought I was the same person as my 1st Playthrough self.

But now, I know I am different from who I was then.

I ran with all my might, to the point where my breathing grew ragged and my vision blurred.

Colliding with the overgrown weeds that reached my waist, I got scratches, lost my balance, fell, and got back up.

“Eirene!!!”

When I found the pure white woman, walking with tears streaming down her face.

I was the first to extend the hand she had longed for.

But following the ever-present formula of misfortune. My foot caught on a stone, and I collided with the turning Eirene, rolling to the ground.

Fearing she might get hurt even while rolling on the ground, I strongly embraced her head tightly with both arms.

When the inertia that made us roll faded, and a quiet stillness settled, I apologized to Eirene.

“I’m sorry….”

“……….”

“I was scared to tell you the truth…. Because back then…. I truly felt nothing.”

…I was grateful.

Eirene, who had approached someone she had every right to despise.

“But not anymore…. It’s not nothing anymore….”

How deeply must her heart have been wounded by my actions of not understanding her feelings and only trying to run away?

“I’m sorry…. Just…. Please know that it’s not now…. It’s sincere…….”

When I first confronted the sincerity I had deliberately ignored.

The world, which had been colorless except for Eirene, began to fill with color.

“…Fool.”

Her choked words were heard.

“That one word would have been enough……”

That one word soon filled the emptiness in my heart like a massive torrent pouring from a dam with its floodgates opened.

“That it’s different now, that one word…. One word would have been enough…. But you…. Why do you always say nothing…. And only say I wouldn’t understand…….”

Eirene, who had been scratching my chest with her fingernails, succumbed to her overwhelming emotions and cried like a child.

As I held her mournful sobs, only then did I stand up to convey my sincerity.

“Cough.”

A sudden gurgling sensation from my throat made me cough.

Had I eaten dirt while rolling on the ground?

When I brought my hand to my mouth, what stained it was.

…Bright red fresh blood.

“…….”

Only when the disparity in information entering my vision circulated belatedly throughout my body did my legs give way, and I knelt.

The momentary anxiety, wondering if Eirene had attacked me, quickly faded.

When I shifted my gaze, she was instead hostile towards someone, as if protecting me from danger.

“Dina. What about her?”

“Leave her. Eirene isn't worth killing. We've gathered all the equipment.”

A familiar, yet unfamiliar voice.

“You said Altair, but I like this one better. Can I cling to her?”

“Shut up and do your job, Sigrun.”

“Yeah. Got it.”

Eirene’s body, which had been protecting me, went limp and collapsed to the ground.

Soon, the woman called Sigrun, wearing golden armor, approached with small steps and took my hand.

“Hello, Dean. First time seeing you since the 1st Playthrough, isn’t it?”

Then she began to drag me towards the woman called Dina.

“Eire…ne…….”

“She’s not dead, so don’t worry. She’s sleeping soundly.”

Even if I reached out to the fallen Eirene, I couldn't reach her.

I had to convey my true feelings to her.

…I had to tell her thank you for loving me.

As I was dragged by the woman named Dina, my eyes met with a beauty that seemed to have transformed my very existence into a woman.

“Hmm…. Sigrun was right, after all. This one's better than Altair.”

“After this is over, can I cling to her?”

“No.”

“…Tch.”

“Don’t forget the hostage.”

“Alright~~.”

When the conversation between Sigrun and Dina, who didn't seem to get along, ended, Dina's long hand stretched towards my chest.

“Gasp…….”

Then, led by her fingernails, my skin was cruelly ripped open, and passing through muscles and lungs, my heart was torn out.

My extracted heart, stained crimson, was beating fiercely.

That form, where muscles and blood vessels intertwined to sustain life…. I had surely seen it somewhere before.

“Ugh…. It’s just like what I saw in Resonance.”

Sigrun, the blonde woman, opened her mouth instead, as if to resolve my doubts.

“Don’t be disgusted, Sigrun. This is beauty.”

“What a taste….”

As the bleeding could no longer be stopped, I couldn't support my body anymore, and my arms dropped, and I collapsed.

“Oops.”

Sigrun softly caught me and lightly kissed my cheek.

“Sleep well, Dean.”

Even as death loomed, only questions remained.

《 Inheriting memories and stats from 1st Playthrough.

Target - Eirene, Carmen, Maeve, Altair, Sigrun 》

Why Sigrun, the last of the five NPCs who inherited stats, had appeared now.

“Haa…. Slurp…”

And what kind of person was this woman named Dina, who was eating my heart with a flushed face and lewdly tearing at it?

Without even properly finishing what I had to say to Eirene. When my heart was completely eaten away.

…I closed my eyes.

《 Perk ‘Addicted to Defeat’ activation failed!

- Target not found. 》

《 Checkpoint not found. Searching for resurrection point. 》

《 Checkpoint designated ▶ Rusty Clock Tower 》

《 Resurrecting at checkpoint ‘Rusty Clock Tower’. LOADING… 》

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