The Villain's Sister - Chapter 73

After wiping off the nail polish completely, Johan sat with his legs crossed and asked bluntly, “Why are you doing this to me?”

Giselle insisted on taking a picture of his nails.

There was a high chance she had also taken a picture of his face, but Johan didn’t want more of a headache, so he didn’t bother to check.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve only known you for a few days… You don’t just throw yourself at other men like that, do you?”

“Of course not.”

It was an answer he couldn’t trust.

Seeing how Giselle’s behavior here differed from the Giselle of reality, it was clear that Oscar Jackniper, who only existed here, had influenced her.

That guy should have taught Giselle that while self-defense was important, she mustn’t just cling to anyone so carelessly.

“I don’t know why I’m doing this either. It feels like I know you well…”

Looking confused, Giselle bit her lip.

She said to Johan, “Look at me.”

“I am looking.”

“Don’t you feel something strange?”

“I didn’t know emotions were required for eyes to function.”

Disappointment spread over Giselle’s face. To Johan, it was a situation hard to understand.

“Forget it. I won’t say it.”

Unable to contain her annoyance, Giselle threw a cushion at him.

Naturally, Johan caught it midair.

He glanced at Giselle pouting her lips, then quietly swallowed a sigh.

He needed to confess quickly that this place wasn’t reality but a dream. Yet every moment felt like a candy rolling on his tongue, so sweet he wanted to savor it a little longer.

To spend such an ordinary day with Giselle, something that could never happen in reality.

But since he would eventually have to return, Johan couldn’t help but be troubled.

“To not remember anything… it’s really unfair.”

What is it that I don’t know? No, what is it that only you remember?

The collapsing world, the strange appearances of Giselle. The more he thought, the more his head hurt.

While Johan was lost in thought, Giselle rolled off the sofa and took out things to display on the shelf she had finished assembling two nights ago.

Among them was an item Johan recognized.

It was none other than the helmet of the Black Pistols.

“If it were me, I’d never put something like that on display.”

“Then what would you put?”

As Giselle turned her head challengingly, he replied with his elegant accent, “A tobacco pipe recovered from a sunken ship—”

“Tacky.”

“Or a fountain pen my great-great-grandfather used when signing a treaty—”

“That belongs in a museum.”

“How about the bicorn hat of General Astman, who led the naval war to victory 350 years ago?”

“……”

Giselle quietly stepped back.

Clearly dodging because she found it tacky, Johan frowned. “I’ll buy you something better, so how about putting that away?”

“No. Oh, by the way, did you know? About the Black Pistols.”

Giselle lowered her voice as if sharing a secret.

“Raphael and Oscar ran into them a few times, and I heard he was really handsome.”

“Tristan Lindbergh?”

Johan tapped his forehead in frustration.

If he made it back alive, he felt he should plant a fist squarely in Tristan Lindbergh’s gut.

A childish thought he would never normally have, but Johan didn’t realize it himself.

“Do you know him?”

“Do you not know Tristan Lindbergh?”

“Of course I know. He’s the main character of the comic book.”

“Is that all?”

“What else is there supposed to be?”

“You said you once dated a policeman.”

“What does that have to do with this? That man wasn’t Tristan Lindbergh. Tristan seems like someone impossible to forget, but I’ve long forgotten the face of the guy I dated back then.”

She didn’t seem to be lying, and Johan felt dizzy.

‘It was me who changed.’

Just the other day, she had confessed tearfully, stealing glances at Tristan from afar.

If Giselle didn’t remember Tristan, then that wasn’t forgetting…

Rumble. Crack.

The world swirled again around Giselle.

A vague fear swept over him.

Giselle was the master of this world, and yet she was unaware of its turbulence.

He had to get her out of here as soon as possible.

“I have something to confess to you.”

“As long as it’s not nonsense like saying we had a child together, I’ll listen.”

“This is far more important.”

Rumble! Crack!

Between the cracks of the fractured world, tick! tick! Blue sparks flew.

As if warning him. If you speak any further, I’ll kill you.

But he had to speak.

If they didn’t escape from this bizarre world of consciousness, Giselle would be swallowed by her inner world and never open her eyes again.

“Giselle. You are not dead.”

“You don’t believe me.”

“No. Your memories are wrong. The truth is—”

Crackle! Crackle!

The strange force that seeped from the cracks of the world sealed Johan’s mouth.

Invisible energy, but it wielded great power over him.

His body wouldn’t move. Not even a blink, not even a roll of his eyes was possible.

“Johan? Johan?”

“What the—are you okay? Can you hear me? Johan! Snap out of it!”

“A h-hospital—no, this feels like a magic problem—”

The voices sounded like a radio played on fast-forward.

Giselle’s movements were as fast as light.

She grabbed Johan and shook him, checked his forehead temperature, then called someone.

‘I should tell her not to be afraid…’

He cast a spell, but the strange power gripped his mana tightly so he couldn’t budge.

He squeezed out his mana to resist, but it barely worked.

“—He’s not moving. Medicine? No, he didn’t take anything like that—he just froze up! That’s what happened!”

“It has to be magic. But how?”

“What the hell happened! Johan, can you hear my voice?”

It wasn’t paralysis. His body was moving so slowly it felt like it had stopped completely.

The state lasted until the sun rose to the top of the sky and began to descend again.

During that time, Giselle panicked, completely at a loss.

“Johan, please move. Please?”

Tick. Tick.

Biting her nails to ease her anxiety, Giselle turned pale and then disappeared somewhere.

Watching her, Johan changed the way he resisted the crushing force.

Johan called forth the magic he was best at.

Mana moved as sluggishly as his near-frozen body.

By then the sunset had passed, and darkness fell.

Giselle, drunk, clung to him, bawling and shouting.

“Don’t scare me like this!”

Bang! Boom!

Mana exploded around Johan, and the force pressing him down collapsed.

Finally, the power crushing him was gone.

Because of the explosion, Giselle crouched on the floor, and Johan called to her.

“Giselle.”

His voice was hoarse. He cleared his throat and called her again.

“Hm. Giselle.”

“…Johan?”

Giselle, who had been holding her head, slowly lifted it.

“You can move? You’re okay? Nothing hurts?”

She grabbed Johan and turned his face this way and that.

The strong smell of alcohol lingered on her.

Her eyes weren’t completely glazed, but her slurred pronunciation showed she hadn’t drunk lightly.

“There’s no magic here, but you suddenly looked like someone under a weird spell, and I didn’t understand why, or what to do… I really thought something had happened to you—”

“Calm down. I’m fine.”

“How can I calm down! It was terrifying!”

She even clutched her hair and raised her voice, then sniffled and pressed her sleeve hard against her eyes.

Johan realized Giselle’s eyes were slightly swollen.

The bewildering thing was, he felt a strange happiness at the sight.