This Villain Is Mine Now - Chapter 124

“There’s not a single good part. Not when Diane was the protagonist, and not when I was.”

Elaina glared at Propheta as she spoke.

“It’s the worst novel of my life. Truly, nothing could be worse than this.”

Propheta burst into hearty laughter. Though he tried to hold it back at Elaina’s displeased expression, tears still formed in the corners of his eyes, and laughter kept slipping out.

“What’s so funny? You think this is funny?”

“No, ah… sorry. I shouldn’t laugh, but I couldn’t help it. Your expression was so serious.”

Clearing his throat, Propheta continued, “So the content is terrible, huh? Then what about the title?”

“The title? What about it.”

At Propheta’s subtly expectant question, Elaina frowned. He looked slightly hurt by her response.

“I thought hard about that title. Don’t tell me you found no meaning in it?”

“That’s right. Hey, leave me alone. I’m not in the mood to have this kind of conversation with you.”

She was dead. There was no mistaking it.

She had never really thought about life after death, but she had never imagined she’d end up staring at a gloomy novel forever with a mad dragon.

Just thinking of Lyle made her nose sting.

「Elaina’s death brought Lyle Grant endless despair.」

Her gaze wouldn’t leave the line printed in the book. Startled by her sniffles, Propheta flailed his hands.

“Wait. Don’t cry. I’m terrible at comforting people who cry.”

“I never asked you to comfort me, did I? I told you to leave me alone.”

Propheta scratched his head.

“About the title.”

“I’m not interested in the title.”

“I put a lot of thought into it.”

“Ha… Please, just stop!”

Even as Elaina yelled, Propheta ignored her and snapped his fingers. A large moon appeared in the air. Startled, Elaina lost her words and stared blankly at it. Seemingly pleased by her reaction, Propheta shrugged.

“‘Moonshadow’—it’s the shadow created when your world overlaps with the moon.”

Snap. Snap. With two more snaps, a blue, round world and a blazing sun appeared.

They orbited each other until they aligned, and the moon’s shadow covered the sun.

“When the moonshadow eclipses the sun, the world goes dark for a moment. It makes you wonder if it might be the end of everything. But…”

Propheta smiled gently. The things that had paused began to move again, and the moonshadow that had obscured the sun gradually lifted.

“But with time, the sun shines brightly again. The moonshadow can’t block its light forever.”

Elaina, speechless, looked at Propheta. He smiled warmly and met her gaze.

“From the moment I realized my time was short, I agonized over it. There was only one future where Kyst could be truly free. I thought long and hard, but every future led to his misfortune.”

“…You.”

“I’m sorry about House Grant. But in every future, they were betrayed by the Marquis and destroyed. Please don’t hate me too much.”

Propheta’s form began to fade.

“You know, a ‘novel’ matters because it’s different from reality. That’s why I made you read it instead of showing you the future directly.”

“Wait, Propheta. Wait.”

“Thank you for reading my novel. Thank you for trying to change the future. For not giving up, for doing your best, for saving Kyst, and for rescuing those who suffered because of me.”

“Wait! There’s something I want to ask—there’s something I need to ask you!”

At Elaina’s shout, Propheta smiled. He reached out and tapped her forehead with his index finger.

“It’s time to go back.”

Her eyelids were heavy. She forced them open. As her blocked breath cleared all at once, a fit of coughing burst from her lips.

At Elaina’s choking, pained groan, the fading light returned to Lyle’s eyes.

Colin looked at Elaina in disbelief. Her heart had certainly stopped. She had not been breathing. Yet now, as if she had returned from the dead, Elaina was breathing again.

Lyle rushed over and embraced her.

The spark of life that had been flickering out in his arms—now, the heartbeat he felt in the Elaina he held was strong and steady.

Unable even to call her name, tears fell from Lyle’s eyes as he held her close. The tears that streamed down his cheeks fell upon her face. Without a word, Elaina wrapped her arms around him.

“I’m back.”

Hearing Lyle’s heartbeat racing far faster than her own, Elaina whispered softly.

***

The Archduchess, who was said to be too ill to leave her home, arrived in a carriage in a near-death state.

No one knew how long she had gone without eating. Emaciated, she couldn’t even stand properly due to her injured leg.

The uproar stirred the entire castle in the middle of the night.

Lyle immediately accused Marquis Redwood of arson and attempted murder of the Archduchess. But the Marquis furiously denied the charges.

“Why on earth would I try to kill the Archduchess!”

He shouted in indignation. His performance was so convincing that even those who knew the truth nearly doubted it.

He raised his voice, demanding evidence. The only ones who had seen him reach the tower that night were Lyle and Elaina. That fact gave the Marquis the confidence to protest loudly.

He accused the Archducal couple of framing him and even threatened to press charges against them. After the Marchioness’s death, House Redwood and House Grant were once again at odds.

“If it’s evidence you want, here it is. This is the dagger used by the one who harmed my wife.”

In front of the Emperor, the Archduke presented the dagger. The Emperor accepted his statement: by tracing the item’s origin, the culprit could be found. The Marquis shouted that he too wanted the true perpetrator revealed to clear his name.

As expected, it didn’t take long to find the dagger’s owner. The person who had ordered its custom manufacture was none other than the Marquis’s son.

The noble society was thrown into chaos. Some confidently claimed they’d known it, while others firmly took the Marquis’s side, insisting it couldn’t be true.

Regardless of sides, everyone believed the Marquis would defend his son. After all, he had been devastated by his wife’s death. The love he had for the son who would inherit his title must have been exceptional.

Yet against all expectations, the Marquis admitted his son’s guilt.

“The proof is undeniable. Even as a father, I cannot cover up my son’s wrongdoing.”

The Marquis’s son—the Young Marquis—was dragged from his residence, screaming that it had all been his father’s doing. But considering the kidnapping of the Archduchess and the events that followed, it was the Young Marquis who had played the decisive role in the crime.

Thus, the Young Marquis was imprisoned. The Emperor decided to observe the situation a bit longer.

Several days later, the Young Marquis was mysteriously killed in prison. His sudden death sparked another wave of unrest in noble society.

To unite the now deeply divided nobility, the matter had to be resolved quickly.

‘The Marquis, and the Archduke.’

Fingering the cards he held in both hands, the Emperor finally chose a side. Though he had trusted the Marquis for quite some time, the man’s recent actions had crossed a line that could not be ignored.

The Emperor authorized a search of Marquis Redwood’s estate in connection with the attempted murder of the Archduchess.

Without warning, guards stormed in, and all sorts of items from the estate were seized in a flash. Leo, acting as deputy commander of the Imperial Knights, took part in the search and combed through the Marquis’s study in particular.

‘Found it.’

Inside a drawer in the study was the ring Elaina had mentioned. What adorned its center wasn’t so much a gem as a small sparkling stone. It didn’t seem particularly important, but Leo took it first, just as Elaina had asked.

***

“I brought the ring, just like you said. It looks so trivial that no one will pay it any mind.”

“Thank you, Leo.”

Elaina accepted the ring from Leo. As he said, it had lost its luster and looked quite crude. But Elaina had to have that ring.

“What exactly are you going to use it for?”

“I didn’t get it to use it.”

“Then why?”

“I want to return it to its owner.”

Elaina fiddled with the ring. The man she had seen in the dream when her breath had momentarily stopped—this ring was essentially his relic.

That meant the rightful owner of the ring was neither the Marquis nor Lyle, but someone else entirely.