There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 124

Capone and Dietrich’s eyes widened in surprise, and then they protested loudly.

Telling me not to spout nonsense, that it was all sophistry.

“Do you think I didn’t have it hard?!”

At the honest and raw remark, Hae Yuna and Shin Myohan, who had been holding back, finally joined the fray.

“What’s this? Are we having a misery competition now? What’s your point?”

“Hmm. Cheok Jun-gyeong, the general I serve, said that you are very bad children. Why are you even alive?”

From that point on, the level of the remarks escalated until it was on the verge of becoming a complete mess.

Ryuseong tried to take care of me, but I didn’t need him right now. At this very moment, I had to not remain silent. If only for the sake of the now-nonexistent Cassis de Millang.

I had to speak.

“You can think of that logic as the survival of the fittest.”

“…What did you say?”

“Think whatever you please. That is, of course, your freedom. You can be mistaken for the rest of your lives, so feel free to curse me, betray me, and try to kill me.”

My mouth was bone dry. My fingertips were trembling, but Ryuseong held my hand tightly. Thanks to that, I found the courage to say these words.

I spoke.

“But I will survive.”

I will live, if only because my life, which I fought to the death to endure and survive, feels so wronged.

As I uttered those words, a single tear suddenly cut across my cheek and fell. It was so absurd that I let out a small laugh.

‘Why are you crying… Jeong Ian.’

I know it too. These are not Cassis de Millang’s tears. This is Jeong Ian’s crying.

I thought a happy ending was impossible because I am a broken piece of junk, utterly incapable of loving the world. The only thing lovely to me is you, and such an exclusive and possessive relationship couldn’t possibly be socially healthy.

So I thought that letting you go someday would be true love. I thought the same about the life of Jeong Ian given to me. I had felt that life was something good to have, and if it disappeared, it couldn’t be helped.

But, it was different.

“If I struggle until the end, I will one day become free. And perhaps I can even be liberated. If a complete sense of security comes to me, then…”

It was so dizzying that I couldn’t see anything.

I closed my eyes and slowly changed the subject.

“…That’s right, if it’s to become a survivor, it’s fine to roll around in the mud. It’s fine even if they tell me to eat dog food I’ve painstakingly scraped together. If I can just live, I would do anything.”

I smiled.

“That’s who I am. Whatever ordeal may come, could I possibly lose?”

So, I had been acknowledged that it was okay for my desire to live to be desperate.

It was okay to try my hardest. It was never something to be ashamed of.

To be acknowledged and to declare that fact, even in the body of Cassis de Millang, made me so overwhelmingly happy.

That’s why the tears keep falling.

Capone Yones and Dietrich Winkel, who were fighting fiercely, didn’t seem to understand me, but since I had no need to make them understand, I just told them to get lost.

If it were Jeong Ian’s body, I would have flipped them the middle finger and told them to get lost, but to maintain the character setting that Cassis de Millang doesn’t do such vulgar things, I just shooed them away with a wave of my hand. At that, they got angry about something among themselves and left. Seeing them act so wretchedly towards me, they probably think I’m going to lose the power struggle with the family head, which is truly a pity.

‘Still, since they failed to build a friendship with me, they probably couldn’t have given away any proper information, so I’m willing to let it slide for now.’

There are many things they don’t know about me. I haven’t even laid my cards bare to my great-grandfather. It was natural. Who would believe it? In the past, I thought I would have to confess to Ryuseong to be able to borrow at least one of the Halla Sect’s action commanders.

‘Not anymore. Since I’ve been to Russia.’

Kirill, whom I successfully negotiated with and brought over to my side in Russia with Ivan Karpin, is an excellent former soldier, like a well-behaved hound.

Though for now, since I don’t have a residence completely of my own and unmonitored, I have placed him in a group of smugglers in the Demon Realm. It’s a relief that he’s getting along well with my great-grandmother. I heard they have a cat-and-mouse relationship, sworn enemies. Keke. Go ahead and suffer a little.

Anyway, I had one Kirill, who could be an excellent dog or a rat.

And usually, dogs have a good sense of smell, and rats are good at stealing cheese.

I had Kirill learn the scent of one item, and the day of the operation is today. If it fails, Kirill might die. Even I think it’s a gamble of an operation.

But sometimes, a person has to take a gamble to survive. And I knew how to manipulate the probability of success. Dropping a strand of my hair when I first went to the Demon Realm, and deliberately revealing my visit to the Demon Realm when returning to the academy with Ryuseong… Could you believe that all of that was part of my scheme?

‘I thought I was going to die from racking my brain.’

I will review the detailed operation later. But for that very operation, I showed a powerless side of myself, to the point where even the Villains would defy me. The conversation went a little deeper than planned, and I unexpectedly ended up showing tears, but well. Someone who fails to see that even that was an act will fall into the trap.

Soon, the sound of footsteps disappearing from the alley could be heard.

‘So something is bound to happen today.’

That’s why I smiled brightly.

‘As for that bastard Logan, I really didn’t touch him. For real. I don’t know why he disappeared either.’

On the evening of the third day of the school trip, it was the time when the horror experience would begin.

“Alright, alright. Line up straight!”

Professor Dohyeon from the spellcasting subject grumpily lined up the cadets in a single file with an indifferent face.

While Professor Dohyeon, who had lost at rock-paper-scissors again today, was working hard, Professor Pungseonja used a Daoist spell to pop out a blackboard that glowed with a hazy white light, like a very large beam projector.

On the outskirts of the scene where the two professors were working, Professor A-plus, famous for not giving A-pluses, was showing off the majesty of a rock-paper-scissors champion by sitting on the back of Professor Ganta, who was doing push-ups, sipping orange juice and smiling brightly.

“Ahh! This is refreshing! As expected, juice is for oranges! Boxes are for apples!”

‘…What kind of nonsense is that.’

As I swept my hair back, I suddenly realized that the orange juice Professor A-plus was sipping through a straw was a specific brand that came in a carton. A sudden chill ran down my spine, and I turned around.

“Ms. Hae Yuna.”

“Huh? Y-yes? Wh-why are you calling for m… me, sir?”

It seems she unconsciously tried to use honorifics and messed up. But it didn’t matter whether Ryuseong’s friends used honorifics or not. They were original characters I had loved (though not as much as Ryuseong), and in the end, they were also characters that Cassis de Millang had killed.

‘More than anything, I’m already on casual terms with Shin Myohan.’

Having come to that conclusion, I decided to ask Hae Yuna directly.

“Take out the orange juice.”

“Huh? You? Want? Some? Food? Too?”

Hae Yuna said, in a completely broken state. Lee Hyang tapped her on the shoulder and got angry, telling her to come to her senses.

He was complaining about how much she must have drunk for her language skills to get this bad.

“I-I didn’t drink that much!”

“Stop talking nonsense. You still have so much in your bag, where are you lying… no, if you drank a lot, shouldn’t there be less? No, no. That’s not it. Just how many did you make?”

Hmm. Can the manufacturing of orange juice that doesn’t contain orange juice be considered manufacturing? It makes me want to tattle to the notoriously strict Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Just then, Hae Yuna spoke.

“Huh? That’s strange.”

“What is? Got a hangover?”

“No! It’s not that…”

Hae Yuna gently held and shook an orange juice carton inside her bag, listening closely. What is she doing?

“Something feels off. I need to check!”

“Hey! You maniac! You’re going to drink again?! My, what a great excuse!”

“Ah! This is really because something feels off!”

“Then I’ll try it! That’s okay, right? If it’s to check for an off-feeling?”

Hae Yuna said absolutely not and tried to pull back the bag containing the orange juice. I quickly used the principles of Geumnasu to steal one carton of orange juice.

“Ugh! It got stolen!”

“Hey, cadets over there! Stop talking and stand in one line! No, don’t think you can just stand in one line and talk! The more you guys act like this, the more I become a drill sergeant from hell! Don’t kids these days get scared by this anymore? I’ll be an angel if you guys behave properlyyyy!”

I completely ignored Dohyeon’s words and stuck the straw into the orange juice carton.

And sluuuurp.

With that sound, the wide-open eyes of Ryuseong’s friends all followed this body of mine.

‘They’re like very cute baby bunnies. These guys.’

As I had that thought and finished the carton in one shot with the straw, Hae Yuna asked.

“…How is it?”

“What do you mean how is it. It must be delicious. Isn’t that right? De Millang?”

“Yes, Mr. Lee Hyang. It’s delicious.”

I, who was smiling with my eyes, decided to tell the truth so that Ryuseong wouldn’t wear a troubled expression any longer.

“It’s a truly excellent orange juice.”

“Hmm, as expected… no, wait! No, what does that mean?”

Hae Yuna almost jumped on the spot, then lowered her voice and asked a barrage of questions.

But I had only one thing to say.

“It was orange juice.”

“There’s no way, when I painstakingly injected soju into each one with a syringe…”

Just then, Professor Dohyeon walked past Hae Yuna, sipping on orange juice.

“Good work.”

“…?”

Hae Yuna looked around at the professors with a dazed expression. Professor Pungseonja’s face was somehow flushed red, and he seemed to be laughing more freely than usual today. And in his hand was an orange juice carton. Even in the principal’s hand.

Next to Professor Ganta, who was doing push-ups saying he couldn’t afford to lose muscle mass, several empty orange juice cartons were scattered around, and Professor A-plus’s face was literally plastered…

“…!”

This is bad. Hae Yuna (who) learned the <Truth> is starting to grab the back of her neck and collapse!