There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 34

What if I were Jeong Ian, living my original life?

I am a little curious about that myself. If a face like Ryuseong’s made an offer, would I have just let him have his way?

Perhaps I wouldn’t have been so compliant, and I probably would have thrown a fit trying to seduce him with all sorts of dirty tricks, but if the mood was right, I feel like I might have done what he wanted. But things are different now. Because Cassis de Millang is someone who would never meekly give up control.

Someone who would never be conquered by another, no matter what, is being subjected to this and that?

‘This is a collapse of the original story!’

I told you. Character collapse is the one thing that can’t happen. The story of my family pulling out their swords, swinging them with a swish, and my head flying off with a thump cannot be my future. I’m not buying the purge ending. Go away.

In short, the choice presented before me has a terrible balance.

My neck vs. Ryuseong’s social reputation.

‘What is there to think about?’

I will mercilessly ruin the latter.

If, and only if—something I don’t even want to imagine—Ryuseong were to truly, for real, pin my body down, if I had to give you the right to physically hold me down, then there must be a right that you, too, have to lose.

There’s a reason honey traps have been so potent since ancient times. It’s because if you get a dagger plunged into you while making love, you’re sent straight to the afterlife; because you’re forced to die helplessly while climaxing, that honey traps are so damn effective.

If I were on top, I wouldn’t have the slightest thought of doing such a thing—of course, Ryuseong’s physique must be preserved for all eternity as a national treasure—but that bastard might end up on top.

‘You can stick a dagger in me. Let me do that too.’

To put it bluntly, this is a contractual relationship for mutual benefit, so if I’m the only one who gets screwed, it’s my loss. Why should I be the only one who gets damaged? So you are free to despise and hate me as much as you want. Regardless of that, I will gladly damage you. I’ll take the social prestige. While I captivate and reign over your mind, I’ll let everyone know that in exchange, I am tolerating you climbing on top of me.

‘Then you can treat me even more roughly…’

Isn’t that kind?

Don’t think of it badly. It’s just us holding each other’s leashes. I’m letting you occupy my body and declare it yours, I’m giving you the full right to choke my slender neck and control my breath, so shouldn’t I at least get to hold your social reputation in my grasp to feel secure?

In return, you can violate me roughly. I’ll forgive that, I’ll let you climb on top.

‘Listen to me.’

As I was thinking that, staring at you as if I could eat you alive, I was suddenly jolted back to my senses.

It was because my body had been lifted into the air. I instinctively clung tightly to Ryuseong’s nape, and at some point, he had supported my bottom with his forearm.

So, hmm. To put it another way, I was being held aloft in his arms as I hugged him.

‘Isn’t this… a little suggestive.’

Of course, to our fellow students, the kiss was probably more suggestive, but to me, the embrace felt even more so.

We’re not even going to kiss, so why are you holding me?

But the next moment, he started walking while still carrying me. Like that, he headed down toward the doorway where Hae Yuna and Lee Hyang were…

‘Huh?’

Why are you taking me with you to meet your friends?

‘What, are you trying to introduce me or something?’

W-wait! I’m not mentally prepared yet…!

＊＊＊

To explain Lee Hyang’s situation at this point, he currently felt like he was dying. He had stayed up all night yesterday, but it wasn’t just one sleepless night that had put him in this state. To be precise, staying up all night was the cause, but anyway, it wasn’t a matter of physical stamina.

The problem was the intensity of that single night.

‘What is happening!’

‘What in the world is this, Lee Hyang!’

That day, Lee Hyang received all the calls he would ever get in his lifetime. When Ryuseong turned off his phone, the clan council made Lee Hyang their target. And the fact that there wasn’t just one clan council in the Republic of Korea, and that there wasn’t just one or two elders in it, was what drove Lee Hyang to tragedy.

‘An elder pressured you, didn’t he? You’ve been through a lot. You’re the only one suffering because of the elders’ nagging. (omitted) So just trust me and why don’t you secretly tell me what’s going on. It must be heavy on your heart to keep a secret all by yourself, and I won’t tell anyone either… (rest omitted)’—that sort of nonsense endlessly poured in.

He wondered if they had all taken the same tutoring class somewhere.

I know you’re having a hard time. Just trust me. It’s hard for you to suffer alone, right? I won’t tell other people. Fifty-seven people had sent emails or texts following this exact pattern. He really thought it was so likely they wouldn’t tell anyone else. Still, they were more polite than the elders who just shouted at him, but to avoid offending them, he had to take calls and reply to emails and texts all night, arranging them in order by age group, as befitting a Confucian country.

But was age the only thing to consider? He had to start by considering the family rank, and if they were of the same rank and age, who he responded to first could be a matter of pride, so he had to make up excuses somehow… Damn it. Lee Hyang wanted to beg for his life. But the bastard next to Lee Hyang showed no intention of answering the phone, nor did he seem to have any intention of resolving the situation.

No, to be precise, should I say he was in no state to do so…?

As had often been the case recently, Lee Hyang’s roommate, perhaps burdened by being the sole heir to the imperial family name of the Daehan Empire, had said he would sleep in another room again today, so it was fine for Ryuseong to come and sleep in the empty bed. Watching Ryuseong sit on the edge of the bed and gaze blankly out the window, Lee Hyang felt his own insides burn up in sympathy, but he couldn’t bring himself to press him. He couldn’t challenge him or ask what was going on. He couldn’t demand an explanation. It wasn’t a big deal, but, it was just that Ryuseong looked excessively exhausted.

To exaggerate, it was as if he were carrying the weight of every living being in this world.

That was the look on his face.

‘What’s the problem, you bastard.’

Don’t grimace as if the fact that you can’t tell me is even more painful. You look genuinely tormented, so you might as well act brazen. Just stand your ground arrogantly and say you won’t tell me. I think that would be better for you, you son of a bitch. Don’t bow your head, straighten your back, yes. Just be like that Cassis de Millang, who I can’t tell if you’re dating or just kissing.

Then I could at least hate you, damn it.

‘If you act like that, I can’t even ask.’

So Lee Hyang stayed up all night, just chain-smoking. It was the first time he’d ever felt like he was going to die from exhaustion even after smoking like a chimney without a care for his lungs. Because of a Hunter’s characteristic physical enhancement and detoxification abilities, regular cigarettes didn’t even faze his liver, so he had rolled and smoked strong cigarettes with a stimulant effect, but he still couldn’t clear his head. The problem wasn’t staying up all night, but the fact that the clan council had hounded him, and that he had to face the weight Ryuseong was shouldering with a completely sober mind, unable to avoid it.

That was the reason he was steeped in fatigue.

However, Hae Yuna, who heard the situation late in the morning, couldn’t accept it.

‘What? He didn’t say anything? That bastard! Making you suffer alone!’

‘No, that’s not it. I couldn’t ask anything.’

‘What?!’

In fact, Lee Hyang also wondered if he had been possessed by something. If he hadn’t been possessed, there’s no way he would have left a kid who wasn’t even crying, just staring blankly out the window, alone without asking a single thing like some lunatic, but at that moment, he thought he had to. He didn’t even know the reason himself, so there was no way he could explain it well to others.

There was no way Hae Yuna wouldn’t be frustrated with Lee Hyang. She was already frustrated that she couldn’t be with them last night due to the dormitory’s gender-based entry restriction magic, and now that Lee Hyang was mumbling his words, Hae Yuna wondered if he had been threatened or something.

‘Since it’s come to this, there’s no choice but to ask him directly!’

That was the full story behind the incident where Hae Yuna summoned Kim Ryuseong with a back kick to the front door.

Inside a building, you never know where someone might be hiding, so it’s safer for security to talk in an open space while avoiding people’s approach.

For that reason, Ryuseong, who had once again been dragged out to the very same backyard he had been dragged to by Cassis in the past, thought it wasn’t the least bit funny that two completely different people had chosen the same direction, but he answered calmly.

“First, there’s something I want to say. No matter who you are, do not assign a family name to me so carelessly. I am Ryuseong, and I have no intention of succeeding the Kim family.”

“Who told you to be a Kim?! I just called you that because it rolls off the tongue. I call that Lee Hyang guy Kim Lee Hyang too.”

Hae Yuna made an excuse, looking slightly startled.

Ryuseong has no family name. Ryuseong was someone who had refused all of the Halla Sect’s Grandmaster’s screaming demands for him to inherit his family name, leaving his surname undecided. Ryuseong. On his Awakened Being registration card, Ryu was listed as the family name and Seong as the given name, but Ryuseong always considered himself to have no family name. In a way, this was also true. If a family name is not just a simple designation but includes a certain emotional function and bond inherited from the one who gave birth to you.

The name de Millang, which Cassis has, inherits the history, power, and wealth that the de Millangs have built.

To Hae Yuna, her family name symbolizes the bond with her grandmother, an elder of the Haenam Sect.

To Lee Hyang, his family name is proof that he is the successor to the imperial family name passed down from Taejo Yi Seong-gye.

Ryuseong has nothing like that. He has inherited nothing from the one who brought him into existence.

Therefore, Hae Yuna exaggerated her explanation and changed the subject.

“Anyway, anyway! I came to ask what you were thinking when you did that, but why did you bring that, that gentleman along?”

The topic she most wanted to ask about was here. The one who was coyly curling his lips and whispering gently, his eyes curving into clear arcs.

“Are you finally paying attention to me now? I’m disappointed. For what it’s worth, I prided myself on being someone who draws attention.”

That very Cassis de Millang…

“Uh, oh, don’t you worry. It already feels like my eyeballs are going to pop out from trying so hard to stop my gaze from turning to you.”

“You are welcome to look all you want. The public is bound to stare in a daze when they see something beautiful, after all.”

“…”

Lee Hyang was speechless and stared blankly. Hae Yuna thought that she, at least, had to keep her wits about her and said defiantly.

“No, the reason you’re drawing attention right now isn’t about whether you’re pretty or not, it’s the fact that you’re being held, you know? I get that you two are, are, are in lo—… damn it, anyway, I get that you’re lovey-dovey, but can’t you get down now? The other kids keep staring too!”

However, the gazes watching them from a great distance, too far for their conversation to be heard, seemed unable to stop Cassis. Cassis de Millang, who was touching Ryuseong’s shoulder with his fingertips and wearing a faint smile, nonchalantly snorted and revealed his perfectly white, neat teeth.

And what he said next was the highlight.

“Pardon me, but isn’t it natural for you all to look at me, no matter where I am?”

Wow.

They were doubly speechless.

‘What is with this guy?’

She wondered if he had always been this ridiculously confident in his looks, but what pissed her off the most was that she had nothing to say once she saw his face. While Hae Yuna’s blood pressure rose and she exclaimed, “Goodness! Good grief!” Lee Hyang rubbed his weary, exhausted eyes and muttered.

“Yeah, you’re Pao Szu and Daji…”

Your beauty could ruin not just a country, but the whole world…

＊＊＊

‘Haha. This Lee Hyang guy knows how to land a punch, doesn’t he?’

When that unexpected blow came in, even I, who had been shamelessly praising my own beauty, was hit with a dose of reality.

No, Cassis is pretty, but damn it, he’s not that pretty. I have some objectivity too.

Of course, it might be because he’s not my type of face, but in any case, it was incredibly embarrassing to be compared to beauties who ruined nations like Pao Szu or Daji. I know that he was the final mastermind who plotted the world’s destruction from behind the scenes, but the protagonist would have stopped that, right?

Surely I haven’t possessed a beauty who ruined the world?