How a Villain Defies Destiny Chapter 142

“Uh…”

 

And I stood there dumbfounded, mouth opening and closing like a fish, letting out a stupid exclamation.

 

Because her single sentence had thrown my already complicated mind into even greater chaos.

 

‘What on earth did she see to make her suspect that? No more importantly, how does Selene even know about the incarnation of a god?’

 

Of course, her knowing it wasn’t particularly a problem in itself.

 

If you think about it, even back when Fenrir first brought up the topic of the incarnation of a god, Yves had already known about it too.

 

It was just that the term had never once been mentioned in the game itself, so I had naturally assumed she wouldn’t know either.

 

“Looks like my guess was right after all.”

 

While I was too stunned to even speak, her misunderstanding was steadily deepening.

 

“No wonder my plans kept going strangely awry, it was all because you, the incarnation of a god, kept intervening.”

 

“No, that’s not it!”

 

I hurriedly slammed the brakes on Selene’s runaway train of delusions.

 

My head was still a complete mess, but stopping her came first.

 

Yet Selene kept jumping to the wrong conclusions one after another.

 

“You’re saying you didn’t intend to ruin my plans?”

 

“I’m saying I’m not the incarnation of a god.”

 

“It’s no use denying it. You’ve already been found out.”

 

Watching her completely refuse to believe me, I was starting to feel frustrated when suddenly a strange sense of déjà vu came over me.

 

‘Huh… this situation… feels somehow familiar.’

 

The odd feeling that I had experienced something similar before made me slowly trace back through my memories, and then an old recollection flashed into my mind.

 

It was from right after I had first possessed this body, when Yves was originally blackmailed by Laura, who was being forced to visit the Laurus barony, and we were having a conversation.

 

‘Talking to a wall would have been better. No matter what I said, Yves wouldn’t listen at all, I thought my insides were going to turn over from the frustration.’

 

Even though less than a year had passed, it had already become a light, almost laughable memory.

 

I was quietly reflecting on how time changes things when I suddenly realized that the current situation was far more serious than back then.

 

Unlike that time, when thanks to the divine oath I had been able to escape from the swamp of her terrible distrust, this time that method would not work.

 

Because more than anyone else, she knew very well that one could swear a false oath and still be perfectly fine.

 

‘This is bad. What do I do now…’

 

While I was desperately searching for any plausible way to regain her trust, I suddenly pointed at my own face with my index finger and asked,

 

“Look at me. Do I look like I’m lying?”

 

“…”

 

However, as she continued to stare piercingly at me, her expression gradually darkened.

 

‘Wait… is it possible she actually can’t tell?’

 

In a way, it was impressive.

 

Even Fenrir, who wasn’t particularly accustomed to human expressions, had slowly started to notice, yet she still couldn’t.

 

‘Ah, right, Fenrir is here!’

 

While casually thinking of him as the perfect contrast to Selene’s astonishing lack of perceptiveness, I suddenly realized that Fenrir himself was the best possible witness to resolve this frustrating situation.

 

Since he knew far more about the incarnation of a god than most humans ever could, he would surely be able to clearly explain to Selene just how absurd her misunderstanding was.

 

‘Wait, hold on. But Fenrir dislikes Selene, so maybe it would be better to tell her to ask Huluppu instead.’

 

Having thoughts that far, I opened my mouth, but the sentence I had prepared never reached its end.

 

“If you don’t believe me, then once you get out of prison later, ask Hulup…”

 

I belatedly remembered that Huluppu and Selene were incapable of communicating with each other.

 

“Ask Fenrir. He’ll prove to you that I have absolutely no connection whatsoever to the incarnation of a god.”

 

With no other options left, I ultimately mentioned Fenrir.

 

Even though there was a high chance that Selene wouldn’t actually get an answer, even if she asked him.

 

‘But at most, that would only be because Fenrir, who finds her distasteful, refuses to speak with her. It doesn’t change the fact that there isn’t a single lie in what I just said.’

 

While I was internally rationalizing it that way, Selene stubbornly continued to deny my claim right to the end.

 

“…Are you saying you even deceived the divine beast?”

 

Under normal circumstances, I would have felt irritation rising at her baseless insistence despite having no evidence or logic, but perhaps because I had just reminisced about that old memory with Yves, I surprisingly didn’t feel angry at all.

 

Instead, I found myself thinking even more clearly and calmly, and even gained enough mental leeway to approach the problem from a different angle.

 

“Selene. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I really am the incarnation of a god who managed to fool even Fenrir. In that case, what do you think I would be doing all of this for?”

 

That was why I had asked her that question.

 

It carried the meaning…

 

If I were truly the incarnation of a god, why would I be doing all this here?

 

“To become a saintess? Just to interfere with your plans? Or do you think I’m hiding some other grand purpose that ordinary humans couldn’t even begin to guess?”

 

In truth, if she had only calmly collected herself and looked back at how I had been behaving all this time, she would have quickly realized the truth.

 

My actions were far too trivial and petty to belong to the incarnation of a god.

 

“That’s…”

 

As expected, she couldn’t easily respond.

 

If the incarnation of a god had truly wanted to become a saintess, they would have displayed overwhelmingly divine power from the start.

 

The very idea that a god would personally create an incarnation and descend to the mortal world just to thwart the petty schemes of a single human was even more absurd.

 

‘To begin with, someone like me acting so foolishly would never have been expelled from the Euphrates Kingdom either.’

 

As I calmly and logically dismantled her assumptions one by one, fine wrinkles appeared between Selene’s elegant brows.

 

“But I’ve heard that the only being capable of taking away divine power is a god. If you’re not the incarnation of a god, then how can you freely manipulate divine power?”

 

Hearing that, I finally roughly understood the root of her misunderstanding.

 

‘Come to think of it… Selene has never once come into contact with a divine tree or a divine beast.’

 

Divine power was a force unfamiliar to humans. 

 

So much so that hardly any records about it remained in the present day.

 

‘Even I only realized after meeting Huluppu that everything I had been taught in the Holy Kingdom was merely the tip of the iceberg.’

 

However, Selene, despite endlessly repeating her regressions, had never learned that truth.

 

Because aside from herself and her targets, she had never encountered any being that possessed divine power.

 

Having concluded that it was understandable for her to have such a wild misunderstanding based on incomplete theory, I first pointed out the part where she was mistaken.

 

“That’s possible even without being a god. Selene, you absorbed Huluppu’s divine power yourself, didn’t you?”

 

“Ah…”

 

At that, Selene let out a small gasp. 

 

It seemed she had completely forgotten about it until I brought it up.

 

“Still, I understand now why you ended up with that misunderstanding.”

 

It was probably because she had already sensed the disconnect between the original Laura and me.

 

‘This is good timing. While I’m at it, I should just tell Selene everything.’

 

I had already decided the moment I chose to board the same boat as her that I would have to tell her someday anyway.

 

About my secret.

 

Having made up my mind, I began speaking in a calm voice.

 

“Selene, please listen to what I have to say.”

 

And then I slowly laid out my story.

 

…that I came from another world in a different dimension, and one day I woke up to find myself possessed in Laura Laurus’s body.

 

I also revealed that I roughly knew what Selene had gone through.

 

The only thing I changed for easier understanding, since this world had no concept of “otome games”, was calling it a “novel” instead. 

 

Everything else I told her was honest.

 

“When I said I would help you, I meant it sincerely. Only when time stops turning back will I finally be able to live with peace of mind, too.”

 

Selene, who had listened quietly the entire time, had deep bewilderment clouding her sky-blue eyes.

 

‘Well… that makes sense, doesn’t it?’

 

From her perspective, this story would probably be even harder to believe than the idea that I was the incarnation of a god.

 

Yet after a long silence, surprisingly, what came out of her mouth was a positive response.

 

「…Thank you.」

 

“You believe me?”

 

She had vehemently denied the claim that I was the incarnation of a god, yet she accepted the story of coming from another world and possessing Laura’s body almost too readily, enough that now I was the one left flustered.

 

“Yes. From the very beginning, the one thing I was absolutely certain of was that you were not the Laura Laurus I used to know.”

 

She added that the only reason she came up with such a hypothesis was that the limit of her imagination was the incarnation of a god.

 

‘Don’t people usually suspect the existence of another dimension more? Is it because this is a fantasy world and values are different?’

 

While I was still dazed by her unexpected reaction, Selene continued the conversation.

 

“More importantly… could you tell me in detail about the contents of the novel you read?”

 

“Why?”

 

“You said earlier that trivial, unimportant events that don’t affect the main progression don’t appear in the novel.”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“And you said it was a romance novel.”

 

I nodded at her successive questions.

 

“So I thought there might be information related to divine power that was omitted because it had nothing to do with romance.”

 

It was a reasonable point.

 

Still, even so, I felt a little reluctant to just lay it all out plainly.

 

Though I had couched it as a “novel,” when you really thought about it, it was no different from turning her entire life into entertainment.

 

“Why the hesitation?”

 

Seeing me unable to readily speak up because of that concern, Selene asked again in a puzzled tone.

 

“I basically peeked into your life… Doesn’t that bother you?”

 

“I don’t really mind. Or to be more precise… I don’t have the luxury to mind.”

 

After trailing off for a moment, she continued with a wry, bitter smile.

 

“Besides, you’re not the only one who’s been watching my life.”