How a Villain Defies Destiny Chapter 163

Just one thing felt odd: it wasn’t as if I had liked Selene enough to willingly endure any sacrifice or hardship for her sake.

 

‘It was only the level of admiring a vicarious-satisfaction type of heroine who could boost my love for humanity in this harsh world…’

 

While I was puzzling over how something so slight could possibly have satisfied the conditions, she cut through my thoughts.

 

[Don’t overcomplicate it. You only had two choices available to you.]

 

Though it was absent from my current memories, she had made the offer to me on the threshold of death.

 

Either die as I was, or live a new life in Laura’s body on the condition that I must help Selene.

 

‘But that can’t really be called my own free will.’

 

Anyone facing imminent death would choose the second option. Could that truly count as satisfying the condition?

 

While I was thinking skeptically along those lines, she spoke in a gentle voice.

 

[Sometimes blindness becomes poison. Besides, so many things had already gone wrong. That’s why I judged you the right fit.]

 

There were plenty of people who liked Please Take Care of the Saintess! more than I did and who over-immersed themselves in the game to the point of pitying the characters, yet she had kept in mind the possibility that such obsession might twist into madness.

 

[Someone who, while being swept along by the times and living a hard life, still carried gentle goodwill in one corner of their heart, someone like you, seemed as though they would be able to help the mentally unstable Selene wisely.]

 

The nuance was as if she had surveyed my entire life, lived half-heartedly like water diluted with water or liquor diluted with liquor.

 

[Mm, sorry. I looked.]

 

I had only entertained a small suspicion inwardly, yet she answered quickly, as if preemptively stung.

 

Rather than feeling unpleasant that she had peeked at my whole life, I was more curious about how such a thing was even possible.

 

‘Can you use divine authority even in other dimensions?’

 

[It’s not as if I can exercise my power equally in every dimension.]

 

She explained why, among the countless dimensions, she had deliberately approached the world I had been in.

 

It lacked unique substances that existed only in that dimension, such as mana or divine power, and there was no god managing the world, so it had been easy to bring over a soul separated from its body.

 

[Though I never predicted you’d run away before the game even started.]

 

With a soft chuckle, her story continued.

 

She had vaguely guessed that, coming from another dimension, I would cause some incomprehensible, outlandish events by this world’s standards, yet I had shown her something far beyond imagination, which had surprised her greatly.

 

‘I had no choice if I wanted to survive.’

 

Considering the notoriety Laura had accumulated and the grudge Yves Leblanc had been holding against her, escaping before the original story unfolded had been the best measure I could take.

 

While I was grumbling at her as I recalled the early days of the possession, a presence I had forgotten suddenly came to mind.

 

The whereabouts of the original Laura.

 

‘Come to think of it… where is the child whose happiness you wished for right now?’

 

[With you.]

 

‘What?’

 

[Originally, two souls cannot exist in a human body at the same time.]

 

So she had planned to possess me only after Laura died at the beginning.

 

Because “Laura Laurus” had died in front of everyone, the notoriety she carried would also disappear, and I, newly possessed, would be able to act freely as merely someone who resembled her.

 

‘If that had been the case, adapting to this world would have been much easier for me.’

 

[But Laura refused.]

 

What followed was easy enough to infer.

 

Probably because the original Laura had refused, she now existed together with me in this body.

 

‘Wait a moment. You said it wasn’t supposed to be possible. No matter how much the person herself disliked it, won’t some problem arise later?’

 

[Don’t worry. I’m a god, after all.]

 

Faced with her confident attitude, I was left speechless.

 

[Moreover, compared to Nanna, who is infinitely repeating the same time, it’s an extremely trivial matter, so the other gods won’t care either.]

 

‘Certainly… that’s true.’

 

When compared to Nanna, the fact that two souls were sharing one body suddenly felt like nothing significant at all.

 

Having quickly erased the anxiety that had flared up, I shifted the topic.

 

‘But for that to be the case, I’ve never felt like Laura was with me.’

 

Usually when two souls occupy one body, one might send messages in dreams or try to seize control of the body.

 

Yet until now I hadn’t discovered even the slightest trace that she was with me, which was puzzling.

 

[Laura, where do you think human memories are stored?]

 

‘Obviously in the brain, right?’

 

[Correct. The world you came from was like that.]

 

When I answered without a moment’s hesitation, having known it as common sense all my life in a scientifically advanced society, she let out a clear laugh.

 

[Well, I don’t really know the principles of that world without mana or divine power, but here they’re recorded in the soul.]

 

A specific stretch of time was being repeated by Selene, yet the beings on the ground were mostly unable even to perceive it.

 

However, just as Selene and Endymion retained their memories, the events of the vanished timelines did not simply disappear.

 

The closer one’s connection to Selene, the more one was affected by the regressions. 

 

Just as with the reason Endymion’s divine power had awakened, damage had steadily accumulated in Laura’s soul as well.

 

[When a living being on the ground dies, the soul goes to the underworld. Laura went back and forth between the surface and the underworld as many times as Selene had regressed.]

 

She said she had conversed with Laura’s soul while it stayed in the underworld and had also asked for her opinion.

 

[She said she didn’t mind another dimension’s soul staying in her body, but she didn’t want to come back down to the underworld again.]

 

‘Then the reason I’ve been able to see Laura’s memories all this time…’

 

[Exactly as you guessed. The fact that you can’t hide your expressions, and that you sometimes unintentionally let the thoughts in your head slip out of your mouth, all of it is because Laura’s soul is already deep inside your body.]

 

It was shocking.

 

I had been aware that my expression control was worse than in my previous life, yet I had never once imagined that the cause was the original Laura’s soul.

 

[It’s about time to go back.]

 

‘What? There are still a lot of unanswered questions left.’

 

[Still?]

 

‘Of course.’

 

I had roughly learned the identity of the one who brought me to this world, the nameless half-god, yet my questions had not been completely resolved.

 

[Your curiosity truly is vigorous.]

 

She looked a little fed up.

 

[Unfortunately, though, the time Kephri granted is almost up.]

 

Her tone didn’t sound the least bit regretful, but I didn’t bother pointing it out. For now, extending the conversation time with her was more important.

 

‘Can’t you ask for more?’

 

I didn’t know what kind of ability Kephri had used, but since he had done it once, surely a second or third time wouldn’t be impossible, yet she reacted negatively.

 

[This was probably the maximum.]

 

‘Or else, like last time, call me back here when I’m asleep.’

 

[That’s difficult too. The reason you were able to come here while unconscious was because you had absorbed Astarte’s divine power.]

 

The scenes that appeared on the screen were her memories, but the one who had shown them was Astarte’s ability.

 

‘Hmm… Ah! If I go back to Laura’s body and die, wouldn’t I be able to meet you?’

 

[Well, that’s true, but if it’s for Yves’s sake, I wouldn’t recommend that method.]

 

Unlike Nanna, who could turn back the time of the world, the range of her ability applied only to Laura. She said she couldn’t make death itself as if it had never happened.

 

‘If I explain it well, wouldn’t Yves understand?’

 

[I wonder… A child who doesn’t even like being apart from you for a short while, would he really be able to watch your death with an easy heart?]

 

‘I’d better try not to die as much as possible.’

 

My acceptance was quick.

 

Just as she worried, somehow if it were Yves, even if I came back to life, he would fiercely oppose it.

 

I was thinking he might develop separation anxiety.

 

[Ah, and don’t worry about the original Laura. When the time comes, she’ll naturally leave your body.]

 

She brought up something I hadn’t expected.

 

“What? What do you mean by…”

 

I tried to urge her to tell me in more detail, but I couldn’t finish the sentence. I had only blinked once, yet the scenery had changed in an instant, and before I knew it, Kephri had entered my field of vision.

 

“Did you finish the conversation properly?”

 

Facing his face that seemed devoid of emotion, I felt the reality of having returned all over again.

 

“…No.”