How a Villain Defies Destiny – Chapter 25

Author: Nikss

In an instant, her words’ credibility went up.

In reality, Laura was so desperate to be loved that her already skewed values caused her to push away anyone who approached her.

She believed they must have ulterior motives.

‘And she believed that even curiosity or sympathy was a mockery of her.’

Selene spoke as if she understood Laura’s sense of entrapment.

“I’ve often been puzzled by your refusal to believe in pure goodwill, but I think we can be friends now, Miss Laura.”

Her voice was clear with sincerity, but I didn’t fall for it. I’d already seen a side of her I’d never imagined.

“Of course, I know you’re suspicious because of my behavior at the party.”

Perhaps she was thinking along similar lines to me, and she began to make excuses for what had happened to the Viscountess of Oannes.

“But there were reasons I couldn’t help it, and besides, I wasn’t convinced at the time that Miss Laura had changed, so I couldn’t act any differently.”

What forces are at work on the heroine?

‘Maybe she’s in the same situation as me…’

Once I got that far, my distrust of her abated a bit.

Standing with my back to her, facing the door, I turned my head just enough to glance at her and opened my mouth.

“Please explain why.”

Those were my first words since we were alone.

“I think we should get that out of the way first.”

Selene’s voice seemed to lighten slightly, as did the fact that I had finally spoken.

“Laura Laurus, you have memories of your last life, don’t you?”

“I…”

“You don’t have to hide it, I’m having the same experience.”

Selene interrupted, cutting me off. In a very convincing tone.

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Are you trying to be a prick, or do you want to hear it from my mouth for sure?”

She cut to the chase with a smirk. With that, I turned to face her.

Nevertheless, Selene was as perceptive as Yves.

‘At least she doesn’t seem to be able to read thoughts.’

If she could, she wouldn’t be here, bothering me, arguing with me.

So I’m in the middle of thinking.

“It’s not that hard, so I’ll give you the answer you want. We’ve traveled back in time, haven’t we?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Selene casually and nonchalantly revealed the truth.

I hadn’t expected her to mention ‘traveled back in time’ outright, and in my panic, I let the question that had been on my mind for a moment spill out unfiltered.

“Did you die too?”

Oops, I didn’t mean the question to come out so cold.

‘I’m dead.’

For some reason, I felt like I’d taken the bait she’d thrown at me, and I stiffened.

But she didn’t seem to notice my embarrassment and dutifully answered my question.

“No. I didn’t die.”

Standing near the door, I turned and walked away. The mansion was well-soundproofed, but I didn’t want to be overheard by anyone in the hallway.

Slowly, I moved closer to Selene and spoke in a lowered voice.

“So why did we go back in time?”

I asked, determined to get all my questions out of the way.

“That… only the gods know.”

Her voice was flat, devoid of any emotion, yet strangely creepy.

‘You don’t know what caused the regression?’

Selene asked again, this time inferring the reason for her sudden change in demeanor.

“I have a question for Miss Laura, as well, do you remember how you died?”

It was hard to figure out the intent of the question. Because how Laura died before the regression was of no use to her now.

Because Laura’s death was just a route check…

‘Wait, what if she was just checking the route last time?’

At the beginning of the game, Laura died, but the manner of her death depends on the choices she makes.

If she was poisoned while awaiting trial in prison, it would be the Yves and Endymion route.

If she was murdered by an assassin in her mansion, she could be killed by the Crown Prince of another kingdom, Adard or Lykeia routes.

Finally, Xenon, a hidden character, Laura was executed by guillotine.

“I apologize for bringing up painful memories, Miss Laura, it was not my intention to cause you pain.”

After a long silence, Selene apologized.

Perhaps she mistakenly assumed that I had been rendered speechless by the fear of death.

“I just wanted to make sure your memories of me and my last life were the same.”

“What was my death that you remember?”

“You were executed by guillotine.”

“Oh.”

Selene from the previous life was apparently on the Xenon route, a hidden character that appears when you fulfill the requirement to see the ending of every targeted person once.

“Is this the same as the one I know, and if so, please know my sincerity. I really wanted to stop your execution.”

She was telling the truth.

‘Because in the Xenon Route, Laura, who survives all sorts of assassination threats, gets a fair trial and is publicly executed.’

The original Selene protested the outcome of the trial, saying that execution was too much of a punishment, even for her.

Before the execution, she visited Laura in prison every day and told her that she wanted to save her.

And Laura had a reaction similar to the one she mentioned earlier. She showed no sign of remorse and died cursing her last words, blaming it all on Selene.

“I thought I could save Miss Laura if I deployed the shield just in time for the blade to fall, but unfortunately I was swept away by the crowd.”

It was exactly like the game.

Selene tries desperately to save Laura, at least in the hidden character ending route, but ultimately fails.

As she stares helplessly at Laura’s corpse and beats herself up, she runs into Xenon, the Duke of the neighboring empire, in the plaza.

‘He’s the only one not connected to the curse, so it’s the blandest story.’

These final playable hidden characters usually fell into one of two categories.

Either all the secrets left unresolved in the main story are resolved, or the main character gets her happily ever after without any major trials.

Xenon Root was the latter.

What’s more, unlike traditional characters that have three types of endings — normal, bad, and happy — Xenon Route has only one ending.

‘But it’s still weird.’

After working so hard to save Laura in the previous episode, it didn’t make sense to me that Laura would be the villain this time around. Even if I was unsure.

It was also suspicious that she was checking to see if I had the same memories…

Plus, I still didn’t know if Selene was possessed or regressed.

‘I need to get this straight first.’

I paused for a moment, unsure of how to get the answer I wanted, then spoke carefully.

“That’s right, I cursed and blamed you on my deathbed.”

She nodded, feigning acceptance.

“But what happened to you after I died? Did you ascend to the status of saint and become Queen of the Euphrates?”

“…No. I traveled to the Babylonian Empire to help those suffering from the curse, as per my oracle.”

There was a subtle hesitation.

It was a little uncomfortable, but it was a vague area to probe, so I remained silent and continued to listen to her story.

“I felt guilty for not saving you, and disappointed in the kingdom for sentencing you to death when there was plenty of room for improvement.”

A darkness shadowed her clear sky-blue eyes. Like a person in deep sorrow.

‘Oh, is this an act to build up my favorability?’

She was disappointed in the Euphrates, yes, but it was never because of me.

When she left for the Empire with Xenon, she told me she was tired of the corruption among the nobility.

But it was all just a setup, so I didn’t dig in.

“So who did Endymion marry?”

“…I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.”

For the first time, Selene’s voice sounded bitter.

‘Was there something between you and Endymion?’

I was a little surprised by her blunt response, but I moved on to the next question.

“Did you not know what happened to Yves?”

“No. I left the kingdom, and I never heard anything about them after that.”

This made it clear. Selene was a regressor.

‘There is a difference in the amount of information between a Regressor and a Possessor, even though the known future is the same.’

The regressors’ information was narrow and deep because they were repeating the same life, while the possessors’ information was wide and shallow because they were seeing the whole picture from the outside.

Even if the story the possessor read was from the first-person protagonist’s point of view, it was written in such a way that the reader could recognize what the protagonist missed as the story unfolded.

That’s what I was aiming for.

I asked for information that a regressor would never know. Something they would never know, what happened after the protagonist left.

‘In the game, there was a brief afterword about how the other characters were doing.’

Although I couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that Selene was acting, I had a strong feeling that she wasn’t a possessor.

“I see.”

The slightly subdued mood quickly brightened as I agreed.

“Miss Laura finally believes in me, I’m so thrilled.”

“…”

I swallowed hard, the words rising to the top of my throat.

‘She thinks I believe in her.’

My new realization was that Selene’s observational skills weren’t that great.

Based on our conversations so far, she seemed to accept most of what I said without question.