I Slept with the Villain Holding My Hand Chapter 131

The old woman let out a long sigh and spoke.

“I never expected the two of you to become lovers… But in the end, I thought it was a good thing for both of you.”

 

The Grand Duke, who had been drowning in despair, found light, and the Princess, blinded by her own emotions, was no longer foolish.

They became each other’s refuge and cushion—wasn’t that a good outcome?

 

“You knew even that much? That really means you were watching everything.”

The old woman did not deny Merria’s muttered question.

 

“Then you must’ve known I was looking for you too. And yet, you never showed yourself?”

‘Ha!’ Merria let out a small, bitter laugh.

 

It felt as though all the worries and anguish she had carried until now had amounted to nothing.

The days she spent desperately searching for a solution, scouring through old books, and staying up through the night—

Had the old woman appeared sooner, the time Reukis suffered from insomnia would have been drastically reduced.

 

Frustrated, Merria shook her head vigorously.

“Why did you only show up now? No, why of all times, now? Did you hear I was kidnapped and decide to come rescue me?”

 

As Merria pressed on without pause, the old woman shook her head.

“Even if you look at me with such resentment, there was nothing I could do. I had to survive too.”

 

“What?”

“After returning here, I vomited blood as soon as I met you, didn’t I?”

“…But.”

“At first, I thought it was a coincidence. But something similar happened when I faced the Grand Duke.”

 

She would have preferred to handle things herself, but the circumstances didn’t allow it. She didn’t know if this was another side effect of traveling through time, but it was certain that facing those entangled in her past life caused her body to rapidly deteriorate.

That was something even she hadn’t anticipated.

 

In the end, while she struggled to recover her weakened body and crafted the ring, time slipped away mercilessly.

 

“I told you once when you were young. Do you still remember my name?”

Was it just her mood, or did it feel like more people than usual were asking if she remembered them today?

 

Merria, reminded of her earlier conversation with Shannon, slowly shook her head. She hadn’t even known about their midnight meeting at the Duke’s residence until the other party mentioned it.

 

‘There’s no way I’d remember the name you told me back then.’

 

The old woman shook her head as if she had expected this.

“My name is Ariene. Doesn’t it sound familiar?”

Merria’s eyes widened in shock.

Ariene.

Even if she tried to pretend otherwise, she couldn’t possibly ignore it. That name—she had already lost count of how many times she’d heard it today.

The name Shannon had chirped like a baby bird, the name of the one who had cuffed Merria. But Shannon seemed unaware of whom this person was.

“What if I told you the Ariene you met was a fake, and I’m the real one? Would you believe me?”

“…”

Merria hesitated briefly before offering the most plausible explanation based on what she knew.

“Did that person steal your face too?”

“Ah, no, not that.”

The old woman pressed her temples as if she had a headache.

“I mentioned earlier that I was trapped in darkness, swept up by the Grand Duke’s power.”

Still in the same position, she only lifted her eyes to look at Merria.

“While I was in the darkness, I absorbed a fraction of the Grand Duke’s power. That’s how I could make the ring I gave you.”

 

It was the same magic Reukis had pushed to its limits, even at the cost of his life. With the dark sorcerer suppressing it now losing control, it was no surprise the darkness grew stronger within that unconscious space.

And that intensified darkness seeped into another being sharing the same space.

‘So, that’s who this person is.’

 

But the old woman had no idea. That as she absorbed the Grand Duke’s power, her own original power—once occupying that space—had vanished.

That power, in the process of reversing time, had grown strangely distorted.

Fragmented memories gained will, taking on form and thought as if it were a living being.

That was ‘Ariene.’

The woman who had caged Shannon and doted on her like a precious bird.

 

“I only realized later that a fragment of my power had broken off and was running around causing trouble somewhere.”

“Then… that ‘Ariene’ is?”

“A shard of my power.”

 

Repeating the same explanation twice in one day was tiresome.

If only that brat hadn’t run off in the middle of the explanation, they wouldn’t have ended up here in the first place.

 

While she was off guard, the imposter suddenly fled—taking with her the ring embedded with a magic stone.

 

So instead of chasing after Ariene, the old woman came to where Merria was.

 

It was obvious where Ariene would head next, and she intended to get there first and cut her off.

 

‘After all, she must be scheming to sell the Grand Duke’s lover to get close to him.’

 

If that were the case, all she had to do was bring Merria to Reukis first. Dealing with the imposter strutting around cluelessly could wait until later.

 

Tsk. The old woman clicked her tongue softly and continued,

 

“I should’ve taken action when I found out that fake was approaching the Magners’ illegitimate child. But here, it seems this young lady was all alone, so I couldn’t do much.”

 

The old woman’s gaze drifted toward Shannon, who lay with her eyes peacefully closed.

 

The rhythm of Shannon’s breathing gradually grew strange, as if she had sensed the stare. It was unclear how long she had been awake, but she must have heard everything just said.

 

“If you’re awake, you might as well listen. This concerns you too.”

 

The old woman let out a raspy cough as she spoke.

 

At that, Shannon’s eyelids—which had been shut like a painting—fluttered open. Her rose-colored eyes were clouded with confusion and resentment.

 

“…Shannon.”

 

Merria whispered her name softly upon seeing her.

 

Shannon was sniffling like a child separated from her parents. Ever since meeting her, Ariene had never once spoken of the past.

 

But this person, who called her Ariene a ‘damned fake,’ seemed to know everything. She wanted to hear—but should she?

 

Voices clamored chaotically in Shannon’s heart.

 

The old woman studied her for a moment before speaking again.

 

“I kept an eye on you from time to time too.”

 

In her past life, Shannon was an illegitimate child with no proper maternal relatives to support Altheon.

 

Because of that, compared to the Grand Duke or the Princess, she hadn’t suffered as much from Ariene.

 

‘She often got caught by the Crown Prince before she could even do anything.’

 

In Ariene’s memories, Shannon was always smiling like a flower by her lover’s side. But ironically, the one who seemed to be living the harshest life here was Shannon.

 

Already unfortunate to begin with, she only grew more miserable as time passed.

 

Watching the imposter approach her, the old woman occasionally kept track of the two.

 

“If that scrap of a thing shares my thoughts, then maybe there’s no need to absorb or erase her. That’s what I figured.”

 

Ever since she left the unfortunate Magner County, Shannon looked as though she might collapse at any moment—until she met the imposter and regained her vitality.

After that, seeing how the imposter silently stayed by her side for years, I thought I had been needlessly wary.

That’s what I believed—until one day, I began to sense an odd dissonance between the imposter and Shannon.

That was precisely when Ariene started stealing Shannon’s face.

 

At first, I couldn’t even imagine it.

Stealing another’s life was the worst kind of witchcraft a witch could perform.

Witches were already a race that thrived on harvesting the vitality of others—some through blood, others through saliva, flesh, or bone.

Though their methods differed, their magic and potions were always rooted in human life force.

Yet even among witches, there were forbidden acts.

And the most forbidden of all was taking someone’s entire existence for oneself.

A curse so vile it would scatter the victim’s being and rapidly corrode the body of the one who consumed the potion.

 

But the fake Ariene drank that potion without hesitation. Like a racehorse charging toward a cliff’s edge, she did not falter.

By the time I realized she had crossed the line, I had no choice but to reveal myself.

Yet, the fragment of power with a will of its own—fueled by Shannon’s life force and her strange determination—was not easily broken.

Without even listening to an explanation, Ariene fled, making it easy to guess where she was headed.

 

“The last thing she remembers is the Grand Duke hurting Helena, wasn’t it?”

If the imposter didn’t even know Helena had abandoned her, then her rage would inevitably lead her in one obvious direction.

 

Meanwhile, Shannon stood there, pale as a child who had just heard a horror story.

The fact that Ariene had approached her solely to steal her life—For Shannon, who had spent years sheltered in Ariene’s embrace, it must have been a devastating revelation.

 

Leaving the shocked Shannon behind, the old woman turned her gaze to Merria.

Merria’s expression wasn’t exactly bright either.

 

“This time, it wasn’t me who triggered the Grand Duke’s rampage—it was another being. The imposter likely doesn’t know that. So why would she go so far as to kidnap the young lady just to meet him?”

“Don’t tell me—”

“The aftereffects of the rampage still churn violently within the Grand Duke’s body. Without the ring I gave him this time, she must be planning to make his body explode—enough to wipe out even the Grand Duke’s residence.”

“But you said this ring could stop the rampage,” Merria asked in a low, subdued voice.

The old woman let out a dry chuckle.

How can she be so composed?

But as she lifted her gaze, the old woman froze in place.

The voice alone had made her think nothing was amiss, but Merria’s face was deathly pale. Her complexion was so ashen, as if all the blood had drained from her body, that the old woman frowned and sighed.

 

“You’re not wrong. That ring certainly has the power to suppress the Grand Duke’s energy.”

It wasn’t entirely useless—imbued with a witch’s curse, it could still temper the aftereffects of the Archduke’s power flowing into her.

But it was only enough to manage the aftermath, not to prevent an outright rampage. She needed to tell her that.

Yet, facing Merria’s expression—like someone hanging off a cliff—the words wouldn’t come easily.

 

The old woman lowered her eyes and spoke slowly,“I can’t promise anything now. The ring will keep you from dying, but whether it can fully stop the rampage…”

“That’s enough.”

Merria replied calmly.

The old woman noticed the faint tremor in her voice and saw, for a moment, the face of a younger Merria overlapping with the present.

Even now, the Princess maintained a facade of composure to avoid being swept away by the situation—a part of her that had never changed over the years.

 

After that, no one in the carriage spoke another word.

In the razor-sharp silence, all Merria could do was hope the carriage would reach the Archduke’s residence as quickly as possible.

 

Whether by fortune or misfortune, Carlos urged the horses onward, allowing them to arrive faster than expected.

A knight of the Grand Duke’s household blocked the path, stopping the shabby carriage as it approached.

Before the knight could say a word, Merria flung the door open and announced her presence.

 

“Where is Reukis?”

“…My lady, how—”

The knight muttered in shock as Merria emerged from a carriage even commoners wouldn’t ride in.

“I asked if he’s at the residence.”

 

She had been about to ask for a carriage to take her to the imperial palace if none was available.

 

After all, a grand duke’s carriage would be faster and more convenient for entering and exiting the palace than Carlos’s.

 

The knight immediately straightened his back and nodded.

 

“Ah. Yes, yes. As a matter of fact, they’ve just returned…”

 

“Let’s go!”

 

As soon as she heard the answer, Merria shouted at Carlos.

 

“Clear the way, hurry!”

 

When she waved her hands frantically at the startled knights, the gates swung open at once.

 

Neigh—!

 

“Ugh, why are you causing such a commotion all of a sudden?”

 

But the horse, at least, did not understand her urgency.

 

Carlos’s horse suddenly twisted its body, trying to break free from the spot. The usually docile horse, which had run well even on cheap feed, began to act unruly, leaving Carlos flustered as he struggled to control it.

 

“She said to get the carriage moving, come on!”

 

Merria urged Carlos, but the horse refused to calm down easily.

 

They say animals are quick to sense danger.

 

As if proving that saying true, a deafening roar and heavy tremors followed abruptly.

 

Plop—

 

Plip-plop—

 

Thick raindrops began to fall one by two from the suddenly darkened sky.

 

Merria turned her gaze from the sky, her pupils trembling with fierce intensity.

 

Reflected in her crimson eyes was the imposing silhouette of the grand ducal residence. Her lover was inside.