BJ Villainess Chapter 303

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Clyde furrowed his brow as he opened his eyes, and for a moment, he involuntarily held his breath. It was a familiar sensation. His soul, finally back in its rightful place, silently rejoiced with all its might. The joy of returning home was brief. After confirming that Ilya and Damian had been reverse-summoned into < God’s Play> with him, he looked at the dungeon gate that was just disappearing.

 

Not returning from the dungeon meant death. Yet, Theresa vanished with noise, unable to return to reality.

 

With a stiff face, Damian asked, “Where’s Theresa?”

 

Ilya responded, “She disappeared with the dungeon.” His mention of her disappearance was as dry and blunt as ever.

 

Ilya’s attitude didn’t aggravate Damian; instead, it made him realize that Theresa wasn’t dead. A long exhalation of relief escaped him.

 

Ilya, with a knowing expression, asked Clyde, “Is this the moment when Theresa ends up in ‘that place’?”

 

Clyde nodded with a bitter expression. “It seems that way.”

 

Damian, who had only recently joined the Union, couldn’t understand the conversation. “So, where is Theresa now?”

 

“Planet Signio. It’s the world Ozworld created and the early broadcasting stage of Pantheon, but now almost no one knows that.”

 

Theresa likely slipped into a rift in space-time that was created as the dungeon vanished.

 

Clyde had a reason to be so sure. “I met Theresa there.”

 

“You were on Planet Signio?”

 

“Yeah. I got sucked into a space-time rift, too.”

 

Damian easily connected the dots between the time Clyde was erased from < God’s Play> and when he was pulled into the space-time rift. So, did that mean he fell into a world that existed in Pantheon’s early days and survived until the present?

 

While Damian remained silent with a strange expression, Clyde tapped his shoulder. “I must look pretty amazing, huh?”

 

Damian couldn’t help but feel impressed. He already knew that Clyde was a former archangel and had been reincarnated as a half-human, half-demon. So, he was used to living long lives, but wasn’t this too long? Even more, he endured it all, waiting for the day he could reunite with Theresa—a feat unimaginable from a human perspective.

 

Damian felt a mix of awe and an inevitable jealousy and inferiority. It seemed as if Clyde’s feelings for and love for Theresa were more special than his. It made him feel as though only Clyde deserved to love Theresa. He felt disgusted by his own ugly jealousy.

 

As Damian remained silent, unable to speak, Clyde suddenly punched him in the chest. Caught off guard, Damian couldn’t dodge and reacted angrily. “What the hell are you doing?”

 

“You always overthink things. You keep your thoughts hidden while dwelling on negative ideas. What a gloomy guy.”

 

“Don’t you think you’re particularly thoughtless and rude?”

 

“Oh, not at all.”

 

Ilya, checking the situation in Pantheon through a screen, casually remarked, “Stop arguing over nothing.”

 

Damian suddenly felt empty. It was absurd to argue on the same level as Clyde, who was rude despite living an unimaginably long life. He wasn’t the type to act foolishly like this, so his sense of helplessness deepened. However, the self-doubt that had been boiling within him subsided entirely. Clyde had noticed his state and, in his own way, had dispelled his gloom.

 

Loving someone was an unfamiliar sensation to Damian, but it was also awkward for him to express his irritation honestly without hiding behind a social mask. It was the first time he had companions like this who weren’t from Stigmata or the underworld. As he reflected on his mixed feelings, he suddenly realized something strange.

 

“But where did Ozworld disappear to? The dungeon vanished, so shouldn’t he have come here too? Or did he end up on Planet Signio with Theresa?”

 

At this, Ilya shook his head. “When the past and present collide, existence is annihilated. Ozworld could never go back to his own past.”

 

Only then did Damian understand why Clyde wore a butterfly mask during his activities.

 

“Look here.”

 

Clyde brought up a screen for all three to see. It was a video someone had filmed of the commotion in Pantheon Square. Ozworld was visible in the video.

 

“It seems Theresa sent Ozworld to the Pantheon.”

 

Even though they didn’t share memories with him, their instincts told them so. The three of them simultaneously let out suppressed sighs of frustration. Their hearts burned with desire. They wanted to see her, touch her, kiss her, and tell her they loved her to the point of madness. At the same time, immense hostility surged within them.

 

Clyde glared at the screen showing Ozworld, who looked shocked that Theresa had left him and disappeared. “I’ll kill that b*stard, no matter what.” He had endured his long life solely to prepare for and ensure the destruction of one person.

 

Just as all their gazes became even more resolute, <God’s Play> had shifted into late autumn after Theresa entered the dungeon. The once-green forest had turned a mix of colors, preparing for the upcoming harsh winter.

 

“It’s snowing.”

 

Yet snow, out of season, began to fall from the sky. Clyde knew why this was happening.

 

“Ozworld has cut off the energy supply to the channel. He plans to destroy this place.”

 

If this continued, this world would disappear without a hitch. Theresa would lose her home to return to after her time travel, so they needed a plan.

 

“Now, let’s go meet the last one.”

 

The three figures disappeared in an instant, moving to a new location. It was the Sun Palace.

 

“…What kind of bizarre thing is this?”

 

They were in front of Euges.

 

* * *

I drifted through a space that resembled the universe as a tiny particle. Here, memories existed like stars. As I moved, swept along like a leaf in a rushing stream, memories poured over me like an avalanche. Even though I met Ozworld, the perfect savior, and loved him, I kept feeling oddly incomplete. This was a fundamental issue, different from loneliness. Now, I realized what I had lost.

 

The memories now overwhelm me. The memories I had as Theresa Squire had disappeared, making me feel perpetually incomplete. I hadn’t even realized that this feeling stemmed from the anxiety of being unfinished. I just thought it was frustration caused by my messed-up life. I had thought it was my problem that I couldn’t be a fish in the fishbowl called Earth. But now, I realized it wasn’t my fault.

 

That was enough. I simply knew that I had lived as Shin Jiwoo in both my first and second lives. I even felt grateful to Ozworld. His evil deeds, driven by selfish reasons, ironically saved me. It wasn’t because Shin Jiwoo did anything wrong that she had to live a harsh life, nor was it because Theresa Squire was so special that the nature of relationships changed. There were just more people who understood my ‘flaws’ as Theresa than when I lived as Shin Jiwoo. My personality, which was always on edge and tense from constant external attacks, had relaxed, finally allowing the personality others had criticized to change significantly.

 

Theresa was that kind of fusion. Ozworld had ignored that growth of mine and made a world that only extracted his mistakes.

 

What did Clyde say?

 

“To break free from the inherent limitations of being a villain in someone else’s creation and become whole.”

 

Inherent limitations. The way to overcome them was simple. Stop turning back time to create a world advantageous to oneself and face the real problem. But Ozworld, who had lived for a long time, proving that he was right by the results of his twisted actions, would never do that. Ironically, I knew this because of the decades we spent together.

 

Hardy said I would become his weakness, but Ozworld’s real weakness was his unchallenged strength. In the end, he was too confident in his ability to control everything, which is why he couldn’t completely control insignificant me according to his will. Ah. Maybe Hardy was right since I shattered his twisted perfectionism head-on. But what good is it to argue about that now? Right now, I was just a shapeless piece of data, drifting aimlessly through space-time. Until just now…

 

…Until just now.

 

“Cough!”

 

Suddenly, I was spat out into a place filled with scorching, stinging light. I was pulled into a rift in space-time, like water being sucked down a drain without any control. My throat felt parched, as if all the moisture in my body had evaporated, and I couldn’t stop coughing.

 

Water… I need to drink water.

 

I tried to summon even a drop of water by gathering moisture from the air, but my magic dissipated, and I couldn’t create a single drop. The ground I was lying on was barren, and a quick glance around revealed no sign of any water nearby. Unless it rained, I couldn’t quench my thirst.

 

Swish—! At that moment, the sky darkened with clouds, and rain began to fall. As the rain poured down, drenching me, the burning thirst in my throat finally disappeared as the water flowed into my mouth.

 

“Gasp… gasp…”

 

Half-closing my eyes against the falling rain, I frowned and muttered, “What kind of situation is this now?”