I Became A Squirrel Seeking For The Villain Chapter 129

“What!”

 

It was when Rivena was startled and was about to run towards Yohan.

 

With a loud bang, the pillar of the temple flew in front of Rivena.

 

Yohan used magic without even looking at Rivena.

 

Yohan continued to speak earnestly, his hand still on Yurika’s stomach.

 

“You’re human, Yurika… You’re human. So you have to humanize. You must never remain a divine beast.”

 

He recalled what Rivena had said.

 

Yurika’s consciousness would have stopped at a point before she ever arrived at the Hyrad ducal estate.

 

If Rivena’s experiment truly succeeded, time would inevitably turn back.

 

Until then, there was nothing that could be done. Because Yurika’s safety depended on Rivena.

 

John made the best choice he could have made.

 

If he didn’t inject her with magic now, Yurika could die. Just as Rivena said, he had to see that experiment through.

 

But not in the direction Ribena wants, but in the direction he wants.

 

“Remember, Yurika. You are human. You must humanize yourself.”

 

So that even if time rewound, she would become human again.

 

So that she would come to Hyrad’s tower to meet him once more.

 

According to Rivena, he could remember all of this.

 

If that were true, he would gladly return to his painful childhood and wait for Yurika to become human again.

 

“Why… why would you…?”

 

From afar, Rivena, her body pinned against a pillar, spoke with a sob.

 

“No—why? If she stays a squirrel, she can exist only by your side…!”

 

Yohan frowned at those words. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t completely unmoved by her suggestion.

 

No, to be honest, his instincts constantly urged him to do as Rivena said.

 

If Yurika remained a squirrel divine beast at his side, she could soothe his agonizing magic whenever he needed.

 

He wouldn’t have to escort her back to the Medes’’ estate every evening and return alone. She could stay at Hyrad Castle with him, never parting.

 

He could stop her gaze from turning toward her family—Oscar, Sienna, Mariel, Jayden…

 

He could monopolize all the affection she poured onto them.

 

He wouldn’t have to watch damned Theodore or those other wizards hover around her.

 

Just imagining it made his blood boil.

 

Rivena’s proposal had been incredibly tempting.

 

Especially now, when half his reason had already been burned away.

 

It was inevitable.

 

Rivena had arranged everything so that he had no choice but to follow his instincts.

 

She had burned incense that agitated a wizard’s emotions.

 

Gathered wizards to inflame possessiveness.

 

Made him cast spell after spell to destabilize him further.

 

“Don’t you get it? If that squirrel becomes human, the present will repeat itself! You can’t monopolize it!”

 

Rivena screamed in agony.

 

Yohan answered calmly.

 

“It’s not a squirrel, it’s a yurika.”

 

“…What?”

 

“Of course, it would be nice if I could monopolize her, but… Then I won’t be able to get engaged to Yurika either.”

 

Rivena’s eyes widened at his answer.

 

“We wouldn’t be able to visit famous workshops together and have matching rings made…”

 

“Wh–What nonsense—”

 

“I promised her. We’re going to go on lots of dates.”

 

“Ha!”

 

Rivena laughed incredulously.

 

“You’re telling me—a wizard—would choose something so childish over this?”

 

“Watch what you say.”

 

Yohan warned.

 

“I’m only keeping you alive in case something goes wrong and I need you to save Yurika. And before I’m a mage—I’m human.”

 

He continued speaking in a low voice.

 

“Yurika always reminded me of that.”

 

With desperate determination, he poured more magic power into her unconscious body.

 

Whenever he felt himself about to act like Theodore, Yurika had simply trusted him, holding his hand tightly without a word.

 

Clearly, there must have been more than one person around her who warned her, ‘Yohan Hyrad is a wizard, so be careful.’

 

Whenever he hesitated, she had told him boldly:

 

“Don’t think about whether you’re human or a wizard. Just do what you want.”

 

Moreover, she even said that it was okay for him to be a wizard, so she suggested that they get engaged first.

 

How could he force her to remain a squirrel when he remembered her like that?

 

He already possessed something far more beautiful than ownership.

 

He possessed those memories.

 

“But like this, that lady will be perfectly happy among the Medes family! She may not desperately need your love!”

 

Rivena shouted again.

 

Yohan answered coldly.

 

“Duke Oscar Medes has already accepted me as family. He was the first adult I’ve ever met who truly offered me advice. I couldn’t betray him.”

 

And then he slowly closed his eyes and poured out more magical power.

 

“Yurika, please.”

 

He could feel it instinctively—something inside her was about to burst.

 

Her body had finally reached the limit of the magic it could accept.

 

“Please… Please humanize. You’re human. Don’t forget that.”

 

And Rivena, sensing something was about to happen, screamed in anger.

 

“No! Don’t humanize! Stay a divine beast! Forget everything! Go to Tezen Hyrad, then be retrieved by the temple and die quietly!”

 

Yurika began to flinch.

 

Rivena, panting, turned her curses toward Johan.

 

“Yohan Hyrad! May you never even know Yurika existed! Return as a war hero and obsess over Mariel instead! Ruin the Medes family with your own hands! Join hands with someone like Theodore and act as villains until you betray each other and meet miserable ends!”

 

“…….”

 

“And Runart? That doctor who troubled us? He’ll never see the light! He’ll live in poverty until Roymond notices him—then you’ll kill him too!”

 

Rivena’s curses grew increasingly specific—naming even Sienna and Jayden’s deaths.

 

Yohan ignored her.

 

He had no strength left to respond.

 

With a final surge, he released his mana with full force.

 

Sweat streamed down his forehead.

 

At once, a brilliant light began pouring out of Yurika’s body.

 

And as if by magic, Yohan and Rivena, the subjects of the experiment, simultaneously lost consciousness.

 

* * *

 

I slowly opened my eyes.

 

I raised my hand and a human hand came into view. Before I knew it, I had returned to my human form.

 

“Hah….”

 

Letting out a long breath, I pushed myself up.

 

Yohan and Rivena collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

 

“Viscount Trevor was right.”

 

Trevor had clearly said that Rivena’s experiment to turn back time could never succeed.

 

He believed that manipulating time at will was not easy.

 

And just as he predicted, Rivena’s experiment had failed from the very beginning.

 

“When this squirrel loses consciousness, everything will revert and remain in the past.”

 

The moment Rivena said that, I realized, ‘Ah… this experiment has failed.’

 

Because I never lost consciousness.

 

I couldn’t move my body, but I heard every word exchanged between Rivena and Yohan.

 

Of course, memories floated through my head, as if all time was still tangled. In particular, memories I’d lost were coming back to me, one by one.

 

Back to when I was in this temple.

 

A time when I was a test subject for Rivena, locked in a cage with little awareness as a human and acting only with beastly instincts.

 

It ate the food given, fell asleep when the time came, and instinctively hated Rivena, so it would try to escape.

 

I was not easily tamed and was very rebellious, so when Theodore tested my calming ability, Rivena drugged me so I would lose consciousness.

 

And then… suddenly…

 

On the day it was decided I would go to the Hyrad ducal estate, a desperate voice rang out—and I began to believe I had transmigrated into this body.

 

“Please… Please, humanize yourself. You are human. Don’t forget that.”

 

That voice overlapped perfectly with Yohan’s voice here in the temple.

 

‘Ah!’

 

The realization came instantly.

 

Why, unlike most divine beasts, I had desperately wanted to humanize from the very beginning.

 

What was that brainwashing voice that was ringing in my head after I regained consciousness?

 

The very voice that brought me here.

 

“You’re human, Yurika… You’re human. So you must humanize. You must never remain a divine beast.”

 

Although Rivena’s experiment was clearly a failure, it did manage to touch the timeline.

 

Because I’ve already heard that voice in my past.

 

* * *