A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 30.1
My brow furrowed at those words.
‘Is he some kind of pervert? Why does this guy always want to see people get angry?’
Of course, it was obvious Vincent had a twisted personality.
It seemed he’d been feeding his self-esteem all this time on the sight of Edith getting hurt and throwing a fit at his words…
‘Well, too bad for him.’
I was far too dry a person to even fake that sort of reaction for him.
‘Honestly, unless I could squeeze out a single tear, there’s no way I could pretend to be hurt anyway.’
To be frank, after being dragged around since the crack of dawn, this kind of pointless conversation was just exhausting.
With a hint of exasperation, I said,
“…Vincent, are you sure you’re not the one with amnesia here, not me?”
“…What are you talking about?”
“How can you not remember what I literally just said? I told you, I’m not mad.”
The traces of a smile on his lips slowly faded at my words.
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why?”
“You must have figured out that I’m using you today to provoke Llewellyn, right, Edith? Or did I make it too complicated for you?”
“Do as you like.”
“…What?”
“Go ahead and use me. I won’t get in your way.”
“W-What…”
He looked at me in disbelief at my indifferent response.
Clearly, he’d assumed I’d be upset.
But.
‘What’s so bad about being used?’
It’s not like he’s trying to hurt me.
Pretending to get along with another woman to provoke the girl you like into jealousy. That’s a classic move, isn’t it?
And this is a ‘romance’ novel, after all.
To me, the part I found most unpleasant was that he’d shown up uninvited and now sat across from me like this.
‘If he finds out I don’t care, he might start showing up whenever he likes. I definitely shouldn’t say anything.’
Having made up my mind, I laid down my conditions.
“But only until we enter the banquet hall and meet the Purifier.”
“……”
“If you try to get me to dance, or mingle with others with you, or anything else, you won’t like what happens.”
For some reason, he fell silent.
Watching the still-stiff Vincent, I added,
“As you know, I’m not smart enough to follow complicated instructions, right? Plus, I’ve lost my memory, so I don’t have any common sense left.”
“……”
“You get what I mean, right?”
It was my way of warning him: if I didn’t like how things went, I’d drop the whole act, bait or not.
To prevent any accidents, offensive abilities were restricted within the Imperial Palace.
Non-threatening powers like healing or purification were allowed, but any visible, offensive abilities were strictly forbidden.
That’s why the palace was equipped with magic stones and awakened individuals to detect ability fluctuations everywhere.
In other words, even if I acted up, Vincent couldn’t harm me here.
As if to say ‘So what are you going to do?’ I stared him down.
“Haa…”
“……?”
“Haha, ahahaha—!”
He let out a breathy sound and then suddenly burst into laughter.
‘What the hell?’
I looked at him like he was crazy.
He clutched his stomach, wheezing with laughter, as if my words were the funniest thing in the world.
After a long moment, wiping away tears, he finally spoke.
“Heh, Edith. Did you know you got even more entertaining after you lost your memory?”
“……”
“As Ethan said, it’s like you’ve become a completely different person!”
I flinched reflexively because, well, he was right.
Luckily, he didn’t seem to mean it too seriously, and just chuckled.
“Don’t worry.”
The mischievous smile slowly faded, turning into a cold sneer.
Leaning back into the cushion, Vincent murmured in an utterly languid tone,
“I’ll never, ever ask you to dance again. For the rest of my life.”
“……”
“Did I ever tell you?”
“……”
“You dance disgustingly badly.”
Bluntly cutting me down, he glared at me in annoyance when I didn’t respond.
Then, he suddenly turned his head away.
Finally! It seemed he’d lost any desire to keep talking to me!
‘Ha… Finally some peace and quiet.’
I was nothing but relieved at the silence that followed.
Honestly, when he was laughing before, it was a bit scary. Like he was possessed by a ghost or something.
Maybe he was trying to rile me up on purpose by putting me down, but I just felt unsettled.
‘…How did he know?’
That I was truly hopeless at dancing…!
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