A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 55.1
On a shabby bed.
Dylan, black blood streaming from his nose, clung to a woman far more slender than himself, panting harshly.
And the woman, her shoulders gripped tightly by him.
― Poor thing… Shhh, it’s all right. I’ll make you comfortable.
Edith gently caressed the filthy man’s face with aching tenderness.
Letting out a faint groan, he closed his eyes.
― In the dream, it was always like that. You’d come to me first, and you’d comfort me.
Just like the dream Dylan had described.
“…Insane. What the hell is this?”
The moment I muttered reflexively.
Flash—!
The vision vanished like a lie.
In its place, filling my sight, was Dylan’s face, eyes shut in stillness.
“Ugh!”
The resemblance to that strange vision, or whatever it had been, startled me so much I jerked my hand away from his face.
I stared at him with unsteady eyes for a moment.
Dylan, as if in a deep sleep, did not stir at all.
My head was a whirl of confusion.
“What… What was that just now?”
A sudden sense of déjà vu struck me.
‘I’ve seen something like this before.’
The very first time I awoke in the ducal manor, when I faced Ethan alone.
Then too, I’d glimpsed some bizarre vision.
― Ugh…!
― Ethan, it’s okay. Breathe in, and out, slowly. Good…
― Edith! Edith…! Please, help me…! Huuhk!
― Shh……
I had soon forgotten about it.
I’d assumed it was nothing more than some dream Edith had while in her coma, or a fragment of her unconscious wish.
Edith had envied Llewellyn, who purified the male leads.
So perhaps, in her childish heart, she had fantasized such things.
She was of the age, after all.
But.
“What if… it wasn’t that?”
Two visions now, both similar.
And Dylan claiming he’d dreamt the same scenes.
I drew in a sharp, ragged breath at the sudden thought.
“This… don’t tell me…”
Not a dream. Not some fleeting imagination……
But Edith’s actual memories?
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I didn’t remember how I’d managed to leave the slums.
I only knew I’d abandoned Dylan where he lay and stumbled out of that alley alone.
There had been no choice.
‘What was I supposed to do, carry that huge body on my back…?’
Someone else would have to be asked to fetch him.
Fortunately, the one-eyed boy wasn’t the only guide in this maze.
Not long into my wandering, I spotted a group of little girls playing with straw dolls.
“Hey, can I ask you for directions?”
“……”
“If you could even take me to the central district, I’d be grateful. I’ll give you this in return.”
I held out a gold coin.
The wariness in their eyes instantly changed.
A pang of bitterness struck me, seeing how even at their age, they knew the worth of money so well.
“Me! I’ll do it. I know the way.”
The oldest-looking girl in the group stepped forward eagerly.
She seemed about the same age as the one-eyed boy.
Following her lead, I finally escaped the ant-nest maze of the slums.
“If you go out of this alley, you’ll hit the main street.”
The girl pointed toward the end of the passage.
Sure enough, carriages were rolling by on the road.
“Thanks.”
“Now give me the money.”
She held out her hand smartly.
Learning from the one-eyed boy who’d abandoned me, I’d insisted on paying afterward.
I reached into my pouch to pay as promised… when I suddenly spotted familiar armor passing by.
“Hey. If I give you two coins, will you do me one more favor?”
“What is it?”
“Go over to those knights, and…”
The girl readily agreed and dashed out of the alley.
Moments later, several knights in golden armor came rushing into the alley where I stood.
At their head was a face I knew.
The very lieutenant I had seen earlier, speaking with Dylan.
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