98. The Villain (2)
“…Lies.”
Bella didn’t want to believe Owen’s words.
So, even though she knew what was in his eyes was sincere, she muttered to herself.
“If you want to believe that way, go ahead.”
Owen didn’t bother trying to persuade Bella.
As if her disbelief had no impact at all.
“The truth won’t change, though.”
“…”
Bella remained silent, clutching her own clothes tightly.
She didn’t want to accept it.
Still.
She thought it might be better to just have Owen, pretending all this was false, pretending she hadn’t heard anything.
“I chose him.”
The next words pierced through Bella’s mind.
“I will become him, and he will become me.”
Bella bit her lower lip.
It tasted like blood, as if she had bitten it hard.
Even though she smelled the tangy scent of blood, reality remained unchanged.
“No regrets here.”
Owen was resolute.
And more certain than ever.
“I am not dying. Nor am I sacrificing. So, I’d prefer if you didn’t jump to conclusions.”
“…”
He drew a clear line.
Bella’s actions and thoughts.
All were her subjective, arbitrary decisions.
“You already knew. You could see my reflections in him.”
“…That’s why I thought it didn’t matter.”
As Owen had said, Bella knew.
The Owen in front of her, and the Owen sinking into that abyss right now, were all Owen.
So, it was alright.
“Whichever side I take doesn’t matter as long as I can have it.”
“Stubborn.”
Owen clicked his tongue.
“What makes you different from Lord Yeongsik of Sellead?”
He pointed out.
Bella’s lips twitched at the mention of the fallen ally’s story.
“I’m not like him…”
“Perhaps not now. But the moment you forcibly swallow the real saint, trying to possess him, you will become a greater human than Lord Yeongsik of Sellead.”
“…”
That was it.
It was right to ignore her and try to swallow her, not really killing “Bella,” and it was right to forcibly possess Owen.
“So be it.”
However, so what.
Bella’s sole purpose was that.
In this world, the only thing she wanted was Owen, what could she do.
No, it wasn’t just in this world.
In the original world, there was nothing she desired.
Owen was her sole purpose and goal.
“But what if I must have it?”
“It might not be possible.”
Even facing greed and obsession flashing in her eyes, Owen remained indifferent.
He warned Bella, looking down at her.
“It would be wise to discard the delusion that he will yield to whatever your plan may be.”
“If you corner him, making it inevitable, it will be futile.”
“You might flee to another country, or abandon the continent. You could vanish from the public eye forever.”
In response to the harsh words, Owen calmly laid out his reasons.
“If you knew Verdin, you wouldn’t say such things.”
“…”
“The information you possess is nothing but fragments of this world. Don’t get too conceited.”
Angry but unable to retort, Bella simply chewed on her lower lip as Owen spoke again.
“And it would be wise not to underestimate the saint.”
He pierced her with his gaze.
Bella bit her lip.
Given the sudden emergence of the worries and anxieties from moments ago, her reaction was natural.
“For now, you’ll stay quiet. I don’t want to harm your soul. But if you start feeling like you’re about to be completely devoured, you might overturn. You know, having experienced it once.”
In a languid tone, Owen gave Bella his final advice.
“The original owner of the body is the saint, not you. Remember that.”
“…”
Bella couldn’t muster any words until the end.
Then, Owen closed his eyes.
When Owen opened his eyes again, it was someone else who had taken over the body.
“Did we have a good chat?”
The tone was similar, but it was discernible.
Because Owen intended it to be so.
“You bastard.”
Bella glared at Owen, muttering.
“You’re the only one making me bad.”
Her words were filled with sincerity.
In her enraged voice, Owen turned his head in puzzlement.
“Why do you think that way?”
In a voice expressing ignorance of the reason, Bella glared through Owen.
It was truly a look of not understanding the reason.
Owen still wore an indifferent expression as he spoke.
“Didn’t I just say earlier?”
“What?”
“That I’m a bad guy.”
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As if asking what nonsense it was, Bella furrowed her brow.
In response, Owen casually lifted his teacup and finished his answer.
“That’s what it means.”
After taking a sip of tea, Owen quietly set the cup back down.
He then added a brief explanation.
“It means you are not the villain.”
He continued his story as if pointing out the truth.
“I merely orchestrated the situation to make it appear that way.”
Owen readily admitted.
Just like how ＜＜Empire’s Flower＞＞ had used Lucia as a villain, Owen had done the same.
“Blame me as much as you desire.”
The whisper urging resentment was calm.
While acknowledging responsibility, there was no wavering in his voice.
He would accept punishment like a confessed sinner.
“You wretched child.”
Bella muttered curses upon Owen.
His attitude of being willing to receive any resentment was incomprehensible.
“You’re exhausting all means to send me away.”
“To achieve what you desire, you must do whatever it takes. As long as it doesn’t harm others, there’s no issue.”
That was Owen’s logic.
Regardless of what others did, Owen would not bother unless they caused harm to someone else.
Even if they did cause harm, as long as he remained unaware, it wouldn’t matter.
However, if someone caused harm to his people, they would pay the price no matter what.
“Your methods don’t cause harm?”
Bella tried to harm Lucia.
Though not directly, she had known an event would occur but chose to watch.
That was clearly being an assailant.
“Do you think there’s nothing I should give up because of your actions?”
Knowing that, Bella asked Owen.
In a way, this was her final protest.
With no choice left for Bella.
No matter how hopeful she was, the man before her, who was not a believer in the temple, would never yield to the temple’s story.
If Owen wished, he would refuse, hide, and escape.
If a sense of impending danger that ‘Bella’ would disappear arose, she would strengthen her resolve at any time.
Though hoping it wouldn’t happen, looking at it coldly, that was true.
The situation had completely twisted and overturned.
Bella was barely standing on the edge of a cliff.
“The things you must give up are what you’ve taken from others in the first place.”
In her final act of defiance, Owen responded firmly.
Everything Bella gained in this world belonged to ‘Bella’.
So, even if Owen caused her to lose many things, it couldn’t be considered wrong towards Bella.
“Leave now. It’s a better choice for you.”
As fate would have it, the last option dropped.
Bella gripped her clothes tightly, then sighed heavily.
“…Congratulations.”
In the end, it had come to this.
Despite her best efforts, numerous plans and thoughts, there was no happy ending as Bella had envisioned in this world.
Someone she didn’t wish for was an existence she couldn’t possess by any means.
“Fine. There’s nothing more I can do now. I’ll go back.”
* * *
Bella was given exactly one more day.
Even though she had to leave the place she had spent months in, Bella tidied up her surroundings nonchalantly.
In truth, there wasn’t much to tidy up.
Even if she left, ‘Bella’ would remain.
The position of the saint, the bedroom, the relationship with Tailor.
Everything would remain unchanged.
She was the only one leaving this world.
There was nothing to hold on to.
From the start, the only thing that had meaning to Bella in this world was Owen.
No one else, nothing else, had a significant impact.
Bella slept as usual and woke up to head to the tower immediately.
“Tashio.”
Upon arriving at the tower, Kyle was waiting.
He guided Bella into the tower’s carriage.
It seemed like they were heading to some other secretive place.
“…You’re here too.”
As Bella boarded the carriage, she saw Owen already seated inside.
Perhaps due to the tower’s carriage, it was quite spacious.
Although there was a considerable distance between them and the opposite seat, meeting Owen face to face on her last journey was unexpected.
“Maybe you’ll come to your senses.”
Owen replied nonchalantly.
“Once words are spoken, they cannot be taken back.”
Bella retorted sharply to his words.
As she boarded the carriage, Kyle also joined in the same carriage.
Like when they had gone to the ‘Guardian’s Shrine’ in the north, Owen and Kyle sat side by side.
This time, they were seated opposite Bella.
“Let’s depart.”
When Kyle tapped the carriage wall, the carriage started off smoothly.
Watching the scenery outside as the carriage began to move, Bella furrowed her brow, curious about their destination.
“But where are we going?”
“We’re going to a secluded field.”
Kyle answered Bella’s question.
He explained to Bella while looking at her as if bestowing a final kindness.
“Dimensional magic for teleportation is a large-scale spatial magic. It’s much higher-dimensional than teleportation, so the magic circle is quite vast and complex.”
“I see.”
“Moreover, if someone gets caught in it, they could be sucked into that dimension with the saint. It’s better to prevent any accidents.”
It was a very reasonable and understandable reason.
Bella easily agreed and nodded her head.
The carriage continued on for a while, moving further away from the tower.
As they reached the outskirts of a very quiet rural village, there was a complete field with no fields in sight.
It was truly a wild meadow where nothing grew, and no one lived.
“We have arrived.”
The carriage stopped at a place with almost no visible path.
The driver kindly opened the door, and the three of them got off into the field.
“Please wait a moment.”
Kyle raised his magic, creating a barrier around the carriage.
It was a barrier with both protection and sight-blocking magic.
“You might get bored, so here’s a book for you.”
With that, he kindly handed over a book he had brought.
He took out quite a few books from the spatial pocket.
From comic books to novels, magazines, newspapers…
There was a wide variety.
“Oh, thank you.”
It seemed that this was not an uncommon occurrence, as the driver casually accepted the books and headed towards a nearby seat.
He then casually picked and opened a book.
Bella, with a bewildered look, watched the scene, prompting Kyle to shrug his shoulders.
He even made such a suggestion.
“Generally, drivers are supposed to employ people with a tight-lipped nature.”