Dominating the Love of the Villains

To put it simply, they were tied together like that, but they couldn’t move quickly.

Edmund was not one to be suspicious, and since he did not know the details of his magic, there could have been other reasons he did not know about. In the first place, Edmond was far away from where Sophia was. And above all, Sophia is extremely fine. Did he not mean to harm Sophia, or did something not work with Sophia?

Benjamin couldn’t figure out the cause, so he sighed and pointed to the wreath containing Cerita.

“Take that and tell the wizard to use it as data.”

“Yes.”

“I doubt whether the same wizard will give accurate information about something that may involve magic, but you can filter out the information yourself.”

The wizards had a strong bond with each other because they shared the same pain of being ostracized by criminals. So, he didn’t know how much help it would be in this matter, but he had to use whatever means he could.

“Yes. Then I will go first. The faster the better, right? It takes time for the letter to arrive there.”

Benjamin showed his gratitude with a faint smile to Serita, who quickly tried to take action. And he called Joshua.

“Josh, take me there.”

“Anyway, what can you do to someone who stays in the castle…”

“Hurry.”

“Damn you.”

Joshua raised his middle finger toward Benjamin and left the room, taking Serita with him. Benjamin defeated everyone in the room and left only himself by Sophia’s side.

Originally, she wanted to ask Loray to stay by her side, but she wasn’t here right now, so she had to stay at least on her own.

Don’t the other servants have their own work to do? He sat on the simple chair next to the bed and looked down at Sophia. How long has it been since he last saw her this close? Will there ever come a day when we can see each other again?

No, that day will never come.

“…Get up quickly.”

Benjamin pressed his fingernails and muttered softly.

“I don’t want you to die.”

It was the same voice that Sophia had made as Benjamin Chase Roberti throughout her life.

* * *

As the evening glow seeped into the room, Sophia’s eyelids, which had been sunken for a long time, slowly rose. As if being sick was a lie, Sophia woke up comfortably without any aftereffects, raised her upper body and brushed her disheveled hair. And she found it. Benjamin was asleep sitting on a simple chair next to the bed.

He looked at her head, which was crooked due to her uncomfortable posture, for a moment.

He must have met Rune and on his way back he fell to the floor in pain. Perhaps the servant moved me to my room. No matter how you think about it, there was no reason for Benjamin to come to his room.

‘What happened?’

There was no way for him to know what had happened while he was down, just from being in bed, so he decided to ask Loray.

Just as he was about to pull off the blanket and get out of bed, Benjamin was awakened by a flurry of movement and his eyes turned to Sophia.

The sunset seeped into his white hair, giving it a light red glow, and his yellow eyes swallowed up the darkness in the unlit room.

“…Sophia?”

He pronounced Sophia’s name in a deep voice because he had just woken up, then called it again in a low voice before realizing that what was in front of him was reality.

“Well, you’re awake.”

Benjamin opened his eyes wide, his sleep-deprived face showing his restless movements, pressing his hand to the nape of his neck and speaking intermittently.

“Loray is a little… Because I’m not feeling well…”

Oh, she had forgotten that it was around this time that Lorey caught a cold and wasn’t feeling too well. Even so, it couldn’t explain Benjamin being by her side. 

Benjamin looked at Sophia’s questioning eyes, lightly traced her dry lips with his tongue, and gradually lowered his voice. As if he had committed a sin.

“When I wake up, I don’t want anyone by my side… Do you need anything?”

Since Loray couldn’t be by Sofia’s side, she said that she was there for her. Even her funny comments must be accepted to a certain extent. If he could come to her for that reason, he should have come a long time ago.

“No.”

Sophia covered herself with the blanket again, avoiding Benjamin’s gaze. She can’t go to the person who is sick and ask about this incident.

“You can continue sleeping. I’ll be there soon anyway. Just until Jules comes…”

It was her first time seeing him so embarrassed. The Benjamin that Sophia had seen so far was not like this. When she tried to get closer to him by laying down an iron plate and acting cute, he raised his voice and grimaced in an attempt to force her away. Fortunately, when he was young, he retreated a lot and didn’t have a bad personality, so she tried to exploit that gap somehow.

‘Because I fell?’

If she had known that being sick would work, if she had known that they would sympathize with her when she was sick at this point, she would have pretended to be sick a long time ago. But even like this she would eventually be abandoned later. It was always like that. She thought they were a bit civilized, but in the end, they ended up hating her.

Sophia has decided not to hold on to that shallow attachment anymore, and she has decided to live a life for herself, albeit briefly, rather than a life for them.

“Won’t you drink water? Your throat must feel a little cracked…”

When she heard a voice asking with concern for her, she turned her head to face him.

His voice and face were full of worry. The area around the eyes looks a little red.

“Please give me a little.”

Because it was true that her throat hurt.

There was no reason for her to refuse to do something for herself, so she accepted the glass of water Benjamin gave her. After moistening her dry throat, she felt much more relaxed. Sophia passed her glass to Benjamin and looked at him. There was a faint smile on his face. It seemed really nice that at least one favor was granted. Now she didn’t feel anything when she looked at that face. If it were her past self, her hands would have been shaking from the moment she received the cup.

One day, she asked a blonde servant whose name she couldn’t quite remember.

‘How would you feel if you met the person who killed you in your dream?’

Since she couldn’t mention anything about regression, she said it was a dream. In fact, it was truly like a dream. When you wake up after death, everything you’ve experienced will disappear as if it were a dream.

The servant responded to that story with a nervous smile.

‘Uh… It’s scary, and I think I’ll be afraid to be with that person. No matter how much it is a dream, it seems a bit uncomfortable…’

That was normal. No matter how much it was a dream, how could I not be shaken at all when she faced the person who killed her? It took a long time for her to decide that she would die and come back to reform Joshua and Benjamin.

The blade filled with resentment was very sharp and painful. How could she ever think of going back to see those who held it? However, she held on and faced them with the thought that she could only survive if she somehow made them good. She got used to it. There was a time when she was locked in her room for a few days because she got goosebumps because she was so abnormal to what she was getting used to.

By now, it was all old news. A very distant, old story.

To shake off his distracting thoughts, Sophia opened the drawer of the nightstand, took out a book and began to read. Not letting Benjamin go was a little bullying. Because he looked so sad that he didn’t know what to do.

“…Jules is kind of late.”

Benjamin’s lips went dry as the silence continued for so long that it took his breath away. Sophia continued reading without even pretending to listen, and Jules did not even think about coming. Joshua, that bastard went to the training ground to warm up.

In this situation, he wanted to take comfort in Sophia not kicking him out, but he knew she wasn’t doing him a favor by not kicking him out. Ignoring him in front of herself. The intention was to show it openly. She sent the gift back without even opening it.

The physical distance was close, but in reality it was the same distance as having a couple of mountains in the middle. The apology was too late, and it’s best to just keep their distance.

Benjamin realized it again and heard the sound of people coming from outside.

“Are you going?”

A small voice pierced Benjamin’s ears along with the sound of turning the pages of a book. It wasn’t a regretful tone. It was just a formality, a question Benjamin had asked when he noticed that he was listening for the sound of someone coming.

“Are you going to come again in the future?”

‘Will you come to see me in the future?’

Those words, without taking her eyes off the book, did not sound like an expectation of whether she would be able to see her brother in the future, but rather a question of whether her brother would bother to show himself again.

Benjamin couldn’t quite choose what to say, and after biting his lips a couple of times, he uttered his words with difficulty.

“…don’t do anything… I won’t do anything to harm you…”

“…”

“Sorry.”

It was a very unsophisticated apology. Didn’t this seem like something he just said to get out of this situation?

Sophia’s head turned towards Benjamin, but Benjamin turned his head first and stood up.

“I’ll just leave, Sophia.”

Sophia, who was watching Benjamin’s back as he opened the door and ran away, focused on the book again. She didn’t care anymore what he said or what he thought.

She just got annoyed when she thought about the times when she cared about every single thing he and other people said and reacted to them.

 

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Translator Note: