How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

Terence, who had often visited the Great Hall since he was young, was unfamiliar with the place called the North Library. Terence entered a small building with traces of time with the knights. Inside was a dark library and a small passage leading down to the basement.

 

‘You went in here alone?’

 

He couldn’t believe she went into the basement of such a dark and isolated building alone. At least take the knights. Terence clicked his tongue and went down his stairs. The moment he came down to the basement, he stopped. There were four hallways extending in all directions in the basement. There were doors on both sides of the hallway, and two stairs going down in the distance. The hallway stretched in all directions and there was no end in sight. The hallways on both sides split into two again at the end. The library seen from above was obviously a small and simple structure, but what was this huge basement? It was a place that had a gloomy atmosphere, like a maze.

 

Terence walked down one hallway and looked for Eve.

 

“Eve.”

 

There was no answer at all. He turned to his knights and ordered them.

 

“Find the Grand Duchess.”

 

The knights dispersed to four places and searched for Eve.

 

“Your Highness the Grand Duchess? Where are you?”

 

But Eve was nowhere to be seen. Terence went down to the next floor with Camion. There were three hallways there. He also saw stairs going down.

 

“What floor is this?”

 

Camion muttered something absurd behind him. When he saw the small library above, he never imagined that the basement would be so vast. Where was Eve? 

 

Fortunately, the basement was only on the third floor. The technicians searched every room from the first basement to the third floor. But Eve was nowhere to be seen. At this point, the knights who were searching the area seemed to realize that something was wrong.

 

“…Your Highness.”

 

The knight who was protecting Eve ran towards him with an anxious look on his face. He was holding a small folded piece of paper.

 

“If anything happens, Her Highness told me to give this note to His Highness the Grand Duke.”

 

Terence snatched the note from his hand before he could finish his words. Even in the dark basement, he recognized Eve’s light handwriting on the paper at a glance. There was only one sentence written on the note. It was a sentence with an ambiguous subject so that if someone else got their hands on this note, they would not be able to recognize it.

 

[Going to the basement of the North Library with the person who gave you the pink flower to find information.]

 

The knights, who were expecting the note to contain some important information, saw the Grand Duchess’ note being mercilessly crumpled in Terence’s hands.

 

Terence ordered through gritted teeth, clutching Eve’s note.

 

“Bring more knights to find them.”

 

Camion was dumbfounded. So now they have lost the Grand Duchess in the temple? Now he and his knights were going around from the first basement to the third floor, looking for the Grand Duchess. He was surprised when he first came down, but the more he looked around, the more bizarre it became. 

 

The end of the hallway curved round and connected to the opposite hallway, and when he came to his senses, he found himself downstairs. The end of the hallway slowly connected to the hallway downstairs. It seemed like the temple library had been built so complicatedly that one would get lost if they were not careful.

 

He sent his men upstairs to bring in more people and then came down to the third floor, the lowest floor. Terence was looking through the library on the second floor.

 

“I think it would be a good idea to call the priests and ask about the structure here.”

 

He wondered if there was a hidden room or something.

 

“Her Highness told me not to reveal anything about the library to anyone in the temple.”

 

When they tried to call the priests, the knight guarding the Grand Duchess became restless and objected.

 

“She said I shouldn’t say anything even if something happens… She said that even if His Highness does not return by the end of time, he should never let the priests know that he went to the library…”

 

“His Highness is missing now, right?”

 

This was an unfamiliar temple, so we had no idea about the geography of this place. Meanwhile, the Grand Duchess went missing. The Grand Duchess must have wanted to keep her entrance a secret, but it was too late to hide it. If they didn’t find her here, they would have to search the entire Great Temple anyway.

 

While thinking that, he was turning the corner of the hallway. Suddenly, a black shadow appeared in the opposite hallway. He stopped in surprise and the shadow came closer and closer. As he got closer to a certain distance, he could clearly see what it was. What looked like a shadow was a pitch-black cat.

 

A cat?

 

Camion realized one tempo late. That cat was a black cat owned by the Grand Duchess. 

The knight who came with them also recognized the cat.

 

“Ah, it’s Her Highness’ cat.”

 

The cat let out a long meow and walked past them in the other direction. Camion and the knights were looking at the cat blankly. The cat walked away, stopped, looked back, came up to them again, and meowed. It was the same meow, but a little louder than before. As if he was getting annoyed.

 

“Why is the cat doing that?”

 

The three people looked at each other with puzzled faces. The cat meowed, then came closer to Camion and tapped his ankle with its furry paw. It was quite rough for a cat, but it was a small cat’s paw, so even though he was desperately hitting it, all he could do was ‘tap-tap’.

 

The cat looked at them and this time hit its chest in frustration. The three people couldn’t take their eyes off the cat’s movements. He was surprised and amazed.

 

“This cat is really amazing. It’s like a person.”

 

One of the knights muttered absently. The cat looked at them with puzzled eyes and sighed. It was truly a sigh. The cat sighs.

 

“If… Are you telling us to follow you?”

 

As if that was the correct answer, he raised his head, let out a long meow, and started walking down the hallway again. Camion and the knights looked at the cat in fascination. Like a ghost… No, he felt like he was possessed by a cat.

 

“That cat… They said it was a suspicious animal that Her Highness was carrying around. Could it be that it was true…”

 

One of the knights muttered absently. Camion ignored his words and followed the cat.

 

“Follow me this way.”

 

The place the cat went to was at the end of the hallway on the other side. The cat meowed again, pounding on the dark, empty floor. Camion wasted no time looking at the floor the cat was pointing at. He thought it was a flat bare floor, but when he looked closely, he saw faint lines on the floor. It was like a line blocking the entrance leading down.

 

“There is a way down here. Bring me a tool that can destroy this place!”

 

* * *

 

She looked up nervously at the vent in the ceiling. Approximately how much time has passed? It seemed like about 20 minutes had passed since Bayan left.

 

‘Have you not found the knights yet? Or maybe the entrance to here is blocked?’

 

It was a time when she was anxiously waiting and counting the time. People’s voices were heard from the door.

 

“Your Highness! Are you inside?”

 

It was the voice of the knights who came with her.

 

“Here it is!”

 

“Wait a moment. I will open the door.”

 

“No! The ceiling behind the door is about to collapse. Slabs support the ceiling.”

 

If the door was opened from the outside, there was a high possibility that the ceiling would collapse.

 

“If possible, go into the next room and see if you can break down the wall.”

 

“All right.”

 

Considering that the knights came all the way here, the hallway seems to be fine. Anyway, it was fortunate. It seemed like she could get out much faster than she thought. The voices of the knights were heard from the wall adjacent to the next room.

 

“I think I can break through this wall.”

 

After a while, thanks to the knights’ efforts, the stone wall began to crumble little by little. As the bricks were removed one by one, a small hole was revealed. She saw the familiar face of a knight.

 

“Your Highness. Are you okay?”

 

“We are okay.”

 

The knights rushed in and tore down the wall enough for people to get out. She took the diary and went out there. Bayan, who was sitting quietly next to the knights, approached her.

 

“Bajan, good job.”

 

Unlike the library on their side, which was a mess, the room next door was safe without any debris. Only the library they were in collapsed. After checking that, she became even more certain. The library they were in collapsed because she took out the diary.

 

Mikhail came out after her.

 

The knights seemed a little surprised to see him, but he didn’t say anything and only asked if he was hurt.

 

“I’m fine. Thank you for saving me.”

 

She said she was okay and quickly went out into the hallway. However, as soon as she went out, she saw someone coming this way from the other side of the hallway and stopped in place.

 

“Eve…”

 

It was Terence.

 

‘Why… Why is Terence here?’

 

Terence came up to her with a pale face and grabbed her shoulder.

 

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

 

“Oh, yes, yes. I’m OK.”

 

She was so embarrassed that she stuttered my answer. Why on earth was Terence here? It’s only been a little over an hour, let alone two hours. There was no way the knights would have called for Terence just then.

 

Terence looked her up and down, seemingly making sure she wasn’t hurt.

 

“How did you get down here? There was no way downstairs.”

 

“There is no road?”

 

“The stairs leading down here were blocked.”

 

She glanced back at Mikhail, who had followed her. He also looked embarrassed. They definitely came down the stairs.

 

Bayan, who was next to the knights, added an answer.

 

[The stairs that led down here were blocked by the floor. People who don’t know would not have been able to tell that there were stairs there.]

 

The stairs were blocked by the floor? The moment she took out the diary, the stairs going down disappeared and the library collapsed. If it weren’t for Bayan, she would have been stuck here and couldn’t get out.

 

She looked back at Terence, who looked puzzled.

 

“I’ll tell you when I get back to the mansion.”

 

Terence’s gaze belatedly turned to Mikhail. She spoke quickly before he could say anything.

 

“Mikhail showed me the way.”

 

“I know. It was written on a note.”

 

‘I see, you received that note too. I tried to go in quietly and then come out, but something like this happened.’

 

Fortunately, Terence ignored Mikhail and only worried about her safety. He didn’t seem to care one bit that she came in here with Mikhail.

 

Terrence led her upstairs as if nothing had happened.

 

“I’m glad you’re safe. Let’s go back to the mansion and talk more.”

 

They returned straight to the mansion. After belatedly hearing that the Grand Duke had visited the temple, the priests came to see them, but they gave them a quick look and left.

 

She said only a formal goodbye to Mikhail and parted ways. They locked the library again and took his key. Even if someone saw the knights coming in and out of the library, it was inevitable.

 

‘But no one will know what I got there.’

 

She looked down at the diary in her hand. She was concerned about what was written in the diary, but now there was something more bothering her than that. It was Terence across from her.

 

Terence had not said anything since the carriage departed. He just kept his mouth shut and watched. Actually, there’s no way it wouldn’t have been unpleasant. Even Bayan was crouching in a corner, quietly holding his breath.

 

After arriving at the mansion in silence, Terence took her up to the inner room. When the door to the inner room closed, Terence turned to her.

 

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Translator Note: