KFBRV Pt 2 Ch 3
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
In this life, Johan, possessing both eyes, defies my taste, rendering him unappealing. To think, even his very personality shifted.
(T/N: In the original game's storyline, Johan suffered a violent rampage. Because Odette refused to purify him, he had to forcefully suppress his own power, resulting in him permanently losing one of his eyes.)
[Charlotte] "Not a single event progresses correctly."
The debutante ball, the tea party, the opera house event......
Not a single incident destined to secure her glory occurred. The situation stood in stark contrast to her previous life, where the entire world revolved around her.
Hmm. Should I get adopted into a noble family in this life after all?
During her past life, the Transcendents' favor granted her free access to the Imperial Palace despite her commoner status. Now, crossing paths with them proved exceptionally difficult.
To force more encounters, claiming the title of a noble lady offered a practical solution. Countless families had offered to adopt her, after all.
Agonizing over her options, she sighed and called out to the empty air.
[Charlotte] "Status window. Show me Johan's affection level."
She summoned the interface. The resulting projection flickered with a severe blurriness. Calling it a mere afterimage of the status window described it better.
[Johan's Affection: 0]
Those faint letters crackled constantly, failing to hold their form before snapping out of existence with a quiet hiss.
[Charlotte] "As expected......"
She frowned and let out a low sigh.
[Charlotte] "Since Odette died, there's no way to recover this. It's frustrating."
She stared at the empty space with a lingering regret.
[Charlotte] "If she planned to die anyway, wouldn't it be better for both of us if she died at a time beneficial to me? Why is she always so annoying......"
She swept her hair back in profound irritation.
[Charlotte] "Suwan unni never helps me at all."
Even in their original modern life, Suwan's fatal fall down the stairs had caused Songyi massive complications.
The ensuing police investigation had inflicted endless mental distress upon her. The authorities ultimately ruled it an accidental death, yet the ordeal had exhausted her completely.
Disgust warped her features, entirely erasing her usual harmless charm. An ancient, insidious greed saturated her light blue eyes.
A sudden voice broke her isolation.
[Ambassador] "You were here, Lady Charlotte?"
The instant the words registered, she plastered a tender smile across her face. Her crescent-shaped smile radiated her signature spring-breeze gentleness.
[Charlotte] "Ambassador. How do you do?"
She lifted her skirt in a light curtsy, revealing a charming, dimpled grin.
It's fine. I possess infinite time anyway. Unlike the dead Odette.
Odette's shadow currently eclipsed her, but that victory held an absolute expiration date.
The dead could never defeat the living.
Side Story 2. Zion's POV
Seated on the second floor of a coffeehouse, he sneered down at a cluster of beggars. A solitary platinum-blonde woman hiding among them commanded his absolute focus.
What is with that hair?
A crude bob cut looked hacked off by an axe. Dust and mud caked her filthy face. Her clothes mirrored pure rags, barely covering her skeletal limbs.
A dune existed nearby. Her wretched state proved she had spent the night freezing on that barren mound.
She bore zero resemblance to the aristocrat who once drowned in extravagant jewels and lavish dresses.
[Zion] "To think the great villainess has fallen to such a state."
He could capture her instantly, yet he chose to hold back. He lacked any compelling reason to seize her today.
If I catch her, she will only lose her head immediately.
That swift execution would permanently end his enjoyment of her suffering.
This cat-and-mouse game against her clever, often devious evasions served as his greatest recent pleasure.
She willingly rolled through gutters that would break a refined lady in minutes. Whenever he confirmed her escape pattern, she brilliantly struck his blind spot.
Despite deploying an intimidating fortune and countless operatives, her sheer unpredictability had frustrated him multiple times.
After miraculously tracking her down, he would maintain his distance and observe her, savoring the moment.
This spectator phase represented his absolute favorite part of the hunt.
[Odette] "Ugh......"
He raised his coffee cup, maintaining an unbroken focus on her. A sneer escaped his lips.
To witness that noble, exquisite lady begging in the dirt felt surreal.
The sight of the arrogant Odette plummeting to absolute rock bottom filled him with profound satisfaction.
He possessed the power to catch her, yet he abstained. Whenever he decided to end the game, she would fall straight into his grasp.
Zion now existed as the unilateral force dictating Odette's life. A complete reversal of their past dynamic.
The low-quality coffee suddenly carried a uniquely rich and deep aroma.
[Man] "Eat this and get lost, you filthy beggars!"
A passing middle-aged man hurled a piece of bread directly at Odette's head.
[Zion] "That bastard. Who does he think he's throwing bread at?"
He scowled fiercely.
Odette's current appearance differed vastly from her wanted posters. The man had merely attacked the vagrants, dirtying the street, failing to recognize her true identity.
Out of the entire swarm of beggars, he targeted Odette simply because she possessed the frailest frame.
He murmured in a dangerously low pitch.
[Zion] "A pathetic insect who doesn't even recognize who she is......"
The coffee's flavor turned to ash on his tongue. He slammed his cup down with a sharp clatter and prepared to stand.
He fully intended to rip the man apart.
Then, Odette silently picked up the fallen bread from the dirt.
[Zion] "......!"
She brushed off the soil and brought the food to her lips.
The bread had been inedible from the moment it left the man's hand. It resembled a charred, blackened lump of charcoal. Yet she consumed it, cherishing every single bite.
An incredulous scoff burst from his lips. His scowl deepened into a fierce glare. Her pathetic display provoked an unbearable surge of irritation.
[Zion] "Act as viciously as you did to us. You wretched woman."
Observing her miserable state, a bizarre question pierced his rationale.
Didn't I want to see her ruined?
I exert relentless effort chasing her just to witness her suffering. So why does a random pedestrian tormenting her ignite such intense revulsion?
The conflicting logic choked his lungs with a heavy frustration.
Right. She is the woman who once held every Transcendent, myself included, by the throat. We are the ones who suffered from her deception.
It is only natural to feel offended when a civilian, who endured zero harm, oversteps his boundaries.
The pedestrian attacked her purely out of malice toward beggars, entirely ignorant of her past as a Purifier. Zion's justification lacked any coherent foundation.
He consciously sidestepped the flaws in his reasoning and locked his focus on the middle-aged man.
First, I need to eliminate that damned bastard.
Odette's begging spot served as the unspoken territory for the local vagrants. It also happened to be private property that Zion had deliberately purchased days prior.
He crawls into a back alley instead of using the main road, and then intentionally targets a weak, small woman by hitting her head?
Naturally, his definition of "elimination" involved gutting a human's entire life history—from tax evasion to petty theft.
Finding a single speck of dirt guaranteed a flawless pretext to throw the target into a permanent cell.
I'll permanently cure him of his habit of throwing bread at people's heads.
Zion had dissected the absolute bottom of human nature in his interrogation rooms. He knew with absolute certainty that a man who actively sought out the weak to torment harbored colossal sins.
He resolved to deal with the man first before redirecting his full power toward hunting Odette.
He stood up. Down below, Odette immediately tensed and scanned her surroundings, perfectly detecting the shift in his presence.
A fragile, erratic flutter. Slender limbs swaying in the wind. He concluded her frantic movements mirrored those of a trapped butterfly.
She is far too sensitive.
He clicked his tongue and turned away from the window.
The realization that she sensed his predatory focus so acutely forced a satisfied chuckle from his throat.
She remained endlessly hyper-aware of him.
The pure satisfaction delivered by that fact relaxed his taut muscles. Consequently, a leisurely smile graced his lips as he exited the coffeehouse.
Where is this?
I was definitely sprinting across the Erwin Desert to catch that woman just a moment ago.
However, the scorching sun and the abrasive sand beneath his feet had vanished without a trace.
He scanned the environment. He stood in a place that mirrored a freezing night sea. The icy water swallowed him straight to his waist.
[Zion] "What is this? Why am I in a place like—"
[Alfredo] "Your Excellency."
An intimately familiar voice severed his confusion. Alfredo stood right behind him, gripping his arm tightly.
The highly competent butler, famous for concealing his emotions, wore an expression of sheer, helpless panic.
It was a look of pure anxiety Zion had not witnessed since his childhood, long before his Transcendent awakening.
[Zion] "......Ah."
He finally grasped the reality of the situation. A hollow, broken laugh escaped him.
The sea of Meursault. He had returned here once again.
Sleeping soundly remained a rare luxury, yet whenever sleep claimed him, his subconscious dragged him straight to this ocean.
He wandered the dark waves aimlessly, stripped of his waking reason, driven by the pathetic delusion that coming here would allow him to reclaim Odette.
Despite knowing with absolute certainty that she was gone forever.
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