I, The Villainess, Will Seduce All The Heroines Instead
Chapter 70: Blood

Chapter 70: Blood

Verena stepped out next, looking fashionably disheveled, bruised in all the right places, thanks to Clarina’s oddly enthusiastic makeup job.

The knight had gotten way too into it. Something about "authenticity" and "method acting."

"Wait—is that Verena?!"

"How is she out?! I thought she was imprisoned!"

Evelyn held up a dainty hand like a noble conducting a symphony of gasps. "I heard..." she said softly, pausing with the dramatic timing of a stage actress, "that Lady Verena was kidnapped too..."

The crowd gasped again, right on cue.

"But no," she sighed, glancing over at Verena with faux sadness. "It wasn’t her."

This girl was too good at this. She was following Verena’s exact script, but delivering it with such perfect, trembling innocence that it was starting to feel real.

Was Evelyn acting, or was this just who she was now?

At this point, even Verena was unsure. And maybe a little scared.

"I... I-"

[Buff has been removed!]

[Congratulations! You have completed your second attempt of elimination!]

[Rival: Norvan Huliet]

"I, I didn’t do anything wrong," Penelope said, clutching her skirts. Her cheeks were flushed with a panic she tried to mask as righteous indignation. "I mean, can you blame me? Verena’s always been... unpredictable. Troublemaking. I was only trying to protect the Empire’s image!"

Her eyes flicked to the nobles - desperate for support.

"And besides," she added, forcing a brittle laugh, "it’s not my fault she looks guilty half the time. Maybe if she acted more like a lady, none of this would’ve happened."

Verena narrowed her eyes but said nothing. The bruises on her wrists still ached. The words hurt worse.

"You threw me into a dungeon!" she finally hissed.

"Enough."

The voice didn’t come from Verena.

Evelyn stepped forward.

Her eyes were darker than anyone had ever seen them.

She was no longer the teary, timid girl of before.

Her voice was calm, but under it was something ancient.

"You really think you’re the victim?" Evelyn asked softly.

Penelope’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.

"You watched them drag her away. You accused her without proof. And you kissed a man who never loved you. All for what? Applause?"

From her fingertips, the magic surged. Balance Magic, though only infused with chaotic essence, erupted like a cosmic verdict passed down from the stars themselves. It did not judge with words. It did not negotiate.

It corrected.

Penelope didn’t scream.

The blast hit her with a force both divine and horrifying.

She was flung back mid-denial, blood blooming in the air like crimson petals.

Her figure collapsed, twitching, limbs contorted unnaturally as smoke curled from the torn threads of her gown.

The marble cracked beneath her body. Nobles screamed. Guards didn’t move.

Evelyn lowered her hand. Her nightgown, once soft and gentle, was now stained with the consequences of justice.

A sickening silence followed the explosion. Blood spattered across the polished marble, painting nobles in red. Gowns were stained, shoes soaked. The scent of iron filled the air.

Verena pressed a trembling hand to her mouth. "Mmph..." The bile was rising fast. Her knees buckled slightly.

All around them, people were screaming and scattering—shoving each other in panic, guards completely frozen, unsure of what to do. But amidst the chaos stood Evelyn.

Evelyn turned to Verena with an almost serene smile, her cheeks flushed like a girl who’d just finished her first recital. "How’s my knight?" she said sweetly, cupping Verena’s face like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Did I do well? I protected you, didn’t I?"

How could she smile like this?

As if she hadn’t just blown up a princess.

This was getting out of hand.

"No." Verena slapped Evelyn’s hand away, her voice shaking. "No!"

Evelyn blinked. Her smile faltered. "W-Why...?" Her voice cracked like glass. She looked so hurt. So betrayed.

"Stop it!" Verena shouted, her voice breaking

Tears welled up in her eyes.

Her chest was tight. Everything was wrong. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen.

Something inside her snapped.

It was subtle at first.

Astrange, humming pull beneath her ribs. Her breath hitched as her vision blurred, and suddenly, she saw them.

Threads.

Silver and gold and violet, drifting like silk in the air. Weaving through people, moments, choices. She could feel them.

One thread burned red-hot.

The moment it all went wrong.

Her instincts screamed: Cut it. Sever it. Rewrite it.

And so she did.

In a blink, it was as if her soul was yanked out and tossed into a dark expanse.

A void between cause and consequence. Time had unraveled. She stood at the seam of fate, holding a blade not made of steel, but of will.

She slashed through the thread.

The moment, Penelope’s death, Evelyn’s madness, the blood, it all vanished.

And when Verena opened her eyes again, everything had reset.

That moment had been deleted.

Same ballroom. Same scene. Same music.

But no blood.

"What?..."

Verena gasped, her breath catching in her throat as the echo of Evelyn’s self-defense rang in her ears once more.

The words blurred together, but the weight of them was suffocating.

It felt as though the universe itself was pressing in, crushing her chest, tightening around her ribs.

Her eyes blurred with the sickening taste of iron and fear.

The power. The energy that had surged through her when she rewove desinty.

It was still inside her, coursing through her veins like wildfire, and it burned.

She bent at the waist, her stomach heaving painfully, her throat burning with the effort to hold it all in.

She collapsed to her knees, her body shaking violently.

Darkness closed in around the edges of her vision, the weight of time’s meddling, the threads she had severed, the lives she had altered.

All of it pressing in on her from all sides.

And in that moment, she realized just how fragile she truly was.

***

"AH!"

Verena jolted upright, her heart pounding in her chest, as she blinked around, trying to make sense of what just happened.

Where... am I?

She looked to her side and found Evelyn, looking far too serene for someone who had just been in the middle of... chaos.

But then her eyes darted to the front of the room.

A snake.

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