Home/I Saved the Villain and Fell Asleep/ch 28

Chapter 28

It was hard to breathe properly. Several times my feet stumbled and I nearly fell, but I didn't stop.

In the distance, I saw the stairs leading down to the first floor. Pushing through the hallway filled with hazy smoke, I grabbed the banister.

I blinked slowly and looked down at the first floor.

My vision blurred, and a burning sensation stung my eyes. I tried not to cry, but a single tear rolled down my cheek, unstoppable.

"...Kali?"

The person standing stock still on the first floor was Kali.

Not the soft, fluffy pink hair I saw every day—but Kali with jet-black hair that seemed to swallow even the flames. Czerban Caelius.

"Kali! The villa is on fire..."

I called out to him in a breathless voice, but he remained silent.

Only then did his figure come into clear view. I blinked rapidly to clear my tears and scanned the first floor with sharpened vision.

"Mom?"

A woman in familiar pajamas lay collapsed on the floor. She wasn't alone—many people lay scattered around Kali.

My lips and chin trembled. Maybe because I realized that the man lying beside Mom was Dad.

Breathing unevenly, I descended the stairs one step at a time. My knees shook beyond my control.

"Kali, what are you doing there? Why are Mom and Dad there?"

Kali, who had been standing motionless, swung something in the air. A red liquid splattered to the floor. What he held was a long bloodstained sword.

I couldn't go down any further. Kali looked up at me. His dark red eyes, flickering like dancing flames, gazed at me coldly.

"Caelius!!!!"

My head spun. Nothing made sense.

Why did Kali suddenly—why are Mom and Dad—is this reality right now? Or a dream?

"How do you know that name?"

A chilling, cracked voice reached me. It was a voice so dry I could never have imagined it coming from that child.

"What?"

"Hmm... Well, it doesn't matter. Are you the Algenprina princess?"

What did Kali just call me? Algenprina princess?

Kali looked at me with an annoyed gaze and scratched his neck with his bloodied hand. Casually surveying his surroundings, he carelessly tossed the sword aside.

"I've achieved my goal. As for you... I'll let you go."

"..."

"That's better for you too, isn't it?"

He smiled a seemingly gentle smile. But I knew what that smile meant—it was the face he made when looking at something that could just as well be discarded.

Fury surged at his retreating back. Reality suddenly crashed down on me.

You're going to leave after turning my parents and our villa into this?

I summoned my Goblin Club and gripped its handle so hard it ached.

"Czerban Caelius."

Once I grasped the situation, rage boiled over. Whether he'd suddenly developed short-term amnesia, or the original villain's persona had awakened and consumed him, it didn't matter now.

Who said I'd let him get away?

I walked down the stairs step by step, then at some point started running. The moment that bastard turned around, I jumped and swung the club with all my might at his face.

"Are you struggling to die? How foolish."

In that brief instant, he mocked my attack and summoned flames into the air.

"The fool is you."

With wide eyes, I swung my club fiercely at the flames blocking my path. Naturally, the flames vanished without a trace.

"Hey."

I met the man's dilated pupils and asked.

"Who are you."

If it were Kali, he wouldn't have tried to stop me with flames. If he'd truly wanted to kill me, he would have used physical force.

"How did you do that?"

"Don't you know?"

"Do I need to? I recall that magical tool being nothing but a useless nuisance."

"Ha! You don't know?"

"And I heard the Algenprina princess can't properly wield magic... Something's gone wrong. But princess, I'm genuinely curious—won't you tell me how you did that?"

"Nope. I won't tell you."

One of his eyebrows arched. He looked at me as if seeing something audacious, then gave a greasy smile.

My arm, gripping the club, trembled. I desperately wanted to land one hit on that obnoxious face.

"Stop acting like a thug."

Whenever I deliberately pestered and picked fights with Kali, he used to say that to me with a fed-up expression.

But Kali, even you would want to hit him if you saw that face.

Because he smiled so annoyingly!!

"Then I have no choice."

The moment he finished speaking, dozens of fireballs rose in the air. He saw me nullify his magic just now, yet he still attacked with magic? Fine. Let's do this!!

I tore off my cumbersome skirt, and dozens of exchanges flew back and forth. The man didn't move an inch, just fired magic from his spot. And at some point, he stopped summoning flames.

Seizing the opportunity, I walked up to him with my club and grabbed his collar.

"Do you know how to throw a punch? Our Kali is good at it."

"What?"

He looked like he was just watching to see what I'd do, so I threw a punch at his handsome face before he could dodge. As he staggered, I body-slammed him to the ground and climbed on top of him.

"If this is a dream, wake up now!! Damn it!!"

I tried not to look at my parents' bodies collapsed near him. The moment the sticky blood from them soaked through my knees, I screamed and brought both hands to his neck.

Suffer as much as you made them suffer—I squeezed his neck with all my might. But a suffocating pressure stopped me. I couldn't put any more strength into my hands.

"Hari."

The man who called me "princess" was gone, replaced by someone who gently spoke my name.

"You can't kill me."

I glared at his face with wide eyes. The man turned his head to look somewhere—a large mirror, which shouldn't have been on the first floor, hung on one wall.

"Look. Even with your parents' corpses beside you, you can't put any strength into your hands."

A woman with disheveled hair sat atop a black-haired man, staring at the mirror with bloodshot eyes. That woman was me.

Not sixteen-year-old Hariella, but Algenprina Hariella, who seemed to have aged a few more years.

The mirror, beginning to crack from the edges, shattered with a loud crash. As the shards flew into the air, darkness flashed before my eyes.

The Kali who mocked and laughed at me, the parents who died with their eyes still open—all of it vanished.

"Huff!!!"

I gasped and snapped my eyes open. The familiar ceiling of my room came into view. I hurriedly looked down at my hands—they were still small and young.

I got out of bed and went to the window. Naturally, there was no fire consuming the villa. It was a dream.

"Huh! How can a dream be so vivid!"

My heart still felt like it was pounding. Was that the Caelius from the original story?

I should have realized it was a dream earlier. Come to think of it, the villa in the dream wasn't this one—it was the main estate in the ducal territory.

"He's still just as rude."

I clutched my head and groaned in frustration. His voice still echoed vividly.

"You can't kill me."

All I have to do is make sure that never happens. Kali's enemy isn't the Algenprina ducal house—it's Grand Duke Isaac.

"I'm done for again."

With this state of mind, any chance of sleep was definitely gone.

I lay staring blankly at the ceiling, utterly drained as if I'd run a 1000-meter sprint.

The me in the mirror—I must have been nineteen, right? The fire at the ducal house happened when Hariella was nineteen.

I rolled around on the blanket and reached for the bedside table. I think I put the age-transformation magical tool I'd gotten back from Kali around here.

"Ah, found it."

It was a bracelet made of round black gemstones. The smooth feel suggested it was made of quite high-grade magic stones.

When Kali wore this, he looked well past adulthood—just how many years ahead was that appearance?

'Should I try it on?'

The hesitation didn't last long. The moment I struggled to put the bracelet on, it began to glow brightly.

Ah, right! Clothes!! I think Kali said his clothes stayed the same.

"Aaah!! They're torn—oh, they didn't tear?"

I dashed to the mirror in bare feet. My pajama sleeves and length had grown longer. The clothes I was wearing must have been affected by the magic, adapting to the wearer's body.

"Kali, you bastard..."

He'd said he'd drag his clothes around and be called a pervert—but that was all a lie!!

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