I Don't Want To Do a Romantic Comedy With a Villain! - Chapter 56
Episode 56
At that time, he didn’t know. What consequences his actions would bring about?
For centuries, he’s been manipulating the Empire and other nations, using the excuse of efficiently eliminating sorcerers without paying attention to anything else.
Thanks to that, Vehen, who harbored resentment everywhere, was far from safe. Being of noble status with a natural abundance of enemies, he had to regularly weed out spies from his past, ignoring the values he once held.
Thud!
Crash!
Thump!
The bullet shattered the glass window and pierced through Min-joo’s head in a moment that didn’t last even a second. It was a brief moment, sitting together on the sofa, sharing a small moment of conversation.
The trajectory aimed at Vehen was the first thing Min-joo’s eyes caught, and she moved faster than him. The surprised expression on Min-joo’s face, her slender hand reaching towards him, and the familiar sensation of the sofa behind her were vivid.
Min-joo’s face, accepting death.
And the pouting red lips.
The small body spilled over the table.
The tea water spilled due to the heavy fall.
The smell of blood mixed with the familiar scent of the pastries.
“…No, no. No. No…!”
It was despair.
Min-joo was the first person he opened up to in decades, perhaps centuries, apart from Neriant. The depth of those emotions was immeasurable, but the emotions easily lost direction, bringing forth a harrowing despair.
With trembling arms, barely gripping the sofa, he stood up, embracing Min-joo’s body lying on the table, feeling the chilling temperature.
“…No….”
A body that would return to the past anyway, an undying immortal body, recklessly sacrificing that weak life.
“Why. Why did you do that?”
He pressed his face against Min-joo’s cheek, which used to turn red easily at a mere jest. Still soft, fair, but now cold.
Ah, ah, ah… He couldn’t even form words and could only make a groaning sound.
‘Next time, I will never lose you. I won’t lose you so futilely.’
Vehen, who had drawn the knife next to him, fell beside Min-joo with a thud.
The mansion became chaotic.
Screams, gunfire, and acrid smoke enveloped the mansion.
It was a rebellion against the harsh taxes imposed on the common people. Vehen closed his eyes, hearing their voices.
From the next life onward, Vehen awaited Min-joo.
Min-joo, who could only be met at the age of twenty-five, became the only solace for the twenty-year-old Vehen who had awakened.
Vehen sorted out all the anxieties with memories of the past.
He cleared out the spies, gave orders to Permette to assassinate Tedric, and placed Ceteran on the throne.
All he needed was to meet Min-joo.
When Vehen turned twenty-five, the autumn when he had met Min-joo, he wandered around the area where they had met. As expected, Min-joo appeared in the alley, and Vehen approached her as soon as he saw her.
“Min-joo, you probably don’t remember, but I am Duke DeVirté. I’ve come to take you.”
“You’re insane.”
The world had forgotten the fact that it operates on causality. If things were not natural, they felt alien, and people avoided them.
Vehen desperately grabbed Min-joo, who was trying to escape, and told her the truth.
“I’ve undergone regression. In my previous life, we were close, and I’ve been waiting to meet you again.”
“Don’t talk nonsense! Where are we? England? America? France?”
“Park Min-joo, please!”
A child playing in another alley suddenly appeared. Standing in front of the carriage passing by Vehen and Min-joo, the child was startled, and Min-joo pushed away Vehen’s hand and leaped towards the child.
“Aaaah!”
A scream echoed. Onlookers on the street, having witnessed the accident, gasped in astonishment.
Vehen lost Min-joo once again. The next attempt went quite well. By coincidentally meeting Min-joo, he portrayed himself as affectionate and kind, earning a place in her household.
Everything went smoothly. He expressed gratitude to Min-joo for offering help, claiming to know the future, gradually getting closer.
Repeating past events didn’t bother Vehen; it felt different starting anew with Min-joo.
“More than I thought, Vehen seems affectionate and kind.”
“How could you say that based on what you thought of me?”
“A bit more gruff, mean, and unlucky?”
“You’re exaggerating.”
Pretending to be affectionate and innocent was a struggle, but thanks to that, Vehen could recall his seventeen-year-old self, who easily got swept up in emotions, loved the blue sky, and enjoyed sitting by the fireplace reading a book from late autumn to winter.
“However, every time I go to Paital District, I can’t help but notice the wealth gap. It bothers me every time I see it…”
Min-joo verbalized the wealth gap, which was natural for Vehen but seemed to matter to her.
It didn’t bother him, but if Min-joo wished, he could easily fulfill it. Resolve the wealth gap. Grant freedom to the slaves. Vehen, who used to act affectionate to his beloved, couldn’t easily refuse his request.
Gradually, he persuaded Ceteran, who was now on the throne, to reduce taxes, increase structures for them to earn money, and slowly redistribute the nobility’s status to the common people.
Enraged nobles began to riot. Watching them harm the commoners and cause chaos in the palace, Min-joo went out to the streets to protect the commoners and had to hide again.
Vehen loved Min-joo’s affection.
Easily succumbing to fear, behaving like a herbivore hiding, shrinking in front of people, and ultimately, even the kindness that easily sacrifices and dies for others. After repeating such a life several times, Vehen gradually began to systematically shape the future.
Since it shouldn’t be unnatural, he started with chance encounters, continued by leading to a future Min-joo knew, and then uprooted suspicions by pretending to protect her under the pretext of returning her home.
Finding sorcerers was no longer necessary for Vehen. As long as he had Min-joo.
Having lived aimlessly for a long time, having a single goal didn’t require a process. Just having Min-joo.
He even thought that perhaps he went through endless regressions just to love Min-joo. There was no need to consider Min-joo returning to her hometown. Anyway, the sorcerer wouldn’t appear, and as long as Min-joo lived happily by his side, growing old and dying together, that would be enough.
In one iteration, suspecting that everything eventually went awry, Vehen confined Min-joo to the mansion.
“If you don’t let me go, this maid will die!”
Shattering a window with her bare hands, Min-joo picked up a piece of glass and held it to the maid’s throat.
“Don’t make a fuss. Step back. If you do anything foolish, I’ll shoot.”
“Where are you trying to shoot? Shoot me!”
The moment Min-joo’s trembling hand pushed away the maid, Vehen shot the maid without hesitation, and Min-joo, who had no intention of harming the maid, embraced her instead and took the bullet.
Truly, Min-joo was so affectionate. Annoyingly kind.
Vehen embraced Min-joo and wept.
“Stupid…! Trying desperately to save you, how could I…!”
Every time he met Min-joo after going through a new life, he was always affectionate. He had no choice but to love her.
In one iteration, he followed Min-joo, who sided with Tedric, and was expelled by Ceteran, who attempted to stop Tedric’s tyranny but ended up being assassinated.
In another iteration, he sent Min-joo entirely to Tedric.
One noble who sided with the empress attempted to assassinate Tedric but died instead.
Whenever he went to Tedric, Min-joo died.
One day, when Tedric killed Min-joo and threw her away as prey for wild animals, Vehen couldn’t endure the anger and sought revenge.
There were instances where Permette felt love for Min-joo, but that was fine. It was just a fleeting emotion that would evaporate with a single regression. After all, Min-joo’s match was himself.
Vehen knew Min-joo better than Min-joo knew herself. How much pain she had endured in her own world.
Having been hurt by family, hurt by many unknown faces, and hurt by a lover, he realized that even though she’s become numb, she still likes people.
Dreaming of becoming an actor, he also realized that she suffered a lot and changed paths. He knows that she excels at making coffee, lacks talent in cooking, has talent with guns, have experience in directing, but lacks talent in creating.
In the end, she carries the desire to become an actor in her heart. The only thing Vehen doesn’t know about Min-joo is the attitude towards a lover, and Vehen and Min-joo have never been lovers.
Still, time has passed. It regressed countless times.
Meeting Min-joo all along, building a connection, and Min-joo leaving Vehen’s hand every time.
The desire to become lovers has faded, now only the desire to save Min-joo remains.
‘If dying because I love is the case, maybe finding happiness in someone else’s arms is better.’
Now faint, Vehen was the one who sent Neriant to Ceteran for her happiness. If holding onto Min-joo obstructs Min-joo’s happiness, Vehen could hide his feelings and send Min-joo to a safe place.
To where the person he loves becomes happy. Anywhere that allows dreams to unfold.
Vehen sought a route for Min-joo to become safe.
On the day he brings her home, an attack occurs, she meets Permette, gets trapped underground, and brings Min-joo in as a maid to protect her. He helped Ceteran become an emperor, overthrowing the caste system.
He reduced the gap between the rich and poor, making a safe Paital, and searched for a sorcerer. But even after dying multiple times and only the corpses reaching Vehen, he felt extreme helplessness.
He could do nothing. Min-joo always sacrificed herself for others, and Vehen, loving Min-joo, felt resentful to the point of madness.
‘If I lose wherever I go, it’s better to stay by my side. At least I know a lot about the future.’
Vehen hugged Min-joo’s body for the last time, his eyes flashing.
Due to a lot of stress, blood vessels burst, and tears of blood flowed.
‘I can prevent it. I can… save Min-joo.’
He didn’t want to lose anymore. If it was his fate to lose his partner early, Vehen pledged to willingly waste many lives to change that fate.
‘You don’t have to love me. You can go back to where you lived and leave me.’
Even if he couldn’t win her love, Vehen hoped Min-joo would continue to live.
If she could be happy in a place where he had no presence, even if it was an unknown place, that was enough for him. Even if she brewed coffee for someone else, made sandwiches for him, and found solace in his arms, that would be sufficient as long as Min-joo could be happy.
If only that could be possible.
Vehen felt a fleeting vision and closed his eyes.
It was time to regress. This time, he hoped to give safety to Min-joo and send her back home.
* * *
Clunk, the carriage rushed forward.
A woman with strange black hair ran towards the carriage.
In an attempt to jump onto the carriage, dragging her slippers, she threw herself towards it, and thick arms wrapped around her waist. The carriage brushed past Min-joo’s nose, and she was immediately embraced by the arms of an unfamiliar man.
The scent of water, coffee, and a subtle smell of ammunition mixed, making her stomach churn.
“If you want to die, die outside my sight.”
The emerald-colored eyes stared down at Min-joo.
Tick, tock, the broken clock started ticking.