I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 156: Loose Ends

"Care to explain how all of this happened?"

Evelina pinned me down on the rubble, far more assertive than usual. It was probably Fiona’s obsessive love bleeding into her already possessive one, mixed with the thrill of being revived in a new body. It was clearly getting to her.

"I made a deal with Beelzebub to revive Fiona."

"And...?"

"I guess he decided to have fun with the terms—and threw in an extra soul."

I didn’t know if I should feel relieved or furious. Fiona was technically alive... but I wasn’t even sure if this really counted as living.

"A-Are you...?"

The words caught in my throat. Had I failed again in this life? I didn’t understand how soul merging actually worked, and from where I was lying, it looked less like being brought back to life and more like being trapped in someone else’s body.

"You make a fair point."

Evelina smirked. Her hand rested on my chest, and that alone was enough for her to read my thoughts using magic.

"Don’t worry. I assure you, I’m still alive."

She pressed a hand against her own chest, mirroring the pose Fiona had once taken.

"You seem... strangely okay with all this,"

I muttered, her answer calming me down slightly, but also not really. There was still more to think about this new circumstance.

"I mean, I’m still me—just a bit more bubbly than usual, and with more memories than I ever asked for."

She tried to sound casual, but I could tell something was bothering her. Trish’s memories were there too—cities called Beijing, London, and countless other places she had never heard of before.

Nothing in anything she’d ever read came close to explaining what she was seeing in those memories. The technology, the absence of magic, the way people lived—the culture itself—everything was completely different.

Even though Trish’s personality and soul answered most of her questions, it still left Evelina deeply unsettled.

"But that still doesn’t excuse the fact that you were, once again, talking to other girls without telling me."

Evelina narrowed her eyes.

"Although it looks like you’ve already lost quite enough."

She cupped my cheek, her thumb brushing over my empty eye socket, feeling the absence of the powerful magic that used to flood my body.

"Let’s talk later, let me get us out of here first," she said.

[Dark Step]

*** D’Arclight Estate - Third Person POV

She had teleported them to the D’Arclight physician’s house, a building filled with high-ranked doctors and healers hired by Vredemann to keep his estate running at peak efficiency.

But because of the skill of the D’Arclight pawns—and the D’Arclights themselves—the place was usually quiet.

Their last patient had been at least a year ago, when one of the D’Arclights was seriously injured during a spar with another.

"My lady, this is...?" the head physician asked, closing a book he was reading the moment he had heard someone enter the building without opening the door.

"You’ve heard of him before. Take care of him." Evelina replied bluntly.

"Your will be done, my lady."

The head physician just nodded at her command, ringing a bell by his desk to alert the others to a new patient.

"You brought me here?" Cael asked, unsure if this was really a good idea.

"The cat’s out of the bag. There’s no use hiding our relationship after everything that’s happened. Once the Hunt is officially over, we’ll have to deal with the fallout."

"Right..."

Cael let out a small laugh, remembering Evelina’s dramatic entrance when she had rescued him from the onslaught of spells after he was marked. There was no way they could excuse that.

He felt the loss of his eye even more keenly now. There was no way he could afford to end up in a situation like that again. He no longer had any recovery spells strong enough to keep him alive through it.

"Rest. I have other things to do," she said.

"I know you’re planning something reckless."

"Was I really that obvious?" She smirked mischievously. "Don’t worry about it. I’m just tying up some loose ends. I’ll tell you all about it later."

"It has something to do with Fiona, doesn’t it?" Cael asked. He already had a rough idea of what she was about to do; he’d been suspicious of Fiona’s disregard for her family the entire time she was alive, after all.

"Yes. But enough of this—get yourself healed before I get mad at you."

Evelina crossed her arms.

Cael reluctantly accepted her explanation and allowed himself to be led to a room to be examined. The physicians were clearly excited about the prospect of treating him.

Not only was he a rare stranger who had received personal notice from the D’Arclights, but he was also a local legend at this point, considering all the reports they’d heard about him.

They might be physicians, but they were still D’Arclight physicians. They had access to information most nobles didn’t—and that included information from the Arden family.

’The Whitestrakes, huh?’

Evelina’s eyes shimmered darkly.

’I guess I should tie up some loose ends first.’

She spoke, the inner Fiona in her slightly taking over.

Evelina couldn’t help a small chuckle. She already had her fair share of problems, but now she had even more.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. Time apart should be good for them—both for her and for Cael’s conflicted mind. He might have been fine for now, but she assumed it was only because of the adrenaline.

Once he calmed down, he would definitely face a crisis, considering his greatest regret had just returned in the form of his new love.

"Stay strong for me..."

She whispered the words, then snapped her fingers. The pressure around the D’Arclight estate instantly doubled.

"Yes, my lady?"

A man in common clothes stepped out from a shadowed corner, the kind of person who could vanish into any crowd without drawing a second glance.

He was a member of one of the D’Arclights’ elite kill squads.

"Crimson will spill."

She spoke the code phrase—one that the assassin understood perfectly.

An entire noble bloodline was about to be wiped off the map.

The target this time?

The Whitestrake family.