[Full] The Villainess Just Wants to Live Quietly! (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 14
Long ago, a frail and tiny boy entered the room next to the laboratory where Askan stayed.
Since countless children had come and gone at intervals of several days, Askan had never cared who stayed in the adjacent room.
But this boy was different. He couldn’t ignore him even if he wanted to—because the boy talked far too much.
“Hey, big brother! How long have you been here?”
Askan couldn’t remember.
All of his memories were in the laboratory.
He could only guess he’d probably been here since infancy.
“Wow, so you’ve lived here for a really long time, huh?”
The boy kept asking questions nonstop, as if bursting with curiosity.
Askan barely answered, yet the boy never stopped chattering.
“My mom promised she’d come get me once things got better for her. So I’m just waiting here for her.”
The moment he heard those words, Askan understood.
Ah, he’s been abandoned.
Though Askan had no memory of his own parents, even he could recognize that much just by being here.
Most of the children in the lab were like that—either orphans with no parents, or children sold by impoverished families.
The boy, known only as No. 1890,
didn’t have a particularly unique story.
What set him apart was that, unlike others who denied reality by sobbing every night, he genuinely waited for his parents to come.
“Big brother, do you know how to write letters?”
Askan had survived unusually long in the lab and had undergone intelligence testing. Thanks to that, he could not only read and write but also possessed some specialized knowledge.
“Could you teach me how to write letters too? I want to show off to Mom when I see her.”
In a word, he was truly an annoying child.
Every time the boy started chattering, Askan would cover his ears and lie down on the bed.
His parents would never come anyway.
He didn’t want to shatter the boy’s dream of living in fantasy, but neither did he wish to indulge in his absurd delusions.
Yet no matter how firmly Askan built his walls, the boy kept trailing after him, as if finding some inexplicable joy in it.
Perhaps that’s why?
At some point, his gaze started wandering toward the boy.
Maybe this was what people commonly called “affection.”
The boy lasted quite a while in the adjacent room.
Just as Askan was unknowingly growing accustomed to his incessant chatter,
one night he discovered the boy secretly coughing up blood.
He immediately recognized it as a side effect of the experiments—he knew those who coughed up blood like that disappeared before long.
“Big brother, please keep it a secret from the men. If they find out I’m coughing up blood, they might kick me out. I have to wait here until Mom comes!”
The boy was foolishly innocent.
No matter how long he waited, his parents would never come—and even if he tried to hide it, there was no way to conceal it.
As time passed, the already small and thin boy grew visibly sicker.
Watching him, Askan felt an inexplicable rage welling up inside.
He needed medicine.
Even if the boy wouldn’t live much longer…
he wanted at least some painkiller to ease his suffering.
But no matter how loudly Askan screamed or caused a commotion, no one listened.
Not a single person gave the boy even one painkiller.
Though he’d thought he’d grown accustomed to it, deep inside, resentment surged.
Hundreds, even thousands of experimental drugs were used freely, yet they wouldn’t spare a common painkiller—because the boy’s life wasn’t worth even a single pill.
Everyone cared only about the results of the human weapon experiments. No one cared about those dying like lab rats.
On the day the boy coughed up blood more profusely than usual, he was dragged back into the laboratory once again.
Askan instinctively knew—if the boy was taken now, he’d never return.
The boy probably understood his condition well too.
“Big brother! Big brother! I don’t want to go! Save me!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Askan pounded the door with all his might and shouted.
Don’t take him away.
He doesn’t want to go!
It was the first time in his life he’d shouted so loudly.
He knew burly men would soon arrive with sedatives and beat him into submission, but he couldn’t just stand by any longer.
Perhaps because of his frantic outburst?
The researcher’s face twisted in annoyance as he led the boy away.
“Where do you get off playing these pathetic friendship games? You clearly don’t understand your place—so I’ll make it perfectly clear right now.”
Askan couldn’t know exactly what the researcher was thinking then, but one thing was certain.
He knew precisely how to ensure Askan would never cause trouble again.
“Listen carefully, No. 1890. There’s only one way for you to avoid the experiment.”
The researcher pointed straight at Askan.
“You let No. 13 take your place.”
In that instant, the boy’s eyes changed.
His despairing expression brightened as if by magic.
Askan understood without being told—the boy felt relieved knowing he could send Askan to hell in his stead.
Intellectually, he understood—but it stirred conflicted emotions within him.
If the researcher had asked Askan the same question, he would have answered without hesitation that he’d take the experiment in the boy’s place.
Yet something felt wrong about the boy’s eagerness to accept this arrangement.
Askan had wanted to save the boy from hell—but the boy would have sent Askan straight into it if it meant his own salvation.
That difference was painfully clear.
His stomach twisted.
The researcher’s intention was obvious: to put an end to these pointless displays of emotion.
Sneering as he watched the speechless Askan stand there, the researcher didn’t need to utter a word—his expression said it all.
See? This is all your little “friendship” amounts to.
Askan felt as if a bucket of icy water had been dumped over him.
“Big brother, big brother… you’ll go in my place, right? Please… I’m weaker than you.”
The boy would sell out anyone to avoid his own suffering—even Askan, who had helped him all this time.
He’d thought he understood…
but once again, Askan realized:
The world was alone.
No one would ever take his hand and walk with him through hell.
Frustratingly, the researcher’s calculation proved perfectly accurate. Askan knew he could never treat the boy the same way again.
Throughout the experiment he endured in the boy’s stead, he kept wondering what face he should show him afterward—but it was a pointless worry.
When he returned, the boy was already a cold corpse.
It was an utterly hollow ending.
‘Was it all just for this…?’
Knowing the boy couldn’t survive even one more day, why had he asked Askan to take his place?
Askan could only stare blankly as the boy’s body was discarded like trash.
He felt no sorrow—only a chilling numbness settled in his heart.
Truthfully, Askan’s future wasn’t much different from the boy’s. It was only a matter of time before he too would die from some experiment.
He hadn’t been born because he wanted to live—he’d merely breathed because he existed.
He’d always believed dying anytime wouldn’t matter; he held no attachment to life…
“Please… I heard my child is here. I beg you, I beg you—help me find my child!”
The moment he saw a pale-faced woman pleading desperately with a guard, the world Askan thought he knew crumbled.
“What! How did you even find this place? Get rid of this woman at once!”
The woman, dragged away roughly, looked unlikely to leave this place unharmed—she must have come prepared to risk her life.
High walls, countless guards.
Though no one knew exactly what this place was, anyone could tell it wasn’t ordinary.
He’d never once asked—where the boy came from, his name, his age.
Knowing only that he was called No. 1890, Askan couldn’t have recognized the boy’s parents even if they were the ones who’d waited so long.
Until now, it had seemed obvious—since no one ever came, they must all have been abandoned.
Askan never found out for certain if the woman he saw was truly No. 1890’s mother, but perhaps the children here weren’t all in the same situation after all.
He’d assumed everyone was alone—but maybe Askan was the only true loner.
Though he’d once thought the boy foolish for hoping, Askan realized he himself held no name he could call out in his final moment.
He was profoundly alone.
He’d always believed humans were selfish—capable of using and discarding even family when needed. But realizing that might not be true made him, for the first time, not want to die here.
‘Could someone out there risk their life for me like that?’
He’d never received affection, and his kindness had never been returned.
To him, emotions were as unreal as fairy tales read merely to learn letters.
Yet after seeing the woman who came searching for her child, he grew curious about the outside world for the first time.
Though the cold laboratory had been his entire world, he now wondered if another world might unfold beyond its walls.
Hope.
For the first time, this unfamiliar feeling began to sprout in his heart.
Rather than die quietly in the lab, he decided to make one final, desperate attempt.
From the moment he resolved to escape, nothing seemed difficult—after all, he had nothing to lose even if he failed.
Later, he succeeded in his life-or-death escape—but the world he found outside wasn’t much different from the lab.
“That boy’s just wearing shabby clothes—he might not even be a real slave. Are we sure we can sell him like this?”
“Don’t worry about useless things. What does it matter to us? We just need the money.”
Strangers who seized the collapsed Askan, treating him as a slave to profit from.
“Him? The slave Lady Tanasia loves to torment?”
“Yeah. Don’t even make eye contact. Getting tangled up with him will only give us headaches.”
Not a single person in House Brelrop had ever offered Askan a helping hand.
No one cared about the stranger Askan. Even outside the lab, he remained profoundly alone.
‘…Ah, is it different now from back then?’
Suddenly, Tanasia came to mind.
For some reason, she’d been unusually kind to him lately.
Lost unknowingly in memories of the past,
“Look! Look over there!”
Ed grabbed Askan’s arm and shook it, pointing up at a tree.
Following Ed’s finger, Askan saw a mouthwatering fruit hanging from the branches.
“Do you want to eat that?”
“Yeah, yeah!”
Askan lifted Ed lightly so he could pick the fruit himself.
Ed burst into gleeful laughter as his body floated into the air.
Perhaps because they were around the same age, Askan once again saw No. 1890’s face superimposed over Ed’s.
“Big brother! Big brother!”
If No. 1890 had somehow survived until now, he’d be much older than Ed. But Askan would never see that again.
He didn’t particularly miss No. 1890—it just felt sorrowful that the boy had no choice but to die like that.
Tap-tap-tap. Suddenly, rapid footsteps approached, and turning, Askan saw Lela—Ed’s mother—running toward them.
She must have been worried about Ed, even though she’d only left him with Askan briefly—evident from how she ran instead of walking.
Askan gently set Ed down and said softly,
“Be good to your mom.”
“Huh?”
Ed didn’t understand yet—but not everyone received their parents’ love as a given.
Instead of explaining, Askan simply placed a hand on the little boy’s head.
As Lela reached them, Ed immediately dashed toward her.
“Mooommy!”
Lela embraced Ed and thanked Askan.
“Thank you for watching my child, Askan.”
“Not at all.”
“If you ever need my help, just ask. I’ll help you too.”
“Understood.”
“Then we’ll be off. See you later.”
Lela took little Ed’s hand and walked away.
Askan quietly watched them leave. Even to his eyes, the tender sight of mother and son was heartwarming.
‘Could I ever be like that?’
A relationship where affection is both given and received—
meeting someone whose care wouldn’t change based on circumstance or personal gain.
He let out a quiet, self-mocking smile.
It was absurd to dream vaguely of such affection when he’d never received it himself.
Askan tore his gaze from Lela and Ed’s retreating figures and headed toward Tanasia’s room.
Knock knock. When he reached her door and knocked, Tanasia’s voice came from inside.
“Come in.”
After receiving permission and opening the door, he noticed the room looked different from usual.
Tanasia was surrounded by countless books—piled so high they nearly obscured her from view.
Though puzzled by the sight, Askan didn’t ask. Only the chosen could afford to voice their questions aloud.
“I heard you wanted to see me.”
“Ah, right. You’re later than I expected.”
Tanasia snapped shut the book she’d been reading and stood up. Only then could he see her face—beautiful and proud like a sculpture carved from ice.
Her sharp blue eyes sparkled as she continued.
“I called you here because I have something to tell you.”
“Yes, please go ahead.”
“I’ve decided my future path.”
“Your future path?”
“I’m going to create weapons. The most powerful weapons in the world.”
Askan couldn’t understand what Tanasia was talking about.
It was strange enough for a noble lady to develop weapons, but he couldn’t fathom why she’d want the world’s strongest weapons when she wasn’t even planning to conquer the continent.
Yet again, Askan didn’t ask. He only wondered why she’d summoned him.
“Do you have a task for me?”
“No, I’m just giving you a progress report.”
“Excuse me?”
“You might not understand yet, but this is for our happy future together. Remember? I told you I’d start the ‘Live Happily Ever After’ project. This is part of that process.”
Truthfully, Askan’s opinion didn’t matter. As her slave, he had to obey Tanasia’s orders regardless of his own will.
But lately, Tanasia had begun explaining things to him step by step. Though much of what she said remained incomprehensible, it felt as if she respected his opinion.
It was strange—no one had ever cared what he thought before.
“Last time, I was the one who first suggested traveling, but because of this, we’ll need to postpone it a bit—just so you know.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Dinner will be soon. I still have a little material to review—can you sit there and wait for a moment?”
“Understood.”
Askan obediently went to the spot Tanasia indicated.
She then resumed reading her book. Though unintentional, from where he sat, he could see her perfectly absorbed in her work.
Her focused blue eyes, her thoughtful expression, the way she tucked stray strands of hair behind her ear—
Unaware, Askan realized that, for this one moment, none of the memories from the laboratory surfaced.
No. 1890, the reason he’d escaped the lab, what he’d hoped to find outside—
everything felt distant.
When had it started? Without realizing it, all his attention had become fixed on Tanasia as she turned the pages of her book.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.
If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
Isn’t he is being cute, just let him be …ufff….