Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 173

Her hair was yanked back, forcing her neck to bend painfully.

Her scalp burned as if it might be torn off, and a groan escaped her before she could even catch her breath, as a kick landed against her side.

Adeline couldn’t even scream—she could only endure the pain.

She held back, fearing she might be discovered, but on Genevieve’s side, a scream burst out.

“Ade… line… haah!”

As she tried to call Adeline’s name, a palm as large as a pot lid swung toward her face.

Adeline instinctively raised her arm to block it, but she was a moment too late.

A loud slap echoed—for an instant, she couldn’t hear, and her vision turned black.

The violence, unrestrained by any consideration, was merciless.

When Adeline barely opened her eyes, she saw the coarse, sneering face of the man before her. Her vision was hazy. The hypnotized man looked at her, but he was really seeing nothing at all.

He seemed less like a person and more like a doll—a doll devoid of any emotion.

Because of that, he could carry out such brutality without hesitation.

With a desperate urge to escape, Adeline dug her nails into the back of the man’s hand gripping her hair, but he didn’t even blink. It was as if he felt no pain at all.

“Lady Adeline, I’ll dispel him, so run… ah!”

Genevieve, her arms twisted behind her back, was held down, and her face was smashed against the floor.

In the meantime, Adeline took another kick to her stomach.

“Lady Adeline!”

A sharp, painful scream pierced the air.

The agony rattled her insides, sending waves of pain throughout her body, nearly making her lose consciousness. But Genevieve’s anguished cries struck her painfully, allowing Adeline to bite the inside of her cheek to stay focused.

Genevieve thrashed and shouted something, and finally, the man’s eyes grew clouded. Genevieve had successfully dispelled him.

Seizing the moment, Adeline swung the hammer she had been clutching, aiming for the man’s face.

She felt the impact but couldn’t tell if she’d knocked him down.

The man stumbled, loosening his grip on her, and Adeline crawled away, pressing herself against the wall.

“The little rats who tried to run came scurrying back.”

“And who the hell are you calling a rat…?”

Adeline, swallowing back curses, glared.

This was the first time seeing her face to face.

The face she had longed to see in her nightmares.

It might be too late now, but she wanted to burn this face—the face of the one who had done such vile things—into her memory.

It was a woman with long black hair.

Her neck, slender like that of a deer, stood out starkly white. Her eyes, long and shaded darkly, had a single beauty mark beneath the right one, adding an air of seductive arrogance.

So it was her. The sorcerer.

The final “character” completing the cast in this world.

With this, she had met all the key figures in the novel.

For a face she had yearned to see, it felt anything but welcome.

Seeing the fiery emotion sparking in those dark brown eyes as she looked at her, Adeline smirked. She had no idea why this woman hated her so much, but maybe she could use that seething anger to her advantage.

The sorcerer glanced at Adeline, who leaned against the wall, then at Genevieve, who knelt with her arms twisted behind her, and said,

“You two, right? Hiding away?”

“You’re the one who kidnapped us. Who gave you the right to call us rats, damn it.”

“A lot cruder than you look, aren’t you?”

“Who am I supposed to flatter here? This situation calls for a whole lot more than cursing.”

What was so amusing about this?

The sorcerer chuckled.

“I suppose. Getting compliments from a woman who’s about to die would just leave me with a bad taste in my dreams.”

“Stop! Please, leave Lady Adeline alone!”

Genevieve’s desperate shout made Adeline inwardly groan.

‘Not good, Genevieve…’

Adeline had been deliberately provoking the sorcerer, trying to make her attack her first.

Apart from the man restraining Genevieve, there was no one else here who seemed capable of backing up the sorcerer’s power. If she could make the woman lose her composure and attack first, they’d have a decent chance in hand-to-hand combat.

However, with Genevieve’s scream, it seemed the sorcerer had remembered who her real target was.