It Can't Be Me Who's the Villain!
“What? Come back right now?”
“...Yes. The goddess, moved by our devotion, has sent an apostle to us...”
“Are you seriously saying that right now?!”
The black knight Vargan was in the middle of crushing the city’s knight order and guards, all but wiping them out.
Just a little longer and he could move beyond suppressing the city’s forces to completely annihilating them.
As a high-ranking member of the Dark Cult and the black knight Vargan, he scowled even harder, his already fierce face twisting as he roared.
“Did you pick up some weird bastard somewhere? Or has that old fart Camon finally gone senile?”
“It’s true, sir. During worship, a bolt of lightning struck from nowhere and the apostle appeared before us.”
“And Camon called that thing an apostle?”
“Yes. Even to these lowly eyes, the apostle had righteous red eyes and an overwhelming aura of dignity.”
Vargan looked down at the fanatic whose face had gone ecstatic at the mere thought of the apostle. He tilted his head, expression skeptical.
“Hmm. You’re really telling the truth?”
The Leatress Church had split into two factions over its doctrines of sun and darkness.
Vargan, a former knight and traitor, had no choice but to join the Dark Cult, but he held no true faith in his heart.
As a former knight, he knew the truth.
The Sun Cult received a saintess and constant miracles of light, while this side got nothing.
Their base in the underground waterways was damp, empty, and no matter how much they prayed, nothing ever came back. It left them with little enthusiasm even for kidnapping the kingdom’s maidens.
He simply moved with purpose—to take revenge on the kingdom and to survive as a successful traitor.
And now, suddenly, an apostle?
Vargan narrowed his eyes and glared at the believer who had delivered the news. Then he turned to the mage standing beside him.
“Hey, Akines. Does this make any sense to you?”
Akines, one of the Dark Cult’s three executives and a black mage, shrugged and slipped his wand back into his sleeve.
“It is a shame to pull back, but they’re prey we can catch anytime. Or what, Vargan? Are you saying you don’t have the confidence to kill those trembling fools tomorrow?”
“As if!”
“Then let’s go back. With our grand plan approaching, we should give High Priest Camon a chance to look good. Besides, this new apostle might help with the invasion. Making a good first impression is important, after all.”
“...Ugh. Can’t be helped.”
Black Knight Commander Vargan gave the signal, hurriedly calling back his subordinates who had spread out like guerrillas across the city to hunt soldiers.
He didn’t quite believe the sudden talk of an apostle, but they had to prepare for any possibility.
If someone as exceptional as the Sun Cult’s saintess had descended upon the Dark Cult, the entire situation could change.
Bowing his head to some brat who had fallen from who-knows-where didn’t suit his tastes, but who could say for sure?
Perhaps the Leatress, taking pity on them, really had sent down an apostle of darkness.
After finishing off the remaining soldiers around him, Vargan slipped into the underground waterways with his Dark Cult comrades.
The waterways were damp and filthy, but their complexity made it hard for outsiders to find their way.
A perfect hiding place for fugitives.
Even if pursuers came in after them, the cultists who knew the layout held the advantage.
Splash. Splash.
Dirty water scattered beneath the footsteps of the darkly clad knight and mage.
In contrast, the members of the Dark Cult moved in a tight cluster through the narrow passages.
To any kingdom citizen who saw them they would be fanatics! Murderers! Villains worth screaming about, but among themselves, after hunting the kingdom’s knights and soldiers together, they had developed the tight bond of comrades-in-arms.
“If the guy’s useless, we should just kill him!”
That was why, even when Black Knight Vargan spat out such blasphemous words, none of them showed any displeasure.
Only the fanatic who had delivered the news frowned deeply.
Even Black Mage Akines chuckled at the barbaric remark.
Vargan’s mood rose even higher. He nodded firmly and added another line.
“Right. If it’s a pretty girl, I could spare a night for her.”
It was an outlet for his dissatisfaction at the forced retreat.
It was also a reminder to his subordinates about who was above whom, in case a superior really had appeared.
If it truly was an apostle, he would have to bow, but the apostle wouldn’t have heard a conversation held this far away. Killing a single fanatic would keep any rumors from spreading.
“I wonder what our apostle’s face looks like?”
The runaway knight Vargan wanted to solidify his position even within the Dark Cult.
He wanted to raise his crushed self-esteem.
Unlike in the past, having grown used to life as a cult executive had distanced him from his old instincts.
…Creak.
But his senses and survival instincts from his knight days were still very much alive.
“Huh?”
The first to react to the noise coming from the far side of the waterway was Black Knight Vargan.
His eyes darted around. Then the smell of blood hit him and he froze in place.
When their commander stopped, the black knights following him halted at once. Black Mage Akines frowned and drew his wand.
“Detect.”
The black mage scattered his mana through the dark passage and waited for the detection results.
At first his face was fairly relaxed, but it soon stiffened.
Shocked by what the spell revealed, the black mage’s eyes widened as he shouted.
“Prepare to defend! They’re coming!!”
Akines hurriedly prepared defensive magic. The black knights watching him wondered what could possibly be coming to make him react like this.
But the moment they saw the wave of blood surging from the far end of the waterway, they immediately understood the threat to their lives.
At the front was a blood dragon, followed by a horde of beasts.
Their very forms were like manifestations of hell, and the stench of blood piercing their noses overwhelmed their minds.
The black knights raised their swords with trembling eyes as they stared at the wave of blood.
Crunch—!!!
They were swallowed whole.
Only Commander Vargan somehow endured, tossed about by the Blood Seed’s ferocious charge.
He swung his sword to cut down the beasts and held his center with a pitch-black shield.
…Yes. The shield.
It was a relief he had it.
Without the shield, he would have been swept away like the rest of his men.
Vargan felt a surge of genuine gratitude for its existence.
Having barely weathered the wave from behind his shield, he immediately turned his head toward Black Mage Akines.
They needed to get to the surface right now.
If another wave came, he wouldn’t be able to hold on.
So they should blast a hole in the ceiling and escape—that was what Vargan intended to ask Akines.
But when he turned his gaze, he found a woman standing there.
“...Guh, urk.”
“Hmm. Are you the last one?”
It was a beautiful woman who had pierced Black Mage Akines’s throat with a jet-black sword.
Akines’s eyes rolled back in a final spasm. At the same time, Vargan’s heart plummeted.
Black hair and glowing red eyes. If an apostle of evil truly existed, this was exactly what she would look like…
The thought left Vargan unable to even consider raising his sword. He simply muttered in a daze.
“Damn it.”
A blade drove straight into his forehead.
***
Somora, the pleasure city of the Arsene Kingdom.
It was a city of never-ending night where darkness never came even after the sun set—a true city that never sleeps.
Countless taverns, gambling dens, and brothels that even high officials from the capital visited. The streets of Somora glowed and bustled even in the dead of night.
For those with money and power, there was no better place to indulge in pleasure.
“This time I’m really quitting.”
However, Marcus, captain of Somora’s guard, let out a heavy sigh.
He had just received word that those damned fanatics were rampaging through the city.
As captain, he should have been leading the response, but…
“Fucking chancellor.”
The kingdom’s great chancellor had come for a visit. While he enjoyed a famous courtesan, Marcus and his men were ordered to guard the streets.
Following that command, Captain Marcus stood in full armor with his soldiers, blankly watching the peaceful yet hedonistic streets.
…Was this really the right thing to do while his men were getting stabbed?
He had long known the higher-ups did whatever they wanted, but this was completely incomprehensible.
‘Ah, I wish this rotten world would just collapse. All the corrupt nobles, officials, and superiors—dead.’
The kind of wish any ordinary office worker might mutter inwardly.
Marcus looked up at the pitch-black sky and made that lifelong wish.
If he lowered his gaze even a little, the dazzling streets of debauchery would blind him.
Standing in the same place yet living in completely opposite worlds.
As Captain Marcus lamented his and his soldiers’ miserable fate, he suddenly thought he heard something.
…Boom.
Like something heavy falling.
Marcus tilted his head and asked the soldier beside him.
“Didn’t you hear that sound?”
“Huh? What sound, sir?”
The soldier looked confused. Marcus simply nodded without blaming him.
After all, this was a city of pleasure.
Prostitutes and workers shouting for customers, crowds of nighttime revelers filling the bustling streets.
In a place where silence was rare, asking if anyone had heard a noise might have been a foolish question.
…Boom. Boom.
So Marcus closed his eyes alone and focused on the sound.
The noise of something heavy falling continued. It didn’t seem to be his imagination.
Thud. Thud. Somehow the ground beneath his feet seemed to vibrate with each impact.
‘Hmm. It feels like it’s getting closer.’
A strange feeling came over him. Marcus quietly opened his eyes.
“...Guhhhk.”
A soldier was staring somewhere with an expression like he had forgotten how to breathe.
This time the captain didn’t ask what he was looking at.
There was no need. Just turning his gaze slightly revealed everything.
Everyone on the street was staring at it.
…Boom! Boom!
Into the pleasure district, the city of never-ending night, something pitch-black had begun to walk.
It was larger than the tallest building on the street. If it hadn’t been walking on two legs, no one would have thought it was even a living creature.
Bang! Craaaash!
The ‘darkness’ was marching through the streets of pleasure.
Captain Marcus, who should have been blocking its path, gripped his spear with trembling hands. But strength soon left his fingers and the weapon clattered to the ground.
The monster’s heavy footsteps crushed the thin sound.
“...Aaaah.”
It was behavior unbecoming of a soldier, yet he felt no shame.
That was a disaster no human could possibly resist.
As a mere man, he fell to his knees and waited for his death.
“It’s Godzilla.”
When he finally lowered his gaze, he saw her.
A girl who looked about the same age as his daughter, who had only recently become an adult.
The woman standing a step ahead of the monster pointed somewhere with a bright, innocent smile.
It was the brothel the chancellor had entered.
“Kill.”
Before Marcus could even feel doubt, the monster raised its hand and slammed it down on the building.
Craaaaaash──!!!
The brightly lit street exploded.
