I Became Blind
I read a novel about a blind protagonist.
At first, I started reading because I was curious how a hero who couldn’t even see in front of him was supposed to carry the story.
And yet, everyone else could see just fine.
I thought it was absurd, but it was entertaining, so I kept going.
Then, would you look at that.
“I can’t see!”
I had become blind.
***
At first, I was terrified.
When I woke up, I couldn’t see anything in front of me.
Thinking I might have caught some disease, I reached for my phone to call an ambulance.
But no matter how hard I searched, nothing came within my grasp.
I was flailing my arms around when I heard it.
Clang!
The sharp ring of metal striking metal.
I jerked my hands around in surprise, and realized the sound was coming from my wrists.
H-handcuffs?
I couldn’t see them, but the cold touch and the clinking metal told me enough.
“What the hell is this…?”
I was stunned.
Not only could I not see, but my hands were handcuffed too?
I couldn’t keep my sanity intact.
“H-hey, you bastard! Who are you? Show yourself! Get out here!”
At last, the fear I’d been holding in burst out as a scream that rang in all directions.
And the price for it was higher than I’d expected.
“You fucking bastard! Just because I’ve been indulging you, you think there’s nothing you can’t do, huh?”
A rough, gravelly male voice appeared.
And then he beat the hell out of me.
Right up to the brink of death.
“Ghk… ugh… s-stop….”
“Tch. If you weren’t merchandise, I would’ve killed you right here. You should be grateful you’re lucky.”
After the man left.
I lay sprawled on the floor, groaning for a long while before I finally came to my senses.
And then I understood my situation.
I was a slave.
Seriously?
Of course, at first I didn’t believe it.
There was no way slavery still existed on the land of modern-day South Korea.
But it was real.
“Status window?”
A status window floated up before my eyes.
If you asked me how I saw it when I couldn’t see, I wouldn’t know how to answer.
It just appeared in my mind as if it had always been there.
[Status Window]
Name: Kael
Status: Slave
Skills: [Absolute Perception] [Infinite Growth]
When I first saw the status window, I thought it was some hallucination created by my desperate refusal to accept reality.
But no matter how much time passed, it never disappeared.
In the end, I had to accept that I had awakened in the body of someone named Kael.
After that, I examined the status window one by one.
[Absolute Perception]
Your sight is sealed.
All senses except sight are developed to the absolute limit.
When night falls, sight is restored and the sixth sense awakens.
[Infinite Growth]
When sight cannot be used, the growth rate of skill proficiency increases by 500%.
…….
After reading the skill descriptions, I understood why I couldn’t see.
And then, thanks to the message that followed, I understood why I had been brought here in the first place.
[Meet the right master and stop the destruction of Serapion.]
“Serapion?”
I remembered it.
A romance fantasy novel I’d picked up now and then for fun while reading that blind-protagonist story.
It was the name of the continent where the story was set.
The title was…
“I’ll Kill the Villainess and Live Happily Ever After with the Crown Prince”
or something like that.
“…Fuck.”
The curse slipped out before I could stop it.
I knew the ending all too well.
The entire continent turned to stone by the hands of a rampaging villainess.
That was the world I had opened my eyes in.
But why did I start out as a slave?
I understood perfectly well that I had possessed the body of some blind nobody in order to stop the end of the world.
But there was one thing I couldn’t make sense of.
If I remembered correctly, the novel’s main stage was the academy.
Not some dank, stinking slave market.
I didn’t understand it, but with handcuffs on, there was nothing I could do.
All I could do was wait to be sold to someone.
And then my first owner was decided.
“A blind slave? What use would I have for something like this? Sell him cheap.”
“Tch. He wasn’t selling anyway, so take him if you want.”
My first owner was a middle-aged man with a rather bulky frame.
His name was Penwise.
He was the circus director who ran a traveling circus.
He bought me and took me in as part of the circus.
“From today on, you’re the target.”
The first job he gave me was to become a target.
I was made the sacrificial prop for a knife-throwing act while blindfolded.
The problem was that the person throwing the knives was terrible at it.
Penwise knew that too, but he didn’t care much.
He knew that whether the knife stuck in my skull or missed entirely, the audience would still cheer.
In this godawful situation, I was the only one dissatisfied with being the target.
In the end, I was put on stage as the circus’s target without a single piece of protection.
“And now we’ll begin the knife-throwing performance!”
No sooner had Penwise finished speaking than the acrobat, blindfolded, hurled a knife.
Whoosh!
Ridiculously enough, the knife flew straight for my forehead.
I couldn’t see, but thanks to Absolute Perception, it was as clear as if my eyes were wide open.
I twisted my body and dodged the knife.
But to the audience, that must have looked like an amazing trick.
“Whoa! Didn’t they say that bastard’s blind?”
“How did he dodge that?”
“That’s thrilling as hell.”
The crowd’s reaction was incredible.
And Penwise caught the scent of money.
“From now on, wear this when you go up as the target.”
Penwise handed me a black blindfold.
Once I put it on, I felt like some modern-day supreme sorcerer who’d been cut in half at the waist.
After that, I became the signature star of Penwise Circus.
“He dodged again! Truly worthy of being the signature star of our Penwise Circus! Can he dodge this one too!”
As time went on, the show grew more and more extreme.
By the later acts, knives alone apparently weren’t enough, so they started firing off dozens of arrows at once.
Were they insane?
Thanks to that, I dodged death several times, but I didn’t come away empty-handed.
[The proficiency of your Evasion skill has increased.]
[Evasion (B) → Evasion (A)]
As the show continued, I gained the Evasion skill.
And as time passed, my proficiency accumulated until it rose to A-rank.
Of course, that wasn’t something that would have happened just because time passed.
[Infinite Growth]
When sight cannot be used, the growth rate of skill proficiency increases by 500%.
Without that skill, no matter how diligently I’d dodged those knives and gone through hell, Evasion would have remained stuck at C-rank.
In I’ll Kill the Villainess and Live Happily Ever After with the Crown Prince—or, for short, Villainess Killing—A-rank skills were rare.
Even if a swordsmanship skill reached B-rank, that was already equivalent to an imperial knight.
That was enough to show just how absurdly overpowered Infinite Growth was.
Once Evasion reached A-rank, I could dodge arrows while yawning.
And so I kept barely surviving day after day.
That was when it happened.
“Kael. You’ve suffered all this time. I’m sorry to have to part with you, but someone has come forward to buy you.”
Penwise sold me.
I didn’t really feel disappointed.
“So I won’t have to dodge knives or arrows anymore?”
Wherever I was being sold, it had to be better than a circus troupe determined to kill me.
“Of course you will. The place you’re being sold to is the academy.”
“The academy?”
As I spent the past year grinding away in the circus, a line I’d forgotten came back to me.
[Meet the right master and stop the destruction of Serapion.]
The continent with a future of destruction at the hands of the villainess.
Serapion.
To stop that destruction, I had to go to the academy where the villainess was.
And now the chance had finally come.
“Yes. You’re being sold to Serapion Academy, the academy named after the continent.”
“Nice!”
“Hm?”
“Ah, no, nothing at all. I just misspoke because I’m so heartbroken about having to say goodbye to you, Director.”
“Ahem. Behave yourself and live well there.”
“Of course. I plan to behave and live well. There won’t be any lunatics at the academy throwing knives or shooting arrows at me just to kill me.”
“……R-right.”
Penwise seemed to have something to be guilty about as well, because he didn’t press me any further.
“By the way, when do we leave?”
“I was just about to tell you that. You leave tomorrow morning. Keep that in mind.”
“That’s nice and fast.”
I was in a good mood at the thought that I’d finally be able to escape this godforsaken circus troupe.
I was still a slave, of course, but so what?
At least now my life wouldn’t be in danger.
“Oh, right! I have one more question.”
“What is it?”
“What kind of slave am I being sold as at the academy?”
“A butler.”
“A butler?”
I went blank at Penwise’s answer.
A butler?
I don’t know how to do that.
“Did you sell me to the wrong place? I don’t know the first thing about serving someone or anything like that.”
“No, I sold you correctly. They said they were looking for a useful slave who couldn’t see. You were a perfect fit.”
So they wanted a blind butler.
The buyer really did have peculiar tastes.
I, for my part, didn’t care as long as I could get into the academy.
“Fine. Then for real, just one last question.”
“What is it?”
Penwise should have been annoyed, but maybe because of how much I’d helped him earn over the years, or maybe because he’d grown attached to me, he answered all my questions one by one.
“Who’s my master?”
“The sole daughter of the Astellia family, apparently. I don’t know any more than that.”
“Hm, I see. Thanks for the answe—”
Something felt off.
Did I hear that right?
“W-what did you say?”
“Hm? I said she’s the sole daughter of the Astellia family. Now that I’ve told you everything, stop pestering me and get ready to leave.”
“N-no way….”
Watching Penwise grow distant, I began denying reality.
The Astellia family.
The sole daughter.
There was only one person those two clues could possibly bring to mind.
The villainess who would destroy the world.
Meddeia Astellia.
That was the name of my new master.
***
The next day.
A carriage sent by the Astellia family arrived.
They sent a carriage just to take one slave?
I was speechless.
Was slave treatment supposed to be this good?
“Get in.”
“Me? This thing?”
“Do you expect a blind man to walk there? Quit whining and get in already.”
The knight who had come to fetch me pushed me in the back.
Before I knew it, I was in the carriage, heading for the academy.
More precisely, for the Astellia family villa inside the academy.
The carriage raced along at high speed and arrived at the villa.
As expected of a ducal family that stood at one of the Empire’s pillars, the villa’s scale was no joke.
Just as I was dazed by the splendor, thinking they could probably buy some ordinary castle without breaking a sweat—
“The young lady has been waiting. Hurry up and get out.”
At the knight’s urging, I got out of the carriage.
Then I followed him until we reached a large door.
The knight took a deep breath and slowly knocked.
Knock. Knock.
“My lady. I’ve brought the slave we spoke of before.”
A moment later.
A voice came from within.
“Come in.”