The Villainess's Precious Declaration
The living shadow. The villainess's declaration to date. This is quite precious, but..
"Not right now."
Yeah, now's not the time.
"Why.. whyyy..?"
The villainess stammered, her voice trembling with tears. Crying again? She's such a crybaby.
I gently stroked her cheek as I continued. Oh, so soft.
"My lady, you only just recovered from your illness. I should wait a little longer. And you've only just stopped taking the medicine."
That was just an excuse. If I started dating the villainess for real, both Faye the regressor and the head of the Floyd family would direct all their aggression straight at me. Pretend dating and actual dating were two different things. It was already a success just to have broken her stubbornness, but..
'If I really dated her, danger would come from every direction..'
Even if we dated, I had to deal with that gaslighting-crazed regressor first.
"Ugh.. I could do it now though.."
The villainess pouted and grumbled, but she couldn't properly argue back since it was for her own sake.
"And stop crying now, my lady. You look prettiest when you smile."
At that, she sucked her tears right back in and continued.
"Hmph.. That's all a lie, and you actually think the princess is prettier anyway."
The villainess had dropped all honorifics. If someone overheard, we'd be in trouble.
"If I liked the princess more, I'd be doing this with her instead of you, wouldn't I?"
She lowered her head and smirked at my words. How could someone this pure be a villainess? Society was the problem for turning her into this.
Seeing the villainess this soft lately made even me want to loosen up and just date her. I probably shouldn't let myself get carried away like this. Yeah, I'm the bad guy for constantly teasing someone this innocent..
-Boom!
While I was reflecting on myself, a sound like an explosion came from one side of the second-floor wall. No, part of the wall had actually blown out. Wasn't that the professors' lounge?
"Maybe the professors are fighting.. Let's head back to the classroom and see what's going on."
Rushing toward a wall that had just exploded wouldn't do any good. Besides, minor incidents like this happened all the time in the game, so it was probably nothing.
***
There was a time when I thought that too.
"Everyone, please calm down! The faculty is currently assessing the situation! Please remain quiet and refrain from speculation!"
A playable character had died. Liberra Ain. A steadfast member of the academy's faculty, known as the innovator of magic. Owner of the Six Magic Towers, Archmage, and one of the seven playable characters.. She had a lot of titles.
Anyway, someone like that was dead. But the surprising part was that it didn't end there.
'Wait, why is Dane still alive..?'
The one who killed him was Chloe's escort knight who had died in her place—another playable character. And the identity I was currently disguised as. The fact that he was Jerome Persie's older brother was the problem.
How did I know? 'Just look at all the shadows he's scattered everywhere!'
That guy was the romantic swordsman who used shadows. The only person who'd paint the surroundings pitch black with shadows was Dane.
Yeah, there was never any guarantee things would play out exactly like the game. I should've investigated somehow. Chloe would be at the murder scene right now trying to handle the situation. She must have noticed the traces left by Dane.
'..But why?'
There was no reason. Of course this never happened in Starlight. Liberra and Dane had no connection in the story whatsoever.
'Besides, it's not like he didn't die. From everything Chloe's said so far, Dane is definitely dead.'
Did he break out of his grave and get resurrected or something? That didn't make sense.
-Thud!
The moment I finished speaking, Chloe burst through the classroom door, looking like she'd come to find me. She pressed right up against me and spoke in a dazed voice.
"Dane.. Dane was definitely dead, right? I even buried him myself..?"
Chloe stared blankly into the air, muttering meaningless words as if her soul had left her body. This was seriously bad.
I shook the princess and asked, pretending not to know.
"Whose doing was it? Is there anyone in this world capable of killing Professor Liberra?"
She refocused her eyes on me and said,
"Ah.. Seb, I made a scene. To put it simply, your brother who we thought was dead is alive."
"Hurk..!"
I made a show of being shocked, then asked her again.
"How do you know that? Isn't that good news?"
Chloe ran a hand through her hair several times with a complicated expression, glanced around warily, then whispered into my ear with a grim look.
"The problem is that your brother is the one who killed Liberra."
So Chloe had noticed too. Well, that was that. I just hoped he wouldn't show up in front of the princess from now on.
"What are you whispering to Sebastian for! Do you want to get hit?"
The villainess, who still hadn't grasped the situation, protested from beside me, but..
"..Hic!"
Chloe's expression was terrifying enough that even the villainess had no choice but to back down. Her face was so serious that anyone could tell the conversation had been grave.
"..Please calm down for now and go look for more evidence or something. I'll collect myself as well."
Facing the princess's complicated expression head-on was too much pressure to bear. I sent the villainess away first and fell into thought.
'I still have to catch the other Demon Kings..'
Some strange guy had suddenly butted into my plan to hunt Demon Kings. And it was someone I never could've imagined, which made it even more shocking.
'I was about to smash the drug cartel too..'
My plan to send Ankillé to the altar was in danger of falling apart. Yeah, I had to deal with what I could confirm first. I couldn't catch Dane right away, so I'd set that aside for now.
'Alright, I have zero information right now, so I'll ignore it for the time being. If possible..'
I'd put Mr. Dane, who crawled out of his grave for whatever reason, right back in it. If he met the princess and said something like "Huh? That guy's not my brother," everything would be ruined.
'I'll deal with him before that..!'
Sorry to Dane, but I needed Chloe's help to save the villainess. In that sense, Dane was someone whose head I'd have to cut off the moment we met.
'Besides, just from the fact that he ambushed and killed the kind, peaceful Liberra first..'
He'd definitely undergone some kind of change of heart. Even if I killed Dane, it wouldn't be meaningless murder—it would be justice!
'But this is going to be troublesome too..'
I'd just found out that my benefactor, who I'd thought was dead, was alive. I couldn't exactly say "Let's go smash the drug cartel!" now, could I?
Honestly, Ankillé himself wasn't that difficult an opponent. He was a Demon King who used a special combat style, and I could handle him alone. The problem was the mercenaries hired by the drug cartel guarding that place. I'd need several people to cover me while I broke through and finished the job.
I'd been planning to get the princess's help and sweep them away with the imperial army all at once, but..
'..Should I change the plan?'
No, that wouldn't work. The more the drug cartel grew their forces, the harder Ankillé would be to take down, so finishing him off quickly was always the better option.
'Then I need to make the princess interested in the drug cartel..'
I had to think. Something that would make the princess set Dane aside and go after the drug cartel instead..
'Huh?'
Come to think of it, did I really need to set Dane aside? Couldn't I just draw aggro by saying Dane was involved with them?
***
"Hehehe.."
A high-grade mana herb I'd managed to embezzle during transport. Its color was so radiant that just looking at it made my heart race.
"You crazy bastard, what are you thinking, sneaking that out every time?"
Dave, who was assigned to drug transport with me, grumbled, but it didn't matter. Whether we got caught or not, I just wanted to savor this happiness right now.
"Idiots. They know drug addicts can't handle transport, so why do they keep doing drugs like that?"
The large-scale drug organization, Unknown. True to its name, it was a strange group where even after working here for a long time, you couldn't learn anything about the leader or the executives..
"As long as they pay well, that's all that matters! Who cares!"
They paid a lot, and the extra income from pocketing a few drugs and selling them on the side was decent, so it was basically just a regular job at this point.
"Us common folk have to make money however we can. When would we ever get rich doing only legal work?"
I did this kind of work at night, but during the day I had a respectable job at an investment firm. It's not like I enjoyed doing this. But after realizing that doing only legal work wouldn't be enough to feed my wife and kids, I couldn't give up this job that earned more in a short time than working all day.
Who could blame a father for sacrificing for his children?
"The more I do this job, the more worried I get. If we get caught even once, our lives are over, aren't they?"
Dave complained from the magic car, but he knew that wouldn't happen either. This was Unknown's exclusive drug transport route, far removed from the regular roads that wound through the mountains several times. Not only people, but even animals didn't pass through here. It might actually be safer than our own homes.
"Huh? Wait, isn't that a person?"
Dave, who was driving, muttered blankly while looking ahead.
"Hey, don't say ominous things like that. There's no way a person would be here.. Huh..?"
It was hard to see clearly, but the figure standing in the middle of the road holding something was definitely human-shaped.
"..Just run them over."
The decision didn't take long. This was deep in the mountains where no traces would remain. Showing kindness to a stranger and getting evidence on us would be the end. Since Unknown knew not just our information but our families' as well, there was no need to take unnecessary risks. Dave seemed to realize this too and nodded, pressing harder on the accelerator.
At that moment.
-Splat!
"..What the hell is that? A blood pack?"
A pack filled with blood slammed into the magic car's windshield.
-Crash!
And that was the last thing we saw before losing consciousness.