Chapter 297: Can’t a Common Sense Alteration Villain Dream of Pure Love? (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 297: Can’t a Common Sense Alteration Villain Dream of Pure Love? (5)
The heinous criminal, who had succeeded in brainwashing ninety percent of Leilan Academy, smiled as she watched the impurities in the perfect world she had created fall into a crisis.
She had used a bit too much power, but brainwashing those two had definitely been the right choice.
Now, it was only a matter of time before they were dragged before her.
If those fools had just obediently shown me some pure love, they could have lived in this perfect world without any trouble.
Since you kicked away your chance, I’ll use brainwashing to turn you into a guardian of pure love—a romantic to the very bone.
“Haha…!”
As she burst into laughter, intoxicated by herself and the perfect world she was about to complete—
“Hello?”
A girl offered a greeting.
“Hm?”
“My name is Luna. It’s the name my Papa gave me.”
The villain knew her. She had seen this girl in the information gathered from the others she had brainwashed.
She was a cute girl whose white dress contrasted beautifully with her black hair, but her presence here was highly outside the realm of common sense.
After all, even by her own recognition, the woman was undeniably a heinous criminal.
Well, putting aside what kind of heinous criminal’s goal was merely to watch sweet, pure love—and why they would cause such a large-scale incident for it—objectively speaking, her decisiveness and ability to carry it out without hesitation made her a villain.
“Woof!”
Suddenly, a cute girl and a puppy… no, was it a wolf? Anyway, a pet. It was a very dangerous scene to be in front of her.
“I’m a very dangerous person, little lady. Shouldn’t you go back home?”
As a civilized citizen, she intended to use her brainwashing to send the child back, but—
“Oh, that doesn’t work on me.”
The child smiled, nullifying her ability. No, it wasn’t even nullification. Since the girl hadn’t even attempted to resist, it was more accurate to say she had simply ignored it.
“Grrr…!”
“It’s okay. This person might be helpful to us. Be a good boy, okay?”
The sight of her stroking her pet was quite precious, but it only made the villain more tense. It seemed she was currently facing one of those ‘things it’s better not to get involved with in life.’
“It’s okay. I just came here because there’s something I want to ask of you. As long as you grant my request, I don’t really plan on doing anything.”
Which meant that if she didn’t grant it, the possibility of her doing ‘something’ would arise.
Did this girl understand that playing with her pet as if she truly didn’t care actually created more of a sense of dread? She might not be a real child, but the villain had never seen a kid so skilled at intimidation.
“You see, I want my Papa to be happier. My Papa is really kind, but he’s not very happy compared to how kind he is.”
…That was a cute wish befitting her age, but so what?
“My Papa has nightmares often. But when the people who like him are around, it gets a little better.”
“Is that so…?”
“Yes. But it’s hard for many people to be around when he’s sleeping. Even when Mama or I stay by his side, he sometimes wakes up alone, trembling in anxiety. He looks around and feels relieved, but it’s pitiful.”
What kind of wish was this small child trying to make? The girl’s father—Kang So-hyun—was already loved by many. That was exactly why the villain had chosen him to be her protagonist.
“So, I want everyone in the whole world to love my Papa.”
However, what the girl said far exceeded her imagination. It was a very pure and kind wish that a child might think of, but at the same time, it was a desire that completely disregarded the feelings of anyone other than her father.
“…Huh?”
“I want him to live only smiling with the people he loves, with no one to hate him, no one to put him in danger, and no more need for him to tremble in fear. To do that, the simplest way is for everyone in the world to love Papa.”
And this girl had found her and was intending to use her as a ‘tool.’
Unfortunately, regardless of her willingness to cooperate, this girl was mistaken.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”
“Eh? Why?”
The way she asked ‘why’ with such genuine innocence was terrifying, but what was impossible was impossible.
“First of all, I can’t cast hypnosis that the target truly hates. I can only change them into a form that they themselves desire to some extent.”
That was the first limitation of her ability. As powerful as her talent was, its restrictions were equally strong; it was impossible to create a desire that didn’t exist in the target’s heart at all.
“And at the same time, I can’t use brainwashing to direct a scene other than what I want to see.”
This wasn’t a limitation of the ability itself, but a sort of habit or jinx. For a long time, whenever she tried to cast hypnosis related to anything other than pure love, she would break out in hives or the effect would be so weak it failed.
In fact, if Kang So-hyun hadn’t had the past experience of gaining popularity by singing, the idol concept would have been impossible in this current brainwashing as well.
Upon hearing the answer, the girl’s fair face crumpled slightly.
“What?”
The voice that flowed from the girl’s mouth immediately after was much colder than expected.
“You’re more useless than I thought.”
She felt like a completely different person from the girl who had been talking to her just a moment ago.
“No, wait. Just in case, should I try testing it out?”
“Woof!”
And with that, the girl stepped toward her and reached out a hand.
* * *
“What? Is that true?”
In front of the two professors who had begun to look at each other strangely, Lilac suddenly started talking to himself. Since I couldn’t hear anything, it looked odd, but he was likely communicating with a spirit.
“So-hyun. It seems the brainwashing on those two has weakened a bit.”
“Huh?”
“It was already a bit unstable, but the brainwashing suddenly shook violently and seems to have weakened significantly.”
That was good news, but why so suddenly?
“But it seems their hostility toward us hasn’t changed.”
“The spirit says that if we can give them a huge mental shock, the brainwashing might break completely. But is there any shock big enough to shake those two?”
“Yeah, that’s easier said than done. Of all people, it had to be those two…”
Wait, was it? I might not know about Professor Park A-ram, but I did know one piece of information that could severely shake the Chairperson.
“…Did the spirit say whether they keep their memories or not when the brainwashing breaks?”
“Oh? I’ll ask.”
I waited with a tiny sliver of hope, but the answer was as expected.
“Sorry, it says it doesn’t know that much.”
…Well, it’s not like it’s your fault. You’ve already done a lot more than usual.
“Fine. Then I’ll try to neutralize the Chairperson, so cover your ears.”
“Huh? Do you have a good idea?”
“…I do, so don’t worry and cover your ears. The dignity of one person and the lives of us both are at stake.”
“…Isn’t that dangerous?”
“It’s damn dangerous, but we have to solve this incident, don’t we?”
Lilac seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then he covered his ears and closed his eyes.
“I’m being dead serious—tell me if you can hear me. If you mess this up, we both die, okay?”
Judging by the lack of reaction, it seemed he couldn’t hear me. Well, he wasn’t the type to joke around with something like this.
…Alright, then. Their diss battle seems to be ending soon, so let’s get ready.
“Chairperson.”
“No, I told you to call me more affectionately, Cadet Kang So-hyun.”
“That diary. It wasn’t a diary; it was a novel.”
“…Huh? W-what, what, wha… No, huh? You. No, you. You said you didn’t, didn’t see it…!”
…Wow, she’s stuttering like crazy.
“Goblins, orcs, bandits, grave robbers, poachers, villains, and even a slave market. You described a wide variety of opponents and situations.”
Her eyes weren’t just shaking; they were spinning like whirlpools, but it didn’t seem like the brainwashing had broken yet. I hoped it would break at this point, but I had no choice.
“But strangely, the protagonist was always the same. Well, the age changed depending on the period, but basically, the protagonist was always a precious High Elf princess, wasn’t she?”
“S-stop! Please! I’m begging you! Cadet Kang So-hyun! My head…! My head feels like it’s going to split…!”
…No, I can’t stop here. Since I’ve decided to do this, I have to thoroughly destroy her brain… no, I mean, I have to break the brainwashing completely, or she might develop a resistance.
“You seemed quite excited about her being forced by villains. Do you still like that kind of thing these days?”
“Aaaaah! No…! I said no! It’s not like that! That was just the impulsiveness of my youth…!”
…Wait? This shouldn’t be happening, but this is actually kind of fun. Seeing the usually dignified Chairperson tearfully begging me to stop… should I say it feels a bit chilling? It felt like a new door was about to open.
“Especially your favorite part, the play where she’s slowly broken by a mysterious villain. Your favorite line was—”
“AAAAAAAAGH! I TOLD YOU TO STOP!!!!”
The moment the Chairperson began to manifest a storm in her hands, I thought I had failed to pace myself, but surprisingly, her target wasn’t me—it was her own head.
“Fly away, memories…!”
Shouting a nonsensical line, the Chairperson slammed an Arrow of the Storm into her own head and fainted.
…She didn’t die, did she?
“…Uh, Leilan, what on earth are you doing?”
And the other formidable foe, currently in a state of confusion, tilted her head as if she couldn’t understand why her friend had made such a choice, before turning her gaze back to us.
“Hey, Lilac. Snap out of it now.”
“Huh? Is it over? Whoa! What! The Chairperson really collapsed…!?”
When I tapped Lilac to call him, he looked genuinely surprised, as if he really hadn’t heard a single word.
“Get it together. It’ll be tough for the two of us to handle her, too.”
“Hah, I wasn’t going to pull this out since Leilan was here, but I guess I have no choice but to get serious now.”
Right. The remaining one wasn’t someone we could afford to be careless against either. If we were just facing her in her current form, the two of us could easily suppress her, but she had another side to her.
Her true form, which could exert Calamity-class power all by herself.
It was her trump card, and she had said it was a rechargeable type, so normally she wouldn’t use it against us. But perhaps because of the brainwashing, she seemed incredibly serious.
“Hey, don’t even think about going on the offensive first. I’ll support you with reinforcements, so let’s focus on enduring her attacks with the Holy Sword as much as possible.”
“Got it.”
As I used reinforcement on the serious-looking Lilac, Professor Park A-ram began to exude a vast amount of mana.
Her overwhelming presence reminded me of the day I faced the Demon King who had descended upon the earth. The platinum mana flowing around her according to her will seemed to testify to just how powerful the enemy before us was.
To the point where the yellow chick hat on her head didn’t diminish her intimidation in the slightest.
I’d probably need a 4-stack Reinforcement to even stand a chance.
Steeling my resolve, I began the second reinforcement on Lilac, but for some reason, the Platinum Chick Witch didn’t move an inch.
“What.”
“Huh?”
“Pardon?”
“What, on earth, is… this…!”
Wait. Could it be?
“Professor, have you come to your senses?”
“No, K-Kang So-hyun…? No, no. Whatever that was until just now, something was wrong. Yes, of course. Why would I ever call Kang So-hyun ‘Oppa’!”
So, was that it? The moment she unleashed her power and regained her true form, did the weakened brainwashing break on its own due to her immense resistance?
Well, that was something to be grateful for.
“Ugh… No. This is a dream. Yes, of course. There’s no way this could be reality! Haha!”
It didn’t seem like something she was particularly grateful for, though.
“Shit! There’s no way this is reality! Fly away, memories…!”
A massive amount of condensed platinum mana drew a giant magic circle. Immediately after completing the circle above her head, an intense burst of platinum light poured down upon her.
…And by the time the light faded, all that remained was the professor, returned to her child-like body.
“…Let’s go. We have to catch the culprit before there are any more victims.”
“Uh… let’s regroup with the seniors.”
Just as we were about to leave—
“K-Kang So-hyun.”
Ah, geez. You scared me. She was still awake.
“Culprit… Academy… Roof…”
With those final words, Professor Park A-ram truly lost consciousness.
And so, built upon the sacrifices of our allies, we finally managed to grasp a clue about the culprit.