The Villainess's Black Stone
Another ducal lady, Beatrice. "Y-you...!" A frantic shout came from behind me. The sound of someone splashing through muddy sludge. When I turned my head, Duchess Valenti was stomping toward me, still covered in the remains of the tentacle monster she'd just been inside. Or rather, what a mess she was. Her expensive silk training uniform was completely soaked in swamp mud and tentacle mucus, making it impossible to tell its original color. Even her fancy rolled-up hair hung limp like seaweed, plastered messily against her cheeks. But still...
'Even covered in sludge, she's pretty.' The chaotic state actually stirred a strange sense of depravity in me. An artistic urge hit me to sketch out a few rough pages right then and there, but I held back.
"I am—haah, haah!—Beatrice of the Valenti ducal family!" She ran right up to me and declared it boldly. Her momentum made it look like she was about to challenge me to a duel. Her eyes, glaring at me, burned with an intense, unreadable heat.
She came charging in so confidently—what the hell did she even want to say? I just stared at her blankly, waiting for her to get to the point, which only seemed to fluster her more.
"N-no, wait. Is that really the right reaction after seeing me?"
"What kind of reaction were you expecting?"
"...Huh?"
Well, sure. A ducal lady like her was definitely a named character. But that didn't mean I had any obligation to make a big fuss over her. I already had my hands full with Judith as far as noble ladies went.
"Uh, um..." Beatrice stared at me with a look that screamed what kind of guy is this? After fidgeting for a long moment, she squeezed her eyes shut and finally screamed.
"Why—why didn't you pull me out of the mud!"
...Excuse me?
For a second, I thought I'd misheard her.
"You jumped into that disgusting mud pit with your bare body to save me, but then you didn't even carry me out of the swamp! That's what I'm asking!"
This was ridiculous. What kind of malicious complainer was this?
I hadn't gone in there to save her in the first place. I'd gone in to farm my cute little tentacle pet. I lightly ignored her and turned to Lena.
"Crank up the water pressure a bit, Lena. It's not coming off clean."
"Huh? O-okay!"
Beatrice was the one thrown off by my thorough ignoring strategy.
"I-I wasn't coming here to complain or anything!"
She seemed to realize what she'd just said a beat too late. Her pupils shook like there was an earthquake behind them. She clutched the tattered remains of her clothes with both hands, her face turning three times redder than before as she yelled.
"I came to say th-thank you! I-It's not like I'm moved or anything by something so trivial, but the Valenti ducal family will never forget this! In that sense..."
"No need. You can forget it."
"...What?"
"I didn't go in there to save you. I just had something to do."
At that moment, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a group of students sprinting at full speed deeper into the forest. Their movements were crisp, no wasted motion. Clearly one of the top-tier teams.
"Lena! Senior Dusik! Run!"
"Wait, what? Ian, hold on! You haven't finished washing off the mud...!"
"It's fine, just shake it off! Senior, hurry up too!"
I grabbed Lena's wrist and took off running.
"Hey...! Y-you! Waaaait!"
Her desperate voice called out from behind, but of course I didn't look back.
◆ A dungeon located on the outskirts of the training area. Judith's party with Adam was walking through a dark passageway.
"A dungeon in a place like this."
At Judith's suspicious grumble, Adam replied.
"Since it's a training exercise planned by the Magic Tower Master, it was never going to be ordinary, was it?"
"......"
But no answer came back. Adam bit his lip hard. As expected, Judith La Roche had far too much pride. The rumor was that if someone didn't meet her standards—or in other words, if they had no utility value—she wouldn't even speak to them and would simply ignore them. Since the Crown Prince wasn't taking Introduction to Magic Studies, Adam had joined under the next highest, Lady Judith, but he was already starting to regret his choice.
On top of that, he'd been feeling irritated lately because of that Ian Ash bastard. And now he had to endure this kind of humiliation too. When he remembered how Judith had spoken up for that Ian Ash kid during the Lena Youngstern disaster, as if protecting him, rage boiled up inside him.
'Me, inferior to Ian Ash?'
Absurd. He'd show his worth in this training exercise. Through that, he'd appeal to Judith. Even though he served the Crown Prince, it was always better to have more connections with high-ranking nobles.
"My lady, please be careful. Let me go first—"
The moment Adam stepped forward—
—Shweeeeeeek!
Something flew through the air with a tearing sound and embedded itself in his arm.
"Ugh!"
A stinging pain. At the same time, his vision spun violently.
'P-paralysis poison?'
Adam barely managed to steady himself. It wasn't a serious injury. The only thing that truly embarrassed him was...
"Are you alright?"
Judith turning to look at him with those expressionless eyes.
"I-I'm fine. Please go on ahead and leave me. After I recover a bit..."
"What recovery are you talking about? More importantly, the reason I specifically included a knight like you in this team was because I expected you to fulfill the tank role."
Judith's cold eyes scanned Adam's entire body.
"Haa... Let's take a short break here. James, please treat him."
"......"
Adam bit his lip again. The way she treated him like mere baggage. His face burned with humiliation.
—Crunch.
The annoying face of Ian Ash that he'd run into in the forest earlier flashed through his mind. That bastard who had mocked him with some crude joke about bodily functions. As those humiliating memories overlapped, Adam's anger reached its peak.
As he unclenched the fist he'd been making against the ground—
—Do you desire power?
"...Huh?"
A whisper reached his ear. When he turned toward the direction of the voice, he saw a single pitch-black stone fragment glowing strangely in his palm. It pulsed like a heartbeat, that black stone.
—Make a contract with me.
A soft, warm voice flowed into his mind. This was definitely not a proper item. A contract like this was clearly connected to the demon realm—
—I will grant you all the power you desire... It won't be that difficult.
'Power... you say?'
The humiliation he'd suffered from Ian Ash. The shame of being treated like an insect by Judith. Greed and inferiority swirled in Adam's eyes. Overwhelming power that could flip everything. Checking that no one was watching, Adam quietly slipped the black stone fragment into his pocket.
◆ "This place feels pretty ominous. Are you sure this is the right way?"
As I asked while walking through the gloomy dungeon interior, Senior Dusik, who was leading, scratched the back of his head and answered.
"I definitely saw them go this way."
Senior Dusik's eyesight was better than I'd thought. He'd found traces that Lena and I had completely missed.
...The problem was.
"There's a dungeon like this in the academy?"
It felt extremely suspicious. The walls were covered in moss, and the floor was so uneven it made walking uncomfortable. Sure enough—
"Kyaa!"
Lena, who was following behind, stepped wrong and slipped forward. I quickly caught her before she could fall. This girl. Why was her sense of balance so terrible?
"Want me to hold your hand?"
I teased her a little sarcastically. But—
"Huh? Uh... yeah."
What? The moment I turned to look at her in disbelief—
—Shweeeeeeek!
Something flashed as it flew straight toward us.
"Get down!"
I reflexively dove forward, wrapping my arms tightly around Lena's waist as we rolled across the floor.
"Kyaaah?!"
Good. We dodged it. The moment I felt relieved—
"Gaaah!"
A scream erupted from behind us. When I turned my head, Senior Dusik was crouched on the ground clutching his head. Whatever had flown out earlier must have bounced off the wall and smacked right into the demon horn sprouting from his forehead.
"Hey! Isn't that too much, you guys?! If you're gonna dodge, you should at least warn me!"
Senior Dusik whined with tears welling up in his eyes, his voice thick with resentment.
"You're from the demon race, Senior. I thought you were tough enough that a little rock wouldn't kill you."
"Demons are still people! We're like elves!"
"Whoa... That's some serious self-confidence."
"You little—!"
I shrugged shamelessly and brushed the dirt off my clothes. Senior Dusik grabbed the back of his neck in frustration, but what could he do? His over-the-top reactions were just too funny, so I couldn't help poking at him. Of course, if that thing had actually looked dangerous, I would've protected him too. But its trajectory had been far from where he was standing.
At that moment.
Tap—
Something tapped against my foot.
"Hm?"
A rock? But its shape looked off. It was a stone fragment with an unnaturally pitch-black texture that seemed to absorb all light. The moment I saw it, a strange hallucination rang inside my head.
Kukuku... Mortal, do you desire power...?
"What the hell is this?"
I nudged the stone fragment on the ground a few times with the tip of my shoe.
I have awakened from the deep darkness... Your deepest desires...
A sinister voice dug into my mind. This was that thing, wasn't it? It felt just like the crystal orb I'd touched during the aptitude test before.
...The problem was.
'Isn't this the item used as a demon realm contract token?'
Whether it was a romance fantasy or traditional fantasy, this was that obvious cliché item where villains would pick it up, brag about gaining power, and ultimately meet their downfall. But why the hell was this ridiculously important dark plot item just lying on the ground in our path like some random rock?
And wasn't this originally something that Ian Ash was supposed to touch and fall into corruption?