Helius (8) - I Can't Be a Villain
Helius (8) - I Can't Be a Villain
"Sherin..."
Rose's voice trembled.
Knight Commander Lloyd had clearly said that Sherin and Ailan had died miserably in pain.
'It was a lie.'
It was a malicious lie intended to plunge her into despair and break her.
"Rose-nim..."
Sherin was trembling.
Her silver hair was matted with blood and dust.
Clear bruises on her face and wounds revealed beneath her torn clothes.
And even dried tear tracks on her cheeks.
Rose could guess what terrible suffering she had endured.
But the most terrifying thing wasn't her wretched appearance.
Sherin's wavering gaze, looking at Rose.
Where that pitiful gaze moved to.
On the cold marble floor—
"Rose-nim, Ailan is..."
Sherin's younger brother, Ailan, was collapsed.
Fortunately, he wasn't dead yet.
His chest was subtly rising and falling.
But the boy also seemed to have suffered greatly, with no uninjured parts.
Lying sprawled on the floor, twitching, he looked so precarious that it wouldn't be strange if he drew his last breath at any moment.
"Don't talk nonsense."
[Squeeze-]
As Sherin tried to say something, Malus's sharp blade dug into her white neck.
"H-ugh...!"
As the blade dug in, fresh blood trickled from her delicate skin.
Sherin had no choice but to swallow her groan and close her lips.
"The same goes for you, Guardian. The moment you needlessly move your mana or wag that wicked tongue of yours, I'll cut this bitch's throat."
It wasn't an empty threat.
Malus's eyes held the certainty that he would cut Sherin down at any moment.
Along with the desperation of being cornered with nowhere to retreat.
'Go ahead and try.
The moment you kill her, I'll tear your body to shreds—'
She wanted to shout that.
'After all, I'm already a witch who has burned away her reason with rage.
A witch who slaughtered Gareth and Boran,
cut off Knight Commander Lloyd's limbs,
and plunged the soldiers who blocked her path into a sea of blood.
The evil is your filthy desires that made me this way.'
"Rose-nim......"
But she couldn't.
It wasn't because she was a Guardian who had to protect the weak and powerless.
It was because she couldn't ignore Sherin's eyes, which held despair, fear, and a glimmer of thread-like hope as she looked at her.
Rose merely gripped the sword in her hand so tightly that her veins seemed about to burst.
"Ma... Malus! Tell that witch to drop her weapon right now!"
Lord Taleman, who was in a high place, shouted urgently, but.
"...There's no need. She can just send the weapon flying with mana anyway."
'If she were to drop her weapon and make them lower their guard,
and then seize an opening to send it flying, there might have been a chance.'
Malus scoffed, as if seeing right through her thoughts.
"......"
Thus, a standoff was created.
She couldn't drop her sword, nor could she swing it.
It was a situation where she couldn't close the distance and charge, nor could she turn and run.
'What should I do...?'
As she pondered how to shake up this situation without harming Sherin.
[Whoosh-]
Carried by the mana Malus sent flying,
a small bottle flew through the air and stopped before Rose.
"If you want to save your comrade, drink that. It's familiar, isn't it? It's the aphrodisiac you received and drank from Theodore."
"...!!"
The aphrodisiac that disrupted mana circulation, stole reason,
and made lust boil throughout her body.
Rose's eyes wavered.
Seeing the Lord's expression, unable to hide his lecherous desires as he swallowed, it was obvious what would happen if she drank that medicine.
'...Would those despicable bastards really release Sherin and her brother if I drank this...?'
'No way.
If they were such honorable bastards, this situation wouldn't have happened in the first place.
She had to find another way.
But how...?'
As if knowing Rose's inner thoughts, Malus pushed the blade deeper.
"Don't rack your brain needlessly. No matter how fast you move, my blade will dig into this girl's neck faster."
Unable to resist the blade digging into her neck,
Sherin merely shed tears, repeating her collapsed brother's name.
Rose's fingertips trembled as she watched her.
'...What should I do? Can I move faster than him?'
'No, the tip of the blade is already digging into her neck.
As he said, no matter how fast I move, it's impossible.'
'The Lust Skill is the same.
The moment he senses something strange and gets aroused, he won't hesitate to push the blade in.'
As various unanswered thoughts flashed through her mind.
She recalled Lucian, who had magically restrained her body when she first became a Guardian.
- Restraining someone's movements against their will isn't easy.
'Yes, he definitely said it wasn't easy, but.
Lucian had stopped Rose countless times.'
At that time, Rose couldn't move a single finger, no matter how hard she struggled with all her might.
'Of course, the gap between Rose and Lucian back then was overwhelming,
and the difference with Malus now isn't that great.'
'But.'
'...I don't necessarily need to perfectly bind his entire body.'
'That wrist holding the sword. Just one point.
And if I can bind it for just a fleeting moment.'
"Don't stall, drink it quickly! Before my patience runs out!"
Malus, sensing uneasiness on Rose's thoughtful face, screamed and urged her on.
She couldn't waste any more time.
There was no other way.
"Alright. I'll drink it."
Rose grabbed the bottle floating before her.
[Pop-]
With the sound of the lid opening.
The moment everyone's gaze focused on the cork stopper.
[Whoosh-!]
She sent mana flying towards Malus's wrist, which held the sword.
"......?!!"
The sensation of his wrist stiffening.
As Malus's face hardened, noticing the anomaly—
[Whoooosh---]
"Stay... still...!!"
"This... arrogant bitch dares...!!"
Rose pulled Malus's wrist outwards, as if tugging an invisible string.
Malus resisted that force, trying to stab Sherin's neck.
The one pulling and the one pushing.
[Twitch-]
As the invisible tug-of-war, clashing over Malus's wrist, tilted ever so slightly, faintly, in Rose's favor—
"Dodge, Sherin!!"
"!!!"
The moment the blade moved away from her neck,
Sherin moved her body sideways, her neck grazed by the sword's tip.
"This... how dare she...!"
[Crunch-]
Malus's sword, finally freed from its invisible restraint, slashed through the air, but.
[Whoosh-]
Sherin threw her entire body to avoid its trajectory.
"This cunning witch bitch—!!"
Malus, consumed by malice, screamed, but.
Rose, who had lunged forward at the same time Sherin dodged the sword, was already in front of him.
"Die."
"!!!"
The longsword cut through the air.
[Slash-]
With that single attack, Malus's neck was severed.
Without even a chance to scream.
A death too futile for the end of an arrogant Guardian.
[Splurt-splurt-splurt-]
Watching the blood gush like a fountain from the headless neck.
'I should have killed that bastard painfully.'
A cruel impulse flashed through her, but.
Rose immediately withdrew her sword and approached Sherin, who had collapsed.
Sherin was clutching her fallen brother and wailing.
"Rose-nim... those bastards... those bastards did this to Ailan...!"
"It's alright, Sherin. Let me see."
As she approached and examined him, something strange caught her eye.
Ailan's left hand, tightly clutched by Sherin's trembling hands.
The black carving etched on that small hand.
"What is this...??"
"Ugh... You... you bitches killed Malus..."
At that moment, Lord Taleman, who was cowering and trembling on the floor, muttered in a low voice.
Without even a moment to turn her head towards him.
The next words the Lord shouted with a face full of malice were—
"Awaken, Monster! Tear them to shreds!!"
"??!"
[Whoooosh-!]
The emblem carved on Ailan's hand emitted an ominous black light.
Soon after, his closed eyes snapped open.
His sleeping body began to tremble violently.
[Crack-Crunch-!]
Immediately, the boy's bones began to grotesquely break and twist.
"Aaaaaaaargh—!!"
A desperate scream that pierced the heart.
Along with it, his flesh swelled, and thorny black fur sprouted.
When that scream, which seemed to echo from the deepest pits of hell, subsided.
"Kaaahhh..."
The boy's eyes were glowing blood-red.
"Ahhh... no... Ailan... Ailan...!!"
'Red eyes, a Monster?
Right after the Lord shouted for it to awaken?
What in the world is happening?'
Rose rushed towards the Lord, who was cowering on the floor and backing away.
"What did you do to Ailan!"
"I, I don't know! I... I just did as Malus told me!"
'Malus, Malus, Malus—
I shouldn't have given that bastard such an easy death!'
"Heh heh... Anyway, now... you bitches are all dead."
"Well. What about you?"
[Slash-!]
Without another word, Rose swung her longsword and slashed Taleman's leg.
"Kuaaaaargh—!!"
"Kraaaaaah—!!"
The Lord's scream, clutching his leg, and Ailan's roar, transformed into a Monster, echoed together.
"...Ailan..."
Sherin, staring at her transformed brother, her face frozen in a daze.
The Monster's red eyes flashed towards her.
"Kyaaaaaah!!"
At the perilous moment a giant fist, flying with a monstrous shriek, was about to strike her—
[Whoosh-]
Rose, throwing herself forward, embraced Sherin and bounced sideways.
"Snap out of it, Sherin!"
"Rose-nim... Ailan... my brother..."
[Whirrrrr-!!]
The Monster, immediately turning and charging, swung its fist once more, but.
Rose, holding Sherin in her arms, leaped backward, putting distance between them and the creature.
'...He's not as strong as he looks. He's slow and lacks combat experience. I can definitely defeat him.'
'It wouldn't be difficult. A single sword strike imbued with mana could sever his neck.'
'But if I sever his neck...?'
'The little boy who had carefully clutched the edge of her cloak, warning her to be careful of Malus.
Sherin, trembling in her arms with a dazed expression.'
'With one sword strike, two people would die.'
'A cold-blooded killer with no mercy left.
A witch who eliminates everything that stands in her way.'
'Could I do it?'
'...I can't... I can't do that...'
The Monster continued to attack.
Rose, with Sherin, dodged its attacks and widened the distance.
'Think. There must be a way. A way to break the curse and turn Ailan back...'
'A carving etched on the body.
A curse against one's will.
If it's that...
The one etched on Sherin too...'
- Wahahaha, Rose-yang!
Balthazar's frivolous voice, which invariably came to mind whenever things got tough.
- No matter how grandly they talk about carvings or curses, in the end, they're just magic using mana.
"Kwooooh!!!"
As the enraged Monster raised its fist and let out a monstrous shriek when its attacks kept missing.
Rose's eyes, looking at the black carving embedded in his hand, flashed.
"I found it, a way to turn him back...!"