The Villain They Summoned
You shouldn't have killed him. In the memories of my previous life, the world where Carix Valentia appeared was a game called Night of the Silver Moon. It was an open-world fantasy set in a medieval era. It was the first MMORPG to come out of Korea in a long time, and Carix was the mastermind behind five whole episodes of that game. His personality was vicious and cruel, and his abilities were monstrous. As his past was revealed, the setting added that he was a completely insane psychopath, making him a total lunatic with no moral compass—to the point where people would say, "Honestly, isn't it weird that he isn't the final boss?" If I hadn't had the memories of my past life from the moment I was born, I wouldn't disagree that I would have become such a complete lunatic myself.
My intellect was so high that everyone around me looked like a fool, and I possessed the talent to feel and use mana to my heart's content, along with an innate physical constitution. Furthermore, while I wouldn't say I viewed my family as trash, I had the backing of a powerful house that faced no opposition in the western territory—our family's domain—save for my parents, who were obsessed with meritocracy, and the royal family. If I wanted to fall into a life of evil… no. It’s not exactly a surprising narrative that someone who could make life easier by living selfishly rather than living "kindly" would end up living that way.
"M-Master. What are you talking about? I, I am…"
"Master!! It’s a misunderstanding! I only went back because Master Deolis said he would return using the station carriage!! It’s the truth! I’m not lying! If I had done such a crazy thing, why would I have been in the academy servant quarters!? I would have put my family in the carriage and run away instead!! It’s true! Please believe me!!"
Until now, I had kept my mouth shut and suppressed my actions to avoid being entangled in the roles someone else had set for me, and for the sake of my older brother’s future. Since I had the memories of my past life, I had been living a social life, adapting to those around me. But they killed my brother, the heir to the house, and dragged me to the surface. Now, it was the world’s turn to bear the weight of the most evil existence: Carix.
"Bramble. You have quite a lot of gambling debt. It’s true that as a coachman who has worked for our family for a long time, I’ve been paying you a fairly high salary. But isn’t a debt equal to four years and eight months of salary a bit too much?"
"E-eh. How do you know that, Master…"
"Dora. You are an orphan brought from an orphanage by the head butler, and because you were capable, you became my brother’s exclusive maid 12 years ago. But considering your salary, you’ve been donating an impossible amount of money to the orphanage. You’ve been living on so little that you could say you only eat about 12 loaves of bread a month."
"M-Master!! I’m really innocent! No! I really didn’t…!!"
Even if the Duke and Duchess were blocking information about the investigation from me, it didn’t mean all other information was blocked. Rather, after my brother passed away, I was tasked with "heir training," which allowed me to directly view a significant portion of the family business documents that came to my father, the head of the house. The information I could derive from them was more than I had expected.
"Dora. I don’t want to be the one to tell you, who is about to be executed, that one of the many orphanages in our territory has lost its funding and disappeared overnight."
"Bramble. You wouldn’t want your beloved wife and daughter to be rolling around in the beds of men you don’t even know every night just to pay off the gambling debt you incurred by mistake, would you? Let’s be honest. Since you’re going to die anyway, the path to protecting your family isn’t difficult or strenuous."
""……""
On the faces of the two, who seemed to have suffered while being interrogated in prison, the emotion of true "fear" finally began to take root. The kingdom’s law has a system of guilt by association, but that only applies to treason against the royal family. Even if these two held out and it was later revealed that they hadn’t been bribed by someone to serve my brother, they would be the only ones facing capital punishment. But our family? Knowing that these two helped in the murder of my brother, there is no reason for us to stay still. At the very least, my father, my mother, and I are not the type to endure such things.
"You two haven’t talked to me properly, so you wouldn’t know, but I’ve lived very quietly until now for the sake of my family and my brother. You are the ones who cut my leash and threw me under the stone bridge. Do you still need time to think?"
"……It was someone from the collateral branch."
"Dora!?"
The one who broke down before the talkative coachman was Dora, the maid who sponsored the orphanage.
"Which collateral branch? There isn’t just one."
"Count Berzen… someone from the Count Berzen house… the Count’s house was blocking the donations going to the orphanage. A-and they threatened me with that… if things went on like this, all the kids at the orphanage would starve to death, and it was getting too hard for me… so!! B-but!! I really didn’t know the Master would have such an accident!! I-I just! I was told not to follow the Master when he went outside that day, that’s all…!!"
"M-me too! Someone from the Count Berzen house came and told me that if the Master said he wanted to drink, I should just take him to that tavern! The story about the stagecoach wasn’t a lie!! Please believe me!!"
Count Berzen… the house where my father’s cousin is the head, and a fairly influential family among the retainers. And it was a name I had heard of in the game. In the original, it was a minor character that Carix used to harass the player. When the situation turned against him and he was countered by the protagonist, Carix was the one who disposed of them with his own hands.
"Right. I understand. I believe you."
"T-thank you!!"
"Master! Thank you so much!!"
"Dora. When the next interrogation happens, testify clearly. The moment you change your mind, the promise will vanish, so keep that in mind and protect your family before you die. I will properly find and punish the embezzlement of the donations, and I will take care of the orphanage."
"Yes, yes! I will keep it in mind…!! Thank you so much!!"
I stood up immediately and turned my back. There was nothing more I wanted to hear from the two of them.
"M-Master?"
But there was someone left who wanted to hear something from me. Bramble the coachman. He seemed to find it strange that I was leaving after only talking to Dora.
"What is it."
"I, I want to testify too…"
"Don’t. I told you at the very beginning. I said I would only guarantee the safety of the family of the one who speaks first."
"Yes…?"
Since he had a poor memory and was slow to resolve himself, what did he expect me to do?
"I will relay it properly to your daughter and wife. That the reason the two of them are being sold to the red-light district is because their husband betrayed the Valentia Duchy, killed my older brother, and served the Count Berzen house with loyalty. If they know that much, they won’t feel too wronged even if they end up between another man’s legs."
"C-Carix, Master!! No! Please!! Forgive me!! M-my daughter and wife are innocent! Master? Masteeer! Aaaargh!!"
I let out a sneer as I left behind the coachman, who was screaming as if cursing me. You stupid bastard. In Dora’s case, the problem would be solved naturally once the Count’s house was dealt with, but the problem of the debt the coachman incurred was entirely different. They probably told him that if he did this job well, the Count’s house would give him enough money to pay off his debts. But he wouldn’t have known it would lead to killing the eldest son. No, even if he had known, he probably acted with the complacent thought, "Surely I won’t die, and nothing will happen to my family." And when he found himself in this situation, he complacently judged that if he at least kept his mouth shut and died, the Count’s house would give money to his family. He judged complacently again.
"…Hmm?"
"Master?"
"How many guards followed me."
"Two, including me…"
"Don’t talk nonsense. Including the ones I can’t see."
"……Eight."
The knight who had entered with me to guard me inside the prison looked surprised, but this was only natural. It had only been two months since the eldest son died. What crazy house in the world would only attach two knights to the second son, who had suddenly become the sole heir, when he said he was going outside?
"Send half to the coachman’s house."
"Yes? M-Master. Do you really intend to sell that family to the red-light district…"
"Deliver it immediately instead of talking nonsense. Tell them to run with all their might."
"Y-yes!"
Seeing the knight, who had straightened his posture at my shout, immediately begin giving orders to the other knights as soon as we exited the prison… and the prison warden and several soldiers glaring at me caught my eye.
'This… it seems everything will be settled within today.'
The revenge for my brother, it would look good if it were finished by my own hands, the younger brother.
*****
"The carriage is heading in a strange direction."
"? ……You’re right. Hey! Jerins! Where are you going now? This isn’t the way to the Duchy!"
The knight who had boarded the carriage with me, saying he would guard me closely since the number of my guards had decreased, was the knight who had entered the prison with me.
"…Bow your head."
"Yes?"
The moment I delivered the words to the guard knight who was shouting at the knight sitting next to the coachman, a sword pierced through the wall of the coachman’s seat.
"Ack!?"
And it pierced the shoulder of the knight in front of me as if scraping it.
"It seems you are indeed a person of the Duchy."
"M-Master…!!"
"Die!!"
What followed was the murderous intent of the gatekeeper I had bound and pushed into the corner of the carriage.
"You idiots."
-Slash.
"Aaaargh!!?"
When I drew the sword from the waist of the knight whose shoulder had been pierced and swung it to sever both arms of the gatekeeper who had rushed at me, the guy screamed while looking at his severed arms, not even knowing what had happened to him.
"M-Master?"
"It’s not enough to die just from being scratched. Stop the bleeding on this guy and keep him pinned down."
"E. W-what!?"
The knight, who hadn’t properly understood the situation unfolding in an instant, tried to ask me for an answer, but at the same time, the carriage stopped violently, and he slammed his face into the seat in my direction. He didn’t seem to have fainted, so hoping he would carry out my orders, I kicked open the door of the stopped carriage and went outside.
"Three… no. Four, including the coachman. It seems the Duchy is also doomed."
"Master. If you had stayed quietly at home like usual, you might have lived a little longer; why are you suddenly doing things you didn’t do?"
Two guard knights who had been hiding because I had gone out. And even the knight who had been sitting next to the coachman. A total of three swords were pointed at me, but I just let out a laugh that caught in my throat.
"Do you think this is a joke right now?"
"No, no. Sorry. It’s just funny."
They are people who have trained with swords their whole lives. That’s why they were able to sit in positions like knights of the Duchy. Well, it’s not like there weren’t guys who got in through parental connections or money, but that’s also a trick that’s only possible if you have some level of skill. And yet.
"How is it that none of you look strong? Is it okay for a knight of the Duchy to be like this?"
"Kill him."
The knight alone in the back. As soon as the guy called Jerins earlier gave the order to the other two, the knights closed the distance in an instant. The guys’ movements were very fast, but they were too honest and linear. Naturally, right? Because I lacked talent, I couldn’t even become a candidate for the head of the house, and while my brother was the heir, I had never even done exercise that looked difficult to others, let alone training. The only things I did publicly were flexibility stretching and squeezing a grip trainer that had started becoming popular about five years ago. So, it wasn’t something they should be blamed for being careless about.
"Ugh."
"Huh?"
The wrists of the two knights who were swinging their swords down to cut me in half with tremendous momentum flew into the sky, shedding short cutting sounds. The sight of their own arms and the swords they had been gripping tightly falling in front of their eyes must have been a bizarre scene they had never thought of in their entire lives.
"A sword is ultimately a tool swung to cut and pierce. Posture? It’s certainly important. But that’s only important if the weight class is the same. The blade swung by a child and a pro can’t be the same, can it?"
"Aaaargh!!!"
"My!! My aaarms!!?"
Watching the knights who were falling backward and collapsing forward while screaming, I let out a cackle. How could those who had trained with swords their whole lives not even properly utilize the true value of the tool? A sword is a tool to cut something in place of something that is hard to cut with hands. And the most important thing when cutting meat is not posture. It’s how cleanly you cut along the grain of the meat. So that it doesn’t get caught on thick bones. Or, if it does get caught, it’s the consideration of how and in which direction to put force to break it easily. And I, the most evil villain, could already perfectly reproduce that through "brain labor."
"What the?! This is nonsense!! M-mana wasn’t felt!!?"
"Why do you need grand mana just to cut a person’s wrist? Are your bodies made of iron?"
"Don’t be ridiculous!! How could a sword swung roughly…!!"
That’s right. It must have looked like it was swung roughly. Ultimately, you only see as much as you know.
"Even if you stand still, if you consciously transmit the slight rotation that starts from the tips of your toes through the muscles of your thighs, waist, chest, and shoulders to swing it elastically, the final wrist becomes capable of a whip-like snap. It’s the transmission of momentum… do you even know what that means if I tell you?"
"W-what kind of nonsense…"
Jerins, who was stepping back as if to run away. There was no longer a knight who shouted confidently to kill the second son of the Duchy. Because the existence that physically denied and practiced the sword they had swung their whole lives had appeared in front of them. He had returned to being an existence that was only raised or slaughtered by 'Duke Carix Valentia,' just as he was born.
"I mentioned mana, but it seems you’re a knight who uses a bit of mana? Try running away with all your might once. I’ve only built up my body, but I haven’t used it properly, so I want to experiment a bit more."
"…Tsk!!"
At my voice, which was close to an invitation, Jerins bit his lip until it bled and started running in an instant. It was certainly tremendous speed. It was an explosive run that made me think it might even be faster than the carriage I had been riding in, and my mouth opened wide without me knowing.
"Mana… I should learn it sometime."
Watching the guy run away, I stretched lightly, pressed down on my legs, and took a running stance optimized for my body.
"It’ll take about 7.3 seconds to catch you."
Exactly 7.5 seconds after the sound of lightly kicking the ground passed through my semicircular canals, Jerins’s legs bid an eternal farewell to his upper body.