There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 85

‘…’

Ah, so that’s how Cassis de Millang lived.

For a moment, I was appalled. The weight of what he had experienced was overwhelming.

But it didn’t last long.

‘Isn’t it obvious?’

It’s not my life, so why should I care how someone else lived?

The problem for me was that Ryuseong had seen all of this with me. Unlike me, Ryuseong has a clingy side, so I figured he wouldn’t be able to just coolly let it go.

If I had to say, that was the only thing that worried me. I turned my head, having suffered no mental damage whatsoever.

And then I belatedly realized that my pupils were dilating into circles.

“…Why.”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Why would you go that far?

I thought I couldn’t speak, but my lips were already parting.

“Why are you crying…?”

Ryuseong was crying. His handsome face was soaked with moisture. His sharp eyes, flushed red, looked at Cassis de Millang as they continuously shed teardrops, and his chest heaved, perhaps because his breathing had become ragged. A fragile face that looked like it would tear if you touched it.

I couldn’t understand him.

“Excuse me.”

First of all, you know me as Cassis de Millang. I’ll play along with what you know. But.

This tragedy is neither mine nor yours.

“It’s all in the past,” I murmured quietly, pleading with you.

Don’t be swayed. If you’ve drawn your sword, don’t pity me anymore.

Isn’t it sad for you, too, to feel compassion for an opponent you’re about to kill?

“I’m saying it’s not worth your concern.”

Above all, this didn’t even happen to me, so if you’re going to be bawling in front of me with a face full of misunderstandings, it’s embarrassing for me. Why are you volunteering for a path of penance? You’re a guy who deserves to walk a more brilliant path. Why are you grieving?

“You… you’re thinking about it wrong. You. You’re thinking about it wrong. And I, too…”

“Could you please speak in a way that meets human standards?”

“I… was wrong. You… didn’t need to be treated like that, you know. You, nobody…”

Words that held no interest for me continued. Embraced by Ryuseong, I callously turned my chin and let out words that were close to comfort.

It wasn’t my business, so what was the point of listening to comfort?

I am an ordinary person who has been wrongly caught between Cassis de Millang and Ryuseong. My past isn’t as gloomy as Cassis de Millang’s.

It seems Ryuseong feels some heart-wrenching emotion for Cassis de Millang, who knows where he is now.

I’m sorry, but the one here is me.

‘Jung Ian.’

There’s something inside me you could never imagine.

So, everything you’re saying is too late.

He went his whole life without ever hearing an apology.

‘I’m sorry, Cassis de Millang.’

I’ve stolen all the words you should have heard.

I wanted to smoke a cigarette.

I guess I do feel like shit.

…In any case, the shabby apology or confession couldn’t go on for long.

[What I can sh-ow you… ends here….]

“…”

[Good lu-ck… to you.]

As the forest spirit, who had shown us the past with her last bit of strength, withered away and died, the magic that had been overlaid before our eyes soon dissipated, and…

Grrrrrrr… Kekeng!

Somehow, our presence had been detected, and a pack of black foxes had completely surrounded us.

‘Hey, Mr. Forest Spirit. You said you’d help. You were just a hindrance until the very end. Why’d you have to die so early.’

But I couldn’t just keep spewing curses, because the spirit’s death wasn’t exactly something to be unfazed about either.

I feel like it’s a pointless act, but I decided to engrave that scene firmly in my retina.

‘That aside.’

There’s a different problem. A grown man, hugging me and leaning his face on my shoulder, won’t stop crying. I want to tell him to get a grip, but my throat felt scratchy. In the end, I decided to show him through my actions. I pushed him away with my fingertips and narrowed my brow to show just how displeased I was.

I lifted my chin irritably, and when our eyes met, Ryuseong’s were still red-rimmed as he shed tears, but, well.

He did look handsome like that, but.

‘I still can’t forgive you.’

It wasn’t that my heart wasn’t softening. A face like that is my type, for one, and I’m not so ungentlemanly as to not want to cherish a handsome man crying pitifully.

But what would happen if this guy was distracted while a monster was baring its teeth right in front of us?

I came here planning to run wild, trusting only Ryuseong, didn’t I?

“Hey, how long are you going to be distracted?”

When I snapped at him sharply, Ryuseong seemed to come to his senses and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. Now it was my turn to arm myself. As I chanted a spell inside my mouth, the subspace spat out a golden light and placed a bronze branch in my hand. It looked valuable, but it couldn’t be called a true sacred object.

‘A replica.’

In other words, a fake. A phony. A knock-off. That’s what you could call this thing.

Thinking about it again, even in the original story, Cassis de Millang never owned anything that felt ‘real.’ It was always replicas. He just carried around dozens of replicas worth hundreds of millions, which were astonishingly perfect copies of the originals, as if they were a set of spoons.

I used to think that was a device to show off Cassis de Millang’s wealth, but thinking about it now.

‘Was he just not loved at home?’

It’s mind-boggling. He’s a mind-boggling bastard.

Could it be that his fits whenever he saw Ryuseong were due to that kind of resentment? Was it because only Ryuseong, in a similarly destructive environment, was lucky enough to grow up being loved?

If so…

‘Isn’t that too pathetic?’

The bronze branch in my hand, a replica of mistletoe, is not a trivial tool. It is a replica of Mistletoe from Norse mythology. The myth of the god who could not be killed by any living thing being pierced and killed by the most insignificant mistletoe is imbued in this replica. Of course, its class is lower than the original, but a top-grade replica boasts a sublimity superior to most treasured swords.

‘Even knock-offs have their levels, you see.’

But after getting a glimpse of Cassis de Millang’s past… without a doubt, Cassis de Millang is using this kind of thing because he couldn’t enjoy what he should have, due to his family throwing a tantrum about not wanting to give him precious things. His bloodline could have used something much more valuable, but it was taken from him. His legitimate rights, no, even his rightful daily life was stripped away. One can only guess at the reason. Whether it was a problem with his mother’s bloodline or something else. There is still nothing I can know for sure.

So?

‘So what.’

What I have to do hasn’t changed. I like Ryuseong. Whether emotional turmoil arises or not, I will take Ryuseong down. If I have to, I’m even willing to confine him. The only way to take Ryuseong while protecting myself is to become the head of the de Millang family, so I’m trying to become the head, and that’s why I’ve come this far. Wasn’t it to become the head by using Ryuseong that I pushed myself into this goddamn raid on a snowy mountain, something I’d never done in my life?

In my current life, just hearing the word ‘great-grandfather’ makes me shudder, but Cassis’s great-grandfather actively supported me, so I readily accepted and stood here.

In my opinion, Cassis’s great-grandfather either wanted to use me as a puppet, or he wanted to unleash a variable like me to win his power struggle with the family head. Anyway, I think he had some suspicious motive when he made the dubious offer of becoming the head of the family.

‘Isn’t that just how the world works?’

Every choice carries the potential to be used. Free will is an illusion, and there are no decisions that are entirely my own. Even tastes are shaped by environment and society.

So I.

Grrr, grk.

Krrrrr…!

I was unfazed. It didn’t matter that the black foxes were charging all at once, spewing black foam as if having a seizure, or that they were swinging their claws while emitting a black mist.

It wasn’t just in my thoughts; the actual situation was like that. Before an attack could reach my body, Ryuseong deflected the claws first. Thwack! He had only struck it with the blade of his sword, but a sound as if it were being crushed burst out. Wow, did he really just deal with the black fox’s skull in one blow?

Just as I said, as long as Ryuseong is here, it seems there won’t be any problem in just surviving.

Something like a black fox can’t even touch Ryuseong.

‘You can’t ignore a regressor’s experience points!’

In that case, I guess it’s my turn to build up my experience points. I quickly ran forward and extended the Mistletoe. The first thing I stabbed was not the enemy. It was none other than my own forearm.

Stab, a brutal sound tears through my skin. I pull it out and scatter droplets of blood around.

“Breath. Light. Wire. Form a ring. Pluto. There are no shortcuts. A bell wrought from silk. Make it ring.”

Then, I chant faster than breathing. A mantra with no coherent meaning is the track of a spell, but let me declare this clearly: the only thing that can injure a blood magician is the blood magician himself. The blood that wets the earth splatters and stains the dead forest spirit’s cheek like a teardrop.

I snapped my fingers.

“Burn them.”

At that instant, divine punishment descended. Rumble! A yellow electric shock pierced through the black mist. Crackle! The thunderbolt that pierced the clear sky and struck down was bright yellow, and the area-of-effect skill, fitting for a rainy day, produced results no different from gunpowder.

Kieeeeeeeek…!

Amidst the hundreds of black foxes that were scorched and blown away as if hit by a bomb, only the alpha fox was glaring at me with clear murderous intent in its eyes. But most of its pack had been annihilated. The beasts turned their bodies as if to flee, calculating their chances of winning.

A torrent of sword strikes pours down on their shabby, retreating backs.

A meteor-like trajectory, spreading out.