A Villain's Will to Survive

Chapter 175: Darkness (1)

Crackle, crackle—

Beyond the wall, the presence of the Daeho remained as strong as ever. However, on the Rekordak training ground, where the forest stretched beneath a sky glittering with starlight, the crackling fire offered quiet warmth, its soft glow matched by the soothing murmur of peaceful conversation.

"My approach is guided by two key principles—market trends and market flow," Primien explained.

Primien, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Public Safety, began a lesson on stocks. Seated on the ground, Yulie, Sirio, and Reylie attended the lesson, listening carefully while using the moment to catch their breath and recover from the fatigue of their sparring session.

"A market trend reflects whether the overall market is in a bull or bear market and follows the general direction of market movements."

All three listened closely to Primien, carefully jotting down every word in their notebooks, their eyes shining brightly like deer caught in the glow of a lantern.

"Market flow reflects current trends. A year ago, it was toys; six months ago, it was grocery distribution—stocks that soared or crashed rapidly, depending on the changing conditions across the continent."

Yulie listened to the lecture, her attention wholly absorbed, as if nothing else existed in the moment.

"However, when stocks become overheated in the short term like a motherfu... I mean, excessively, they inevitably lead to a crash. Therefore, riding the market flow requires caution, and any gains made should be promptly secured once they reach a reasonable level."

As Primien spoke, she clenched her teeth, her mind slipping back to a bitter memory. She had once held onto a stock that surged tenfold, only to sell it at a 30% loss. Shortly after letting it go, the stock skyrocketed again...

"You must remember that until you sell your shares and secure returns several times greater than your initial investment in cash, no matter how much the stock price rises, it’s not an actual profit," Primien concluded.

Yulie felt as if her previously empty mind was slowly filling with new knowledge as she nodded firmly and responded, "Yes, I will keep that in mind, Teacher."

"I have a question!" Reylie said, raising her hand.

Primien turned toward her and replied, "Yes?"

“How much profit have you made from stocks, Deputy Director Primien?!”

It may have been a question born out of pure curiosity, but it was one that was difficult to answer.

“How much?”

Shut up.

“How much?”

Shut your mouth.

Primien wanted to say as much, but she couldn’t bring herself to admit that losing ten years' worth of salary had wounded her pride. It wasn’t a matter of skill, but pure bad luck. Not a single person could have predicted that the Imperial Palace would suddenly open Marik, and that day, numerous small investors were crushed.

"Knight Deya, how does Rekordak intend to deal with Daeho? As the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Public Safety, the responsibility of the audit falls to me, and therefore, I must ask this of you, a member of the Freyden family," Primien said, directing her question to Yulie while looking away from Reylie.

“... I’m still weighing my options. Professor Deculein has insisted on going alone...” Yulie said, growing serious once more as she scribbled in her notebook.

Yulie turned back toward Sirio, who was chewing on a tree branch and muttering to himself about market trends, market flow, dollar-cost averaging, and dollar-cost averaging out.

"Sirio, may I request another sparring session with you?" Yulie asked.

“Knight Yulie, aren’t you tired?” Reylie asked.

Fortunately, the topic changed smoothly, and Primien swallowed a quiet sigh of relief.

“... Hahaha, well, it doesn’t matter to me. But you’re planning to follow him, aren’t you?” Sirio asked with a faint chuckle.

Yulie didn’t answer, and for a moment, silence settled over the area, the fire crackling in the background.

Crackle, crackle—

Primien and Reylie exchanged glances, sensing the mood, while Yulie quietly fiddled with her sword.

“Deculein already said he’s going alone,” Sirio remarked.

Yulie glanced slightly in his direction.

"But we shouldn’t just let him go alone; he’s a former classmate, after all, and a nice guy in his own way."

“A nice guy?” Reylie asked, her face twisting as if she couldn't quite process what she had just heard.

“Yeah, he was our former classmate. You know, from school~” Sirio replied, nodding as he chuckled.

“Hello? I went to the same school as you! Just because someone is a classmate doesn’t mean they’re nice.”

“Come on, you’re a junior~”

“Wow, isn’t that something? So this is what you call a nice guy—insulting Knight Yulie by calling her a sick person? And in front of everyone, no less—telling her to shut up and leave, humiliating her on the spot! What kind of logic is that?”

“Well, Deculein used to be bad, but he’s not that bad anymore~ Besides, it’s true that she’s sick right now.”

“What?! Just because something’s true doesn’t mean you should say it out loud! A knight must keep their injuries hidden.”

The voices that reached Yulie’s hearing slowly faded away, leaving her to focus on the heart of the thicket. The world seemed to slip further away, as though swallowed by a vacuum, while she turned over the fragments of her thoughts, one by one.

“... I still have questions that I need to ask him,” Yulie said, her delicate hand gripping the hilt of her sword tightly as an icy aura rose from her entire being.

The discussion among the three—debating whether Deculein was nice or mean, talking about his success in earning money through stocks, and asking Deputy Director Primien of the Ministry of Public Safety for her thoughts—suddenly came to a complete stop as they all turned to look at her.

“Hahaha,” Sirio muttered, flashing a breezy smile, springing to his feet, and drawing his sword. “That’s right. If you have questions, you’d better make sure you don’t die before getting them answered. Let’s go and train!”

“... Yes,” Yulie said, drawing her sword as well.

Once Yulie released her mana, the air around them would begin to freeze. Aware of this, Primien added more wood to the campfire and fastened the buttons of her padded coat snugly up to her neck...

"Is it alright if I take the first move?" Yulie asked.

“Of course. Go ahead,” Sirio replied.

“Yes. Hup—!”

Claaang—!

Beneath the full moon in the dark night sky, on the luminous fields of the Northern Region, the clash of swords and the crackle of mana cut through the air.

***

In the field hospital at Rekordak, eleven severely injured knights were being treated. Not a single one had completely intact limbs, but somehow, all of their limbs were still attached—barely, by the loosest definition of the term.

“This is absolutely extraordinary,” said the doctor, dispatched from the Imperial Palace, astonished by the strips of Duct Tape stuck to the knights’ bodies. “I have never encountered magic like this before. I thought healing magic had gone extinct ages ago.”

“Technically speaking, it’s not a healing spell; it’s merely holding things in place,” I replied.

“Even that is absolutely incredible. If you look over here, the bones and flesh are starting to reattach themselves.”

"After all, they are knights."

Once the limbs were held together, recovery naturally followed—a unique feature of knights with exceptional regenerative abilities. If even an ordinary knight had been able to recover this way, I couldn’t help but wonder how my own body, enhanced with both Iron Man and Iron Bone, might have fared.

"No one here seems to be in imminent danger of death," I added.

“Yes, Professor. The initial treatment was excellent; with timely doses of antibiotics and herbal remedies, they should all recover their health.”

I nodded in agreement.

Then, the doctor turned to me with a worried look and asked, "Are you... really planning to hunt Daeho alone, Professor?"

Daeho was an enemy of extreme difficulty, impossible to defeat. Even with both Wood Steel and Snowflower Stone combined, victory over him remained completely out of reach.

However...

“There is a way,” I stated.

Tigers and the Northern Region were an inseparable connection, a natural pairing. After all, the main quest was designed so that encountering a tiger was inevitable at least once throughout the game. As for their weakness—I knew it. In fact, in this entire world, I was probably the only one who did.

“You should devote yourself entirely to their treatment.”

"Yes, Professor," the doctor said, nodding in agreement as he absorbed the weight of the situation.

***

“There is a way. You should devote yourself entirely to their treatment."

Through her telescope, Ria watched Deculein from a distance, beyond the window of Rekordak's field hospital, his unshakable confidence causing her to question its source.

“... What’s going on with him? Why is that professor suddenly so confident?”

Ria understood that Deculein’s behavior had changed because of the former fiancé she had assigned to his character’s backstory. Even so, this time, it was Daeho—a dangerous Akho. Judging by the patterns on his body, he was a named beast known as Vesilita.

"Ria, is what the professor just said really true? Did I hear that right?" Ganesha asked, her face in complete shock as she returned.

“Yeah, I was surprised to hear that too,” Ria replied.

"Is the professor really going to hunt Daeho alone? Has he... lost his mind all of a sudden?"

“I know, right? Is Professor Deculein really that strong?”

Ganesha, equally confused, tilted her head in silence.

"Ria! What are you talking about? Deculein is really strong! You know that!" Leo said.

"Yeah, he's really scaring me. Whether he's Deculein, Dracula, or even just a regular professor—I really don’t wanna see him again," Carlos chimed in.

It was no surprise that Carlos feared Deculein. Just as Yukline bloodlines reacted to demons, Carlos instinctively felt terror in the presence of Yukline.

"Leo, do you think Deculein is strong too?" Ria asked.

“Yeah!”

Leo’s senses were quite sharp, an attribute that came to him naturally.

“Do you think he’s strong enough to win against Daeho?”

“... I don’t know! But I know Daeho is crazy strong too~”

“You are weird.”

Ganesha, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, chuckled softly and said, "Let's just wait and see. And if anything happens..."

Ganesha paused for a moment and thought, It's generally better not to draw Deculein's attention, but then again, we've received the professor's help recently...

"Well, we'll figure that out when the time comes," Ganesha muttered, fluttering her twintails as she glanced toward Deculein.

Whenever Ganesha looked at Deculein, whether from a distance or up close, she couldn’t help but feel that one thing always stood out about him...

"Professor is just too handsome... He could probably get by just on his looks," Ganesha said with a satisfied smile, as if she were appreciating a work of art.

Ria couldn’t help but find her a little ridiculous, but then again, it was just a reflection of her Personality Trait—Lookism.

"Hehe... Mmm... Slurp."

Ria held back a laugh as she watched Ganesha swallow, her face looking dreamy.

***

I placed my hand on Epherene’s forehead, and her body was burning with fever from the injury, but it didn’t seem too serious.

“... Tch,” I muttered.

But the moment I pulled my hand away, my palm was drenched in her sweat. Soon, a wave of nausea washed over me, but I quickly wiped it away with Cleanse and the disinfectants from the hospital. I then leaned against the window, staring at the sky. It was the dark early hours of dawn, but my mind remained clear.

"Professor Deculein! I’ve completed the mission!"

At that moment, a voice called from below, and I looked down to see an adventurer waving his hands and smiling.

“Should I send it up, Professor? I’ve got quite a few things here!” the adventure said.

"Stay where you are. I'll come down to you."

“Yes, Professor!”

I made my way outside, and on the grass just outside the hospital, the adventurer quickly approached, handing me a large box and saying, “Here it is! Will the payment be made with a family check?”

“Correct.”

“Yes, sir! Always an honor to serve our VVIP! Thank you for the payment! Rich customers are always welcome!” the adventurer said, giving a cheeky salute before turning to leave.

I stepped into the cold wind and pulled the item out of the box. The first thing my hand closed around was steel—the cold, weighty sensation of the revolver, the same one I had received as a gift last time.

───────

[Revolver]

◆ Description

: A handcrafted revolver made by a master artisan.

: Its power is greatly amplified by Midas Touch.

◆ Category

: Weapon ⊃ Firearm

◆ Special Effects

: Artistic Rifling — Enhances both accuracy and destructive power.

: Intermediate Level Damage Grant— Bullets fired from this revolver are granted with the 'Intermediate Level Damage' effect.

[Midas Touch: Level 4]

───────

There were other materials in the delivered box, filled with items I needed for crafting special ammunition. Each one was absurdly expensive; however, I had ordered all of them without hesitation, planning to use them all.

"The materials are of excellent quality," I muttered.

I had spent around thirty million elne, including the delivery fee and materials, and now I was planning to make bullets worth five million elne each. Fortunately, it wouldn’t take too long to prepare.

“... Let’s get started right away.”

Just as I was about to cast Ductility and Heating, ready to begin crafting the bullets...

“Professooor!”

A loud, sudden noise echoed behind me, and I spun around without a second thought to see what it was.

"Professor!" Allen called, rushing toward me, out of breath.

As always, Allen was his usual natural and innocent self, and I couldn’t help but expect that he’d trip over a stone any second now.

“Oh no!”

I took a few quick steps and caught him in my arms. Allen, who had been expecting to fall to the ground, ended up draped like a piece of laundry over my arms, his wide eyes staring up at me in surprise.

"... I had a feeling you would trip," I said.

Allen blinked a few times before finally nodding and saying, "Ah... Thank you, Professor. No, I mean... I apologize..."

Allen stood up straight, shook out his crumpled clothes, and held out his pouch to me.

"This... This is unfair... I can't believe you were about to leave without even saying a word to us..."

I had no intention of leaving just yet, but Allen’s face was stiff as he said it, and there was a deeper emotion beneath his concern.

“Allen,” I called.

For some reason, I felt that I knew the reason behind it.

“Y-yes?”

Right now, I could see the death variable flickering around Allen, like a dying lightbulb, its flicker going on and off as he wrestled with the thought of whether to kill me or just let me go.

"If I were to die, what would happen to you?"

Therefore, as I spoke, my tone naturally grew serious.

“Sorry...? What do you mean by—”

"I mean exactly what I said. If I were to die, what would become of you?" I said with a faint smile, my lips curving upward while my eyes remained still. "I wonder where you would go, and what kind of life you would lead in my absence."

Then, I watched every tiny habit and subtle tremor in Allen's body.

"Please don't say such things. I can't even stand to imagine it..."

Allen continued to pretend, but by now, the difference between his act and his true emotions was distinguishable.

"There's no need for that anymore," I said.

"No... I just... Professor—"

"Not that. I’m referring to the act you’re presenting at this moment—your lines are far from impressive."

At that moment, Allen’s body shook, but he didn’t give up on his act, and his fidgeting fingers still betrayed his innocence. However, he seemed to realize he’d been caught, so he lowered his head, hiding his face.

“Oh...”

The crisp, biting air and the scent of dawn filled the silence, while the flickering crimson death variables around Allen danced like embers. The coldness pressed against my skin, and I noticed the lone sentry beneath the wall, dozing on his watch, with no one else around.

"How long... has it been since you knew?" Allen asked as he finished scanning the area.

"About what? About your gender?" I replied.

“... Yes. That...”

Allen, thinking I might not know the truth, continued his act with feigned innocence, and I chuckled softly. Really, he was clever until the end.

"A double disguise is a common tactic," I said.

When one focused too much on the surface layer, such as the disguise of gender, something so insignificant once exposed, they ended up overlooking the deeper, inner layers that truly mattered.

"However, your gender does not matter, as it holds no importance right now."

But, what was beneath that layer, the true secret remained hidden.

"Allen, you're not someone who belongs in the light. I'm used to your... lack of scent," I concluded.

Snap—

The heavy silence broke, and the tension in the air snapped.

“... Hmm,” Allen muttered.

Finally, Allen ended his act of innocence.

“... I see.”

There was no movement, only the heavy stillness of his frozen body and the silence that followed.

Whooosh—

And in the silence, an aura flared, burning through the stillness.

“That’s how it was,” Allen concluded.

For the first time, with a side of him I had never seen before, Allen took control of the entire space around us...