Playing the Perfect Fox-Eyed Villain Chapter 116

Episode 116. An Open Secret (2)

I couldn't help but laugh inwardly at such a reasonable statement.

“Surprisingly. I thought all members of the Donatien family abandoned their moral standards for magic.”

“I didn’t learn magic from the Donatien family.”

Irene blurted out her words with a self-deprecating laugh.

Her face was filled with complex emotions.

“No, when will the test subject that Aiden promised to procure arrive?”

In the midst of this, when an unfamiliar voice was heard from inside, Eileen quickly knelt down and hid behind the shelf.

“What, what are you doing!? Aren’t you hiding!?”

She noticed the sound coming this way and spoke to me in an urgent voice.

Is it really necessary to do that?

The reason I came here is to prevent the event called 'Bloody Tuesday' from happening in the future.

To prevent that, we need 'Aiden's Research Journal' and 'Aiden's Disciples' who are resuming experiments with it.

In other words, the voices you hear now are also targets that need to be eliminated.

“Aww- I think the results will come out soon…… Huh?”

My eyes met with the wizard's as he came out toward the entrance, stretching.

I'd like to say hello, but I don't think it's the right time.

His bewildered gaze turns away from me and back.

Probably to check if the barrier is working properly.

“The barrier… bang!”

Before he could finish his absurd monologue, I kicked the guy with my foot, hitting the ground.

Although it doesn't have a particularly strong kick, the sight of it fluttering and flying like a butterfly is quite impressive.

“Wasn’t that something you shouldn’t have gotten caught on?”

“Why do you think so?”

“I thought the reason I removed the barrier was so that it wouldn’t be discovered…….”

Irene cleared her throat, perhaps because she thought it was strange.

“Since it’s come to this, I guess I’ll just have to clean everything up.”

Leaving her behind as she spoke for me, I started walking towards the flying wizard.

“Coolook, coolook!”

The coughing wizard raised his head slightly and met my gaze.

What was reflected in his eyes was a man wearing an ugly mask.

Although, it was okay for my taste buds.

“Hee, heeeeeeek!”

It looks like he's not the one who's looking at it.

A guy with a distinctly 'horror' vibe. That made me feel a little angry for no reason.

It's like a crazy person's artistic disease.

With that thought in mind, I drew my sword and aimed it at the wizard's neck.

“Where are the records of the research conducted here?”

“What, what are you doing!?”

What are you going to do about it?

As I gripped the sword with that thought, a stream of red blood flowed down the wizard's neck.

“Ugh…….”

Even though he was very scared, the wizard did not answer.

He's a surprisingly tenacious guy.

I figured that wasting more time here wouldn't do anything, so I grabbed the guy by the neck and headed inside the lab.

'There was a feeling of conversation, so there must be someone inside.'

The prediction was right.

In a room that seemed to have more experimental equipment than the entrance, along with a large bookshelf, there were two people engrossed in something.

“Uh, huh?”

One of them sensed something strange and raised his head to look at me.

He seemed unable to understand how the situation was unfolding, but his face turned pale as he aimed his knife at the neck of the guy who had fallen first.

“Huh, how did I get here…!?”

“Your reactions are too consistent. You’re sure you’ve reached the place you’re looking for, but you can’t even cast a spell and just stand there dumbly. They say wizards are smart, but I guess not.”

“Hey, let go of Emil!”

The man I'm holding is apparently named Emil. Let him go, one of the wizards said, getting angry.

“Don't move.”

Looking at them like that, the wizards stepped back with expressions of resentment at my words.

'No, if someone saw me, they'd think I was a bad guy.'

In fact, if a layperson who knows nothing about this situation were to see it, there is a high probability that they would see it that way.

Wouldn't it look like a situation where a man wearing a strange mask is taking a hostage and demanding something?

“Where are Aiden’s research journals?”

"……journal?"

“This is a book that contains records of the research conducted here.”

Upon hearing that, the gazes of the wizards who had been confronting each other unconsciously turned to a corner of the bookshelf.

'I guess that's the place.'

I took the hostage and walked towards the bookshelf.

'What should we do with Aiden's disciples here?'

It's not that I'm scared of getting blood on my hands, but it's true that I still feel uncomfortable with it.

No, it's just 'me' thinking that I feel 'rejected'.

Even now, the sight of the wizard being held hostage trembling in fear seemed normal.

'What a big change of heart.'

Am I being transformed into a glass?

Is it because Yurian adapted to method acting?

So then, what is my identity?

As I was thinking that, an iron bar caught my eye.

An iron cage divided into three sections.

On one of them was a demon hanging limply, with horns beginning to grow.

'… … Phew.'

Humanoid demon.

I know what this means.

“Now let go of Emil!”

I felt a little nauseous.

I felt a moment of 'reluctance' to sort out these guys.

“Ugh, ugh!”

“Hey, Emil!!!”

I changed the way I held the sword and cut off the head of the guy I was holding.

As the excessive blood flowed in a parabolic arc, embroidering the ground, my fellow magicians screamed when they saw it.

One of them cried out in a voice that was almost like a scream, holding back tears.

The remaining one also saw the sight and tried to cast magic accordingly.

“Ugh!”

Eileen, who had been hiding, appeared and was the first to cast magic to subdue the guy.

“You fu*king bastard, die!”

As the tearful female wizard reached out her hand, the metal magic that Eileen had used was released from her hand.

One, its power is so small that even saying it is a joke sounds like a joke.

Even if it was said to be of tremendous power, the moment the trajectory is read, the attack becomes useless.

I quickly closed the distance between them by turning my body to avoid them, and likewise, I held my sword to the neck of the female wizard.

“Krrrrrrr……”

As I had no interest in causing pain, I put strength into my right arm and pulled the sword in an instant.

Then, with a creepy sound, a fountain of blood spurted out, and the foaming wizard fell face first to the ground.

After that, I approached Irene.

Aiden's only disciple left.

Although Eileen was subdued, she shuffled back away from me, making sure her life was not in danger.

“Hey, save me! Didn’t you even tell me where the research journal is?”

“That’s not even funny.”

I briefly turned my gaze to the humanoid demon trapped in the prison.

“Didn’t they say that to you too?”

“……Well, we were experimenting! Doesn’t any technology require sacrifices for development!”

“Then accept this as part of technological advancement.”

Slurp──!

As the tip of the sword glowed, the mouth of the wizard who had been begging for his life stopped opening and soon became quiet.

“……I feel complicated.”

“What are you talking about?”

When Eileen, who had helped me, opened her mouth, I expressed my doubts.

“These guys are from the Donatien School, so I’ve met them a few times.”

“Were you close?”

“If we were close, wouldn’t I be lying down here too? Even looking at it this way, I belong to the Donatien school.”

That's right.

No matter how much she was looked down upon, her family was 'Donatiens'.

After wiping the blood off my sword, I walked towards the iron bars.

The humanoid demon lay as if dead, but was still breathing.

“I have crossed the river of no return.”

“So I’m going to put an end to it.”

“……Then, I will end it with my own hands.”

A humanoid demon, now like this, but was once human.

It will be a great burden on your mind.

It might feel like committing 'murder'.

“Anyway, I am a member of the Donatien family and I studied at the school.”

With a tone that seemed repentant, she slowly took out her wand and aimed it at the demon inside the iron bars.

***

Wizards were taught that it was virtuous to satisfy exploratory desires before considering human rights.

Because everyone said that the benefits of a brief moral laxity outweighed the damage to one's conscience.

'That is the teaching of the Donatien family.'

Although she had little knowledge of magic within her family, she had heard of that noble spirit so much that her ears bled.

'That's what brought this about, Aiden.'

From the beginning, she did not like the aristocratic atmosphere that the 'Donatien family' had.

For Irene, this incident was an opportunity to realize that the family's teachings were no longer something she could simply dismiss with the words, "I don't like it."

“I guess I have to deal with these.”

A familiar voice was heard by Eileen, who was lost in thought.

Black Knight.

A man wearing a mask that is both hideous and, at the same time, inexplicably sophisticated.

“I wonder what kind of expression he’ll make when he sees all the achievements he’s accumulated so far disappear.”

“It looks like you have a lot on your mind, Aiden.”

“There were a lot. It was supposed to be a lot, but that was prevented.”

Is it going to increase? What could that be?

Eileen was slightly suspicious of his words, but decided not to pay much attention to them.

Since he is a person who hides his identity with a mask, it would be nearly impossible to see inside him.

“It seems like this place is related to the demon appearance incident that occurred in the slums.”

"hmm."

The back of the 'Black Knight' letting out a short groan.

Just a moment ago, I felt a sense of humanity in the way he swung his sword at the wizards.

It might sound absurd.

However, it may seem, or it felt, like I was getting angry at seeing unethical behavior.

It could just be my mood though.

“Even if you take this and submit it to the Tower, it will be difficult to prove Aiden’s guilt, right?”

Eileen, who had been watching me from behind, opened her mouth.

“It’ll be hard, I guess. There’ll be no way to prove that it was an experiment he was doing.”

“That’s right. So, it would be best to get rid of it.”

As she said that, Eileen took the jewel out of her bosom and threw it onto the bookshelf.

The jewel, which had been reacting with mana along with a crackling sound, soon began to spark and burn down the books along with the bookshelf.

“Aren’t you jealous?”

“Is that so?”

The books, which had started to burn with a crackling sound, soon became a pile of ashes.

'Why did I do this?'

Was knowledge… …, the family’s secret wish, that important?

Such questions arose from the depths of my heart, but they gradually diminished like fading remnants.

“You seem curious.”

The words of the 'Black Knight' rang in my ears as if they were a surprise.

“Yes, I thought, was it really necessary to do it this way?”

“I agree.”

“Agree? You’re not a wizard, are you?”

“That’s true too.”

What on earth are you trying to say?

“Then, I guess we should ask the person involved. Why did he do something like that? What were he thinking?”

"yes?"

As the sting of life prickled her skin, Eileen unconsciously turned her gaze to the entrance of the lab.

There stood a man with frosty eyes and an expression that looked like he was going to tear me to pieces.

Aiden de Donatien.

The owner of this lab has appeared.