Reforming the Villain Family - Chapter 21

Looking at the memories of the divine beast and the unfamiliar scenes unfolding before my eyes, I recalled a particular scene I had read in the original work.

“E-Elizer! Please listen to me first! That person is telling blatant lies right now! S-Surely you’re not believing the words of a complete stranger?”

“I’m not believing that person’s words, Uncle.”

Once, he was the supreme ruler of this empire. He was the most exalted one who had everything in the world under his feet.

Also, he was his only blood relative.

Such a person was now desperately begging for his words to be believed. Elizer looked down with an emotionless gaze.

“I believe what I saw that day.”

Smoke rose slightly behind Elizer’s back. Red eyes appeared first through the alien smoke, followed by a face covered in silver scales.

“Th-That is…!”

“The divine beast!”

“The prince was a divine beast contractor!”

The divine beast manifested. It poked its head out from behind Elizer, its contractor, and stared at the emperor with a penetrating gaze.

Shock settled on the emperor’s face as he met the divine beast’s gaze head-on. The emperor’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know about that incident, Uncle?”

That was the scene when Elizer, who had contracted with the divine beast, was about to punish his uncle who had tried to kill him.

At that time, Elizer used the divine beast’s memories to find evidence that his uncle had tried to kill him, just like now.

‘In the original work, it was said that everyone who saw the manifested divine beast trembled.’

But the appearance of the divine beast that came to me…

‘Well, I guess it doesn’t look that way now because it’s not its main body?’

I decided to put aside the sudden question for now.

Even as I thought this, my field of vision kept moving rapidly.

[Look carefully. Here are the guys I told you about!]

As I gently landed on the ground, I was surprised to see that there were other people gathered in the underground.

And as the divine beast said, they were all wearing black clothes with brown hair.

‘You’re here? How did it go?’

‘What kind of antidote do we have?’

‘Antidote? What antidote all of a sudden?’

‘Hurry up and give me the antidote!’

‘Tsk, why is that bastard making a fuss as soon as he arrives?’

The assassin rummaged through the antidotes his colleagues had brought.

Then he picked up one of them and quickly rolled up his right sleeve.

‘Give me one that matches this.’

‘Ugh, what’s all this? It doesn’t seem like any poison we manage.’

‘If you don’t know, step aside. I’ll take care of it myself.’

The assassin carelessly poured the antidote into his mouth.

He gritted his teeth as he chewed the pills loudly.

‘Damn it, is this all the antidote there is?’

‘That’s all we have, but… you should probably just go back today. The boss is here today…’

‘What? Why are you telling me this now…!’

‘Why, is there a problem if I’m here? Do you need to run away?’

Smoke billowed from the side. My view turned to the side towards a man holding a cigarette.

The assassin visibly showed fear upon seeing him.

‘B-Boss!’

‘I’ve told you many times, expensive things are worth their price.’

The man called boss approached the assassin with large strides. Soon, he grabbed the assassin’s collar.

‘Ugh!’

‘Tsk, if you’re going to die, die alone. Why did you crawl back here?’

‘B-Boss, that, that is…!’

‘You should have died when you were caught. Hm? Don’t you know that’s the least courtesy to your remaining comrades?’

That’s when it happened. A loud boom was heard from somewhere.

‘W-What’s that?’

‘What’s this noise?’

‘Could it be…!’

The man called boss quickly turned his head.

In that moment, the assassin in his grasp hurriedly shook off his hand.

‘That bastard!’

Others tried to chase after him, but soon everyone stopped moving as if by agreement.

‘Hahaha! You fools! I’m here!’

It was because of the booming voice that shook the underground. Along with it, someone’s grumbling voice was heard from behind.

‘Next time, can we please leave that guy out?’

‘What if he finds out we came secretly without him? Can you handle that? That guy will sulk for three months if we don’t include him in things like this.’

‘W-What? Who are these guys!’

A large man wearing a black hood blocked the assassin’s path.

‘Damn it, where did these guys come from?’

The startled assassin pulled out a dagger from his chest. It was an astonishingly quick movement.

Before the assassin’s blade could stab his opponent, another’s blade pierced through his body first.

‘Don’t overdo it and finish quickly, I need to return before sunrise.’

‘Geez, how boring.’

At his companion’s words, the large man who seemed to be playing around suddenly changed his expression.

‘Damn it, dodge!’

At the assassin boss’s shout, everyone belatedly realized the situation and started running towards the escape route.

The men in black hoods also dispersed and began chasing after them.

‘That voice just now…’

Just as I was about to confirm the man with the familiar voice, my vision suddenly turned.

‘I want to see who it is!’

My view gradually moved towards the fallen assassin’s chest.

The divine beast passed between people’s feet and burrowed into the assassin’s sleeve.

‘By the way, what is it doing now?’

Soon it rummaged around in the clothes, and something shiny came into view.

When my vision brightened again, I made direct eye contact with the assassin’s boss who was still in the underground.

‘…It’s a snake!’

The boss, with his eyes wide open, blurted out. Behind him, the large intruder rushed at him.

‘So you’re the biggest scum!’

At the same time, as my vision went dark, the divine beast screamed.

[Aack! The last part was a mistake, a mistake!]

“Eek!”

Startled by its scream, I let out a short shriek.

I was already concentrating on watching, and suddenly it screamed, so I was really surprised.

Clutching my rapidly beating heart, I also let out a squeak.

“Why are you suddenly screaming like that!”

[Ah, anyway! The last part was a mistake! I accidentally revealed myself while trying to return, that’s why!]

The divine beast earnestly explained to me.

“More importantly, what did you bring from there…”

“Young miss! So this is where you were!”

Just then, Chrissy, who had found me, let out a sigh of relief.

‘Huh.’

Surprised by Chrissy’s sudden appearance, I quickly hid the divine beast with my bag.

In doing so, I lost my footing and fell on my bottom with a thud.

“Ouch!”

“Oh my! Are you alright? I must have startled you.”

Taking Chrissy’s hand and getting up, I quickly said to him.

“Let’s play more, Chrissy!”

“Pardon? Shouldn’t you go back in now?”

“Playing with Chrissy is so much fun, I want to play with Chrissy again!”

“Th-That…! Playing with you is the most fun for me too, young miss!”

Chrissy had a very touched expression.

“Then I’ll count! One, two, three…”

Seeing Chrissy turn around, I quickly started running.

‘This time, I need to go farther.’

I couldn’t go back to my room yet because I had a lot left to talk about with the divine beast.

As I ran, I could see the main gate in the distance.

I saw the gatekeeper standing in front of it, and wondering why it seemed so noisy, I realized they were preventing an elderly servant from entering.

“Please, I beg you! Let me see the Duke just once, just once!”

“Ah, I told you, it’s not possible. Old man! You’re making it difficult for us too, stop insisting!”

Seeing the servant, I opened my eyes wide. That person…

‘He’s the servant who came with Count Ripe that time.’

It was the servant I saw on the day Count Ripe rudely touched my hair, the day Yan temporarily stepped down from his position as my guard because of that.

He looked unusually old to be working as a servant, which made him more memorable.

The elderly servant was holding a rectangular token in one hand.

“I must give this to the Duke! If he sees this, he’ll know our master was deceived too! Please, let me see him just once!”

“Old man, lower your voice! We’ll get in trouble at this rate, we’ll get in trouble.”

Seeing the servant shouting at the top of his lungs, the gatekeepers seemed to think this wouldn’t do and opened the main gate to step outside.

The gatekeepers were probably trying to prevent the servant from getting too close to the main gate. However, taking advantage of this gap, the servant tried to enter instead.

“Old man, you can’t do this here!”

‘What is he holding?’

I narrowed my eyes and stared intently at what the servant was holding in his hand.

Before I could make out what it was, Chrissy shouted loudly from behind.

“Young miss! I’m going to find you now!”

I glanced back briefly and quickly hid behind a large tree.

[Ugh, I’m dizzy!]

The divine beast in my bag grumbled, probably because of the shaking from my running.

Hiding behind a large nearby tree, I peeked out with just my head.

“What’s all this commotion?”

Just then, a monotone voice rang in my ears. Now quite familiar with the voice, I turned my gaze without even being startled.

‘It’s the Duke.’

I thought he wasn’t going out today, but he must have been in the mansion. Where I was hiding wasn’t far from the Duke.

Fearing that the Duke might discover me, I held my breath even more.

Fortunately, the Duke didn’t seem to have noticed me. He strode towards the servant.

When the gatekeepers released the servant, he knelt at the Duke’s feet and prostrated himself.

“D-Duke, please release our master! We were all deceived by that person! P-Please look at this! This is the identification that person first gave us!”

One of the gatekeepers handed it to the Duke. The Duke tilted his head slightly.

What the servant handed over was a palm-sized rectangular token.

“Th-That was fake! We didn’t know at first because it was so convincing, but later when the ink faded, we checked and found out it was fake! We were all deceived by that person, I tell you!”

‘So the identification was fake.’

The servant seemed to have brought it thinking it could prove the Count’s innocence.

But that wasn’t enough. I bit my lip.

I knew the Count wasn’t the culprit because I knew the content of the original work, but the Duke didn’t.

To convince the Duke, more clear evidence than that was needed.

‘Something like the real culprit, for instance…’

As expected, the Duke spoke in a sharp voice.

“I wondered what great thing you had brought.”

He casually tossed it to Philen as if it had no value.

“If you catch my eye one more time, I’ll consider you an accomplice. Do you understand me?”

At the Duke’s cold response, the servant couldn’t say anything more.

Seeing him being dragged away helplessly by other soldiers, Philen scratched his nape and spoke.

“If he keeps coming like this, it’s going to be troublesome.”

“How’s the investigation I asked for going?”

“Yes, he has no family and has lived like family with Count Ripe for his entire life. So it seems we’ll have to handle him differently from the others.”

But their conversation was a bit suspicious. Feeling somewhat uneasy, I quietly listened to their conversation.

“Or should we just frame him as an accomplice and get rid of him? After all, if any of the Count’s close associates remain, we might need to clean up again later. We should also consider the possibility that he might find out about the real culprit.”

Real culprit? My eyes widened.

Does that mean the Duke also knows that Count Ripe was framed?

“That Count’s actions are already annoying enough, but behind the scenes, he’s squeaky clean. This is a good opportunity to deal with him thoroughly…”

Hearing those words, I felt my legs give out without realizing it.

[Hey, be careful!]

The divine beast urgently called out, but I had already slumped to the ground.

As soon as I sat down with a thud, the Duke sharply turned his head.

“What’s wro- Huh!”

[This idiot…]

I could hear the divine beast in my bag quietly cursing.

The Duke who discovered me clicked his tongue.