Chapter 96: The Villain (3)

It was the third day in the apocalyptic book. Lady Silver Lily was absent from the academy.

“People say that she’s in bed because she’s feeling sick,” the Inquisitor mentioned.

“Is that so...?”

“Yes! She's a sickly person, but she spent all night interrogating her servants. It was bound to happen!” The Inquisitor took a sip of black tea, which contained a lot of healthy sodium. “Physical strength is the strength of the nation! No matter how great your cause, it’s difficult to achieve it if you’re sick. Hmm, too bad. Lady Silver Lily seems like someone who could aim for the entire empire...”

“I heard that the crown prince also stopped attending the classes,” I commented.

“Hahaha. Yes, all thanks to you, butler. He’s so shocked he might apply for a leave of absence.”

We were having tea time in the garden filled with magnolias. The students passing by the garden were surprised when they saw us.

“The young lady and the butler are both crazy!”

“She’s a delinquent!”

“Don’t get close to them!”

The young ladies hitched their skirts and the young lords rolled their pants up to their ankles so they could get away. Thanks to that, we had the wide gardenscape all to ourselves. That was neat.

“Mr. Inquisitor, you just called me ‘butler’ instead of Death King. Be careful.”

“Oh! I’m sorry. My bad. It slipped out after my immersion level went over twenty percent. Oh, this salted black tea is surprisingly charming! Please give me another cup, butler.”

“You called me butler again...” I sighed as I poured the black tea into the young lady’s teacup.

I hummed. After taking on the role of butler, I realized that the tea ceremony was deeply profound. There was a beauty in the way the tea poured out of the teapot and welled up in the cup. The gentle ripples as each drop mixed into the rest of the tea were a sight that couldn’t be missed. It really suited Lady Goldencup—

[Your character immersion has deepened.]

[Your immersion level is 10%.]

The Inquisitor jumped out of his chair and shrieked. “Butler, why did you suddenly pour the tea on me?! It’s hot! You ruined my delicate hair!”

“You never shrieked like that! Have you really become the Lady Goldencup in both body and mind? Tell me. When spring comes!”

“Magnolias fall—and so will your hair, butler.”

“Ack!”

After a brief experience with the terror of hair loss, we calmed down and stopped fighting. As the butler, I brushed the Inquisitor’s hair. Over a few days, the Inquisitor’s hair had grown in the back a little. Was it the effect of his

Divine Formula: Transformation

? Or was he becoming more and more like the Lady Goldencup?

“You seem to have become better at expressing your emotions, Mr. Inquisitor.” I ran my fingers through his blonde hair. I had never combed or had my hair combed by anyone, but my hands moved on their own. “You used to always smile, but it was basically the same as not smiling at all. It felt more like smiling was your default expression, not a sign of happiness.”

“Haha. Is it different now?”

“Yes, it’s more emotional and vivid. Now I can tell if you’re smiling because you’re really happy or if you’re just sneering at someone.”

“I see. I noticed, too. Do you think it’s a good change, Mr. Death King?”

I quietly looked down at the back of the Inquisitor’s head. The Inquisitor was a first-generation Hunter from Bulgaria, Europe. His age was unknown, as well as the number of lives he had taken. His head, shoulders, arms... Everything about him was small. I thought about how many people that small body must have killed.

“... Yes, I think it’s good,” I said. “Honestly, I’ve been wondering what I should do with you.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“You’re a psychopath and a crazy slaughterer. But I couldn’t just kill you.” I slowly tied the Inquisitor’s hair up; it reminded me of how I used to take care of my younger siblings at the orphanage[1]. “The Black Dragon Master hates people like you the most, but she kept you alive. Even the Sword Star didn’t kill you. That means there’s a reason to keep you around.”

The Inquisitor wasn’t surprised to hear that I was contemplating killing him. He found it rather amusing, given his laughter.

“Your insight is quite precise!”

“Why do you kill people?” I asked—it was a question that had been weighing on me for a while. “You’re a psychopath, but you can reason with people and understand them in some way. So why do you kill them?”

The Inquisitor rested his chin on his palm and pondered.

I could hear the students’ faint laughter from beyond the garden’s flower bushes.

“First, I’ll have you know that I’m a very capable person.” Then he turned his head to me and lowered his voice to a bare whisper. “

Divine Formula: Hidden Divinity!

”

One of the Inquisitor’s gloves disappeared.

“It’s one of the Divine Formulas that I can use. I can make any object disappear from the world—of course, I can also destroy evidence and corpses.”

He moved his fingers in the air as if he were rowing.

“If those in power don’t kill people often, it isn’t because they’re good people, Mr. Death King! It’s simply because they don’t want to bother hiding corpses or they’re afraid of their murders being discovered later. I don’t have to worry about getting discovered!”

The Inquisitor looked bright.

“It was very chaotic in the Tower during the first generation. Slavery. Racial discrimination. Ultra-nationalism. Terrorism. The creation of puppet forces. Genocide. Media incitement and fabrication. Ideological conflicts. They were all revived. It was like the history of mankind was compressed into candy and melted down the Tower’s throat! The small and medium-sized factions—which are now called the Five Guilds—started to feel the end coming if the chaos kept spreading.”

The Black Dragon Guild, the MA, the Pantheon, the OJP Sect, and the Watchmen League.

“The five of us gathered,” the Inquisitor said as if reciting an epic. “The Black Dragon Master spoke first!”

‘I’ll cut to the chase. Let’s make an eternal non-aggression pact.”

“The Countess set a condition.”

“Guarantee the MA’s right to monopolize outside world goods.”

“I added one more term!”

“I want every guild to have its own exclusive domain! That’s my condition for covering up your incidents!”

“The Viper grumbled.”

“How did you people, the craziest of them all, end up being the most trustworthy people right now? Tsk tsk. It’s the end of the world. The end of the world... but why is this coffee so bitter? I didn’t even ask for this. Who gave me this? Hey. Hey? Hey!”

“The Sword Star decided it!”

“I won’t say that we’re doing what we have to do. We’ll kill people tonight in our ways because we want to based on our beliefs and judgments,”

“4,653 people died on that night.” The Inquisitor’s smile was still bright. “It was 10,171 people the next night. The night after that, 8,275 people died. 7,412 people died the night after that. The night after that, 23,781 people died. People died, died, and died.”

His quiet muttering abruptly brightened again. “And then that very fateful night suddenly arrived. No one died.”

On the night the long cleanup work had finally ended, the Black Witch had broken into tears.

“I will take the responsibility and resign, and I’ll never mention what we did again,” the Sword Star said.

The Sword Star had been the leader of the Watchmen League at the time.

“I approved and participated in this massacre. I knew we shouldn’t do it, but I took part in it nonetheless. I’ll hate you forever, and I’ll loathe myself even more.”

On that day, the Sword Star had parted ways with the other Five Guild leaders, and the position of the Watchmen League’s leader had remained vacant since then.

“From then on, the Paladin has been leading the Watchmen League.”

The Paladin always introduced herself as the assistant leader of the Watchmen League, and that was what people called her.

“The Paladin regretted it.”

The night when the Paladin and the Chemist had faced the Sword Star came to mind. It looked like their history was the reason why there was extra tension between the Paladin and the Sword Star at that time.

“I don’t regret it! It was a necessary sacrifice!” The Inquisitor continued to smile. “But I’m beginning to have these silly little thoughts. Maybe it’s because my immersion level with Lady Goldencup is increasing.”

“What kind of thoughts?”

“I feel like things might’ve been different if you were in the Tower back then, Mr. Death King. It’s strange. I’ve never felt this way before.” The Inquisitor looked up after he had said everything he had to say.

The magnolias hanging above us were in full bloom.

“Do you always live with this much emotion? I keep thinking about what would have changed if I had done something different back then. Do you all keep drifting into these kinds of thoughts while you live?

“It’s marvelous.” The Inquisitor, the Rank 5 Hunter, sighed. “That’s why you’re all so beautiful and lovely.”

“Mr. Inquisitor...”

“If I were like you...” The Inquisitor paused for a moment. “Hmm. Hmm. This is no good, butler. I want to stay in this world more and more.” He smiled sheepishly.

[Your character immersion has deepened.]

[Your immersion level is 11%.]

I realized that I probably wouldn’t be able to kill him. I couldn’t kill someone who knew how to regret his choices.

“My lady.”

“Yes, I’m listening,” the Inquisitor answered.

“When spring comes.”

The Inquisitor waved his hand and the glove came back, concealing his hand. The gloves were white and patterned with petals. The Inquisitor’s smile grew bigger. “Spring is nice. Would you like to go for a walk, butler?”

It felt like time had stopped. I couldn’t tell what expression I had on my face, but the Inquisitor held his abdomen and burst into laughter after staring at me for a moment.

“Hahahaha! Ha! You should see the look on your face, Mr. Death King! You turned pale in an instant! If anyone were to see you right now, they would think you were a corpse!”

“Really... Out of all of the pranks you could pull, you chose this...”

“I’m sorry. With emotions, I seem to have become a bit of a prankster! Oh, I now understand how I felt about you! It’s like looking at a reliable big brother!”

“Big brother...? You’re a Hunter from the first generation. Aren’t you older than me?”

“I won’t tell!” the Inquisitor said. “But it’s clear that I’m quickly getting immersed in Lady Goldencup. The immersion level went up by one percent while we were talking. My immersion level is now thirty-two percent, so it might be over fifty percent tomorrow. That’s how addicted I am to feeling emotions.”

The Inquisitor stroked her done up hair. “I am the protagonist of this apocalyptic book. However, you’ll be the main character of the ending. Mr. Death King, please secure the ending before I get carried away by my emotions and drown myself in Lady Goldencup.”

“Yes.” I nodded. “I promise.”

The Inquisitor smiled. “I believe in you, my butler.”

That night, the Inquisitor’s immersion level went over fifty percent.

* * *

In the end, Lady Silver Lily is the one who’ll destroy this world.

I headed to Lady Silver Lily’s villa under the pretext of a sick visit.

She’s the key. I have to understand her. Lady Silver Lily’s love, jealousy, tolerance, arrogance, possessiveness... I have to understand them all to complete this apocalyptic book. That’s probably the way to do this.

Her villa was crowded with servants, unlike yesterday.

“Excuse me,” I politely said. “May I see Lady Silver Lily?”

“Who are you?”

“Lady Goldencup heard that Lady Silver Lily is ill, so she sent me to deliver her regards.”

The servants’ faces hardened. It was a very well-known fact that their master and Lady Goldencup were on bad terms.

“Please wait a moment!” one of the servants shouted. He hurried into the villa.

After a while, the servant returned and reluctantly said, “...You can come this way. The young lady has agreed to see you.”

“Thank you.” I followed the servant.

The place I was brought to was not Lady Silver Lily’s bedroom or her reception room—it was her office. Numerous servants came and went, carrying reports to her.

“This is the letter from Lepanor, my lady.”

“Put it on the left side of the desk.”

“My lady, Lady Blue Pine Blossom sent a letter on behalf of her father. Considering what season it is now, that seems to be a request regarding grain return...[2]”

“Send it to the finance department for review and then bring it back.”

The servant who brought me there bowed. “My lady.”

Lady Silver Lily, who had been looking through documents at the desk in the middle of the office, looked up, quickly scanning me with her red eyes.

“It seems I have a guest,” she said, nonchalantly. “Step outside, everyone. You have fifteen minutes to rest.”

She grabbed the hourglass on the desk and flipped it over. All of the servants rushed out of the spacious office, leaving only her and I.

“So...” Lady Silver Lily put down her quill. “Lady Goldencup sent you to give me her regards? That’s some growth. Just a few days ago, she would grind her teeth as soon as she saw me. It’s like she’s a different person.”

“...I heard you were bedridden, but you look perfectly healthy. I’m surprised.”

“I’m still a student after all. I need a good excuse to skip classes and take care of my business. But it’s an exaggeration to say I’m healthy.” Lady Silver Lily coughed. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you. You’ve managed to notice that the spies were hiding among my subordinates in such a short period of time. People say that Lady Goldencup has changed, but so have you. Quite a smart actor has been chosen this time. It’s a blessing to the empire. If you weren’t that smart, I wouldn’t have accepted your visit in the first place.”

I didn’t understand. “... Pardon?”

“Hmm.” Lady Silver Lily narrowed her eyes. “I thought you were smart, but you’re surprisingly dull in some ways.”

“What... do you mean...?”

“I’ve done this fourteen times,” she calmly informed me. “I’m just repeating the last ten days of my life. Still, this is the thirteenth time I’ve met an actor like you.”

[The Silver-Plated Heart looks at you.]

I was speechless.

“How about you? How many times have you done this?”

Lady Silver Lily was a regressor.

1. This seems to be the butler’s memory. ☜

2. The raw is 환곡(還穀). This is a relief system used in Joseon, the last kingdom before Korea became a republic. It’s about the government lending grains during famine and collecting them when the harvest is good. ☜