I Became the Leader of a Villain Organization

Chapter 16: Black Snake (1)

The moonlight piercing through the night clouds is almost touching.

The center of the Celestial Realm, in a sumptuous room that resembled the great hall of a palace, a group of people who called themselves the Celestials gathered.

Each of them wore old-fashioned oriental clothes that looked as if they were brand new, and their faces were oily with the grease of luxury they couldn’t hide.

It was a kingdom in the sky, protected by a fortress of heavenly favor.

─It should have been.

“Now, Elder!”

A man dressed in similarly oriental garb rushed into the room, shouting.

“Gal! What kind of impolite behavior is that in this sacred Heavenly Dragon Hall!?”

An elderly man, who seemed to have an unusually high status among the heavenly beings, rebuked him. He stroked his long, graying beard as if to show off.

“That, that, that, that-!”

The man, however, was unperturbed by the elder tirade, breathing heavily and stuttering ridiculously. Seeing this, the elder became even more frustrated and raised his voice.

“It’s bad enough that you entered the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion without permission, but now you can’t even give me a straight answer!”

As he pointed his finger at his head, the Oriental-style warrior at his side placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

-Thwack.

The chains on the hilt glowed pale, and the man spoke, his voice trembling.

“He, he, he, he……them.”

He couldn’t even finish the word.

“They put this, this place…….”

“─”

Still, it was enough.

In a place where there are only those who have the nerve to call themselves ‘heavenly beings’, even those who claim the very name of the heavens dare to honor and fear them.

“The Black Snake.”

The name of a snake that even the heavenly beings must fear.

-Hiccup.

As if the sight of him standing on the brink and ranting was a lie, the elder shut his mouth on the spot. No, he tried to keep it shut.

“Hiccup.”

A hiccup, as if age couldn’t deceive, a hiccup that leaked out of him with a shuddering fear. Hiccup, hiccup, he tried to stop it, but his body won’t listen.

Fortunately, the hiccups stopped sooner than he thought.

As soon as I saw the man walking casually toward them, they stopped.

“Ah, ah, ah…….”

He didn’t know what to say to him.

The man couldn’t say anything. No, he didn’t even know what to say.

Not even the Heavenly Elder, who called himself a Heavenly Being, even among the Heavenly Beings.

“Uh, you’ve taken such a difficult step, I can’t help but praise you!”

Even as he trembled with fear and desperately tried to speak, the man did not answer, but simply walked with a cheap earthly cigarette in his mouth that he would not smoke if offered.

“The great “Black Snake” walks on this shabby wallpaper…….”

The man said nothing as the elder bowed his head in desperation.

He merely walked silently through the center of the celestial palace.

At his side, a black-sworded female swordswoman and an innocent blonde girl in a gothic dress followed.

Watching them, none of the self-proclaimed “Heavenly Beings” dared to speak, no they couldn’t because there was a real sky there that they dared not look up at.

“Why do you hold your head down?”

Only then did the man speak, and at his words the Heavenly Elder eyes widened.

“Yes, yes?!”

“I asked you, why are you holding your head down?”

The voice was cold and emotionless, and the Heavenly Elder thought, his mind more complicated than ever. No, why does he bow his head? And the answer was because he had to.

“In front of the great Black Snake-”

There is no one in this world that does not bow before them and survive.

He tried to speak but could not.

-Kwazik!

Before the Heavenly Elder could finish his answer, his entire face exploded.

The others gulped in indescribable horror at the sight of flesh and bone scattering in all directions.

“!”

At the same time, no one in the room could say anything more.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah!”

Except for a scream that could not form words.

“Uh, why!”

One of them cried out as if begging for his life, unable to see the carnage that was unfolding there.

“Isn’t the promise different?”

A promise.

Upon hearing this, the rest of the Heavenly Beings turned their heads desperately in this direction as if grasping for the last straw.

“Huh? What promise?”

At the same time, there was a blonde girl who burst into laughter upon hearing those words. Likewise, the shadow at her feet laughed along with her, tearing her mouth into a crescent moon.

“Kahahaha, you guys are so funny!”

As if she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Isn’t the promise different?”

“We swore to be loyal to the name of the “Black Snake”, and that’s how you accepted our loyalty!”

“Regrettably.”

The next to speak is the Black Snake female swordswoman, who, as usual, remains calm by her side.

“There is no such thing as a promise to fulfill with you.”

Unmoved, unwavering, and simply telling it like it is.

“There is only his will.”

Nothing more, nothing less.

And this is what the man wants.

“Why?”

“What have we done wrong?”

“Please teach us!”

At the sound of the pleading voice, the man with the cigarette opened his mouth.

His voice was so low and heavy that it sent chills down their spine. The monster of monsters, leading the infamous Black Snake.

“I heard there’s a delicacy here that you guys are so proud of.”

“You mean the Heavenly Delicacy? I’ll bring it to you right away, right now!”

“…….”

“How would you like to eat it, do you want to eat it instantly! Do you want to eat it alive?! Do you want me to cook it?! As for the recipe, please, to your taste─”

A child with heavenly taste. A delicacy of the heavens, taken from the homeless children of Labyrinth City and bred in exchange for a life of luxury in the celestial realm.

“No, it is not necessary.”

The man shook his head and looked disgusted. After stirring, he turned to the blonde girl at his side.

“You can eat the whole thing, Alice.”

“Wow, really?! Okay!”

The blonde girl grins like a child at the words. The mouth of the shadow at her feet, already torn like a crescent moon, tears even longer and more grotesquely, as if even that is nothing more than a medicine.

“Yes-.”

All at once, the shadows on the great hall floor, the shadows of the moon and stars, not the girl’s feet open their mouths in hysterical laughter.

They can’t lift a finger or even think of running away, as a freezing cold silence falls over them.

The oriental-style warriors who were supposed to protect the celestials there were no exception.

“I will eat you!”

The silence was not long and at the end of the silence, a hell worthy of the name unfolded.

＊

-Boom!

The continent’s longest elevator, the sole passageway to the Fortress of Heavenly Blessings, the so-called ‘Heaven’s East Line’, moved.

It wasn’t controlled by the celestials, but by the Knights Order, who had seized it and moved it with control manipulation magic.

“We are the Knights Order, authorized to investigate by the Continental Adventurers Association! Those who resist will be subdued by force!”

They entered the top floor of the Eight Dragon Citadel, the Eight Dragons’ Heavenly Realm, called the Heavenly Dragon Pavilion.

As he strode unhesitatingly toward it, Sword Saint Zerel shouted.

He drew the sword at his waist, ready for a bloody battle with the celestials’ vaunted bodyguard organization, the so-called .

“─Eh?”

But fighting aside, there was no sign of those who were supposed to guard the entrance.

“No one?”

Sword Lady Alina’s eyes narrowed as she rested her hand on the hilt of the sword at her waist while Sword Saint Zerel could not hide his puzzlement.

“It could be an ambush. Stay alert.”

Monk Mutu, who was with them, replied cautiously. He quietly closed his eyes, sensing the atmosphere in the area.

“─Well, even if the Celestials are strong, they shouldn’t be able to hide so delicately.”

The hooded mage replied, “I can’t sense anything in the area with the detection field magic I’m casting.”

He is a mage in a party of platinum-ranked adventurers. There’s no way a detection field casted by a wizard of his caliber could have been deceived.

Or there really is nothing.

“Let’s move forward.”

“Be careful, Zerel.”

That doesn’t change what needs to be done and with his sword drawn, the leader of the Knights Order, Sword Saint Zerel, walked cautiously.

A chilling silence settled over the sky citadel.

It was neither the Kingdom of the Sky nor the Dragon that greeted the Knights Order with a suspicious silence.

“Ah.”

It was a black snake.