I'm Neither the Mastermind nor the Villain

Chapter 4

As I entered through the stairs, a corridor shrouded in darkness greeted me.

There were lights, but it seemed they had no intention of turning on whatsoever.

"Nice-to meet you. What brings-you here-?"

Perhaps realizing an intruder had entered, something walked out from within the darkness.

A doll emerged, pushing through the darkness, and spoke as it approached me.

It was a rabbit doll that looked like something you'd commonly find sold in stores.

Its appearance was cute, but perhaps because it had walked alone out of the darkness, it only served to heighten my wariness.

"Do you-have any business-"

I swung my sword and cut down the approaching rabbit doll.

At that moment, I sensed mana moving stealthily within the walls on either side.

In my previous life, I had no knowledge of mana itself, but ever since possessing this body, I had accepted mana as naturally as flowing water.

Whether that was because I had possessed this body, or because this world itself was like that, I did not know.

But what mattered was that now I could sense mana.

And that was dark mana.

Just like mine.

Before anything could happen, I quickly cloaked my sword in aura and slashed at the places where I sensed mana.

The dark mana that had been secretly forming shapes within the walls was destroyed and scattered by my aura-infused blade.

"Do you-have any business-"

And just in case the doll rose again and attacked me from behind, I conjured flames and burned the doll entirely.

"Do, do you have business, business-"

Jet-black flames engulfed the doll.

The black flames emitting their dark light filled me with an odd sense of grandeur as I watched.

Black-colored light-does that even make sense?

This was a flame magic I had learned from the internet.

A truly simple spell, something you could cast as long as you had mana.

It was so weak that it couldn't even penetrate the most basic fire protection magic,

Yet somehow, the black flames I conjured were far more powerful.

Powerful enough to instantly incinerate that rabbit doll-which surely had multiple defensive magics applied-to ash.

Well, stronger is better. Power never hurts.

After confirming the doll had turned completely to ash, I resumed walking.

***

The basement was quite spacious.

It seemed it would take quite some time to reach the deepest layer where the villain was hiding.

Along the way, I noticed various objects placed on either side of the corridor, their purpose unclear.

Everyday items like pens and mugs were laid out, which felt rather unsettling.

I considered smashing those things, but they gave me such an eerie feeling that I decided I better not touch them.

"Intruder detected!"

And then, there were assailants who attacked me from the darkness.

Dolls kept popping out of the darkness wielding knives and spewing fire, and I had no idea where they were coming from.

I definitely couldn't sense any presence whatsoever,

Yet they suddenly appeared out of nowhere, which was quite taxing on my mental strength.

As if they were created directly from the darkness, or perhaps summoned from within it.

Thinking that, I looked around again and realized the placement of the lights felt quite deliberate.

It was arranged so there would always be spots where the light couldn't reach.

And, you see, I had eyes that could pierce through even pitch-black darkness.

Yet the inside of the darkness from which the dolls emerged was so dense it was hard to see through, almost as if the darkness itself had congealed.

This had to be an artificial phenomenon, no doubt.

But it was fine. Since it was just dolls doing such antics, the atmosphere was oddly horror-like, but I wasn't scared.

Once they tasted my aura, they died instantly-so why would I be afraid?

Anyway, I proceeded, cutting down every moving thing in the basement.

I didn't even miss the tiny bugs I spotted here and there.

Since I didn't want to dirty my sword, I burned them all with flames.

Those were definitely familiars.

If I left them alive, they would surely relay tons of information to the villain.

Even if they weren't familiars, killing bugs was the right call.

Why kill bugs that aren't familiars, you ask?

The reason was simple.

I just hate bugs.

So I turned them all amicably into handfuls of ash and arrived at the second basement floor.

-Clatter!

-Screech!

The moment I descended to the second floor, I was greeted by a swarm of monsters.

The monsters varied in size-some were quite tiny like Mio, while others were as big as a rhinoceros.

Dozens of monsters began to surround me, moving in perfect unison as if they were a single entity.

If the dark mage himself was controlling these monsters, then his control skills were quite impressive.

"I can't just let that be."

I needed to break their formation.

Cloaking my sword in aura, I lunged forward.

With minimal movement, I killed the monsters.

Dodging the charging monsters with just slight movements of my feet and torso,

Crushing the tiny monster stealthily aiming for my ankle by cloaking my foot in aura and stomping on it.

And immediately smashing the monster targeting my side with my aura-clad fist.

It took less than a few minutes to kill all dozens of monsters.

"Kyeng"

Suddenly, Mio popped out of the painting.

'Why did she suddenly come out?'

Watching her, I saw Mio sucking out and absorbing the dark mana remaining in the monsters.

Seeing dozens of monsters being drained of dark mana in real-time by a single Mio with a straw stuck in them felt... rather strange.

Mio's satisfaction was transmitted to me as well.

In less than a few minutes, the corpses of dozens of monsters had all shriveled up.

Like mummies, really.

Mio sprawled on the floor as if satisfied and began to nap.

I could feel Mio's dark mana rapidly strengthening.

"......Get back inside."

"Kyeng"

Thankfully, Mio went back into the painting again.

......I didn't just summon something dangerous, did I?

Well, whatever. Since it's my summoned creature, it shouldn't harm me anyway.

Still, controlling dozens of monsters?

Controlling not just a few, but dozens of monsters was no easy feat.

Of course, if one had the skill, it wasn't impossible.

A skilled dark mage could command thousands of troops alone.

In fact, in the history of this world, there was once a necromancer who commanded hundreds of thousands of undead alone.

But for an untalented and inexperienced dark mage, even fully controlling a single monster was difficult.

That villain might have been far more skilled than I had thought.

Raising my guard another notch, I pressed forward.

Monsters kept appearing after that as well.

Having exhausted more than half of their forces in the previous battle, the number of monsters charging at me wasn't as many as before.

Besides, I could sense all their movements, so it wasn't hard to deal with them.

Still, that didn't mean there were only a few monsters attacking me.

Even just roughly counting the number of monsters I had killed so far, it seemed to be about a hundred.

There were so many that it was hard to believe this was solely the work of that villain I knew from the original story.

At this scale, I might have to consider the possibility that some outside force was involved.

With that thought in mind, I kept moving forward, and before I knew it, the entrance to the third basement floor was waiting for me.

That villain was probably on the third basement floor.

Because in the original story, after killing the villain, it said the protagonist climbed three sets of stairs before finally making it outside.

And later, when he revisited that place, he took everything useful as a bonus.

Alright, then, shall I head down?

*

The third basement floor was wider than the first and second basement floors.

The deeper down the dungeon went, the wider it became, reaching its peak in size on the third floor.

At the end of a long corridor filled with countless rooms stood a large wooden door.

It wasn't made of particularly luxurious material, but it didn't look low quality either.

Passing by numerous rooms, I walked up to the wooden door.

Unlike the previous floors, the third basement floor had no obstacles whatsoever,

so I was able to reach the door without any trouble.

Once I open this door and capture the villain, it will be over.

The first step toward living peacefully in this world.

Since academy life might be so tough that I end up dropping out, I better have plenty of money. Hmm.

After taking a deep breath for a moment,

I immediately opened the door.

"...So, you finally made it here."

When the door was fully open, what I saw was a man.

The man's skin was pale as a corpse, and his hair reached down to around his shoulder blades.

Looking quite gaunt, perhaps from extreme stress, he gave off an overall corpse-like vibe.

Behind the man was a structure that resembled an altar,

to the right was a rather large desk, and to the left, rows of refrigerators were lined up.

The desk was cluttered with all sorts of books, and on the altar was a long, blood-red stain,

which extended all the way down to the fourth basement floor.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Baek Sejin."

Upon hearing my name, he began trembling violently, then suddenly shouted.

"You...! Just where the hell did you come from? Why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do wrong?!"

"'Wrong,' you say... You've done plenty wrong. For starters, stalking, haven't you?"

At my words, the man instantly froze.

"D-Don't tell me I was found out? I thought I'd hidden it perfectly...."

This villain must die.

Of course, it's not simply because he was stalking that I think this villain deserves to die.

"And also, about your family."

Whatever he was thinking at my words, the man's face turned deathly pale.

"My family is already missing! If you're trying to provoke me--"

"Haha, 'missing,' you say? Looks like you really don't remember anything, huh?"

This man had offered up his own family as a sacrifice.