I'm Neither the Mastermind nor the Villain

Chapter 9

Walking toward the place where I sense dark mana.

"Hey, that person over there, is he the leader of those dark mages from before?"

"Tsk, don't say things like that carelessly."

I overheard a suspicious conversation from a couple who had just passed by me.

The leader of the dark mages?

Does that mean such an important person is here?

But looking around, there was no one with particularly strong dark mana.

"Hmm... I guess I'll have to ask them directly."

I approached the couple.

"But why don't the police arrest someone like that?"

"Maybe he has some sort of corrupt connection with the police? You know, like in dramas where the villains and cops are on the same side and stuff."

"Oh, sounds plausible... eek!"

"Haha, excuse me."

The woman who had been talking about that person shut her mouth in fright as I approached.

The closer I got, the paler the expressions on the man and woman became.

Eventually, as I came closer, they began to back away.

"Why are you backing away like that? Now I have to keep moving forward, don't I?"

As soon as they heard my very polite and courteous words, the couple stopped backing away as if persuaded.

"You see, I happened to overhear your conversation."

"Ah, y-yes..."

"By any chance, do you know where that so-called leader of the dark mages went?"

And I even kindly added a smile to my face.

But suddenly, the man and woman started trembling in their legs and sweating coldly at my words.

"What's wrong? Are your legs shaking all of a sudden? Do you perhaps have some health problem...?"

"N-no!"

The man suddenly shouted loudly, drawing attention from the surroundings.

"What's up with those people?"

"Isn't this a dangerous situation?"

"Looks like they got caught up with a dangerous villain..."

"Shouldn't someone call the police? I feel like a few people might die today. I really don't want to see any corpses today."

I didn't know why people were thinking that way, but at this rate, the misunderstanding would only get worse.

"W-we must have mistaken you for someone else. P-please spare us..."

Seeing them suddenly begging for their lives, it really seemed like they had some health problem.

As a righteous citizen of Korea, I couldn't just overlook this kind of issue.

"Indeed, it seems your health is not in good condition, so I..."

"N-no, really, we're fine...!"

Even the woman spoke up to say they were fine.

Seeing them insist so much, maybe it's not that serious after all?

"Hmm... Alright then. The weather's chilly these days, so please take care of your health. Nothing is more important than health, after all. There's nothing in the world more precious than health."

"Yes! We'll keep that in mind! We're really sorry!"

"Haha, no need to apologize. If anything, I should apologize for holding up you two when you're busy."

The man and woman nodded vigorously, seemingly moved by my sincere concern for their health.

After giving them a very polite farewell, I headed once more toward where the dark mana was coming from.

Still, it's a bit disappointing. As a fellow practitioner of dark magic, I kind of wanted to meet that so-called leader.

Turns out it was just a misunderstanding, so that deflated my excitement a bit.

I thought I heard someone collapse behind me, but it was probably just my imagination?

*

The closer I got to the source of the dark mana, the more the surrounding scenery changed.

Most notably, I saw living animals.

Unlike the central area, which neatly sold magic materials, artifacts, and weapons, here live animals were displayed with the utmost care, probably to be used as sacrifices for dark magic or shamanism.

There are various reasons why sacrificial animals are treated so well despite being destined for slaughter.

First, it advertises how well-managed our shop is, and second, it's for the quality of the sacrifice.

In most cases, sacrifices need to be of good quality.

Well-fed, plump, with glossy fur, a clear cry, and not too old.

Of course, there are also rituals that require low-quality sacrifices.

Such as curses used in shamanism or dark magic.

But usually, those types of sacrifices are raised personally by shamans or dark mages, so you rarely see them in public markets like this.

"Lady Marbas. With a sacrificial animal like that, what could you do?"

I spoke to Marbas, who had been smiling ever since I talked to that couple.

[Wahaha! Ah, yes. That one looks quite high quality. With a few hundred of those, you could do quite a lot.

But with just one, you probably couldn't do much. At most, curse a few people.]

"If you can curse several people with a single sacrifice like that, it's quite useful."

[Assuming your skills are at least somewhat decent.]

"Ah, I see. Then, with that level of skill, how many could one handle?"

At my question, Marbas burst into laughter again.

[Wahaha! Not even worth discussing. Even if there's talent, it's still just a sprout barely breaking through. It would be more effective to simply offer that sacrifice in a shamanic ritual.]

"...I must train even harder."

[My authority will soon become your authority. Why would you need sacrifices then?]

Indeed. I had made a contract with Marbas.

As a righteous citizen, having made a deal with a demon - the very symbol of evil - wasn't exactly a proud thing.

[Are you perhaps harboring some blasphemous thoughts?]

"Haha, of course not."

While chatting with Marbas, I looked around and saw many truly fascinating things.

On one side, there were piles of black orbs stacked high, and I also saw a lizard radiating dark mana.

It was a lizard labeled Dark Magic Beast Gecko Lizard.

And in parentheses after the name, it also had Dark Magic Beast Gecko written, so I could tell its original name.

"Excuse me. What kind of ability does this lizard have?"

"Ah, that? It doesn't really have any special abilities. It's just for ornamental purposes. As you know, in a public place like this, we can't sell unlicensed creatures, right? So we have to sell these trivial critters instead."

"Ah, I see."

If it had any useful abilities, I was thinking of raising a few in my breeding room, so that was a bit disappointing.

***

Before I knew it, the sun was sinking toward the ground, dyeing the sky red.

"Looks like I've spent the whole day here."

[So, are you done shopping?]

"Yes, I plan to head home shortly."

Unfortunately, I had spent all day wandering around the marketplace, but still hadn't found the protagonist's group.

Since it's a place where all sorts of people gather, maybe I saw them but didn't realize it.

Or perhaps they were moving along a completely different route from mine.

Anyway, after wandering around all day, I was a bit exhausted.

My body wasn't that tired, but it was more a matter of mental fatigue.

I sat on a bench by a fountain in a quiet corner of the outer plaza.

I planned to kill some time there and then rush over if any commotion broke out.

I'd already scouted a few secluded spots while exploring the marketplace, so the moment a disturbance happened, I could get there immediately.

I spent my time petting Mio, who was sitting on my lap.

'Oh, this is lucky.'

Not long after, a man and woman entered the plaza.

The man had red hair and red eyes.

The woman had black hair cut short and was wearing a white baseball cap.

It was the protagonist's group.

That red-haired, red-eyed man was Seonghyeon, the protagonist of The Reincarnator Wants to Live.

Surname Seong, given name Hyeon. Later, he becomes famous as the Red Flame Sword.

The woman walking closely beside the man is the spirit summoner Lee Jiwoo.

She later becomes a fairly famous spirit summoner, but for now, it's hard to tell.

The fact that these two are here now-

probably means I luckily picked the exact spot where the villain appears.

My eyes met Seonghyeon's as he entered the plaza.

Faced with his gaze fixed on me, I couldn't help but feel a bit flustered.

'What's up with him?'

"Hm? What's wrong?"

Lee Jiwoo must have noticed Seonghyeon's odd behavior and spoke to him.

"...No, it's nothing. Just... it seems like there aren't many people around here."

Seonghyeon mumbled and then averted his gaze from me.

"Does that mean you deliberately looked for a place with no people?"

"Huh? Why are you suddenly talking like that-"

Just then, a large blue creature that looked like a chinchilla suddenly popped out next to Lee Jiwoo and let out a loud beep!

"-Dodge! Hyeon!"

At that moment, a monster lunged at them, targeting the two.

Fortunately, thanks to Lee Jiwoo's warning, they managed to evade the monster's attack without injury.

The villain who attacked them truly fit the description of a monster.

He had a massive Hulk-like body, with pitch-black and stark white skin mixed together, bald without a single hair, and abnormally large hands and feet.

Lee Jiwoo, who was floating in the sky hanging onto a giant bird, gradually descended,

while Seonghyeon, who had rolled to the side to dodge, quickly regained his stance and drew his sword.

"Whoever you are... attacking out of nowhere is too much, isn't it?"

-Whoosh.

Red flames sparked from the blade of Seonghyeon's sword, surrounded by his mana.

It wasn't quite in the form of aura yet, but it looked like he had gathered his mana to wrap around the blade.

The flames that seemed to burst from the blade were the manifestation of the fiery energy packed within his mana.

Seonghyeon belongs to a rather well-known family of ability users.

His family has been born with a natural affinity for fire for generations and has trained in martial arts and magic related to flames.

And Lee Jiwoo is no slouch either.

Lee Jiwoo has an exceptional affinity with spirits.

Enough to simultaneously command multiple spirits of different elements.

It took her only an instant to get behind the monster.

Seonghyeon dodged the monster's attack by rolling aside, Lee Jiwoo evaded by flying upward,

and as Seonghyeon drew his sword, she summoned a spirit behind the monster.

The spirit resembled a giant lizard standing on two legs, its body glowing red.

And from its mouth, it intermittently spewed fire, unmistakably a fire spirit.

"Hyeon! Now!"

At Lee Jiwoo's shout, Seonghyeon started to rush forward with his sword but hesitated, glancing quickly at me.

'Why does he keep looking at me?'

I'm just an ordinary citizen.

For a moment, Seonghyeon glanced at me again, then turned back and charged at the villain.

After that, everything happened in a flash.

The monster's skin was so tough that Seonghyeon's sword barely penetrated, but they solved that problem with their excellent teamwork.

When the chinchilla interfered with the monster's attack by releasing electricity, Seonghyeon and the bipedal lizard followed up with a series of strikes.

Though Seonghyeon's sword and the spirit's attacks still couldn't deal much damage, the surging flames gradually inflicted wounds on the monster.

Even amidst all this, Seonghyeon kept glancing at me for reasons I didn't understand, but in the end, with the help of the arriving police, they successfully subdued the monster.

"They're even more impressive than I expected."

Individually, their combat abilities were just about what I had anticipated, but their coordination was excellent.

[Those two, not bad at all. Their personal strength was insignificant, though.]

"Yes, truly impressive."