SSS-Class Revival Hunter

Chapter 94: The Villain (1)

Has anyone loved you as much as I do?

Has anyone caressed you as carefully as I do?

Has anyone’s eyes been more eager to meet yours than mine?

Has anyone touched you as softly as I did?

There probably isn't anyone. I’m sure there isn’t.

I'll make sure of it.

* * *

“Ohohohoho!”

A romantic laugh echoed through the garden.

In the face of the laughter, the crown prince couldn’t hide his sadness. “S-Sylvia... ...?”

“Ohohoho! Yes, Your Highness!”

“Isn't your laughter a bit flippant? O-of course, your voice is always as charming as birdsong. No matter how you chirp, it sounds like music to my ears. But since we’re nobles...”

“Ohohohohoho! I like how I laugh very much!”

“I-is that so?” The crown prince muttered reluctantly. “I-I see... I see... No, if I listen carefully, it seems okay. Hmm... Hmm. Yes! It’s okay. It’s more than okay! It’s beautiful. I discovered a new charm of yours today.”

What was wrong with this blonde ramen? His love for Lady Goldencup was still hot? But the students around were all looking at us with dead eyes.

—Zombie. The Guardian, who had been quiet since entering the apocalyptic book, opened his mouth. I’ve been just watching and trying not to interfere with how you clear this book. But it’s so frustrating that I can’t do that anymore. Hey, are you serious?

Serious? What? n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

—You really think it’s easier to break a couple than make one?

Yeah, I answered.

—I’m sorry to break your bubble, but that really depends... on which couple you’re talking about, the Guardian said. He looked like a mountain gorilla prince who was suddenly locked up in a zoo.

Does it actually matter which couple we’re talking about?

—Yeah, you make it obvious that you’ve never dated anyone. Everyone’s love is different. There is a kind of love that can’t be stopped no matter how hard you try to sever it. To my eyes, that crown prince guy is like—

“Sylvia!” the crown prince shouted in the middle of the Guardian’s sentence. “Every facet of you is brilliant and colorful, like a kaleidoscope. You were a falling snowflake yesterday, and you are a blooming plum blossom today. Yes, you’re right—how a person laughs isn’t determined from birth, and no law says how nobles should laugh. I’ll use this chance to change how I laugh too. Mwahahahahaha!”

This nutjob...

And an unbelievable duet started under the clear sky of the garden.

“Ohhoho!”

“Mwhahaha!”

“Ohohohohoho!”

“Mwahahahahahaha!”

And there was the couple of the century. I was speechless.

W-what in the world is love that makes people like that...?

It was shocking.

—Again, you’ve never fallen in love. You don’t know what that feels like to be in love, and those kids’ relationships are tangled as hell. So how the heck are you going to do it? The Guardian clicked his tongue. Some people ruined their country trying to look cool in front of their loved ones. The idea of ​​becoming a bad guy and blocking immersion was good, but it’s not enough to end someone’s love. Yeah, it’s not nearly enough.

The Guardian suddenly started to look like a very mature adult. Was it possible that I actually had an inferiority complex about the fact that I had never dated anyone? Was that why I felt like this? Wasn’t that too much of a blow to my pride? He was just a mountain gorilla.

First, I stepped between the crown prince and the Inquisitor, intentionally provoking the prince.

“You...” The crown prince scowled. He knew what I was trying to do.

“Lady Goldencup said she trusts me the most,” I said.

Now, let’s see if your love is still hot even after this, I thought.

“Your Highness, you are a noble, and I am from humble birth. But, while you are usually far away, I am always by her side. Her family is my home, and her life is my service.”

The young ladies watching us in the garden shrieked in excitement.

—No. What the heck? Hey, hey! the Guardian shouted. Idiot! Oh, you goddamn virgin! You really have no idea how love works! He’s the crown prince of an empire—he’s damn prideful! If you do that, the crown prince will be even more jealous—!

“Huh!” The crown prince ground his teeth. “You’ve gotten very arrogant after idling around her under the pretense of being her butler. Fine—then I’ll take care of Sylvia when I’m at the academy. You can go back home.”

No. You’re a crown prince! Did your mad love make you literally mad? I screamed silently.

“Ohohohoho!”

Mr. Inquisitor. You’re being distracting now, so please stop laughing, I grumbled.

“... What is going on here?”

The students’ chatter came to a screeching halt. The silence lasted only a second, but it was long enough for the young noble ladies and lords to bow and make way.

Only the crown prince’s head remained raised. His brow furrowed.

“...Lady Silver Lily.”

A young noble lady was walking toward us, her hair shining like moonlight.

* * *

“I heard you asked for a sick leave this morning,” the crown prince said. “I thought you would miss school today, but you seem to be feeling better. Your heart is quite the troublemaker, isn’t it, Lady Silver Lily?”

Instead of answering, Lady Silver Lily glanced around first. The students, who had been making a fuss about the imperial romance scandal, ducked their heads when her eyes passed over them. Only after she had made them submit did she finally say, “How have you been, Your Highness? Thanks to your attention, it was peaceful last night.”

“...Is that so? I’m glad to hear it. You spend half the year on sick leave, so a day like today is precious. Since it’s a sunny spring day, why don’t you go on a nice, long walk?” His voice was cold. His offer was basically a demand for her to get lost.

In contrast to his desperate expression of love for Lady Goldencup, he was aloof to Lady Silver Lily—so aloof that it was a little strange.

Even if he’s a crown prince, he can't treat a duke’s daughter like this without consequences... I wondered.

However, Lady Silver Lily was calm.

“A walk sounds good. If the spring wind gets a little stronger, the magnolia petals will fall. I’m worried that those flowers will be lonely if I enjoy them alone,” Lady Silver Lily riposted. Unlike last night, her speech was smoothly delivered. “Your Highness, why don’t we leave this noisy, dusty place? We can take a walk and comfort the spring flowers.”

“Ha. Why should I—”

“Lady Goldencup.” Lady Silver Lily looked at the Inquisitor. “Come with us.”

The crown prince stopped talking.

All eyes were focused on the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor fanned himself and glanced at me, silently asking me what to do and if it was wise to follow them. He looked like he would follow my lead on this expedition completely.

Would it be okay? Both Lady Silver Lily and the crown prince were dangerous because just being with those two increased our immersion level. The Inquisitor became more like Lady Goldencup, and I got closer to becoming her butler. That was incredibly dangerous, but nothing would be solved if I did nothing.

“What’s your immersion level right now?” I whispered to the Inquisitor. “Has it gone up?”

“Yes, it’s gone up a little,” the Inquisitor whispered back. “My immersion level is currently at seventeen percent. Haha, an increase of two percent since yesterday. It increased one percent while I was listening to the crown prince’s talk, and another two percent when I saw Lady Silver Lily.”

Two percent. Compared to how the immersion level had gone up like crazy yesterday, the speed of increase had certainly slowed down. Should we take the risk and enter the tiger’s den now? If not now, when would be the right time?

I looked into the Inquisitor’s eyes. “When spring comes?”

“Magnolias falls, Mr. Death King.” The Inquisitor smiled brightly.

Okay. I’d made up my mind.

“Good. Let’s follow them, my lady.”

“I trust your judgment, my butler.” The Inquisitor skillfully folded his fan. “Ohohoho! How can I say no when you personally invited me to walk, Lady Silver Lily? I will gladly accept your invitation!”

Lady Silver Lily lightly frowned as she turned. “Follow us quietly.”

* * *

The place she took us was a remote villa she stayed in. She didn’t live in the dormitory, probably because of her family’s great power.

“Are you telling me to take a walk here?” the crown prince, who was forced to come, grumbled.

Lady Silver Lily’s villa was unusually fancy for a student’s residence. However, the crown prince had grown up in the palace, so he didn’t seem particularly impressed by such extravagance.

“Of course not, ” Lady Silver Lily nonchalantly replied as she walked. Her shoes clattered against the hallway floor. “The walk was an excuse.”

“What?”

“Too many people were watching in the garden, so I couldn’t talk about it. This matter needs to be kept secret.”

“...A secret?”

“It’s about dealing with the assassins who dared to intrude on the cradle of the nobles, Your Highness. We shouldn’t speak of it rashly. It might cause turmoil among the people.”

The crown prince kept his mouth shut. From what I could tell, the one who had hired the assassin was the crown prince. Maybe I was imagining things, but Lady Silver Lily’s calm voice seemed to say that she already knew what he had done.

“... Are you saying you caught the culprit?” The crown prince frowned. “My investigation hasn’t made any breakthroughs yet, so how did you—”

“Lady Goldencup’s butler gave me a clue,” Lady Silver Lily interjected. She didn’t stop moving. “I kicked Lady Goldencup and her butler out of the ball last night. I admit I overreacted, but I only told my servants to kick them out of the ballroom. I never ordered them to be locked up anywhere. And it seems that some of my subordinates were harboring malice.”

Lady Silver Lily brought us to the staircase leading into the basement of her villa. She stood in front of the entrance and looked back, her eyes expressionless. “Shall we go down, Your Highness?”

“...I don’t see any servants. Strange. Where did they all go?”

“Are you worried? Of course you are. I’ll go first.” Lady Silver Lily went down the stairs, denying the crown prince the chance to ask questions. Her footsteps disappeared into the basement as the darkness swallowed her.

The crown prince gulped and went down the stairs. We followed him.

A distinctive scent became thicker as we went down the stairs. It was one that I had grown too familiar with: the smell of blood. The Inquisitor and I were calm, but the crown prince’s shoulders kept twitching as he walked ahead of us.

“...I apologize for bringing you to such a humble place, Your Highness.” Lady Silver Lily bowed slightly.

In the basement, three people were tied to chairs. All of them were the servants of the duke that I had seen briefly last night.

“They orchestrated the attack on Lady Goldencup last night.”

Watching how all three of them were soaked in blood, the crown prince’s hands trembled. Even I frowned a little. The only ones whose expressions didn’t change after coming down the stairs were the Inquisitor and Lady Silver Lily.

It was understandable that the Inquisitor was calm since he was the leader of the Pantheon. He had carried out countless tortures and interrogations in the Tower, but Lady Silver Lily was just the daughter of a duke. She looked so delicate—as if formed from pure moonlight—that it felt like she was going to faint at any moment. However, she stood there as if she was very used to this kind of place.

“I spent all of last night investigating. As a result, I learned that they committed the crime for personal revenge,” she explained.

And then I remembered that the young lady in front of me was the one who was going to destroy this world.

“Personal... revenge?”

“Yes. Would you like to listen to their stories?” Lady Silver Lily grabbed one of the servants by the hair.

“Ahh!” The servant’s eyes popped open from pain. He looked at us only with his left eye—it didn’t look like he could open his other eye.

“His Highness has arrived. Show some manners.”

“My lady, ugh... My lady...

“You conspired with your colleagues to hire an assassin, then you sent them after Lady Goldencup. Tell His Highness why you are trying to take her life,” Lady Silver Lily coldly ordered.

“My lady... M-my lady...

“If you tell the truth, your family won’t be punished.”

“L-Lady Goldencup... is just the daughter of a lowly baron from the outskirts, but she doesn’t know her place and dares to seduce His Highness... Ah, y-you’ve been His Highness’s rightful fiance for a long time... But...”

This person was dangerous.

“That young lady of the baron kept trying to ruin it... I got so angry that I lost my head... and I did something foolish. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, my lady. I’m sorry, Your Highness...”

“Is there someone else who ordered you three to hire assassins?”

“No, there wasn’t. Nobody told us anything...”

No, he was giving a false confession.

“Are you saying that it was done solely by you three?”

“Yes... That’s right, my lady... That’s right...”

It was to protect the crown prince.

“Did you really do that?”

“I said nothing but the truth...” The servant’s voice was barely audible now.

“Yes, okay.”

To protect the crown prince of this country, Lady Silver Lily deliberately incited a false confession. I had a feeling that she had gotten all three of the servants’ stories straight and perfectly fabricated all of the evidence and alibis.

They were the crown prince’s underlings, and the crown prince was the mastermind who had led them to lock the Inquisitor and me in the storage room. When the two of us had been in danger, he had shown up and tried to act like a hero. That truth was never going to be revealed because Lady Silver Lily was going to bury it all in this basement.

All for the crown prince, the man who would suffer the greatest blow if the truth were revealed.

“Your Highness.” Lady Silver Lily looked up to see the crown prince. “Punish them.”

The crown prince flinched. “Punish them...?”

“They tried to kill Lady Goldencup, for whom you care very dearly, Your Highness. These criminals also invaded the cradle of the nobles. It’s only right to punish them, and as their crown prince you have the authority to do so.”

The crown prince didn’t move.

“Why are you hesitating?” Lady Silver Lily asked. “Is it possible that the truth behind this incident is different from what my investigation found? I’ll ask you not as a student of this academy, but as your subject: Your Highness, if my investigation is insufficient, please postpone the execution of the punishment. Given the gravity of the matter, I’ll send a message to His Majesty’s special forces.”

As soon as I heard “His Majesty’s special forces,” the butler’s memory came back to me. They were the hunting dogs who only had one master: the emperor. These were the best swordsmen and wizards in the empire and were granted absolute autonomy in their investigations. The reason why the crown prince was able to assume his current position was because these hunting dogs had eaten up the previous crown prince for his corrupt acts.

“However, there should be no need to bother postponing the punishment if you are satisfied with my investigation.” Lady Silver Lily bowed.

There was a sword on the basement floor that seemed to have been prepared for this.

“Punish them here.” Lady Silver Lily rolled up her sleeves as if she was used to such things, revealing the countless scars that covered her arms. “And, as I failed to properly manage the servants of my family...”

Those scars were from being stabbed, cut, scratched, beaten, and burned. They were like worms eating away at the once-white arms of the duke’s daughter. No, it wasn’t just her arms. She also had long marks leading up to her shoulders that looked like worms had been ripped out from underneath her skin. From those, I could tell that her entire body was covered in scars.

Bowing, she whispered, “... please punish me.”

Lady Silver Lily, the villainess of this world.

“As always, I’ll bear all of the sins.”

The crown prince trembled.