Ch.17[Chapter 17] There Are No Bad Villains in This World.

“No, what I mean is that I think you look better when you smile.”

“!”

“Ugh! That’s bad for my heart.”

“…”

“D-don’t get sulky so quickly!”

“!”

What on earth was going on here?

Sir Dominic tried to assess the situation while tied up tightly among the three-headed characters emanating an ominous aura.

To explain this situation, we need to rewind about three minutes.

Three minutes earlier.

“This is actually kind of fun once you get used to it.”

Sir Dominic was enjoying bouncing and tumbling down the stairs.

There was something pleasantly amusing about the surprising speed of his three-headed body combined with the bouncy sound effects.

After descending about four floors, Sir Dominic finally encountered a straight corridor.

Bouncing through the corridor, Sir Dominic realized there was a door blocking the end of the path, but with the momentum he had built up, there was no way to stop.

In truth, he didn’t want to stop this amusing situation anyway.

CRASH! Something shattered loudly.

It was the sound of Sir Dominic colliding with the door, breaking it into pieces.

Fortunately, thanks to his soft, squishy three-headed body, Sir Dominic was able to stop without much damage.

“!”

“Don’t be alarmed yet. There’s an intruder!”

The two-headed Demon Lord was startled by the one-eyed man who had broken through the door, but the old demon was too distracted with teasing the Demon Lord to notice.

Sir Dominic shook his dizzy head to regain his senses after all the rolling.

“Uh… so this is the time to be surprised… Who are you! Where are the Four Mighty Kings!”

The old demon, suspicious of the Demon Lord’s unexpectedly calm reaction, turned his head following the Demon Lord’s gaze.

Finally spotting Sir Dominic, the old demon pressed a red button next to the plastic throne where the Demon Lord sat.

Then, a device with blue and green buttons emerged from a pillar, and after pressing the green button twice and the blue button three times, an eagle-shaped statue emerged from beneath the throne…

Anyway, after disabling dozens of security measures, the old demon finally picked up a smartphone and called the Four Mighty Kings.

Sir Dominic was curious about the meaning of those secretive actions, but since he was indeed trespassing, he remained quiet.

“Yeah. Right. So ‘Tempesto of Tempest’ is off duty today. What about ‘Zesto of Zephyr’? Oh, his parents are sick today? And ‘Domine of Fair Wind’? Sick leave?”

Things didn’t seem to be going well.

“Ah, are Don Castello of Greed and Hanus of Five Colored Winds available? Then send them up. Yeah, tell them to take their time getting ready.”

Sir Dominic thought about these individuals called the Four Mighty Kings as he listened to the old demon.

Weren’t the Four Mighty Kings supposed to be the four strongest individuals?

Yet from the conversation, there were clearly more than four, and they seemed to be heavily focused on wind elements.

Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Sir Dominic finally asked the old demon.

“Just how many Four Mighty Kings are there?”

“Well, some are off duty like today. Plus we have reserves in case there’s a problem… Wait, that’s not the point! You! How dare you intrude upon the Demon Lord’s presence! You’ve got some nerve!”

The old demon momentarily answered Sir Dominic’s question before realizing that Sir Dominic was an intruder and erupting in anger.

“!”

“Yes! An intruder, my lord!”

Sir Dominic looked at the person the old demon was addressing respectfully.

They had a short, stubby two-headed body, with long, flowing purplish-black hair so abundant that it dragged on the ground even while sitting on the throne.

On their head were black horns with an ominous purple glow, which looked even larger than their body.

From this description, the Demon Lord should have appeared quite ominous, but Sir Dominic thought:

“What a cute… little one.”

Oh no, he said it out loud!

“!”

“You shouldn’t be happy about being called cute, my lord! The focus is on ‘little’!”

“!”

The Demon Lord’s chubby cheeks had turned pink at being called cute, but upon the old demon’s comment, they realized it was meant as mockery and frowned.

“!!!”

“Understood! I shall restrain this intruder at once!”

The old demon proudly approached Sir Dominic.

Rolling up his long sleeves and striding forward, the old demon finally stood before Sir Dominic.

“Ack?”

Or rather, tried to.

The old demon failed to notice the toy car the Demon Lord had been playing with on the floor.

As a consequence, the old demon stepped on the toy car and fell over.

“My lord! We heard there’s an intruder!”

“Hahaha! Chief of Staff, you’d better have prepared generous compensation for this job!”

A skinny mummy wrapped in five-colored cloth and a fat man with what appeared to be three chins entered through the shattered door.

“Ouch… ouch… I’m dying… I think I broke a rib…”

“Chief of Staff! You! You had a hidden move, didn’t you! Not only did you sneak in here, but you even took down the Chief of Staff!”

“But you won’t defeat our fatty and skinny combo!”

“Stop that and help me up first… I can’t breathe…”

Hanus of Five Colored Winds and Don Castello of Greed, two of the Four Mighty Kings, struck impressive poses and warned Sir Dominic.

They had no interest in the Chief of Staff who had already been defeated by the intruder.

Sir Dominic looked at each of them in turn—the Demon Lord fidgeting anxiously, the Four Mighty Kings holding their grand pose festival, and the Chief of Staff clutching his back and groaning—and made a knightly decision.

“I surrender.”

Sir Dominic remembered the archer and thief talking at the café terrace.

If even those veteran players couldn’t easily conquer this place, what could he, a tier one, possibly do?

Sir Dominic could only hope that surrendered knights were treated well in Gacharland too.

“You! Infiltrating our secret organization ‘E.V.I.L’, you’re no ordinary person. You look like a knight—are you from ‘G.O.O.D’?”

“What are all these things?”

“You scoundrel! Your denial confirms you’re from the Good Order of Defenders! I don’t know how you discovered our secret base, but you can’t fool the eyes of our secret organization ‘Napellin Petit Doubt’!”

Sir Dominic couldn’t understand what the Chief of Staff was saying, but he began to wonder if someone in the position of Chief of Staff should be so loose-lipped.

“?”

However, that thought didn’t last long.

The Demon Lord seemed delighted by the rare intruder, smiling brightly and wiggling their arms and legs.

Seeing this, the Chief of Staff spoke to Sir Dominic on behalf of the Demon Lord.

“By the way, it seems we haven’t properly introduced ourselves. The Demon Lord asks you. They send their admiration for your amazing strategy and power.”

“Dominic. Sir Dominic of Feralant. And you seem to be a Demon Lord.”

“!”

“Demon Lord? This is Princess Teu Le Vante, Demon Lord of Evil Eyes!”

“Demon Lord of Evil Eyes? Princess?”

Sir Dominic looked at the Demon Lord.

Their eyebrows were raised as if expressing strong will, but judging from the long hair and small two-headed stature, it seemed plausible.

“But what about these ‘evil eyes’? I’ve been looking at you the whole time and haven’t noticed any effect.”

“!”

The Demon Lord’s expression suddenly turned shocked.

“Impossible! The Demon Lord’s evil eyes are absolute! Hanus! Come here!”

“Yes, Chief of Staff. What is it?”

The mummy Hanus, who had been rewrapping his loosened five-colored cloth after striking too many poses, approached at the old demon’s call.

“My lord! Show this foolish mortal your terrifying power!”

“!”

“Oh, that?”

Hanus finished tying his wrappings and took a deep breath.

The Demon Lord squeezed their eyes shut and began drawing up dark energy.

Sir Dominic recognized it as demonic energy, but thought it was less frightening than expected.

“Behold! This is the deadly technique that earned our Demon Lord the title of Demon Lord of Evil Eyes!”

The Demon Lord’s body slowly began to float with the energy.

The scattered toys and door fragments around them also gradually rose into the air, resonating with the energy.

This didn’t seem related to evil eyes at all.

Just as Sir Dominic let his guard down, the Demon Lord’s terrifying attack struck him.

“♡”

What a frightening attack this was.

The Demon Lord placed their rice-cake-like hands on their mochi-like cheeks and winked.

Truly an attack that put strain on the heart!

“Gack!”

Click. The Chief of Staff took a picture.

Moved by this terrifying attack, the Chief of Staff sat down with tears streaming down his face.

Hanus was already clutching his heart and about to close the lid of an Egyptian-style sarcophagus that had appeared from nowhere.

Sir Dominic was dumbfounded.

It was cute, certainly, but seemed far from powerful.

“Hey, friend. Just go with it.”

The suited man with three chins approached, speaking on behalf of the Demon Lord, Chief of Staff, and mummy who were lost in their own world.

“I’m only here because they pay well, but people who openly call themselves villains are never actually bad people.”

Though they openly called themselves a secret organization because they thought it sounded cool.

Don Castello muttered this while untying Sir Dominic.

“You look like a Newbie who either got lost or ended up here due to some unknown bug. Right?”

Don Castello smiled broadly, revealing his teeth.

All his gold teeth gleamed, contributing to Sir Dominic’s confusion.

“If you’re lost, just follow the stairs all the way up, and if you came here because of a bug, file a complaint with the Executive branch. The civil servants respond slowly, but you might get compensation.”

Don Castello laughed heartily like a nouveau riche. The gold rings covering his fingers sparkled.

“If we meet again after the event ends, I’ll properly introduce us then. Now’s not the time, Newbie.”

Don Castello kindly escorted Sir Dominic to the bottom of the stairs.

He even continued waving until Sir Dominic, who kept glancing back suspiciously wondering if they were really letting him go, disappeared from sight.

“Gacharland becomes stranger the more you learn about it.”

Sir Dominic verbalized what countless people had already realized.

It seems he too had finally grasped the essence of Gacharland.