Chapter 20: I Reincarnated as a Villainess and… Finally, I’ve Been Rescued! (4)

“My, what aggressive friends we’ve encountered right off the bat. We almost got left behind.”

“Hey, newbie. Can’t you do better? Protecting the Young Lady is the Captain’s job, and protecting me is yours.”

“I did my best…”

At the very rear of the train.

The two gardeners who had been thrown out by the impact, the female senior among them, kicked the male junior’s thigh.

Of course, due to the difference in physical ability, it was merely a friendly display of affection between senior and junior.

It didn’t seem to cause any significant damage.

“My apologies, Senior. I’m somewhat unaccustomed to this environment.”

“Don’t make excuses. I’m much more uncomfortable than you right now.”

“Well, it’s not like I can turn perfectly fine civilians into corpses just for your comfort, Senior.”

“Then will you die?”

“I decline.”

Their bickering was brief,

The two immediately tried to head back up the train to return.

“Hmm? About three individuals are approaching. Perhaps they’ve come to finish things.”

“Just deal with one of them somehow. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Ooh, that’s very dependable of you.”

While quickly passing through the train, the new gardener sensed the black mages.

At first, he thought they had come to finish them off, but for some reason, they weren’t making any significant movements in the cabin.

“Hmm… This is strange. Why aren’t they moving?”

“Hey, newbie. What are you dawdling around for by yourself? If the enemies are standing still, then that’s great, just strike first and kill them.”

“Your confident appearance, Senior, is quite pleasant for me to see as well. But am I not the one actually fighting?”

“Ah, come on. I told you I’d revive you if you die, didn’t I? Don’t you trust this senior?”

“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that that is the problem…”

The female senior urged him to go quickly, saying it was rather a good thing.

Either way, the information obtainable through sensing was limited, so the new gardener entered the next car.

“Who goes there…!”

“Ah, excuse me. We’re in a bit of a hurry… May we pass through for a moment?”

“…!”

The newbie greeted the black mages, who were right in front of him, with a sly smile.

Then, as if they hadn’t expected it at all, they were startled.

“To survive even after that attack… You’re alive…?”

“They say the gardeners in black are particularly strong… It seems to be true.”

“My, my, you praise me so much, I don’t know where to put myself.”

“……This time, we’ll finish them off for sure.”

“Yes.”

“What’s with these guys? I thought they were something special, but it looks like they were just going around shaking people down?”

The black mages immediately exuded ominous mana and approached.

The new gardener was feigning distress on the outside, but his expression seemed quite relaxed.

Sticky…

Within the black mage’s grasp, green flames flowed like thick sap.

Unlike ordinary fire magic, the nether-flame created by black magic possessed a cruel characteristic of sticking tenaciously to its victim and not extinguishing until the target was completely burned.

“Oho, isn’t that a magic that looks incredibly dangerous at first glance?”

“Hey newbie. If you get hit by that, you’ll become a walking candle from that moment on. So dodge it well, alright?”

“Thank you for your concern, Senior. However, I’m quite troubled as to how I’m supposed to dodge in such a narrow passage.”

“Burn to death.”

The flames flew as if they were a solidified liquid.

The inside of the train was a narrow corridor barely wide enough for one person to pass, making it very difficult to dodge.

No, in fact, it was an environment where evasion was almost impossible.

The black mages, knowing this, smirked.

With a splat! sound, the flames hit dead on.

“……What?”

However, when the flames subsided and the view cleared,

What was revealed was an incredibly bizarre sight: the train ceiling had sprouted down like tree roots.

“Hey! I told you to dodge! Who told you to block?”

“Oh dear… It seems a bit splattered. My apologies.”

However, it seemed some embers had scattered, and flames were burning vigorously on his fingertips.

The female senior, who had been hiding behind the newbie’s back, pointed at it and began to berate her junior with all her might again.

“How are you going to put this out? Huh? Didn’t I just tell you that flames made by black magic can’t even be extinguished by water magic!”

“Isn’t it the mark of a senior to understand a junior’s mistake with broad generosity?”

“Am I going to burn to death? You are. ……Wait a minute. Then if I revive this guy after he burns to death… Does that mean I can create an eternally burning zombie soldier…?”

“……I should put it out quickly.”

The newbie was silently aghast at the necromancer’s illogical thought process.

At first, it seemed like a joke, but as her eyes increasingly glinted with curiosity, he quickly cut off the hand with the burning embers.

“You only needed to cut off the finger. Why cut off the whole hand?”

The severed hand fell to the floor, and the flames extinguished quickly before it even hit.

The nether-flame, which only burns life, had evaporated like smoke, as if its job was done.

“I wish you’d hide that smirking expression of yours, Senior.”

“Haa… This fragrant smell of corpses…”

As soon as the hand was cut off, a new one immediately sprouted on the newbie.

The already discarded antique was picked up by the woman, who was lovingly rubbing it against her cheek.

“………Crazy bastards….”

The sight was so bizarre that even the black mages they were facing clicked their tongues.

Regardless, the woman caressed the junior’s used hand with the expression of a girl in love.

“I keep telling you, your talent doesn’t lie elsewhere, okay? You’re a genius. A genius of corpses that comes once in a century…!”

“That’s quite a tragic talent.”

“Hah, unnecessarily sturdy, that one…”

“Hurry up and use it, Senior.”

The woman puffed her cheeks at the corpse-genius junior’s indifferent reaction.

As if unwilling to part, she lightly kissed the back of the cold hand and then casually threw it towards the black mages.

“Ugh…!”

The black mages flinched and stepped back, utterly startled.

It wasn’t an action to prepare for an attack, but one born of purely unadulterated disgust.

That was a grave misstep.

“Corpse Explosion.”

Soon, the hand exploded with a tremendous roar.

Despite being a somewhat used second-hand item, its performance was outstanding.

“…It’s quite an aggressive magic, no matter when I see it.”

“Magic? What magic. It’s black magic.”

The fiery encounter soon vanished,

The woman, having already sorted out her emotions, raised a corpse with a cold expression.

“Keoheok…!”

Was it because he had been instantly blown to bits?

As if he couldn’t understand the situation, the black mage zombie looked around.

“A-Am I alive…?”

“No, you’re dead. I’m the one who raised you after you died.”

“A necromancer… was it.”

Unlike the exquisite piece of corpse from before, the woman frowned as if quite displeased.

The black mage, still not grasping his predicament, shouted in frustration.

“You’re a black mage too…. Why do you side with the nobles?”

“What nonsense is this. How can you, who can’t even properly rob a single train, be the same as me, who receives a hefty salary? This corpse doesn’t know its place, does it?”

The woman, as if finding it absurd, struck the head of the black mage, who had lost his upper body and couldn’t even resist.

“You foolish wench…. Do you think the priests and paladins of the Southern Church will leave you alone?”

“Hmm… Sorry to disappoint you, but I happen to be a former priest from that region.”

“……What… did you say?”

“Enough chitchat. So, what is your objective? Surely you weren’t really trying to shake people down on the train. Why did you target our Young Lady?”

The gardener interrogated the black mage using necromancy.

There was no need for troublesome processes like torture; after killing them and placing them under her control, they would inevitably speak only the truth, making it extremely convenient.

“The Young Lady of Rosegarden being here… was a mere coincidence….”

“Hmm, keep talking.”

“While attempting to execute our plan, the reaction of homunculi was coincidentally detected, and the plan was merely partially modified to retrieve them. We were not targeting the Young Lady from the beginning.”

“So, a group of grown men suddenly wanted to play with dolls, and that’s why you attacked our Young Lady?”

“…That is correct.”

“These guys have completely lost their minds, haven’t they?”

The woman, having learned the full story of the attack, kicked the black mage’s head, which was all that remained.

It rolled and bumped against a wall, but he felt no pain.

“I see. In that case, what is this plan of yours?”

“Our grand plan…! Do you think we would tell the likes of you! Even death itself cannot make this mouth open!”

“Speak.”

“It is…”

The gardeners quietly listened to what the ‘plan’ was.

“……These guys have really lost it…?”

Before long, they realized that something unusual was about to happen.

“Any other matters?”

“This is all….”

“Alright? Good job. Now go rot slowly in the middle of the wilderness.”

“Understood….”

“Newbie. Get rid of this quickly.”

Maintaining the necromancy, the new gardener threw the black mage’s head far away.

“What do we do now?”

“You’re asking because you don’t know? We need to rendezvous with the Captain as quickly as possible.”

“Let’s go.”

The moment the words were spoken, the two began to quicken their pace to stop the plan.

***

“Lady… Leona?”

The subordinate who was taking me home.

That is, Galan, suddenly stopped his sword mid-swing as he was about to cut down the enemy’s doll.

‘Leona? If it’s Leona, that’s definitely Mom’s name, isn’t it…?’

Considering the current situation, it seemed that to Galan, that doll looked like Leona Rosegarden.

Otherwise, there was no way he would suddenly call out her name, stop his swinging sword, and make such a wistful expression.

Above all, judging by the black mage’s insidiously sneering remark from before, ‘the love reflected in your eyes now,’ it was certain.

“Kukukuk…. You look quite bewildered, Young Lady of Rosegarden.”

The black mage sneered triumphantly as I momentarily panicked upon seeing my subordinate frozen like a stone.

‘Hmph. It’s obvious even without looking.’

‘No doubt, he himself is pathetically weak, hiding behind a doll and deluding himself into thinking its power is his own.

What a pathetic fool.’

“Kiriel. Exia.”

Though it seemed to be using an illusion, its true form was ultimately a doll.

Even if they were defeated individually, Kiriel and Exia’s combined attack could surely take it down.

This was almost certain, as it was the result of Dinavel’s discerning ability.

“That doll, destroy it quickly!”

If I could somehow destroy that doll showing the illusion, my subordinate Galan, once he regained his senses, would take care of everything.

This was the best choice I could make right now.

“…Huh?”

‘…Huh?

Kiriel?

Exia?

Why aren’t you attacking…?’

However, they merely looked bewildered instead.

‘Did they not understand my command? No, at least that wasn’t it.’

It felt like they understood the command, but found it extremely difficult to carry it out.

‘No… guys?
I’m the one who’s in trouble right now!?’

“We need to destroy that doll quickly! So that Galan can…!”

“B-But…”

“………”

“We cannot attack our Master…”

……What?

The words that came out of Exia’s mouth were shocking.

Being unable to attack their master meant only one thing.

That’s right.

Kiriel and Exia, and probably Dinavel sitting on my shoulder too.

They were seeing that black mage’s doll as an illusion identical to me.

“I’m sorry, Master. But no matter how many times I try to sense it, they both feel like you…”

“Dinavel…”

Even Dinavel, with her excellent sensing ability, felt they were the same.

That doll… it seems it wasn’t showing an ordinary illusion.

“Oh dear, even the dolls you trusted… However, having confirmed the dolls’ high loyalty, isn’t this also a meaningful moment?”

“…It doesn’t matter. I can just destroy it with my own hands.”

“Kukuk…. Will that, I wonder, be possible…”

When I finally took out a wand from my bosom as a last resort, the black mage sneered as if finding it ridiculous.

“Asmodeus.”

“Yes. Father.”

While I was charging water magic, he called the doll’s name.

Then, the doll was enveloped in faint smoke, obscuring its form.

‘…Wait. Asmodeus?
If it’s Asmodeus, then surely….’

Just then, a memory flashed through my mind.

Asmodeus.

It is one of the transcendent beings that appear in the original work, often called the Archdemon of Lust.

As the word Archdemon suggests, even in the story, it possessed a strength that few characters, including the protagonist, could dare to approach.

Perhaps that’s why?

Transcendent beings like her mostly exist only in settings.

Even if they did appear, it was only in a very indirect form.

In fact, until the original work was completed, not a single Archdemon had descended in its ‘true form.’

At best, they appeared as avatars, but the problem was that even these ‘avatars’ were absurdly strong.

In other words, the doll in front of me now was not real, but a fake.

If it were the real Asmodeus, there would be no need to cast an illusion; it could manipulate things at will.

“……Artificial Demon.”

“Oho?”

In other words, that doll was similar to my dolls, which were attempts to artificially create spirits.

It was an artificially created demon.

“An artificial demon that partially reproduces the abilities of the Archdemon Asmodeus. That is the identity of that doll.”

“Indeed, as befits her child… Well, she must have gotten a hint from her own dolls, so it’s only natural that she’d notice, right?”

The Archdemon of Lust, Asmodeus, possesses a special ability befitting that title.

“However… even if you know that fact, nothing changes. No, rather, don’t you just taste even greater powerlessness?”

That ability is,

To appear to any living being in the form most beloved by them.

The love referred to here is not limited to the affection between lovers that one commonly thinks of, but also familial love between family members, or brotherly love between siblings, friendship between friends, and even loyalty to a master.

It manifests in very diverse forms.

“Now… Young Lady of Rosegarden, what form does my doll appear to you in?”

Perhaps that’s why, in truth, the word ‘favorability’ feels more appropriate than the word ‘love.’

“Like your loyal subordinate, your deceased mother? Or perhaps, your father who is eagerly awaiting you, Young Lady? Or if not that…”

Eventually, the smoke slowly cleared.

He who emerged from the smoke,

“Could it be a fated partner you have yet to meet?”

“……A fated partner, you say.”

It was a face all too familiar to me.

“Well, it might be roughly similar.”

Having noticed the doll’s true nature, I thought.

‘What kind of face would appear to me, who has never directly faced my father’s or mother’s face?’

When I actually faced his face, yes.

It made sense.

In this unfamiliar world, he was the only one who shared the same past life, and the only one who could eliminate my doom flag.

How could I not feel favorability?

“…?”

What emerged from the cleared smoke was a small boy about my age.

The boy’s name was Cain.

At this point, he doesn’t have a surname yet, so he’s just Cain.

“Status Window.”

And just as expected.

True to being the ‘protagonist,’ he immediately opened the status window to grasp the current situation.

“……Rosegarden?”

He seemed rather flustered, perhaps having read my information displayed before him.

‘He’s probably muttering to himself something like, ‘The Rosegarden family definitely only had two sons, though?’’

“Now, how is it, Young Lady of Rosegarden? The sweet voice whispered by your fated partner? Isn’t it exceedingly sweet and lovely?”

“No, it just looks foolish.”

As I made an indifferent expression, the black mage’s brow furrowed slightly.

‘Things didn’t go as you planned, did they?’

‘Seriously, did you think I, who was a man in my previous life, would fall in love with a boy like this?’

‘Well, in that respect, it was a relief that the protagonist showed up. I’ve never seen their faces, but it would have been troublesome if my father or mother had appeared and my body reacted first.’

“The form Asmodeus transformed into? Me…?”

“It seems you’ve pretty much grasped the situation.”

‘If it were me, it would have taken a long time just to understand.’

‘The status window is really convenient. It tells you everything about your own state.’

‘I wish I had one too.’

“Can I shoot now?”

“No, wait! Just wait a moment! I think there might be another way, okay? And let’s not do this on our first meeting. Yes. How about we start with introductions?”

“Even the unnecessarily unsightly parts. What tremendous reproducibility.”

“Hah…. This is really driving me crazy….”

With the protagonist’s characteristic comprehension, he understood the situation itself entirely, but he scratched his head as if feeling unfairly treated.

Eventually, he let out a deep sigh and spread his arms.
“……Alright. Shoot.”

“Then. At the Academy, in the future.”

And so, he,

By intentionally taking my water magic, completely destroyed the black mage’s doll.