I was unlucky. It was all bad luck. For me to have a father like that, and a brother like that. It’s because I was surrounded by these goons that I couldn’t reach my true potential.
Since I was down on my luck, I just wallowed in it. Never did anything other than smack around some of those idiot servants. Before I knew it, I’d lost everything, and got chased out of the house.
I was given a bit of coin when I got kicked out, but that was soon used up. All I could do was bemoan my pathetic existence in the equally lousy home I was given. It was then I thought that I’d wander into town and get my hands on some booze... when I saw him.
I had never seen him since leaving my family’s home all those years ago. From what the rumors said though, he was taken in by some duke and was living large with society’s elite. When I heard that, I was pissed off. What was he doing, strutting around like that? He was nothing more than the child of a whore. But I was never part of the world of nobles, so I never saw him with my own eyes. Eventually, I forgot about that too.
Now that I had lost everything, I never thought I’d see the day where I actually saw him in person. My younger brother, Keith Claes. We didn’t even have the same mother. Of course not. His mother was a filthy whore. Disgusting.
But he didn’t care about his status. He attacked me with his magic, even. He dropped a bunch of hard rocks on my head. I was severely injured and even broke some bones. It was so terrifying that I even had nightmares about him.
He was terrifying, but at the same time I hated him. Keith really was the worst. Useless trash. How could a guy like him wear such nice clothes? Why was a woman next to him? What’s up with that happy smile of his? All that while I was made to wear dirty clothing, forced to live hand-to-mouth... while he gets to take advantage of a duke’s fortunes, living exorbitantly with women waiting on him? Unforgivable. All that just because he had some magical power. Just that, and he got taken in by a duke.
Keith is nothing... nothing more than some whoreson. Why, then?! Why only him...?
Unforgivable. Can’t forgive him. Unforgivable.
I want to bring him down to where I am. No... worse. Worse than that. A guy like that... he should just be a slave in some foreign place.
The more I looked at how Keith was now, the more I thought that way. Those thoughts took over my mind. But I didn’t have any status or coin. I was pissed off, but I couldn’t do shit.
And the days passed... and passed. Until one day, that woman appeared before me.
“Wah, that jet-black, abysmally dark heart of yours... Could you tell me a bit about yourself, hmm?”
“?”
A voice, from that black-haired woman, called out to me when I was wandering through town. At first, I didn’t know what she was talking about. I was surprised. But then I remembered... she was someone I knew, who often brought my alcohol. So I told her everything.
About how I couldn’t reach my true potential because of my useless tutors. About my stupid womanizing father. About how I was chased away from my own home because of my stupid, foolish brother. And how I saw my other brother, born to a different mother, after all these years...
“Why? Why does a monster like that, with that dirty blood, get to enjoy all that’s good in life? Why does he get a good social standing? Why am I the only unfortunate one, the unlucky one, while he gets it all? I’ll never forgive him.”
The woman named Sarah, unlike the others, didn’t look upon me with pity when I uttered my curses. “It really is as you say. What an unfortunate man you are,” she said.
Until now, no one had actually listened to what I had to say. Guess they were all stupid. All talentless hacks and goons. She was different. For the first time in my life, I finally met someone who understood me.
I continued to tell Sarah all about myself after that. And then I said, “I want Keith to fall to the pits, just like me. I want to see him become nothing more than a pathetic, helpless slave... writhing on the ground.”
“That’s right... If you do that, the pain in your heart will heal, perhaps...” She smiled faintly. Sarah was around my age, from what I could tell. But her smile was like that of a child’s. It was... adorable. Before I knew it, I had handed Sarah everything. My heart included.
Sarah didn’t say very much. I didn’t know who she really was, but it seemed like she had a lot of money and a good position in society. I moved from that lousy home, which was given to me as some sort of compensation when I was kicked out of the family, to some huge mansion in a town I’d never heard of. The place was furnished, and Sarah even prepared proper clothes for me.
“These fixtures and clothing are much more suitable for the true you, don’t you think?” she said. Even the servants, too. They weren’t useless, like my family’s. These guys were very capable. They all listened to me. I regained everything I’d lost... all thanks to meeting Sarah.
And that wasn’t all. Sarah would go on and grant every single one of my wishes.
“Hey, I’ve gone and fetched Keith Claes. You may do with him as you please.”
Sarah led me to a room... and there he was. His limbs restrained to a bed frame. He looked dirty, his hair in disarray. He looked nothing like the person I saw in town back then.
That’s good. That’s what you get, you whoreson. Put on airs, will you? Becoming the heir of a duke doesn’t suit you... but this does.
After some time had passed, Sarah told me he had come to. I headed over to the room once more. When I entered, Keith had already woken up.
I stood in front of him. “Been a while.”
At my voice, his blue eyes turned to me. I remember feeling irritated. He was in this situation, and he still looked at me like that? For a while after that, he didn’t react. He just kept looking at me with those eyes.
Back when we used to live under the same roof, he would never dare keep quiet when I spoke to him. And here he was. Silently looking at me. That made me even more angry.
This guy... it’s because he became a duke’s heir! He must think he’s some big shot now!
“Yeah, don’t say anything, then. Guess you don’t want to say anything to lower-class nobles, huh!” I shouted at him, almost spitting out the words.
His eyes seemed to widen. “...Thomas?” And he said my name.
Even if he was my half-brother... he was a whoreson. He was sent to live with us because it’d be less troublesome that way. That’s why he always had to address us in the correct way, with the appropriate titles. We were his superiors.
He was supposed to do that... and now look at him. It’s only been a few years since I’ve seen him, and he’s forgotten all about it.
It’s like he’s looking down on me. Like I’m inferior to him. I could feel something inside me snapping.
I swung my fist down on the man restrained on the rickety bed. “D-Don’t you dare... someone like you... say my name so freely! SOMEONE LIKE YOU!”
You dare?! The likes of you, look down on me?
You’re supposed to be beneath me... just something beneath me. But now... you’ve come out on top.
Why did I fall so far? Why am I the only unfortunate one?
I kept swinging my fists. I kept hitting him. His limbs were restrained... and Sarah did something to him to seal up his magic. He couldn’t fight back.
But then... no matter how much I hit him, Keith never once cried out in pain. He didn’t ask for mercy or forgiveness. All he did was remain silent. His eyes were unwavering... as silent and still as he was.
It was like I wasn’t even reflected in those eyes. Like he didn’t even care. That pissed me off more. I hit him with my fists again and again and again. I couldn’t stop.
Eventually, my fists started hurting, so I stopped. But Keith’s expression didn’t change. I hated him. But no matter how much I hit him, I didn’t feel any better. In fact, I only felt more pathetic. Even as I thought about how he was about to be sold into slavery in some foreign place, it didn’t make me feel any bet
ter. Not one bit.
Come to think of it... lately I’d felt my body becoming heavier. For some reason, waking up was hard. I noticed that I was sleeping a lot more. Sarah was considerate. She even gave me a shoulder massage, but it didn’t help much. If anything, I seemed to be getting worse.
It was a strange feeling. As if someone else was taking something from me. Something important. Even so... when I felt up to it, I would go over to where Keith was locked up. I wanted to make him feel the pain, listen to his pleas and howls... but he never did any of that. He was silent, just like how he had been in the beginning.
No matter how much I struck him, no matter how much I yelled at him, his blue eyes never lost their shine. I only felt more pathetic as time passed.
“I’m not going to bother waiting for him to fall into the pits and be a slave anymore. I don’t need him. Someone like that... he can just go and break for all I care,” I said.
In response, Sarah asked, “Well then, should I do with him as I please?” She was smiling like usual.
“Yeah. Do as you like,” I replied.
Sarah left the room happily.
Meanwhile, I felt my body becoming even heavier. As if I was slowly... losing something...
★★★★
Sora finally returned from his scouting, and the time had finally come for us to break into that mansion. Since Maria was so frightened, she was told not to overexert herself and to return to the inn, but...
“No... I cannot possibly allow only Lady Katarina and everyone else into that mansion. I am a Wielder of Light... I’m sure I could be useful for something.” Maria then took my hand. “And... with Lady Katarina by my side, I will be all right no matter what happens. With her here... I find myself able to face any enemy, no matter how ferocious or terrifying.” Maria ended her statement with a slight smile.
I tightened my grip around Maria’s hand. “Thank you, Maria. I’ll be counting on you, too.”
And so Larna, Jeord, Maria, Sora and I — five of us in total — headed back toward the mansion.
We decided to enter from the back entrance, since the security there was lighter. Even so, there were still three of those muscular goons standing on guard.
“So what do we do from here?” I asked, turning to Sora as we surveyed the mansion from a comfortable distance.
“Perhaps we should wait and see.” This was Sora’s mysterious response, which was accompanied by a grin.
But he was right. We waited for a while in silence and then, out of nowhere, there was a commotion among the guards. Two of the three men ran off immediately, though I had no idea where they were going.
“What happened?” I asked.
Sora responded calmly and innocently. “If I had to guess, a particular shed in the corner of the manor’s gardens most likely caught fire.”
“Eh... that’s...”
“That would by my doing, of course. We should proceed now that security has been thinned.”
Looking at Sora and his nonchalant expression, I felt immensely impressed with him once again.
The remaining guard suffered a more unfortunate fate — Larna hurled some sort of projectile at him with her powers of wind magic. It promptly hit him in the head, knocking him out cold in an instant.
“That went well,” Larna said casually. This woman, too, was terribly impressive.
With that, our small group successfully infiltrated the mansion.
We were inside, and as I expected, the interior was just as gorgeous as the exterior. But I had to say, in my opinion, it was kind of overkill. Even the various art pieces on display seemed pointlessly flamboyant, so much so that it seemed like the person who’d chosen them had no taste. It seemed like the place belonged to a “new money” kind of person who just really liked shiny things.
Larna had mentioned that the governor of this area probably lived here. Hmm, I wonder what kind of person they are? An image of an individual covered in glittering gold necklaces came to mind. This person would be wearing something like a bathrobe and would be swirling a cup of red wine in his hand. That’s what I was thinking about as we cautiously progressed down the new-money mansion’s halls.
As expected of a grandiose mansion such as this one, there were many guards on the inside, too. We ran into them a few times, and sometimes where there was no place to hide, Sora would just raise his fist, and a moment later, the guard would be on the ground — out cold without a sound.
Other times, Larna would cast some unknown spell with a wave of her hand, and the guard would be sent flying. He would soon be out cold on the ground — without a sound, of course.
And then there was Jeord, who used a quick pommel strike with his blade. This would cause the guard on the receiving end to collapse onto the ground — again, without a sound.
There were times when the three of them couldn’t control the force of their attacks. In those cases, Maria stepped in to heal minor scrapes and bruises with her Light Magic.
Looking at all this from a distance, I felt moved by the sheer power of my party members. If this was like one of those RPGs I played in my previous life, this was surely the most powerful party possible in the game. Split into classes, Larna would be the mage, Jeord the swordsman, Sora the soldier or rogue, and Maria the priestess. In that case, Keith, who was being held captive, would be the princess.
With all those class roles sorted out, I started picturing all of them as characters on the cover art of an RPG game. That kept my mind busy as we went deeper and deeper into the mansion, with the gaudiness of the decor increasing the further we went. Although we had faced nothing but small fries until now, this would be a good place for a mid-boss to appear.
Just when that thought crossed my mind...
A nearby door opened with a slight creak, and out came a man. Our eyes met. “Wh-Who are you people?!”
I felt like I’d heard that phrase from somewhere specific before. But here he was: that pompous, new-money-rich old man I’d been imagining ever since setting foot in here. I mean, not exactly. He was dressed in fancy clothing, but he didn’t have a puffy bathrobe or a glass of red wine. Well, considering it was only around noon, walking around in a bathrobe and drinking wine might have been odd.
In any case, the scene played out just as I imagined it would. There were a few burly men behind him — his personal bodyguards, probably. The gaudily-dressed old man immediately turned to them. “I-Intruders! Get them!” he shouted.
I could hear the random encounter music of that one RPG I liked playing in my mind. As expected of the flunkies of the mid-boss (that new-money old man), they were somewhat stronger than the mooks our party had been facing up until now. But still, they were no match for us. In a series of quick movements, Larna, Sora, and Jeord had silenced them. Soon, they lay in a heap on the ground.
It really was over in an instant. This party was simply too strong. It was like a bunch of level 99 characters walked into a level 1 dungeon.
With the new-money old man left alone, Sora swiftly cornered him and drew a knife seemingly from thin air. “So you own this place, huh?” he asked in a low voice.
All the old man could do was nod vigorously, his face pale. Yep, it was just as I imagined. This old man was the so-called governor of this area. So this is the mid-boss or maybe the final boss? Hmm. Seriously, how underwhelming.
The way he’s squirming about, he seems more like a small-time crook. What a lame final boss.
“Then ya know where Keith Claes is, right?” Sora said while ensuring the knife in his hand was visible.
The more I thought about it, the less this old man seemed to be the final boss. If he was really who he claimed to be, then we had this in the bag — all we had to do was find out where Keith was being held, and that was that.
“K-Keith Claes, you say? Who is that? I don’t know anything about that name!” the old man said, desperately shaking his head.
“Won’t do you much good keepin’ it to yourself...” Sora said,
approaching the old man somewhat menacingly, knife drawn.
What little color remaining in his face instantly disappeared. “N-No idea! I have no idea!” he said, continuing to shake his head this way and that.
Larna soon stepped up. “This won’t take long. You lot wait here.” With that, she entered the room the old man had come out from, with Sora following and dragging the unwilling old man.
After a while, they came back out of the room. “Unfortunately this old man really has no idea,” Larna sighed.
I stole a peek into the room and saw that the gaudily-dressed old man was out cold on the ground. I wonder what happened in there? While I was somewhat curious, I decided that it would probably be best not to think too hard about it.
As I pulled my thoughts away from that subject, Larna continued. “Also, this guy was under the influence of Dark Magic. He was being controlled by someone.”
“Eh?! But isn’t he the most important person in this mansion? He was the mastermind, right?” I had been thinking that the old, unimpressive-looking man was the final boss, but it turned out that I was wrong!
“Well, it does seem that he owns the mansion, that much is true. However, he doesn’t seem to be involved in what happened to Keith. They probably used the Dark Arts on him so they could use his home for the kidnapping.” Then she turned to Maria and asked, “Could you confirm this, Maria?”
Maria checked the room and then came back and said, “It is true, I can see remnants of Dark Magic around the old man. It’s separate from the aura surrounding the house.”
So, that new-money old man was just being controlled, and wasn’t the real mastermind, huh? So that means the villain behind this and Keith are both still somewhere out there.
“But Alexander is still pointing toward something. Do you sense anything, Maria?”
“Yes. The churning, dark mist grows thicker the more we progress through these halls... there may very well be something at the end of all this.”
After hearing Larna’s and Maria’s observations, our party decided to go deeper into the mansion. Once we passed the new-money old man’s room, the art pieces on display were no longer obnoxiously flamboyant. The atmosphere actually felt somewhat... lonely. The halls were empty and dark.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Volume 4 Page 11