WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up

Chapter 014

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Freud’s Fang (2)

My body feels heavy.

It must be because Maeve has settled into my embrace and is sleeping soundly.

My throat, sore from fainting and exhaustion, naturally made me want to cough, but I held it back with effort unless Maeve wakes up.

“…Mm.”

As I painfully suppressed my cough, perhaps sensing a slight tremor, she mumbled and carefully shifted her body.

…How should I escape?

I even thought about biting my tongue until it bled to commit suicide, but that method would be inefficient and clearly only bring pain, so I gave up on it.

But if I endure until morning like this, I’ll become Maeve’s slave, neither dead nor alive.

She would probably solidify my body in wax and turn me into a living doll.

Rather than living a life where I can’t die and become an eternal exhibit, it would be much better to somehow escape and live as a fugitive.

Carefully, to take out the musket Maeve had, I quietly moved my hand towards her waist, making sure not even a rustling sound could be heard.

With just that gun, I could easily commit suicide.

My carefully moving fingers gently brushed against the grip.

Gripping the high-quality ebony wooden grip, the moment suicide was within reach.

“What are you doing?”

“…!”

“Trying to commit suicide?”

Maeve, who had noticed my hand on her weapon, opened her eyes mechanically.

“Kuh-ohk…!”

“Go back to sleep. That way you won’t be tired tomorrow.”

She tightened her grip on my neck, trying to make me faint again.

I hastily took the musket from her waist and pressed the muzzle to my temple.

I didn’t want to prolong this kind of encounter, so I pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Click-.

“…….”

Click, click-.

Even after pulling the trigger several times, the bullet wasn't fired.

From the weight, it was clearly loaded and the gunpowder fully filled.

As I dropped the musket due to lack of oxygen from being choked, Maeve explained the reason with an emotionless expression.

“If there’s not enough mana, the gunpowder won’t ignite. That’s why it won’t fire.”

…Stat limitation.

A weapon that can’t perform properly below a certain stat level.

For me, who is only Level 10, Maeve’s musket was nothing more than an attractive but useless item, unable to fire bullets.

“Dean, you’re so weak. Can’t even fire a gun.”

Her hand, which had stopped strangling me just as I was about to lose consciousness, tickled my cheek.

I tried to pick up the musket again and resist with the blade, but Maeve moved the musket out of reach, as if telling me not to resist further.

“Don’t worry. Even if Dean is weak, I can protect you.”

“I don’t… need it….”

In the end, I had no choice but to bite my tongue as a last resort to commit suicide.

Not wanting to just feel pain from biting lightly like before, I bit deeply with my molars as much as possible to wound it, and quickly attempted suicide.

“Not so fast.”

“Kkeok…!”

But Maeve, who had seen through even that, grabbed my jaw forcefully with one hand, completely sealing off the movement of my lower jaw.

“Don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone.”

The strong grip dislocated my jaw, making biting my tongue impossible, but as if that wasn’t enough, she even shoved a handkerchief into my mouth.

“…You just need to look at me.”

Maeve’s low voice, meeting my gaze with an emotionless expression, was certainly devoid of feeling, but I instinctively knew she was in a state of great rage.

“Why won’t you look at me?”

A single dried tear from her eye fell onto my face, and then she grabbed my right wrist.

“Kkeu-eup?!!”

She took out a knife she had kept in her coat hem and thrust it into my wrist.

The sharp knife effortlessly severed various blood vessels, and tendons were cut simultaneously.

Due to the severed tendons, my tightly clenched fingers all lost strength and hung limp, and my right hand lost its function.

“I like Dean so much.”

“Heu-eup…!! Kkeu-heu-eup!!!?”

Soon, the knife pushed into my remaining intact wrist, severing all tendons and blood vessels.

Disabled both hands in an instant, with the handkerchief clenched tightly between my teeth, I threw my head back and repeatedly slammed it against the ground.

Even with Eirene, I had never experienced this level of torture.

And with Carmen, it wasn't this painful either.

Maeve… didn't kill me, but moved solely to inflict pain.

To punish one who dared to try and escape from her.

“I’ll take care of everything, Dean. You just need to look at me.”

She began the work of creating a doll, a taxidermy piece, that would look at her every day.

Skillfully, Maeve withdrew the knife from my bleeding wrist, then inverted the wound and inserted gunpowder into the injured area.

“This will sting.”

“U-heup?!!”

Afterward, she lit the gunpowder, forcibly burning the wound.

She burned the other hand with gunpowder in the same way, stopping the bleeding.

Though my mouth was gagged with a handkerchief, blood leaked from my gums because I kept clenching my teeth.

Once the primary task of stopping the bleeding was done, Maeve shifted her gaze to my mouth.

“…Should I pull out your teeth too?”

Hearing the chilling mumble about pulling out all my teeth, I shook my head, tears streaming down my face.

“U-eup!! Kkeu-heu-eup!!”

As I desperately signaled, begging her not to and to save me, Maeve narrowed her eyes as if pleased by the sight.

“You won’t bite your tongue, will you?”

“Mm!! Eup!!”

As I immediately nodded in agreement to her words, she stopped the hand that had been stroking my mouth.

“I’ll let it slide just this once. There won’t be a next time.”

As Maeve’s emotionless eyes turned elsewhere, only then did I shed tears at the reality that I was alive.

I made no sound.

Because I feared I might displease her.

With the mere fact that both my hands, which had been perfectly fine moments ago, could no longer function as a price for my defiance, all my rebellious spirit had already withered away.

I had to accept reality.

I could never escape from Maeve.

If I tried to commit suicide one more time and was caught by her.

I would suffer torture worse than death.

“Your eyes have died even more, Dean.”

My eyes now held an abyss that couldn't even be compared to her dead eyes.

At the sight of me having become a completely motionless doll, Maeve settled back into my embrace and closed her eyes.

I wrapped both my arms around her waist and hugged her.

My role, having become a living human taxidermy, was to hold her.

Without a word. To gaze at Maeve forever.

The self of me, a human, was no longer needed by anyone.

Separate from the desperate situation, Maeve’s embrace was incredibly warm.

But ironically, the human warmth I had yearned for so much failed to bring me peace of mind.

That night, I did not sleep.

Because the thought of sleeping didn't even occur to me.

“Good morning.”

“….”

“I didn’t untie your gag. Just a moment.”

Maeve, belatedly realizing she had left the handkerchief in my mouth all night, removed the foreign object that had sealed my speech.

The pristine white handkerchief had turned bright red overnight.

She, who casually stashed the blood-soaked handkerchief in her coat pocket, naturally got up.

She simply stomped on the extinguished campfire to erase its traces, then picked up the musket lying some distance away and re-holstered it at her waist.

I merely stared blankly at the sight, having gotten myself up.

With all my tendons severed and unable to move my hands, there was nothing I could do now.

“Let’s depart for the Labyrinth of Fissures again, Dean.”

“Okay.”

Once all traces of having spent the night here had completely vanished, we began heading towards our destination, the Labyrinth of Fissures, again.

If there were any cliff anywhere, I’d want to jump off it right away.

Should I try biting my tongue secretly right now?

Racking my brain as much as possible, I wondered if there truly was no way to escape.

Because if I didn’t even think like this, I felt I would become a monster with only a living body.

As long as Maeve, an excellent hunter, treasured me, her taxidermy, to commit suicide, I had to aim for an opening and die in an instant.

Beyond merely biting my tongue or escaping, a thoroughly planned operation….

…At that moment, with a sensation as if my mind cleared, a good plan came to mind.

After arriving at the Labyrinth of Fissures, I would intentionally lure her down a dead end.

Then I would make a sound to summon an Arachne.

That way, when Maeve fought the Arachne, if I pretended to save her by taking a venomous fluid or a threatening attack instead….

Maeve, unaware of resurrection, would surely mistake it for my instant death on the spot.

With this method, there would be no worries about being pursued later.

If, by any chance, Maeve killed the Arachne in one hit, then I could aim for the boss battle.

“Come closer. Don’t stray too far.”

Maeve, completely unaware of my plan to feign death, simply smiled shyly with her arms crossed.

What reaction would Maeve show if I died right before her eyes?

I truly looked forward to that coming moment.

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