I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up - Chapter 019

WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

◈ I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up

Chapter 019

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19. Forgotten Heart Resonance (3)

"Cough..."

I opened my eyes in the same spot, as if this hideout itself was a checkpoint, and still feeling the pain, clutched my left chest.

I never imagined I would experience dying from a paralyzed heart.

The fear that came when all the muscles in my body simultaneously contracted and then my last lifeline stopped was something I never wanted to experience again.

Thinking I needed to catch my breath, I leaned my back against a small cabinet nearby, but the cabinet, having endured for a long time, collapsed, and my body fell backward.

"It's dangerous!"

Just then, Carmen, whom I hadn't even known was there, grabbed my hand, stopping me precariously just before my head hit the floor, and the furniture collapsed frightfully by a hair's breadth.

Her hair, drawn by gravity, shyly tickled my face.

"...Are you okay?"

She, who had saved me from potentially dying under the furniture, offered her concern.

In her other hand, Freud's Fang was still held.

"Thanks. I almost died."

"No..., I.... Yes."

Carmen, who had nearly killed me twice due to her own mistake, seemed to change her mind from refusing gratitude and nodded.

The sensation of our clasped hands was growing stronger, so I let go, thinking it might be uncomfortable.

She opened and closed the hand that had just been touching mine a couple of times.

"Hand over the dagger."

"...No. If you get the dagger..., you'll just die again."

As I reached out for the dagger, she hid it behind her back and took a step back.

Without that dagger, the things I could do would be reduced by that much.

To put it harshly, I'd become less than trash, a waste product worse than recycled garbage.

"Sorry, but it wasn't me who killed me, it was you, Carmen."

"......"

"If it weren't for you, there'd have been no reason to die so painfully."

"I..., just...."

As I staggered toward Carmen, she retreated, backing against the wall to avoid me.

"Hand it over."

"...Ugh."

The woman's back, with nowhere left to flee, met the wall, and I placed my hands on both sides of the wall to block her escape.

"Why are you so eager not to leave me alone?"

Her gem-like beautiful red eyes met my abyss-laden gaze and trembled fiercely.

"I'm just a murderer. Why stop someone like that from committing suicide?"

"Because that's... not the answer-."

"-So what!!!"

"..."

The rage I had tried to suppress erupted.

I felt only ugly and ashamed of myself.

"...Haa. You probably won't believe me, but I have no intention of killing you anymore."

I carefully explained, steadying my breath to keep my emotions from rushing.

"I need some means to protect myself too, don't I?"

"Dean, you... mustn't hold a weapon."

"...Ugh?!"

Carmen placed her hand on my shoulder and pushed me away.

Momentarily pushed back by her strong force, I lost my balance and fell on my backside.

"Don't worry. Protecting you is well within my power alone."

With that, Carmen tucked the dagger into her waistband and declared she wouldn't return Freud's Fang.

"Harming others isn't the problem. You... are far too precarious right now."

Me, precarious?

I couldn't understand what she was talking about at all.

Even if my state had become quite worn out from death, wasn't I still able to make sound judgments?

Moreover, I hadn't gone mad and killed anyone.

I intended to become a rotting rose in an isolated flower garden, so as not to prick anyone with my thorns.

This behavior seemed to bother Carmen.

"..."

Despair settled upon me once again.

Freud's Fang had given me breathing room.

Now I had to return to my powerless self.

I didn't want to believe it.

The muscles in my fingers twisted one by one, creating a tremor.

"Dean?"

The already blurry world seemed to grow even blurrier.

Even within it, Carmen's face, which had been clearly visible, slowly contorted.

After letting out a watery breath like a lost child, I listlessly got up and followed Carmen.

Because I wanted to cling to even the baseless hope that if I behaved well, she might return Freud's Fang.

"Dean... Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"I just..., I'm worried about you...."

"We're not like that, Carmen."

"..."

I cut off Carmen, who was hastily trying to explain herself to my quiet self, and averted my gaze.

I still clearly remember the structure of the Forgotten Heart Resonance.

Since I can't roam alone without Freud's Fang, I should set my goal on the underground prison first.

...But how does one enter the abyss?

I suddenly couldn't remember.

Thinking I might remember once I descended into the underground prison, I moved my feet. Carmen hastily passed me and took the lead.

Not much differently than when I traversed the Labyrinth of Fissures with Maeve, Carmen easily slaughtered the enemies we met along the way.

Though not clearly visible due to my blurry vision, whenever her light red hair swayed a few times, something bright red splattered.

Even though she seemed to slaughter enemies with ease, all the enemies in the Forgotten Heart Resonance possessed strength comparable to mid-bosses.

The tentacled heart Carmen was currently fighting was no different.

She easily avoided the creature's flailing tentacles and ripped apart its heart muscle.

Soon, leaving the fallen enemy behind, Carmen, drenched in blood, approached me.

Thinking I should at least praise her, I wiped the blood from her cheek and eyes with my hand.

Only then did her contorted face seem a little clearer.

"...Beautiful."

I realize it only now, but Carmen was beautiful even from an objective perspective.

"Huh?"

"...It was a monologue."

Because I had murmured quietly enough for her not to hear, I nonchalantly brushed the blood from my hand and continued on my way.

After a little more time passed, perhaps my overflowing stress had also calmed, and I could see her properly.

A woman in a dancer's outfit, dyed crimson with blood, slaughtering enemies as if dancing.

She was the only landmark in the gradually blurring background.

"Dean?"

"...Yeah. I'll follow."

The deeper we went into the Forgotten Heart Resonance, the more often I zoned out.

For some reason..., my mind feels blurry.

"Be careful."

"Ah, thanks."

Stumbling as I walked, I almost tripped, but Carmen caught me.

"Dean... You don't look well, are you really okay?"

"I'm fine. ...Probably."

A small thought occurred to me, as if I were dreaming.

My mental state wasn't usually good, so I hadn't easily noticed, but it was certain.

The deeper we went into the Forgotten Heart Resonance, the blurrier my ego became.

"Let's check your condition after we go down."

Carmen, upon finding the stairs leading to the underground prison, led me there.

And then, the moment I took a step onto the stairs, the sensation of a strong pressure that had been constricting me vanished from my entire body.

"Cough...!!"

I vomited blood.

"Dean?!"

It wasn't blood from an internal wound that had festered and burst, or from an internal injury.

It was the blood of something that wasn't me.

Surprisingly, the amount of blood I vomited was tens of times more than the blood I possessed.

Paradoxically, after vomiting blood, my mind cleared.

"Why are you suddenly like this...!"

"...You're not feeling anything?"

"Not feeling anything...? What are you talking about?"

"This power, I mean. Don't you feel it?"

"Power...?"

A subtle power, like a barrier, stretched across the stair entrance behind us.

Unlike me, whose spine tingled just by looking at it, Carmen seemed to feel nothing at all.

As I tried to descend the stairs as if fleeing, she grabbed my sleeve and stopped me.

"Dean, you rest here for a moment. I'll save my father and be right back."

She seemed worried that I, who had vomited an impossible amount of blood and was so listless that my mind was on the verge of dying, had suddenly become perfectly fine.

I grabbed the wrist of Carmen, who was about to leave me here and go down alone.

"...Don't leave me alone."

It wasn't that I didn't understand her feelings.

Because I was too precarious and bothersome a burden to traverse the underground prison.

But..., I instinctively felt that staying here was several times more dangerous than descending into the underground prison.

"Don't be stubborn."

"Please...! Don't you feel that damned power?!"

"What are you talking about...? What's supposed to be there?"

Even when I explained the barrier stretched across the stair entrance, Carmen wouldn't try to understand.

She started to climb the stairs, as if to prove there was no barrier, and tried to stand at the entrance.

"Don't go!!"

"Kyaaah?!"

At that moment, I instinctively felt I shouldn't let Carmen go there, so I immediately grabbed her shoulders and stopped her.

"Let go of me?! I won't hold back anymore...!"

Carmen's enraged gaze at the sudden assault reached the stair entrance, and she was speechless.

–Eyes

The barrier had, at some point, transformed into the shape of an eyeball. It was staring intently at both of us.

"...Wh-What in the world is th-mph?!"

"......Don't speak."

I covered her mouth.

It was due to an instinctive fear that once the fact of perceiving the barrier was spoken, it would be irreversible.

I hastily turned, still embracing her, and descended the stairs.

The further we moved from the stairs, the more I felt the gaze of the eyeball vanish.

Thus, the moment we arrived in the underground prison at the bottom of the stairs, Carmen and I, still clinging to each other, collapsed onto the floor.

"...What was that?"

"I... don't know either...."

"Dean, the reason you kept zoning out... Was it because of that?"

"...I think so."

A fear strong enough to make two archenemies dependent on each other.

Even tracing back my memories, I had never once seen a monster with such a cinematic presence in the game.

Though the atmosphere was terrifying, it was only to that extent, a work that maintained the framework of dark fantasy.

"...Take it."

Carmen handed me Freud's Fang, which she had kept at her waistband.

"If we encounter a being like that again... I can't guarantee I can protect you."

If we had continued exploring the Forgotten Heart Resonance without noticing that barrier....

I bit my lower lip in a distant, incomprehensible fear.