WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up

Chapter 050

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50. Obscured by Starlight (1)

After finding the lever at the very end of the prison's depths and deactivating all the traps, I carried Carmen on my back and walked quietly down the corridor.

The blood flowing from her ankle wouldn't stop, and I could hear the sound of droplets falling.

"Don't worry. It'll heal soon."

"..."

Feeling the atmosphere was gloomier than usual, Carmen whispered in her characteristic emotionless voice.

It'll heal soon.

I knew that was a lie.

A wound so brutal the skin had been turned inside out, could it really be resolved in a day or two?

Even if her body was in the realm of superhumans, the difference between the impossible and the possible was easy to distinguish.

"These shoes. I quite like them."

As if deliberately ignoring my feelings, Carmen rambled on.

"Even if they don't fit, it feels like you chose them with care."

"I just picked them randomly."

"You have good taste."

"...Thanks for the compliment."

Afraid she might feel embarrassed about talking to herself, I added a few words, and she quietly chuckled.

"Your personality has changed a lot. ...I knew that already, though."

As if the carrying position was uncomfortable, she pressed her chest more firmly against my back, and a soft sensation was transmitted.

She fidgeted with the arms wrapped around my neck, then slipped her hand inside my chest plate and fiddled with my collarbone.

"..."

Feeling a lecherous touch, I flinched momentarily, and her fingers traced the grain of my collarbone, tapping along my neckline.

Soon, the hand stroking my cheek and the whorl of my ear made me stop walking.

"Could you stop?"

When I complained about the strange tension, as if foreplay before intercourse, Carmen pretended not to hear, grabbed her own hair, and tickled my cheek.

"...Haa."

Seeming not at all inclined to listen, I sighed and allowed her mischievous touch.

As I passed through the prison where the traps had stopped working, I suddenly looked at Freud's Fang coiled around my arm.

As if a will was being conveyed, the blades writhed as if alive.

Like a snake tattoo on my arm.

The way it was naturally entwined gave the illusion that it had been one with the platinum armor from the start.

Arriving at the bridge where the blade pendulums had been, I shot a blade at the ceiling to move like a rope, making it easier to keep my balance.

"Kyaaah...!"

Feeling a sudden jolt of inertia and pain in her leg, Carmen let out a shallow scream.

"...Sorry."

Blaming myself for not being considerate of her, Carmen poked at my lips without a sound of grumbling.

After riding the platform and reaching the first floor, Carmen, who had been silent, spoke up.

"The Emperor resurrected, Dean."

"..."

"However... his condition is a bit strange."

Her crimson eyes glowed with a gleam of light.

"...A d-deer? The Emperor was a deer?"

Having witnessed the true form of the Emperor whose insides I had ground to death, Carmen couldn't hide her shock.

"No... this is... mimicry? Why would a human mimic?"

Her voice, witnessing an incomprehensible scene, echoed in the air without stopping.

"Dean... we need to kill the Emperor right now-"

"There's no way."

"..."

Unfortunately, there was no way to kill the Emperor.

'The Emperor with his head severed,' the boss known as the headless deer, would be reborn as a new creature even after being killed hundreds or thousands of times.

Based on user speculation from day one, the prevailing opinion was that he was a boss that would appear in a future DLC.

After all, the Emperor, a bundle of Desperado Reunion's foreshadowing, couldn't possibly exit the stage with something like this.

"..."

If I had my way, I would have ground him into oblivion with Freud's Fang so not a trace remained.

Because I didn't want to see a being who had abandoned his humanity wearing a human mask still alive.

"Don't worry about the Emperor. He'll soon become a being that no longer exists."

"...What?"

"You'll see if you wait."

Leaving behind such a lingering threat wouldn't do me any good anyway. I had no intention of letting the Emperor, who had tried to kill my precious people, go like this.

...If I couldn't kill him, I would choose another method.

After passing through the open gate and leaving the Bastille Prison, I traversed the desert with its intense sunlight.

Though I acted as if nothing was wrong, I wasn't unaware that Carmen's warmth was gradually fading, so I quickened my pace even more.

"You're here!!"

Among the women gathered in a cluster chatting in the distance, Altair, with her blue hair, spotted us and stood up abruptly.

"Help with first aid."

"...What kind of wound is this."

A wound that could never be fully healed with just first aid.

Seeing the severity of Carmen's injury, Altair was shocked.

"Move. I'll do it."

But the moment Eirene rolled up her sleeves and roughly grabbed Carmen's foot, a miracle occurred.

"...Ghk."

"Shut up."

She forced the lacerated, turned-out flesh back into the wound and channeled cold energy, causing the wound to gradually close.

The pain of the healing process seemed excruciating, beyond imagination, as Carmen tightly gripped my hand.

When the torn and crushed wound had healed, leaving only pale scars, Eirene coolly explained to Carmen.

"Your right foot. You'll never use it again."

"..."

"The ligaments on that side are completely ruptured; they won't reattach."

Though both lacerated foot wounds had healed, unfortunately, her right foot was permanently crippled.

"...Thank you."

"...Tch. Thank Dean. If it weren't for him, you'd already be dead from infection."

Still, Carmen seemed grateful to be able to walk, and she thanked Eirene.

"Eirene. I have a request."

"...Yeah, tell me. I'll do anything for you."

I made a request to Eirene, who was trying to avoid Carmen's burdensome gaze.

"Can you freeze the entire Bastille Prison?"

The reason I left the Emperor behind in the Bastille Prison.

It was because I planned to freeze the place with Eirene's ability and seal him away forever.

Eirene, for whom refusing my request was never an option, immediately raised her arm and aimed at the prison.

Fierce cold surged from her hand. The frost slowly climbing the prison walls grew into a massive iceberg.

Carmen, whose crimson eyes were shining at my side, gave me a look affirming that the Emperor was eternally trapped.

Then, as if the fact that she couldn't use her right foot was irrelevant, she walked over perfectly and greeted me with noble courtesy.

"I, Carmen, descendant of the Fist King... offer my gratitude for your grace."

Just then, a presence was heard from a dark corner of the forest.

"...What? I went to pick some petals and it's already over?"

Soon, from the direction Carmen had been looking, Sigrun, who had briefly stepped away, appeared.

"Now the Emperor will come after us... Well, if I'm with Dean, a life on the run forever might be fun too."

Having assessed the situation and chuckled, Sigrun saw Carmen, who cast a silent gaze asking when to reveal that the Emperor was trapped inside the Bastille Prison.

I sent a look that it was better to tell them immediately rather than delay, and receiving my consent, Carmen relayed the truth to everyone.

"The Emperor has been sealed in the Bastille Prison we just froze. He is officially dead by Dean's hand. And he will never leave that prison forever."

From this moment on, the spark was lit for the struggle to usurp the throne.

The shock of suddenly hearing such a staggering truth was palpable among the party.

Only we on this spot knew that the ruler of the continent was dead.

"The situation has gotten more complicated than I thought."

Altair habitually rested her chin on her hand.

"But it's still far better than plotting treason as a fugitive for life. If the Emperor has disappeared, there will be plenty of people on the continent to help us."

"Consider it an honor that we like you."

As Altair and Sigrun declared their support simultaneously, Eirene, standing beside me, nodded.

It was an action filled with the will that it was only right.

"...Do you intend to rule the world again this time, Dean?"

Unlike them, Carmen rebuked me with a voice full of disappointment.

She probably thought I had the same greed as in the 1st Playthrough.

...As I've said before, I have no interest in absolute power. If I can live quietly, I would willingly give up everything.

However... doing so would make all the women before me unhappy.

So I chose to willingly go down in history as a tyrant and a villain.

"...You."

When I silently approached Carmen and wrapped my arm around her waist, she met my eyes and conveyed a trembling breath.

"Were coming to save me... all for power?"

Carmen, who had experienced destruction and questioned the meaning of the dynasty's existence, couldn't read my true intentions.

Her eyes, which had not lost their composure, held confusion and betrayal.

Carmen didn't want to believe in my will.

Exactly, she seemed reluctant to believe, precisely because she had believed.

"Rushing into the prison to save you was..."

To Carmen, who wouldn't drop her suspicious gaze, I convey a sincere vow.

"Because of love."

"..."

I know better than anyone that I shouldn't have these feelings.

A feeling that continued as an extension of kinship, now becoming a rotten, withered rose.

"The reason I want to stand at the top is no different."

Leaning close to Carmen's lips, I whispered softly.

I would never again let the women who suffered misery and despair because of me experience despair again.

I wanted to stop Dina, and ultimately cut away all the rotten parts to see a world where they could smile.

"...You know this is contradictory, don't you?"

The man who slaughtered everyone in the 1st Playthrough for selfish desires now, having lost his selfish desires, rules over everyone.

Carmen pointed out that this belief was a complete paradox.

"Yeah. I know."

Knowing that fact, I affirmed without a lie.

"You... hah..."

Giving up on persuading me any further, she surrendered to the strange pull that bound her.

"...I'll trust you."

Like a small sailboat adrift in a sea filled with serene stillness.

"Since you've bewitched me, don't even think about running away."

I willingly shared a trace that would one day be swept away by the waves and disappear.

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