I Am a Villain, So What?-Chapter 165: The Delusional Hero

’As expected.’

An hour later, I stood in the shadows of an alleyway across from the Vance Marquisate estate.

It was unbearably hot. The entire opulent mansion and its surrounding grounds were blazing with dark, alchemical red flames. The once-beautiful, manicured gardens burned like a scene ripped straight from hell.

The fire burned so fiercely, fueled by the localized mana stones, that the Capital’s water-mages and the Imperial fire brigade had essentially given up on suppression. They were focusing entirely on preventing the fire from spreading to neighboring estates.

’Time to move.’

Turning away from the towering flames, I heard the desperate, agonizing cries of the escaped survivors being treated on the streets. Fewer than a handful were unscathed. Most had severe burns. White sheets were already being draped over bodies.

"...."

I’m sorry I couldn’t stop it. That was all I could offer them.

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to cry for them. They were just nameless extras in a novel, weren’t they? Lines of code and text translated into reality. Rather than waste emotions, conserving my mental strength for the upcoming disasters was the rational, necessary choice.

Look at the Marquisate. Even as it turned to ash, it still crackled with high-tier defensive wards and interception spells. Even if the Protagonist Party had reached the core in four minutes, piercing all those obstacles to disarm it in time was mathematically impossible. Kael’s heroic optimism had blinded him to the cold, hard logistics of war.

It was an unwinnable scenario from the start. A scripted tragedy meant to break the Heroes. So, I couldn’t cling to regrets. I had saved the most populous sector. That had to be enough.

Entering a narrow alleyway leading back to the Academy District, the noise of the burning city faded, replaced by an eerie, isolating silence.

"...."

Back to the Ashborne mansion. Bury today’s events in my heart. Use the guilt to grow colder, to handle any future situation with absolute composure. That was my mantra.

Tap. Tap. I looked up. Dark storm clouds, unnatural and born from the rising ash, had gathered. A light, cold rain began to fall, sizzling against the hot cobblestones.

"Lucien."

I stopped.

Standing in the middle of the deserted alley, blocking my path, was a figure.

"...Cadet Kael?"

The Protagonist was waiting for me. The golden boy of the Empire, the future Sword Saint, was waiting in a filthy alley for a mere ’Trash’ extra like me.

His pristine summer uniform was ruined, covered in black soot, ash, and dried blood that wasn’t his own. His golden hair was matted to his forehead by the rain.

"What’s this about, Kael?" I asked, keeping my voice perfectly neutral, though my grip on my rifle tightened.

"Why..." Kael’s voice cracked. He looked up, and his face was entirely steeped in dark, suffocating defeat. "Why couldn’t you save them?"

I knew that face. I knew that expression intimately.

...It was me. The ’me’ from my past life, who had failed repeatedly, cursed with tiny, dust-like talent while watching others succeed. It was the face of a man whose entire worldview had just been shattered.

"I stopped the magic in the Grand Square, at least," I replied coldly. "Tens of thousands lived because of my bullet."

"Couldn’t you have saved everyone?!"

"How would I know how to do that, Kael? I’m one person."

"You might’ve been able to! You knew he was there! You knew about the Black Market!"

Kael shouted, the grief and guilt overriding his reason. He lunged at me.

Before I could even raise my arms to block, his ridiculously overpowered speed closed the gap. He grabbed the lapels of my Shadow-Weave coat, slamming me hard against the brick wall of the alley.

"Why!" Kael screamed, tears mixing with the rain and soot on his face. "Why didn’t you even try to come with us to the core?! Why only the Grand Square?!"

"...Stop it."

"There was a master matrix at the Marquis’ estate! If you had gone with us, if you had used your skills, we could’ve saved more people! We could have saved everyone!"

"I told you, it was mathematically impossible," I said coldly, staring dead into his bloodshot eyes. "I couldn’t have made it to the estate in time, and neither could you. Disarming the magic at the Grand Square was a five-second job with a sniper round. It was a guaranteed save."

"But you never know!" Kael roared, his grip on my collar tightening until the fabric tore. "You didn’t even try!"

"...So, are you saying it was wrong of me to dispel the magic at the Grand Square? Would you rather I let tens of thousands of people burn for an uncertain gamble?"

"No, no! That’s not what I mean!" Kael shook his head frantically, his voice cracking. "But! You could’ve chosen a better way! You could have done more!"

"The Vance Marquisate was realistically too far. The defensive wards were still active. Stop it already, Kael. You’re embarrassing yourself."

"Then you should’ve run there anyway! We could have broken through!"

"It was impossible, so why would I? Are you seriously suggesting I should’ve let the people I knew I could save die, just to chase a fairy tale ending where nobody gets hurt?"

"No! Even so! Without even trying... you never know...!"

This guy... has he completely lost his mind?

"...Ah. Yes. I see."

I sneered at him openly. Kael’s expression right now was quite a sight. Ah, yes. Was this the kind of expression others saw when they looked at me in my past life? Steeped in failure, drenched in despair, desperately looking for someone else to blame for his own inadequacy. It was pathetic.

...Kael was a hypocrite. With all his heaven-defying talent and golden aura, why was he whining to someone as supposedly insignificant as me?

"Yes, of course," I mocked, my voice dripping with venom. "You’re just so perfect, aren’t you? The great Kael Ardyn, capable of anything, so you can easily spout idealistic nonsense. Right."

He seemed to think I was a protagonist like him. He seemed to think he was perfect. A perfect hero! Someone who excels at everything! Kind! Righteous! Beloved by the heavens!

The complete opposite of me, who had survived purely by scraping the bottom of the barrel and making cold, calculated sacrifices.

At my mockery, Kael’s face twisted in agony.

"Are you being sarcastic right now? How could you be so cold... You’re the Executioner!"

"Shut up."

That damned Executioner. Executioner! Executioner! The Crown Princess was hunting me for it, Marquis Vance feared it, and Kael worshipped it—why did they all force this ridiculous, impossible standard onto me?!

"You’re a Executioner! You have a duty—!"

"Shut up! Shut up, I said!" I roared back, my carefully maintained apathy finally shattering. "Do you even have the right to say that to me?!"

"What?"

I grabbed Kael by his own ruined collar. I pulled him close, ignoring the latent golden aura trying to repel me, forcing him to look straight into my glowing blue eyes.

"In my eyes, you and your little party of elites are the absolute worst!"

"Wh-What are you—"

"You had four minutes!" I snarled, spit flying from my lips. "You guys could have separated! You could have gone to the nearest slums, the commercial districts, and evacuated people! Princess Celestia could have cast a mass-barrier! Bordon could have shielded a shelter!"

Kael’s breath hitched.

"But no!" I laughed harshly. "You had to be the Hero! An optimistic, delusional hero who thinks he can save everyone by blindly charging the boss’s castle! You dragged your team to the estate on an impossible suicide run to defuse a master core you knew nothing about!"

"We... we thought..."

"Look around you, Kael! Look at the smoke! You saved no one."

Kael flinched as if I had stabbed him.

"I at least saved thousands in the Grand Square," I whispered viciously, shoving him back. "I did what I could realistically do. What did you do?"

"What...?" Kael stammered, his eyes wide and vacant.

"You acted like a spoiled child playing knight, and now you’re venting your uselessness by blaming the only person who actually stopped a bomb."

The shock was total. His grip on my coat loosened entirely, as if my words had physically severed his tendons. He stumbled backward, his golden eyes losing their light.

But that was his problem. I still had things to say.

I stepped forward, grabbing his collar again, refusing to let him retreat into his shell of shock.

"Oh, yes! The Golden Boy, the Hero, the great Kael Ardyn must’ve been so amazing today! That’s why you’re here, right? Betting on impossible odds while people burn! Telling me I shouldn’t have saved the people I did! Splendid work, Hero!"

"Stop it..." Kael begged, his voice a hoarse whisper.

I clung to him fiercely, snarling as he feebly tried to shake off my hands.

"Did you enjoy seeing it? The dead bodies in the streets? People who could have been saved if not for your arrogant, blind optimism?!"

"Stop it, I said!"

The righteous Protagonist’s expression visibly hardened, the overwhelming guilt warping into defensive rage.

"Does it bother you that much?!" I provoked, leaning in. "That things didn’t go your way for the first time?! Are you bothered that the universe didn’t magically bend to your favor today, dear Golden Boy?! Is that why you’re acting so pathetic now?! Why are you taking it out on me?!"

"I SAID STOP IT!"

Kael shoved me with all his monstrous, aura-enhanced strength.

My feet left the ground. My body flew backward through the rain, and I crashed hard onto the slick cobblestones, the breath knocking completely out of my lungs.

"...Ha," I coughed, wiping rainwater and mud from my face as I slowly pushed myself up. "He’s hitting people to silence the truth now."

"I told you to stop," Kael breathed heavily, his chest heaving, his eyes burning with a chaotic mix of sorrow and fury.

"When I told you to stop chasing an impossible fairy tale, you didn’t listen," I spat back, getting to my feet. "Is ignoring the desperate reality of the common people something that runs in your grand Imperial bloodline?"

That crossed the final line.

Finally, pure, unadulterated anger flared across Kael’s face. The hero’s mask shattered.

"You... you absolute trash bastard!"

SHING.

Kael drew his sword. The blade hummed with a brilliant, blinding golden light that illuminated the dark alleyway. The tip pointed, unsurprisingly, directly at my throat.

The apocalypse, the disasters, the overarching plot—I didn’t care about any of it anymore. My blood was boiling.

I reached to my side.

Clack-clack.

I loaded a Magic Bullet into the chamber of my Winchester, raising the barrel to aim dead center at the Hero’s chest.