I Am a Villain, So What?-Chapter 184: Ruins [5]

An undeniable victory.

"Phew..." I let out a long breath, lowering the Reaver shotgun.

Turning around, I saw Elisha drop to her knees. She was adjusting her posture, desperately trying to cycle her breathing to gather ambient mana. After unleashing a piercing attack of that magnitude, she had to be incredibly dizzy.

I left her to recover for a moment. I walked past the collapsed sand and circled the massive stone throne.

Lying on the floor, perfectly intact, was the jagged gold crown embedded with glowing brown crystals.

’I got it.’

I reached down and gripped the Primordial Earth Crown.

It was one of the legendary ’Primordial Five’ artifacts. This was one of the surest keys to surviving the impending apocalypse.

’With this, I’ve just secured a major power source and ripped it right out of the hands of the late-game villains.’

I thought back to my first few weeks in this world. Days of humiliation, weakness, and nearly getting killed by low-level thugs. But now I had actually done it. I had achieved a shining, tangible result that shifted the balance of the entire storyline.

Even if Kael and his party messed up and died in a horrific disaster, I had just laid the foundation to survive the final stages of the apocalypse on my own.

Lost in the moment, clutching the heavy artifact, I suddenly remembered I wasn’t alone.

I turned back. Elisha was still kneeling, her eyes closed, struggling to stabilize her mana core.

Did bringing Elisha along help or hinder this ruin conquest?

Honestly, moving alone would have been stealthier. But without her bunker-busting firepower, I would have been forced to use a Diamond-tier explosive or burn through thousands of System Points to buy a high-tier offensive skill. I had already spent a chunk of points on the Akashic Translator just to read the murals. Saving my resources was always the right tactical play.

Elisha slowly opened her eyes and tried to stand. Her knees immediately buckled.

I walked over and caught her by the arm.

"Cadet Elisha, are you okay?"

"Ugh... the room is spinning," she groaned, pressing a hand to her forehead.

That was the absolute proof she had poured every ounce of her energy into that final shot.

"It’s acute mana exhaustion," I said, diagnosing her with a quick glance from my Sixth Sense.

Without asking, I scooped her up into my arms.

"..."

This time, she didn’t scream, flinch, or call me a nuisance. She just let her head rest against my shoulder, completely drained.

I carried her behind the massive stone throne and set her down gently against the wall. The runes carved into the floor here glowed the brightest. It was the epicenter of the ruin’s magic—the spot with the highest mana density, perfect for rapid recovery.

As she leaned back, Elisha’s tired eyes caught the Primordial Earth Crown hanging securely from my belt.

"What are you going to do with that...?" she asked, her voice raspy. "It’s a grotesque artifact that summons the undead."

"It doesn’t summon the undead," I corrected her, checking the chamber of my shotgun. "These were ancient desert warriors who swore loyalty to the Aethelgard Empire even in death. The artifact simply commands the earth. They were only twisted into mindless Wraiths because they were being controlled by the mummified lord’s lingering greed. The artifact itself isn’t inherently evil."

"Ah..."

It was true. If the artifact was demonic, the holy runes I occasionally used would have reacted violently to it.

"More importantly, focus on recovering," I told her, changing the subject. "Commander Sophie and Valerius are probably organizing a search party right now. If they breach the ruins and find you looking like half-dead luggage, I’ll be the one getting blamed for dragging you down here."

"...Sorry," Elisha muttered, lowering her head.

Why would I get blamed? Because my reputation was still garbage. When your public image is ’Trash Lucien,’ you get blamed for everything. And why was my reputation so bad in the first place? Because the Protagonist’s party—including the girl sitting right in front of me—had publicly dragged the original Lucien’s name through the mud.

Of course, the original Lucien’s terrible behavior was mostly his own fault, but the resentment still lingered.

"Hey. Lucien."

"Speak."

"..."

Elisha hesitated for a long time. The silence stretched between us, broken only by the faint hum of the ancient ruins.

Then, she looked up. She stared at me with serious, pleading eyes.

"I still don’t know exactly what happened in the city that day... but I’ll help you clear your name as much as I can. Won’t you reconcile with Kael?"

Ugh. This again.

"No."

"...At least think about it."

"There is nothing to think about."

"It’s a rare offer for a truce. At least pretend to consider it before shooting it down," she frowned.

"..."

Kael probably hadn’t told his party the truth about our fight. He was hiding his own failure. Without knowing the context of how pathetic he looked in that alleyway, it made sense that Elisha thought a simple handshake could fix things.

"No. We can’t reconcile," I stated firmly.

Kael was an idealist who tried to save everyone, spread his forces too thin, and nearly got the entire capital slaughtered. I was a pragmatist who moved to save specific targets with absolute certainty. In a crisis, our methods were completely incompatible.

If forced to choose, who would Elisha blame? She was a high-ranking noble conditioned to protect the weak. She would inevitably side with Kael’s naive heroism over my cold efficiency.

Besides, she was missing the core issue entirely.

This wasn’t just a schoolyard rivalry. My hostility stemmed from the very nature of this world. This was a rigged game where the ’Protagonist’ was handed destiny, plot armor, and the moral high ground on a silver platter, while ’Villains’ like me were destined to be stepping stones. I harbored a deep, simmering resentment for the invisible rules of this reality.

There was absolutely no way I could ever feel fondly toward the golden boy of this twisted narrative.

Elisha, entirely unaware of the fact that she was living in a game world, couldn’t possibly understand my perspective.

Still, seeing her try so hard to mend the bridge made me feel a tiny fraction of pity for her.

"Whether reconciliation is possible or not, you’re right about one thing," Elisha said, her voice steadying as the mana returned to her system. "I don’t know what happened between you two. It might be a complicated political situation I can’t fathom."

She placed a hand on the wall and shakily pushed herself up to her feet, staring me right in the eye.

"But are you just going to leave it like this? No matter how tangled a situation is, there’s always a solution. I’ve seen countless, bloody feuds in noble society since I was a kid, but there is rarely a situation that is truly hopeless."

"When you find a hopelessly tangled knot of thread, do you waste hours trying to untangle it bit by bit?" I asked flatly.

The most efficient answer was to grab a knife and cut the unusable parts off.

Elisha scowled, clearly catching my implication.

"Human relationships aren’t threads, Lucien!"

"To me, it’s all the exact same problem."

To me, aside from Lily and Merle, the people in this world were just cogs in a broken machine.

The conversation paused. It was an unspoken truce to let the heated emotions cool down. It was a passionate disagreement, but we weren’t screaming at each other. For the first time, we were actually having a proper, unfiltered conversation.

"...Cadet Lucien," Elisha said softly, her anger fading into genuine confusion. "Then... why do you keep helping us? You just said you hate us. You treat us like broken threads. But... you show up and save us every single time something important happens. Isn’t that a complete contradiction?"

"Don’t overthink it to make yourself feel special," I replied, turning my back to her and checking the corridor for pursuers. "Hating your party and sitting by while the apocalypse destroys the continent are two entirely different issues."

Elisha let out a heavy sigh, clearly confused.

"The apocalypse?"

"Yes. The apocalypse," I replied, my voice deadpan.

"...That sounds like the paranoid propaganda the Continental Defense Coalition spouts to justify their funding."

"Think about why the Coalition was established in the first place," I countered.

The Continental Defense Coalition was a massive, globally funded military organization created after the First Continental War. On paper, it was a public good designed to prevent disasters that threatened humanity’s survival. In reality, it existed because the world’s leaders knew exactly what was buried in the dark corners of the continent.

"Dr. Eldric’s chimera. The demonic summoning in the forest. Marquis Vance’s terror bombing," I listed them off, watching her face pale with each name. "Every single one of those incidents was just a localized prelude. They are absolutely nothing compared to what is coming."

"..."

Elisha was entirely bewildered. One second we were talking about her political feud with Kael, and the next, I was shifting the topic to the literal end of the world.

"Cadet Elisha."

"..."

"Remember this. Whether I personally dislike your party or not is irrelevant. Focus on the fact that our ultimate goals—surviving the next few years—are aligned," I stated flatly. "Apologies, forced truces, playing nice—there is no time or inclination for such childish games. That’s what I’m telling you."

Having said my piece, I sat down cross-legged on the stone floor, closed my eyes, and began to forcefully cycle my mana to recover my reserves. It was a clear, physical signal that I was done talking.

"..."

I heard Elisha sigh again. Her boots scuffed softly against the stone as she quietly moved away from the throne, likely looking for her own space to rest.

[Sixth Sense (Lv. 3) detects a fatal attack trajectory!]

[Target: Elisha Ravenscroft. Probability of death: 98%!]

What?!