Clatter, clatter—.
The massive carriage of the Rothschild ducal house, drawn by six top-quality black horses, was racing along the well-paved Imperial Road.
The carriage’s interior was dazzlingly lavish. Plush red velvet seats, the finest magic circles for absorbing impact, even champagne chilled with floating ice—it was a perfect “moving suite.”
And yet my mood was more wretched than that of a condemned man being dragged to the guillotine.
“……”
A suffocating silence flowed inside the carriage.
On the seat across from me sat Sylvia, arms crossed as she glared out the window.
Her mood was so foul that frost like icy barbs had formed at the tips of her blonde hair.
And in the seat right beside me.
Ellara sat so close our shoulders were touching, a longsword laid across her knees as she radiated blue killing intent toward Sylvia.
“……It’s cramped.”
Unable to bear it any longer, I frowned and spoke.
“The carriage is this spacious, yet you insist on sticking right beside me, Ellara?”
“Forgive me, my lord.”
Ellara bowed her head, but without moving even a single centimeter away from me, she whispered in a low voice.
“However, the narrower and more enclosed a space is, the more vulnerable it becomes to ambushes from those who seek to harm your precious person.
Especially when a witch with impure intentions is riding across from us.”
“Impure intentions? Hah.”
Sylvia, who had been looking out the window, snorted and turned her head.
“Is that something a guard knight bitch who forced her way into a carriage where a fiancé is escorting his fiancée should be saying?
I’m watching because I don’t know when you might stab Kailan in the back after he so boldly declared he would strike down his father.”
“My sword is aimed only at my lord’s enemies. You’d do well to shut your mouth before that vulgar tongue of yours is cut off.”
“Try it. There’s nowhere to dodge inside the carriage, so let’s see who turns into an ice sculpture first.”
Flaaash—! Tzzzzzt!
Inside the carriage, sword aura and the chill of the 7th Circle once again began colliding in a shower of sparks. The red velvet seats froze over,
and the mana-stone lamp illuminating the interior flickered and crackled, unable to endure the killing intent.
‘Ah, fuck. Dear God. Please just send an assassin’s arrow and kill me instead.’
I clutched my throbbing chest and squeezed my eyes shut.
These two crazy women had been repeating this shit for three straight days since we left the mansion.
They had formed an alliance under the single goal of undoing the curse lodged in my heart and assassinating(?) my father, yet when it came to the matter of taking the seat beside me, they snarled at each other as if they would kill one another without yielding an inch.
That was when it happened.
Thud—!!
The carriage, having left the Imperial Road and entered the outskirts road leading to the academy, caught on a large stone and lurched violently.
“Guh……!”
Although impact-absorbing magic circles were laid in place, it was a fatal blow to my body, which was barely walking a tightrope with single-digit vitality.
My upper body pitched forward, and the unhealed stab wound in my shoulder and the penalty on my heart flared up at the same time.
“My lord!!”
“Kailan!!”
In that brief instant as the carriage jolted.
Ellara wrapped her arms around my shoulders with beastlike speed, and Sylvia, who had been sitting across from me, threw herself forward and clung to my chest.
“Kuh, hurk……!”
As the armor and soft bodies of the two women pressed against me at once, my breath was cut off, and once again, a fishy surge of blood crawled back up my esophagus.
The red blood that trickled between my lips stained the shoulder of Sylvia’s white dress.
[Warning! Physical pain level has exceeded the critical threshold.]
[The heroines’ overprotection risks damaging the “Villain’s Pride.” Control the situation.]
The system’s crimson warning window blocked my vision.
It hurt. It hurt because I had vomited blood, and it hurt so much it felt like my bones would be crushed because the two women were clutching my body from front and back and refusing to let go!
“B-Blood……! Ellara, get a towel at once! No, I’ll use hemostatic magic……!”
Her usual arrogance nowhere to be seen, Sylvia turned deathly pale and tried to wipe the corner of my mouth with her bare hand.
Ellara, too, with tears brimming in her silver-gray eyes, tightened the arms embracing me even more.
“My lord, you must endure it! I’ll, I’ll pour my mana into you and ease the pain……!”
“……Get off.”
I swallowed the blood pooled in my mouth and forced the two women’s shoulders away.
“Both of you…… get your filthy hands off my body.”
At my cracked, suppressed voice, the two of them froze as if it were a lie.
“Kailan?”
“My lord……”
I desperately ignored the cold sweat beading on my forehead and glared alternately at the pale-faced Sylvia and Ellara.
I overlaid my face with that of an arrogant villain, one who thoroughly despised the pity of others more than insects.
“The carriage merely shook a little. Don’t make a fuss and treat me like some dying invalid just because we ran over a measly stone. It’s unpleasant.”
Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I gave a mocking smile.
“I am Kailan del Rothschild. Do you think a man who will kill his father and devour this house would groan over pain of this level?
My pride will not permit you bitches to paw at my body without my permission just because there’s a scratch on me.”
“But…… you were bleeding.”
Sylvia trembled as she looked at the bloodstain on her dress.
I snorted.
“What of shedding a little blood? I will make those who block my path spill hundreds of times more. So withdraw that nauseating pity from my sight.
If you reach out to me with pitying hands without my permission one more time, I’ll cut off your wrists myself.”
At my venomous declaration, a suffocating silence settled inside the carriage.
[Status: Successfully performed as an “Extreme Villain.” Penalty has been waived.]
I barely survived. With this, they should cling to me like leeches a little less while treating me like a patient.
However, I was still underestimating the performance of this insane world’s “misunderstanding-type automatic translator.”
(Sylvia’s internal automatic translation)
‘Ah……. He’s pushing me away again. Because he doesn’t want to show his fiancée the sight of him suffering.
Rather than watch me worry and shed tears, he would rather be hated and play the villain if it means putting my heart at ease.
You foolish, desperate man, trying to protect me by clinging to your pride even as you cough up blood……’
(Ellara’s internal automatic translation)
‘My lord’s mighty pride! Even with a heart being gnawed away by a curse, he walks the grand path of conquest to devour his house without wavering an inch! Pity does not suit my lord.
What I must do is not merely wipe away the blood he has shed, but cut down every enemy that blocks his path so he may walk it in peace!’
Watching the silent gazes of the two women change in a bizarre way, I instinctively realized something had gone terribly wrong.
“……I understand, Kailan.”
Sylvia slowly returned to her seat and gazed at me with moist eyes.
“I’ll never pity you again. Until the day you shoulder that heavy burden and stand at the summit…… I will protect your side, no matter what I have to do.”
Ellara also gripped the hilt of her sword tightly and bowed her head with determination.
“I will keep that in mind, my lord. So that my lord’s blood will not be in vain, the moment we arrive at the academy, I will use this sword to clean up every last insect that offends you.”
No, so please stop killing people, you fanatics.
As if mocking the scream inside my heart, the carriage gradually began to slow.
Creak—.
“Young Master. We have arrived at the Imperial Academy.”
Benjamin’s voice came from the driver’s seat.
We had finally arrived.
The main stage of the original novel, and the backdrop of Act Two, where all kinds of deceit and schemes ran rampant. The Imperial Academy, “Valhalla.”
After taking a deep breath, I leaned on my cane, opened the carriage door, and stepped outside.
“Look over there! It’s the carriage of the Rothschild ducal house!”
“That unlucky trash actually crawled back to the academy.”
“I heard he was stabbed with poison and on the verge of death, but he came back alive and well?”
In front of the academy’s main gate, adorned with gold and marble, countless noble children and commoner students had gathered in a dense crowd.
At my—Kailan’s—appearance, the students all parted like the Red Sea and whispered among themselves with gazes mixed with disgust and fear.
In the original work, Kailan had been human garbage who committed all sorts of evil deeds at this academy and trampled on lower nobles and commoners. Their reaction was only natural.
Leaning on my cane, I slowly stepped forward, letting the students’ whispers roll off me with an arrogant smile.
Behind me, Ellara followed while radiating killing intent coiled like a black panther, and Sylvia walked while sharply dropping the temperature around us, the two of them flanking me like guards.
It was as we were walking toward the academy’s main building.
“Stop right there, Kailan del Rothschild!”
Amid the contemptuous gazes pouring toward me, a particularly righteous and confident voice rang out across the plaza.
“……?”
When I turned my head, I saw a boy stepping forward through the crowd.
Red hair like a blazing sun. Though he wore a shabby commoner’s sword, the resolve shining in his eyes was like starlight.
The true protagonist of the original novel.
The hero who would save the world, and the man destined to cut off my head in the future—“Lumen.”
Lumen strode toward me and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
“I heard the rumor that you nearly died from poison. Even after receiving heaven’s punishment, you have failed to repent, and now you dare set your filthy feet inside this sacred academy again.”
At Lumen’s appearance, the academy plaza was swept up in suffocating tension.
Every student’s gaze focused on us. Lumen was of common birth, but countless factions, moved by his righteousness, would one day support him.
In the original work, Kailan would always be enraged by Lumen’s provocations, lashing out pathetically only to be utterly humiliated.
‘So you’ve come, protagonist. Good. The story can only progress if you pick a fight with me.’
I narrowed my tired eyes and looked down at him.
I was just wondering how I could handle that righteous fool, get past the villain penalty in moderation, and withdraw.
“How dare you.”
“Vermin.”
From both sides of me, I heard the gates of hell opening.
Shrrrring—!! Flaaash!!
Before I could even open my mouth, the two women standing behind me exploded.
“A lowly commoner brat dares put whose name in that filthy mouth of his?”
Sylvia summoned dozens of enormous ice spears in midair, aiming them precisely at Lumen’s heart and throat. The surrounding temperature plummeted, and frost formed over the ground.
“I swore I would clean up any insect that blocks my lord’s path. I shall grant you the honor of staining my sword with blood.”
Ellara unleashed a blue sword aura, and looked ready to kick off the ground and fly forward to sever Lumen’s neck at any moment.
“……Huh?”
Lumen’s confident eyes filled with bewilderment.
No, it wasn’t just Lumen. The hundreds of students gathered in the plaza were thrown into shock.
Because Sylvia, the Witch of the North, who had usually despised Kailan more than insects and tried to freeze him,
and Ellara, the Silver Knight, who had hated Kailan’s evil deeds the most and always cried out for justice,
were now standing on either side of Kailan, blindly guarding him and radiating terrifying killing intent toward the protagonist, Lumen!
“W-Why is Lady Sylvia, the Ice Witch, protecting Kailan?!”
“E-Ellara-senpai?! She’s guarding that trash Kailan?!”
As the plaza fell into a crucible of chaos, I pressed a hand to my forehead and wept tears of blood inside.
‘No…… If this were going according to the original, those two shouldn’t be beside me. They should be behind you right now, Lumen, insulting me……’
The moment the original protagonist appeared, the original power balance and relationships had been completely shattered.
Now, not only did I have to deal with my terminal penalty, but I had also been placed in a situation where I had to stop the rampage of two yanderes trying to massacre every extra and even the protagonist who dared lay a finger on me.
The survival difficulty at Valhalla Academy had just evolved to “Inferno” level.