I Possessed the Villain’s Childhood Friend – Chapter 118

“First, sit down. It’s probably going to be a pretty long story.”

There was an awkward chair positioned where Dait had pointed, as if it knew from the very beginning that I would come here.

I pondered this fact as I took a seat in the chair that placed me at eye level with Dait.

“What a tacky choice of seating.”

“Do you have a problem with it?”

“Not at all.”

Dait sneered at me with a glare.

Yeah. Right in front of me was Dait Chernobog, the leader of Avatarara.

Slowly, the gravity of the situation began to sink in.

The fight with Avatarara would definitely end here.

“Well, I did call you here because I wanted to talk, but to be honest, there’s very little I have to say first.”

“…Does that mean…”

“Yeah. If you’ve figured it out, then you must have some questions, so I’m giving you the chance to ask. Of course, even if you’re curious, you could just ignore it and move on…”

In the end, here I was, having come here all alone.

“Aike. Is that what you want to ask?”

“…What exactly is Avatarara’s, or rather, your plan?”

“Right. That’s it.”

Dait covered his face with his palm and burst into laughter.

There was certainly no hint of deception in his laughter.

It seemed Dait had anticipated this situation from the very start.

“So? When did you catch on, Aike?”

“When Es Cruel and the other four executives from Avatarara came to visit.”

“From the very beginning, huh.”

Yeah. I had thought it was strange from the start.

Five people who had come to Ethiopia to take down Avatarara.

Me, Reina, Helen, Atal, and Charlotte.

Among these five, the one who would pose the biggest problem for Avatarara was definitely Charlotte.

While it was crucial they kept an eye on me knowing the future of this world, my personal combat strength was nothing compared to theirs.

But to send five executives just to capture Charlotte?

Without even pretending to prevent the other four from escaping?

If that was the case, wouldn’t it be better for all the executives of Avatarara to just wait here together?

Then we would have no chance of winning.

The fact that they already knew we would come to Ethiopia today didn’t matter.

What mattered was that they dared to make the worst decision of all, even knowing that.

“But up till now, that was just suspicion, right? Like, something feels off. Things aren’t going as I expected.”

Dait was right.

At that time, I could have brushed off my concern about Charlotte being in danger.

But.

“…A decent hypothesis came to me during the fight with Kron Illusion. It’s absurd that a man with that level of skill couldn’t even grasp the life or death of his opponent. No, I should say it’s strange that I’m not dead in the first place.”

In other words, from the very beginning, he intended to send me into this cave.

Yes.

Now that Charlotte was gone, it was impossible for us to defeat the executives of Avatarara amongst ourselves.

So what if we had the numerical advantage?

That was meaningless.

From the moment we arrived in Ethiopia, our plan was individual elimination.

And the key to that plan was Charlotte.

Yet here I was now.

Our fight was nothing but a play acted out by them.

“Of course, during the last fight, I was pushed to the brink of death.”

“Well, that was his way of resisting. I’ve had him dance to my tune for so long, so I can forgive him for that last bit.”

Dait continued as if completely unfazed.

“In the end, that’s not what’s important. What matters is that you came here all alone. That’s the crux of the issue.”

“So, Avatarara wasn’t trying to bring down the Empire from the beginning.”

“Well, to be precise, it’s ‘this’ Avatarara that turned out that way because of me.”

I couldn’t make sense of it.

No, perhaps it was only natural.

In the original work, Avatarara was merely portrayed as a malevolent group intending to topple the Empire.

I had no idea why they were moving and what their purpose in trying to take down the Empire was. I didn’t even want to know.

But I couldn’t just brush it off now that I had come this far.

“What exactly are you planning?”

And Dait replied.

“I want to fight you. That’s all there is to it.”

He answered with a fierce smile.

★

“Curse Astria.

Destroy Astria.

Damn Astria.

Crush Astria.

Shatter Astria.

We are the future. We are justice. We are the Empire. We are the sun.

Descendants of Makia, bring down Astria that has destroyed us from the heavens.

This is not a curse.

This is a duty you must fulfill.

This is the karma you bear.

This is a new myth you will create.

You were born for this.

We were born for this.

Makia must not end. It must be everlasting.

Take down the hateful Astria, and resurrect the true Empire.

Create an eternal myth.

Found the sun that shall never set.

That alone must surely be the meaning of our existence.”

★

“Avatarara is a group descended from the imperial family of the Makia Empire.”

Makia.

The once-great empire that Astria supposedly crushed.

Surely, that’s what was written in the history books.

And that Avatarara was their descendants?

“Some might scoff. If they were the descendants of an imperial family, they could sacrifice a few and live well in Astria, but instead they kicked the opportunity away.”

Dait seemed to find it ridiculous too, letting out a chuckle.

“Hey, Aike. Do you know the trait of the descendants of Astria?”

“If you’re talking about characteristics of the imperial family, it would be their golden hair and red eyes…”

“I’m not talking about appearances; I’m talking about their personalities.”

Upon hearing Dait’s words, I recalled Leon’s nature.

The first thing that came to mind was that he was a genius.

And from there, it followed.

“Is it trying to act as rationally as possible in any situation?”

“Well, that would work, I guess. But the imperial family of Makia is the complete opposite of Astria.”

“The opposite, you say…”

“Only emotions. Emotions are what come first. I just told you, right? If they sacrificed a few from the imperial family, they could’ve received enough favor from Astria. But the imperial family of Makia couldn’t accept that.”

In short. It was a resentful mix of the emotion of not wanting anyone to be sacrificed to Astria and the anger of not being able to forgive the Astria that crushed Makia.

“That is what Avatarara is.”

Dait let out a quiet sigh.

“But earlier, I said that Avatarara’s goal wasn’t to take down the Empire…”

“I mentioned that ‘this’ Avatarara turned out that way because of me, didn’t I? The goal of Avatarara has always been the destruction of Astria. That has never changed.”

“Then why this time…?”

“Before that, shall we talk about something else for a bit?”

With those words, Dait threw something in my direction.

“What’s this?”

It was a magic stone.

“Aike, do you know about the origins of magical beasts?”

“…I only know that they are mysterious beings that suddenly appeared across the continent several hundred years ago, wielding magical power.”

“That’s right. No matter how much you claim to come from the future, there’s no way you’d know that we, Avatarara, were the ones who created the magical beasts.”

“What?”

“Why are you so surprised?”

In the original work, the setting of magical beasts was utilized only once.

When explaining the existence of the ‘Mains,’ the executives of Avatarara.

Yet to think that magical beasts were creatures created by Avatarara…

“After all, we succeeded where Astria had failed in transplanting the blood and magical roots of magical beasts into humans. Naturally, there must be a reason for this, right?”

“Well, that makes sense. So why are you telling me this now?”

“Makia was a magical empire. Even after its fall, the magic of Makia is so excellent that it can still create beings like magical beasts.”

Dait simply answered my question and continued.

“It’s been nearly a thousand years. No matter how much we claim to be descendants of the Makia Empire, it feels a bit odd that we still harbor such hatred for Astria, doesn’t it?”

And that was undoubtedly a compelling argument.

“The first leader of Avatarara, the Crown Prince of the Makia Empire. He could never let go of the Makia Empire. However, if he couldn’t restore Makia in his time and passed it down to future generations, eventually, that hatred would dull and fade.”

“That’s only natural, isn’t it?”

No matter how much they were descendants, if they hadn’t personally experienced something, even brainwashing would have its limits.

And especially over a span of a thousand years.

“Yeah. That’s only natural. But that crown prince couldn’t allow it. It was a delusion born out of sheer obsession. So, the crown prince and Avatarara created yet another magic to implant in their children. The magic that instills their grudges, their hatred, and all negative emotions related to Astria.”

“Does that mean that magic has continued to this day?”

“Right. Thanks to that, Avatarara has cursed Astria more and more with each generation. Especially for the direct descendants of the crown prince.”

“And…?”

“That’s me. The only one left from the line of the Crown Prince of the Makia Empire in Avatarara. That’s Dait Chernobog.”

Finally, it all made sense.

In the original work, that’s why Dait was called ‘Your Highness’ by the executives of Avatarara.

Why he had so unilaterally denied Astria’s existence and aimed to bring it down.

“But then why does the current Avatarara want to target me instead of the Astria Empire…?”

“The words of curse that echo in my head. The pain that rings out like a thunderclap the moment I think of something else. The sight of Makia burning that I don’t even know. How does it feel to experience those things day after day, Aike?”

“…I wouldn’t know.”

“Of course you wouldn’t know. And the one who eased that pain is you, Aike.”

“What…?”

“The desire to fight you, the yearning to take you down has quelled this curse. The reason I called you here is all that.”

Dait slowly rose from his throne.

“You must have already realized it, right? Regardless of how things turn out, you and I are destined to fight.”

And he drew a pitch-black sword that felt unsettlingly ominous toward me.

“This was the foregone conclusion since the moment you refused to become Avatarara. So draw your sword, Aike.”