I Possessed the Villain’s Childhood Friend – Chapter 89

“I’m the one who killed the Former Saintess.”

“Can you take responsibility for that?”

At Es’s words, the previously calm expression of Ender Dean was completely tainted with rage, while Es, who should have been tired, wore a relaxed smile instead.

“What’s there to take responsibility for? I just stated the facts. Honestly, I’m more surprised. A renowned Archmage, Ender’s prized disciple and daughter, was that weak?”

“…Right.”

“The woman once called a Saintess ended up so disgracefully begging for the lives of her daughter, husband, and friends? I might have wanted to grant that wish, but had to kill them all due to orders from the organization. You understand, right?”

Wait a minute.

“Is that all you have to say?”

“For now?”

“I see.”

No way.

“Ender Dean… Huh!”

I tried to open my mouth to call for him, but as I exhaled, blood spewed from my lips and pain surged in my chest.

I thought I had been healed enough, but perhaps the wounds were worse than expected.

“Don’t worry, Aike. I have no intentions of killing you. As promised, I’ll capture you alive.”

That’s not what I meant.

What I just heard meant to not take it to heart and, most importantly, to not get agitated.

Es’s goal wasn’t to win the battle anyway.

Yet, the clots of blood rising in my throat and the agonizing pain sealed my lips.

The once transparent veil turned half-blood red in an instant.

“I need to finish this quickly.”

“If you can.”

The moment he said that, the battle began anew.

However, it was clear that the fight had taken a distinctly different turn.

Ender, who had been preciously pinpointing his opponent’s weaknesses, started casting wildly dangerous spells that anyone could see.

“Didn’t you say you’d end this quickly?”

Es’s relaxed taunt followed.

Sure enough, the fight was flowing in the direction she desired.

Wherever Ender had to rely on Teleportation to dodge her attacks until now, Es was now able to effortlessly deflect them with mere movements.

“Hah, hah.”

Moreover, Ender Dean’s breathing started to become ragged.

Even if he was the Archmage renowned as such, his magical power wasn’t limitless.

In other words, it was proof that his mana was gradually depleting.

And Es was not the kind to miss that opening.

“Now it’s my turn?”

The moment she said that, Es moved in front of Ender and threw a right fist.

However, even in a state of excitement with his mana dwindling, there was no way Ender would allow such an easily predictable attack.

Ender immediately swept his left arm aside to deflect the attack, stepping forward and extending his fist.

But Es once again repositioned behind Ender and kicked him from behind.

“Oh.”

Had he already anticipated that? A wall of earth blocked her kick.

Simultaneously, silver spears fell from the sky.

“Tsk.”

Clicking her tongue, Es Teleported again to dodge the attack.

Naturally, since this was my third and final movement I could make in quick succession, I thought Es would create some distance again.

But where Es appeared this time was…

“…Huh?”

Right in front of me.

“From the beginning, my goal was you, after all.”

In an instant, Es’s fingertips rushed toward me.

My body still hadn’t fully regained mobility.

The veil shattered in a split second.

And with agonizing pain, blood scattered everywhere.

★

“You’re truly something else. You could be called a genius.”

Ed Cruel, an officer of the Avatarara who ambushed Leon’s party along with ten Magical Beasts, applauded sincerely.

“I don’t want to hear compliments from you.”

Leon glared at Ed while five Magical Beasts lay dead around him.

Despite the tough battle, Leon remained utterly unruffled, sporting nothing but a small scratch where a claw had barely grazed his cheek.

“But really, I find it impressive. Even if you had them fight one by one, a D-Class Magical Beast each, you still look remarkably calm.”

Yet Ed’s expression remained unchanged, despite his words.

His navy-blue eyes were devoid of vitality, and his lips hardly moved.

It felt as if he was mocking Leon.

“So? Is that all the Magical Beasts you prepared?”

Humans controlling Magical Beasts.

An occurrence that shouldn’t happen, but Leon didn’t show any signs of panic.

Behind him were Sophia, Atal, Michelle, and Ellyn, and he thought he shouldn’t show any signs of confusion as the one who should stand at the forefront.

“Yes. This will be the last one.”

“I see. Then I guess I have to kill all those Magical Beasts and take you with me.”

Leon recalled Ed’s earlier mention of being part of Avatarara.

As the Crown Prince of the Astria Empire, he couldn’t let Ed, who introduced himself as an officer of Avatarara, escape.

But Ed’s follow-up words, combined with…

“To be precise, this D-Class Magical Beast is the last one.”

The massive forms of C-Class Magical Beasts slowly revealing themselves behind Ed caused Leon’s expression to harden for the first time.

“You’re not already giving up, are you?”

Ed’s lips twisted into a mocking smile for the first time.

Magical Beasts.

Unidentified creatures that began appearing on the continent from a certain moment, with countless unknown factors surpassing the known information.

Typically, they take on something resembling wild beasts, leading to a prevalent theory that wild beasts began adapting to magical power.

Regardless, one fact remained true: Magical Beasts were a persistent enemy of humanity.

There had even been moments where the very essence of knights was established and the entire system of the empire was overturned.

‘This feels dangerous.’

Cold sweat dripped down Leon’s back.

Five D-Class Magical Beasts and three C-Class Magical Beasts.

While the former posed little concern for Leon, the latter were definitely not to be underestimated.

Being able to single-handedly take down a C-Class Magical Beast generally indicated one was of intermediate knight qualifications.

Of course, if assessed simply, Leon had that level of skill, but that wasn’t the issue.

‘The balance is off.’

Leon wasn’t dismissing Sophia, Atal, Michelle, and Ellyn.

However, they all specialized in Healing Magic, meaning only Leon could step onto the front lines.

Even with their support, Leon alone would struggle to hold his ground against two C-Class Magical Beasts.

In other words, if a total of eight Magical Beasts rushed at him simultaneously, his chances of victory were nearly zero.

Yet Leon had no intention of giving up, thus he silently prepared himself.

In a situation poised for a showdown.

“Hmm. By the way, is that first-year student over there, perhaps, Miss Michelle Virgil?”

In such a tense moment, Ed suddenly spoke out.

“Y-Yes? Me?”

“Just as I thought. I don’t know why you’re here, but since we’ve met, I wanted to express my gratitude before we finish things.”

Michelle tilted her head, unable to comprehend the conversation.

And then came his following words.

“Thanks to you, we’ve been able to move this way.”

Michelle dropped to her knees.

★

I helped them move?

“W-What do you mean?”

“Ah, right. You said you didn’t know.”

The man who was speaking incomprehensible words looked at me for a moment, then turned away with an unpleasant smile.

“The purpose of Avatarara is the destruction of Astria. However, the might of the Astria Empire is extremely formidable. Thus, we needed internal information. The fact you provided that information means it’s all because of you.”

“I… I never did that…”

“You likely have no awareness of it. After all, you’re not a part of Avatarara.”

Reason screamed that I didn’t need to listen to this.

“But everything you know, we already know too. Do you start to grasp what this means?”

But I found no option to block my ears.

“That means all the useful information you’ve sent in letters to your family was conveyed to Avatarara.”

No!

“The Virgil family is one of the seeds Avatarara planted long ago.”

No!

“Well, the original purpose of your admission to Arcana wasn’t this, but you fortunately becoming close to the Crown Prince’s faction turned out to be a stroke of luck.”

Getting to know good seniors and, full of gratitude, writing letters to my parents.

“Thank you very much.”

Are they going to kill everyone?

“Thanks to you, today, the golden generation of Arcana will perish.”

I struggled to breathe.

My head was spinning, and my vision blurred more and more.

“Ah, thinking about it, there was a message from the Virgil family for you, just in case we met.”

Please.

I didn’t want to hear it.

“The worthless daughter has finally proven her worth to Avatarara, even if it’s just at the end.”

“I d-don’t waaaant…!”

The last thing I saw before my consciousness faded was…

“Heh.”

A chilling smile, revealing a hint of teeth.

★

“Fainting from just this much? You really have a weak mind.”

“Shut up.”

Leon gritted his teeth and glared at Ed, who was quietly chuckling.

“…Strange. I just stated the facts. Shouldn’t you be grateful? Thanks to this, I can identify the traitor.”

“A traitor? What are you talking about? Miss Michelle just fainted from the tension of battling Magical Beasts for the first time.”

“Is that how you’re coming at me? How boring.”

“With that kind of face, what fun are you talking about?”

Hearing Leon’s words, Ed chuckled and raised his hand to give commands to the Magical Beasts.

“Miss Sophia, protect Miss Michelle and Ellyn! And Atal, assist me.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Understood.”

The odds were close to zero.

But zero wasn’t the same as impossibility.

Leon repeated that fact in his mind and gathered his resolve.

“Now, please kill all of them.”

The eight Magical Beasts howled and charged towards Leon.

“Here I go.”

“Reinforce!”

Simultaneously, Atal’s supportive magic took effect, enveloping Leon’s body in pure white light.

“Ugh!”

The scenario Leon thought would be the worst was the eight Magical Beasts targeting everyone behind him.

However, the beasts rushed towards Leon simultaneously.

“I know. I know what you’re weak against.”

The leading C-Class Magical Beast, resembling a wolf, slashed its claws toward Leon.

Leon immediately ducked to evade the claws and thrust his sword toward the beast’s chest.

“When one cannot defeat an opponent with all their strength, it is their friends who suffer, not themselves.”

Blood sprayed onto Leon’s body.

For a normal being, such a wound would have been severe.

But that thing was a Magical Beast.

“So, I’ll subdue you first, watch your friends die helplessly, and then kill you last.”

[GRROOAAAR!!]

It seemed the beast was displeased that it had harmed a small prey, howling with ferocity.

The wound on its chest began to seep slowly.

And another attack followed.

“Tsk.”

Clicking his tongue, Leon immediately rolled to the right.

Moments later, the ground where he had stood was deeply gouged by the beast’s claws.

One mistake could lead to death on the battlefield.

But he would never make such a mistake.

Leon knew.

That even in clearly inferior circumstances, there were people who seized opportunities and claimed victory.

Hadn’t he been observing someone at the closest place for a whole year?

If he couldn’t overcome a situation like this, he couldn’t call himself a true friend.

“RRRAAAHHHH!!”

With a roar, Leon jumped and brought his sword down forcefully.

[GRROOOOAAAR!!!]

Yet again, blood sprayed, and the Magical Beast screamed.

But the difference compared to before was…

“What do you know about me?!”

“…Interesting, indeed.”

Was that the left front leg of the Magical Beast perfectly severed and dropped to the ground?