I'm a Villain in My Own Game?

[Valeria POV]

The moon was especially beautiful tonight...

Perhaps it was because I was always surrounded by the bustling Capital that I had never noticed it before. It was so quiet here, accompanied only by the gentle breeze and the silence of the night as I bathed.

*Aaahh...*

It had been so long since I had soaked my body in water...

I was currently swimming in the lake where we had settled, cleaning myself after several days without proper bathing. Raul was sleeping not far from where I was. We had taken shifts guarding the area so that we could remain alert in case any monsters approached.

"Tomorrow is the final day, huh?"

Once we finished this examination, the third stage would be even more challenging. That was because we participants would no longer be wearing the Limiter artifact rings during the examination, meaning that death was a very real possibility.

Last year alone, eleven participants had failed to complete the third stage alive. However, the number of points awarded for successfully passing the third stage was enormous.

It was almost certain that participants who failed to advance to the third stage would never be able to enter either the Calvatra Knights Order or the Castille Mage Tower.

Considering everything I had gone through just to make it this far, I couldn't help but feel somewhat skeptical about facing the third stage.

"Well... I should focus on the final day tomorrow and make sure I'm the first to reach the finish line."

After soaking and cleaning my body, I put my academy uniform back on. Even without soap or shampoo, it had done a fairly decent job of cleaning me after so long without a proper bath.

When I returned to our resting area, I saw Raul sitting asleep against a tree. His face looked completely different compared to when he was awake.

It was currently time for us to switch shifts.

However, I wanted to let him rest a little longer. He would barely get any sleep anyway since he had to take the final watch.

As I looked at his body, I was surprised to discover that Raul had been hiding a well-developed physique beneath his seemingly ordinary appearance. His body-fat percentage seemed remarkably low.

Staring at his sleeping face, which looked almost innocent, I found it difficult to believe that anyone seeing him for the first time would think this man capable of fighting hundreds of participants at once during the first stage of the examination.

"..."

Suddenly, his eyes opened.

I was startled and lost my balance. Before I could fall on top of Raul, however, he caught both of my shoulders, preventing our faces from colliding.

Our faces were incredibly close.

I could feel his breath brushing against my neck and face.

If I remembered correctly, we had been in a similar position after defeating those two Cricket monsters the previous day. Back then, our bodies had been pressed against each other, and I had even fallen asleep on top of him for a brief moment after experiencing such an exhilarating battle.

For some reason, remembering that made my body feel warm and strangely comfortable.

I wanted to experience it again...

That exhilarating battle that had made my adrenaline surge through my entire body...

As I stared at his lips, some instinct within me whispered that my body would feel even more comfortable if my lips reached his.

"Valeria..."

His mouth opened, and a hoarse voice called my name.

"Is it my turn to stand guard?"

His question finally snapped me out of whatever thoughts had been occupying my mind.

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I quickly pulled myself away from him and turned my face aside, embarrassed by what had just happened.

"Y-Yeah. I was about to wake you up," I answered quietly, trying to hide my embarrassment over the wild thoughts I had been having. "B-But you suddenly woke up and startled me, causing me to fall."

*Ughhh...*

What kind of excuse had just come out of my mouth?

How embarrassing.

"I see..." he muttered before getting to his feet.

He then brushed some of the sand that had gotten into his clothes.

"All right, Valeria. You can rest now," he said casually.

"Why don't we just create a barrier with my magic so that we can both rest without having to take shifts?" I asked him.

"Well... There are many small but dangerous monsters that can burrow underground around here," Raul answered. "I don't want to take any unnecessary risks on the final day."

*Ughhh...*

I had forgotten about that.

I had been bitten by a Pinktail scorpion on the first day of the examination, after all, leaving me unable to use mana the following day.

"All right. Good night, Valeria."

"Yeah... Good night, Raul."

---

## [Raul POV]

The next morning, Valeria and I left the oasis.

We began walking toward the Daeshil Mountains, which were approximately thirty kilometers away from our current location.

"Hey, Raul. Where are we headed now?" Valeria asked curiously.

"We're going to enter a labyrinth located within a mountain range," I answered. "We have to pass through it if we want to reach the finish line in time."

This labyrinth was once a secret route used by the Kingdom of Kuwalid during wartime. They had used it to surprise their enemies by suddenly emerging from the mountains.

After the Empire conquered this territory, the labyrinth was discovered and subsequently abandoned because it offered little strategic value compared to the cost of maintaining it and stationing soldiers there.

Hearing my answer, Valeria touched her chin as though she were deep in thought.

"Hey, Raul. Why do you always seem to know the geographical conditions of every location used for our examinations?" she asked.

*Well...*

I was one of the Gods who had created this world, but I couldn't exactly tell her that I was a developer, could I?

"Even during the first examination, you always seemed to understand the terrain better than the other participants," she continued.

"Didn't the library mention the locations where the survival examinations were held?" I answered casually.

"You're right, but the books don't explain the geographical conditions of the examination areas in that much detail," Valeria replied, clearly becoming suspicious. "Where exactly did you get this information?"

Ughhh...

Why was she so stubborn about something this trivial?

Information regarding the examination grounds could only be accessed by academy students and instructors so that outsiders couldn't exploit the information for criminal purposes. Even the detailed geographical conditions of the examination areas were restricted to instructors.

Only Information Brokers could obtain such data.

But as the developer of this game, I obviously didn't need to hire one to know it.

"An Information Broker," I answered naturally.

"Y-You mean... You used one of the organizations operating in the black market?"

The black market was a place where goods and services were traded illegally. Under Imperial law, anyone caught purchasing goods from the black market could be punished by the Empire.

However, it was an open secret that nobles frequently visited the black market.

After several hours of walking, we finally arrived at a passage situated along the face of a towering cliff.

"We're here."

There were several entrances leading into the labyrinth within these mountains. If everything went smoothly inside, it would take us roughly four hours to make our way through it.

"Let's go, Valeria."

---

## [3rd POV]

It was the final day of the second-stage examination.

Only around seventy participants remained at this point, out of the original one hundred and forty who had started the examination. Most of them had fallen during battles against the monsters in the urban area.

Several teams had already reached the labyrinth and begun making their way inside.

At that moment, a team of six participants was walking through one of the labyrinth's passages.

"This place is pretty dark," one of the men in the group remarked.

With an effective visibility range of only about three meters, they had to tread carefully if they didn't want to trigger any of the traps scattered throughout the area.

"Hey, Ronda. Can't you reactivate that light spell of yours?" the man asked one of their mages.

"Hey, I've already been using that illumination spell continuously for half an hour," Ronda, the mage, replied. "I'll suffer Mana Exhaustion if I keep using it for much longer, you know."

There were two mages within their group, but only one of them was capable of using a light spell.

"Being a mage is harder than I thought," the man, a Knight student, remarked.

Although mages possessed more mana than Knights, that didn't mean they could recklessly expend it without consequences.

"Of course. What did you think? That mages had an unlimited supply of—"

Ronda's voice abruptly stopped.

Something had slashed across her throat.

She collapsed to the ground, clutching her neck as blood began pouring from the wound.

"M-Monster! Monster attack!" one of them shouted.

A magic circle appeared and swallowed Ronda's body until nothing remained, signifying that she had been eliminated from the examination.

"Where is it?! Damn it, it's too dark in here!"

"Did it deliberately target Ronda first?!"

In such a dark environment, mages capable of using fire and light magic were extremely valuable.

Perhaps the monster had been stalking their group and deliberately killed the person capable of illuminating their surroundings first.

"Agghhhh!"

Once again, a scream echoed through the darkness.

Another participant collapsed, a deep slash running across his abdomen.

"Show yourself, bastard!" the man shouted.

The moment he said those words, he suddenly heard footsteps.

From the darkness emerged a humanoid monster with the face of a rat, walking upright on two legs.

Long, razor-sharp claws extended from its fingers.

—Nyieeet!

"Attack it!"

The remaining four participants charged toward the rat-like monster.

But the creature effortlessly avoided their attacks before launching a counterattack.

One by one, the participants began to fall.

They were no match for this monster in the darkness that had become its territory.

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