Reincarnated as the Final Villain’s Vessel

"If you keep this up, you’d better tie a rope around me. It’ll make things easier for you."

"Oh... that sounds like a good idea. I’ll keep that in mind for next time."

I moved through the streets while my perception continued scanning the surroundings, sensing every ordinary person and every Awakened.

The people ranged from Rank 1 to Rank 4 only, while there wasn’t a single Rank 5.

Nor did I find any sign of what Alicia had told me about... well, if it were that easy, I wouldn’t be here in the first place. Or maybe her information was simply wrong.

"Anyway, we’ve been walking for an hour. Are you looking for something?" Emeris’s voice interrupted me.

I avoided a child who almost bumped into me as I replied. "The correct way to put it is that you’ve been following me for an hour. And yes, I’m looking for something. Don’t ask me what it is because I don’t know."

She let out a breath. "Come on, don’t be so boring."

"I didn’t tell you to come with me, so just go enjoy yourself however you want. I’m not free for that right now."

Emeris fell silent while I continued moving through the city, my perception covering the surroundings until I could even sense where some of the others were, like Garon.

I had no idea how to begin this search other than examining the city itself. True, I had some information about the Marquis, such as his habits and preferences, but none of it contained any useful clues.

After what felt like another half hour of walking among the pedestrians, I caught sight of the mansion at the end of the main street.

Surrounded by walls and steel fences, along with a mixture of trees and plants that blocked the view of its garden, its great height still made it stand out even from the end of the street.

I headed toward it as the pedestrians around me gradually thinned out and the shops disappeared one after another. Soon, I was close enough for my perception to envelop the entire mansion.

And yes, there were some powerful people inside, including one Rank 5. Rooms and underground basements stretched beneath it, but they barely contained more than one person moving around freely.

And that wasn’t what I was looking for... at least not what I expected to find.

It would’ve been nice to go inside and see it with my own eyes, but that was obviously impossible.

"Are you planning to visit the Marquis’s mansion?" asked Emeris, who had silently followed me for the past half hour.

I stopped a few hundred meters away from the mansion. "No, I just wanted to see this place."

I needed to find at least something before I started following him. Maybe unusual movements or gatherings of human souls, or strange materials and objects that reacted to Essence.

I turned around and walked away from the mansion. Of course, Emeris followed beside me. Unlike usual, she didn’t ask many questions or show her usual enthusiasm. She simply remained quiet.

And honestly, after those three weeks, that felt strange to me.

I walked down the street until I reached one of the tram stations that ran throughout the city. "Let’s take this."

Emeris nodded and went to buy the tickets.

...

Time passed, and the speakers inside the tram announced the station names every few minutes, but I didn’t get off at any of them.

This tram circled the entire city and reached most places, so there were hardly any cars or other vehicles on the roads.

It wasn’t very fast, which allowed me to take in every place we passed and cover the city much faster than walking... of course, Awakened weren’t allowed to run around here.

We stayed like that for nearly an hour. I looked at the map displayed on the screen inside the tram and saw that we had already scanned most of the city. There were barely two stations left.

I leaned back in my seat and looked at Emeris sitting across from me. Her silver hair fell over her shoulder as she leaned against the window, staring outside with an expression I wasn’t used to seeing on her.

She was quiet... and honestly, it wasn’t comforting at all.

I looked at her for a few moments before asking, "Are you angry?"

She turned her head toward me, a faint smile forming on her lips. "No."

Wow, that was a very short answer... yeah, she was upset. Probably because I had ignored her at the beginning... I mean, I did that quite often, so what was different this time?

A soft chime echoed through the tram, announcing our arrival at the next station. At the same time, the doors opened and the passengers got off while we remained seated.

It was approaching twelve noon, already past the time we were supposed to be at the auction building... well, heading straight to the Marquis wasn’t one of the mission’s requirements anyway, so we should be fine.

The tram soon started moving again toward the next station, completing its route around the city before coming to a stop.

I stood up and gestured to Emeris. "Let’s get off here."

She followed me out of the tram as the noise outside returned to my ears.

I figured there was nothing left for me to do except head to the auction now, so after a moment of thought, I smiled as I looked at Emeris. "Alright then, do you want to have lunch? Maybe take a look around these shops afterward?"

The next moment, she raised both hands, spread them apart, and let out a long sigh of relief. "Haaah... finally."

A bright smile spread across her face as she lowered her hands, then reached out with one of them and wrapped it around my arm, dragging me along behind her.

"Now that you’re done with whatever you were doing, I spotted an interesting restaurant earlier. Oh, and there’s a shop selling strange accessories too..."

Within seconds of me saying that, she had already taken off, dragging me everywhere. It drew plenty of curious and annoying stares our way.

But in the end, it turned out she hadn’t really been angry.

...

"Haaa... that was a great trip. You should get rid of that grumpy face more often."

I smiled as I grabbed her elbow before it could jab me again. "Let’s hope the Marquis isn’t the grumpy one now..."

We walked toward the end of the main street, where a white stone building rose dozens of meters into the air, setting itself apart from the surrounding buildings.

With its large white dome-shaped roof and a garden stretching around it from every direction, it didn’t look like part of this city.

Whether it was the beautiful architecture or the golden decoration above its entrance, everything about it screamed money.

There, in front of the entrance, a group of people stood staring at us as we approached until only a few dozen meters separated us.

The first to speak was Ivan, letting out a short whistle.

"Wow... turns out I was right after all."

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