The Genius Villain Dies Tomorrow

Making their way slowly down the steps, Rian felt like his legs were going to give out. Not because his condition was getting that much worse...

But because of the sheer pressure being emitted from the basement, it caused every step to feel heavier than it should.

Even Alicia wasn’t having a great time either.

She was technically a 6-Star Combatant, possessing six complete structures. But calling her a mage was misleading.

Alicia was a 5-Star Knight with a single Magic Circle for the sole purpose of casting Shadow Magic. Even with her reinforced body, each step was a struggle.

And the high heels of her maid uniform certainly weren’t helping.

"You should get rid of those heels," Rian commented absentmindedly.

"Alright," Alicia nodded with a blank expression. "Will you be giving me your shoes then?"

"...Never mind."

They passed by the goblin corpse that she had mentioned to be there a while ago, and the deeper they made it down the stairs, the clearer the picture became.

Something horrifying was being sealed down here.

Goblins probably formed from the rotten mana that managed to leak through the main entrance that the protagonist used, and they probably filled up the entire temple.

Yet a stronger source of mana eventually leaked from this creature, creating the Shadowhound that eventually started hunting the smaller and weaker goblins.

’It was probably acting as a servant...trying to find a way to set its master loose.’

However, with the next few steps, everything finally made sense. They emerged from the spiraling staircase on what could only be described as an "oasis".

Abundant plant life and greenery filled the entire floor, completely covering whatever brickwork that had once made up the temple in the first place.

Even without any source of water, flowers bloomed, and vines grew so large that they made a whole ecosystem of their own on the ceiling of the place.

However, there was a gigantic elephant in the room. Well, it wasn’t much of an elephant per se...but something way more terrifying and possibly world-dooming.

An ancient black dragon lay curled up, breathing so faintly that it could’ve been mistaken for a corpse instead.

Most of its body was concealed beneath enormous roots and flowering vines. They coiled around its limbs, pierced between its scales, and bound its wings against the ground like living chains.

And towering just above it was a large statue of a woman, the same one that they had seen at the entrance of the temple.

Yet unlike the ruined figure outside, this one...remained complete. It depicted the Goddess of Nature, Ephenia, in her entirety.

The woman had beautiful flowing hair and a gentle expression as she held both hands out, like offering a blessing to calm the world. And in her outstretched hands, something glowed.

"The Seed of Abundance..." Rian whispered.

Unfortunately, obtaining it wasn’t going to be nearly as easy as he had hoped.

He knew about the enormous creature under the temple, but had made quite a miscalculation in his plans. Well, even "knew" was a big stretch, considering the protagonist of the series had shown up with the relic off-screen.

All Rian had to work with were a handful of later conversations and testimonies he had committed to memory.

And in none of them...was there any mention of an ancient black dragon down here. More importantly, none of them—

’MENTIONED THAT IT WAS STILL ALIVE...?!’

"Young Master...!"

Alicia gasped, clearly trying to persuade Rian out of whatever he was planning to do. But he had already begun to connect the dots on the lore together.

What he knew, and wanted, from the Seed of Abundance was its ability to convert ambient mana into life force. This would easily be able to help Rian expand his lifespan, with the caveat of having to consume a large amount of mana.

But from the scene as clear as day to him, Rian could tell that the Seed of Abundance was doing its job—maybe a bit too well.

It drained the dragon’s mana, a creature whose body was being sustained almost entirely by mana, converting that to life force. And even after all these years, this one still possessed enough for the Seed to continuously siphon away.

Except...that life force wasn’t being given back to the dragon. It was feeding the people of Rosenheim, their guaranteed "abundance and bountiful harvests".

’So this place was a prison built by Ephenia to contain the dragon... And House Rosenheim was supposed to guard it until the damn thing finally died.’

’What a cruel twist of fate...’

Though if that was what House Rosenheim was built to do, then its descendants had long since forgotten their duty.

Yet there was an obvious dilemma that anyone could see from a mile away. If Rian took the relic, the prisoner would gain its strength once more.

There was only one obvious solution.

"I have to kill it now."

"..."

"Young Master."

"Yeah?"

"I think you’ve lost your head."

Though as soon as he said it, Rian felt like something was wrong. Even if the dragon had been chained and emitting a pressure unlike anything he’d ever felt before...

It wasn’t hostile. Not even one bit.

Instead, it looked almost...sad, like someone who had long since accepted their death and was just riding out the rest of their life in constant agony.

It was a feeling that Rian had felt before. Well, not him specifically. But when he inherited Rian Rosenheim’s memories, he hadn’t merely received scattered pieces of someone else’s life. The emotions attached to them had come along too.

And before he quite realized what he was doing, Rian had already taken a step forward.

"Young Master!"

Alicia held out her hand, but soon realized the same thing that he did. Not even a speck of hostile intent or bloodlust was emanating from the ancient black dragon, which legends deemed a calamity.

Rian approached slowly, swaying every step as he tried to endure the pressure. He dug his boots deep into the grass, the sensation akin to climbing a windy hill.

Before long, they came face-to-face with one another...man and monster. One of the dragon’s eyes opened, revealing a lustrous gold underneath—

"It’s been a while...since a Rosenheim had visited."

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