The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Chapter 23: Those Who Worship the Dragon Emperor

After leaving the Adventurers’ Guild, I walked for a bit and entered a back alley, kicking off the ground to hop up onto the roof of a house.

Then, I ran across the rooftops until I reached the clock tower in the center of the town.

“This should be a good spot.”

Standing at the top of the clock tower, I closed my eyes and activated my detection magic.

Suddenly, a flood of information about the town filled my mind, and I sifted through it, eliminating unnecessary details.

I scanned the scene: ordinary townspeople walking, children inside their homes. I filtered out stray dogs and cats, narrowing my focus to suspicious locations.

“Hmm? What’s this… a basement?”

I discovered a spot where multiple people were gathered beneath a building, with a few standing guard watching over them.

“Looks fishy. Let’s check it out.”

Having found no other suspicious areas, I jumped down from the clock tower and sprinted along the rooftops towards the target.

“Got it. This one seems clueless.”

Upon arriving, I faced what appeared to be an utterly ordinary house. It wasn’t new or old, just common enough that passersby would ignore it.

“And they even set up a recognition barrier spell.”

The recognition barrier spell interferes with others’ vision, making it hard to perceive objects that should be there.

In this case, the house seemed normal, combined with the recognition barrier, making it likely that regular adventurers wouldn’t notice anything unusual.

“Well then, let’s head inside.”

The people were gathered in the basement, and besides the front door, there were no other apparent entry points. So, I decided to boldly walk through the door.

“Excuse me!”

I knocked on the door and called out. A moment later, a burly man came out.

“What do you want?”

“Actually, I have something to ask. I saw my friend go inside this house, but he hasn’t come back. Do you know anything about it?”

“Your friend? I don’t know anything. No brat like you has come here.”

“Is that so? But it seems a lot of people are gathered under this house.”

As I said that, the man’s eyebrows twitched slightly, and he slowly brought his right hand behind him.

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

The man claimed ignorance while reaching for a knife hidden at his waist, but before he could draw it, my kick slammed into his gut, sending him flying.

“Gah!!”

He hit the wall and collapsed, losing consciousness.

“Come on. If you want to sneakily pull out a knife, at least get rid of your killing intent… oh?”

As I was giving advice to the unconscious man, the wall he’d hit began to crumble, revealing a staircase leading down.

“Score! Finding a hidden staircase so quickly is lucky!”

Delighted that I’d saved myself the trouble of searching, I descended the stairs, excited about what awaited me.

Suddenly, I heard commotion above, and four men rushed up the stairs.

“Who the hell are you?!”

“Me? I’m Eir, the adventurer. Who are you guys?”

“Hah! Not telling! Just grab the kid!”

The man in the center yelled, and the other three drew daggers, charging at me.

“Alright then. I’ll play with you.”

I said this while keeping my sword sheathed, getting into a fighting stance.

“Hah!!”

The first man swung down a dagger from the right, but I easily redirected it, leading him to leave himself open for an uppercut to the jaw.

He dropped to the ground, out cold.

Next, as the second man thrust a dagger at me from the left, I covered my left hand with magic and grabbed the blade.

“No way…”

“Too bad. It’s true.”

As the stunned man froze in surprise, I punched him in the gut, sending him crashing into the ceiling and down the stairs.

Finally, the third man hurled a dagger at me while lunging with another in his right hand.

However, I didn’t dodge the thrown dagger; I caught it and threw it back.

“Huh?!”

He barely managed to evade the dagger hurtling towards his face, but because he took his eyes off me for just a moment, I closed the distance and kicked him into the wall, where he collapsed, unconscious.

“Phew. I’m getting used to hand-to-hand combat.”

Having spent plenty of free time sparring with Fiera for her training, I was slowly starting to move more fluidly as I’d imagined.

“Huh? What…?”

“You’re the only one left.”

“You! What did you do?!”

“What do you mean? I just knocked them out.”

“No brat like you can beat those guys! They’re as strong as B-Rank adventurers!”

It seemed the guys I’d taken down were somewhat skilled, and their leader couldn’t accept reality.

“Is that so? Well, I’m an A-Rank adventurer. I’m not going to be defeated by such scrubs. More importantly, who are you guys? What’s your goal with all this?”

“Hahaha! An A-Rank? A kid like you? Hahaha! Not telling! I won’t get captured!”

As the man said that, he seemed ready to commit suicide, moving his mouth slightly as he prepared to bite down on a hidden poison.

“Not on my watch. ‘Lightning Strike.'”

I wasn’t going to let that happen, so I used the fastest elemental magic, and just before he could take his life, he lost consciousness.

I approached the man, touched his face, and nullified the poison with magic, casting a recovery spell on him.

“Hey, wake up.”

“Huh? I… ah! I need to hurry and die!”

He said that, trying to bite down on the poison again, but the poison was already ineffective, so he wouldn’t die no matter what.

“W-why…?”

“The poison in your mouth was nullified earlier. Now, let’s have a chat about who you really are.”

“I-I won’t say a word! No matter if you torture me!”

With a resolve in his eyes, he glared fiercely at me.

“Is that so? Then let’s see if you can truly withstand torture. ‘Nightmare of Pain.'”

“Uwaaaaa! It hurts! It hurts! I’m gonna die!”

What I deployed was a dark magic called Nightmare of Pain, allowing me to share the pain I’ve experienced in my life as dreams, causing various unending pain to assault the guy.

“These are the pains I’ve suffered in my life. Let’s see how much you can endure!”

Feeling eager to see how far he could go, I couldn’t help but smirk.

However, to my disappointment, he broke just after thirty seconds and spilled everything. What a boring guy.

“W-we are the ones who worship the Dragon Emperor. We planned to kidnap people in this town and offer them as sacrifices to release the Dragon Emperor’s seal.”

“The Dragon Emperor?”

The Dragon Emperor is one of the mythical species, an ancient dragon reigning as the pinnacle of all dragons, known as Bahamut. Legends say he’s one of the strongest in the fantasy races.

(A group aiming to revive the Dragon Emperor? There shouldn’t have been such a group until now. Plus, is the Dragon Emperor sealed? Does that mean all mythical species are sealed away?)

The demon king I previously mentioned is also a mythical species. For some reason, he is sealed, and there’s the possibility his seal could be broken by a cult aiming for his revival.

In other words, it could mean that all entities classified as mythical races might be sealed away somewhere.

That makes sense why the legends remain but there are no existing witnesses.

Realizing that possibility, I couldn’t contain my excitement at the emergence of new enemies.

“Hehe. Mythical species, huh? I’d love to face one head-on someday.”

Though I was previously defeated by the revived demon king, I wanted to test how far I’d come now that I’d learned how to fight.

“Well, that can wait. For now, I have no use for you, so just sleep.”

I said this before casting a sleep spell on the man and glancing down the stairs.

“Alright then. Now, let’s go take out the last one.”

At the bottom of the stairs, in one room, a presence radiating overwhelming energy awaited me, so I headed down the stairs, looking forward to meeting it.