I Became the Leader of a Villain Organization

Chapter 73: Boreal Forest (2)

It was a night in the boreal forest, deep and wide with darkness.

As I wandered through the dark labyrinth of the forest, I sensed a disturbing presence not far away.

Human…at the same time-it was not human.

“Sister Moon.”

The creature’s spoke in a low voice. A voice filled with a chill.

They, too, wore dark hoods like Selena’s, pulled down deep, hiding their dark elven skin from even the light of the moon.

“Who are they?”

“─Why are you guiding humans?”

“I’m sure you don’t realize the implications of walking here with a human.”

In the face of the openly wary and suspicious voices, Selena answered.

“My dear sisters.”

It was the most respectful and compassionate voice she could muster.

“The One I serve is not a mere mortal from the outside world.”

“You serve……?”

As a fellow Dark Elf and Sister of the Moon.

“As a Sister of the Moon, do you shamefully say you serve a mere mortal?”

“You mean to imprint the imprint of submission─”

As a member of the Black Snake, Selena of the Dark Moon didn’t mind.

Some of the elves looked at her with enchanted eyes, suspecting that she might be wearing the imprint of submission.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not loyal to him with such a lowly trick.”

“─”

But there was no sign of any artificial bondage or forced treatment at the hands of humans or the Empire.

Selena can only chuckle at the absurdity of it all.

“I know that whatever words and descriptions I have used to describe ‘Him’ in front of my people, you will never understand or accept.”

“Does that mean……that He is something we cannot accept?”

“I suppose so.”

She smiles.

The words are taken as a sign of outright hostility, but it only sharpens the already sharp edges among the dark elves.

“You don’t look like a simple Imperial slave hunter.”

I spoke in the chill of the night air, not expecting an arrow to come flying out of nowhere.

“I am…….”

“I have never allowed a mortal to speak in this sacred grove.”

No, I tried to open it.

But with a word from the dark elf that cut me off, a thunderbolt shone not far away.

It wasn’t an arrow. It was a dagger, and it came without warning, without any preliminary motion or foreshadowing.

The knife glowed alone in the moonless darkness.

It was the Mother Forest’s answer to the humans, a welcome to no outsiders.

Faster than that, Aria stands in my way, her hand on the hilt, the shadows that should be at Alice’s feet ready to swallow her enemies and form a shield to protect her allies.

Still, faster than any action, I wordlessly restrained the troupe.

Not for Aria, not for Alice. What was to be done here was mine alone.

“I have not come this far for your permission or understanding.”

“!”

Of course, from the beginning, there was no such thing as an ending with that blade touching me.

Everyone knew that, and yet their actions in defense of me were merely the blind loyalty of a member of the Serpent.

Blind to the reality that the elves’ blades could never reach me, they still acted as if they were blind to that reality.

Such is blindness.

“That magic is……!”

A barrier of crystalline fractal structure stands between me and the dark elf, and the recursive sigils are not even cracked.

The always-on defensive spell .

Their race’s innate aptitude and understanding of magic allowed them to feel it instinctively, even if they didn’t know the specific spell’s name or how it worked.

They knew the level and intensity of the defensive magic protecting me.

“……Nothing more, nothing less.”

The dark elves’ faces, hidden beneath their hoods, were pale as stars, with an unconcealed agitation.

They must have sensed it. They must have realized that, as they are now, they cannot stand against me.

“Master.”

Then, breaking the silence, Selena of the Dark Moon interrupted.

“Please, for the sake of my people, allow me a moment to speak.”

“……Be my guest.”

I didn’t mind.

“My kin, he is not one to move for the Empire. He is, in a sense, an enemy.”

“I care not for empires or kingdoms. He has seen the ugliness of all human nations, blinded by greed, defile and violate this forest.”

“He is not driven by any human nation.”

One of the dark elves spoke up.

“Then for whom does he move?”

“For no one. Not even for himself.”

Selena said. Of course, if I were to choose one thing, there would be only one name. But I didn’t bother to correct that.

“Only for this moment, He wants me to act for my ‘kindred’.”

The realm of the elves, cut off from the outside world, knows nothing of the serpent. No, they’ve heard of them.

However, it is different from the human world, where every piece of information is processed and spread in the form of newspapers, etc., and inflated into a thousand different stories.

Never before has the name of the snake been so simple as to solve all problems.

“Please, sisters, believe me.”

“You expect us to believe in humans.”

Selena said. Her voice sounded more desperate than ever, with an uncharacteristic gleam of desperation in it.

“You don’t have to believe.”

That’s why I, who had been silent, spoke up.

“Whether you believe it or not, my purpose has been the nation of parasitic humans in this forest from the beginning.”

That was it, there was no choice given to them from the beginning.

“To believe the word of a man, without proof, without thought-”

That was it.

“How pitiful.”

Aria, who had been silent, spoke with an emotionless, freezing mockery.

“The ignorance of a stagnant race that doesn’t understand a single thing about humans.”

“…….”

“After all that has been taken from you, violated and burned at the hands of humans, you still don’t know ‘humans’?”

It was blatant mockery directed at the elves.

Selena frowned, and Alice let out a childlike giggle.

“You’d think after being beaten that badly, even the dumbest would realize that.”

“That’s right, sisters, you’re idiots!”

Alice laughed like it was nobody’s business.

“Shall I tell you the ending you deserved, in the face of real human ways?”

Aria spoke up, her voice unconcerned.

“First, to break your will to resist, we’ll kill a few of you horribly as an example, in the most overwhelming and violent way possible, to make you realize that all your struggles are futile.”

“─!”

“Next time, I’ll leave only a few people to extract information from, and force them to spit out the truth, whether by submission magic or alchemical potions, and then I’ll decapitate, harvest their brains, and ask them ‘directly’, and then I’ll use that information to raid their hideout and-”

“Don’t be ridiculous, the will of your kind in the face of such threats……!”

“Will is a very minor emotion, you poor, foolish moon elves.”

Aria said.

“The mere fact that you still have your limbs attached, that you have not been turned into living meat puppets, is already part of the infinite mercy that the Master has for you-”

She glanced at the dark blade in her hand.

“And yet, with all due respect, Miss Selena, if you do not understand the mercy the Master has shown -”

“You’ll know even if you don’t want to.”

Alice giggles. She shows off the grotesquely torn corner of her mouth along her foot.

“The true ‘human way’.”

Clearer than ever, monsters calling themselves human.

A short silence descended.

“─Stop, Sister Moon.”

A voice broke the silence.

“……They’re right.”

A soft, almost resigned voice, unlike any I’ve heard before.

As the others join in, realizing the considerable commotion that has taken place here, a vaguely familiar figure appears.

An elf of pure white skin and flowing golden hair, no match for the moon, darkness, or night.

The high elf I had rescued from the underground auction house earlier.

“Sister of the Dawn-”

One of the dark elves spoke up, addressing the woman who was more suited to the sun than anyone else. The High Elf, the Sister of Dawn, bowed before us, unperturbed.

“It’s been a long time, Selena.”

“……Lana.”

“I knew you would come.”

Lana, the elf who had been led to the mother’s forest, replied with a smile.

“Your sister, Elder Eos, is waiting for you.”

It was an unexpected connection that even I didn’t see coming.