I Became the Narrow-Eyed Villain in a Dropped Novel

Inside the returning carriage, I nervously tapped my knee with my fingers.

“Are you by any chance angry?”

Ede asked cautiously.

How could I be?

I was very calm.

“Why do you think so?”

“Because unlike usual, you're not smiling at all. To be honest, since you're not smiling, your face looks a bit scary. Right?”

Ede's junior, sitting in the front seat, shook his head in fright.

It was understandable he'd be surprised, seeing that Count Valheit was frowning because of the news he himself had delivered.

“I'm not angry, so please continue your report.”

“Ah, yes… When I last checked, they had settled down at a tavern in Schwaben.”

“What did they do before that?”

“With Lady Til, they went around here and there and caused a disturbance.”

I could feel that he was trying to put it as mildly as possible.

I hoped they didn't cause any trouble, no, it was fine if they caused trouble, as long as it wasn't a big one.

“Tell the coachman to go as fast as possible. Every moment is critical.”

“Aren't you making too much of a fuss? They're just buying some things and wandering around having fun.”

“Do you happen to know what Charnirasho is famous for?”

I didn't particularly wait for Ede's answer.

If he didn't know, it was natural, and if he knew, he wouldn't have said I was making a fuss.

“It's famous for pirates who hang corpses from their masts.”

Ede, who blinked his round eyes for a moment, let out a gasp of ah.

Having been educated in Chartra, there was no way he wouldn't know the most famous pirates between the two continents.

***

The Schwaben tavern, which originally exuded a rather luxurious atmosphere, was filled with an uncomfortable stench of alcohol and the musty smell of vomit.

Most of the decorations, which had been arranged with some delicacy, were out of their original places or smashed.

Remembering the tavern that was perfectly fine when she saw it a few days ago, Til bitterly tilted her glass.

“Smooth out that frown, Til. Anyone would think you were the tavern owner.”

“Shut your mouth, Avantnik.”

“What a temper. I don't know how a guy like you caught the Commander's eye.”

The gray-furred werewolf sitting opposite chugged from a bottle.

Alcohol dripped from the side of his snout, but he didn't seem to care much.

“If some furball hadn't gone around causing trouble, my temper would have been just fine.”

“It's something I've thought about for a long time, but you Empire folks act like stuffy old men whenever a deal is involved. You have a fit over a bit of haggling.”

“You people call grabbing the owner by the collar and screaming at him to sell it cheap, haggling.”

“Then what would you call haggling? Excuse me, seller, I like this item, so would you mind cutting the price in half for me? Should I say something like that?”

Avantnik, who did a pretty good impression of being polite, cackled and slammed the table.

At the thumping sound, Til rarely pressed her temples.

“If Valheit saw this, he would have fainted.”

“Would that old man even care?”

Shrugging, Avantnik grabbed a new bottle and tore the cap off with his teeth.

Avantnik's hand, which had been acting as if it would shove the bottle down his throat at any moment, paused.

The commotion in the tavern, which made it hard to distinguish between crying and conversation, gradually subsided.

“A good day to you, everyone.”

With a subtle twist of his lips, Valheit gave a slight bow.

A few who were dead drunk giggled and nodded back, only to get smacked on the back of the head by their comrades and bury their faces in the table.

“Hey, Til. It's been a while since I've seen that guy, but is he angry.”

“Yeah. He's angry.”

Without even glancing at the whispering Avantnik, Til emptied her glass.

If he had come any later, she might have twisted Avantnik's neck.

He had arrived at just the right time.

“Avantnik, you must have had enough fun by now, so would you please send your subordinates to their lodgings.”

Valheit said politely but firmly.

It wasn't a request, but a command.

“There's no need for me to remind you that the Empire is my territory, is there.”

“Of course, Count.”

As Avantnik flicked his hand, the gnolls and werewolves stood up one by one, taking their dead-drunk comrades with them.

“Mr. Ede, please escort these people safely to their lodgings immediately.”

Before long, only Valheit, Til, and Avantnik remained in the tavern.

“I was thinking we should meet and talk at least once anyway. You saw what that bastard professor did, didn't you.”

“Of course.”

“It was a good thing I took my guys out of there, if we had stayed, it would have been a bloodbath. You owe me one. Old man.”

“Reconcile with Vestol.”

Avantnik's hand, which was bringing the bottle to his snout, stopped.

Rich emotional expression was not a werewolf's strong suit, but anyone could tell he was displeased.

“Reconcile? They unilaterally burned down our forest, and not just any forest, the one we use for dragon bones. Do you think this can be settled with a reconciliation?”

“You will be able to get sufficient compensation from Vestol.”

“I may like money, but this isn't a matter of a few coins, it's a matter of pride. I need to take the professor's bastard's scalp to save face.”

“I know.”

The werewolf, who had been baring his teeth and growling fiercely, was actually a bit flustered when his opponent agreed so readily.

Even Til, who had been drinking quietly on the side, wore a surprised expression.

“If he were just an ordinary high-ranking official, I would have tossed Vestol to you without a second thought to do as you please. But the other party is Professor Zain.”

“So what about it? Don't tell me you're going to claim the strong friendship of the Eight Council now?”

“Zain is not simply a mad inventor, but a man deeply connected to Vestol's political and financial circles. Professor Zain's influence is deeply ingrained behind Vestol's technological advancement.”

“So?”

“It means Vestol can never give up Professor Zain. Because he is the one who made Vestol, stuck in the strait between two continents, a powerful nation.”

So what does that have to do with us?

Avantnik snorted and poured a drink.

“Taking Professor Zain's head right now would feel good, but that would be the end of it. Since the opportunity has come, shouldn't we squeeze them dry?”

“Well, is there anything to gain from a human old man who could die any day now?”

“If you're just going to swagger around Charnirasho and then disappear, then that's fine.”

“…….”

Avantnik put down the bottle he was gripping tightly.

An emotion different from the cynicism of a moment ago boiled up inside him.

‘Did this old snake somehow find out?’

“To unite the Demons scattered across the northern part of the White Continent, money and military power alone will not be enough.”

“How do you….”

“Your subordinates are seasoned sailors at sea, but on land, they are merely brave warriors. That is not enough for your goal.”

“Unite the Demons? What are you talking about?”

Til, who had been quiet, tilted her head.

It was a natural reaction.

Only one person knew of his dream to unite the many races of the White Continent beyond Charnirasho.

And it certainly wasn't Valheit.

‘How did he find out?’

“Since they made the first mistake, now is the perfect time to make use of Vestol. I hope you do not miss this opportunity.”

“Your delusions seem quite severe, Lord Count.”

Avantnik paused for a moment and stared intently at Valheit with his bright yellow eyes.

Behind the faint smile, it was impossible to read what he was thinking.

“Still, I agree that it's an opportunity to extort from those bastards. If it's a good deal, there's no reason to refuse. However, they'll have to be the first to bend.”

“Of course. We must let you save face, mustn't we.”

Valheit smiled brightly and walked out without a backward glance.

Avantnik's eyes followed his back.

‘What is he thinking?’

“Hey, is it true?”

“What is.”

“That stuff about uniting all the Demons. Isn't that too romantic a story for Captain Avantnik, the cold, quick-to-calculate-profit realist?”

“Don't speak of it elsewhere.”

“For nothing?”

Damn humans.

Always itching to fleece you.

“That time you asked to join the whale hunt. Let's call it even with that.”

“That's more like it.”

Til, with a rather satisfied expression, sipped her drink and looked at the exit where Valheit had disappeared.

In his retreating figure, she could faintly see an overlap with the Commander's image.

***

As soon as I entered the bedroom, I threw off my coat and lay spread-eagled on the bed.

Professor Zain and Avantnik kept their promise, for now.

Everyone was surprised to see the two change their attitude and agree to reconcile in just a day.

Thanks to that, I had hoped the working-level negotiations would proceed smoothly….

‘I didn't think it would be such a sluggish battle of nitpicking.’

Official negotiations, open to the public, were far more complicated than I had thought.

A tug-of-war ensued over every single word and number.

For me, who had only ever dealt with things unofficially and behind the scenes, it was a first-time experience.

‘Well, it was never going to be resolved that easily.’

An agreement was reached on the part of Vestol compensating for the ‘accidental’ and unfortunate incident that occurred during Professor Zain's experiment.

It was slow, but there was progress.

‘But the bigger problem is the Eight Council's side.’

Just as the Empire was mediating between the Vestol Assembly and Charnirasho, the Eight Council's headquarters was mediating between its two branches.

If it were simply a matter of reconciling the professor and Avantnik, it would have been over already.

But the problem was that the branches were involved.

The Eight Council, which boasted the cohesion of scattered sand, had severe conflicts between its branches as well.

The two, who could be seen as the branch heads, agreed on reconciliation, but their thoughts on how to resolve the issue differed.

Professor Zain was interested in the shamanism of the Demons and wanted to research it.

Avantnik bellowed at the professor to come up with an invention that reflected his demands.

Timer.

Valheit's Death Probability : 68.4%

(-) Dispute between Professor Zain and Avantnik!

It wasn't by much, but the probability had risen.

My death probability rose because of some other bastards' fight.

I felt like I wanted to make them both kneel, write letters of apology, and scream at them to reconcile.

The reason I couldn't do that was because both characters were related to Valheit's death.

First, Avantnik had ignored the request for support from the island where Valheit died, and Professor Zain had fled with only the data while conducting an experiment with Valheit.

However, I could only guess why the two of them fighting raised the probability.

The most certain clue was that the relationship between Professor Zain and Avantnik was terribly bad.

Considering that, the possibility that ‘Avantnik ignored the support request because he knew Valheit was doing something with the professor’ was the highest.

Maintaining a good relationship with both was important, but at the very least, I had to make it so they weren't itching to kill each other.

“It would be nice if there was some kind of joint project they could do together.”

A common denominator for a mad scientist and a pirate king.

There was no way it would come to mind that easily.

Just then, I shot up.

In the end, the biggest reason the two branches kept clashing was money.

Then wouldn't it be fine to just give them a place where money poured out?

The money the protagonist would use in the future, that is.

As expected, the answer was in the original work.

It was a sudden idea, but my mind started racing.

As I organized the scenario in my head, I became even more certain.

To make the two cooperate, this was the best way.

I picked up my coat and went outside.

The butler said something, but I couldn't hear him.

It probably wasn't anything important, so I could just deal with it when I got back.

To grasp this faint possibility, there was no other chance but now.