The Extra Villain's Second Chance: A Hero's System

"If you're done with what you want to do, you can come out, Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty? Why are you calling your father with such an honorific, My Dearest?! Can't you just call me... beloved father?"

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I can't do that. You are the king of this great Dragomirov kingdom. Your identity as king must take precedence."

"...."

During Vladislav's behavior, Harlequeen spoke while looking at the pages of the book in her hand, without even turning her head towards Vladislav's face.

Although Vladislav tried several times to put his face in front of Harlequeen's, she did not budge.

Vladislav ended up just standing there looking at his daughter for some time. His expression looked sad. Were tears about to fall from his eyelids?

'Ugh! What drama am I looking at right now?' Lev rubbed his temples. 'I didn't expect Vladislav had that kind of side.

"At least, you can wear this first." Despite being treated coldly by Harlequeen, Vladislav still tried to be positive. He took the necklace from the box and tried to put it around Harlequeen's neck.

However, he was unsuccessful in doing so. Not because Harlequeen slapped his hand, but because of the soft knock on the closed door.

Knock, knock~

Vladislav returned the necklace in his hand to the box with a very quick movement.

"Your Majesty, I have brought Young Master Lev to the palace garden as per your instructions."

From outside the room where Vladislav and Harlequeen were, a maid who had previously led Lev to the palace garden spoke after lightly knocking on the door.

Upon hearing the maid's voice, Vladislav's facial expression immediately turned fierce again. His stance also changed to a very straight posture. The pitiable expression he had previously shown when dealing with Harlequeen had completely disappeared.

"Alright. I will leave first." Vladislav said goodbye to Harlequeen; however, before he left the room, he noticed that there was a change in expression on Harlequeen's face when she heard Lev's name mentioned by the maid outside the door.

***

'I think that's enough. Lev stopped spying on the interaction between father and son that was enough to make his hair stand up, not because of fear, but rather because he felt icky.

Not long after Lev stopped spying, Vladislav came walking over from the garden path that connected the garden to the main building of the palace.

Unlike Vladislav's grand appearance when he attended the trial yesterday, this time, Vladislav did not wear a royal robe, scepter, or royal staff, and also did not wear a crown on his head. Vladislav's appearance this time looked very relaxed.

If only Lev hadn't seen Vladislav's disgusting side, he would have been amazed at the way Vladislav walked and looked around.

Without making a formal greeting, Vladislav sat down in the chair placed in front of Lev.

Lev had tilted his head, as if he had heard someone coming, and asked, "Is that you, Your Majesty?" He had wanted to stand up and do the formal greeting, but Vladislav just waved his hand as if motioning for Lev to return to his seat.

"Oh, I forgot that you've lost the ability to see. Sit down, there's no need for a formal greeting."

Following Vladislav's instructions, Lev sat down again.

In front of Lev, Vladislav had already placed both hands on the table that had been set up from the beginning in the center of the gazebo. "Aren't you cold?"

"I am not cold. Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty."

Vladislav looked up at the gazebo's fairly wide roof. "Well, even if I hadn't come here right away, you would have been fine."

Lev realized that he was being subtly satirized for his tardiness in coming to the palace. So, he immediately intended to stand up and apologize.

Unfortunately, Lev's movements were outpaced by Vladislav's.

Vladislav was already pressing him on the shoulder to remain seated where he was.

"I apologize for my tardiness, Your Majesty!"

"No, no, no. Before we get into that, I'd like to ask you about something."

"Please ask anything."

"Do you know my daughter?"

"You mean Princess Harlequeen?"

"Yes. Who else would it be?!"

"I met her yesterday."

"So?"

Lev tilted his head slightly at Vladislav's confusing question—he tried to guess Vladislav's intentions, but failed and ended up telling him a few things. Not everything, of course.

He only told Vladislav that he had been given a cane by Harlequeen.

"Perhaps because he took pity on my situation, she gave me a cane so that I could walk without tripping over things, Your Majesty."

"What?" Vladislav looked shocked, as if he had heard news that his kingdom had collapsed—at least that's what Lev saw on Vladislav's face.

"Ah, I am very grateful for Princess Harlequeen's tender heart."

Lev tried to calm Vladislav down by thanking Harlequeen indirectly, but Vladislav's expression became even harsher. A frown formed on his forehead, and his mouth shuddered as if his anger was burning.

"What, tenderness of heart? Do you understand my daughter so well? How can you make such a conclusion?"

"??"

Lev could not hide the confusion on his face. He was confused as to why Vladislav could be angry when he was praising his own daughter.

"E-hem! Alright. Let's ignore my question. So, can you explain what happened to you before you came here?" Out of the blue, Vladislav suddenly cleared his throat softly and tried to forcefully change the subject.

With his mouth covered by both hands clasped together on the table, Vladislav muttered under his breath, "How could my daughter give a cane to a person she had never met before. Moreover, to such a weakling? While she never gave me anything."

'I can hear everything you say!' Lev finally understood why Vladislav was angry with him. Jealousy, that was the feeling running through Vladislav's mind.

Despite feeling a little icky, Lev still tried to think rationally. He would be finished if he openly criticized Vladislav's strange nature—if Vladislav knew his hidden nature was already known to Lev, Lev would probably be buried alive, that's how Lev felt right now.

Ignoring Vladislav's strange nature, Lev explained how he had been ambushed by mysterious people on the way to the palace.

".... Sniff! That's how I ended up safe. Nevertheless, I feel quite saddened by the sacrifice of the palace messenger you sent to fetch me."

Lev pretended to be sad by rubbing the bottom of his eyes as if a tear had fallen.

This time, it was Vladislav's turn to squint at Lev's strange behavior.

Aren't your eyes blind? Can you still shed tears? Such questions seemed to be drawn on Vladislav's face.

If Vladislav had really asked him that, Lev was planning to answer that a blind person could still produce tears as long as the tear glands in the upper eyelids were still functioning. However, it was fortunate that Vladislav did not ask.

"Well, I've already ordered people to go down and investigate the place where you were ambushed. For the time being, you should be safe here."

"Thank you."

"Do you really not need treatment?"

"I don't have any injuries. Just a little shock."

"That's good, then. I'm guessing that you probably don't know, but I still want to ask, do you know who the people who have ambushed you are?"

"I don't know."

"Someone who might have a grudge against you or your family?"

Shake~ Shake~

Lev just shook his head to let Vladislav know that he could not find anyone who had a grudge against him or his family to the point of sending people to ambush him.

When he was alive, Andrei wasn't a noble who stood out so much as to incur the hatred of other nobles—it was Andrei who was supposed to hold grudges against other nobles.

For people who hated Lev personally... Lev felt that he was not a person who liked to make trouble with others because he had upheld noble manners in the past.

Those were the explanations he gave to Vladislav.

Obviously, he was just pretending not to know.

Actually, he was already pretty sure of the suspect in his head.

After finishing defeating the people who ambushed him earlier, he noticed that they all had one characteristic in common: they had slanted eyes. Also, seeing as they all wielded single-edged swords, he became even more certain of who was giving them orders.

The similarity of their physical features and the single-edged sword that they used was enough to prove that they were from the Tianxia Dynasty.

The problem was, how could people from the Tianxia Dynasty appear in the Dragomirov Kingdom?

Given the relatively peaceful condition of the continent nowadays, it was not strange that residents from other kingdoms could travel to various places, but the problem was not that.

The problem was that they dared to commit acts of attempted assassination against nobles from other kingdoms.

'Well, after they all committed suicide, their eyes did bleed and shatter so it's hard to call them slant-eyed anymore.'

There are two possibilities for the reason they dared to carry out the assassination attempt on him.

Either the person who sent them was overconfident that they wouldn't fail to kill him, or the mastermind had deliberately left clues that led to the Tianxia Dynasty.