I Reincarnated as the Villain in an Eroge, But Before I Realized, I Became a Capture Target
Translator: Kuromaru
Editor: PalenMisha
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 38 (Part 1)
Silence reigned. I was so shocked that I couldn’t speak either.
The goddess of the moon was real. She and Soleil, the god of the sun, were in love as per the storybook.
But the goddess and the Evil God were the same. If this were the case, then the story in the book about the Evil God hiding the goddess was incorrect. There was another inconsistency in the story too: that the god Soleil defeated the Evil God, but then went on to search for the goddess.
Rather, I felt that everything apart from the existence of the moon goddess–the fact that she was in love with the god Soleil, and the fact that the moon was hidden–were all wrong. The reason being…
“Could it be that the goddess Lune is trying to protect humankind?”
“Nii-sama? How did you come to that conclusion?”
I was just muttering to myself when Noel, who was sitting next to me, peeked at me. Should I explain? It was just my speculation. …Well, okay.
“First of all, it turned out that the Evil God is real. If so, she can annihilate humans in an instant; however, the Kingdom of Soleil has not been destroyed. Therefore, she is not trying to harm humans. Good so far?”
“Yes, all good.”
“If the goddess Lune is not trying to destroy humans, then it’s a mystery why she is rampaging regularly. This is where Lumiere becomes relevant. Noel, what is Lumiere?”
“It’s a mass formed by negative magical energy gathered from all over the kingdom.”
“Yes. If the Lumiere isn’t purified with the 12 star fragments, the country’s magical energy will stop circulating, and the earth will deteriorate. But there is no such thing in our neighboring country, Terre. Even though there are only monsters in the Great Forest of Lune, the earth is still intact, and the trees are still lush. Only the Kingdom of Soleil will decay. Until now, people thought it was because the god Soleil was asleep and the Evil God was running rampant. However, it turns out that this is not the case at all.”
The Great Forest – the goddess Lune’s territory – has been functioning properly even though its master has been absent for nearly a thousand years. Therefore, the Kingdom of Soleil wouldn’t lose its mana circulation if the god Soleil was just sleeping.
“And she is of both dark and holy attributes. That means it is more reasonable to assume that it is the goddess Lune, not the god Soleil, who is causing Lumiere to appear.”
“Yes, that’s most likely true. God Soleil is of light attribute, so he cannot handle negative magical energy. But the goddess Lune is a dark attribute user, so she can crystallize negative mana.”
I nodded. The world thought that the god Soleil may be causing Lumiere to appear, but it was just wishful thinking. The main reason for that was the attributes. The light attribute could only handle positive magical energy.
“I don’t know why the Kingdom of Soleil is full of negative magical energy, but in any case, the goddess Lune gathers mana into herself and converts it into Lumiere. And then she entrusts it to the world for humans to purify. I guess she just goes out of control sometimes, from the negative magical energy… in other words, she gets consumed by negative emotions.”
“And that’s why Lune attacks humans, right? It’s amazing that you can figure all that out, Nii-sama!”
Noel was staring at me with sparkling eyes. I faltered at the look of genuine admiration in her eyes. I mean, wasn’t that too much praise? I was just guessing, you know. …I didn’t feel bad about being respected by my sister, though.
“Incidentally, it is Count Brady who supports this conjecture.”
“What, Father?”
“Luca casually mentioned earlier… that the last time the Evil God was sealed was 28 years ago by Count Brady, who was still a civilian at the time. You know that, right?”
“Of course. It’s known that he was allowed to marry our mother – a count’s daughter – because he was recognised for his achievements in sealing the Evil God. That’s also the reason why he became the vice-commander of the Royal Capital Mage Order and the teacher of the prince, Luca.”
“Yes. That man is certainly strong. But do you think he knew exactly how to seal the Evil God? Do you really believe that if he weakened her to a certain extent, the sleeping god Soleil would be able to seal the goddess Lune? It is more likely that the goddess Lune herself, having regained her senses, returned to the depths of the royal palace. …That’s why Father didn’t kill me.”
“…Eh? K-Kill… Nii-sama?”
Noel looked at me with a stunned expression on her face, a complete 180 from earlier. I knew I was saying some disturbing things, and maybe I shouldn’t let my sister hear this. Still, it was the truth.
“Although that man was a former civilian, he knew very well what kind of place noble society was. In fact, it might be because he was a civilian that he did so. He had been strong since he was a child, so he must have experienced up close aristocrats who looked down on others just because of their status. That’s why he kept me hidden in the mansion’s basement and forbade me from using magic. He didn’t want them to know that I was a dark attribute user.”
If one hid their hair and didn’t use magic, others wouldn’t be able to tell what exactly their attribute was. The only people who could tell were those of the same attribute as them. If a person was as skilled as Camilla in manipulating magic, though, they could know anyone’s attribute by touch. Or, if one were to connect bodies and take in another’s mana, they would be able to sense the other. Just like Luca and me.
Anyway, my father made me promise not to use magic.
“But he didn’t have to go to all that trouble. He could have just killed me. I’m a dark attribute user. Moreover, one with black hair. A child who can only be considered a descendant of the Evil God. He could have simply disposed of me as if I was stillborn. Even in the civilian world, if a baby had the dark attribute, people would have killed it as a matter of course. Otherwise, they themselves would be persecuted by those around it.”
It would have been easier if he had killed me. That way, our mother’s sorrow would have been relieved, and no money would have been wasted.
Still, my father loved me. Sometimes he would wrap me in a blanket, pick me up, and take me to the courtyard. We would gaze at the moonless night sky together.
“Isn’t Father’s fight against the Evil God what made him learn this? That she is not really evil. Rather, she is protecting the country, and if he were to kill her… the Kingdom of Soleil would be destroyed. That is why he didn’t kill me, the one he thought was her decedent.”
In the game, the only reason why Zagan’s father didn’t kill him was that he was a necessary villain for Noel’s route.
But this was reality. Moreover, I’ve experienced it once. I had failed to listen to my father, which led to an abusive education that resulted in an outburst of magical power and left my mother in critical condition. Even so, my father did not kill me. When I thought about why he did not kill me, it wasn’t unreasonable to speculate that it was because the Evil God was good for humanity.
As I finished speaking, the room fell silent. I said a little too much, didn’t I? I wondered if they were disturbed by the fact that I had told them so much about myself.
When I glanced at the girls, I saw that they all had troubled looks on their faces. Uh, I’m sorry for talking about something so uncomfortable…
As I awkwardly tried to put on my hood, an arm and several tentacles extended from next to me. They lifted me and placed me on Luca’s lap in a sideways hug. Then he embraced me tightly, burying his face in my chest.
“What’s wrong, Luca?”
“…I see. So, we shouldn’t have defeated the Evil God. …Yes. And…again and again.”
He was saying something, but it was muffled and inaudible. What was really going on?
sssssh Luca, your secrets are slipping!
Luca’s words in the end is suspicious. It’s as if he already experience this life several times and always failed. Now maybe he found the answer to reach different route.
Just like how The Will of the World tried to change the route by merging MC with Zagan. And I think Zagan also experiences the repetation just like Luca.
I agree with some things you wrote, but I’ll also toss in my theory here for fun’s sake.
I personally disagree that Zagan experienced repetition. I believe only Luca did. My personal hypothesis is that Luca, as a descendant of the Sun God Soleil, may have had chances of interacting with the Will of the World, or Soleil, or some other God of similar calibre, who extended a request to help stop the collapse of their world after the otome game plot ends. Another hypothesis I have is that Luca was probably the first one who had a transmigrator’s soul fused with him. Why? Because HE was the game’s protagonist, not Zagan. HE was the Hero of the game. So the Will of the World, may have pulled in another person’s soul, put it into Luca, and asked that soul who may have all the in-game knowledge, to help prevent the world’s end.
But maybe this was where things went wrong, and Luca repeated the cycle of world end because he couldn’t figure out any crack in the plot. Maybe he was the one who told the Will of the World that their formula of “Protagonist + Transmigrator = OP problem-solver” was where the problem lies. So instead, he may have been the one to recommend that they do things in a round-about way – Yes, Zagan.
Maybe that’s why it was into Zagan that the transmigrator’s soul went in. If it’s someone completely outside the loop of the game’s originally seen plot that’s neither the Hero or Heroines, they had leeway to go about things unlike the game setting and mechanics, where the Hero Luca has to spend time with the girls at set times with set activities, they(Zagan transmigrator) can learn of the world’s hidden story because their actions aren’t fully locked in place unless he appears on screen in-game. Not to mention if the Will of the World puts the soul into the game villain, it also brings in new elements like his persecuted dark attribute, his connection with the supposed Evil God and possible interaction with the dark organisation fighting against he Kingdom.
If my theory is somewhat right, it may also be the answer as to why Luca can see “hearts” come out of Zagan when they do the smexy time, like how an actual game protagonist mechanic has. Though it’s purely theory, in the end.
Thanks for the update!
so luca’s a regressor after all… yeah, the hints were there from the start. this will be an interesting story – i hope he tells zagan soon.
How did you come to that conclusion?!?
Ehh there were more hints??? I have to reread this… The only hint I got about that was during Zagan’s dreams of another world… i think? The one with the original Zagan and Luca talking together about if they had to do it all over…
Luca did the mumbles once again earlier on which made sense to him, but not to us and Zagan