I Reincarnated as the Villain in an Eroge, But Before I Realized, I Became a Capture Target
Translator: Reo
Editor: PalenMisha
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Luca POV 5 – Part 1
After Zagan’s death, Noel became depressed for a little while. At night, she’d often come to my room.
Little by little, she started talking about him. Stuff like if there wasn’t discrimination against dark attribute users, this tragedy never would have happened; that they could have had a wonderful relationship as brother and sister.
I tried to comfort her as best I could.
The rest of the girls were worried for the mourning Noel and would often sit with her. Miranda, Nina, Camilla, Bennett, and Cindy – surrounded every day by these kind women, Noel’s smile, even if slowly, began to return.
However, in the 10th dungeon, we met the Dark Organization again. The man we’d spoken to at the 9th city wasn’t there, but I remembered seeing that man with the glasses.
The Dark Organization seemed to hate everybody other than dark attribute users and wanted to overthrow this country. That was the reason they were gathering the star fragments. They could never forgive the villains who tried to kill and eradicate them.
Noel, who before would have definitely objected to their words and pulled out her sword, said nothing. After all, the very reason her mother was now bedridden was because her mother had abused her dark attribute brother.
Moreover, the dark attribute users we’d always thought of as evil said that we were the villains and that the reason they were killing us was because we were oppressing them.
A fight ensued, and though we somehow managed to gain the upper hand, we weren’t able to chase after them as they ran away because they’d summoned some monsters and by the time we’d defeated them, they were gone.
Though something like that happened, there were happy events like Halloween in the 10th city and the art festival in the 11th city, that I got to enjoy with Noel. I was glad that she got her smile back.
Of course, we still had some sorrows and troubles, but Noel came to me looking for positive advice on how to eradicate the discrimination.
How to… eradicate it?
That was a very hard question to answer.
I had a feeling that if we introduced a new law in Soleil forbidding discrimination, the people would reject it. At least right now while the threat of the Evil God was looming over us, there wasn’t much we could do, right?
But if we gave up from the start, then nothing would happen. So I planned on discussing it with Father and the minister of justice once we got back to the capital.
By the way, we met the Dark Organization in the 11th dungeon as well.
Miranda seemed to have something going on with one of the female members – she hated her with a passion and a fight started before I even noticed. And, again, they ran away.
Even if from their perspective we were the villains, we still had to protect the people. We couldn’t let them destroy this kingdom. So I wanted to capture them.
Still, I didn’t really know what they were planning to use the star fragments for, but we’d gotten our hands on them in both the 10th and 11th dungeons, so I thought it would be ok.
After we cleared the 11th dungeon, we went to a dance party hosted by Marquis Modeste, and, starting with Noel, I danced with all of the girls.
Thanks to everyone’s help, I’d gotten stronger, and every single day was fun, so thinking that this journey would end in a month made me a bit sad.
Still, we moved on to the next city to get the last star fragment.
Then, in the 12th city, as I was walking down the quiet streets with Noel, a bit of snow falling on us, we saw her – a woman squeezing her eyes shut as she prepared to throw a baby into the river.
Noel ran ahead of me and grabbed the woman’s arms, and I took the baby away from her.
Noel looked like she was about to yell at her, but perhaps because the woman already looked miserable, crying her eyes out, Noel kept her mouth shut. Still—
“Noel, this child’s hair.”
“Huh? …Oh, purple… a dark attribute user.”
At Noel’s murmured words the woman looked up at us with a tear-stained face.
“My husband said so – that he loved me, but he wouldn’t raise this child. Even the child himself, the only thing waiting for him is a harsh life, so it’s better to kill him now while he still knows nothing of this world, but… I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t strangle him, or use magic.”
“Is that why you decided to close your eyes and throw him in the river?”
“Uuuu… I, I’m a bad person. The one who gave birth to a dark attribute user was me.”
When I gave the baby back to her, she hugged him preciously and started crying even harder.
Noel patted the back of the mother who loved her child.
Because of discrimination, even a strong relationship might break. Despite him being a dark attribute user, this mother couldn’t bring herself to kill this lovable, innocent child. What a cruel world. And this was the place, the kingdom I was supposed to protect…
“Not long ago… I found out I had a brother. He was also a dark attribute user like this child.” Noel started talking about herself, perhaps in an attempt to soothe the woman.
She told her that she never knew she had a brother, and that she’d always thought that a totally unrelated dark attribute user had attacked her home. That her parents had confined and mistreated him.
“When I came to know that, I got confused. It wasn’t the person who destroyed my home that was the bad one, but my parents. And my brother, who revealed this truth to me, recently passed away. Since then, deep inside, I’ve always blamed my parents. If they hadn’t mistreated him, they themselves wouldn’t have gotten hurt and my brother wouldn’t have had to die.” She let out a sigh. It was as if she was spilling out all the pain she’d been holding inside.
“But thanks to you, I realised that maybe my parents were in as much pain as you are now. They probably couldn’t bring themselves to kill my brother. Just like you, their child was precious to them. In the end, both my parents and my brother had to live in pain because of the discrimination. I… I was the only one who didn’t know.”
Her words were firm and her gaze was steady. It was the Noel that I knew, the one I hadn’t seen in a while.
“I don’t know what’s the right thing for you to do now, but I hope you choose the path that would put your heart the most at ease… I truly apologise for stopping you after you’d already steeled yourself.” Noel bowed her head deeply.
What would the woman think of her apology?
After glancing at her child, she bowed her head as well and thanked us for saving her child. Her eyes looked much brighter.
Holding her child to her chest, the mother went home. Noel and I looked at their retreating figures.
“If I ever give birth to a child with the dark attribute, I’d protect them with my all. I won’t let what happened to my brother happen again,” Noel declared.
It was a powerful declaration and very like Noel. Though, compared to before, it felt like she’d grown so much more.
We bumped into the Dark Organization in the 12th dungeon as well. And the man who told us about Zagan’s death was there too.
What on earth were these people planning?
In the middle of the battle, though they made fun of me for it, I repeatedly asked them if there was something I could do to help, and eventually, found out that they were planning to do something in the capital. However, in the end, they ran away again.
I was relieved that we were the first ones to reach the deepest room of the 12th dungeon, and glad that the Dark Organization didn’t beat us to it.
The last boss was very strong, but thanks to everyone’s help, we managed to defeat it.
Up until this point, we’d all defeated a lot of monsters. The scattered magic particles of defeated monsters got absorbed by any living being nearby thus increasing their mana, which was why everyone had gotten drastically stronger than when we first met.
After celebrating Noel’s birthday and the sun festival, we headed towards the capital. There our journey would come to an end. However, the Dark Organization was still planning something, so I warned the others to keep on their toes.
