I Got Reincarnated Into a Game I Was a Top-Ranker in and I Became the Leader of a Villain Group That Will Destroy This Shitty Country - 2

Chapter 2: The Girl With a Demon Dwelling Inside of Her

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

In the game’s storyline, the empire was a country that conducted various experiments in pursuit of immortality for the Emperor. And one of the experiments involved human experimentation—specifically, taking orphan children to detention camps and testing various drugs and magic on them. It seemed I got reincarnated as one of those orphans. 

“Oi! Get a move on already! Don’t you want to eat?!”

“Cough-! So-Sorry… Sorry…!”

“Good grief… These filthy guys….!”

After about three days, I began to develop a certain belief toward this detention camp—or to be precise, toward the Empire. A country like this deserved to be destroyed.

No matter how I looked at it, this country was definitely not normal. Working five days a week was tough enough, but working seven days a week?! This country was the literal hell. 

Of course, it wasn’t just about hard labor. Inside this detention camp, there were many… Much more nefarious things were happening. 

Children who could still move their limbs were all sent to the mine, forced to dig ore until they collapsed. Then, once the children collapsed from exhaustion…. The children would either be used as playthings by the men or became the next subjects of human experimentation.

Only one word came to my mind. Madness. When I actually witnessed that scene with my own eyes, I felt like vomiting. In fact, I did throw up several times. However, the reason why I could keep some level of sanity was because of this hologram-like screen floating in front of me. 

“Status Bar…”

Who would’ve thought I’d get to see the ability that I had only ever seen in game. While still going through the motions of mining ore, I checked the skills written on the status list. 

【The Dignity of a Sovereign】- C Rank

A soul imbued with the quality of a supreme ruler. Nullifies all mental attacks and status abnormalities.

【One Who Stands at the Boundary】- C Rank

Stands at the boundary of all magic power. Can absorb and fire back any magic.

【Purification】- D Rank

Able to purify that which is tainted.

The ‘Purification’ skill was alright. It was a common skill that all characters had. But ‘The Dignity of a Sovereign’ and ‘One Who Stands at the Boundary’? I didn’t remember there were skills like that in the game? No, these skills definitely didn’t exist in the game. I mean, there was no way I wouldn’t know about skills this overpowered. After all, that game was practically my life!

Yet, right there on the screen in front of me, there were two skills that I didn’t know. They were categorized under the ‘Unique Skills’ section. 

Unique skills… but why? I’m not level 200 yet. Don’t you need to reach level 200 and complete a quest to get a unique skill?!

But still, this was a good thing, right? There was no way I wouldn’t make use of these skill to escape from this hellhole. Besides, just like what the skill description said, I definitely felt a strange energy surging through my body. This energy was probably what people refer to as ‘magic power’. 

Looking around the mineshaft, I saw exhausted children weakly swinging their pickaxes. Of course. It was hard even to breathe in here, let alone swinging heavy pickaxes. The only food available for orphan children in this mine was bread mixed with sawdust and polluted water. The air quality here was also horrible. It was impossible for the children to be able to endure living here. It had only been three days since I found myself here, but 5 children had already collapsed and got sent to the detention camp. 

This was.. Definitely wrong. 

Fortunately, I’m still holding on somehow… But this shitty country… This empire…!

Anyway, I would need to use these skills to escape from here, no matter what. 

I started devising my plans in my head while swinging my pickaxe when suddenly..

“Move it already! You idiot!”

“-?! Aa….”

“O-…Oi! Oi! Don’t mess with that one!”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“That kid is the demon child!”

At the edge of my peripheral vision, I saw a black-haired girl collapsed on the ground. A guard was standing over her but then, another guy quickly ran over, trying to calm the previous guy. 

“Huh? Demon child? What are you talking about?”

“You idiot! There’s a demon inside her body! If you trigger her too much, she could take down this entire mine with her!!”

“Huh?! You expect me to believe that a demon is inside some orphan from the slums?! Can you even hear yourself?! How preposterous!”

“If you don’t believe me, then try checking with your magic vision to see her magic power! You will see what I’m talking about then!”

“Ugh… How troublesome… Fine, let’s see….”

Then, a moment later..

“Hii-?! U-Uwahhh?!”

After activating his magic vision, the man was so shocked that he fell down on his ass right here and there. Fear was clearly etched on the man’s face. He was trembling like he had opened Pandora’s box as his trembling finger was pointed at the girl. 

“Yo-You… Just what….!”

“……”

As if her emotion had been killed, the girl stood up expressionless and started swinging her pickaxes again. The guard managed to get up and scampered to get away from her. It wasn’t just him though. Everyone present, including the other children, all of them distanced themselves from the girl as if they shared the same brain cell. 

Demon child…? I feel like I’ve heard that word before….

While trying to remember the word, I moved quietly, so as not to get caught by the guard and approached the girl. 

“…Huh?”

“Shhh…”

It would be troublesome if I got caught. Fortunately, the men from before had run far away from this. They didn’t show any sign of looking this way. I put my index finger to my lips in shushing motion and then I took out a small bottle from my pocket. 

“This… Is…?”

“Drink this. You don’t have much to eat these past three days, right? You must be thirsty too, so this is for you.”

“…..The water here is polluted. Drinking it will only poison you.”

“Ah… Well, about that…”

I wanted to tell her that I had purified the polluted water using holy magic ‘Purification’, however revealing that side of me would lead to more trouble. And so, I decided to dodge the question and make up something on the spot instead. 

“Sorry, I can’t tell you why but trust me, this water is clean. See? The water is not murky, right?”

“…Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why… To me? I’m.. Possessed by a demon though?”

“Yeah, but you’re still a human, right?”

Of course, I could also see the demon residing within her. After all, I was reincarnated into a body with magic power flowing through it to no end. I constantly had my magic vision activated all day long. The demon was a black entity, like the embodiment of an evil spirit. I could see its mouth and eyes. The demon was always grinning, as if mocking me.

However, the girl looked completely fine. After observing her for the past three days, I could tell that she was kinder than other people. She had given her portions of bread and water to the other children. 

“You’re a human, not a demon.”

“……”

“Uwah, the guard is coming…! Drink all of it quickly so you won’t get found out, okay?!”

“Ah, wait…”

To avoid arousing suspicion from the guard, I quickly moved away from her and pretended to be working diligently. However, the girl’s eyes were still fixated on me. 

“……Why?”

And thus, this was my first encounter with my comrade.

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー