I Was Reincarnated as the Villainous Knight Commander Who Betrays Everyone at the End, So I Plan to Leave the Fake Hero’s Party with the Exiled Girl Who’s Actually the True Hero! ~While Watching Over the Protagonist Up Close, I Somehow Ended Up Destroying the Whole Scenario~ - 16

Chapter 16: The Villainous Knight Commander Drives the Annoying Customer Away

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“Then—Mofumofu Potion Shop is now open for business!!”

“Ooooh!”

“Waf, oof!!”

“Congratulations!”

Ciel declared the shop open. I clapped my hands together, Mofumaru skillfully fluffed his paws in applause, and Rei gave a beaming smile. We unlocked the shop door and waited for customers to arrive. Before long, an adventurer we had come to know well showed up.

“Hey there!!”

“Welcome!!”

“Ciel-chan, I’m here to buy some potions!!”

“Yes, thank you very much!!”

Sales were off to a great start. As soon as we opened, several adventurers came by and bought multiple potions.

“Good luck on your quest!!”

Yeah!!”

“I’ll come back tomorrow too, Ciel-chan!!”

Among the adventurers, there were some who clearly seemed more interested in Ciel herself. Even though Ciel was greeting them not with her usual cute smile, but a customer service smile….

Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.

Still, seeing the protagonist of something I created interacting with all kinds of people like this felt oddly surreal.

“Oof!!”

“Hmm. What’s wrong, Mofumaru?”

I looked in the direction Mofumaru barked. At that moment, a rough-looking group of adventurers entered the shop. A man who seemed to be the leader started yelling at Ciel at the counter.

I had been working in Handel for a while, but I had never seen these guys before. Maybe they came from another town.

“Hey!! Hand over the potions!!”

“…How many would you like?”

Ciel responded with a faint hint of fear, but didn’t let her smile falter. I didn’t make my move yet.

In my previous life, it wasn’t uncommon to see customers shouting at convenience store clerks.

Just because some rude customers showed up didn’t mean it was time for the bouncer to step in.

“All of them!! Give me everything you’ve got!!”

“I’m very sorry. We limit purchases to two per customer.”

At Mofumofu Potion Shop, we had a purchase limit for potions. The reason was simple: many adventurers wanted Ciel’s potions. If we didn’t do this, everything would sell out immediately and not everyone who wanted them would get one.

“Huh!? I said I’d buy them, damn it!! Just shut up and give me everything you’ve got!!”

“I’m sorry. I cannot comply with that.”

Still,do these rude adventurers really not see me? I mean, I’m a big guy wearing only a shirt, pants, and a helmet—that should stand out, right?

But since they were yelling at Ciel right in front of me, they must truly not have noticed me. Maybe waiting directly in front of the entrance to avoid scaring customers had backfired.

“This brat’s getting cocky just ‘cause we’re being nice!!”

“She’s got a pretty good body for a kid, doesn’t she?”

“After we make her cry, how about we sell her off to some brothel?”

Yeah, okay. That’s extortion, and that’s totally crossing the line. 

Deciding to fulfill my duty as the shop’s bouncer, I tapped the rude adventurers on the shoulder from behind.

“Huh? Wh-who the hell are you?”

“I’m the bodyguard for this shop. You’re bothering other customers, so I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

“Hah!! You wanna have a go at me!? There’s three of us, you know!!”

I grabbed the heads of the two adventurers grinning sleazily behind their leader.

“Gyaah!? S-stop, y-you’re crushing—”

“It hurts it hurts it hurts!!”

“Sorry, but I’ve decided to crush customers like you to the ground to make an example.”

Lately, punks like this had become rare, but back when we sold potions out on the streets, I used to run into them pretty often. For people like that, I crushed them thoroughly.

I made sure they’d recognize us as “people you do not mess with,” so that their friends wouldn’t even think about coming for revenge. Unlike peaceful Japan in my past life, this world had a rather dilapidated sense of public order.

Showing mercy would only embolden idiots like them into plotting revenge. They wouldn’t even consider that we were letting them off easy. So I crushed them—with brute force.

“Higyaee!?”

“Ow ow ow ow!!”

“Hmph, what do you think you’re doing!?”

“As you can see, I’m crushing their faces. Don’t worry. Their eyes are just blinded, their noses shattered, and a few teeth are permanently unusable. They’ll recover if they see a decent priest.”

The two rough adventurers whimpered like livestock about to be slaughtered. I turned to the last man standing.

“So? You said there were three of you, but you’re alone now.”

“Y-you bastard!! Don’t you know what clan we’re from!?”

“Sorry, I’m not up to date on adventurer affairs. I know how clans work, but I don’t know a thing about yours.”

A clan. Separate from the Adventurer’s Guild, it was a group formed by adventurers themselves. I didn’t know which clan these guys belonged to, nor did I care. Even if they were from a famous clan, the fact that they had trash like this said everything about their quality.

“Y-you son of a—!”

He reached for his sword, so I grabbed his neck and slammed him down onto the floor. Good thing the floor was wood instead of stone; otherwise, that one blow would’ve killed him instantly.

“Gah… Y-you bastard, I’ll never forgive you!!”

He was still defiant even after being beaten this badly? I guess there was no helping it.

“…Ciel, I need a potion.”

“Huh? Are you going to do that, Lars-san? …Please don’t make a mess of the shop, okay?”

“Yeah, I know.”

I accepted a potion from Ciel.

“Wh-what are you going to do!?”

“Oh, nothing special. Just a live demonstration with you guys as props.”

I sprinkled the healing potion over the three adventurers, restoring their injuries. The two I had crushed looked confused as their faces returned to normal. I calmly spoke to them.

“Good for you. You’re all healed now.Now, I’ll crush you again.”

“Eh? Higyaee!?”

I repeated the same process about five times. By the end, the rough adventurers had become so meek it was like their earlier attitude had been an illusion. Too bad—I was just two rounds short of my personal record of seven.

“From now on, if you come here and pull the same stunt, I’ll do the same thing to you. If you think about getting revenge on this shop or its owner, I’ll do it again. Bring your friends if you want. I’ll do it to them too. Don’t worry, I have plenty of patience. I’ll keep going until your spirits are completely broken.”

That final line was the clincher. The rough adventurers bolted from the shop, soiling themselves as they fled. The other adventurers from Handel who had been watching started whispering among themselves.

“Man, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Lars’s 『Live demonstration—using you as the model.』”

“Yeah, he used to do it all the time when Ciel-chan first started selling potions.”

“He’s usually so calm, but when he snaps, he’s scary as hell. Well, at least he’s not the type to lose it over nothing.”

“And he doesn’t care who the opponent is.”

“Totally. Remember that rich lolicon punk who said he’d make Ciel-chan his mistress? Lars nearly beat him to death—word is the guy’s still bedridden with trauma.”

Let me just say in advance: nothing I did was illegal. Okay, the beatings were borderline assault, but since I healed them with potions afterward, there was no evidence left.

If they complained, I’d just sue them for defamation instead. That was how things worked in this world, where the justice system was basically nonexistent.

“Haah. I really don’t like having customers like that on our first day.”

“That’s business for you. Don’t worry. I’ll crush them if they come back.”

“…Hehe, you’re right!!”

Just then, the bell signaling a new customer rang.

“Oh, hello there.”

“You’re… If I remember right, one of the new members of the Hero’s Party.”

“Krok, at your service. Sorry for the trouble I caused the other day.”

I pretended not to know him, but as the author of this world, of course I knew his name. Krok was an assassin hired by Hero Allen to replace Ciel after she left the Hero’s Party.

“What brings you here today?”

“Well, to buy some potions, of course.”

“…I see.”

Since he was a customer, I decided there was no need for me to step in, and I returned to my usual spot.

“By the way, Master Lars…”

“What is it?”

“The Hero’s Party actually disbanded, you know. About three days ago.”

“…Huh?”

I was so shocked to the point a dumbfounded noise slipped out of my mouth.

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