What If the Strongest Villain from the Original Story Became the Protagonist's Ally? - Chapter 28 - Ferocity, and Pinch?

The suspicious gray-robed man released the monster he had been restraining from its shackles.

Forcefully kicking off the ground, the giant crocodile charged toward me.

“So huge…”

I leaped sideways to dodge its charge. There was no obligation to accept a stupid power contest.

“Guooooooooo!”

The monster roared.

After scraping the ground to reduce its speed, it turned around with enough force to mow down the other gray robes.

“Is that what you call the result of your experiment?”

“Indeed. Magnificent, isn’t it? A masterpiece created by combining cells from various monsters! Its abilities far surpass conventional monsters! With this fellow, even that small village could be easily destroyed.”

“There’s a super strong swordsman in that village right now though.”

“A super strong swordsman? Did you bring Princess Iris?”

Bingo. Exactly right.

As expected, when most people in the kingdom think of strong swordsmen, they think of Iris.

“I don’t know who it is, but even if it were Princess Iris, my experimental subject wouldn’t lose! I designed it with her in mind, you see.”

“So… you anticipated that Iris would come to this village.”

“Yes. She accepted the request, didn’t she? It’s a knight’s duty, after all.”

“I see.”

This guy seemed to know our circumstances to some degree.

That made me wonder how many Empire informants were in the country. From the old man’s tone, there was definitely someone in the upper echelons leaking information to the Empire.

I’d kill that person later, but first I’d defeat this mad scientist and his monster.

“Guruaaaaaaaa!”

The giant lizard roared. Next, it gathered a large amount of magical power around its mouth.

Unlike humans, monsters had organs that generated magical power within their bodies. Something like Yuguram’s magic core.

I didn’t know whether it was higher performance or junk compared to Yuguram’s, but it seemed like it was going to do something by refining that magical power.

An attack that gathered magical power in the mouth—that would be a breath attack.

The accumulated magical power was converted to flame, and despite being in a cave, the giant crocodile breathed fire.

“Seriously?”

What kind of fantasy has crocodiles breathing fire?

…Oh wait, this is another world.

I made an unnecessary internal comment, then flowed magical power through my entire body and kicked off the ground.

For now, I’d retreat from the cave. Even I would die if I couldn’t breathe because the oxygen ran out.

Besides, if I took a hit from flames in such a narrow cave, it would be quite troublesome if my hair caught fire.

I ignored the crocodile and headed for the cave entrance.

From behind me—

“I won’t let you escape… I won’t let you escaaaape!”

I heard the old man’s loud shout. I didn’t care and continued back the way I came.

▼△▼

I exited the cave.

When I turned around about thirty meters from the entrance, I could feel the ground gradually shaking.

I could definitely tell that the monster was coming toward me from deep in the cave. After a while, the giant crocodile was first to emerge from inside the dungeon.

“Guruaaaaaaaa!”

“I told you! I won’t let you escape!”

The old man was clinging to the crocodile’s back. You could move like that?

He definitely had too much courage, but it was efficient. More gray-robed Empire soldiers came out of the dungeon after them. They were mobilizing everyone to definitely kill me.

“You’re getting pretty worked up. Are you that scared of me?”

“Kuhihi. I’m not particularly afraid of you. It’s just… it would be troublesome if word of us got out. So die here.”

“If I kill you, everything will be over though.”

The enemy’s supreme commander was conveniently right in front of me. If I killed this guy and also killed the monster, the incident would be resolved.

…No wait, I shouldn’t kill him. The monster was one thing, but that old man was living information. It would be more useful to take him back and hand him over to the kingdom’s knights.

“I wonder about that?”

“—Hm?”

“Did you think I would be easily captured in a place like this? In the first place, unless you defeat this monster, you can’t attack me!”

The old man got down from the crocodile and shouted.

What an annoying, smug face.

“Acting all high and mighty when you rely on monsters. Without that puppet, you can’t do anything.”

“Silence! …Besides, you’re making a mistake.”

“A mistake?”

“Did you think I would place all my forces here? I always consider the worst-case scenario.”

“What do you… don’t tell me—”

“As expected, you have good intuition. Your mind works well too.”

An answer surfaced in my mind from the old man’s words.

I had a bad feeling.

“That’s right. I have bases in other locations too. And there are monsters there as well. So they can attack the village at any time.”

The old man took out a small artifact from his pocket. It was probably an artifact.

Into that artifact—

“All units. Intruder at the main base. Launch a surprise attack on the village! Repeat, main base has—”

He was speaking. From the tone and content—

“A communication artifact… nice gear you have there.”

“Indeed. So what will you do? The village you tried to protect will be destroyed very soon.”

*Kukuku,* the old man laughed, making a sound in his throat.

He probably thought I would despair. But how naive.

Instead, I smiled under my mask.

“Haha…”

“Nu?”

“Weren’t you listening to what I said? I told you there’s a strong swordsman in that village right now. I’ve left the defense to that person. So… that means I can beat you up without any reservations.”

I readied my sword. Unfortunately, I had no worries whatsoever.