What If the Strongest Villain from the Original Story Became the Protagonist's Ally? - Chapter 46 - Bullseye, and Together with Nana

His Majesty the King’s birthday festival.

That was one of the events in this story. The event’s content was a large-scale assault. Mainly the royal capital being attacked by large numbers of monsters.

Naturally, those monsters were being led by Empire soldiers.

Using the effect of an artifact that controlled extremely vicious monsters excavated from certain ruins, they manipulated various large and small monsters and set them loose on the royal capital.

At the same time, interpersonal combat also took place within the capital during this event. The opponents were bandits.

Fairly well-known bandits had lent their hand to the Empire. The result was mass slaughter of Kingdom citizens. Iris had to skillfully handle both the bandits and monsters while dealing with both.

No matter which she prioritized, casualties would result.

To state just the conclusion—Iris prioritized the citizens. Trusting the knights fighting the monsters, she ran around the city with several subordinates. By doing so, she saved many citizens. She defeated the bandits and brought peace to the country.

But behind that were the shadows of many soldiers killed by monsters. Iris grieved. If only she had more power, she wouldn’t have had to yield to such an immoral strategy.

There she used her sadness as a springboard to become even stronger. —That was the event. However, this event was originally supposed to occur several years later.

The king’s birthday festival was held every year. There was no certainty that problems would occur at this year’s festival. Even so, the reason I was concerned was either because I knew the entire future, or because events had occurred earlier than originally planned.

I couldn’t say for certain. But I still couldn’t overlook it. I was now also a Kingdom citizen. As long as I was on Iris’s side, I couldn’t let this event proceed as is.

It seemed I’d need to secretly investigate without telling Iris.

“Yuu-san? Can you hear my voice?”

Iris’s face was in front of me. She was probably worried because I’d been silent for a while. I apologized regretfully.

“Ah… sorry, Iris. I was lost in thought for a bit.”

“No, it wasn’t an important conversation anyway. If you have any worries, please tell me.”

“Then there is one thing, can I ask?”

Taking her up on her offer, I had something I wanted to ask.

“Yes. What is it?”

“In the past few days, did you happen to find something like a black sphere? For example, that bandits had, or something like that.”

“Eh? Why do you… I didn’t tell you about that, did I?”

Iris’s reaction told the whole story. A nasty sweat began to seep out of me.

“That reaction… could it really have happened?”

“Yes. It’s not a secret story, so I’ll tell you. About three days ago. A soldier who captured bandits near the royal capital confiscated a strange artifact from those bandits. A black sphere—something like a crystal ball.”

“I knew it…”

It seemed the story was moving exactly as I’d predicted.

That crystal was the key item of this event. The worst artifact that had killed a terrifying number of citizens.

It was different from the item Empire soldiers used to attract monsters. But its effects were carved into Iris’s memory as an even worse result.

The item’s name was [Lemegeton].

Usually it looked like an ordinary crystal ball, but by destroying that crystal ball, the vicious monster sealed inside would be released. In other words, it was a sealing-type item.

In the story, bandits stole that item from a storage facility and used it when cornered by Iris. The powerful monster released from its seal ignored Iris and brought devastating damage to the country.

It was Iris and her companions who defeated it and somehow saved the country.

This incident would trigger more related events, but… right now, more than that, I needed to do something about that crystal ball.

“Could you give me that crystal ball?”

“Obviously not. As a result of checking with appraisal-type artifacts, it was determined to be something sealing a quite vicious monster. It’s being carefully stored in the very back of the treasure vault. It will never see the light of day again.”

“Please, somehow!”

“No. Such a dangerous thing…”

Damn. As expected, no good.

I’d known from the start that I’d be refused. That item was that dangerous. Due to its nature of activating its effect when destroyed, it couldn’t be disposed of or destroyed. Careful storage was the best they could do.

“I see… that’s unfortunate.”

It couldn’t be helped. If Iris said no, then I’d secretly sneak into the treasure vault and steal that item. For that, I needed a certain power.

I glanced at Nana.

When Nana noticed my gaze, she tilted her head.

“What is it, Papa?”

“Well… I have something important to discuss with you later, Nana. Do you have time?”

“Mm, I don’t mind.”

“Thank you.”

Nana—she was the one.

She was a lock-picking professional. If I did it, it would be brute force and like confessing I was the culprit.

But with her, even a treasure vault should be openable.

The execution would be—tonight.