Just Because I Have Narrow Eyes Doesn’t Make Me a Villain! - Chapter 65

 

“Author-nim, what is that…?”

[Oh my god… What an awesome scene…!]

“We can talk about that later. Hurry up and answer me! What is that?!”

I yelled at the Author roughly without realizing it.

She clearly said that the protagonist wouldn’t be able to win.

So, as soon as I managed to escape the Tiger, I rushed over…

But the sight before my eyes was quite different from what she said.

Far from Siwoo being defeated by the villain in an instant, he dodged all the attacks the flustered villain unleashed.

“What is happening?! You said he wouldn’t be able to win!”

[Is that so? Siwoo is surprisingly strong!]

“…What?”

[I thought he would just die without even landing a single hit. But seeing this, I think we can have some expectations!]

The Author doesn’t know everything.

I knew that better than anyone.

Well, she is the one who causes incidents at the drop of a hat after all.

But the Author I know isn’t as stupid as you’d think.

Sure, she often does idiotic things, but she pays a lot of attention to the protagonist.

Because he’s the core figure of the novel. Because he’s the protagonist.

There’s no way the Author wouldn’t know about Siwoo.

In that case, there’s only one conclusion.

The makeshift setting she threw in to save the protagonist was surprisingly strong.

I couldn’t think of anything else.

“…Ah, aha. Author, please explain.”

[Yes?]

“You inputted a setting into Siwoo, right? What in the world did you put in to make him like that…?”

[I didn’t do anything like that.]

“…What did you just say?”

[I haven’t changed anything.]

I was wrong.

It was wrong.

The only inference I could make turned out to be wrong.

…What is this? What on earth is happening?

Countless thoughts swirled in my head and began to disappear.

At this very moment, Siwoo was slowly approaching the villain. Dodging all the numerous attacks and sometimes deflecting them.

That can’t be.

The Siwoo I’ve seen so far isn’t this strong.

Dorothy. For a moment, I thought of her but denied it. It’s the same even if he receives Dorothy’s buff.

I’ve seen it once before. It has major side effects and didn’t make him that strong.

In the first place, rather than Siwoo dodging the attacks, doesn’t it seem more like the attacks are avoiding him?

There must be something more…!

[Hmm, I guess the variable was bigger than I thought…]

“…Variable?”

[Well, you see, the protagonist can’t be modified. I didn’t intend to alter him much in the first place, and sometimes it’s inconvenient.]

Those words the Author let slip.

The moment I heard those words, my thoughts came to a halt.

What on earth did I just hear?

It felt like the world was collapsing at the words the Author lightly dropped.

A feeling like the world was collapsing and being reassembled.

I realized that what I had taken for granted all this time wasn’t actually a given.

“…Siwoo can’t be modified?”

[Yes. Hmm, I don’t really know the reason myself. It’s never happened before.]

I blankly stared at Siwoo fighting the villain.

It was clearly a fight he couldn’t win, and he seemed half out of his mind, but he was slowly approaching.

It was the same even when the dragon human, flustered by the unexpected situation, hurriedly launched a sincere attack.

Endlessly, he was taking steps forward.

[Originally, he should have lost without even getting close… Well, this is cool too, so it’s fine, right? As expected of the protagonist, overcoming adversity…!]

The Author began excitedly chattering about seeing a cool scene, but it didn’t register at all.

The only thing I could see was Siwoo.

With his eyes closed, he looked like he would collapse at any moment as he staggered, but he didn’t fall.

In this world where the Author nonchalantly toys with things as she pleases.

In this world where everyone is affected by the Author.

In a world where someone who has lived their whole life diligently becomes a villain with a single lightly touched setting, and where a villain gains a tragic backstory of actually being kind with a single lightly touched setting.

In a world like a puppet show played by a child, where everyone is a puppet, I thought I was the only human.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he advanced toward the enemy the Author declared he couldn’t defeat.

It’s dangerous. He clearly can’t win.

I needed to help him right away.

The Author is delighted, saying it’s a scene of the protagonist’s exploits, but there’s no way he’ll win.

He looked to be in a fragile state. The protagonist isn’t invincible. He might die.

…Even as I thought that, I couldn’t move my feet at all.

Because I was wondering if what I’m thinking is really true.

Worrying that I might be mistaken.

And the sight that blew away my hesitation entered my eyes.

“…He landed a hit.”

[He really did! Wow, I got a great scene!]

He attacked.

Even though I thought there was no way he could win.

Even though the Author said he would lose without even getting close, let alone attacking.

Hearing her happy voice saying this was good in its own way, I laughed.

“Ah, aha. Ahaha…! Ahahahahahahahaha!”

[Geez, you startled me. Why are you laughing like that? …It was cool, but is it a funny scene?]

“Ah, ahaha! Ahahaha!”

I couldn’t stop laughing. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to endure it if I didn’t laugh.

Just one.

Only one.

I was convinced that I was the only human in this world.

The other people were just puppets in human form.

Puppets pulled along by the childish power wielded by the Author, led by the strings of fate.

I thought the protagonist wouldn’t be any different.

No, I thought he was a puppet precisely because he was the protagonist.

I thought he was a distinct existence from the other puppets, like a cherished doll.

…I was wrong. I was completely wrong.

He’s not some mere puppet. He can’t be compared to the likes of them.

The Author is the truth.

He should have lost without even getting close.

Siwoo moved.

He approached the villain and swung his sword.

With staggering steps. Despite his blood-soaked body.

Siwoo moved even in the worst situation, not forcibly moved by the strings of fate connected by the Author, but by his own will.

“…Ah, you’re amazing, Siwoo.”

[Right? This is the appeal a protagonist should have after all! I don’t think this development is bad either!]

The smile on my lips showed no sign of fading.

Because I found it.

In this world full of puppets, 

There is a person.

***

“Are, are you crazy…? Who, who are you…?!”

Mir yelled while clutching her throbbing head that was hit.

He was definitely a powerless kid.

A kid I could easily handle even with the reinforcement from the woman next to him.

For a moment, I felt my life being threatened.

If this guy had endured for just one more second, I would have…!

“How dare you, how dare you…! I was in a good mood, so I decided to play with you for a bit…!”

I looked at the kid lying collapsed, covered in blood.

To think I seriously thought I would die to a guy like this.

To a kid who hasn’t even grown up yet, who is still attending the academy.

“… It’s dangerous.”

I almost died to a kid who hadn’t finished growing yet.

I couldn’t let him live.

Because I didn’t know if this hero-syndrome-afflicted academy student would come to interfere again someday.

What if I encountered him again after he had grown a bit more?

I could console myself, saying it was only dangerous this time because I had let my guard down, but I decided not to do that.

I had to acknowledge what I needed to humbly. That this guy is dangerous.

If I let him live and encountered him again after he grew, I might be unable to win next time.

“…How lucky. Not you, but me.”

I wonder if I had been hindered by Arachne all this time for the sake of luckily surviving now.

Calming my unnerved heart, Mir condensed wind in her hand.

In order to kill that dangerous guy.

He’ll be a threat if he grows up. Judging from how he dodged even my invisible attacks as if he could see right through them, surprise attacks probably won’t work, either.

It’ll be too late by then. I have to finish him off now.

“Die…!”

“…What are you doing, you mere puppet.”

“?!”

At the voice heard by my ear, I hurriedly tried to unleash my ability to attack the surroundings.

But perhaps because I was hit in the head, a brief gap was created, and the enemy didn’t miss that opening.

“Argh…!”

“Do you even know who you were trying to kill? He’s not someone the likes of you should lay a hand on.”

“Urk, ugh…! You, you…!”

It was a surprise attack, and while a brief gap was created, my right arm was sliced off in an instant.

What, what is this…!
Forcing the winds that wouldn’t gather properly with my severed arm, I looked at the enemy who had assaulted me.

The tattered outfit. And the threads visible around them.

With a string that didn’t fit a battlefield at all, I could easily infer their identity.

“Those threads…! It’s you, Arachne! What happened to Lan?!”

“Lan? …Ah, that guy? Don’t know, probably dead. I don’t care.”

Arachne seemed to have no interest in me whatsoever.

Her gaze was solely directed at the guy who had just collapsed.

To think she would ignore me even though I was critically injured.

Irritation welled up at the humiliation I had never experienced before.

“Don’t, ignore, me…!”

“I’ve never ignored you, Übermensch. Because you’re dangerous.”

In an instant, threads came flying toward my body just as I was about to use my ability to counterattack.

The world tilted again, and the wind blew in a strange direction.

At that moment, I realized.

My fate ends here.

The fatal mistake of being unable to hold back my excitement at obtaining the object I had aimed for my whole life and letting my guard down for a moment.

That single mistake ended everything.

“…Ugh.”

“A puppet shouldn’t injure a person. You crossed the line.”

I saw Annie hurriedly running over with something in her hand through my blurring vision.

Sorry, Annie.

Create the new world in my place.