I Became the Leader of a Villain Organization

Chapter 5: The Underground Auction (2)

That night at Hotel Empire de Grande in the imperial capital of Londinium, I stood wordlessly in front of the shower mirror, baptized by a waterfall of hot water and steam.

In the mirror, I see the reflection of a man I still can’t get used to.

-Fazizik!

I flicked a spark of lightning from my fingertip, and an electric current raced along my drenched flesh.

It was a high-voltage current that would electrocute a normal person on the spot but this body was completely unharmed. No, “unharmed” wasn’t even the right word, I literally felt nothing, not even a tingling sensation, let alone a wound.

A high-pressure electric current, even one that would instantly kill a man, could not hurt this body, not even while running on water. Fire and blades are no different.

It was as if nothing could be carved into this skin.

……But Aria’s white, cold hands.

The sensation of holding her hand hasn’t faded, lingering on my fingertips and hovering over them.

Just that white, fleeting coldness-.

My mind flashed back to the commotion at the mafia lair earlier in the day.

At what Aria had said about the snake’s name.

The name that the man I became had staked his entire life on, that he had built with them.

Even now, I didn’t know anything about the Black Snake but I wanted to know, needed to know who Rain Grey was and what the hell he wanted.

Not just to fit in and survive in this world, or to get information, or any of the other lesser reasons for survival.

I wanted to know the ‘real meaning’ of my existence here-.

*

At the end of the day, we don’t rest like villains, we rest like everyone else. People are people everywhere and villainous groups are people, too. Well, except for a few.

When I get out of the shower and into my bathrobe, I find Aria and Alice in similarly loose, casual clothes.

Alice, by the way, is already snoring on the bed.

“……Sir.”

Regardless of what she’s wearing, Aria doesn’t look much different, perhaps because of the black sword on her back.

In the first place, the plain clothes she wore were actually black robes that didn’t look much different from her usual clothes. It just looks a little more casual.

“Five comrades have replied that they will join us immediately.”

Aria pours me a glass of blood-colored wine from wherever she got it, then pours herself a glass of her own.

“As for the other four, they have expressed interest in joining us, but it seems unlikely that they will be able to arrive on schedule.”

“……Yes.”

She’s batting a little higher than usual. No, quite high, probably because of the people impersonating us.

For the record, I still haven’t seen all the members of the Black Snake. I haven’t even gathered all of them together in a proper gathering.

‘Counting me, there are eight of us.’

In terms of heads, this is actually a new record but calling them out is never to make up for a lack of power, it’s to send a clear message.

To let them know, in no uncertain terms, the cost of their foolishness in impersonating us.

There were just a few more days until the underground auction and all that remains is to wait.

“Sir.”

It was then, while I was lost in thought, that Aria suddenly stepped to my side and spoke.

“Do you have something to say?”

I asked coldly, and she didn’t answer right away.

A short silence descended and Alice’s snoring, too low to be heard, cut in.

“Please forgive me for my behavior today…….”

Aria said after a silence. It was uncharacteristically for her as she hesitated and then asked.

“Forgive you for what?”

No, I wasn’t trying to be a jerk, I just wanted to know.

It was a chance to ask Aria about this organization, about something I didn’t know.

“I forgot about my role and I acted outside of your will.”

“That’s because our name is so important.”

“……Yes.”

Aria bowed her head. This was the moment.

“Why is it so precious?”

I asked, desperately trying to control my heart, which was racing more than ever.

Nothing would change but for now, I just needed to know, no matter what.

“Aria, what am I to you?”

I asked again hoping the question would give me the answer I needed.

“To me.”

Aria opened her mouth slowly.

“No, Brother Rain.”

“…….”

I swallowed wordlessly at the succession of titles.

We’re the only ones there and it’s not like we’re on the streets in broad daylight.

It’s just us, in a hotel bedroom, and she’s saying that to me.

“You’re my whole existence.”

Everything.

“Because you wound the threads of a puppet around our abandoned bodies and raised us up.”

‘A puppet’s thread.’

Aria continues.

“Because you tied the threads to my body, manipulated them, and placed me on the stage of this world once again.”

It was far from the answer I was hoping for. It didn’t make any sense.

“I, the threads of this puppet that you have wound around my body…… ah, I find them so lovely, I cannot bear them.”

Aria said and for the first time, her voice broke, her face flushed, and a waterfall of emotions that she could not properly contain flowed out.

She was feverish.

“I am, she is, and we are……only puppets of the master will.”

It’s nice to have titles like master and brother, titles that have become a bit of a jumble.

Aria smiled as she said it. The invisible threads wound around her body, affirming her puppet destiny with open arms.

*

“……whoops.”

Before I knew it, I was burning another cigarette.

I’d been doing it so often that the general store I frequented now offered me five packs of cigarettes as soon as they saw me.

As usual, I grabbed the next cigarette and stood up.

“Hey, Chief!”

A familiar face turned to look at me.

He was a red-haired man with two narrow, snake-like eyes, nicknamed Dead Eye.

“How come the leader is chain-smoking?”

“…….”

I didn’t bother to answer as the man approached me as if I were a trusted friend.

“Silan.”

Instead, she, Aria of the Black Sword, who stood by my side as always, spoke.

“You are before the Master. Please be polite.”

“Ahaha, how rude of me.”

I glanced at Aria as she said that.

There was not a trace of the disheveled appearance she had shown in the bedroom a few days ago. She was her usual self.

“Oh, it’s Silan!”

“Oh no, isn’t that Alice, you’ve turned into a lady in my absence!”

“Ahem, Alice’s already grown up!”

Silan wasn’t the only member of the Black Snake present.

“─Captain.”

“Chief.”

Silhouettes appeared one after another after the man.

All of them, each in their own way, bowed politely in front of me, spoke to me as if I were a friend, or pestered me like a child.

I turned away from the succession of subordinates and watched the butt of my cigarette burn away wordlessly.

I flicked the burning cigarette away and raised my head to the sky.

Dusk slanted across the western sky, finally merging with the violet light and sinking into the night.

Night was coming and with it, the auction.

“You know what you have to do.”

I pushed myself to my feet and looked up at the mansion that stood not too far from the riverbank.

“I don’t know……anything about it.”

One of the shadows replied bluntly.

“I know nothing. Until we are commanded to do so.”

“Until you show us the way.”

“Until then, we know nothing.”

It was a voice that seemed unwilling to do anything of its own volition, only waiting for my command.

“Please, sir.”

“Give us an order!”

“We’re idiots, we can’t do anything without your orders!”

Then the “black snakes” in the room spoke up like puppets, unable to do anything on their own so I looked at them for a moment and answered briefly– “Do what you must. What you should do.”

The milestone they must reach.

“Let the world know.”

In the most villainous voice I could muster.

“What fate awaits those who call upon the name of the serpent.”