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

TN: Thank Nepper for the chapter.

I looked up at the sky.

The numerous lights descending from the sky due to the increased mana usage were so beautiful that it felt like gazing at stars adorning the night sky.

If this were happening at a festival, I would have sincerely exclaimed in admiration.

But this is a battlefield.

Something like this occurring is not a good sign.

“What on earth…”

The operation site I hurriedly arrived at, prepared to be scolded for sleeping in, was utter chaos.

Seeing everyone hastily preparing something made me doubt my eyes, and I wondered if they were the same people who had been so relaxed until yesterday.

The reason they were bustling around was clear even to me who just arrived.

The swarm of spiders approaching with enough force to overturn a city.

It’s probably because of those guys.

“Author-nim? Did you do something again?”

However, I wasn’t flustered and let out a sigh.

I’ve already experienced such absurd things happening many times.

The absurd number of monsters that make you sigh just by looking at them.

If such a number of monsters had popped out daily on the front lines, this world would have already been destroyed, and then some.

There’s only one reason for such nonsensical things to happen.

[Wha-what… What is that…?]

“?”

The Author’s voice was thick with perplexity.

Could it be that this wasn’t the Author’s doing?

A sense of unease started creeping up.

But that was short-lived. I had no choice but to hold my head again today at the Author’s ridiculous words.

[No, that’s not it… Why are there so many?]

“What do you…”

[I was planning to add an attack event… But, but there are too many?]

Ah, damn it. Again?

I was getting sick and tired of the Author’s behavior, showing no signs of reflection at all.

It’s been almost a year since we started living together, but nothing has changed.

You cause accidents every single day.

“I thought you haven’t been causing accidents lately…”

[Wha-what! Don’t talk like I’m someone who only causes accidents constantly!]

“Are you not?”

[…]

Seeing her unable to refute my words, it seems she knows what she’s doing wrong.

Come to think of it, the reason there haven’t been accidents recently is because she hasn’t been doing anything.

The Author protested at me sighing.

She seemed too embarrassed to be treated that way.

[Bu-but! I properly set things up this time!]

“What?”

[I was right to set them as spiders, and I was right to adjust for an attack to occur! But not that many! I only added the setting that the mother spider laid eggs before dying! But this is not what was supposed to happen…!]

Did she think it was stoppable with that much?

Well, there’s no particular problem with the setting that spiders are born from eggs laid before death attacks.

The problem is that the Author didn’t plan for that many to swarm out.

Anyway, seeing her insisting like this, it seems true that she properly set things up.

Then how?

Where did it go wrong?

[No matter how much I think about it, there shouldn’t have been any problems! Wh-where…!]

The Author started making groaning noises.

What’s done is done.

They say sighing shortens your lifespan, but that’s definitely a lie.

How many times have I sighed because of the Author?

If that were true, I should have been dead long ago.

“So?”

[Ye-yes?]

“About how many do you think there are?”

How should I handle this situation?

There’s only one answer.

The only way is to secretly reduce their numbers without others knowing.

Fortunately, with that many numbers, there will be a significant length difference between the front and rear.

It was clear that no one would see even if I went all out.

As for the remaining clothes, well…

If I hide well without getting caught, wouldn’t it be okay?

Or I could ask the Author to use some power.

Glancing around, fortunately, everyone was still busy and unable to look around properly.

No one even noticed that I joined late.

No one would know even if I quietly disappeared.

[Uh, that… I don’t know.]

“Sigh.”

[…]

The Author couldn’t even object when I openly sighed at the absurd answer.

There’s no way she could.

It was obvious it was her fault.

Isn’t it clear from the sight of those spiders over there?

She already testified that she moved to create the spider attack incident.

“I have no choice but to do it one by one…”

[He-hehe…]

“Be quiet.”

[yes…]

To secretly kill that many at the rear.

I could already vividly see the hardships ahead.

No, is the future looking bleak?

“Siwoo… seems to be fine.”

Glancing over, it seems he’s urgently trying to join the main force.

Then there shouldn’t be any major problems.

The heroes here are veterans among veterans.

It’s no exaggeration to say it’s a place where humanity’s strongest have gathered.

People who have spent all sorts of years slicing monsters.

It will be difficult to catch that many without any damage.

It will be their first experience dealing with this many monsters.

But what if Siwoo is there?

In such urgent situations, the protagonist and his companions always resolve it in a cool way.

It should be fine if I appropriately eliminate the monsters from behind.

Fortunately, my ability is specialized in mass slaughter.

Especially against monsters with such low intelligence, even more so.

It’s not an unsalvageable situation.

“Author, you should start reflecting too. Causing incidents every day.”

[Hiiikk…]

After leaving my spot secretly so the main force wouldn’t notice my disappearance, I felt gloomy about what was to come.

I’ll have to part with these clothes too.

Even though no one will see, the fact that I’ll be walking around naked outdoors made my head spin already.

I hope Siwoo doesn’t catch me.

At that moment, as I fiddled with the bracelet…

Along with a strong pain, the scene in my vision passed by instantly as if looking at the scenery outside a running train.

What happened?

Ah, I was kicked in the side.

Unable to withstand the impact, I crashed into a building.

Pain I’ve never felt before.

“Cough, cough…!”

[Re-Reader-nim?! A-are you okay?!]

The Author’s flustered voice rang small in my ear.

It’s not her doing.

If it were something that the idiot Author planned, she wouldn’t be this surprised.

It’s not a monster either. If it were a monster, it would have torn me apart.

They don’t do this surprise attack that blows the opponent away.

Suppressing the pain that made my whole body cry out as I was stuck in the building, I somehow raised my head to check who ambushed me.

“Hi. Remember me?”

[Huh? She was alive…?]

“!”

And I was shocked.

Because someone I definitely remember seeing was standing there.

That day.

The day I realized Siwoo was the only human.

The sole survivor of the Übermensch that I let live because I was distracted by Siwoo.

The unnamed executive that escaped my threads.

She was standing in front of me.

Although grotesque in many ways, it wasn’t difficult to recognize her.

I definitely thought she would be dead.

“H-how are you…”

“So you remember?”

“Answer my question! Why are you here…!”

“I was surprised too. I never imagined you would be here. I was trying to escape using the spiders, and you happened to be in sight.”

“!”

I see.

The reason the plot deviated from what the Author planned.

It was this woman.

Because of her, whom even the Author forgot, the situation has gotten much worse.

“I think you were quite pretty before, but you’ve gotten uglier.”

“Ugly? No way. I’m very pretty. I like the way I am now. Right, Mir?”

“That’s right, Annie. Everyone must think that way. Our comrades must think that way too.”

“See? Even Mir says so.”

Who is this woman talking to?

Has she lost her mind?

“You killed Mir.”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“Haha, there’s no way you don’t know. Don’t lie.”

“…”

“Tell me. Why did you kill her?”

Someday.

I really thought someday I would be asked this question.

If I keep killing puppets, wouldn’t there come a day when someone asks me this?

That’s what I thought.

What answer was I going to give at a time like this?

Ah, no.

My head isn’t working well because of the pain.

“Because they were puppets.”

“Puppets?”

“Everything is a puppet. Everything in this world. Except for me and Siwoo, everything is a puppet.”

That’s right. Everything is a puppet.

As long as the Author toys with this world as she pleases, this world is no different from a big puppet show.

What else could the people moving in such a place be, if not puppets?

That’s what I decided to think.

Because it felt like I wouldn’t be able to bear it otherwise.

“They’re not some puppets.”

“No, they are puppets.”

“A liar like you killed Mir.”

The cold-eyed survivor was burning with hatred as she looked at me.

I’ve been found out.

I’ve been found out after all.

Yes, I actually knew.

That they’re not some puppets.

The fact that they’re all humans living and moving in this world.

What I killed wasn’t some puppets but real people.

But I couldn’t bear it if I didn’t think that way.

That day.

The day everything was turned upside down.

The corpses split in half before my eyes, the red blood spurting out.

When I was trembling in fear at the terrible carnage I had committed, the corpses disappeared as if nothing had happened.

The vanished corpses seemed to be telling me I was innocent.

They seemed to be telling me they weren’t people.

That’s why I turned a blind eye to my sins, and that’s why I killed the puppets.

The girl took off her rags and looked at me.

Apart from her grotesquely transformed face, her body was endlessly twisted.

Rat, sheep, cow, pig, rabbit, horse, tiger, monkey, chicken. And dragon.

Distinctive parts I had seen before.

“Hey, you. Remember this?”

I remembered. There was no way I couldn’t remember.

The executives of the Übermensch. Their bodies.

The body parts of the Übermensch executives, except for the surviving girl and Spira, were stuck all over the girl.

“Yes, it seems you remember.”

I realized.

This final survivor, who appeared with the people I killed stuck all over her, had descended to judge me.

She had come to me for their revenge.

The sins I committed here.

Those sins had come to collect their dues.

My karma had come for me.