I Became the Older Brother of a Villainess - Chapter 16.1
“I apologize, but you don’t seem formidable. Dragging around a Spirit who can only babble against humans, I’m going to thoroughly enjoy this,” then the Spirit asserted.
She menacingly swelled her body, the torch flickering as a chilling breeze circulated through the room. Although the Spirit’s appearance, shedding tears of blood, was grotesque and eerie, it wasn’t particularly frightening due to the nonchalant nature of her casual remarks.
[If we don’t stop the village chief, Monsters will continue to swarm over people. For now, I’ll brush it off with a laugh. But don’t get too comfortable. Those driven out of the Land of the Recluse will come to devour your splendid house.]
“….”
Her gaze inadvertently fell upon the Monster compendium placed on the desk.
The Land of the Recluse.
That place was a continent far more immense, distant from the one inhabited by humans—a cursed region teeming with Monsters and the humans that governed them. Yet, there was a reason they were called recluses.
“The Monsters hide beyond the continent. Only those with empty heads wander near the borders of the continent. Even that is likely decreasing due to the Crown Prince going around subduing Monsters. How can such Monsters escape the Land of the Recluse and threaten my home?”
I chuckled. In the scenario of the game, Monsters were merely a means to exaggerate the protagonist’s exploits.
Although Monsters might seem fearsome in reality, they were destined to be handled like falling leaves under the Crown Prince’s command. It wasn’t a problem for me to step forward and make a fuss.
“Do you know what the scariest thing in the world is?”
The Spirit leaned in with a pale and sinister expression. I closed my eyes tightly and replied.
“Does your face happen to be one of the candidates?”
“The answer is human greed. You’re aware that the by-products of Monsters are traded at high values, right? The village chief is quite greedy. He intentionally lures Monsters into the village.”
“Hmm…”
Leaning against the headboard, I closed my eyes for a moment. Somehow, the sudden appearance of such a Monster in this rural village felt peculiar.
It was too coincidental, and the scale of it was immense. There was no way that colossal Veridis would have simply lost its way and descended into the village.
Were they intentionally bringing in Veridius to capture it, aiming to profit from its by-products?
Meat for consumption, leather for making clothes and furniture, horns for crafting luxury items—there were no other productive resources like these.
“Even if the village chief called it, it’s Pippin who sells the meat. If they’re accomplices, they’re accomplices; it doesn’t look like a victim.”
[Pippin is making a profit by selling the Monsters that he worked hard to capture! He’s being exploited for a measly sum!]
“…Regardless of the details, it feels unsettling.”
Whether it was the village chief or Pippin, if they dared to trade Monsters without my permission as the lord of the territory, that was a problem. And it was indeed a problem.
However, there was a more significant issue than that.
“I’ve never seen this in the game before.”
[Game? What are you talking about?]
I furrowed my brow. I had played through the scenario multiple times where the female protagonist, together with the hero Pippin, battles Monsters.
The bad ending was Pippin being defeated during Monster subjugation, and naturally, the happy ending was the two getting married.
In the midst of that, Pippin’s past was revealed. Kaku, the former mercenary captain, took orphan Pippin in, fed him, clothed him, and discovered his talent in the typical narrative.
He earned his keep by participating in the Crown Prince’s Monster subjugation. Before that, he had never encountered a Monster other than a horned rat.
That’s what Pippin himself said in the game.
“Something seems off.”
Closing my eyes for a moment to organize my thoughts, I suddenly opened them wide. The Spirit next to me nodded.
“That’s what I’m saying. Something’s fishy about the village chief’s inspiration.”
“There’s no way an incident related to Monsters would occur so early.”
In a short span of time, I considered various possibilities. Whether Pippin had fabricated his past messily and explained it to the female protagonist, or if the situation had become tangled after I entered Cierra’s body.
At this point, there was no way to know, and frankly, there was no need to know.
In any case, the conclusion to draw immediately was clear. Before the headache got worse, I had to deal with Pippin as soon as possible.
As seen today, Monsters were not something I could easily handle at the moment.
They were literal Demons—creatures of eerie darkness, with bizarre appearances, abilities, and origins. I never knew when another Monster might appear and interfere with me.
What if Monsters continued to show up frequently, and Pippin’s fame reached even the imperial palace? Pippin becoming a hero was only a matter of time.
Before that happened, I needed to take some action.
“…The artificial appearance of Monsters in the village is undoubtedly abnormal. As the owner of this land, I can’t overlook it.”
I earned the Spirit’s favor with words carefully chosen.
The talkative Spirit likely knew the village chief’s secret or Pippin’s vulnerability. I placed my hand on the Spirit’s worn-out leather glove and put on a friendly expression.
“Tell me what you know. I’m not just any sorcerer; I’m Cierra Glutoni, a duke. I’m especially curious why you’re concerned about Pippin. The boy seemed very strong. Perhaps the village chief is targeting Pippin’s life…”
That would be quite convenient.
Lowering my eyes while hiding the ulterior motive, I was met with the Spirit’s eerie chuckles and strange laughter.
[Save Pippin.]
“I’ll do what I can.”
