Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 12

“There seems to be a space behind it.”

The moment Kyle peeked into the narrow gap behind the mirror, the reflection of me inside the mirror smiled back at me. Then, black wings sprouted from my shoulders, and a tail began to slither its way out.

What the hell was this crazy mirror doing? It couldn’t possibly be trying to bewitch its own master—most likely, it was throwing a fit because I’d left it behind.

“There’s nothing back here.”

Kyle said as he turned back toward the mirror, and in that moment, I quickly grabbed his shoulder and shoved him hard against it.

“Whoa—Lysian, what are you doing?”

Kyle scowled as he suddenly slammed his back against the mirror. Behind him, my full dragon form was reflected.

“Is there something in the mirror?”

As Kyle tried to turn around, I instinctively smacked my palm against the mirror, blocking his view. Somehow, I had ended up trapping him between my arms.

“Lysian? Mind explaining what’s going on here?”

“Well, um…”

I looked up at his face in a daze, completely at a loss for words. His sky-blue eyes, filled with suspicion, sparkled clearly.

It was the first time I had ever seen eyes of that color—they were fascinating. Honestly, I even thought they were beautiful.

“Your eyes are really pretty up close.”

Feeling pressured to say something, I blurted out what was genuinely on my mind. Kyle blinked a few times, then let out a deep sigh and raised his eyebrows in a dramatic arch.

“Thanks for the compliment, Lysian, but it’d be a problem if you fell for me. I’m not the type to develop romantic feelings for teammates. Even if you try to seduce me like this, I won’t go along with it.”

Kyle spoke such nonsense with such a straight face that I was the one who ended up more flustered.

“Wha— S-Seduce? Who’s falling for who? That’s ridiculous.”

A chill ran down my spine, and I froze in place. Seeing me completely speechless, Kyle suddenly burst into laughter.

“I was kidding. You didn’t have to freak out that much. You should consider how the listener feels too, you know.”

Like he had any right to say that when he hadn’t considered my feelings at all. I stayed silent out of sheer disbelief, and Kyle lightly pushed my arm aside.

When Kyle finally turned around, thankfully, the mirror had returned to its normal appearance.

“Anyway, this mirror seems like something the Black Flame Dragon left behind, right? We should have Gerard store it in the subspace for now.”

I was worried the mirror might show something unnecessary while the others were watching, but fortunately, nothing strange happened until Gerard came and put it away.

“It really does seem completely empty. I doubt we’ll find anything else. We should stop wasting time and head back.”

Kyle addressed the group with an unsettled expression.

Everyone looked just as dissatisfied, like someone had interrupted them while they were on the toilet, but what mattered was that we had finally stepped outside the lair.

“Just in case the Black Flame Dragon comes back, let’s destroy the lair completely.”

Kyle murmured quietly as he looked toward the entrance of the lair. Apparently, I was the only one surprised by his words.

“Is that really necessary?”

“If the Black Flame Dragon wants to build a new lair of similar scale, it would take a massive amount of power and time, right? That means we’d have an easier time capturing it in the meantime.”

As soon as Kyle finished speaking, Gerard stepped forward with his staff.

“I’ll take care of it. The rest of you head down first. You’re just in the way.”

“Alright, I’ll leave it to you!”

Kyle casually left Gerard behind and began walking off. Elonen and Kakaros followed without much comment.

“By the way, where do you think the Black Flame Dragon went? I thought our long journey was finally coming to an end, but this feels so anticlimactic.”

Not just Elonen, but everyone in the group wore the same disappointed expression. Of course they did—after all the hardships, the final villain’s lair turned out to be completely empty.

“We’ll probably have to start over and search for new clues. But either way, we won’t give up until we find the Black Flame Dragon!”

Kyle shouted his incredibly unwelcome resolve, trying to rally the others’ spirits. If only they would give up… it would make things so much easier.

“But what if the missing Black Flame Dragon never shows up again?”

I tried to subtly convince them to give up the hunt one more time.

“Don’t say that so lightly. You don’t know just how wicked and greedy the Black Flame Dragon is.”

Even though I told the truth, Kyle ended up scolding me, and it felt completely unfair. As long as I was in the Black Flame Dragon’s body, I really had no intention of ever reappearing.

“So what do we do now? Where do we start?”

“We should head to the subjugation force first and report that the Black Flame Dragon has disappeared,” Kyle calmly answered Elonen’s question.