Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 17
What I felt upon seeing Crown Prince Reynold was that he looked nothing like Kyle.
He had neatly slicked back golden hair and wore an ornate, formal uniform.
“It’s been a while, Your Highness.”
As Kyle bowed, the rest of the party behind him followed suit. I hesitated for a moment, then lowered my head along with them.
“To think we’d meet here by chance.”
“You followed after me, Brother. There was no way we wouldn’t meet.”
Kyle replied with a deliberate smile. Reynold’s face twitched slightly as he picked up on the thinly veiled barb in Kyle’s words.
“I assume you’ve just come out of the forest, meaning you must have encountered the Black Flame Dragon. So why are you empty-handed? Where’s the dragon’s head?”
Reynold spoke while casually sitting on the edge of the desk placed at the center of the tent.
“We made it to the Black Flame Dragon’s lair, but it had already fled. We were on our way out of the forest after destroying the lair.”
“The Black Flame Dragon ran away?”
Reynold seemed genuinely shocked by Kyle’s statement, his voice rising. The soldiers behind him also audibly gasped.
“Are you certain there was a lair at all?”
“Yes, absolutely. We found the correct location, but the Black Flame Dragon had already emptied the lair and fled.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Reynold suddenly shouted and slammed his fist down on the desk. His cold fury startled the nearby soldiers, who all dropped to their knees in unison.
“You’re the one who said it takes a long time for a dragon to build a lair, didn’t you? And now you expect me to believe it just up and ran away, abandoning all that?”
Reynold was more enraged than Kyle had been upon finding the lair empty.
“I don’t know exactly what happened either. Judging from the cleared-out lair, it seemed the dragon had already relocated. We should focus on tracking it quickly and taking it down before it can build another—”
Kyle, no longer smiling, spoke seriously in an effort to persuade him. But before he could even finish, Reynold shot to his feet and roared.
“Don’t you dare lie to me!”
Kyle narrowed his eyes and stared silently at Reynold. No one in the tent seemed to understand why Reynold had suddenly flown into such a rage.
“What do you mean ‘lie’? What are you talking about?”
“You went into the lair, saw the dragon, got scared, and ran. Or maybe you were thoroughly beaten, passed out, and by the time you came to, it had already left.”
I let out a quiet scoff without realizing it. That laughably poor guess triggered a memory from the original story.
Right. This Crown Prince Reynold punk was an antagonist in the original novel.
He was the one who manipulated the cowardly and incompetent Emperor Ferosen, persecuted the hero’s party, and branded them as a criminal group.
A meeting between the final villain and the main antagonist. Not exactly a pleasant encounter, is it.
“That’s not what happened.”
“Then tell me, why would the Black Flame Dragon flee? How do you plan to explain this to Father? Do you even realize how much money it cost to bring this subjugation force, thinking this would be the final battle?”
Reynold’s furious barrage filled the tent with silence. But his rage showed no sign of cooling.
“If we had arrived first, we would’ve killed the dragon already. I knew this would happen the moment you started calling yourself a hero and trying to win Father’s favor.”
“His Majesty said he trusted me. So I’ve done everything I could to pursue the Black Flame Dragon and—”
“Then you should’ve brought its head! Don’t just stand there making excuses with that dumb look on your face!”
Kyle fell silent at Reynold’s explosive outburst.
Reynold, regaining his composure, strode up to Kyle and grabbed his chin, forcing him to raise his head.
The sneer on Reynold’s face as he looked down at Kyle was twisted with scorn.
“I told you, didn’t I? That you should stop trying to act like something you’re not and just keep your head down. People should always know their place. And if they overstep, they should know how to accept the consequences.”
