Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 3
I pressed both palms against the mirror, denying what I was seeing.
The moment I did, the mirror suddenly turned pitch black. Startled, I took a step back, and an image began to appear on its surface.
“We have only one goal!”
A man clad in silver plate armor raised his sword high and shouted. In response, dozens—no, hundreds—of people standing before him also lifted their swords.
“To vanquish the evil Black Flame Dragon!”
“Waaaaahhh!”
The deafening roar of the crowd nearly burst my eardrums. The mirror reflected an endless procession of humans, marching forward.
“Black Flame Dragon…?”
That’s when it hit me.
Last night, before going to bed, I had read a run-of-the-mill mass-produced fantasy novel about a hero’s party defeating an evil Black Flame Dragon and becoming celebrated heroes.
No way… Was I really the final villain of that novel, the evil Black Flame Dragon?
That’s ridiculous.
I shook my head vehemently, trying to reject the idea. But the mirror, ignoring my denial, shifted to another scene.
“We need to eliminate the Black Flame Dragon before the subjugation force is wiped out. Let’s pick up the pace.”
A man with dazzling golden hair spoke firmly to the others around him.
“They must have lost their damn minds. Just a week ago, that dragon slaughtered and burned down Haxeller Barony where over three hundred people lived.”
A man in a gray hood shook his head as he spoke. Beside him stood a man in white robes, and next to him, another man with messy, dark gray hair.
I could tell at a glance—they were the hero’s party, the protagonists of the novel. And with that, I finally understood my situation.
They’re all coming to kill me.
And in the novel, the Black Flame Dragon was gruesomely slaughtered.
“…Oh, I’m screwed.”
If I resisted them like the original story, I would be killed.
I needed to find a way to survive.
‘I’m not a dragon. I just suddenly woke up in the body of a dragon. In reality, I’m a kind person who wouldn’t even hurt an ant.’
I considered trying to convince them with words, but they wouldn’t believe me. That was too obvious.
“Wait… I’m in human form right now, aren’t I?”
In the novel, the dragon had never appeared in its polymorphed human form. Which meant… there was a chance they didn’t even know the Black Flame Dragon could take human form.
I had no reason to act like the villain in the novel. I had no interest in conquering the world, hoarding treasure, or protecting this useless, shabby lair.
That left me with only one option for survival.
Run away as far as my legs could take me.
***
Sometimes in life, you stop and wonder if you’re heading in the right direction. Standing at a fork in the road, I crossed my arms with a serious expression.
I think I’m lost.
Determined to abandon the lair and flee, I had confidently rushed out of the cave. But now, half a day had passed, and I was still wandering aimlessly through the forest.
The woods were annoyingly vast, and since no one had traveled here in a long time, there were no proper paths to follow.
“Wait, why am I struggling? I can just use a pathfinding spell.”
I vaguely recalled seeing a pathfinding spell in the same magic book where I had learned polymorph magic. That book had also contained spells on using subspace storage.
Stopping in my tracks, I opened a subspace pocket to search for the book.
Inside, a chaotic mess of junk was haphazardly piled up.
Before leaving the lair, I had scoured the entire cave for anything useful. The space where I had first woken up had been ridiculously large. In one of the rooms, there had even been a mountain of gold and treasures.
Lacking the time to properly sort through what was necessary and what wasn’t, I had simply dumped everything into my subspace storage.
“When the hell am I going to organize all this?”
If I’d had more time, I would have only taken what I needed. Muttering complaints under my breath, I dug through the chaotic pile in search of the magic book.
But then, at that moment, a sudden chill crawled up my spine, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
Sensing an ominous presence, I immediately shut the subspace and heightened my guard.
According to the book I had read about dragons, a dragon’s lair naturally exuded miasma, which attracted terrifying monsters.
However, that same miasma was also generated infinitely by my dragon heart, and monsters were supposed to be too afraid of dragons to even come near me.
Which meant, there was only one possible explanation.
The hero’s party.
