Chapter 236
- In a villainous world full of cunning, the clumsy cannot survive (2)
“Good.”Â
It felt like I was back home.
– Of course it feels like home, you are back in an evil organization! This is really your home!
These were the words of Metal bat rolling around on the bed with my daughter.
I’m grateful Metal bat didn’t yell loudly for her to hear, but I wish she had just not said anything at all.
– These days this is all I do!
– You beat up a lot of kids.Â
– I’m bored of beating up the same kids over and over! Bring me the disciples I used to beat up a lot back at the organization!
He’s the one running around busily right now doing the work I assigned.Â
I can’t knock out someone who’s working hard for me.
Like that guy over there.
“What’s the current location?”
“Please give me a moment.”
Sitting on a chair, Shuttle prayed to God saying ‘Oh Lord, why do you test me so? Please save your humble servant.’ I asked him to check on the Demon King’s location.
“Ummm…. uhhhh…”
With grunts and groans he started praying, and after about a minute told me the Demon King’s location.
“He has reached near the kingdom’s border now.”
“That was fast.”
According to Shuttle, he’s not traveling alone but with the massive army that annihilated the Ruvella City Alliance.Â
He’s leading an army of tens of thousands, and reached the border just 10 days after I escaped on a drake.Â
“I need to prepare to flee faster.”
“It seems so.”
Has he given up? Shuttle nodded with a blank expression.
Just listening to his prayers, it sounds like he thinks there’s no hope left other than divine salvation.
– So you won’t beat him anymore?
– As if.Â
Anyway, one is one thing, the other is another.Â
Although I didn’t see him for long, Shuttle seemed to have lived as a saint of a religious order, not lying.
But the guy next to him is a disciple from when I was at my peak as an instructor!Â
I trained him to con better than most conmen, so I had to be extra careful around him.
So I can’t let my guard down!
– Why did I teach you all those useless skills…
– They’d be useful on missions, and in case you escaped the organization, you could make a living as a conman. It was meant as consideration.
Howling would bring in kids who grew up in bad environments and train them, so the loyalty of the members was high.
Kids starving and dying on the streets, kids abused daily by slave merchants – we took them in, gave them beds to sleep in, three meals a day and even snacks sometimes.
Well, we did take a lot more from them later, but compared to dying, Howling was like heaven for them.
So very few ever tried to escape… though oddly, it was mostly my disciples who did.
Could the first one who escaped, Atsuki, have gathered other escapee villains, no, escapee ninjas?Â
If it was him, the first of my disciples to escape, he was more than capable of that.
One guy is a former villain and hero, currently called the Demon King, while the other is a former villain and hero, currently the head of the Akaki!
Speaking of which, since I met the first and second generation disciples, will I meet the third generation next?
I hope it’s someone like Rudna who’s full of fear towards the bat, since I could make use of him in many ways.
And if I meet someone like Raine or Sia…
“Should I just give up on life?”
Meeting Raine means meeting the princess, and Sia means a similar level of threat.
Scary.
I’m in my forties now, so why can’t the world just leave me be?Â
Haven’t I suffered enough to earn some peace?
Share it out among the other kids too!
“Daddy come play too!”
Was it because I unexpectedly met successive disciples that I was lost in thought? My daughter called out to me with a bright smile, seeming to heal my soul.
“Should I?”
My daughter giggling and rolling around on the bed looks so cute and loveable.
The main point is dodging her collisions with the Metal bat at the last second even as she persists in rolling around.
Only an innocent child can have such artless playfulness.Â
Seeing my daughter’s purity heals my heart.
Right. Just because I met the first and second generation disciples doesn’t mean I’ll meet the third generation ones too.
So there’s no need for useless thoughts. This is a time I need healing for my weary soul!
“Yay!”
I sit on the bed and tickle my daughter’s side.
“Ah, daddy!”
Surprised by the sudden attack, my daughter’s face turns red.
“Yay yay!”
“Hahaha! St-stop!”
I launch a âtwo-handed tickle attackâ as she glares at me, and she starts rolling around the bed screaming.
With me and the Metal bat already on it, there’s no risk of her falling off the huge bed even as she rolls around!
Looking at the bed that seems bigger than the whole room we used to live in, I realize again that being the boss makes you rich.
“Master, I have completed everything you ordered.”
I look at the disciple who used to be a Howling executive in this room’s previous owner and is now the Head of Darkness.
My first thought is,
“You didn’t run away?”
To be honest, I expected him to flee with the hero guy.
“Haha! How could I? When I received orders from you, as divine as the heavens, how could I run away!”
Bullshit.Â
How can I trust someone who tried to attack me as soon as he realized I didn’t have the bat in my hand?
I can’t trust those who call themselves my disciples more than complete strangers. Â
Who taught them?
– That’s right. How can we trust someone taught by that master!
Yes, I admit it. Since I taught them, there’s no reason to trust them!
“You probably just didn’t run away because you thought you’d get caught.”
“How could that be so.”
His instant reply is actually more suspicious.
Well, there is nothing I can do since he didn’t run away.Â
All the plans I’d prepared went down the drain. I was going to turn the Demon King detector, Hil into a Hero detector to catch him if he ran with the hero.Â
If he escaped alone, I was going to honeypot this organization.
“Nice room.”
But the moment they didn’t escape, both plans had to be scrapped.
Oh well, I managed to secure some useful slaves… I mean disciples, so I’m satisfied.
“You have sharp eyes. This room was made by dwarves…”
“Oh ho!”Â
It’s no coincidence that three of the secret passages he mentioned were here.
No one can match the dwarves when it comes to escape routes.
There are some human experts, but most are killed after construction to keep it secret, so they’re hard to find.
On the other hand, you can’t casually kill dwarves, so there are many experts among them.
They’re a clan that would die before breaking a promise of secrecy.
Moreover, to begin with, only a handful of people can even meet dwarves. If you’re not connected to them, you can’t meet dwarves at all.
“Is it the Black Moru clan?”
I mentioned the name of a clan I often used.
The ones who made the wooden and metal bat, with such outstanding skills they modified Yugrasia in just months!
I haven’t met them since getting owned by the princess in Yugrasia, but I still trust in their skills.Â
However,
“I’d rather choose death over trusting that cursed clan.”
To my disciples, they seemed to be an even more evil clan than demons.
“Is that so?”
“Yes. This place was made by the White Flame clan. Unlike the filthy Black Moru, they are pure.”
What, because black is dirty and white is clean?
That kind of racist remark could get you canceled in a past life.
Before that, dwarven clans have nothing to do with color!
Honestly, even dwarves couldn’t tell each other apart if you mixed the two clans!
“Ahem! Anyway, it’s the best room.”
At my former disciple’s bragging about his room, I nodded in agreement.
“Right, to think my room is this nice a room.”
“Huh?”
He tilts his head and looks at me.
He was never cute, and seeing a guy in his 40s act like this is just gross.
“I like the room introduction.”
“Wha, what?”
Yup, that what.
“Take good care of it from now on, disciple.”
To think he made such an excellent room for me. The effort of raising disciples really pays off.
– It’ll be seized from him.
– Don’t want it?
– It’s the best, boss!
The bat keeps rolling around, seeming to love the soft bed despite being a metal ball.Â
If even the bat acknowledges it, this bed must be great! As expected, beds are not AX’s specialty, but dwarves.
“Th, then where should I sleep?”
“There’s a lot of rooms, right?”
Or to be precise, there aren’t that many rooms.
It’s an organization in the back alleys of a city. If we had conspicuous huge buildings, it’d be like asking to get caught.
Then how does a huge organization like Darkness operate?
The answer is simple.
Control the entire back alley area, and make every building there Darkness’s property.
In other words, every building in the alley is a Darkness hideout!
They are individual buildings, yet connected by secret passages to move between them like one big building.
“Or you can just sleep in another building, whatever.”
Sending him to another building means he might escape. Then I can reuse the plan I scrapped earlier.
Subjugate the hero with metal bat, then subjugate Darkness with the subjugated hero.
After that, check the information gathered in Darkness, take anything worth money, and flee the moment the Demon King crosses the border.
“Can I really do that?”
Did he waver for a moment? My former disciple looked at me shaking. I nodded.
“Do as you like.”
What if this, what if that.
Anyway, once the Demon King crosses the border, I have to flee. I don’t have the resources to bring this guy along.
I’m letting him go anyway, so I don’t care if he escapes.
“Um…”
At my words, his eyes started darting around.
“I will…”
“No, you can’t.”Â
Seeing my former disciple deliberating, I swiftly denied Shuttle’s hopes.
“I see…”
I feel bad for Shuttle who instantly looks dejected, but you’re sleeping on that sofa in the corner.
It’s dwarf-made, so it’ll be softer than most beds.
“I will live here. If I don’t serve you master, who will!”
That was my former disciple’s decision after deliberating.
It might look like a wholesome master-disciple bond, but
– A disciple taught by that master can’t be such a wholesome guy.
– Right?
None of my disciples readily listened to me.
Other than weirdos like Sia and Mirea, they either attacked me or fled as soon as they saw the bat.
In other words, this considerate behavior means he’s plotting against me.
“Is that so? I’ll leave it to you then.” Â
Spelling that out is being too naive.
The intermediate move is to secretly prevent the opponent’s intended action, while the advanced move is to use the opponent’s intended action for your own benefit.
My opponent is the boss of an evil organization, quite skilled, but not yet at my level.
I’m in my forties. I’ve spent more than half my life in evil organizations as a villain!
Disciple, in a villain’s world full of cunning, the clumsy cannot survive!
I decided to teach him that as a final lesson.
But…
“Huh?”
It seems I’m the one who has fallen into a trap.