The Villain Of The Horror Game Dreams Of The Heroine Every Night

The street vibrated with cheers.

The face of the knight commander who knelt down and received the insignia, the symbol of Carpathia, turned red.

‘He’s the commander of the Paradiso Knights, Bart…’

Leonhard was deep in thought.

It was a name he had never heard of. Still, even though he knew his name, he had no more business with the Carpathians. Then, he squinted towards Celine, who had her eyes wide open, concentrating on the image of the sky.

‘Is it true that it was her first time with the Carpathia?’

He approached her slightly with a sense of emotion. At that moment, blue-gray eyes gazed straight at him.

“Thank you. While you don’t like the Carpathia.”

“Was it that obvious?”

Leonhard muttered with a bit of embarrassment.

“Leonhard didn’t make it obvious. I just thought you might.”

“You don’t need to use your prophet’s powers here.”

She laughed out loud and walked over to him. As the tousled hair tickled Leonhard’s chin, he swallowed a gulp. Celine looked up at him, and it felt like it took her a long time before she opened her mouth and spoke.

“Shall we go back now?”

The road back to the hotel was more congested than when the festival had just begun. Celine walked while holding Leonhard’s arm tightly. She wasn’t confident that she could find her own way. When she finally arrived at the Grand Hotel, both Leonhard and Celine were soaked in fatigue.

However, they couldn’t rest.

It was because the manager knocked on the door.

“What’s going on?”

Leonhard asked slightly sharply.

“Lor, Lord… The, the commander of the Paradiso Knights…”

“What?”

At those words, he jumped up from the sofa.

“What’s going on?”

“I have something to tell you.”

Celine’s eyes widened.

The man who passed the manager and entered was the knight commander whom she saw as an image in the sky. He had run straight from the Carpathia ceremony and still had a purple insignia hanging over his shoulder.

“Were you the Paradiso’s commander Bart?”

“Yes.”

Commander Bart immediately bowed his head politely and greeted him.

“What’s going on?”

“I have wanted to see the Lord for a long time, but I have never had a chance because of my location. Moreover, I heard that it was thanks to the Lord that I was chosen…”

Leonhard gave her a bitter smile as Celine turned to him with a surprised face.

Celine fell asleep early that day after a hunting contest as she was tired though she had no idea that there was a controversy on who was going to be the Carpathia.

It was the Paradiso Knights that killed the boss monster, but there was another knight who cut the most monster’s head. If the Paradiso knights had been the one strong candidate for the Carpathia, it would not have been a problem.

However, a number of leading candidates strongly opposed the rise of the Paradiso Knights, which they had been ignoring.

“It’s been almost ten years since the Knights killed the boss monster. It’s a given.”

“I still wanted to thank you.”

“…It’s an honor. So, you’re not here just to say hello, right?”

As Leonhard offered him a seat, Bart began to speak, cautiously sitting his hips across the lavish sofa.

“I want to take this opportunity to wipe out the monsters in the border area. Even the boss monsters.”

Leonhard blinked.

It was a little surprising. The Knights who became Carpathia were given various benefits. Accommodation, horses, weapons, training grounds, and even missions and the right to ask for help. Because of that, most of the Carpathia used that benefit to avoid monsters as much as possible.

“After all the hard work, I thought you would want to rest.”

“What have we suffered?”

Bart grinned.

“It was all done by the Lord.”

“So, this time, you want to wipe out all the monsters in the border area with your own power?”

“Actually, that’s…”

Bart made a smirk.

“At first, we tried to go once again by mobilizing other knights. But frankly, there are very few of them who will actually be of help.”

“I see.”

“If the Lord helps, all members of Paradiso will honor you with their lives.”

“….”

Leonhard looked at him.

Bart, one of the youngest members of the Knights, was sweating profusely, apparently nervous.

“There is one thing I would like to hear from you. Why do you want to deal with the monsters in the border area?”

“…What?”

“You are already a Carpathia. There’s nothing higher than that. You also know that you can’t become Carpathia in a row.”

“What are you saying as if it doesn’t do us any good?”

“Well.”

Bart’s firm, tense lips moved.

“Because I think I have to… If so, would you believe it?”

Leonhard rose from his seat and shook Bart’s stiff hand.

“That’s enough of an answer. If we set a schedule, I will ask His Highness Ricardo for assistance instead.”

“Thank you.”

After the knight commander Bart left, Leonhard spoke to Celine with a dark look.

“I’m sorry.”

“What is there to be sorry for? It’s something we have to do.”

“…Isn’t the lifting of your curse delayed?”

“It’s okay. I don’t even know where to go right now.”

Saying so, she shrugged her shoulders. After she cleared the third stage of the true ending route, she wandered for a while because there were no quests to give her directions.

‘I didn’t have to.’

The true ending route was like a train running on the main track. The next quest would appear sooner or later. However, Leonhard seemed to take it too seriously.

“What do you mean?”

“Literally. It didn’t show up in my dreams…”

“Even a little?”

Celine nodded her head.

She vaguely remembered the next stages.

‘Was it the swamp after the volcano, then a poisonous area…’

Since all stages except the second have appeared one after the other so far, it was highly probable that the next one was the swamp. Still, unlike the volcano, swamps were not common in the area where she lived.

“There was something like a swamp.”

Celine answered reluctantly.

“But, I don’t know where the swamp is.”

“…Swamp?”

Leonhard frowned.

“It will take some time to find it.”

“It wouldn’t be that much.”

Celine replied bitterly.

“I think there was one near the border.”

“Really?”

“From my experience so far, I don’t think you have to go to a small swamp. There aren’t that many huge swamps.”

“Ah…”

Celine swallowed a gulp.

Come to think of it, it was a huge swamp that covered the entire stage. She hoped that the next stage, the Poison Zone and the Swamp Zone, would lead to the story. As Leonhard said, it would not be an ordinary swampy area.

“There are only a few in the Empire that are like that.”

“Really?”

Leonhard looked up at her, who suddenly had a bright face, and continued to speak happily.

“One of them is near the border. I don’t think it would be a bad idea to go.”

“Of course!”

The blue-gray eyes gleamed.

“…So, I would like you to send me, Lute Celine, and the entire Carpathia Paradiso knights to the border.”

He waited nervously for the Crown Prince’s answer.

The Crown Prince’s mood today didn’t look bad, but he couldn’t predict his answer because his attitude towards Leonhard had become cold recently.

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why are you going to the border at this time!”

At that moment, Leonhard had an intuition.

‘…We’re doomed.’

The Crown Prince jumped up from his seat as he continued his words.

“I even laughed it off when it was reported that you were roaming the entire empire. Though you want me to send the Carpathia this time?”

Only then did he realize the exact reason why the Crown Prince was angry.

He must have thought that Leonhard’s plan was to take out the Imperial Family’s key troops. Nonetheless, he did not say that this was precisely the request of the Paradiso Knights. If the sparks of wrath bounced, the knights with a weak position would collapse.

“I think it is right to completely wipe out the monsters in the border area this time.”

“That’s your idea.”

The Crown Prince’s eyes narrowed.

“Do whatever you want. After all, after that day, didn’t you just do what you wanted?”

“….”

“But, I can’t give you any support. It takes a month to get to the border without magic, right?”

Leonhard managed his contorted face.

The northern part of the country was famous for its vast land and the wealth accumulated every year, but there was only one wizard who worked for the Grand Duchy.

Lute Carl.

Not only was he too busy, but he would also get sick for days if he moved many people at once by himself.

‘He’s telling me not to go.’

Leonhard sighed inside and left the Crown Prince’s office.

He had no idea how to explain this to Commander Bart. How did he, the protector of the empire, undermine the imperial authority by himself?

However, thinking about it round and round, he couldn’t come up with a proper excuse. Moreover, when he recalled the upright eyes and attitude of the commander, it seemed that he could not be deceived by any excuses.

Leonhard returned to the Grand Hotel, where he decided to take a day or so to think.

“The Crown Prince refused.”

“I see.”

Celine noticed the situation just by looking at Leonhard’s dark face.

“Why?”

“…I don’t know. And he didn’t completely deny it. He just said that he would not support us.”

“However, the Knights of Paradiso are now the Carpathia. Weapons, horses, or anything will not matter.”

“Movement is a problem.”

“Ah…!”

A sigh escaped Celine’s mouth.

It was because she remembered the fact that all the wizards belonging to the Imperial Family were mobilized when they moved to the border for the hunting contest.

At that time, she did not see the wizards casting magic directly.

However, the wonder she felt when she was enveloped in a massive flow of magic and moved a long distance in an instant was still vivid.

“Still, wouldn’t it be possible because the scale is much smaller than it was back then?”

“We have no wizards.”

“…What?”

Leonhard immediately realized his mistake.

“We have no wizard who is good at movement magic enough to move dozens of people at once.”

“I’ll try.”

“….?”

“Instead, it may be a little less accurate.”

“It doesn’t matter if you can do it, but didn’t you learn movement magic from Lute Carl?”

“I know the theory.”

Celine answered calmly.

Movement magic only took several days to prepare, and it required the highest quality magic stone, so she had never actually used it until now. Despite that, there was nothing wrong with being hesitant if she had never done it before.

“It’s a theory… Besides, wouldn’t it be much more difficult to move a large unit.”

“You have to practice.”

“How?”

Leonhard asked, unable to grasp a clue. It was not about moving one or two people. Where would he get people of that size just to practice magic?

Eventually, Celine answered, looking at him as if he was asking something so obvious.

“Wouldn’t it be easiest to do it with parties?”