Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord - Volume 6 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Hidden Boss (Left Side) Reunites with the Demon Lord

Okay, let me explain things from the beginning. My name is Yumiella Dolkness. Ever since I was reincarnated into the world of an otome game, I have been the one and only villainess! You know the rest from there, right?

I threw myself into level grinding. I defeated the Demon Lord along with a few other guys and even fell in love. I’m even getting married soon... No, let’s not go into that. I became level 99, and then I uncapped my level. Level grinding really is the best!

Then I died... I don’t know how. I met this young man who claims to be a hero, and I’m listening to an explanation about the afterlife—no, the Kingdom of Twilight...

The hero had used a mysterious piece of paper that was divided into a white side and a black side by a red line to explain where we were, and he’d just finished up.

“That’s it. Any questions?”

“How did you make that paper?” I asked. After listening to the king’s lecture on the Kingdom of Twilight, I was most interested in the mysterious sheet of paper. It was half white and half black, and tracing the border between the colors made a red line appear and disappear.

The king let out a nervous chuckle over how that was what I wanted to know about, and my question was answered by the cat-eared man holding the cat.

“A god made it and gave it to us, meow!”

“Huh, so you have gods here too?”

“That’s right, meow! We only see him once in a while, but he’s a nice god that tells us anything we want to know, meow!”

Wow. He made you guys this mysterious paper just to use as a visual aid and stuff, so he really seems like a good guy. He’s nothing like a certain Lemn I know.

It was thanks to the black-and-white paper that I was able to grasp the concept of the existent-yet-nonexistent Kingdom of Twilight, though it was only a vague understanding.

I looked out at the still unusual sight of the red-toned world. Now that I knew its true identity, this lonely, barren terrain felt even sadder.

I now knew where I was and had learned that it wasn’t really the afterlife, but that didn’t change the fact that I was dead. I died while holding regrets and was clinging to life in the Kingdom of Twilight. It doesn’t really feel like I died... I don’t even know how I died, so it doesn’t really sit right with me. As I silently ruminated over the fact that I’d died, the king spoke up.

“Everyone says that the Kingdom of Twilight experiences a perpetual sunset. Life has ended, and you must accept death—the sun setting. But you looked out at the horizon and declared it was the sunrise.”

“I didn’t really give it much thought,” I clarified.

“There hasn’t been anyone in several hundred years who has looked at that sight and thought it was dawn. I’ve known it ever since we first met—the sun will rise, and I’ll be alive once more.” As he declared his resurrection, the hero’s eyes glimmered in a way that was the opposite of what one would expect from a dead man.

From his explanation earlier, I’d thought that this world was on a one-way path from life to death, but seeing how confident he was, it was starting to feel possible.

“Is there a way to be alive again?” I asked.

“I have some leads. I think that you’ll also be a key to resurrection.”

Me? I haven’t used any magic since coming here, nor have I shown off my strength. Is there anything I can do aside from using brute force...?

“You’ve just arrived in the Kingdom of Twilight. In other words, you haven’t been affected by this world yet.”

He probably meant that my appearance hadn’t been changed by the world, like the painter’s had been. Because she wished to draw art that reflected reality, her body had changed to look like her art.

The middle-aged man’s ears also grew because of his regrets from when he was alive. I could understand his wish to have lived like a cat, so I could almost accept his twitching bouncy cat ears... Never mind. I can’t.

The regal-looking king, with his crown and cape, could actually have a different original appearance. Perhaps he was a civilian who just really wanted to become king. I wasn’t going to ask him about it, since such a regret from one’s life was probably incredibly personal, but I couldn’t stop from imagining what his regrets were.

What about the calico kitty that the cat-eared man is holding? Does he not count because he’s a cat?

Perhaps my body was going to change at some point as well. I couldn’t imagine how it was going to change. I inspected my body, but neither my left arm nor my left leg showed any signs of transformations. I’m sure all newly dead people look like this... What about me makes the king think I’m special?

The king waffled a bit and seemed like he had difficulty getting something out, but he finally opened his mouth. “Your body has already changed...”

“Huh? What? Is something weird? Is it my face?” I touched my left cheek with my left hand, but it felt the same as usual.

Is he mistaken? Is something actually different? I glanced over at the cat-eared man, confused, and he awkwardly averted his gaze.

“Has something about me changed?” I asked. “I’d like to see a mirror.”

“We do have a mirror, but...” The king pulled out a small hand mirror, but he seemed to be unsure of whether he should give it to me. He finally, though hesitantly, handed it to me, and I snatched it from him with my left hand before peering into it.

“Huh...? What is this?”

“You’ve been like that since we first met. It wasn’t gradual—you were just like that from the start. It’s not a change, but a disappearance... You’re full of unprecedented phenomena.”

Only half of my face showed up in the mirror. The right side of my face was gone, as if I’d been vertically split down the middle. The cross section was filled in with a dark black.

It wasn’t just my head. Half of my body was gone, split down the middle as well. My right arm and right leg were nowhere in sight.

Nothing had felt painful or abnormal since I’d woken up. I was able to walk normally, and it was a bit inconvenient that I couldn’t use my right hand, but it hadn’t bothered me.

I never thought that I’d be split down the middle from head to toe. Perhaps the reason for my death, which I had no recollection of, was related to this. Maybe my right side was destroyed? But Black Hole wouldn’t leave a clean cross section like this, so nothing comes to mind.

Curious about the cross section, I touched the flat, black surface with my left hand, as if to touch my cheek. It didn’t feel like my face was being touched, and there was a cool metallic sensation.

So I was sliced down the middle by a katana. My right half was incinerated, and my left half was coated in metal...and one of those things killed me. Nope, that definitely can’t be it.

Apparently, regardless of whether you were crushed or had lost a limb when you died, once you arrived in the Kingdom of Twilight, you would appear as your healthy self from when you were alive. That meant there had to be a special reason as to why I only had my left half.

Even if it was an effect of the Kingdom of Twilight, I couldn’t think of any wishes of mine that would’ve made my right side disappear. I didn’t have any insecurities about my right side, and I never wanted to cut my weight in half or anything...

“I wonder why my right half is gone,” I mused aloud.

“If you don’t know, I wouldn’t know either,” the king said, shaking his head before he continued. “I don’t know why, but if we try to figure out why that happened to you, it might give us a lead as to how we can become alive again.”

“You mentioned that before, but is there an actual way to get back to the mortal world?”

“I’ve been looking for it for a long time. I’ve found some things that could be hints as to how to do it. That’s why I’d like you to help me. You want to go back to living too, right? I’m sure you have unfinished business.” The glimmer of hope in the king’s eyes shone even brighter, and it felt like daybreak had arrived in this dim world.

I had plenty of unfinished business. I wanted to spend more time with Patrick, and I wanted to have more fun with Eleanora and Ryuu. I wanted to raise my level further, and as for my wedding...I kind of wanted to do it.

“I’ll help you. I want to be alive again as well!”

My mind was focused on all the things that I wanted to be alive for—that was why I hadn’t thought enough about what it would mean to come back to life.

◆◆◆

Though it seemed like we were about to set off, Mr. Cat Ears put a damper on the atmosphere.

“Are you really going to go, meow?”

“We’ll be fine,” I said.

“It’s not good to be in the sunlight. The king doesn’t pay it any mind and walks around, but he’s special. You shouldn’t do it.” The fact that his speech quirk was gone meant that he was probably sincerely worried.

I definitely need to go, though. I silently shook my head, and the older man sighed and seemed to give up. He then set the calico down to the side and handed me a small glass bottle of something.

“At least take this with you.”

“Is that...perfume?” I probably knew it was perfume right away because of Eleanora. I couldn’t contain my curiosity, and I immediately did a single spray on my wrist and smelled it. What could my gift from the cat-eared man be...? “Is it the smell of crime...?”

That was the kind of scent where you couldn’t tell what the offense was. Because it wasn’t a clear breaking of the law, an officer would probably have a hard time trying to come up with a charge for his cat ears. Anyway, there was no such fragrance, and I couldn’t really place the scent. It felt like flowers enveloped by a spicy aroma.

“It’s the smell of here. It’s based on the Kingdom of Twilight.”

“It’s ‘based on’...?” The way he’d phrased that made it sound like he’d made the perfume himself, so I’d repeated what he said as a question.

He nodded. “Yes, I made it. I’ve been making things like that since back when I was alive. I passed out from exhaustion after overworking, and I retired. After that, I dabbled in fragrances.”

So Mr. Cat Ears made perfumes as a hobby during retirement... I’ve heard of another person who got into perfumery after retiring, but is it a popular hobby for seniors, like hiking and making noodles from scratch?

I took another whiff of the fragrance, but I still couldn’t tell what it smelled like. He said it’s based on the Kingdom of Twilight, but I don’t think this desert has a smell... I looked at the hero as if to ask if my nose wasn’t working, but he just gave me a troubled laugh. This was apparently a part of the cat-eared man’s sensibilities.

“It’s a barren wasteland in a perpetual sunset, but the people live peacefully, doing as they please,” he continued, his speech quirk still gone. “I got the idea for the scent of a gentle afterlife.”

“Are you perhaps Quartus...?” I didn’t think it was actually possible, but a certain person’s name left my mouth.

The unfortunate perfumer, Quartus, had started making perfume after he’d retired. He was inspired by scenery and culture and created fragrances using his unique sensibilities... It matched up too closely, but there was no way that the man Eleanora respected looked so ridiculous.

“How do you know my name?”

“You’re really Quartus?! The Quartus?!”

“I’m not sure what you’re mistaken about, but I’m not too special of a person. Ever since I was young, I followed my father’s words and studied, and I worked as a bureaucrat just as he did. I died without ever getting married. I wanted to freely travel the world like my younger brother did, but I had no strength to do so once I retired. I’m just a man who died regretting not having given myself more freedom and not having rested more.”

Hearing how he lived a life that would make anyone want to become a cat, I was even more certain he was definitely Quartus. I was a bit familiar with the details of his life postretirement.

“You began making perfume after you retired when you passed out from exhaustion, right?”

“I’d always admired perfumers. But it was just the hobby of an old hermit, so no one took me seriously.”

“Your work gained notoriety after your death. Your perfumes are a huge hit!”

The reason he was known as the unfortunate perfumer was because he’d passed before he could see his work praised. The late bloomer Quartus didn’t get to be there when his work saw the light of day. Currently, it was so renowned that Eleanora, who was quite the fragrance lover, raved about his scents. I’d heard about them countless times.

“That’s impossible. The perfumes I made were...”

I had no interest in perfume whatsoever, but I couldn’t help but remember some things after hearing the same story hundreds—no, thousands of times. I knew what he was going to say.

“...fake fragrances,” we both said in unison. The man was shocked by how I’d matched him perfectly, so I continued in his stead.

“The reason your fragrances were called fake was because they were based on places and things that you didn’t know. You made scents based on unfamiliar scenery, culture, and flowers that your brother wrote about in his travelogues as he wandered the world.”

There were scents based on a deep, dark forest crowded with giant trees, a kingdom filled with cheery music lovers, a rare flower that only grew in certain regions. The scents based on things no one knew weren’t immediately accepted, but they’d only gained popularity after the perfumer had passed by fueling people’s imaginations with a peek into an unknown world.

Though he hadn’t believed me, now that I’d said the motivations behind his work, he was flustered. “B-But...I was someone who’d only left my town a handful of times. The scents I imagined based on mere text were definitely off the mark...”

“That’s right. They smelled nothing like the real thing. That one rare flower is locally notorious for smelling terrible.”

If someone could only know of the scent of a rare flower through a perfume, it was human of them to be curious as to what the real thing smelled like. One noble lady from a very important aristocratic family spent a hefty chunk of money to import the flower from another continent. The flower that arrived had the features she’d heard of, but it gave off a horrid smell that was hard to endure. His brother’s travelogues had only described the appearance of the flower, so there was no way Quartus could’ve known, but the lady herself was apparently shocked to her core.

“It smelled terrible? My brother never said anything of the sort...”

After the rancid flower was delivered to her, the noble lady hadn’t lost hope, but she did think it was strange. She went as far as to get her hands on the travelogues and researched everything she could about the younger brother—or rather, she had other people research it for her. This noble lady had no investigation skills. She then reached a certain conclusion: there was another reason his fragrances were “fake.”

“Your brother didn’t know either,” I said. “He only knew what the flower looked like.”

“Why? My brother’s nose worked fine. He didn’t describe the smell, but he wrote in detail about the smell of the ocean as he sailed across it.”

“He only knew the smell of the ocean. He never traveled the world. After he left home, he spent his days working in a port town.”

In his older brother’s twilight years, Quartus’s brother appeared before him and left him his travelogues, which were filled with nothing but lies. He had just made it seem like he himself had experienced the stories he’d heard from others. Of course, his travelogues were manufactured tales.

Why had he lied? No one knew his true intentions, but his older brother seemed to understand.

“That kid... My younger brother had always been a show-off since a young age. He’d say he’d gotten in a fight and won or that he’d found a gemstone on the street—he’d always tell such tall tales. He was probably scamming people in that port town, wasn’t he?”

“No, not at all. He seemed to be working at a trading company, managing their books. I’ve heard that there were tons of cargo from ships every day, so it was really hard work.”

These brothers had led similar lives. They both battled with paperwork, and the younger made fake travelogues while the older made fake fragrances.

Eleanora said that the fake scents made based on fake stories were much more memorable than the real thing. Even though I didn’t care about this topic, she’d mentioned that enough that it was burned into my memory.

“I wished to have lived like my brother, relaxing like a cat, but it seems I was mistaken,” the man said. “The truth is...I wanted to travel the world with him.”

That was a difficult regret to resolve. Becoming a cat was probably easier.

I wanted to tell him of his success, so I couldn’t help myself, but perhaps I shouldn’t have said anything. I wasn’t sure what to say to him, and I stood there silent. Suddenly, a voice came from below.

“I was mistaken too. I thought I wanted to live like the cats who mooched off fishermen for fish, but that was misguided.”

Huh? Who’s talking? I scanned the area, looking for the owner of the voice I couldn’t see, but all I saw was a calico. You don’t talk, do you, kitty? As I stared at the cat, his ears fell off. In the blink of an eye, the cat grew larger and changed into a human. He became a middle-aged man who looked similar to Quartus.

“I wanted to travel the world with you too,” he said.

Wait. So the cat-eared man is the older brother, and the former cat is the younger brother? The man and the cat really were related?

I seemed to be the only one who was surprised that the cat turned into a human. I would’ve expected him to be shocked that the cat he’d known was his younger brother, but the siblings shared no words of reunion and walked off together.

“We can explore the Kingdom of Twilight. It’s rarer than any hidden land.”

“That’s true. I can write the travelogues, and you can look at those to make your perfumes.”

“I don’t need your manufactured travelogues since I’ll be seeing the real thing.”

“This time my logs will be just as real as your scents.”

The similar-looking siblings then stepped out into the dim expanse. Though the older brother had been so afraid of the sunlight, he stood in it with his brother as they both turned into sand and disappeared.

“They’re gone... Why?” I asked.

“Their regrets from when they were alive are gone. It’s just like the painter who disappeared earlier. They’re satisfied...even though morning hasn’t come yet.”

This was perhaps an everyday occurrence in the Kingdom of Twilight, but they hadn’t been the same as the painter. I wasn’t happy with the way the hero had described them as being “satisfied.”

“But they haven’t traveled the world together yet!”

“Their wish was probably to take a step into an unknown world together...”

I see. I guess if their regrets were resolved at the same time, I should probably be happy about that. I was a bit sad to be parting with the impressive people I’d just met, and I voiced the strongest feeling in my heart.

“The calico...was a middle-aged man.”

“I’ve been saying it this whole time. The calico was the younger brother.”

I mean, I’d never think that a man with cat ears and a sweet, adorable calico were blood-related siblings. I regretted not petting the calico before he turned back into a human.

“Let’s hurry,” the hero said. “It’s before daybreak. Let’s take back our morning.”

“Okay...”

The painter and the cat siblings both thought of this world as experiencing a perpetual sunset. Even after seeing the reality of the Kingdom of Twilight, I didn’t want to give up on being alive again. We had been on our way out of the settlement to look for some clues.

I took a step onto the earth lit by the light of dawn.

◆◆◆

The hero and I were walking the red wasteland, headed towards the light source spilling over the horizon. We were basically going back on the path we took from where I woke up to the settlement.

Bad things would happen if you were in the sunlight...was what the cat-eared man had heard from a god. The reason was much too vague, and the hero didn’t seem to care about it.

“Is it true that it’s bad to be in the sunlight?”

“Out of all the residents of this kingdom, I’ve been here the longest. I’ve been walking around outside of the settlement and ignoring the god’s warning, but I don’t sense any abnormalities occurring.”

“But it’s a warning directly from the god’s mouth, not some myth with an unknown source, right?”

“I can’t trust that god. He looks like a child.”

Huh, so the god here is similar to Lemn. The cat-eared man seemed like a good person, so I could see him believing the words of a twisted god. Since I knew a suspicious god who looked like a young boy, it was easy to accept that their god was the same.

“I know a similar phony god,” I said.

“That god controls the inside of shadows. I think he probably tells people that the sunlight is dangerous and they should stay in the shade because he wants to keep the residents somewhere he can keep his eye on them.”

“Maybe the god I know isn’t just similar but the same one...” That dark one is here too? He sure does show up anywhere and everywhere.

If Lemn was here, I wanted to ask him to bring me back to life, but it only took a moment to realize that was impossible. He was a god that valued the laws of the world, so he would never approve of something like resurrection.

The hero thought it was impossible for me to be familiar with Lemn. “It’s probably someone else,” he said as a preface. “The place we’re going to now is also somewhere the god said was dangerous. That’s why I think there’s a clue to how we can be alive again there.”

“I see. So it’s not dangerous, but inconvenient for the god.”

“Exactly. I believe that opening the door is the only path to revival.”

“The door?” I asked.

“I call the place we’re headed to ‘the door.’ It should be coming into view soon.”

We’d come far more east (I think) than the spot I’d woken up in. Once we hiked over a slightly tall hill, the hero pointed in a certain direction.

There was a door—a giant door. A frame with double doors stood in the middle of the empty red wasteland. There was no building it led to. There was just a gray door sitting in the middle of the desert.

It looked like one could easily walk around it, and it didn’t seem to be doing its job as a door. I wonder what the other side looks like. I didn’t have to voice my question, because the hero began to explain.

“There’s nothing on the other side. It doesn’t separate anything. It’s a pointless door, but...”

“It seems like something mysterious could happen there.”

“Indeed, but nothing happened. I’ve pushed on the door before, but it doesn’t budge. I think it can only be opened through some special method, not force. That’s why I’ve brought you here.”

Don’t worry, even if you need to brute force it, there’s no better person for the job than me.

Unable to contain myself, I nearly ran towards the door, which seemed like it could be connected to the world of the living. But before I could, the hero stopped me.

“Calm down. The door has a guard.”

“That’s even more suspicious. How have you been inspecting the door?”

“I haven’t gone near it since the guard came, so it’s been about a year.”

According to the hero, the guard had only been placed there recently. It had been completely open and free for all to inspect until then, so maybe the fact that a guard appeared meant it really was connected to the mortal world.

“So the god got worried and placed a guard there, right?”

“Nope, he has nothing to do with the god. The guard protects the door because he wants to—no one’s instructed him to do so.”

Huh? Why? Is it his hobby? Is he volunteering? Is this gatekeeper even a person? If he is, then he’s someone who died recently, and should have no reason to guard the door. Also, there’s probably a reason the hero is so sure that he has nothing to do with the god...

The hero seemed to know a lot about the gatekeeper, but he only shared minimal information. “I have some personal stuff with him.”

“I guess it’s tough being the king of the Kingdom of Twilight,” I said.

“No, we had a relationship when we were alive.”

Oh, I see. I guess it’s possible to meet someone you knew when you were alive here. Wait. It was only recently that the guard started guarding the door voluntarily, and the hero died a long time ago... The timelines don’t match up. Does that mean the guard’s been here for a while, and he only just started guarding the door recently?

“I’ll distract the guard, so I want you to head to the door,” the hero said.

“Will that work? What if the guard prioritizes protecting the door?”

“That won’t happen, though if you’ve done something to make him resent you, things might be different...”

So the guard hates the hero. I decided not to press further. It seemed like there was something about the guard that the hero didn’t want to share. I probably don’t know him anyway. I’ll focus on the door.

The hero was to go first and distract the guard, while I took a detour to head to the door. We were able to come up with our rough formation right away.

On his own, the hero headed towards the silhouette that looked small when compared to the giant door behind it. Though I could make out his outline, he was backlit, so I couldn’t see any of the guard’s other features. I need to focus on the door, not the gatekeeper.

While hiding behind the dunes, I took a massive detour and headed to the door. It seemed like the hero and gatekeeper were arguing about something. I made my way closer to the door while the guard was distracted...

“No way...” I said, the words accidentally slipping out of my mouth.

There was no way I couldn’t react after seeing the man facing the hero—after seeing his long black hair and the face I dared not forget, which belonged to the man worthy of standing opposite the hero.

He’s supposed to be dead... Oh right. He’s dead.

He’d heard my voice, and the man—no, the Demon Lord—turned around.

“You... After all that boasting, you still died young, huh?” He should have wanted revenge on me, but the Demon Lord looked at me with compassion.

I see. If people come to this kingdom after they die, it makes sense for him to be here. I’d thought that the gatekeeper was a stranger, but the exact opposite was true. I can’t believe I’m being reunited with the person I killed...

Our plan to raid the door had collapsed. I just stood there, unable to say anything else, and the hero opened his mouth next.

“I didn’t think you two knew each other. I assume you met after the seal broke?”

The hero... That’s right, he said he was called “Hero.” The hero dressed like a king, knew about the Kingdom of Valschein and was hated by the gatekeeper... That was all I’d known about him, which made his identity a mystery, but now that I knew the gatekeeper was the Demon Lord, his identity was easy to narrow down.

The hero who’d been in the Kingdom of Twilight for several hundreds of years had to be none other than the first king of Valschein.

The hero and Demon Lord from the foundational era of the kingdom—and me. After sealing away the Demon Lord, the hero died of old age. After escaping his seal, the Demon Lord was killed by me. And I died for some unknown reason.

The three of us, who had all died at different times but were all connected, were gathered together in the Kingdom of Twilight.

“I never thought I’d see the hero and Demon Lord together,” I mumbled.

The Demon Lord reacted, pointing at the hero with his chin as he said in a displeased tone, “Hero? You’re saying that guy is a hero?”

That’s right. The story of the hero and the Demon Lord was manufactured after the fact.

The true story was that the first king had feared the power of the Demon Lord and betrayed him, sealing him away. Then it was spread that a hero had defeated the evil Demon Lord.

In the past, the Demon Lord had tried to destroy the kingdom, but it wasn’t possible for him to do so now. In that case, I wanted to be on his side.

The Kingdom of Twilight was where those with regrets gathered. Maybe my regret was that I couldn’t save the Demon Lord. I stood beside the Demon Lord and faced the hero.

“I don’t know your current situation, but I’m on your side,” I said to the Demon Lord.

The legendary hero was against the allyship of the final boss and the hidden boss. It was unclear who would be victorious in this battle.