Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord - Volume 6 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Hidden Boss (Unknown) Sees the Two Off

My right side had won—in other words, the left side, which had gone to the Kingdom of Twilight had emerged victorious. Huh...? I’m the right side, so I’ve been alive this whole time. I’m the side that gathered information in the palace basement, met the hero, and sent the middle-aged catboy and his brother into the afterlife, which means I’m the left side who went to Twilight... Wait.

I had won the battle of Left Yumiella versus Right Yumiella, but was I the right side or the left? I crossed my arms and went through my memories. I had woken up this morning to find only the right half of my body working, which meant I was definitely the right side, but I realized I only possessed the left half of my body in the kingdom of Twilight, so I had to be the left side.

Hm...? Why can’t I figure this out? All I’m trying to do is figure out what I was doing a few hours ago. Speaking of what I was doing... Where am I?

My mind was so fuzzy that I wasn’t conscious of where I was. I quickly scanned my surroundings and realized I was in Patrick’s arms. The afternoon sun was shining bright in the western sky, and we were falling through the air while he carried me bridal style.

Oh, Patrick’s here. Short time no see.

“I thought I was actually dead... I was so worried I’d never see you again.”

“Are you Left Yumiella...?”

“No, I’m the right side. We’ve been together since this morning, remember? I’m so glad I got to see you one more time.”

“So which side are you?”

It’s Patrick! I thought I’d never see him again since I died! He wasn’t there when I woke up, and it’s still the afternoon, so it’s been less than a day. Even though we were only apart for a short while, I’m so glad to see him again, I thought as I wrapped my arms around him. As I squeezed him with both arms, I truly felt like we were together again, and... Wait. Both arms?

“Both my arms are working! How are they working?”

“While your two sides were fighting, you started absorbing each other and eventually turned back into one person,” Patrick explained since I was completely lost.

It seemed that through some sort of fusion or incorporation, my two halves had turned back into one. So that’s why both halves of my body work.

I was starting to get embarrassed, so I stopped hugging Patrick, at which point he gave me a serious look.

“I’m glad that you’re back to normal, but...which side’s memories do you have?”

“I have both my left and right sides’ memories... I think that’s why I keep saying weird things.”

My thoughts and words had been jumping back and forth between two realities, probably because my two sets of memories had caused some confusion. Both the side that had met the hero and the Demon Lord in the Kingdom of Twilight and the side that had gathered information on the hero to launch an attack were me. Both sets of memories and personalities were mine.

I started going through my two sets of memories and looking back on this whole incident... I had caused a lot of trouble for those around me. My left side was at fault for growing wings and losing control, but from her perspective, it was all my right side’s fault. The world was in trouble for a bit because of the largest-scale battle of left versus right that this world had seen. Though I was embarrassed by my actions, I was now back in one piece.

“I’m sorry for all the trouble—”

“I’m glad you’re back,” Patrick said, interrupting my apology with an unexpected statement. “You must’ve been scared all on your own.”

This isn’t some touching reunion, you know? From Patrick’s perspective, I never left, and the same goes for half of me.

“We’ve been together since this morning.”

“But you’re also the Yumiella I haven’t seen in a bit, right?”

“That’s true, but there’s no need to voice that—” I felt something strange on my left cheek. Touching it with my right hand, I found it was wet. Tears were dripping out of just my left eye. “Thank you... I’m home, Patrick.”

◆◆◆

With Patrick still holding me, we made our way back to the ground. The threat in the skies had disappeared, and the chaos in the Royal Capital was settling down.

I stood on my own two feet for the first time in a while as I asked Patrick the question on my mind. “From the way you described it, it sounds like my two sides were battling a bit before fusing back into one... What was the fight like?”

“You weren’t fighting for that long, so I don’t really remember.”

Would he really forget the moment that Left Yumiella and Right Yumiella clashed? I was going to push Patrick to spill whatever he was hiding, but the hero landed near us and called out to me.

“Thank you for saving the world. The way you fought was quite the sight to see.”

“Thanks to you, my two sides seem to have come back together.”

I’d just thrown myself into the battle to prove I was strong, and a version of me was the very threat we were fighting... I didn’t feel right being thanked for saving the world.

I’d tried to be humble in my response, but if this conversation kept going, I would just sound hypocritical, so I tried to avoid discussing the world.

“I’m glad to hear that,” the hero said.

“By the way, how would you describe the way I fought?”

“You were vicious in a way that is unbelievable for a human to be.”

“You’re talking about my out-of-control left side, right?”

“Both sides.”

I see. Our battle must’ve been so intense that Patrick didn’t want to say anything. I feel like it wasn’t a cool, graceful battle, but more of a cosmic-horror bloodbath to the death, so I won’t ask for details.

Because I set aside my curiosity things were, for now, settled. Just looking at the end result, things were back to normal, so you could say we had a happily ever after. Everyone seemed to be quite relaxed.

“So the threat against this world is gone. It’s time for me to fulfill my objective.”

I knew what that objective was very well. Now that my two sides had merged, I could see all the details.

The hero—the first king of the Kingdom of Valschein—was a brash person who was often mistaken for a barbarian. His nature led him to impulsively start up a kingdom, but towards the end of his life, he was full of regrets.

The hero had had a falling out with the Demon Lord, and his younger brother had become a duke only to become an enemy of the royal family for the kingdom’s sake... The Kingdom of Valschein was a kingdom that was built upon countless sacrifices. He felt it was a mistake of a kingdom and that, with his own hands, he had to...

“Are you planning to destroy the Kingdom of Valschein?”

The hero responded with a hearty nod. “I still want the same thing. I was miraculously brought back to life, so I can’t leave this mistake of a kingdom as is.”

“So you’ll get rid of Valschein... Then what? Are you going to rebuild this kingdom as its king?”

“Once the kingdom is gone, the future should be determined by the people living here.”

So you’re going to destroy their kingdom, and then the rest is up to them?

The hero’s objective was quite strange. The act itself of destroying Valschein sounded quite malicious, but he didn’t want to kill the citizens of this kingdom, nor did he want to take over this land. He just wanted to destroy the framework which this kingdom was built upon, and he had no desires past that.

That seems kind of unnecessary, no?

“As you can see, the Kingdom of Valschein is prosperous and peaceful.”

“Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the way this kingdom came to be was wrong.”

I’m aware that the founding of this kingdom was kind of suspicious. But isn’t that just how kingdoms are? Not that I’d say that out loud—it would be like I’m trying to complain about all the different legends about how other kingdoms came to be. I don’t think the hero is going to respond to that sort of rhetoric either.

Perhaps if someone who knew him well spoke to him that could get through to the hero. The very man who was the perfect candidate to stop the hero appeared, landing near us, albeit a bit late to the conversation.

“Affirmative. All kings do are make mistakes.” The Demon Lord, who was a valuable member of the team to convince the hero to stop, had ended up validating his statement.

No way. He should be the most against all of this. I kept my mouth shut and waited for the Demon Lord to continue.

“Kings have always made mistakes, and they’ll continue to make mistakes in the future.”

It was at this point that I knew for a fact that the Demon Lord would never approve of the hero’s actions, but the hero wasn’t backing down. An argument between the two began.

“I changed while I was in the Kingdom of Twilight. I have the qualities of both a hero who takes down enemies and a king who rules over a land.”

“You haven’t changed! All that’s different is that your appearance and demeanor are now sickening. Your true nature hasn’t changed in the slightest.”

“What about me is—?”

“When we broke through the barrier in the sky, you just ran towards it! I was the one who made sure my Black Hole was timed perfectly.” The Demon Lord trembled with anger as he piled on his objections. If this were an actual debate, he’d be breaking the rules, but what he said was true, so the hero couldn’t object too fiercely.

“That was because I believed you would—”

“If you had any intention of fighting together, why didn’t you say something or even just shoot me a glance? You always keep running forward without ever looking back.”

“That is one of my faults... I’ll do my best to fix it.”

That seemed to be one aspect of the hero’s true nature that had remained the same, despite his centuries of change. The Demon Lord was probably going to tell him that he wouldn’t be able to fix it, but that assumption of mine was proved wrong. The Demon Lord responded with something completely separate from the issue of whether the hero could fix this flaw.

“Don’t fix it! Don’t you dare ever fix it! You stay that way!”

After supporting the hero’s reckless attack and even complaining about his actions, the Demon Lord had clearly told him not to fix his behavior. He continued repeating his statement, not telling the hero that he couldn’t fix this flaw, but rather commanding him not to.

The hero had probably caused a lot of trouble for the Demon Lord, which should’ve made him want the hero to fix his flaw, but the Demon Lord let his feelings out and yelled, telling the hero to stay the same.

Patrick and I were completely stunned, and the hero seemed taken aback as well. The Demon Lord took a moment to catch his breath before continuing, his voice now calm.

“Why don’t you understand?! In your current state, founding a kingdom would be an out-of-reach fantasy.”

“I would be able to handle things much better the way I am now.”

“That’s not possible. No matter how proper you try to act, you wouldn’t be able to even handle a tiny kingdom.”

“As long as the king is proper, then his people will follow!”

Right now, I felt that the hero was winning the argument. When he was alive, before he’d changed, he was clearly not fit to be king. He was a skilled fighter, but everyone would have agreed that he was destructively terrible when it came to political matters.

The Demon Lord shook his head repeatedly at the hero, whose eyes glimmered like a king who was ready to lead his people. “No way. It can’t be done. It’s impossible. We followed you with everything we had precisely because you were a man of many mistakes. When the land was filled with battle after battle, we were all able to dream of a new kingdom because you were a violent and selfish idiot who followed his own path.”

I was starting to understand the Demon Lord’s point. If the hero was going to rule over Valschein in its current state, the hero (King) was definitely a better fit. The hero (barbarian) would’ve been abandoned by both the aristocrats and his people.

But things were different now. The man best fit to lead a kingdom in a time where many small nations were warring wouldn’t be the hero (King) who could be seen as weak but the violently energetic hero (barbarian).

It wasn’t that the hero had become a king despite his barbaric nature—he had become the king because of his barbaric nature. The hero was starting to understand where the Demon Lord was going as well. He closed his eyes and became lost in thought.

“That may be true,” he said. “But does that mean I should accept Valschein as it currently is? You know very well how many sacrifices this kingdom was built upon.”

“Who was sacrificed? The aides who were given all the troublesome jobs?”

The hero seemed to have difficulty responding to the Demon Lord’s mean-spirited question, but he continued. “You were sacrificed for the kingdom’s sake, no?”

“It’s only natural to take down a swarm of monsters.”

“Do you mean that you forgive—?”

“Don’t get it twisted. I’m going to continue resenting you for stealing her away from me.”

Man, stalkers have such a scary way of thinking. The hero is definitely not guilty when it comes to the queen.

With how the conversation was going, the hero couldn’t just say, “She never had feelings for you in the first place,” so his face tensed up.

Things were getting off topic, and the Demon Lord was starting to get tired of this whole thing. How was the hero going to deal with this? After a moment of silence, the hero finally opened his mouth.

“My younger brother was also sacrificed.”

Oh, he changed the topic. The hero set aside matters relating to the Demon Lord and began speaking of the role the Hillrose family had to carry out.

“He intentionally opposed the royal family for the kingdom’s sake. This curse is surely continuing to torture the Hillroses.”

Um, well, you’re not wrong, but... It was true that the Hillroses knew they were doomed, and there were probably many struggles that came with that, but the duchy was now...

“It’s bright outside now! Are you all right, Yumiella?!”

If it had been anyone else, I would assume that they had been eavesdropping and waiting for the right moment to appear. But it was Eleanora, and she just had great timing.

Once she stepped outside, Eleanora took notice of the hero and the Demon Lord. The daughter of the former Duke of Hillrose wasn’t shy around strangers, and she energetically greeted them.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Eleanora!”

“O-Oh, nice to meet you, Eleanora,” the hero responded, but he was troubled by the appearance of the cheerful noble lady. The Demon Lord just ignored her, or perhaps he didn’t think she was greeting him as well. I feel like it’s the latter, and that’s making me sad.

Though Eleanora’s appearance had thrown him off a bit, the hero got right back to it. He gestured towards her using his hand. “I can tell that she’s a good person and that she was raised with love. If she had been born into the Hillrose family, she wouldn’t have had the chance to grow up to be such a person.”

She totally would’ve. She grew up in that very family, spoiled, and turned into this innocent and pampered noble lady.

The hero’s attempt to use the lady that barged in to prove his point completely backfired.

“She’s the daughter of the Duke of Hillrose,” I said.

“Huh?”

“Oh, she’s not a Hillrose anymore, though.”

“What?”

“The Hillroses carried out their duty about six months ago, leading to the fall of the household. Her father, the last Duke of Hillrose, is now living out his days having fun. The same goes for his daughter, as you can see...”

Before I knew it, Eleanora was standing in front of the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord was a naturally unapproachable man, and on top of that, his aura was practically screaming, “Don’t talk to me.” Despite all of that, Eleanora didn’t seem timid.

“Your black hair is lovely! I’m Eleanora. What’s your name? Where did you come from? Is it a coincidence that you have similar hair to Yumiella?”

“Yes...” After all of Eleanora’s pushing, the Demon Lord was able to respond to just her last question. Let him write his responses. Actually, no—he’s creepy through text, so don’t do that. Just leave him alone.

The hero stared at Eleanora, who was the personification of innocence, stunned as she continued to try and get through to the Demon Lord.

“Is that so...? She’s a descendant of my brother...? I guess things can change quite a bit with the passage of time.”

“That’s right. We’re living in a period where the only daughter of the duke could grow up to be a girl like that.”

The duke had hid Ronald’s identity and left him with the royal family, and he had planned to be the last Hillrose to fulfill the family’s role. Eleanora had probably grown up with many freedoms partially due to those surrounding circumstances, but there was no need to bring that up.

After hearing my explanation, which did leave some room to misinterpret the facts, the hero slowly nodded several times. He then seemed to suddenly realize something.

“Has the royal family of Valschein changed as well?”

“The king is a proper leader. I don’t know how skilled he is in battle, but I think he does a wonderful job at running this kingdom.”

I wouldn’t admit this out loud, but I’d never thought of the current king as a particularly extraordinary leader, but he did do everything he needed to... In other words, I thought he was someone who could be trusted. I don’t like that my feelings about the king seem kind of condescending... Still, that’s how I feel.

I trusted that our current king would satisfactorily fulfill his duties. If the king had been a strange person, like a grown-up version of how Prince Edwin was back when he was a student, I probably would’ve fled from Valschein before I got to know Patrick.

Though I’d shown plenty of evidence that the kingdom was currently doing well, the hero still didn’t seem satisfied. It didn’t seem like a logical issue, but rather an emotional one.

“Still, even if the kingdom is doing well now, its foundation is no good. As the king, I—”

The moment she heard the word “king,” Eleanora, who’d been trying to one-sidedly pursue a conversation with the Demon Lord, reacted. She stared at the hero in shock. “You’re a king?! I couldn’t tell at all!”

“Are you saying that I don’t look like a king?!”

I thought he looked like a king and nothing else, but I guess Eleanora had a different impression...

The hero seemed quite shocked, since he, too, appeared to think that he looked regal. My opinion was based on how he was dressed, his hair, and his behavior, but Eleanora was someone who didn’t let such things color her thoughts, so I was curious about her opinion.

“If you don’t mind, could you tell me what parts of me make me seem like I’m not a king?”

“A king is someone who must tolerate all things, both the good and bad. There are people who have chosen not to become the king because they understood they were incapable of that.”

I see. It makes sense for someone who had a dad that was the worst of the worst in this kingdom to think that way.

Following what Eleanora said, our current king was a man who would probably choose to sacrifice someone if it was necessary for the kingdom. People who couldn’t do that—in other words people like the hero, or the person who Eleanora brought up as an example despite her point not needing any additional clarification, or someone who could only tolerate the good—would all have a difficult time being the king.

The hero seemed to be curious as to who had stepped back from being king. You shouldn’t ask. It’s going to be a long story.

“That man who gave up becoming the king, what path did he choose?”

Oh no, he’s done it. He asked about the second prince. This is going to be long.

“He believed in his own sense of justice and decided to press forward... In other words, he chose the path of being a hero. He does take some wrong turns sometimes, but I believe it’s just the other side of the coin of his goodness. You could say that he can be quite self-righteous, but I think that’s why he can save many people as well. When the negative sides of his personality come up, he’ll be fine as long as he has allies to help stop him!” Eleanora spoke with a beaming smile.

When it came to Prince Edwin and perfume, Eleanora suddenly became incredibly sharp. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Eleanora’s mind was sharper than Patrick’s or mine when it came to matters related to those two things.

The hero was completely taken aback by the transformation he’d seen the airheaded noble lady go through, and he slumped his shoulders in defeat.

“That’s right. I’ve continued to move forward without ever looking back. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to create a proper legacy behaving like that, but there were plenty of people around me who made up for my faults. You were one of those people too.” The hero turned to look at the Demon Lord.

Eleanora of all people had succeeded in talking down the hero. The Demon Lord, who should’ve been happiest about this, responded as if he didn’t care.

“Make up for your faults? You make it sound so formal. What we did was no different than cleaning up after a brat.”

“Who are ya callin’ a brat? You’re one to be talkin’ when you could barely keep up with me.”

Huh? What? Who the heck just spoke after the Demon Lord?!

The Demon Lord and Eleanora didn’t seem to be surprised, so I turned to Patrick, who also seemed confused. Right? Some brash person just barged into our conversation, right? Patrick and I appeared to be the only ones who were surprised.

The Demon Lord continued to speak like nothing was wrong. He seemed to be in a natural state, as if he’d spoken to this person countless times before—as if this was how things were supposed to be.

“Do you know how much the rest of us struggle because of your selfish actions?”

“I didn’t ask for anyone’s help. I ain’t thankin’ anyone for stuff they did on their own.”

“I can’t stand you.”

Um...are things settled now? It took so long to get here...

Before I knew it, the sun had nearly set and the day was coming to an end.

It was now twilight, and the Demon Lord began walking towards the west, his back facing us. The hero immediately ran after him and caught up. The two were backlit by the remaining light.

Wait... I rubbed my eyes and squinted once more at the hero’s back. The hero now had a pelt that was far from classy wrapped around his neck, and he was dressed in clothing that looked comfortable but quite disheveled. He had a machete-like sword that was best for hacking and slashing hanging from his hip.

“Hey, don’t walk ahead of me! Where you goin’?”

“Don’t follow me.”

“Fine, I’m leavin’ ya in the dust, then!”

“Hm...? Wait, hold on! That face of yours...?!”

The hero had passed the Demon Lord, walking ahead of him without looking back. They continued walking towards the red horizon.

“I always thought it was a sunrise... I guess that red sky really was a sunset. The sun wasn’t risin’. It only set.”

“Of course it was a sunset. You spent plenty of days running around. It’s only natural to retire to bed at night.”

“I’m glad I got to walk with ya in the end. Things weren’t so bad back then, were they?”

The hero never looked back, and he continued to head in the direction of the sun, the Demon Lord following behind. Gradually, the twilight sky grew darker. The two had kept walking in the sunlight, but night was coming soon.

“See ya! Sorry for all the trouble!”

With those last words, the hero and Demon Lord’s bodies began to crumble. Their flesh disintegrated into sand, just like when the residents of the Kingdom of Twilight were satisfied, and eventually, there was nothing left of them.

I was glad that we had this time after the sun had set.

Thanks to this ambiguous time of day, twilight, the hero and the Demon Lord were able to share one last stroll.

It was now night. The remaining light peeking over the western horizon was gone, and the day had ended.