I'm Neither the Mastermind nor the Villain

Chapter 2

The protagonist of [The Reincarnator Wants to Live] is a reincarnator.

The protagonist, who lived an ordinary life on Earth, for some reason is reborn here. It is still Earth, but a somewhat different version of Earth.

On this Earth, supernatural abilities exist. Originally, they were hidden from ordinary people, but several decades ago, they were gradually revealed and completely transformed society.

What does that mean?

It means martial artists who can break rocks with a knife hand or shake the ground with their steps, summoners who ride birds the size of buildings and get fined, succubi who pretend to be ordinary humans but suck out your life force and leave,

shamans who try to kidnap people for human sacrifice but get beaten up by their intended victims and handed over to the police, and little budding arsonists who throw fire at each other for fun are everywhere in this world.

And Warna Academy is a place that gathers those with supernatural abilities and teaches them.

It nurtures talented individuals to become the pillars supporting this precarious world.

"This is easier than I thought."

I swung a dagger coated with black aura through the air in all directions.

How can one survive in this chaotic world?

And do so safely without any bodily harm.

There are several ways.

The first is to strengthen my own combat power.

Since I'm strong enough to generate aura, I can say I've satisfied the first condition to some extent.

The second is to have someone who protects me.

This is something I do not have.

I am confident that I haven't done anything particularly bad as a law-abiding citizen.

But can I be sure that the original owner of this body I possessed was the same?

So, to prepare for dangers I might not even be aware of, I needed someone or something to protect me.

That's why I learned summoning.

For me, summoning was a supernatural ability with only advantages.

Since I can handle most summoned creatures, I won't get hurt by my own summoned creature turning on me due to loss of control.

And a successfully controlled summoned creature becomes a loyal dog who will risk its life to save its master.

But maybe because I only learned summoning through videos?

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I definitely summoned a summoned creature to protect me just like in the video, but something felt off.

"This is...... troublesome."

The summoning definitely succeeded. It did succeed, but...

What was in front of me was a black fox leisurely sitting and yawning.

And it was quite small, small enough to fit comfortably on one hand-a fox cub.

The yawning fox seemed to realize I was watching and stopped yawning, then approached me.

"Kyeng."

The black fox that came near me cried at my feet.

No, why did something like this get summoned? I wanted a sturdy creature to protect me.

But the black fox resting on my hand looked so small and fragile it might be blown away by a gentle breeze.

Still, the sight of the fox dozing off, nodding its head comfortably on my hand, was rather cute.

"...What do fox cubs eat?"

Probably their mother's milk, I guess.

***

In the end, I never fed the fox anything.

Strangely, the black fox only wanted my mana and wouldn't touch any food.

After that, we formed a contract.

Following what I learned on YouTube, I drew a magic circle on my wrist and chanted the spell, and then light emanated from the magic circle, enveloping the fox.

The fox didn't resist the light, and soon the light returned into the magic circle, altering its shape.

When I lifted my hand to check, the magic circle had turned into a picture of a fox.

And I felt a strange sensation, as if my mind and the fox's were connected.

"Your name from now on is Mio."

I named the fox staring blankly at me. The name came from the nine-tailed fox.

Because when I think of foxes, all that comes to mind is the nine-tailed fox.

Mio seemed to like the name, letting out a small "Kyeng" and rolling around on my hand.

When I strongly willed Mio to enter the picture, she seemed to understand my signal, nodded, and then instantly got sucked into the picture on my wrist.

With a small sigh, I stuffed all the meat I had bought for Mio and the milk I had taken out from the fridge just in case she couldn't eat meat back into the refrigerator.

So, was my summoning a failure?

Still, it didn't really matter.

I haven't even entered the academy yet.

In the first place, since I'll learn it once I enroll, doing this now is rather meaningless.

After all, the academy will teach various supernatural abilities including summoning, so there's no need to waste my energy now.

Still, the reason I couldn't resist trying was simply because it was fascinating.

'I mean, I've got mana now, how could I hold back?'

Stretching, I looked outside the window.

Seeing that dawn was already breaking beyond midnight, I let out a small sigh.

Maybe because my body is strong enough to crush ordinary people with ease, I wasn't physically tired, but I was quite mentally exhausted.

Since I had spent the whole day staring at the screen studying summoning knowledge.

The summoning I used was just a simple beginner's spell.

But since it was a study that didn't exist in my previous world, with all the talk about mana circuits and whatnot that I didn't understand, I ended up spending a lot of time learning about the fundamentals of this world.

During that process, I found out that my mana's nature was dark mana, and that dark mana is directly related to monsters, demons, and dark magic, so it's not a mana attribute people particularly favor.

Among those, it seems my dark mana is of quite high purity.

I read that dark mana doesn't mix well with general magic.

Even from the stage of constructing mana circuits, the repulsion is too strong, apparently.

Sometimes, it might not activate at all.

So, does that mean I need to learn dark magic?

And summon demons, too?

"...Um, I'm not actually in the body of a villain, am I?"

A villain with slit eyes who uses dark magic-that's so convincing it's almost creepy.

***

What does a person need to live?

First, you must eat to nourish the cells that make up your body.

You'll also need clothes to protect yourself and a house where you can rest comfortably.

Food, clothing, and shelter.

But can a person really live well with just food, clothing, and shelter?

You need to enjoy hobbies and such to live happily.

And to live well like that, you need money.

How should I make money?

There are many ways to earn money.

Among them, something that helps me grow stronger and can be done quickly before entering the academy.

I could work as a day laborer on a construction site, but there's a faster way to make money that also helps me improve my skills before enrolling.

That is, catching villains.

It helps me develop real combat sense, and since I'm catching villains, it feels rewarding too.

Plus, if I loot the assets those villains were hiding, and with fewer villains around, I get closer to the peaceful life I dream of, so it's like finding a golden goblin that gives endlessly, surpassing even the giving tree.

The villain I'm targeting this time is the same.

This villain appears in the original story.

And he's even the heroine's stalker.

One of the protagonist's harem members who lived near this villain unfortunately got caught by this stalker.

While stalking her with a familiar as usual, he saw the heroine together with the protagonist.

So this foolish villain bore a grudge against the protagonist and vowed revenge.

This foolish villain was quite a skilled dark mage with even his own dungeon.

But because he kidnapped the protagonist, he ended up meeting 'a truly terrible end.'

Of course, the kidnapping happens around the middle of the novel, and right now, the story hasn't even started yet, but I'm confident I'm stronger than the protagonist was at that point.

If the protagonist, who is weaker than me, could do it, why couldn't I?

But there is a problem.

I've come all the way to the mountain where the dungeon is supposed to be, but I have no idea where exactly it is.

The mountain is quite large, so without any clues, it didn't look easy to find it in one go.

Besides, even though there's a hiking trail and it's somewhat secluded, there were no people around, giving it a rather desolate feel.

Since it's winter, with all the leaves fallen, the desolate feeling was even stronger.

How did it go in the original story again?

First, the protagonist discovered the familiar attached to the heroine, which made him realize there was a stalker targeting her.

So when that stalker attacked him, he pretended to faint without panicking, making it easy to get inside the dungeon.

Then he struck the completely off-guard stalker from behind and won.

But I can't use that method.

Because I have no connection whatsoever with that heroine.

Then what should I do?

The method I chose was simple.

Just comb through the entire mountain like picking lice. Then I'll find it eventually.

Of course, if I searched alone, it would take quite a long time. But I have a friend.

And I was lucky, too.

I found a clue at the entrance of the mountain.

Tied to the branch of a tree near the entrance was a yellow cloth,

And from that cloth, a faint but ominous energy was continuously emanating.

Probably because dark magic was cast on this cloth, people tended not to come to this mountain.

Even if they tried to hike, they would feel reluctant to enter this mountain for some reason, just unwilling to go.

A small-scale magic with such an effect.

But that tiny spell served as the first defensive wall protecting his lair, so in that regard, he was quite clever.

When I pointed at the yellow cloth to Mio, she sniffed.

"Mio."

"Kyeng."

When I called her, Mio answered from atop my shoulder.

"You can sense mana from this thing, right?"

"Kyeng."

"Please guide me to the place where this mana is strongest."

Then she jumped down from my shoulder, sniffed the air as if telling me to follow, and moved ahead.

They say fox summoned creatures are sensitive to mana.

And for some reason, Mio was incredibly good at finding the scent and traces of dark mana.

Maybe because she was summoned through dark mana, but for me, it was a blessing.

Following behind Mio, I could clearly tell she had grown bigger compared to when I first summoned her.

Over the past few days, clinging to me and sucking up my mana, Mio had gotten a little bigger.

Though still only the size of a fox cub.

As I followed Mio, idly spinning my dagger in my hand, Mio suddenly stopped.

"Kyeng kyeng."

Certainly, this place felt quite out of place.

The trees gradually thinned out, creating a fairly wide open space,

And though camouflaged well to avoid suspicion, there was still a faint presence of dark mana seeping from the ground.

If it hadn't been for Mio, I probably wouldn't have noticed it right away either.

It was very well concealed, but no one can beat a fox's nose.

This definitely looked like the entrance to the dungeon.