I'm Neither the Mastermind nor the Villain

Chapter 7

First, leaving the fourth basement floor behind, I returned to the third basement floor.

Then I thoroughly searched every room on the third basement floor.

Just in case there were any traces of crime or anything like that.

Fortunately, it seemed the crime had been committed quite meticulously, as nothing particularly suspicious stood out.

As for familiars that acted directly, usually when their master dies, control over them is released, so I don't need to worry.

After all, familiars used for this kind of thing are typically just small creatures like insects or little animals passing by on the roadside.

Since their master is dead, I don't have to care anymore.

Anyway, even after searching the entire third basement floor, I couldn't find anything worth money.

There were no gold or jewels, not even small artifacts or cursed objects.

'In the original story, they definitely said a considerable amount of gold was found on the third floor.'

But here on the third basement floor, there was nothing like that at all.

The reason, I learned from Marbas.

[No matter how lowly a demon is, a demon is still a demon, so summoning a being not of this world is no easy feat. It must have required quite a bit of sacrifices and wealth.]

In other words, the demon controlling this villain had made an enormous sacrifice to summon its true body.

It must have consumed all the livestock on the fourth basement floor, of course, and offered up every valuable item gathered on the third floor to summon itself.

And then, Marbas barged into the ritual, so instead of summoning its own body at the altar, Marbas popped out unexpectedly.

But there's one thing I find puzzling.

According to the original story, when they came here, several months had already passed beyond now, yet there was no sign of any ritual taking place.

Several possibilities came to mind.

One was that the villain himself had performed the ritual. Perhaps thinking I posed a threat, he rushed the ceremony ahead of schedule.

If that's true, then offering himself as a sacrifice was likely unexpected even for him.

There's another possibility.

That demon completely took over the villain and, since I was already here, sacrificed the villain-who was doomed to die to me anyway-as an offering.

If, in the process, it managed to summon its true body, that would be a huge gain; even if not, if it succeeded in parasitizing me, that would still be quite profitable.

But since something utterly beyond its expectations happened, that demon might be grinding its teeth furiously right about now.

With those thoughts, I searched through the second and first basement floors, but found nothing.

However, after completely passing through the first basement floor and stepping outside, I felt a strange sense of incongruity.

Acting on that feeling, I went back into the first basement floor and carefully examined the surroundings, and discovered something interesting.

There was one thing that had changed on the first basement floor.

The objects that had been placed at regular intervals had disappeared.

Things I had deliberately not touched because I felt I shouldn't disturb them.

Those things had vanished without a trace.

They must have been used in the ritual, along with the wealth on the third basement floor and the sacrifices on the fourth.

This dungeon-no, calling it a dungeon is too generous, let's just say workshop.

After thoroughly searching this workshop, I came to a conclusion.

There is no more wealth left here.

In the end, all I gained from this ordeal were this vast empty space, a few books, some dolls, and a filthy animal pen.

And what does that mean?

It means I didn't make a single penny.

***

Time passed and passed again,

Before I knew it, the day of the academy entrance ceremony was approaching.

During that time, I became able to perfectly control several dolls.

These dolls were nothing more than programmed artificial intelligence with only a tiny bit of self-awareness.

So it was very easy to learn how to use them.

Thus, although minimally maintained, the fourth basement floor had still been no better than a filthy animal pen.

Now, it had been reborn as a perfectly clean empty space, thanks to the labor of the dolls and the power of Clean Magic.

You wonder how I could use Clean Magic when dark mana corrupts magic?

The principle is simple.

I just refined the dark mana before using it.

Since all dark mages have their mana turned into dark mana, they had to devise ways to still use magic despite only possessing dark mana.

Of course, most simple spells can be cast with dark mana as well.

Though the magic might become corrupted.

And dark mages didn't want to deal with that risk.

Naturally. Imagine a dark mage trying to cook rice with a simple water spell.

But when he cast the water spell, black water came out.

And that water even smelled.

Would you want to eat rice cooked with that water?

Absolutely not.

Dark mages who had experienced or wanted to avoid such situations came up with a method.

It was to refine dark mana into pure mana.

And the leftover impurities were compressed into black beads and stored separately.

These impurities were full of dark mana components, so they could be used wherever dark mana was needed.

Impurities... or maybe call them chunks of highly concentrated dark mana?

This way, you could cast magic comfortably without worrying about corruption, and the leftover impurities were useful elsewhere, so it was really killing two birds with one stone.

Nevertheless, this method had its downsides.

Mainly, you couldn't store pure mana inside your body, and the efficiency was poor.

Even if you went through the trouble of refining dark mana to accumulate pure mana inside, it would mix with the dark mana in your body and turn back into dark mana.

Still, since impurities would remain, you might do it just for that purpose.

Or if you urgently needed money, maybe.

That said, most dark spells require the caster's own dark mana anyway, so this method isn't used very often.

And refining dark mana itself adds an extra step before casting, which inevitably delays the process.

Plus, some mana is lost during the conversion to pure mana, so it's inefficient.

But the fact that dark mages can use ordinary magic in an ordinary way at all is a blessing, so they have no choice but to use this method reluctantly.

I was no different.

Anyway, this fourth basement floor was reborn as a space for me to learn dark magic from Marbas.

Even though I had possessed this world and researched dark magic as much as possible, the field was so secretive that I couldn't learn much.

So, knowing little about dark magic, I received lessons from Marbas starting with the basics.

It was kind of ironic to be learning fundamental dark magic from an Archdemon, but she actually seemed to enjoy it more.

Starting with a pure white canvas and painting it exactly how I want is irresistible to me.

Anyway, after learning dark magic to some extent, I returned home again.

It was three days before the academy entrance ceremony.

I came back home after a long time away.

The time was now night, and the moon was shining brightly in the sky.

My house, which I hadn't visited in a while, still felt quite lived-in.

"It's been quite a while since I've been here."

Originally, before I possessed him, this house had been a bleak place devoid of any sense of life, but after I took over, it changed.

I wasn't the type to leave things scattered everywhere, but the scene I saw right after possessing him had been so spotless.

And judging by the fact there wasn't even any dust in the house, it seemed he had been living here.

Perhaps he even had a bit of obsessive cleanliness.

"Kyeng."

As soon as I entered the house, Mio popped out.

Landing on the floor, Mio naturally hopped onto the sofa and lay down.

I summoned her to protect me, yet instead she lazed around sucking up my mana without doing her job.

At times, Marbas, floating beside me, was more reliable than her.

"Kyeng!"

Perhaps sensing my disrespectful thoughts, Mio expressed her displeasure from the sofa.

...Seeing the black fox rubbing itself on the sofa was quite cute. It was a sight that warmed my heart.

"Kyeng."

Only then did Mio seem satisfied and sprawled out again on the sofa.

Hmm.......

There's a lot I want to say, but it's probably better not to.

-Clatter.

I took out a black orb from the pocket inside my coat and tossed it to Mio.

Mio had been watching me intently ever since I reached for the black orb, and the moment I threw it, she swiftly caught it.

Mio liked these orbs.

Maybe because it was a compressed ball of my dark mana, she seemed to enjoy it as a snack.

Leaving Mio behind, I started walking again.

Clunk.

I opened the refrigerator.

The inside of the fridge looked almost the same as it had right after my possession.

I possessed this body in early to mid-January, and now it's late February, so I've already been living in this world for over a month.

Still, since I spent most of February inside that villain's dungeon, I hadn't really stayed in this house all that much.

To the point where that place now almost felt like my real home.

I decided to just think of that dungeon as my personal training ground from now on.

Anyway, once I enroll in the Academy, I'll be living in the dormitory, so this house-

and that training ground-I might not visit either of them very often, but having my own private training space is still a good thing.

Plus, there's little chance of unwanted visitors barging in while I'm training there.

Because I saw yellow cloths scattered around the mountain, exuding ominous energy.

As long as those yellow cloths remain, most people won't dare interrupt my training.

For just one month after possession, I'd say I've made pretty decent progress.

Tomorrow, maybe I'll walk around the neighborhood a bit and do some sightseeing.