STVWDTD Chapter 4

This Villain is a Madness Buffet

Ominous.

Walking on the gloomy, damp stone floor, she tried to hide the cold sweat on her palms.

'♬~♩~♪'

The music box melody that had been playing was revealing signs that something would pop out any moment.

"I'll protect you! Don't worry, Sister!"

"Right, I'll trust only you."

Diana smiled and stroked the head of the child who didn't even reach her waist.

"Noel, can you light this?"

The castle interior was impossibly vast. Hundreds of rooms with corridors connecting spaces in a dizzying maze.

The light Noel created couldn't even reach the opposite side of the corridor, only illuminating Diana's surroundings.

The farther they went forward, the more it felt like stepping into a beast's gaping maw.

On top of that, with trap spells secretly installed everywhere, it was a labyrinth in its own right.

"Grrrrr."

'♬~♩~♪---'

The softly spreading music box melody stopped abruptly, and from within the fog obscuring their vision came a beast's growl.

Diana's body froze completely. In the fog-filled darkness, she met eyes with something gleaming.

She quickly rolled her eyes to check Noel's position.

From the white fog, growling finally revealed a beast's snout.

"Noel!"

Just as Diana grabbed Noel's hand tightly to run, a magic circle formed beneath their feet.

They'd stepped on a transport circle. No—maybe it was fortunate right now.

The randomly deployed magic could drop them anywhere.

Just before terrifying teeth reached them, they transported to another space.

Noel clutched Diana's clothes tightly. When the flash of light subsided, they were in a massive underground cavern.

"Noel, you okay?"

Diana ignored the cold sweat running down her back, bent her knees, grabbed Noel's shoulders, and met his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

Relief was brief—in the darkness-swallowed massive cavern, another magic circle appeared, and from within it a beast roared.

The thoroughly enraged beast was a werewolf.

"S-Sister!"

Noel stood in front of Diana. Flames bloomed above Noel's small hands.

"Grrrr!"

A werewolf dripping saliva beneath terrifying teeth. Diana frowned at the chaotic situation.

After ghosts, monsters. What the hell is wrong with this castle! The werewolf, recognizing prey, was staring directly at them.

Diana quickly scanned her surroundings. If there was space to flee, she planned to grab Noel and bolt immediately.

"Noel!"

That was, until the child leaped forward ahead of her.

"What are you doing! No!"

Noel charged at the werewolf with single-minded determination to protect Diana.

The enraged werewolf didn't seem affected by the flames the child threw. Rather, as if the action only stoked its anger, it began rampaging violently.

Rolling his body to dodge the werewolf's attacks this way and that, the child gritted his teeth.

He had to protect Diana. Noel's mind was filled entirely with thoughts of protecting Diana.

"Haa. Haa."

Due to the restrictions on his body, he couldn't use high-intensity magic.

It was then, as Noel poured sweat and drew up his magic to its maximum—

A magic circle formed beneath Noel's feet and glowed brightly.

"Ah, Sister."

In that split second, Noel turned his head to look at Diana.

Diana, holding the hatchet at her waist trying to save him, seemed to have reached her physical limit.

With a tearful expression, Noel vanished.

The moment Noel disappeared, a flash like lightning spread through the cavern simultaneously.

BANG! Before she could open her eyes from the excessive flash, an explosion erupted.

The werewolf was sent flying by something.

"……"

A man. The man who appeared where Noel had vanished radiated dangerous bloodlust.

The werewolf that came to its senses quickly lunged at the man, but claws with hardness exceeding steel couldn't reach him.

The man mocked the beast, wounding the werewolf just enough not to kill it.

The more he did, the thicker the scent of blood.

The werewolf, its entire body covered in wounds, huffed and burned with fighting spirit, but the man tilted his head slightly, gauging something.

His eyes narrowed.

Whether bored with playing, the man felled the werewolf in a single strike.

Diana's pink eyes, staring blankly at the man, shook this way and that.

Thud— She dropped the hatchet she'd been holding for emergencies onto the floor.

Diana walked toward the man as if possessed by something.

The man, more beast than monster, turned his eyes to find his next prey.

The predator found its quarry.

His sharp, piercing eyes fixed on Diana. Blue light gleamed as if ready to tear Diana apart any moment. He aimed his sword at Diana approaching closer.

Diana squeezed out her remaining stamina and leaped toward him as if the sword didn't register in her eyes.

She spread her trembling hands and embraced the man's neck.

In that brief moment, the man could have swung his sword but didn't move.

Frozen. The solidified man couldn't move, like he'd become a statue.

"Haa……"

Insane. This is insane. That was Diana's entire first impression.

She didn't know where the man had popped out from, but from the moment he appeared, her heart pounded irregularly.

Diana could see it. The dark crimson magic flowing through the man's entire body.

Truly thick, concentrated magic. An enormous amount of magic that would drive an ordinary person mad.

'There should really be someone horribly cursed.'

Just as Noel said, a horribly cursed human appeared before her eyes. How could she not be delighted?

Instinct preceded reason. She embraced an unfamiliar man she'd never met like he was a thousand-year love.

Diana, hanging on the man's neck, absorbed the magic contained in the curse to her heart's content.

The fatigue accumulated in her entire body vanished completely. When had she last felt this vitalized?

The refreshing sensation spreading through her veins to every corner felt so good her body might melt. She didn't want to separate from this man.

"……"

"……"

Rodrick looked down at the head of the woman who'd suddenly rushed at him, his vision reddened on all sides.

The moment they made contact, the chilling madness that had settled was subsiding.

What the hell was happening? As his rough breathing calmed, he began assessing the situation.

"Hey."

The woman had no answer. Silence flowed for a while.

"Move."

Even at the voice dripping with cold, Diana didn't budge.

Until the man grabbed her nape to peel her off, Diana rubbed her face against the man's thick neck, not knowing what an unseemly display it was.

Though he dropped her roughly, Diana somehow maintained balance and stood upright. Possible now that basic stamina had returned.

She wiped away what felt like drool about to flow from her mouth and looked up at the man with hazy eyes.

The moment she separated from Rodrick, Diana blinked a few times then—gasp!—snapped to sharp awareness.

Heat rose to her face, flushing bright red in an instant. Ugh, what an unseemly display!

"I'm sorry!"

The man tilted his head indifferently and lifted Diana's chin with his bare sword tip.

Diana's pink eyes, glancing down at that deadly blade, wavered slightly.

"Um, could you maybe tell me verbally?"

His languid eyes narrowed as if gauging her.

"What are you?"

"If you remove this, I'll tell you."

Rodrick didn't remove the sword. She couldn't fail to understand the man's wariness, but Diana sighed.

"Excuse me. I am the second daughter of the Beatus Duchy. Diana Beatus."

An ordinary person would have trembled at the intimidation he radiated, but her attitude remained calm.

Challenging, she raised her chin higher as if daring him to try stabbing if he would, boldly defiant.

After a long standoff, Rodrick lowered his sword.

"Why is the Beatus youngest here?"

"You know me?"

"As much as others do."

"Then who are you, sir?"

Diana, who'd nodded at the brief answer, examined the man properly.

She'd used the honorific "sir" because his clothing was a military uniform.

The wolf crest engraved on the scabbard belonged to the Northern Knight Order.

"I didn't get an answer. Princess. I asked why you're here."

"I'd like to know too. I woke up and found myself trapped in this castle. Let me ask too. Who are you?"

Despite the man's cold attitude, Diana looked him up and down.

Broad shoulders and balanced lines—the typical appearance of a thoroughly trained knight overall.

But to call him an ordinary knight, the man exuded the unique atmosphere possessed only by those who command.

Beneath blue-tinged black hair, madness that had subsided lingered faintly in blue eyes.

"Rodrick Schwartz."

Rodrick, who'd tersely stated only his name, looked at his hand and clicked his tongue, pulling off his black leather glove to discard it.

He pulled out new black gloves from inside his jacket and put them on.

Diana froze watching that fluid motion.

Schwartz?! That Rodrick Schwartz?

Who was Rodrick Schwartz?

The sub-male lead in the novel, Felice Schwartz. His one and only older brother.

Duke Felice was a figure who openly opposed the Crown Prince.

The reason being his brother and father who'd died from madness. Madness from a curse.

The Imperial family had been skilled at using magic for generations.

Only the Imperial family used magic rivaling ancient mages' status. For them, casting curses would be easy.

Felice believed his family's deaths were because of the Imperial family that held the North's leash.

In the original, Rodrick Schwartz appeared briefly in Felice's flashback scene and disappeared.

Felice, who'd longed for his dead brother, found comfort in the female lead who embraced him despite being an opposing force to the Crown Prince, and fell in love that way.

He too walked the villain's path, though.

Mm, to summarize, the man before her eyes was also terminal like her. A villain who disappeared before the original story even started.

Why a villain? His notoriety for cruelty that made tyrants look tame was renowned not just on battlefields but even in other countries.

They said he went mad from the affliction and died on a battlefield. That was a story heard in reality before regression, not in the original.

Diana had lived lying in bed, but thanks to a gossipy maid, she could hear various news within the system faster than anyone.

Was your end as agonizing as mine?

"Your gaze is impure."

Mm, she'd been looking at Rodrick with empathy. And that's what comes out.

What a prickly man. Like Rodrick, Diana looked him up and down again.

Not his appearance—reading the magic including the curse flowing through his body.

A man harboring a curse many times that of the cursed doll.

Yeah, pass.

With this man, her illness could be cured quickly.

What would be good to stay attached to this man? Lovers? Married? For my life's sake, I'll grab hold somehow.

Even impossibly handsome looks for someone about to disappear as a villain. It couldn't be better than this.

"What's wrong with my gaze?"

He leaned close and lowered his head, breath hitting her dizzyingly.

"You're looking at me with pitying eyes full of sympathy. Am I wrong?"

Oh my, sharp instincts too. Her pink-tinged eyes curved softly. Would it be too perverted to say even this man's breath feels refreshing?

"No. You got it exactly right."

How unfortunate. Your curse can save me. Why did you only appear now?

Rodrick's face was expressionless, but the emotion in his blue eyes was clear.

Unmistakable displeasure.