The Survival of the Third-rate Villain

"..."

Silence once again engulfed the whole area.

Neither Lucian nor Raye was speaking, and neither were the soldiers.

Lucian stared at Raye long and hard. He studied his eyes and expression, and seeing that he was serious about what he just said...

"I’ll look into it."

He declared that.

"They have the captain of the Alvah Knights in too."

Then Raye followed up with that.

"..."

Lucian fell silent again. But this time, he nodded his head before opening his mouth.

"Got it."

And after saying that... Lucian turned around and started walking away.

"I’ll give you a hefty reward if any of what you said is true."

And with that, he left with his soldiers.

"..."

Leaving Raye blankly standing there with Zephyrus and Pyro. Then after seeing Lucian gone—

"Haaaaaa..."

He let out a heavy sigh and scratched the back of his head.

*****

(Raye’s POV)

I don’t know why I just said all of that to Lucian. I just had the urge to...

Wait, no—

I do know why I did it.

The story is pretty fucked now. I can confidently say almost everything will change from now on.

So I decided... I’ll just do whatever, even if it means messing up the story even more.

And earlier, I had this feeling to stop Lucian from becoming a villain—after all, he’s actually a good patriarch for this town. I don’t want to let the Alvah Dukedom fall and watch many people suffer and die when I know I could’ve prevented that.

So I figured, if Lucian knows that some of the elders are going to betray him—he would do something about it and he wouldn’t go crazy, he wouldn’t have to fight Leon.

That’s what I’m wishing for to happen, at least.

’Lucian is smart, he’ll handle it after digging into it a bit and realizing that I was telling the truth.’

I shrugged.

Anyway, how do I know all of this? Well, Lucian’s story was shown after you defeat him in the game as Leon.

I lied about the part where one of the elders tried to make me start a rebellion though. That’s the best I could come up with to make my words a bit more believable.

-Wow, that’s your father? He’s something, huh...

-meep! He’s scary!

Zephyrus and Pyro talked.

Oh, and currently—I’m on my way out of the forest with the two still resting on my shoulders.

-If he’s that strong, then how come your talent isn’t like his? You would’ve already been much stronger than you are right now if that’s the case.

Zephyrus said, confused and disappointed for me.

"At least I have his looks, so let’s just leave it like that."

I replied to him with a shrug as I continued walking.

*****

Not long... Raye got out of the forest, and immediately after that—he headed to the town with Zephyrus and Pyro.

It’s just a few minutes of walk... Then finally, after 10 whole months of training inside the dungeon rift or 25 days here in the outside world—

"We’re here, guys."

They finally got back to civilization.

-meep...! I’m excited to explore!

-Same here.

And after hearing the two say that—

Raye decided to search for a restaurant for the three of them to eat at.

...

...

...

With Zephyrus and Pyro flying above the air, finding a place they could eat at was a breeze.

The two of them guided Raye to where it was, and when they got there—

’It’s an eastern shop.’

Or to be exact, a ramen shop.

Raye likes ramen, so without further ado, the three of them entered the facility... Then they ordered kuro ramen for each of them.

Their stomachs were already growling, too bad it would take a while for their order to be made.

...

...

After about half an hour of waiting—Raye, Zephyrus, and Pyro were now just staring blankly at the wall. They were starving like fuck, and they couldn’t muster up any more strength.

Luckily for them though—

"Here’s your three orders of kuro ramen, Sir."

Their orders were served just as they were about to crash out and throw tantrums!

The three of them immediately took their own bowls of ramen, and without hesitation—

Slurp!

They started eating.

"Sho gooshd...!"

-Mhnnm...!

-meeep! goosh!

They exclaimed as they took their first taste of it. It’s been a while since they ate something other than roasted monster meat.

And so, the three of them enjoyed their time in the restaurant.

Raye ordered teriyaki chicken and more as they were eating.

*****

"Burp...!"

-urrp...!

-muuurp...!

Raye, Zephyrus, and Pyro burped after finishing all the food they ordered. They ordered a lot, worth about 4 gold coins.

Raye just handed the owner of the restaurant 5 gold coins and left. The owner, grateful, bowed to them repeatedly as they exited the facility.

-Where are we heading now?

Zephyrus asked, perched on Raye’s head. He was too full to fly.

Meanwhile, Pyro was being carried by Raye in his arms like a baby... The little fire spirit was sleeping.

"We’re going back to the inn we stayed at before. We’ll rest for the day, then early tomorrow morning... We’ll go back here to the marketplace to prepare for our travel. And by afternoon—we’ll leave this place."

Raye explained to Zephyrus.

’As much as I want to stay here and sightsee... The academy will start in six days, I need to go back.’

He added in his head. Then, opening his mouth again...

"I’ll be a tertiary now, huh."

He muttered under his breath.

Raye’s plan originally was to stay on the sidelines and graduate to have a comfortable life. His goal is still the same as before.

The only difference is, right now... Raye is in the middle of all the messes that have happened so far along with the main characters.

And also—he doesn’t care anymore when that happens.

Anyway...

Raye got to the inn they stayed at before with the two. He immediately rented a room for the night.

They headed to the room assigned to them, and as soon as they got there—

"..."

-...

-...

They laid down on the bed and fell asleep.

Its their first time in a long while too that they’re not sleeping on a sleeping bag and that they have a proper room.