World's Strongest Became the Game's Weakest Villain

"Is the tea to your liking, Lady Acacia?"

The lady picked up the golden-brimmed cup and took a sip.

In the office room on the top floor of a merchant group, I and Luther stood behind the lady as she gently brought the cup underneath her veil. The man sitting across her with a muscular build and a sharp face was the owner of the rising merchant group, behind him exactly seventeen guards as strong as a Gold Ranked Adventurer.

It was a rare sight, but I guess big cities were different.

The lady hummed after taking the sip.

"It's trash."

With just a cold comment, she tossed the cup away.

The man flinched.

The cup crashed and broke into bits.

"You're just as bold as I have heard, my lady," said the merchant. "It's charming, but I do wonder if it will ever bite you in the back."

"You don't need to worry about that." The lady gently rested her back on the couch and raised her feet, kicking away the tea set and placing her statuesque feet on the table. "You smuggle illegal goods into the city through the underground district. All of it shall pass through my people."

Out in the fifth district of the capital city, just 11 days before the day of the banquet, the lady of Acacia Duchy was here, busy extorting drug dealers into sharing their profits on her turf.

That was definitely what anyone would think, but the way she operated was different.

A shadow was to be formed wherever there was light. What separated an empire from a kingdom was that an Empire had enemies on the inside, as such, it was better to control the shadow than to eradicate it since it would never go away completely.

I didn't know much, but I could tell a few things about the lady that I had been observing like a hawk without a wink of sleep. She was competent enough to control the entire underworld of the empire, and this was a part of it.

New powers were bound to rise. Since the master wasn't home, the dogs were barking.

"You say something ridiculous, my lady," said the merchant. It was obvious he had strong backing. "For one, that accusation itself is bewildering—"

The lady snapped her fingers and Luther stepped ahead. He pulled out a box from a small pouch in his robes and placed it on the table.

With a scowl, the merchant picked up the box. He opened it up and scowled harder.

"This..."

"Are you still going to spout nonsense? You should have handled your business more discreetly."

"How did you..."

"We also have testimonies from dozens of people." The lady picked up the teapot with the remaining tea and poured it all on the ground, away from her. She seemed to have been seriously offended by that drink.

"I'll expect you already understand what you have to do from now?"

The merchant clenched his fists holding the box. He smiled.

"I understand. I'll just bury you here."

For reals?

In the blink of an eye, the lady pulled her legs back. The man stood up and the people behind him pulled out their weapons.

She kicked the table ahead.

In a swift blow, the table clashed against the merchant's knees and forced him to fall forward. In the same swift movement, she placed her hands behind on the couch and jumped off the ground. Like a beautiful blade moving, her feet formed a wide arch, kicking down the man's chin before she flipped completely and landed behind the couch on her feet.

Luther, scared, jumped back.

Gold-Ranked Adventurers weren't to be taken lightly.

In that same swift movement as the lady, more than seven of them had already surrounded her in all directions and had raised their weapons.

The lady's veil fluttered.

I made my presence known.

I had recovered about sixty percent of my capacity. So I decided to just go with everything, it wasn't a lot after all.

The air around the place stopped.

A cloud of dust rose from the ground, and in the next moment, everyone froze in their spots.

Everyone.

The hands pulling up the weapons were stopped while the ones still running stopped with their legs still up.

Then.

The pressure fell on them.

***

The streets of the fifth district quaked at once.

People walking around in a merry way during the festive mood all stopped as fear crept up their backs.

Knights and wizards on patrol all stopped and stared toward the center of the district as an indescribable pressure pushed down on them.

The same happened in the sixth and fourth districts.

The branch managers of the Adventurer's Guild all stood up as the pressure clamped down on their necks.

"What is this killing intent?" the manager of the branch in the Empire growled while the Vice Guild Master looked with distress in his eyes.

"Is this why the empire called us? What is this."

"No," said their bulky companion. The branch manager of the Deep Down Town branch, as he clenched down on his shirt. "It's that kid... that monster's aura."

"Who...?"

"Dusk."

***

Luther and a bunch of them fainted.

The ones remaining trembled on their knees. Only the lady seemed unaffected by the pressure as she stared at me in surprise.

Did I overdo it?

Was sixty percent a bit too much after all?

I recalled my pressure and focused it on the group in front of me.

One of the merchant's guards lifting his sword pissed his pants, still frozen.

I snapped my finger and made a small wall of ice around him to avoid splashing as the others puked and groaned on the ground.

"Guard."

The lady said, her voice soft.

I nodded and called all my killing intent back as the ones groaning took a breath of relief.

The merchant, barely able to move his body, glared at the lady with horror in his eyes.

How to say it?

It pissed me off.

It didn't make sense.

She was someone who uncontrolled the underworld. The person holding the reins of the empire. A member of the Acacia Duchy which was the strongest family in the empire with power on par with the Imperial Family.

Then why?

Why were people looking at her like she was someone they could handle? A measly merchant at that.

I frowned with disgust and took a step ahead. With a snap of my fingers, the Chains of Adamas wrapped around my arm turned into a sword and I pointed it at the bastard merchant.

"Stop looking at her with those eyes."

How annoying.

How damn annoying.

"I'll pull your eyes out and place them in your hands."

My voice was akin to a growl, its coldness surprising even me.

"Ah... ah...." the merchant growled in pain.

The few other of his knights around could still move and looked at the lady.

These fuckers.

I snapped my fingers again and a spear of ice formed above all of them.

"How fucking bold. I hope you all are prepared to die for thinking you could even utter a word in her presence."

I turned toward the lady.

She nodded.

I clenched my fists and the spears of ice fell down on all of them, tearing through their bodies and digging into their hearts in one go.

"Ahh! D-demon! Demon!" the merchant screamed and moved back. I swung my sword and drove it into his eyes.

Casually, I pulled it out and brought his eye along with the blade. The merchant couldn't even scream as I shrugged my blade and tossed the eye in his hands.

It was inconsistent.

"You understand now, yes?" the lady asked.

The merchant fervently nodded while banging his head on the ground. Blood started spilling out his forehead.

"Let's go."

With those words, the lady turned away and moved away from the office.

I made the chains lift Luther as I followed behind the lady.

Not a single person on the lower floors of the building was still moving around, all of them had fainted from earlier.

We reached the exit and climbed into the carriage. The chains handled Luther on his horse while the carriage set off.

I was still scowling from earlier.

Things were getting more clearer now.

The lady seemed chipper than before. She was still stiff, but it was noticeable.

This was how it should have always been, so how did it not happen now?

"We're going to the sixth district next," in a good mood, she started blurting her plans. "There's a new group rising in the shadows. They run a casino with a moon emblem. Dark Moon—"

I couldn't hear her well. My thoughts were too chaotic.

The maids forgetting her meals.

Then coming back the next day while sweating, all of them, as if they were unable to believe why they forgot in the first place.

The way Luther acted around her.

The way she moved to get things on her own.

Her surprise at the fact that I was standing guard all night.

Those bastard merchants today acting out.

"Guard—"

"My lady," I called out. "Are you, perhaps, being forgotten by the world?"