How to Redeem a Trashy Side Villain

Chapter 148: A Terrible Investigation

I could feel twelve presences appearing from the tunnel that leads to this room and yet, that wasn't even the main thing on my mind.

The main thing I was thinking about was the position I was in. To say that I felt uncomfortable would be the biggest understatement ever.

The air inside Tavros's mouth was thick, hot, humid, and clung to my skin like another layer of clothes. It also smelled unmistakably alive.

He didn't breathe that often but when he did, each breath would rumble around me as if I were standing inside a living cavern.

The surface beneath my feet, his large tongue, was warm and slick.

It was dark, obviously. But it was so dark that every hint of light had been swallowed. It was the kind of darkness where even if you held your hand in front of your face, it wouldn't make a difference.

I could hear the movements going on inside his body. The beating of his heart. The way his organs shifted. Even the sound of his blood cells traveling throughout his body.

For half a second, I was convinced that he was going to swallow me.

Yeah, this is definitely the top five stupidest decisions I've ever made.

Yet, it was also one that I had no choice but to make.

Even though I was trapped inside the prison that was Tavros's mouth, I could hear and vaguely have a sense of the surroundings outside of it.

"Finding our way here is one thing," one of the demons said in their native language that I was now able to understand after offering up Gary's life, "but it's finding our way back that's the problem."

"Can't we just follow the line that follows us?"

"..."

I was a little stunned because that was the same train of thought that I had. I was going to follow the line like Theseus when he had to escape the maze after killing the Minotaur.

"Did you really think that the labyrinth would be that generous? Obviously, that line is a sham. The paths are constantly shifting and changing. Even if you go back the same way that you came, it can lead you someplace else."

…Obviously.

I wanted to facepalm myself. I should've known better than to trust the Underworld. Nothing and no one here is trustworthy. Not even me.

"We're here. Now what do we do?" asked a demon who seemed to be a first timer on the job.

"It's very simple. We just test out whatever invention or spell we were tasked to bring along with us. See if it works. If it doesn't, we inspect the surroundings for a bit, make sure that he's not plotting to escape, maybe attack him a few times, then we leave."

"...Won't he attack us back?"

"Him? No. He's an idiot. He's lost his mind over the years. He just stares off into the distance or bangs his head on the wall whenever we're here. He can't even speak anymore. Being alone in this place all that time must've deteriorated his brain."

He's played these demons for a fool.

I was just talking to him earlier. He must have pretended to have gone crazy. Why? I don't know, but I had some immediate ideas.

One of them was that if they thought he was crazy and had lost his mind, they would be less motivated to research a spell to control him, as he would be a "shell" of his former self, even if they managed to control him.

Another idea was that he was bored, so he would take on the role of the fool to bring himself some entertainment, even if it meant ignoring the fact that they attacked him.

I so desperately wanted to question, but that would have to wait until after these demons left.

The moment their footsteps fully entered the chamber, Tavros's movement shifted. It was so subtle that if it wasn't for the fact that I was inside his mouth, feeling every minute change in his muscles and breath, I might not have noticed the difference.

I could tell that his posture had slackened just a fraction and his breathing grew irregular as if he were a mindless, idiotic monster rather than the intelligent reader.

I was curious why his bookshelf had never been discovered all this time. Even if it was high up, surely a demon with flight ability had flown to the ceiling in the past to get a better overview.

Or perhaps these demons were so lazy and treated this job with such casualness that none of them ever bothered to put in that much effort.

'He must be a good actor to have never been caught before,' Kimi commented.

That, or the demons were just too stupid to see through it. Both could also be true simultaneously.

"Wow," one of the demons muttered. "There it is. The monster I've been hearing about forever. It feels a little surreal to see it in person, to be honest with you guys."

Their voices echoed through the chamber, much clearer and easier ot hear now that they were closer. Just from the sound alone, I could practically map out the positions of all twelve of them in the room.

"He's… a little underwhelming."

"Told you," another demon scoffed. "It's just a washed-up giant idiot that we are forced to waste our time visiting now and then. I wish we just got permission to kill it already."

"It's not like it's easy to kill even if we received the orders."

One of them stepped forward and said, "We're not even sure if it can feel pain anymore. Sometimes it reacts a little to our attacks, but most of the time it just ignores them as if nothing happened even if its fur gets burned or a cut causes it to bleed."

"So the creature is broken."

"Essentially."

Boom!

Something had struck Tavros and it struck him hard; the impact of the blow reverberated through his entire body and the shockwave traveled all the way into his mouth and made it feel like I was standing in the midst of an earthquake.

My footing nearly slipped on his tongue and for a split second, I thought my hiding spot was going to either become a one-way trip down his throat or me accidentally stabbing him with my sword.

Thankfully, neither of those things happened.

If I were the one who was struck by that attack, I would've at least grunted, but Tavros did not react. He didn't flinch, his breath didn't change pace, nothing.

"...See? No response."

"Wow, how pathetic," the one who sent the attack muttered. "This is what the older generation was so excited to control? A failed weapon that can't even achieve the one purpose it had."

"Don't get complacent. Just because it's stupid now doesn't mean it was always like this. Even if it's no longer in its prime, we've been repeatedly told that its core capabilities are exceptional. That's why we're here. That's why this job still exists after all these years."

There was a pause in the conversation as the bodies shifted and took their places in what seemed to be a predetermined formation.

Then I began to feel the rise of magical energy. It was faint at first but the ripple brushing against Tavros's body intensified and crawled all over him like an invisible net trying to catch and tighten around a large prey.

Is this a new tool they have invented to try and mind-control Tavros?

"Initiating the test."

"Initiating."

"Attempting to override his neurons using the—"

"Attempting."

"...Are you going to repeat everything I say?"

The pressure increased and even from inside the mouth, I could feel it pressing from all sides as if the air around me was being squeezed into a solid ball.

Tavros didn't move or react to the tool. He didn't even acknowledge it.

He's so nonchalant. Is this what the cool kids call, aura-farming?

"Is it working?" the rookie asked.

"...Does it look like it's working?"

"No."

"Then why would you ask if it's working?"

"I… I don't know."

"Increase the output. Push the machine to its very limits."

"What if it breaks?"

"So? It's not like we have high expectations for it to succeed. If it breaks, it breaks. Let's just get this over with."

"Got it!"

The pressure was even stronger now. It was sharper and more focused.

Tightening my stance, I gripped onto the back of one of his teeth.

Still nothing. Tavros remained as he was when they entered the room.

Is the pain so little to him that he doesn't care, or is he just really good at hiding the pain?

Then the pressure vanished instantly.

"...Tch. Another useless trip. The tool doesn't work. It just broke."

A sharp clatter followed, like metal being carelessly tossed aside onto the floor.

"Of course it broke," another demon muttered. "You pushed it past its limits."

"And? It wasn't doing anything anyway."

"I'm not judging you, idiot. I'm just giving you an explanation."

A few of the demons chuckled, though it sounded more like boredom and fake laughter rather than true amusement.

"Alright," the demon, whom I assume is the leader, said with a sigh, "we tested out the tool. But that doesn't mean we're leaving just yet. Do a quick sweep and follow the standard procedure like usual."

Footsteps spread out across the chamber, slow and unmotivated.

There was no urgency in their movements, no real caution either. It was more akin to someone working as a team member at a fast-food restaurant rather than a demon in charge of something important.

"Check the walls."

"Yeah, yeah…"

"I'll take the left side."

"I've got the back."

Their voices echoed as they drifted apart, and I could track them purely by sound. One of them dragged something along the ground as they walked — maybe a weapon.

"Anything over there?" one called out.

"Yeah!"

"Really?! What?"

"Nothing," they replied. "Same as always."

A pause came between the two demons.

"I'm going to kill you later."

"I'd like to see you try."

Elsewhere in the room, a demon asked their companion, "…You ever think they're overestimating this thing? I hear stories of what it was capable of but like… surely those were just exaggerations."

"I think this all the time."

"No, seriously," the same one continued. "We come here, we hit it, we try some new toy, it fails, and then we leave. It doesn't move. It doesn't speak. It barely even breathes. Feels more like we're babysitting a corpse rather than this power monster meant to bring destruction to the human race."

A few quiet snickers followed that.

"Hey," another voice piped up from somewhere closer to Tavros's front. "There's nothing up here either. Same old ceiling."

That caught my attention.

…So they did check sometimes. How come they haven't found his bookshelf then?

"Alright! Let's get ready to leave everyone!" the leader announced.

"Huh? Wait, shouldn't we check closer?" the rookie asked. "Like… take our time?"

There was a brief silence.

"…Define 'closer,'" someone said flatly.

"I mean, just to be thorough—"

"If you want to check closer, go ahead. I'll shove your head up that bull's asshole and you can get as close as you'd like. Be my guest. I won't stop you."

Most of the demons laughed at that.

The rookie hesitated. "…Never mind."

"If that's all, then we're done here."

"Finally!"

Footsteps began to converge again, gathering near the entrance.

"Pack up whatever's left," the leader continued. "We're reporting this as another failure."