I'm in Love with the Villainess!

Chapter 268: Going Off-Script...?

"Enough."

A sudden voice rang out before I could hurl the flame. With it, the creature vanished as though it had never existed. At the same time, color returned to the world, the black-and-white haze peeling away in an instant.

What?

Something like this wasn’t supposed to happen. Who the hell was...?

CLACK!

The sharp tap of a cane sounded from behind us. When we turned, we saw an old man with hair as white as snow and blind eyes fixed on nothing in particular. He was old, absurdly old. Even calling him a hundred would have been an understatement.

"You look like you didn’t plan for this."

Evelina said it while already moving to hide behind me, her choker and eyes immediately glowing crimson. The succubus within it had already grown restless at the sight of the old man.

"I didn’t," I replied.

"Two younglings, out of everyone... I didn’t expect anyone your age to make this trial so boring for me."

His trial?

Wait... the archmage? But wasn’t he supposed to be...?

"Dead? You’d be correct. Well, you would be if I were some normal, puny human."

The archmage laughed, but neither of us did. Even if he wasn’t casting any magic, we both knew he was dangerous, a danger that surpassed masters like Corvus and Azrael.

An immortal mage with centuries of knowledge behind him. Even though the novel never said he was still alive, Julius had never met him. So why was he here now? Just because we had bored him? Was that it?

"Fighting him would be pointless, Cael."

"I know. Let’s reason with him."

"Reason? You two are smarter than I thought."

The archmage chuckled and tapped his cane against the floor. A small wooden chair appeared behind him, and he sat down.

Fighting was impossible here; this was his domain. But even if it weren’t, I was sure we would lose badly, very badly. This man was supposed to be a legend, a myth, and more importantly, someone who should never have appeared.

"What do you want?"

"Straight to the point? You seem to be in a rush, lad. Is that how you kids treat your elders?"

"The two of us aren’t exactly kids—"

"Yes, yes, I know. Don’t mistake my age for senility, brat. I was only joking..."

The archmage leaned back in his chair and slowly closed his eyes.

"Now then, give me one reason I shouldn’t kill you."

THUD!

The pressure in the room multiplied instantly, forcing our knees to buckle and making our ears ring in protest. Even the crushing weight of the seafloor couldn’t compare to this. He was powerful, absurdly powerful.

Kill...? Wouldn’t that defeat the entire purpose of his trials!?

"W-We’re participating in your trials fairly, what do you mean—"

The archmage cut me off with a laugh.

"Fairly? Did you really think I made this library to be fair, child? I made it for entertainment! To watch wandering fools suffer through my machinations."

Entertainment? This place isn’t even public knowledge! He considered the occasional lost soul stumbling into his library enough to entertain him?

He should invest in television instead, if he wants entertainment.

"So that’s what this is about? You’ll kill us because we’re boring?"

"Precisely..."

"So what about the rewards you placed at the end?"

"Merely participation awards."

The archmage answered every question with brutal bluntness, each response steeped in unvarnished truth. So... this entire arc in the novel was just some bizarre archmage’s version of reality TV?

"What if we find some other way to entertain you then?"

Evelina spoke beside me, her face as strained as mine beneath the pressure radiating from his presence.

"I’ll consider it. After all, that’s this place’s purpose... aside from collecting knowledge I find interesting."

I forced my breathing to slow, pushing against the weight pressing down on my shoulders. The archmage watched us with those blind eyes that somehow saw everything, his cane tapping once against the floor in a slow, rhythmic beat.

"Entertain me," he repeated, tasting the words like wine. "Such a simple request. And yet, in three hundred years, only a handful have managed it."

"Three hundred years?" Evelina’s voice came out strained, but steady.

"The library has existed for longer, but I’ve only been... watching... for three centuries. Before that, I was busy with other pursuits." He waved a gnarled hand dismissively. "Immortality is dreadfully boring, you see. One must find hobbies."

"Your hobby is torturing people?"

"Observing." He corrected me with a sharp tap of his cane.

"I observe. What they do to themselves, what they do to each other, what they do to my creations. The suffering is entirely self-inflicted. I simply provide the stage."

That’s quite a stretch in logic...

[Photographic Memory]

I scanned the novel’s fragments again, searching for anything about this encounter. Nothing. Julius had never met this man. The library trials had been dangerous, yes, but they’d played out almost like a conventional dungeon. No ancient archmage tweaking the experience for his amusement.

"Your friend," the archmage said suddenly, tilting his head as if listening to something far away. "The dark-haired one. He’s fighting well. And the girl with him has good instincts. Raw, but good."

"You can see them?"

"I can see everything that happens in my library, child. Every cut, every bruise, every desperate gamble. That’s what makes it entertaining."

He leaned forward, and the pressure in the room intensified further. My knees buckled another inch. Beside me, Evelina grabbed my arm for support, her crimson eyes narrow with effort.

"But you two," the archmage continued, "you’re different. You’re not desperate. You’re not afraid. You walked through my forest like it was a morning stroll, and you killed my gatekeeper without even breaking a sweat."

"She was annoying," Evelina said flatly.

The archmage stared at her for a long moment.

Then he laughed.

Not the mocking chuckle from before, but a genuine, full-bodied laugh that echoed off the pillars and made the gold veins in the broken throne flicker back to life.

"Annoying! She calls my gatekeeper annoying!" He slapped his knee, still laughing. "Oh, I like you. I like you both."

The pressure vanished.

I nearly collapsed forward, catching myself on one knee before forcing myself back upright. Evelina straightened beside me, her grip on my arm loosening but not releasing entirely.

"Fine," the archmage said, wiping a tear from his blind eye. "You’ve earned a reprieve. I won’t kill you yet."

"How generous."

"Don’t push it, boy." His smile didn’t waver, but there was a sharper edge in his tone. "I like rude people like you two. Ever since I reached this level of power, everyone’s been so nice. You two are a refreshing change of pace."

"But that’s not enough to fully save either of you," he added.