If The Villain Catches Me Alive

Chapter 11

Standing in front of the study immersed in pitch black, felt a little strange. Maybe it's because it's the last time... Perhaps more.

For the first time, I locked the study with a latch. I hoped it would buy me some time. ...Even if it did, I was sure I'd be found out sooner or later.

I slowly pushed open the bookcase and made my way down to the basement laboratory. Many thoughts passed through my mind in that short time.

"Would he think I was cowardly?"

If he did, there was nothing I could say. After all, it was true: I was running away, unable to endure or overcome anything.

My steps led me somewhere, down into the underground laboratory, where I came face to face with Theodore for the first time. I stood there, looking down at him for a long moment.

"This is where I first saw you..."

It was all so sad to think that it was the last time. I don't even know if I should even dare to feel this way, but...

"How can a meeting be so shitty? Right... Theodore..."

I leaned back against where he was tied up and closed my eyes for a moment. A sense of dread that I had forgotten crept over me. Despite my resolve, the underlying fear hadn't gone away. The paper on which I had drawn the magic circle shook violently.

"......I'm scared..."

A terrified voice came out of my mouth. I'm scared. I was scared. I was determined to bear it all alone, because I didn't want there to be any more young victims. Therefore, I must be killed. It was the law of magic.

[Study No. 8882: Recreating the Physical Body]

Of course, what Dante hadn't done in the past, I couldn't do now. All I could do was... find a loophole in the text and tweak it a bit.

'There is a moment, a brief interval when a man dies and his body ceases to exist.'

So the idea is this.

'I can intentionally cause my physical body to die...'

The disembodied soul will wander the world for a very short time, and then it will be extinguished. But in between... it could get in somewhere.

To risk everything on such a fleeting hope... It was, in essence, a gamble.

They say that many lives die and are reborn in this world, so if I could find a body that was empty just before my soul vanished......

'Just like I was dropped here without knowing the language...'

Then again, maybe I could start a new life in a new place?

A small glimmer of hope spurred me to action. With all my thoughts in order, I opened my eyes and slowly stood in the very center of the underground lab, under the dome. The blue jewels embedded here and there seemed to be waiting for me.

"......It's okay, I can do it..."

I cut my palm with the dagger I had brought with me, and blood immediately trickled down to the floor. My blood became the material to draw a large magic circle on the floor.

"I have it drawn on paper, in case I forget."

I had already looked up the magic formula a hundred times, so I could draw it without looking. ...My tear ducts must have been broken. Otherwise, I wouldn't be crying like this. Really....

'Am I sad...? Or maybe, guilty?'

I don't know. I really don't know anymore. I can't possibly feel sad, my life has always been one big pile of misfortune.