Path of the Demonic Villain

Upper District in the Imperial Capital of Florentia...

Fioravanti townhouse in the Grand Quarter.

——

"Today drained me," Dante mumbled as he wobbled into his room.

As he made his way to his table in the study area, Edward appeared and began skipping toward the bed.

"Why did today drain you? You didn’t do much, Master," Edward chimed as he hopped onto the massive four-poster bed.

"What do you mean I didn’t do much? My social battery died three hours ago and I’ve been running on spite ever since," Dante replied, pulling open the mahogany drawer of his writing desk.

There was a handwritten parchment note tucked inside, nestled amongst leather-bound notebooks, fountain pen ink bottles, and brass paper clips. He took out the note along with a brass thumb tack and made his way toward the door.

On the note were the words:

"DO NOT DISTURB. Currently fighting off an existential crisis (or taking a nap, whichever comes first)."

After stepping into the hallway, he pinned it firmly to the outer panel of his door. Then he stepped back inside, closed the door, and turned the brass key in the lock.

That note was specifically meant for Caterina, who had a habit of trying to barge in to pester him even when the door was locked.

With that done, Dante made his way over to the chair behind the study table and slumped into it.

For the next ten minutes or so, he sat and smystered, doing nothing but daydreaming.

Setting those thoughts aside, he straightened up after a while, reached into his pocket, and pulled out an old brass pocket watch. It was the [Pocket Watch of Second Chances] that he had borrowed earlier today.

’I was saddened when mother told me that those scavengers had already sold all the artifacts I had. As long as they had been purchased by merchants, it would almost be impossible to find them again.’

There was a reason why Merchant was a job class on its own. People of that class were really skilled when it came to handling stolen artifacts. Among them, those who were artisans could even change the look, size, and features of an artifact.

Since they were the ones responsible for assigning tiers to artifacts, they had ways to even take out certain features or add features to increase or reduce the tier of an artifact.

So at this moment, Dante knew that trying to find his lost artifacts was basically a lost cause.

That was why he was extremely happy when he got his hands on artifacts like this pocket watch of second chances to build back his collection and replace what he had lost.

’This artifact is a really handy tool. The only problem is the cost. In fact, in my opinion, this is one of those artifacts that should actually be considered evil.’

He ran a thumb over the cold metal.

’If I can remember correctly, just rewinding time isn’t that big of an issue. The cost for that is that it takes away a small memory of a certain time in a person’s life according to their choosing. However, things are quite ominous if the purpose of rewinding time is to escape death, because the cost is different.

’Even if a person holding this dies, it will automatically rewind time to save that person’s life. But the thing is, it can only be used for that when people are nearby.

’That is because, according to it, one cannot cheat death. The death that was meant to occur must still occur. So it will return your life and rewind time for you, but it will put someone else around you that you choose in that circle of time where the death occurred.’

Dante smiled. ’In other words, it’s more of giving a substitute to buy a second chance in life. However, the person offered wouldn’t even know what hit them. The fact that the protagonist was holding onto this for dear life makes me view her as a villain rather than a main character.’

He chuckled and stood up, then made his way to a cabinet in the corner of the room. After unlocking the wooden door, he put the pocket watch inside one of the velvet-lined drawers, after which he took out the Spectacles of Truth from his pocket and shoved it inside as well before locking it up.

By the way, speaking of the spectacles, his eyes were still aching even at this moment.

’The limit for wearing the spectacles is around fifteen minutes. Any more and I feel like I might go blind.’

Dante reached for another drawer within the cabinet and took out a diary. It was a brown leather-bound journal with slightly frayed edges.

He walked back to his study desk and sat down, then he opened it to a fresh page. Reaching into his coat pocket, he took out the [Pocket Watch of Stolen Moments] and without wasting any time, he pressed the small button on the winding crown.

Suddenly, the crackle of the fireplace froze, and the soft rustle of the curtains died away as if time had stopped. At the same time, Dante felt his mind and thoughts sharpen.

In order not to waste the three seconds he had, he immediately began to recall the information he knew about the coming event, but more specifically, the circumstances surrounding the main character during that time. He also began to cross-reference with what he read on the wiki for Gia.

’Barely thirty minutes after the expedition into the Labyrinth began, Gia, with the help of a high priest on her team, was able to discover that one of their team members was a puppet after he tried to attach the puppeteer’s spider onto her. This led to a fight among the teammates and because of this, they couldn’t make it to where their assigned cargo was on time, which caused them to fail the mission.

’Fortunately, that failure saved the team members, because there were Red Blighted Creatures waiting at the location. The string of events, however, led to another team being wiped out in their place.’

Dante narrowed his eyes. ’Back then, she survived and also avoided becoming a puppet.’

Of course, Dante knew about the puppeteer’s spider.

In this world, there were people who worshiped Marion, the evil God of Puppets and Marionettes.

At this point in time, of course, Marion had been declared an evil God by the Holy See, so that bit was information many influential and powerful people knew. However, only a vague idea was made public about the nature of the powers he gave his Apostles.

Because they were actively hunted down by the churches, the followers of this god were not many, and the few still alive were very secretive, operating in the shadows.

It was not until much later in the game that Dante had discovered that there was a cult known as the Black Silt Ring, who worshipped Marion.

He also later came to discover that a few of their high-ranking apostles had unlocked the Red Divine Skill: [Parasitic Marionette].

This allowed them to create a spider that could find its way into a person’s head and attach itself to their brain. It would then feed on their brain, replacing it over time and becoming the new controller of their body, making them a complete puppet of the puppeteer.

’So many things about this expedition are strange. There’s a lot at play here and it’s making it difficult for me to piece everything together,’ Dante thought.

’I know that there will be puppets among the students on this expedition. And I believe those puppets will likely be sent from the Black Silt Ring. However, I have no idea what their goal is. I would have just dismissed it as the puppeteer trying to expand their number of puppets, but I feel like there’s more to it than that.

’There’s also the issue of the Red Blighted Creatures. That’s a Green Labyrinth we’ll be heading to. So why in the world are there going to be Red Blighted Creatures there? It doesn’t make sense to me.’

Dante exhaled.

’Also, I had initially thought that Annabella killed the original Dante after becoming a puppet, but now that I think deeper about it, I don’t think that’s the case. A puppet is just that. A puppet. If an apostle ends up becoming a puppet, I don’t think they’d still be an apostle, because what makes a person an apostle is their faith. And a puppet controlled by a follower of Marion cannot truly hold faith in another God.

’Looking at it this way, an apostle would cease to be an apostle. But I know a bit about Annabella’s story even after the incident. She retains her powers and grows to become quite a formidable Apostle of Dreams. So there’s no way she was a puppet. Then why? Why did she do what she did? Why kill Dante on that expedition?’