The Main Character is the Villain

It felt like only a few days had passed, but the air of the territory, which I returned to after a long time, was refreshing. I took a deep breath as soon as I passed the boundary line, savoring my freedom. Behind me were Eve, trapped in a large iron cage, and the mermaid, humming in a water tank.

The woman who had kept her mouth shut and only spoke when necessary, even when I was dragging her to the guild master, turned out to be quite a chatty and cheerful mermaid.

"Mom, what are you so happy about?"

"Heh, it feels like we're on an outing."

"Fuck, Mom. Are you saying you're happy when we don't know what that psycho bastard is going to do with us?"

"It's fine, it's fine. We've done plenty of crazy things ourselves. I don't care if I die."

Eve's face was covered in a deep blue bruise. It was because she had tried to smash the cart and escape as soon as I left the trade city. In the sea, Eve might be Lu Bu, but on land, I was the king. I landed a punch on the resisting Eve's face and threw her back into the cart.

As if reflecting that she was an event boss from the game, Eve's body was incredibly sturdy, moving so normally it was hard to imagine she'd had a hole pierced in her stomach and her head cracked just a few days ago. Though, it seemed there were aftereffects, seeing as she periodically touched her stomach or complained about a throbbing headache.

Eve was still rubbing her face and hurling insults at me. I didn't bother to reply to her curses. Beside us, the mermaid was humming and looking around. To a mermaid who had spent her entire lifetime in the sea, the mountain path seemed to be a very interesting spectacle.

"Hey, you. What the hell are you thinking, taking us with you?" Eve stopped rubbing her face and asked me. Riding my horse at the very front, I grinned and said.

"For your reformation."

"Fucking bullshit. Who's going to accept me if I'm reformed? If my mom is reformed, will people stop trying to catch her? This is why you religious fanatic bastards are hopeless."

"And there are many things I'd like to find out personally."

What I was curious about was the story of Evangeline. But as if interpreting my curiosity in a different direction, Eve looked back and forth between me and the mermaid, then shook her head and said.

"Fuck, you pervert bastard. How can a bastard who calls himself a cleric think of fucking a mermaid?"

"I think it sounds nice....heh."

"Mom. Can you please be quiet?"

From the moment we entered the village entrance, people's eyes gathered on me. The people who ran out to see me, shouting that their lord had returned, wore puzzled expressions as they saw the two women being dragged behind me. One was a beautiful woman with a deep blue bruise on her face, and the other was a mermaid in a water tank.

The mermaid was waving her hand and grinning from ear to ear. People felt fear at the mermaid's appearance and averted their gazes.

"Come to think of it, what's your name?"

I already knew her name. But to avoid a tedious explanation about the status window, I had to go through this simple procedure. The mermaid told me her name without hesitation.

"Cellu."

"Alright. Cellu. For now, that water tank will be your temporary dwelling. Our territory is inland, and there aren't any lakes nearby. There's a water source in the neighboring territory, but I can't send you there either."

"Heh, what great treatment. Eve told me that in other places, they don't even give mermaids a sip of water and let them all dehydrate."

"The Archdeity Church does not abandon a believer who has come for reformation."

"Fucking bullshit."

Eve was defiant once again. Seeing her provoke me to this extent, it was clear she wanted to get hit, but I decided to hold back for now. I had far too much to do today to waste time on Eve.

Upon entering the territory's mansion, I dismounted my horse. Bellix Karin was slowly walking from the mansion's main gate. She scanned me and my party with an expression of deep concern for the hero's and my well-being. The sight of her, always wearing armor despite not needing to as the 'lord's representative', was the very model of a princess knight. Though she wasn't a princess.

"Have you been well in the meantime?"

"Bellix Karin. Have you had any special difficulties yourself? I hope there wasn't too much work. It makes me feel rather sorry. A lord shouldn't leave his post in a chaotic situation like this."

"Not at all. My Lord, you had organized everything so well that there was nothing for me to touch."

"Is there anything to report separately?"

"No. There are no particularly important matters to report, and that....."

Bellix Karin's words trailed off. I frowned before Karin could even finish her sentence, wondering if some accident had happened.

"Among the documents I received during the handover, I confirmed information that criminals dealing in aphrodisiacs were in hiding."

"Yes. I see. That isn't a very urgent matter, so....."

"So I have swiftly arrested them, and they are currently under detention. Unfortunately, two of them died during interrogation, and another has yet to regain consciousness."

Fuck. I barely managed to hold back my curse. Since this bitch's job in the royal palace was to beat up criminals, she must have gotten all excited and caught them as soon as she saw the document. It was a place where respect for the human rights of criminals was thrown to the dogs, so she must have subjected them to all sorts of torture, telling them to spill the location of their base as soon as they were caught.

Suddenly, I thought I could smell blood from somewhere. And it didn't seem to be my imagination. It was because Eve, who was tied up behind me, said this as she looked at the mansion.

"It smells like blood."

"Ah, since there are cases where inmates pretend to be unconscious to escape torture, the torture continues even if they pass out."

I suppose I was on the rather good side, even after coming to this world. Karin became interested in the mermaid and Eve behind me. When Eve's eyes met Karin's, she whistled and grinned.

"Who are they? Did you buy mermaid slaves? Or did those two commit some crime together? Could they perhaps be those infamous....."

"Yes. It's them. I brought them here because I have something to interrogate them about personally."

"I see. In that case, could you perhaps entrust the interrogation to me? I can make them confess everything by tomorrow."

I shook my head. I couldn't hand over my onahole to a bitch crazy about torture. Karin licked her lips, openly showing her disappointment. In the original work, Karin was a character with this kind of feel, too. She had no forgiveness for criminals and hated it when the protagonist did bad things. But I didn't know she enjoyed torturing criminals.

"By the way, where is Sir Hero?"

"Sir Hero has left on a journey to return the victims of this incident to their hometowns."

"As expected....."

As she lavished praise on him, calling him a noble human, I let it go in one ear and out the other. It was certainly an action that a person like me could never imagine, but it wasn't something he should do while leaving his wife waiting in a foreign land.

I had the guards separate Eve and Cellu, ordering them to put Eve in the underground prison and Cellu in the bathhouse for now. And since Eve wouldn't run away leaving Cellu behind, it was like setting up a minimal security measure.

"Fuck, if you guys do anything to my mom, you're dead! Got it?"

Eve's mouth was still alive and kicking as she was dragged away. Karin wore a puzzled expression seeing her call the mermaid 'mom', but I just vaguely brushed it off. It was too much of a pain to explain something like that. I did want to have sex with Karin someday, but I didn't think my affection would go up for telling her a story of mermaids and humans mating.

Up in the office, Karin and I reorganized the documents. Bellix Karin was a very competent knight who handled both practical work and fieldwork in the royal palace, so she was skilled at this kind of work processing. Seeing the cleanly handled grievances, I nodded my head in great satisfaction.

"This side is a pile of tasks I've set aside, as they seemed to be things I couldn't do with my authority."

And on one side was a collection of tasks for the Archdeity Church high priest. The thought of having to deal with pending work again made my head ache. Most were just personnel transfers or simple petitions, but reading each and every one of those was a pain for me.

"I see. Well, you've worked hard. As expected of the capital's greatest knight, Bellix Karin. You've been a great help."

"You give me too much praise. In that case, may I be excused to return....."

Only then did I remember Erina's words. Did she tell me to talk about Evangeline to the kingdom as well? That was definitely what she said. So I stopped Karin, who was about to leave, and said.

"There was one thing to report regarding the Demon King."

"Regarding the Demon King, you say?"

"Before the Demon King died, he said, 'I made a promise with Evangeline.'"

"Evangeline?"

Karin frowned. It seemed Karin didn't know much about Evangeline. She muttered Evangeline's name a few times, then nodded and said.

"I understand. But, is this Evangeline an important person?"

"Yes. According to Princess Erina, she is a very important and dangerous person. I believe the kingdom must also be on guard, given that such a person is involved."

"Understood. Then, I will submit the report including the matter of the hero."

I used transfer on Karin along with the report I had written on the way. The report already mentioned that the mermaid had spoken of Evangeline, so I decided not to give any further explanation. However, I did omit the part about me capturing Eve and the mermaid from the report.

It was because I felt that writing unnecessary words would bring in unnecessary interference.

I went down to the underground prison again. It was to meet Eve. And I could tell where Karin had conducted her interrogations. The underground prison was a sea of blood itself. The wall surfaces were all stained with blood, and pieces of metal and wood of unknown origin were scattered on the floor. The smell of blood left by traces of fierce torture intensely assaulted my sense of smell. I shook my head and examined the inside of the underground prison.

In the middle of the room, a bright red lump that looked vaguely human was hanging, impaled on a hook.

"What the fuck."

As I swore, startled, Eve, who was tied up across from that lump of meat, was screaming.

"Fuck! You psycho bastard! What kind of hobby is flaying a person and displaying them? You beat the shit out of me for being a murderer while doing shit like this? A cleric? Fuck, are you even human? You fucking bastard! Ah, fuck, now that I think about it, I'm so fucking pissed!"

The lump of meat squirmed and opened its mouth.

"K-kill...me...please....."

Could this bastard be the one who was selling aphrodisiacs? How the hell did she do this without killing him?