Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 88
“Is this… the same thing as the spell that was engraved on the magic stone?”
“Yeah. They call it a stigmata.”
I quickly recycled the information I’d just heard from Derek. Whenever my brain worked this fast in a pinch, I couldn’t help thinking that I really was frighteningly good at making excuses.
“What’s a stigmata?”
“I don’t know the details, but it seems to be related to the Dark God somehow. From what Derek told me, it’s engraved on the Grand Duke’s body too.”
Kyle was still lying on the floor as he reached out and placed his hand on my chest. The sensation of his palm against bare skin was pretty distracting, but I didn’t knock it away.
“Both of them were engraved by the Black Flame Dragon.”
“The Black Flame Dragon engraved this?”
Somehow, I kept smoothly spinning the excuse.
Kyle traced the scar on my chest with an intrigued look. The feeling of his fingers gently brushing over my skin was strange enough to send a shiver through me.
“I think that’s why I went looking for the Black Flame Dragon’s lair.”
I even neatly explained the reason we’d met at the lair. The excuse was so perfect I almost admired myself.
“Did you tell Gerard?”
“No. I can’t just show something like this to anyone.”
At the words ‘just anyone’, Kyle’s eyebrow twitched. I wasn’t entirely sure, but he seemed to like that.
“I think the reason I lost my memories is closely tied to the Black Flame Dragon. No, not just tied. I’m sure of it.”
“Why didn’t you say anything until now?”
I pulled Kyle’s hand away as he was still fiddling with my chest and dropped down onto the floor with a thud. Kyle, who had still been lying there, sat up as well.
Somehow, we ended up sitting face to face on the floor. I was still frantically thinking up excuses.
“…It’s possible I wasn’t on bad terms with the Black Flame Dragon.”
A crease formed between Kyle’s brows. He seemed to understand exactly what I was getting at.
“So when you were the Great Sage, you cooperated with the Black Flame Dragon, then something happened and you lost both your memories and your mana?”
“That’s just my guess.”
This was as far as my made up explanation could go. If he asked any more, I planned to say I didn’t know.
But Kyle sat there in silence for a long while.
He stared blankly at the floor with a completely unreadable expression, to the point I wondered if he’d fainted with his eyes open and whether I should wake him.
“Even if you did cooperate with the Black Flame Dragon, if it wasn’t your own will… No, even if you did it willingly, if you regret it now…”
He spoke in a low, unclear murmur, and I strained to listen. It was as if Kyle were trying to justify my actions for me.
That was probably it. Kyle hated the Black Flame Dragon more than anyone. Accepting that I might have worked with that very dragon wouldn’t be easy.
But maybe that was why he could understand why I’d kept it secret all this time.
“It’s fine if you exclude me from the hero’s party starting tomorrow. I’ll look for the answers on my own.”
I said this as I draped my shirt back over my shoulders.
In the first place, I’d only traveled with the hero’s party to gather information more easily. Going alone wouldn’t be a big problem. I’d just have to work a bit harder to get information.
But then Kyle suddenly reached out and grabbed my shoulder. I froze at the unexpected touch just as I was about to button my shirt.
“It’s still fine. Either way, right now we have the same goal, don’t we?”
Finding and eliminating the Black Flame Dragon. That was the hero party’s goal, and it wasn’t one I could truly share.
But Kyle’s expression was so earnest that I found myself nodding before I realized it.
“…Yeah.”
“Then that’s enough. Stay with us.”
Even knowing that I might once have been on the same side as the Black Flame Dragon he despised so much, Kyle was still willing to accept me into the hero’s party.
Why on earth did Kyle like me this recklessly? I was starting to genuinely wonder.
Thinking back, ever since we first met, he’d trusted me almost blindly and tried to stick with me.
Could it be that he unconsciously knew I was the Black Flame Dragon and wanted to keep me close? If so, his instincts were frighteningly sharp. The problem was that he didn’t doubt enough.
“You’ll stay with us, right?”
Kyle pressed once more.
After some thought, I nodded. For now, it was more convenient and better to keep traveling with them and gathering information.
And above all, thanks to a well wrapped excuse, it felt like I wouldn’t be under Kyle’s suspicion for a while.
