I was Reincarnated as an Incompetent Leader with Zero Popularity who met his downfall early on. Instead of banishing the hidden cheat Protagonist, I decided to embrace him, and somehow, I ended up being treated like a Hero instead. - Chapter 33

“This isn’t what we signed up for! If we had known we’d be risking our lives against a monster like that, we never would’ve come here!”

“Exactly! The only one in the vigilante squad who can actually fight monsters is Thomas!”

“And on top of that, we were told to handle the monster while he just ran off and never came back!”

“No, he came back, but maybe he got scared and is just hiding somewhere!”

“Hah! Then that kid must’ve been abandoned by his own parent, huh? I’m out of here!”

“Me too!”

“Same here!”

I really wished they’d stop having their pointless conversation while still pinning me to the ground.

But honestly, I understood their reasoning.

I even sympathized.

If that kid weren’t trapped inside the slime, I probably would’ve taken Mian and retreated as well.

An aggressive giant slime was even worse than a pack of frenzied orcs.

It shrugged off direct attacks, yet its own strikes were powerful enough to break bones.

Still, we were so close to winning.

They just refused to believe it.

That was the reality—Alva, the villain (the scum), wasn’t someone people trusted.

And those who did trust me? They ended up as fools.

Like Chrono, who got tricked into helping under the pretense of gaining adventuring experience.

If I had been some famous hero or a legendary warrior, would things have played out differently?

Would I have been able to rally these cowards with words of encouragement, earn their trust, and lead them into battle?

Or would I have simply slain the monster without ever needing their help in the first place?

But that was a reality beyond my reach.

“Listen up, you bastards! If you so much as touch Alva, I won’t just kill you—I’ll burn your parents, siblings, and even your children to ashes!”

And, of course, Mian was every bit the villain I was.

I knew she said it for my sake, but still…

“S-Shut the hell up!! If you care so much about this woman’s life, then you’d better stay put!!”

One of the men shouted back, keeping me as his shield.

But in the very next moment, a tremendous force sent both of us flying.

I barely managed to twist my body midair, landing with the man beneath me.

The guy who had just been holding me hostage was completely unconscious—not even a scream had escaped him.

Just like me earlier, he had been caught off guard—by the giant slime.

“H-Heek!!”

“Why the hell is it attacking us?!”

“Why, you ask…?”

Because you’re its enemy.

I scoffed as I watched the vigilantes scramble to escape the slime’s relentless attacks.

The monster didn’t care about human conflicts.

They had tried to harm it, so now it was trying to kill them.

Simple as that.

“Just keep being the bait, would you?”

I picked up my fallen sword, forced my shaky legs to move, and charged toward the slime.

Just two or three more times—no, even once or twice might be enough.

I had to keep attacking.

“H-Help meeeee!!”

A desperate scream rang out as one of the men was sent hurtling toward me.

I tried to dodge, but his outstretched hand grazed my right eye, and suddenly, my vision was bathed in red.

“Alva!”

“I’m fine! I can still see with the other eye!!”

I shouted back at Mian and lunged at the slime.

A massive limb came swinging toward my torso, but I twisted my body just in time to evade it.

Seizing the opportunity, I used the slime’s transparent arm as a foothold and leaped high into the air.

From this vantage point, I caught sight of the small head of the child trapped within the creature.

A direct downward slash wouldn’t work.

“To cut a slime, you gotta slice through its core, pyon~♪”

“What the hell?!”

Out of nowhere, a carefree voice echoed in my head.

And in that instant, my bl00d-soaked right eye started seeing beyond just red.

I saw it.

The slime’s body was crisscrossed with what looked like countless veins, though instead of bl00d, a mercury-like liquid pulsed through them.

And at the end of those pathways, near its right temple—

A floating, oval-shaped mass, almost like a miniature slime.

So this is what it means to have a flash of insight.

“So you’re the real body, huh?”

Instead of striking vertically, I swung my blade in a horizontal arc toward my target.

Like a block of gelatin splitting effortlessly, the mercury-like mass was cleaved in two.

The massive slime’s body wavered, tilting unsteadily.

Like a snow sculpture melting under intense heat, or a water balloon bursting upon impact—

The monster that had been toying with us all this time didn’t even let out a death cry. It simply turned into nothing more than a puddle of water.

“Whoa—”

I caught the child’s body before it could crash to the ground.

I had hoped to land gracefully, but instead, my knees slammed painfully into the dirt.

“Did we… really do it?”

One of the vigilantes who was still conscious muttered in disbelief.

“Of course we did! Like hell this idiot mutt would throw himself into a hopeless battle!”

“You reckless fool! Don’t push yourself, idiot!!”

Mian snapped back at him, but somehow, by the end, her anger had turned toward me instead.

Completely unfair, yet for some reason, it felt reassuring.

My body felt unbearably heavy.

Moments ago, the pain had been excruciating—now, all I could feel was exhaustion, dragging me down like lead weights.

I gently shook the child in my arms, pressing against his abdomen before lightly slapping his cheek.

He coughed up a bit of water, then slowly opened his eyes.

A striking blue.

A common eye color.

Why was I even noticing something like that?

I had no idea.

I was too tired to think.

“I… cough… I…”

The boy croaked weakly between fits of coughing.

That reminded me—how far had Chrono gone? And what exactly was he looking for?

For that matter, where the hell was Thomas?

I was too exhausted to dwell on it.

I just wanted a bath and a good night’s sleep.

I wondered if Est and the others had returned.

If they weren’t back yet, I’d have to go to the clinic.

That place always made people wait forever, and it was overpriced.

My right eye burned like it was about to explode.

Would it even heal properly?

Probably not—honestly, my entire body felt wrecked.

My bones, my organs—everything.

Now that I had learned how to cut a slime, I needed to work on defense skills next.

What was that technique called again?

“Alva!!”

A girl’s desperate voice echoed from the distance.

Too late.

I barely managed to form the thought before my consciousness was swallowed by darkness.

…I felt like I had said something similar before.