Since I’m Just the Villain Who’ll be Defeated by the Protagonist Anyway, I’ll Go all out and do whatever I want using Forbidden Arts at Full Power until then! …Wait, what? Because I’m actually a good guy deep down, not only does the heroine like me, but the protagonist’s affection level is also maxed out from the start!? No way—that’s definitely just my imagination. I won’t be fooled! - Chapter 7

Just a single blast of Stellar Binding: Black Hoedown was enough to leave no one standing. Not only the merchants—even the adventurers and knights were sprawled across the floor, unable to get back up.

“What’s with the victim faces? I held back, you know.”

“H-Hiii…!”

I yanked the fat merchant toward me by the collar, pulling him in with gravitational force. He raised both hands in protest, as if to say he was against violence—but like I cared.

“How exactly is Lady Etica a fraud? The same woman who stood in front of a Green Dragon and shielded the children with her own body—where’s the scam in that, huh?”

“S-s-someone, help…!”

“You want to know what a fraud looks like? It’s a swine like you—saying you’d buy the item for a million, then turning around and going, ‘Just kidding!’ That’s fraud.”

“A s-swine? You’re calling me a swine!?”

“If it’s a fight you want, I’ll gladly take you on. But I won’t be going easy. I’m a really bad guy, you know. Next time, I might get the balance wrong and leave you with every bone in your body shattered.”

“P-please! Somebody, heeelp!!”

Just then, as I gripped the merchant’s collar tighter, a small hand gently rested on my arm—accompanied by a concerned gaze.

“That’s enough, Master Monad.”

Lady Etica’s concern wasn’t for the merchant. It was for me. She couldn’t care less if that swine got hurt, but she couldn’t bear to see me sink to his level. Her eyes pleaded sincerely with that emotion.

It threw me off a little.

“As you can see, I’m a terrible man. You’d be better off not getting involved with someone like me.”

“No. I can’t just walk away after all you’ve done for us.”

That was quick.

Well, it’s not like tormenting that pig any further would make me a millionaire. Time to head over to another guild.

“Well, well. I came to check out the commotion and look what I find. This is rather entertaining.”

A young man in a suit, eyes narrowed to slits, stepped carefully between the fallen bodies as he approached.

“Cain, there you are.”

“My, what a coincidence, Lady Etica. Did you come to discuss the arrangements for transporting the beastkin children?”

“Ugh… how did you know…?”

Thrown off by Cain’s unflappable demeanor, Etica quickly tried to recover by introducing him.

“This is Master Cain. He only thinks about money, but when it comes to business, he deals with everyone fairly, no matter who they are.”

Not that I needed an introduction—I already knew who Cain was. Not that I’d tell Etica that.

In Cheat Chronicle, Cain was the ever-present merchant who somehow always turned up wherever the protagonist went. He handled everything—from potions and weapons to monster drops and trade goods. He even brokered the creation of ultimate weapons using rare materials.

He was well-liked by players for his cold, transactional nature. It was refreshing, in a way. They used to call him “Cain the Last Resort” when things got tough.

“You must be the rumored Monad of House Leipnitz.”

His eyes didn’t show scorn or mockery, even when facing someone from the black-blooded  Klyphot line. They were calculating—balancing risk and reward like a true money-chaser.

Just for a moment, a magic circle flickered across Cain’s narrow gaze—he was using appraisal magic.

“Defeating a Green Dragon is no small feat. That Soul of the Verdant Dragon you’re carrying is undeniable proof.”

“Well, thanks. Not that it stopped people from calling it a fake.”

“With this many merchants gathered, and not a single proper appraiser among them? Is this really a guild of commerce?”

“Maybe they’ve taken too many bribes from the local lord—their appraisal eyes have gone blind.”

Cain crouched down, peeled off the unreasonable ‘Sales Suspended’ notice, and examined the price listed on the Soul of the Verdant Dragon—one million gold. He let out a weary sigh.

“I’d heard rumors that this guild was cozy with the local lord, but… to slap a one-million-gold price tag on the Soul of the Verdant Dragon? You’ve lost your edge as merchants.”

“What did you say?” growled the swine merchants, their pride stung. But after taking the hit from Black Hoedown, they couldn’t even stand. All they could do was glare up at him from the floor.

“So? How much would you pay for it?”

“Ten times that.”

Cain held out both hands, fingers spread wide to indicate the number.

“I’ll buy it for ten million gold.”

“Wha—?! Wait, hold on! It’s just a decorative item, isn’t it? The market value is already set at a million!”

“‘Decorative item’?”

Cain and I echoed the words in unison, unable to hide our disbelief. We even chuckled in sync at the merchant’s ignorance.

“This is a mana source. Royal Court magicians and engineers are desperate for it. Even the Minister was recently searching for one—rumor has it it can enrich soil and ensure bountiful harvests.”

“N-No way… it was that valuable…? B-But ten years ago, they said it wasn’t suitable as a mana source…!”

“A lot can change in ten years. Even economic bubbles burst in that time.”

In the game, the Soul of the Verdant Dragon was considered a sacred material for crafting ultimate weapons. When used in battle, it could fully restore allies’ HP and MP while dealing massive damage to enemies. Most players, though, just sold it for money.

In the real world, used properly, it was a miraculous item capable of jumpstarting entire industries. The moment the surrounding merchants understood its true value, they scrambled to their feet and surged toward me in a frenzy.

“Hey, you there! Sell it to me!”

“Please! I’ll pay 10.1 times the listed price…!”

Even the swine-like merchant, using his bulk to push aside the others, forced his way to the front.

“H-Hey, hey, hey! I’ll pay 10.11 times the price! So please—”

“Hah? Say one more word and I’ll curse you to death with forbidden magic, pigs.”

“Oink…!”

The moment I unleashed my killing intent, the swine merchants all went pale. The power dynamic had completely flipped.

Right now, I held the key to their future success as merchants—me, the same person they’d just been condemning as a cursed member of the  Klyphot line.

And it felt amazing. I might as well toy with them a little.

“Don’t you think there’s something you should do first—as a human being, I mean? For example, all those comments about me being a fake and part of the cursed Leipnitz line… I’ve endured quite the emotional distress, you know.”

“We are deeply, deeply sorry for all the grave insults we’ve made!!”

“Insults are one thing. But thanks to that arrogant noble’s grudge, I was targeted by adventurers and knights for assassination. I trust you’ll have a proper explanation for that too, right?”

“Y-Yes, well… that’s because… the lord gave us orders…”

As expected, the swine merchant—the leader of the merchant guild, tightly linked to the lord—spilled everything.

Apparently, the local lord considered the incident where his son was defeated by me a stain on his authority. So he immediately hired the merchant to have me assassinated. The reward, it seemed, was one million gold.

They even showed me altered records that had been fabricated with the help of the Adventurers’ Guild.

“—!?”

Actually, I’d noticed a shadow lurking nearby for some time, and it seemed the other merchants had finally spotted it too.

“Who was that just now?!”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. That’s the auditor I called in,” Cain replied smoothly.

The word auditor sent a wave of panic through the crowd. Auditors are from an oversight agency that conducts surprise inspections to ensure guilds are operating fairly and legally.

Cain had likely summoned someone from a faction untouched by the lord’s influence. It was the kind of clever move only someone like Cain—who had strong ties to public institutions—could pull off.

“Ah, so you did call for an auditor.”

“Oh? You knew about that?”

“Not really. Just had a feeling… like you were planning to purge this merchant guild.”

In the game, Cain wasn’t just a master merchant—he actively exposed shady dealings. Unlike Etica, he didn’t do it out of kindness. He would clean things up, then convert the territory to his own influence. That’s what made him so terrifying.

So when Cain showed up, I had a hunch he had something like an audit in mind. I simply went along with it and coaxed the truth out of the swine merchant.

“By tomorrow, they’ll all be arrested. The ties between the lord and the merchant guild are far too deep to overlook.”

“W-Wait! If that happens, then…!”

Truthfully, I had considered crushing the entire guild with a meteor out of sheer rage. These pigs had scammed others under the guise of commerce and trampled all over Lady Etica’s kindness. I thought reducing everything to ashes might offer some catharsis.

…But I didn’t even need to do that.

The swine merchant had realized it too. He slumped, shoulders trembling in resignation.

“You and your merchant guild… it’s over.”