The Hero's System: Return of an Extra Villain - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Chapter 7 – Memory Orb
Madam Fleur and Daria went up to the top floor.

However, they were both shocked by what they saw.

They did not find Lev in front of the room. If before, the large door of the only room on the top floor hadn’t been wide open, now the door was wide open.

Inside the room, Lev was already sitting on the bed. His hands were holding something—a small black pill. Lev’s eyes were serious as he stared at the small black pill.

Madam Fleur, upon seeing Lev inside the room, did not react much. However, when she saw what was at Lev’s feet, she immediately discarded the formal expression she had intended to present when facing him.

It turned out that beneath Lev’s feet lay a woman. When she observed the face that was no longer covered by a veil, she realized that it was the female prostitute she had brought earlier. She had assumed that all four women she had offered to Lev had returned with her. Apparently, one of them had insisted on approaching him.

As Madam Fleur stepped closer, her eyes widened even more. It was not just that the woman was lying down—blood had pooled around her body. A dagger was firmly embedded in her stomach.

“What have you done, Young Master?!”

Madam Fleur could not stop herself from shouting. She looked furious.

“You’re finally here?”

Lev responded to Madam Fleur’s outburst in a relaxed tone. Even so, he understood why she was yelling.

Lev’s gaze alternated between Madam Fleur’s shocked expression and the female prostitute lying on the floor.

Just moments before Madam Fleur arrived, Lev had still been thinking that the person he needed to save was the female prostitute. However, after witnessing her aggressive behavior earlier, he changed his mind. There was also another reason he categorized the female prostitute as someone who did not deserve to be saved.

After all, it would be foolish for Lev to fall for a woman’s seduction again when he had already lived through two different lives.

When the female prostitute had tried to kiss him, Lev had noticed something inside her mouth. Instantly, he had executed an uppercut-like motion—using his palm to push her chin upward—forcing her to spit out a black pill from her mouth.

That black pill was what Lev was holding now. Of course, he was not holding it with his bare hands—too disgusting. He had picked it up from the floor using a handkerchief. Then, he wiped it clean, split it in half, and sniffed it.

There was no mistake. It was a Letharis Pill.

It wouldn’t have been harmful if merely placed inside the mouth, but once swallowed and dissolved by stomach acid, its effects could be fatal. If someone ingested a Letharis Pill, their Mana Veins would be utterly destroyed. While it wasn’t a pill meant to kill, the destruction of one’s Mana Veins rendered a person useless. If a noble were to consume it, it would be akin to death.

Mana Veins were the pathways through which Mana flowed inside a person’s body. Even if one had yet to form a Mana Pool, they had to take good care of their Mana Veins. Only then could they successfully create a Mana Pool when their coming-of-age ceremony arrived.

Lev, on the other hand, had failed to create a Mana Pool in his previous life. ‘And it was all because of this pill.’

Even though Lev genuinely wanted to be a good person, he had no intention of being naive. That was why he had not hesitated to stab the female prostitute when he realized that she had intended to poison him.

Madam Fleur, seeing the female prostitute lying helplessly before Lev, did not just scream—she immediately stepped forward and checked the woman’s condition. She placed her hand on the female prostitute’s wrist, her expression serious as she checked for a pulse.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t kill her… not yet.”

“Why did you do this, Young Master?”

“Do you know what this pill is?”

“That…”

Lev showed the Letharis Pill to Madam Fleur.

Her eyes immediately narrowed, indicating that she recognized what Lev was holding.

“So, you do know.”

“How…”

“I don’t need to explain to you that she tried to give this to me, do I?”

Madam Fleur gave a slight nod. It seemed she quickly understood what had happened without Lev having to explain further. Once she grasped the situation, Madam Fleur stood up, bowed, and apologized to Lev.

“I will be honest with you, Young Master. I was actually…”

“Wait. Before you explain everything to me, I need your help. More precisely, I need your power.”

“What do you mean?”

“Aren’t you an expert in seductive magic? Try casting a spell on this female prostitute.”

“…”

“Or… is your seductive magic ineffective against the same gender?”

“…Fine.”

Madam Fleur obeyed Lev’s command. She made the female prostitute fall under her control using seductive magic. Perhaps because the female prostitute was just an ordinary woman who had never trained her body or magic, she succumbed to Madam Fleur’s spell with ease. Her eyes turned pink and heart-shaped.

Someone under the effects of seductive magic tended to reveal anything the caster asked, just like how a person madly in love would give their entire soul and body to the one they loved.

Lev ordered Madam Fleur to ask a few questions.

From those questions, Lev learned everything he needed to know.

It turned out that the female prostitute was indeed not a good person.

The story began a few days ago when Boris had come to the Dreamhouse brothel. There, he had gotten drunk and started talking about how he would destroy Lev. As it happened, the female prostitute whom Lev had stabbed was the one who had served Boris, and she had volunteered to help him.

Boris himself was supposed to be the one to deliver the Letharis Pill, but he had entrusted the task to the female prostitute instead.

“If I succeed in fulfilling Young Master Boris’ request, I will definitely rise to become a noblewoman!”

The female prostitute suddenly shouted.

‘So she was promised by Boris that she would become his wife. How foolish.’

Whether it was the female prostitute being used by Boris or Boris using a female prostitute, they were both equally foolish.

As she continued ranting and yelling incoherently, the female prostitute kept coughing up blood until, finally, she closed her eyes forever.

Had the female prostitute not been truly evil—had there been any shred of goodness in her heart—Lev might have still tried to save her life. The reason he had not killed her immediately was that he had held onto a sliver of hope that she wasn’t evil.

‘Well, it can’t be helped.’

Throughout the female prostitute’s confession, Madam Fleur had been clenching her fists. She looked extremely upset.

“Actually… I was also part of the scheme to trap you. More precisely, it was your younger sibling’s plan to disgrace you.”

Madam Fleur walked to the corner of the room. She took a painting off the wall. Behind it was a small box-shaped hole containing a mysterious crystal orb. Lev knew what it was. That was a Memory Orb.

A Memory Orb could record events happening around it. On Earth, it would be comparable to a camera. The difference was that while anyone—even a child—could operate a camera by simply pressing a button, a Memory Orb required someone proficient in Mana manipulation to use it.

Memory Orbs weren’t common objects found on the street. Only high-ranking nobles, top-tier mages, or individuals with special backgrounds could possess one. In other words, a Memory Orb was a rare magical item.

‘Yeah, I already knew there was a Memory Orb in this room.’

Had Madam Fleur not retrieved it, Lev had planned to tear the entire room apart.

He still remembered the incident in his previous life when the Memory Orb’s recording had been played before the guests at his coming-of-age party. He had been utterly humiliated, powerless to do anything. Shame and disgrace had haunted his mind. Jeers and insults had battered his consciousness.

“My only order was to record your sexual activities. I accepted the task because I thought I wouldn’t have to harm you. But I never expected that…”

Before Madam Fleur could finish speaking, Lev approached her and took the Memory Orb from her hand.

He did it as if it were the most natural thing in the world, flowing effortlessly. Then, he placed it inside his magic pouch. The size of the magic pouch was smaller than the size of the Memory Orb, but because the magic pouch was imbued with dimensional magic, the fist-sized Memory Orb could still fit in.

Watching Lev take the Memory Orb and store it in his magic pouch, Madam Fleur was momentarily stunned. She observed Lev as if looking at a shameless little thief.

For a moment, the air felt a little awkward for Madam Fleur—but not for Lev.