The Villain Is Destined to Die: But as the Creator, I know All Endings-Chapter 222: Day - 1: Getting rich Overnight!

"What is he doing...?"

Cyan couldn’t help but mutter aloud.

Ethan quietly studied his face. Cyan looked as though he was witnessing something impossible. Confusion lingered in his eyes, mixed with a hint of fear.

Ethan didn’t respond. He simply shifted his gaze back to Leon.

They stood behind dense bushes, as the thick vines and trees surrounded them completely.

The moment the four bandits rose, blades drawn and ran to strike, Leon stopped where he stood.

He reached up and removed his glasses.

To anyone else, it would have looked reckless or insane, even. But Ethan understood Leon’s skills far too well to misread what was coming next.

Leon stood still, and his crimson eyes fixed forward, with a faint smirk forming on his lips.

"Don’t kill him," the bandit leader said lazily from where she sat, her eyes roaming over Leon with amusement. "I want him alive."

"Haaaa–!!"

All four charged at once.

The instant they crossed a certain distance, everything stopped.

Their steps froze, and their blades halted mid-air, just inches from Leon.

Leon met each of their gazes calmly.

"Slit your own throats," he said. "And don’t scream."

The four blades trembled. Then, as if guided by some kind of invisible hand, they turned inward in perfect unison all at the same time.

There was no struggle. The blade slid their throat as a warm gush of blood streamed down.

They didn’t stop. The blades dragged through flesh, scraping against exposed bone as more pressure was applied, until the cuts went clean through and the heads were severed.

Thud!

Four bodies collapsed moments later, hitting the ground.

Leon’s eyes dimmed as the crimson glow faded. He stepped past the fallen bodies and approached the only one still alive.

The leader hadn’t moved yet.

"You—!" Her words stuck in her throat after he looked up at his crimson eyes.

Leon realized that the pale moonlight was washing over the clearing where he was standing.

A thought aroused in him. And without much thinking, he executed it.

[Heir of the Crimson Moon]

The moment Leon wore this title, her body stiffened, and her teeth chattering violently, even her eyes locked onto him in pure terror.

"Oh," Leon muttered. "I wonder what she’s seeing right now."

Asking her would be pointless. He activated his skill again, and gave her a command.

"Don’t breathe."

Her chest froze mid-motion. For a heartbeat, nothing happened.

Then Leon saw her throat tightened.

Sixty seconds passed, and her face flushed unnaturally fast.Veins started to surface along her temples, and tears started spilling out. Soon after her hands fell limp against the ground. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

After two more minutes, nothing else happened, she just stayed there with no movement at all.

Leon deactivated his skill.

"...That’s effective," he said quietly, and at the same time a transparent window appeared in front of his eyes.

[Special Condition Satisfied]

[If killed under moonlight, the mana temporarily amplifies]

All the mana he had just used for [Command of Grace] got restored.

Leon let out a soft chuckle, realizing that his experiment had succeeded. When using [Command of Grace] along with Silvermoon’s title, he no longer had to fear draining his mana. He could now use the skill at will, without worrying, as long as the moon was above his head.

After she died, Leon’s gaze shifted to the two bodies lying farther to the right.

They were dressed in old, high-quality clothes, tattered and stained with blood. Bruises marked their faces and arms, some fresh, some already darkened. Their expressions were frozen mid-fear.

From just one glance Leon could tell that they were merchants.

’They are traveling without any guards...’ he thought.

Leon’s eyes moved next, to the carriage beside the dead bodies.

It had been torn open crudely. Several wooden boxes were stacked inside. From the cracked lids, he could see fruits, herbs, goods, weapons, and many coins inside them.

This world didn’t have a system where stolen goods were returned to surviving family members.

Anything recovered like this would eventually be seized and sent straight to the kingdom’s treasury.

Leon stepped closer to the carriage, then to the fallen bodies.

"I’ll use this well," he muttered quietly.

"What... was that?"

Cyan’s voice came from behind.

Leon turned his head slightly.

Cyan stood there with a stunned expression, his eyes darting between the headless corpses and the body on the ground. His mouth opened, then closed again, as if his brain hadn’t caught up yet.

"How did you do that?" He asked. "You didn’t even touch them."

Ethan followed a few steps behind him. He didn’t look shocked like Cyan. He simply stared at the woman’s corpse on the ground.

Leon glanced at them briefly.

"I punished them," he said.

"That doesn’t answer anything," Cyan snapped. "They just... stopped. And then—"

Leon ignored him.

He turned to Ethan instead. "We’ll take the coins and anything useful. Leave the rest, the guards will find it eventually."

Ethan nodded without hesitation.

"Understood. I was thinking the same."

Cyan clenched his fists. He had questions., too many of them. But he also knew this wasn’t the time or place to push.

They needed to move quickly away from this place. If any guards see them with all those corpses, then they would be in trouble.

Once they were done collecting, they didn’t linger much. They returned to their carriage and pushed deeper into the forest.

Leon was driving again, while Cyan and Ethan sat inside the carriage. Once they had passed half a mile, Cyan finally opened his mouth.

"Tell me... what was that?"

His question was directed at both Leon and Ethan. Ethan didn’t react, but from his earlier composure, it was obvious that he already knew.

That power Leon had just displayed was unreal.

He hadn’t even touched them, and yet within seconds, all five were dead.

Is this the difference between a Rank Two and a Rank Four?

If that was the case, then Cyan wouldn’t even dare to dream of catching up to his level.

He let out a bitter chuckle.

Putting everything else aside, he finally understood what Ethan meant by being so calm the entire time. Leon hadn’t suffered a single injury. That alone was enough proof of how strong he truly was compared to him.

And if this was Rank Two...

Then how terrifying would Ethan be?

For the first time, Cyan realized he had made the right choice by traveling with them. Instead of fear, excitement began to stir inside him.

What else would he get to witness?

Leon heard Cyan and replied without even turning his head.

"What you just saw was merely a simple trick from my side," he said calmly. "I won’t explain what it was, but just know that it’s one of the few aces I have up my sleeve."

"Heh. Acting cocky now?" Cyan sneered, lightly clicking his tongue.

"This is my personality now," Leon replied flatly.

Leon kept his eyes on the road, the carriage wheels crunching softly against the dirt as it drifted forward.

"I got to test something today," he said calmly. "And we got lucky too."

Ethan leaned back slightly. He had already checked the contents they recovered, twice.

"Lucky is an understatement," Ethan said. "Around eleven million gold coins, jewelry, small weapons. Knives, sabers, pistols. It’s enough to fund an entire expedition."

Cyan let out a low whistle. "We got rich overnight, huh..."

Ethan’s gaze sharpened.

"I’m still wondering, what were merchants doing here with that much value... without guards?"

Cyan frowned. "Yeah. That part’s bothering me too."

Leon chuckled softly.

"Just think from the other side, it’s not hard to guess."

Ethan and Cyan exchanged glances.

The other side?

Cyan opened his mouth, then closed it again, trying to piece it together.

If they had guards, they would still be alive. That thought settled first. Then something else clicked inside Ethan.

"Wait," he said. "You don’t mean... this was a setup?"

Leon’s lips curved upward.

"Correct."

For a moment, Ethan just stared ahead.

Then he exhaled.

"Huh, now it all makes sense."

Cyan looked between them.

"What makes sense? You’re losing me. This is going completely over my head."

Leon slowed the carriage slightly as the road curved deeper into the forest.

"Remember when we entered the forest," he said, "and there were no guards?"

Cyan nodded.

"Yeah. It was dark. And rarely has anyone visited this region."

Leon nodded as well.

"Exactly," he said. "’Rarely’ anyone comes here. So tell me, why would a group of merchants be here, at this hour, carrying that much value?"

Cyan frowned. "They... lost directions? Or maybe the bandits brought them here after hijacking them?"

Leon shook his head.

"The bandits didn’t bring them. Someone else did."

Cyan thought, but it never clicked.

Seeing him straight, Ethan gave him a hint.

"The merchants had guards."

Cyan’s eyes widened.

"You mean—"

"The guards sold them." Leon said flatly.

Leon got to know all of this, when he saw their corpses. They looked like foreigners, and wealthy, to someone like them it would be foolish to not even concise hiring guards.

"Foreign merchants," Leon continued. "Doing business in Liora. They were always easy targets. They hired escorts, guides, thinking they were all genuine just because they wore the badge of the Liora kingdom’s guards. But that’s not always true..."

Ethan clenched his jaw.

It was the harsh reality of this kingdom.

Because of the rising need for royal guards, the kingdom hired an excessive number of them. Even normal citizens with only basic skills were recruited. And if they were recruited, then so were criminals.

"They guide them into ’safe’ shortcuts," Leon said. "Unknowing to the merchants that they were working for bandits."

Cyan’s hands shook.

"That’s... insane."

It was the first time he had learned the truth. How rotten this kingdom truly was.

Cyan didn’t say anything.

In the game, he would have learned this much later. Far too late, after losing things he could never get back.

Leon wouldn’t let that tragedy happen again.

He would make sure that Cyan Miller gained his absolute trust.

Just like Eula.

The carriage rolled past several giant trees and boulders, then finally came to a halt near an empty clearing.

Leon looked up. Because of the dense trees, he couldn’t see much of the sky.

The area was oddly shaped, and there was no one around. It was the perfect place to take a few hours of rest until the sun was fully up.

"We’ll set up here," he informed them.

Both of them stepped out of the carriage.

"It’s still dark though..." Cyan said.

"No need to worry," Leon assured him. "I have a dimensional house with me."

They would rest for two or three hours, then move out in the morning. It would be safer to pass verification in daylight rather than at midnight.

In the morning, they would cross the border and enter the nearest city of the Merlin Kingdom, Karnak City, which lay close to the border.

From there, they would take a ship from the city harbor.

Leon, however, planned to stay at least a day and a half in Karnak City.

Eula had given him a side task that needed to be handled there, so he would have a schedule set with the members of Twilight Order in Karnak City.

As the Eighth Head, he would receive their full cooperation, and they would even help Leon arrange a smooth departure by sea.

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[A/N: Power Stone Target: Total 200 PS in 24 hours for 2 extra Chapters]

(We were 20 PS short yesterday for bonus Chapter, let’s see if we finish todays’s daily goal!)