The Worst Villain is Actually a Cute Girl-Chapter 52
A darkened room. The stage lit by warm lights.
Children and adults alike had anticipation written all over their faces, excited to see what kind of play would unfold.
But behind the stage, the children set to perform wore shadows of worry and anxiety.
Some of it was normal stage fright—wondering if they’d make a mistake, unsure if they could satisfy the audience.
But more than that, they were worried about Lily, who had been cast as the princess.
Before the play began, Rene had informed them that Lily couldn’t participate at the start due to a stomachache.
“I wish Lily could be up there with us.”
“She worked so hard to prepare...”
“It’s all that weird food from that shop’s fault.”
“Yeah, totally.”
As the children muttered in frustration, looking glum, Rene stepped in.
“Don’t worry. She said she’ll definitely join in once she’s feeling better. So come on, everyone—smiles on your faces. Miss Red’s been really looking forward to your performance, and if you go onstage looking like that, she’ll just get worried.”
Lily had been kidnapped. Red had gone to rescue her.
But Rene hadn’t told the children.
So they still believed Red was in the audience, watching their play.
“Lily will come, right?”
“Of course. You all know she’s not weak. She’ll be fine.”
The children looked at one another and nodded.
The shadows lifted from their faces, and a determined light returned to their eyes.
Before going on stage, they gathered their hands together in a circle.
“Let’s do this! Fighting!”
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Their loud chant dispersed the heavy atmosphere that had hung in the waiting room.
The children moved to their positions, ready to begin.
The narrator’s voice began to explain the setting.
After a brief summary of the world of the play, the curtains slowly opened.
The audience gasped in admiration at the intricate set pieces.
A grand castle. A colorful village.
Androids shaped like stuffed animals wandered across the stage.
They faced the castle and made soft, sobbing sounds.
With sorrowful music playing in the background, the audience was quickly drawn into the world of the play. It was so fantastical, it was hard to believe it was a children’s performance.
“Oh... the poor princess.”
“Sniff... what a terrible curse...”
“Is there no hero who can break it?”
As the mood onstage sank into melancholy, a girl in a maid costume emerged from the castle.
It was Rena.
She began to sing.
Her song was tinged with sadness and loneliness, as if lamenting the princess’s tragic fate.
Tears shimmered in the children’s eyes. Even the adults grew somber at the sound of her voice.
This play—
Was the story of a princess who strove for peace, only to be cursed—losing her voice and her face.
A tale of those who rise to break that curse, and bring peace back to the world.
The curtain had only just risen.
And no one noticed the darkness lurking behind the scenes.
*
The golden gauntlet, meant to destroy anything in its path, shattered instead.
Midas let out a bitter laugh.
His right arm throbbed. He could feel the bones and muscles breaking and regenerating at the same time.
He assumed that after colliding their full strength, she must’ve taken damage too.
But Red’s arm—was perfectly fine.
Midas let out a dry chuckle.
Surprised by her power all over again—yet deeply impressed.
He wasn’t afraid. If anything, he was starting to enjoy himself.
He launched into his next attack.
“Humanity developed technology to escape suffering. Hoping that it would save people and the world. But in the end—technology that was meant to help ended up killing even more.”
Over his back, countless weapons materialized, surrounding him in a halo of destruction.
Miniguns, sniper rifles, missiles, ray guns—all the instruments of death humanity had ever created.
And all of them were pointed straight at her.
“Do you know why? Because human greed never ends. Never satisfied, they turned their creations on each other. All to satisfy their selfish desires. Like this!”
All the weapons opened fire at once.
A deafening cacophony of explosions and smoke filled the arena, colorful blasts blooming across the ground like fireworks.
Humanity’s arsenal rained down upon her—but Red danced through the chaos with dazzling precision.
She reached into her pocket, pulled out one of the large tokens from the festival games—
And began flicking them at the weapons like bullets.
The coins sliced through the air and struck each weapon dead-on, destroying them one after another.
Midas’s arsenal dwindled.
With the firepower weakened—
Red saw her chance.
She slammed the ground and burst through the rain of bullets, charging forward.
Too fast. Midas couldn’t react in time.
He hastily conjured a suit of golden armor across his torso.
Boom!
Her punch shattered it instantly, and Midas’s body was hurled backward.
His internal organs and bones broke under the force, and blood gushed from his mouth.
But even with such fatal wounds, his body healed quickly and he rose again.
“Human greed always wounds others. Of course it does. That’s because happiness is gained by feeding off someone else’s misfortune. Like this!”
Midas dug his heel into the ground and took a single step forward.
The shock rippled across the floor like a wave.
The ground surged violently beneath them, and Red wobbled slightly from the sudden quake.
She didn’t take her eyes off Midas—but a chill ran down her spine.
When she glanced down, faces—large and small—were forming in the floor beneath her.
They opened their mouths in silent screams, full of despair.
Red kicked off the ground, leaping high.
But the faces rose with her, chasing her upward.
Red used them like platforms, bouncing through the air with practiced agility.
“I want wealth. I want power. I want fame. I want to sit on the throne. And to get what I want—I'll crush anything in my way.”
A shadow fell across the sky.
Far above Red, dozens of massive golden feet loomed overhead.
Unlike the cursed golden hands, these feet existed solely for destruction—built to crush and trample.
Like a god ignoring the insects crawling below, the giants’ feet all came crashing down at once.
Boom. Boom. Boom!
Every time the golden feet slammed into the ground, the entire arena shook.
Even the screaming faces of despair across the floor were caught in the impact and obliterated.
Dust billowed thick in the air like a fog, filling the entire arena.
From within that haze—Red eyes flared.
“Tch! Still not enough?”
Just as Midas was about to launch his next attack, she burst from the dust and closed the distance in an instant.
“Kh!”
Close combat—his weakness.
He tried to retreat, knowing that full well, but Red was right on his heels.
She overwhelmed him with strength and speed that outclassed his own.
Midas tried to counter, but none of his abilities worked on her.
He was beaten down mercilessly. Her fists shattered his body again and again, only for him to regenerate.
If not for the near-infinite mana and his nanobot healing system, the fight would’ve ended long ago.
The pain was immense—but his heart pounded.
His body was wrecked, but his fighting spirit burned even hotter.
With a savage grin, Midas swung his forehead toward hers—slamming it against her skull.
Red let out a soft grunt of pain, clearly surprised by the sudden move.
Glaring, Midas shouted:
“Why? Why do you reject human nature? You have all this power, and yet you chain yourself! With your strength, you could rule half this city—no, the entire city!”
“Let me ask you instead. Why do you only use your power to take from others?”
“Because that’s how the world works! Every world is about taking or being taken from! I’m just living according to the rules—unlike you!”
As she staggered slightly, Midas pulled back to gain distance.
In the sky above, gems appeared once more—this time all transformed into razor-sharp blades aimed straight at her.
Red dodged with light footwork, no # Nоvеlight # fear in her eyes. She swatted others away effortlessly.
“Caring for others—altruism? It’s all a lie. It’s just self-satisfaction in disguise.”
“Self-satisfaction, huh...”
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“Yeah! Even in those fairy tales kids read. The prince who sets off to rescue the princess—do you really think he does it for her? No!”
Above Midas, hundreds of mounted guns materialized.
A barrage of bullets rained down like a torrential storm.
Red ran—faster than the bullets themselves.
“They want the princess. They want to be her consort. They want the throne. They want to be the hero. They go through hardship not for anyone else—but for themselves. It’s just a journey to fulfill their own greed!”
Red kicked a chunk of debris at her feet.
It shot through the air like a cannonball and smashed into Midas’s head, blowing part of it clean off.
He should’ve been in agony—but instead, Midas laughed.
His head regenerated, rewinding like time, his smile still twisted wide—uncannily grotesque.
“In the end, people live only for themselves. So why fight your instincts? Why make it harder? Just act on your desires freely, like I do.”
A golden spear formed in Midas’s right hand.
A spear that pierced all things—bringing death with it.
He lowered into a stance.
“You’re just like me. A selfish human hiding behind the excuse of helping others! We’re the same!”
With a full swing of his arm, Midas hurled the spear.
Words like those could shake the spirit of someone fighting for justice. Just a moment’s hesitation was enough to strike.
That was the plan.
But—
Red snatched the flying spear out of the air with ease, then slammed her foot into the ground.
She closed the gap in a blink—leapt into Midas’s arms—and drove the spear through his chest.
“Guh!”
“You thought your words would shake me? That I’d falter? Sorry, but that’s not gonna work.”
“Ghh...”
“People love to assume I go around punching criminals because of some noble mission. Like I’m some hero from a kid’s storybook. But no—I don’t move for righteousness or duty. You’re right about one thing. I fight purely out of selfishness.”
Red paused, mid-sentence.
There was no reason to explain herself to a villain.
Even if she did, he wouldn’t understand.
She didn’t come here to talk. She came to save Lily.
“Haaah!”
Just then, Midas gathered mana and blasted it outward.
Red quickly yanked the spear free and jumped back to avoid the blast.
His regeneration—slower than before.
“I’m not done yet! I can still fight!”
Red felt it now.
At first she didn’t notice, but the more they fought, the more something seemed off.
There was a madness behind Midas’s eyes.
His behavior. His tone. It wasn’t the same as before.
“...You know,” she said, “is this even really you?”
“What...?”
“When we fought before, you didn’t talk this much. You’re not the type to go on like that.”
At her words, Midas’s expression briefly twisted.
He clutched his forehead as a sudden migraine overwhelmed him.
His mind spun in chaos.
It felt like a foreign will was clawing through his thoughts.
A serpent—with glowing red eyes—whispered in his brain, commanding him to break her spirit.
Midas didn’t want that.
He just wanted to have Red. Not destroy her mind.
The clashing thoughts battled inside him, and the headache worsened.
“Get out! Get out of my head!!”
Midas slammed his fist into his own skull.
Red blinked, startled by the sudden outburst.
Breathing heavily, Midas looked back up.
His face looked... lighter. Freer.
“You’re right... This isn’t me. This is the price of being deceived by that damned snake...”
“Snake?”
“My Garnet. Let’s end this now. Before I lose my mind again!”
Midas spoke those cryptic words—and unleashed all his remaining mana in a single burst.
Above him—
Red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple gems appeared.
They converged into one, forming a massive surge of energy.
Red didn’t know exactly what it was—but she could feel it.
This was the final move.
She took her stance.
The air grew taut with tension as both prepared for the final blow.
