The Man with Hypnotic Powers Doesn’t Hold Back the Second Time Around

Chapter 222

What are villains?
They are rare mutants among the already uncommon awakened.
Pleasure-driven murderers whose brains are damaged for unknown reasons during awakening.
Addicts to murder, who are also addicted to the drug of killing.

In other words, it was clear that villains were a social evil.
Naturally, global research had been conducted on them.

Despite that research, even though villains had been studied, the cause of their transformation was still unknown...

‘You know the cause of villainy?’

It was Paimon, caught for stealing mana herbs, who brought it up.
She asked if we knew why villains existed.

Both the Chairman and I widened our eyes in interest.
It was a topic we couldn’t ignore.

‘She can’t speak due to reason, but... we just need to make sure she doesn't lie.’

• Flashing.

"Paimon. You have one hour. If you lie or deceive us even a little, pull down your pants and show your butt to the Chairman."
"I won’t lie. Now that it’s come to this, I have no choice but to bet everything on you."

I placed a strict hypnosis on her just in case, but it seemed she had no intention of resisting.

Paimon’s gaze once again turned toward me.
Her expression, filled with resolve, was one befitting of a final boss who had lived for 300 years...

• Shivering.

"C-come on, stop making me kneel. It’s bad enough for a man to be in this position, but my feet are going numb..."
"......"

If she weren’t being punished, she would have looked resolute.
But she was as pathetic as our town’s punching bag, down to her uselessly sloppy posture.

"Stop kneeling and holding your hands up. Now, explain."
"Huh... How did the main body end up being teased by such a delicate girl...?"
"Wanna see what real teasing looks like? Teasing is fun, right?"
"......I’ll explain."

After I put her in her place for trying to act tough, Paimon became much more obedient.
She naturally positioned herself in front of us...

...Squatting with her hands curled up like a cat.

• Stretching.

"Hmm. Where should I start? Should I talk about what awakened beings are first? Or... hmm..."
"......?"

Paimon, now ready to explain, began her story.
Simultaneously, both Shia and the Chairman’s heads turned toward me.
It seemed they immediately realized I was behind this.

• Whispering.

"Is there really a need to make her do that?"
"She has to finish paying for stealing the mana herbs."
"Even so, is this your kind of thing?"
"Not at all. It’s just that this is the most embarrassing position for her."
"How do you know that?"
"I don’t know. I just thought this would be the best position for her while explaining. I only changed the perception of what’s an appropriate posture and the most embarrassing one."
"...You’re something else. Well, if it’s not your thing, I guess it’s fine. I was just startled."
"I don’t care. She’s a brat, so she deserves to be punished."

However, neither of them tried to stop me.
After all, I didn’t think it was worth being lenient with someone who had eaten 30 billion worth of mana herbs.

As a result, Paimon’s serious face and her exaggerated pose explanation session began.

"First, the phenomenon you all call awakening is actually something perfectly natural in another dimension..."

Here’s a summary of her explanation:

First: The phenomenon we call "awakening" is actually not that special in another dimension.
Feeling mana for the first time is something every talented person experiences, it seems.
The only peculiar thing is the status window that comes with awakening...
But even that is something quite common in newborn dimensions, according to her.

"What do you mean by ‘newborn dimension’? A dimension that was just created? Like a universe where the Big Bang just happened?"
"That’s not it. It’s a primitive planet with no mana, where the ruler of the stars just took office... cough."
"Is the explanation blocked because of the law?"
"I’m glad you understand. As beautiful as you are, you also have a kind heart, Yushia."

As always, it was difficult to explain the details, but...

"Stop with that ridiculous flirting."
"......? I think this is quite an elegant position. Even by this world’s standards, it’s quite elegant."
"Just get on with the explanation."
"You’re weird. Anyway, villains are..."

Summary of the second part:
Villains are beings heavily influenced by a certain entity, almost like their minions.
The pleasure they get from killing people is the result of this influence.
In fact, getting others to kill is part of that being’s intent.

"That’s how they accumulate karma. They satisfy the difficult laws and build up enough karma to invade this planet."
"Invade? The EX-Class Gate?"
"Exactly."
"...Eh?"

Here’s the question.
I don’t know what that entity is, but...
Could it be that this entity couldn’t act directly because of the laws, so it used villains?

To fulfill the cause with the result—using their murders to satisfy the laws and saying to the entity, "My people have killed a lot of them! Can I go now?"

In other words, the number of kills by villains is the condition to start the invasion, it seems...

‘This doesn’t make sense.’

Before the regression, it was 15 years. After the regression, it was 15 weeks.
That’s how long it took for the EX-Class Gate to emerge.

This difference couldn’t be explained by villains alone.
There had to be another cause.

• Pause.

"...Ah."
‘It’s probably me. The cause.’

The difference between before and after the regression.
I, the returnee.
The reason the EX-Class Gate arrived 50 times faster... was probably because of me.

Just thinking about it made me feel depressed, and my expression turned...

• Bang!!!

"Hh!!?"
"Wh-what’s wrong with you? That pathetic, heartbroken retriever expression!!"

Just when I was starting to feel gloomy, a smack landed on my back.
It was from Shia.

Thanks to that, my mind snapped back to reality.

Yeah. It would’ve been world-ending without me.
Besides, I regressed to stop it.
No need to feel bad about it, really.

"What!? How dare a lower being hit a delicate man... Wait! How are you even listening to this?"
"Thanks, Shia."
"Well, if you understand, then good. As pretty as you are, your heart is just as kind."

The Chairman and Shia had been covering their ears in the corner.
Their faces were pale.

"You’re an ascended one now, so you’re fine, but if a mortal hears this, they’d be coughing up blood."
"Ah..."
"Well, that inferior being managed to hold out for a bit. Quite the mental strength."
"Hmm. I did something wrong."

When I hit her back earlier, I didn’t hold back enough.
I felt bad for not noticing it sooner.

No, knowing those two, they probably deliberately made sure I didn’t realize it.
They probably told me to focus on gathering information.

‘I need to finish this quickly.’

"Alright, then, last but most important."

My eyes shone golden.
I was going to get the most important information.

"So, what is it? The one thing that works on the monster in the EX-Class Gate."
"That..."

Paimon also put on a serious expression and...

"...It’s this."

• Thud.

After explaining something with a determined expression,
Paimon collapsed.

***

The Chairman carried Paimon on his back as he headed outside.
Since there might still be information to extract, he said he was going to leave it to Suyeon to treat her.

It felt a bit much to make someone who had already defied the laws of reasoning explain things like that.

‘Well, I’m the one who made her explain it in that dog-sitting pose until the end.’

I felt a bit sorry now.
Sorry, punching bag. If I had known she was worth 30 billion, I wouldn’t have made her do the "bark bark" part.

A sigh escaped me.

"Are you okay, Yujin? You don’t look so good."
"It’s just... frustrating."

Another reason for my sigh.
What Paimon explained earlier was kind of bleak.
It felt like a no-win situation, to the point that it seemed completely hopeless.

"Explain it to me. I’ll help you figure it out."
"You know by now. I can’t speak about it because of the laws."
"Forget the laws. Just say what you can. As much as you can."
"…Yeah. Actually…"

I vented my frustrations.
We were stuck here. We were all doomed.
I tried to say it in the most indirect way possible, so as not to violate the laws.

I didn’t expect much.
Even though it was Shia, I didn’t think there was going to be an answer right away from just hearing this.

However, Shia…

"So you’re saying the problem is lack of manpower? For the boss raid, aside from you and Aika, there’s no one else to fight?"
"To put it simply, yeah."
"Is there a way to increase it?"
"……!!!?"

Once again, she came up with an amazing solution.

"None of you have anything going on with men, so they won’t even notice the faint smell of nightflowers coming from the weapons."
"Even so... you guys are fine, but what about your two daughters, Sibylla, and your only friend, that old lady?"
"It’s for the world, so don’t worry about it!"

The solution she offered was to enchant my allies with sex appeal.