THE PERFECT VILLAIN: Another chance with a system
Chapter 15: A Beautiful Three Days

Chapter 15: A Beautiful Three Days

Cronos looked at Valerie, panic written on her face, his own expression shifting into something like disappointment.

"You’ve been going around killing your siblings. Do you really think I’m as inferior as they are?"

Cronos lifted a finger toward her. Before Valerie could answer, he closed his hand, and she immediately folded, compressing into a tiny ball. Cronos turned back to the silent garden, focused on it as he had been before she arrived.

Valak arrived at that moment, just in time to witness it, and paused when he saw her get decimated by their father. He immediately concluded that someone was manipulating everything—Valerie was far too smart to think about attacking the king.

Both of them were old enough to recall the tale of their father’s previous family, one he had totally annihilated. They were not the first. He had lived long enough to have had multiple families across different eras, and when they ended up destroyed, he simply started again—blood meant nothing to Cronos, only true power.

---

Vael, who had witnessed this from the balcony, felt himself tremble slightly in fear. She had slaughtered over two hundred demons in minutes, and yet lost to her father in the blink of an eye.

Certainly. The king must live.

He turned around, still in Perfect Cloak, and as soon as he reached for the door, a notification popped up.

Notice: New skill acquired; Spatial Compaction.

His hand stopped on the doorknob. He looked back toward Cronos. Only then did he remember that the authority was referred to as the Authority of Space-Time.

His lips stretched in an uneasy way—a mixture of being impressed and terrified at the same time.

"He’s certainly the kind of demon I’d take months planning for. For now, I’ll have to leave. Any further plan would bring us together in a room, and I doubt I’d be able to copy anything before I get killed," Vael muttered to himself as he walked in.

---

He had gone down to his archive when Yellow stumbled out of his room, visibly horrified. He took off Perfect Cloak just as her eyes reached him, and her expression shifted from fear to shock.

"You—you’re alive? Lord—Lord Vael?" She turned toward him and ran over. "Lord Vael, Langer’s been murdered in your room!"

But as she drew closer, Vael tilted his head, a smirk appearing on his face as his gaze drifted down at her—a look that made it clear she’d been played.

Yellow stopped a few feet away. It was at that moment she realized it.

"It’s—it’s you all along? Lord Vael—it’s you!" Her hands trembled as she took a step back.

Vael took a step forward, his voice calm and emotionless. "Didn’t I tell you following me was a bad idea?"

Yellow’s eyes widened as she recalled the words. Her lips shook as she asked, "But—but why?"

Vael scoffed without replying, then raised his right hand to activate Valak’s unique skill, Crimson Flames—a tactic he’s devised to eliminate any proof that his death might be false.

The ball grew bigger with every passing second, and Yellow’s face went pale as she watched. She opened her mouth to say something, and nothing came out. Her legs shook as though she were trying to run, but her body kept refusing.

Finally, she found her words. "You—you’re a monster!"

The crimson ball began to reach its peak. Vael looked at her, his voice dropping into something colder and more detached.

"Take this as advice. Never trust anyone." He paused, letting it sink in, then continued. "Trust itself is a burden—a responsibility to prove oneself to others. One who has no trust in anyone, nor any need to convince others to trust him, lives truly free of that burden. In a world where the strongest is law and power decides fate, trust is a fool’s game."

He paused, and finally his expression shifted into something more like pity. "I’ll give you a moment. Maybe luck will be on your side this time."

He paused briefly, then his voice came out as light as wind.

"Run."

Yellow hesitated only a split second before turning and running south, amping herself with wind, and with every few steps she looked back, her face full of panic as she drifted further away.

Vael smiled as he watched her run. It was painfully obvious. She wasn’t going to make it.

The explosion came with the force of a nuke, destroying nearly eighty percent of the castle. Yellow gave it everything she had, but the blast was faster.

Even the council members, Cole and Sean, were caught in the explosion—unprepared and petrified.

---

Valak was outside the castle, near the garden, when the explosion hit. Both he and Cronos turned to look.

Valak looked perplexed. The magnitude of destruction from Crimson Flames was meant to be his own unique skill, and yet there it was.

"But how?" The words came out before he could stop them.

Then, at that moment, he heard a giggle. He turned to find it had come from his father. The giggle turned into abrupt laughter—loud and genuine, as though he were beyond excited.

He had never heard his father laugh since he was first conceived. He never knew Cronos was capable of laughter, and yet there he was, looking utterly overjoyed.

Cronos spread his hands apart as the laughter subsided. "Now this is what I like to see. A true calamity. I need to know who is responsible—I need to meet this mastermind."

He paused, letting the words settle, then added, "This is the work of one worthy to be called a Demon Lord!"

Valak’s face twisted. He had been fooled, even with his Authority of Truth. He hated to admit it, but it truly was the work of a calamity-class demon.

---

Somewhere far from the castle, a dark cave acted as a bridge between the Demon Realm and the human world. Vael stood close to it with his blade on his right hand, his lips tilting up slightly as he looked back at the Demon Realm.

In three days, he had nearly wiped out a demon faction.

"Well, maybe we’ll meet again in the future, Father, and by then, even you would be my pawn. But for now, our Chapter ends here. It was truly a beautiful three days."

He stayed in silence for a moment before turning around and walking through the portal to the human world.