NOVEL WEB Chapter 540: It Was You
A few hours had passed. They were watching the sun rise… when something in the air shifted. Damon moved first.
"Let's go kill that thing."
He turned with the intention of heading back to the village. This evil spirit thought it was cunning — fine. However, if it thought it could break him psychologically, that was laughable at best.
He was used to being the outcast, so much so that he saw other people as merely side characters in his life.
'Why would I care what side characters think of me?'
"What's the plan of attack?" Singularity asked.
"I have a plan… attack!" Damon took a single step and dissolved into the shadow.
His next step placed him directly inside the village.
The sun was already rising. The travelers had long since given up expecting justice.
The village bustled with movement, and — to no one's surprise — the villagers had gathered outside the village head's house for a meeting on how to deal with Damon. After much whispered deliberation, they had decided to pool their coin and hire adventurers in the third-class advancement to kill him.
Damon casually teleported to the center of their group.
As soon as he appeared, they were about to erupt into outrage. He lazily raised his hand.
"I'm a bit tired, so I have little patience. Whoever speaks without my permission will die."
His words made the crowd go instantly silent. Fear spread through them like frost, stiffening their spines.
His mastery of Tyranny leveled up. Damon didn't particularly like that, but so be it.
"You have all spoken, and so far, I have listened. I have barely reacted to your accusations."
No one dared speak.
He was really tired. After all this time, his preparations were complete. There was no more reason to linger.
"If you want justice, I will give it to you. I want all people in the village present, regardless of age."
He glared at the village head, who opened his mouth to speak.
"Now."
The village head bit his lips and nodded. A glance to several young men sent them off to gather the rest of the people.
Damon summoned a table from his shadow storage along with several chairs, then waited.
Singularity arrived with his party shortly after. He could have teleported, but it seemed they wanted to arrive together.
When they sat down without a word, the villagers began to trickle in, children clinging to parents, elders muttering nervously. Damon's shadow perception spread over the village to ensure no one was hiding.
"All villagers to my left, travelers to the right."
With a few curses and grumbles, they obeyed, parents tugging children toward the proper side.
Seta held tightly to the hand of the little traveler girl who had lost her sister and become mute.
They seemed inseparable, so Damon let them stay together. The child still looked pale, her eyes unfocused — the air around her thick with trauma.
There was a current of helplessness in the crowd. What could they do? Nothing.
Tyranny was the act of exercising power without regard to the will of those forced to obey. But what people often forgot was that tyrants were human too, and even they sometimes wanted to see something beautiful… unless they were simply evil.
And from where the villagers stood, Damon was pure evil.
He stepped toward the travelers — the minority here, as expected.
"Over the course of a few days, children have been killed gruesomely. While many of you are indignant and wish to bring the culprit to justice, I assure you that I am not the one."
"Then who is, murderer?" someone from the villagers spat.
Damon sighed. "And I get interrupted…"
In an instant, he teleported into the crowd, appearing before the man. Without a single word, he ripped the man's head clean off.
"You won't make a liar of me."
The headless body collapsed with a thud. Women and children screamed, but no one dared move. Fear clamped down on their throats.
Damon walked back to his previous spot.
"Now… where was I?"
Saint's hand trembled, but before he could speak, Twilight placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.
"He's pissed now… later."
"You want justice? I'll give you justice. You just won't like how I do it."
No one spoke.
"You all had your chance to speak. I listened. Now I will speak, and you will listen."
He pointed at the villagers.
"Hand over the person who summoned the evil spirit."
The village head paled. "What are you talking about? We don't—"
Damon became a blur of shadow, his hand clamping around the old man's throat.
"I have tried to be civil with you people, but again you want me to treat you like beasts. Fine."
He slammed the village head into the ground.
"Now I have defeated you. Now your body is mine."
The crown upon Damon's head pulsed faintly. Before their eyes, the village head stood again, but his posture was rigid, his voice firm and alien.
"I'll give you all a choice. Speak, or face the same fate. I only want an answer — yes or no."
This was the enhancement of the Pale Crown:
[Empty Throne] – Dominate the mind of a single weakened enemy, turning them into a puppet, or even possessing their body.
Neil trembled. "Village head… what's wrong with you?"
The old man's body moved stiffly. "There is no village head here, fool. The old man is now lost."
Everyone paled. What kind of demonic ability was this? The travelers watched in horrified silence. If they had thought Damon terrifying before, now he redefined the word.
"I already know you did it. I just want you to admit it."
His gaze locked on Neil. Silence pressed down on the gathering like a weight.
"Seta."
His eyes shifted to the auburn-haired innkeeper.
Her face drained of color.
"It was you, wasn't it?"
She shook her head frantically. "I didn't do anything, I swear. I'm the only one on your side!"
Damon's cold gaze met hers.
"A shame. That's not what the Eye of Veracity shows."
A broken sword appeared in his hand as he walked toward her. Black flames erupted along its edge. When he was next to her, he swung — but not at Seta.
He struck the little mute girl.
Gasps and cries tore through the crowd as the child fell, lifeless. Horror gripped the onlookers.
Then the girl's expression twisted into a sinister smile. A woman's voice echoed through the air.
"Ahhh… you caught me."
Her small form warped, stretching into a tall, eerie woman with long, serrated fangs.
"Heheheheheheheh…"