"Aaargh! Seriously, this is the absolute worst!!"
Within the depths of a suffocating, pitch-black gloom, a single girl let out a shrill scream.
Drop, clad from head to toe in black gothic lolita fashion, made no attempt to hide her displeasure as she shrieked into the void.
"Drop-chan's perfect plan, prepared with such meticulous care, is completely ruined! I am seriously pissed off!!"
"Ahaha! It can’t be helped, can it? Things not going according to plan is simply the nature of destiny, wouldn't you say?"
Lost spoke as if to provoke her—or perhaps to offer comfort—as she vented her frustration and rage. Casting a wry smile toward her as she ground her teeth, he offered sincere praise for the plan that had ultimately ended in failure.
"Matching the upcoming events, you turned the villagers into Magic Armor Beasts to force a change in the scenario. Your aim was perfect, and your choice of personnel was excellent. They were the perfect kind of scum, moving exactly as you intended. At the same time, you accurately predicted the behavioral patterns of those Lord Heroes and the people under the sway of their charisma. It was truly perfect halfway through—yes, only halfway."
"Exactly! If Presia had just followed that Hero's order and unleashed her Flame Attribute attack, burning the Treant and the child together, it would have been perfect! She would have been broken beyond repair! Consumed by the guilt of murdering a child, she would have lost her ability to cook and spiraled into the depths of despair!"
"And by forcing Hao to witness the ruin of his beloved, he would have followed her into misery," Lost added. "Then, at the precise moment his stagnant heart reached its limit, festering with hatred for those Lord Heroes, you would have offered him my needle to transform him into a Magic Armor Beast. He would have had his revenge while plunging everyone else into tragedy. Truly, it was a brilliantly conceived scenario."
"And that Yugo brat ruined it all! That man you’re so strangely obsessed with! It’s infuriating!"
"Ahahahahaha! You were impressive, to be sure, but it simply means that he was impressive as well. To think he had prepared such a hidden ace—I never would have imagined it! Saving the child's life and stopping the chain of hatred and misery... truly impressive, My Hero!"
Drop glared loathingly at Lost as he praised Yugo with an almost ecstatic air. To the girl who was surely lamenting the fact that her deeply invested plan had been thwarted, Lost said with a bounce in his voice:
"Drop, I understand your frustration. But where’s the fun if everything goes exactly as expected? Besides, we spend our time thwarting the Lord Heroes' plans to make them miserable—it’s only natural that our own plans get thwarted once in a while, right?"
"...True. I’ll settle for that. Well, even though it ended up much milder than planned, I managed to make those two pieces of scum sufficiently miserable. And we did achieve the initial goal of making them lose their virginity to that old hag."
"That’s the spirit! Let's just move on. Now then, we won't have much to do with the next scenario, but the Lord Heroes will work hard to make plenty of people miserable for us anyway. It is, so to speak, a Bonus Stage. It’s a wonderful thing, having things turn out well on their own without us doing a thing!"
"Storing up power, learning, and preparing for the next development... Drop-chan feels like a real mastermind now! It’s so exciting! Kyaha★"
By this point, Drop's mood seemed to have improved, as the brightness had returned to her voice. After laughing and spewing out such pitch-black emotions in a bubbly, bright tone, she vanished into the deeper darkness.
Following after her, just before disappearing into the gloom, Lost wore a lingering smile as he whispered toward the Hero he was watching.
"I’m counting on you, My Hero. It is precisely because an existence like yours—one who honestly saves people without seeking anything in return—exists that the blackness of evil stands out all the more. Masterminds like us, and the scum who call themselves Heroes... the Reincarnators... we only shine because you are there! Become an even stronger, even cooler, Greatest Hero. I can hardly wait for the God-tier Development that awaits our eventual clash...!!"
Venting the excitement within his chest, he too vanished into the darkness.
No one in this world knew what the masterminds, who still harbored unfathomable darkness, would do next. However, it was certain that they would continue to manipulate the masses and birth new miseries from the shadows.