ch32.2

It was the start of her third act of villainy.

Grimoire roamed between the bookshelves, pondering new villainous ideas.

People walking between the bookshelves, students reading quietly, scholars studying seriously… how could she ruin their peaceful daily lives?

She tapped her horn lightly with her finger, stimulating her brain. How to corrupt the temple of knowledge… too direct destruction lacked the aesthetics of a villain, and too subtle pranks would be misunderstood as good deeds again…

It was then. She heard a student whispering to a friend.

"Hey, you spoiled the ending of that drama for me! It's so annoying!"

"Well, if you haven't watched it yet, you're not going to watch it for the rest of your life, right?"

A flash of inspiration struck her. A gray light flickered from her horn.

"That's it! Spoilers! One of the things people hate the most!"

Wasn't this a villainous plan? Anyone who gets spoiled gets angry!

For reference, Iron Man and Black Widow die in Endgame! Kyakyakak!

The cruelty of blowing away someone's expectations and enjoyment with a single sentence is the terror of spoilers!

And among the many genres, there is one genre that is particularly vulnerable to spoilers!

That is…

"Detective novels are fun because you guess who the culprit is, but what if you write who the culprit is on the first page? Even I think it's really wicked!"

A genre where all reasoning becomes meaningless if you know the culprit. In other words, a genre perfect for spoiling!

Grimoire admired her own genius idea. This time, she would prove her villainy!

Looking around, she arrived at the mystery novel section.

Books by famous authors such as Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle, and Keigo Higashino were neatly arranged.

She piled up about ten books by famous authors and took them to a quiet corner table. She had to commit her villainy secretly where no one could see her.

"There's a saying that the spoiler of life is death! The spoilers I do will kill the souls of the readers! Kakat!"

Grimoire took out a pencil and opened the first book, 'And Then There Were None'.

She turned the cover and stopped when she was about to write the culprit right under the title.

"Wait, who is the culprit in this book?"

Panicked, she began to flip through the pages. Complex writing style and many characters. Her head was spinning. She should ask Evelyn about this!

"Who killed who and why? It's too complicated!"

To be honest, she had never read a detective novel properly. She mainly watched comic books and YouTube videos, and novels with only dense text… her eyes hurt… her head hurt… it was just annoying?

"Oh, whatever! Who reads this stuff these days? Who would read such a long text in the age of shorts? They stretched out what could be finished in 3 minutes of video to hundreds of pages!"

In the end, she wrote in large letters on the first page of the first book.

'The culprit is the butler!'

The next book was a collection of Sherlock Holmes cases.

"Hmm… Sherlock Holmes was with a doctor, wasn't he? Then that doctor must be the culprit! Watson is the culprit! The closest person is always suspicious!"

The next book was 'Murder on the Orient Express'. She had seen this as a movie… but her memory was hazy.

"It would be nice to have some kind of twist… That's it! The culprit is the train itself! The train was the mastermind! Isn't that amazing?"

In this way, one book, two books.

She accelerated her increasingly creative (?) culprit designation.

The culprit is actually you, the reader! If you hadn't read this book, they wouldn't have died! - The Villain's Meta Reasoning

There is no culprit! Everyone is an accomplice! No, it was all a dream! - The Villain's Fantasy Interpretation

The culprit is the cat! That little guy who's always watching quietly! It's revenge for the Churu! - The Villain's Cute Approach

I chuckled to myself, writing down completely absurd guesses and ridiculous culprits.

"Kakat! Thanks to this body's evil deeds, the fun of detective novels will be completely gone! Besides, the scary thing about spoilers is that they're contagious! When you get spoiled, you want to inflict that anger on others! One spoiler triggers an endless chain reaction of spoilers… eventually, all detective works will become useless!"

I smiled contentedly, having completed my mission.

I returned the books to their original places and hid behind a small bookshelf nearby. I was ready to appreciate my masterpiece.

Soon, about five or six people gathered in the detective novel section.

A middle-aged man was at the forefront, and the rest were men and women of various ages. They examined the bookshelves with a familiar air.

"So, what do you guys think this month? I think the recently published detective novels are all cliché. There are no new tricks."

"That's right, Professor. I've read 2,000 of them, and now I can tell who the culprit is just by looking at the first chapter."

'2,000 books? Why are you reading so many useless books? This body hasn't even read 10 books in my entire life!'

Finally, one of them picked up the book I had tampered with.

'Yes, pick up those books! Hurry up and become a victim of my evil deeds!!'

"Oh, look at this! Someone wrote something on the first page."

"Look! Someone has completely absurdly pointed out the culprit! 'The culprit is the butler'…?"

Finally, it's starting! Time to see faces of anger, disappointment, and despair!

But… the woman's expression wasn't angry, but rather intrigued.

'Wait… that expression… isn't angry? What is it?'

"This is a new interpretation! This one sentence completely overturns the traditional narrative strategy. 'The butler is the culprit' is a meta hint to face the author's intended misdirection head-on!"

"That's right, this one line enhances the suspense of the entire novel. It makes you suspect the butler's actions throughout the reading."

A man with glasses spoke passionately. The others nodded.

"What?"

I let out a small scream without realizing it. Fortunately, they didn't pay attention to my voice.

'What the heck are these detective novel otaku talking about? Enhance the suspense? I was trying to ruin it!'

Instead of getting angry, they're showing interest in my scribbles!

They then started taking out other books as well.

"In Sherlock Holmes, it says 'Watson is the culprit'? This is a truly innovative interpretation! It's an argument that makes you look at the relationship between Sherlock and Watson from a completely new angle! In fact, isn't Sherlock actually a figment of Watson's imagination, a defense mechanism to justify his crimes?"

"On the Orient Express, it says 'The culprit is the train itself!' Isn't this an allegory for the mechanized violence of modernity? Everyone plays a role and moves like a 'system'! It's an interpretation that pierces through the social criticism that Agatha hid in the novel!"

They continued each other's words, and a heated discussion began. One person's story added a deeper interpretation to another.

"N, no way…"

"Look at this! It says 'The cat is the culprit'! There isn't even a cat in this book!"

"It's a postmodern approach that breaks the formula of existing detective novels. 'The cat is the culprit,' how symbolic! Surely the cat symbolizes human unconsciousness and repressed nature! Now we can see the work in a new light!"

"Look at this! There's also a note that says, 'The culprit is actually you, the reader!' This is a metafictional approach that questions the reader's ethical responsibility. In the end, it criticizes the reader's self-consciousness that they are enjoying the crime!"

An old man with a receding hairline exclaimed. Then, the middle-aged man who seemed to be the leader of the group said in an excited voice.

"Everyone, we've made a truly unexpected discovery today. The unconventional interpretations left by this anonymous reader have completely changed our perspective. It's a moment that has added a new perspective to our detective novel reading club!"

"I can't fall asleep without reading a detective novel every night. I've been doing it for 15 years. But recently, everything has become predictable and boring. These scribbles… have brought back the excitement of reading detective novels for the first time."

The others nodded in agreement.

"From today, our group will start a new study on the theme of 'The Joy of Intentional Misreading'! Let's analyze how these provocative culprit designations open up new layers of the work!"

They all enthusiastically gathered the books I had tampered with and began moving them to the table.

"What… what the heck is going on?"

I staggered out from behind the hidden bookshelf. My legs gave way. Even my horns seemed to droop.

My third evil deed had failed perfectly again. No, rather, it had become a good deed that inspired literary inspiration!

"I'm really curious who left these genius memos. This isn't just a scribble, it's a challenge and reinterpretation of the detective novel itself!"

"To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the S City Detective Literature Research Society, we will hold a special symposium. Let's all write a paper on the 'villainous interpretation' of the book we're in charge of. How about publishing it as a special issue of the journal next month?"

"I really want to meet the person who left such great insights. I want to invite them as an honorary advisor to our reading club!"

Everyone agreed with the leader's words.

'They're looking for me… inviting me to the reading club? This body?'

I shook my head reflexively.

"No, villains don't read books! This body is a true villain, so I only read comic books!!"

Fortunately, my terrifying(?) declaration was drowned out by the sound of their discussion.

They treated the books containing my scribbles as precious as archaeologists who had discovered treasures.

'I don't even want to imagine reading books with these weirdos!'

I hurriedly left the detective novel section.

Why does my evil always turn out like this?

"Gyaaaak…! What the heck is going on? This body's evil deeds again! Again! In the wrong direction…!"

I couldn't help but sigh. This is the third failure already.

"Wait… is this world testing how creative this body's evil deeds are?"

This is definitely some kind of test! A challenge from the world to me!

"That's right! You can't surprise the world with ordinary evil deeds. You need more creative, more vicious, and more genius evil deeds!"

Is this body a villain who gives up easily? Absolutely not!

"Frustration is what raises a first-class villain!"

Rather, it's a good thing! All of this is just part of the growth process of an evil villain!

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