The Villainess Is More Defiant Than Expected
The magic pill Dito.
Only one can be crafted per day, no exceptions.
After swallowing it, you have ten minutes to decide on your form. Once that window closes, the shape locks in for the rest of the duration.
If you want to switch to a different appearance or cancel the effect, you have to take another dose.
In return, the transformation lasts a full twenty-four hours.
“What do you think? Not too shabby, right?”
“Huh? Y-yes…?”
Now that I’d adjusted the size, it had been a long time since I last looked down at the top of my little brother’s head. I’d left home before the blessings of a growth spurt could take hold, so Brean had overtaken me ages ago. These days I was the one who had to crane my neck to meet his eyes.
But with Dito, the natural order could be reversed again. I wouldn’t just be taller—I could become a hulking, bearded, muscle-bound man’s man!
“It’s not just ‘not too shabby.’ How on earth did you make something like this?”
“What a stupid question, brother. Do you really think you’d understand if I explained it?”
“No…”
Brean and the soldiers stared at the bottle containing the pill as if it might bite them. It wasn’t that Brean had been a bad student. The theory behind it was simply too advanced for a coward who’d spent his academy days running away from theoretical magic classes. If I tried to break it down for him now, he’d need to retake the entire academy curriculum as a prerequisite.
“I’m going to use this to scare Priscilla so badly she won’t dare open her mouth in our house. Once the imperial family sees that we’ve properly tamed the villainess, they won’t dare mess with us either.”
“You’re going to meet Lady Priscilla looking like that?”
“She won’t be able to lay a finger on me.”
“Brother, why don’t you just announce this magic pill to the world and change everyone’s perception? If they realize what you’re truly capable of, they might even cancel the wedding.”
“No can do. It’s still a work in progress.”
What I ultimately wanted was a pill that could transform the user from a worm into a dragon, not just make them a little bigger. There was no way I’d be satisfied with this half-finished version. Besides, if people found out I could do something like this, they’d start dragging me out of my workshop to handle all sorts of annoying tasks.
My quiet, comfortable life of magical research would be over. I’d be summoned here and there like some kind of errand boy.
“Don’t worry, brother. Dito doesn’t just inflate the body. It uses my mana to generate artificial muscle as well. The form comes with mass and physical strength to match its appearance.”
“Then what more do you even plan to improve?”
“One good smack with this and the problem’s solved. I’ll make sure she can’t talk back for the rest of her life.”
Next time I’d just give her a room and tell her to stay quiet. As long as she kept to herself, I wouldn’t bother her either. Three square meals a day and a few modest hobbies—that was enough. Anyone who couldn’t be satisfied with that would receive no mercy from me.
“……Brother. I have an even better idea.”
**
I’m not bragging, but I’m actually pretty good at transformation magic.
Even without Dito, turning into a dog or a bird is one of my specialties. I’ve slipped out of the house many times without anyone noticing. Those little escapes were probably what kept me sane while other eccentric shut-in mages lost their minds.
Thanks to that, I could gather research materials without having to ask anyone for favors.
“It’s been ages since I last walked around the mansion on two legs, huh, brother?”
“Ah… yes…”
The fact that I was now walking outside the workshop while maintaining a human form felt surreal. I’d always known the day would come eventually, but I never imagined it would be because of a forced marriage.
How many years had it been? Since graduating from the academy, maybe two or three times at most. Even the servants who brought my meals hadn’t seen my face in a long time.
“Um… Lord Brean, if I may ask… who is this gentleman…?”
“Today was supposed to be the day Lord Rayburn meets Lady Priscilla, so…”
Every single person who passed by stared at me with the same question in their eyes. Who is this guy? Was someone like him living in the mansion? Why is he walking around with the next family head?
They looked at me with complicated expressions, and every time, Brean gave them the same answer.
“This is my older brother.”
“Pardon?”
Let me be more precise. Even if they had known my original face, these people wouldn’t have recognized me.
“This… is Lord Rayburn…?”
Not even my parents would have known me right now.
“Brother…”
“What is it?”
“Everyone’s staring… Did you really have to make me look like this?”
This current form had been custom-made at Brean’s request. Not a single trace of my original face remained. The quiet, taciturn man I used to be had been replaced by a frivolous-looking guy who seemed to be smiling no matter what.
“How is he so… Isn’t he even more handsome than Young Master Brean?”
“He looks like a noble straight out of a painting. Is that really the same Lord Rayburn who shut himself away in his workshop?”
The height was there, but the body was too slender. It lacked practical bulk and raw intimidation. It reminded me of those self-obsessed, empty-headed nobles I’d seen at the academy, and it made my skin crawl…!
“I trusted you when you said you’d handle it, but what the hell did you do, Brean? Your brother was supposed to look like some half-rotten recluse after six years locked in his room…!”
“I increased his height with magic and gave him a smiling face.”
“……That’s it?”
“I also cut his hair a bit shorter.”
Wait a second. The person I was about to meet was the queen bee of those very same empty-headed nobles, wasn’t she?
“Brother, maybe we should go back to the first form…”
“Introducing a grotesque hybrid of a giant and a troll as a member of the family would be a disgrace to our house…!”
“Sorry…”
Had I really looked that hideous? Sure, I’d been nearly four meters tall with arms as thick as a grown man’s torso, but the other party was a crazy woman who ignored even the Crown Prince. I’d thought that level of intimidation was necessary…
“Lady Priscilla Legator has arrived!”
Damn it. She was right on time.
I wanted to run away immediately, but if I did that, House Clovias would be in serious trouble. And that would ruin my peaceful research life along with it.
“Brother. We’re doing this your way, right?”
“Of course. Just keep smiling as much as possible, Brother.”
“This face smiles no matter what I do.”
The plan Brean had come up with was simple: minimize my own flaws as much as possible, then make her hate me so intensely that she would be the one to commit an offense first.
My current appearance was the complete opposite of the serious, charismatic Crown Prince she had once admired. It was flashy and frivolous.
Completely opposite tastes. The kind of thing that would be stressful but hard to complain about openly. We would minimize our own shortcomings and maximize hers. Only then would we have legitimate grounds to oppose the marriage that had been forced on us from above…
“Brother.”
“Yes?”
“Is that woman in the red dress with the large chest the one named Priscilla?”
“Brother. No matter how much of a villainess she is, it’s not proper to refer to a lady that way.”
“Just tell me if it’s her or not.”
“It is. Doesn’t she look incredibly vicious? That’s the woman who tormented poor Miss Seres for three years and even challenged her to a duel.”
She certainly looked intimidating. Ferocious, even.
“Brother? Why are your legs shaking all of a sudden?”
“B-because I’m scared…”
“Scared…! Haah… No, Brother. Weren’t you talking about giving her a good smack earlier? How can you be terrified just from seeing her in the distance?”
Everyone has perfect calculations in their head. It’s only when you write them down and plug in the actual variables that you realize they were nonsense.
But right now, instead of recalling the moment my mental calculations had collapsed halfway through, a much worse memory from the academy surfaced.
“Focus. It’s not that bad…”
“They look just like them… The guys who kicked me and told me to meow like a cat during my first magic class…”
“………Brother…? What academy memory are you…”
It had been during the first practical magic lesson. The professor had told us to show off a spell we were confident in. While everyone else demonstrated attack magic, I had transformed into a small cat and done a somersault in the air. The professor had praised me, but after class, my classmates had surrounded me.
“It’s all right, Brother. No matter how vicious she is, she wouldn’t do something like that in front of all of us…”
“No, not them… The ones who watched from the back with their noses in the air, pretending to be refined, then joined in the mockery the moment their own names came up before walking away like they were above it all…!”
“……”
After that incident, I had never been able to transform into a cat again. It wasn’t a technical problem but a psychological one. I could still turn into other animals, but I had lost one of my signature spells.
“What a shabby welcome. Not a single person came out to escort me all the way to the front gate?”
And this woman was staring with eyes even more arrogant than the high nobles I had seen back then.
I was supposed to keep smiling, but I couldn’t even make eye contact. This was bad.
Wait.
Just as I had said earlier, wasn’t this reception far too cold?
Even if neither of us wanted this marriage, it had still been arranged by the Emperor’s order. According to our plan, we were supposed to give her a grand welcome so that any faults would be on her side.
This doesn’t seem like a deliberate attempt to provoke her.
Looking at the servants, most of them wore sour expressions, while a few were barely holding back sneers. Brean, for his part, was doing his best to swallow his own disgust.
I see. The servants are taking the lead in ostracizing her.
It was a marriage that benefited no one in our household. The eldest son, a disgrace to the family, paired with a wicked, disgraced noblewoman abandoned by the Crown Prince. It made sense that the people here wouldn’t be happy about her arrival.
It looked like Brean had planned everything perfectly but had failed to control the lower staff. The way Brean frowned and the way I kept darting my eyes around only made our new bride’s mood worse.
“You there. What was your name again? Brain?”
“It’s Brean, Lady Priscilla Legator.”
Rumble.
The pressure she emitted felt like physical weight crushing down on me. My body grew heavy.
“Hmph, how ridiculous. Where is Rayburn Clovias? No matter how unwanted this union is, is the groom really still hiding in his room even after his bride has arrived?”
“Ah, that’s actually…”
“Just as I heard. A pathetic man who can’t even become independent at his age and only leeches off his parents. He’s probably sitting inside right now, sucking his thumb and waiting. The age where food is brought to you without having to hunt ended long ago.”
“……”
Was this woman not even curious about the young man standing right next to Brean? It wasn’t as if I had brought my father with me.
Even though I was transformed, what kind of image did she have of me that she couldn’t even consider the possibility that the person in front of her might be Rayburn?
“I wasn’t expecting anything anyway. The true master of House Clovias is you, after all.”
Completely ignoring me, Priscilla Legator walked straight up to my brother.
“I’ll say this clearly so there’s no discomfort between us.
What a bold declaration of war the moment she arrived at the in-laws’ doorstep, without a shred of remorse!
Wow. I really hadn’t expected her to come out this aggressively.
“……Yes? ………Huh…?”
This was bad. The completely insane statement had short-circuited Brean’s brain.
At this point, wouldn’t calling off the wedding be completely justified? Wouldn’t it be better to just send her to a monastery and be done with it?
Questions flooded my mind, so I openly whispered to her.
“Brother, this is…”
“Uh… setting aside her true intentions, she did say she won’t resist, so it’s going to be difficult…”
“This won’t work?”
“Her voice is loud, but what can a woman whose limbs have all been cut off actually do…? If we report this upward, we’re the ones who’ll have to deal with the headache.”
“We’re screwed…”
Conversely, the fact that she could maintain such a proud attitude despite her situation meant her spirit was far stronger than we had assumed.
Luckily I had transformed before meeting her. If I had shown up in that monstrous form, she probably would have struck back immediately.
“……What did you just say?”
“Huh? W-what?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t hear you just because you whispered? More importantly, what did this man just call the next Viscount Clovias…?”
The villainess’s eyes suddenly widened.
Her expression was pure shock. I didn’t know how much she had heard, but if it was the title she caught…
“Ah, I’m this guy’s older… In other words, I’m Rayburn Clovias…”
“……Rayburn Clovias…?”
Priscilla’s face gradually twisted.
She wasn’t angry. If I had to compare it to Brean’s expressions, it was closer to the stunned look he’d had when he heard her grand declaration than the one he wore when he saw the servants slacking off.
“You… are my husband?”
“Yes, that pathetic man who can’t become independent at his age and only leeches off his parents.”
“Brother, you don’t have to repeat that part.”
This was a disaster. Even though my face was stuck in a smile, I couldn’t laugh at all.