Motive?
Around this time at the academy, the idiot couple of Schwald and Sophia had reached the peak of their dissatisfaction.
“Your Highness. This is too hard for me. Do I really have to go through crown princess training?”
“I know it’s overwhelming for you too. But there’s no other way right now. If we don’t even manage this much, the crown prince seat will end up going to my younger brothers.”
After becoming crown prince, perhaps his father and mother might have considered it, but the current reality was different. The crown prince position still hadn’t been decided, and of all things, the judgment incident had caused his parents to question his qualifications.
I should have been a little more careful. If I had known it would come to this, I could have postponed the judgment more meticulously and aimed to secure the crown prince position first. The hasty way I had carried things out had led to this.
“This is terrible. Sigh. Can’t my sister just stay quietly buried somewhere?” Sophia grumbled.
In her eyes, even though her sister was locked in prison and couldn’t do anything, she still believed that everything was Milene’s fault for ruining Sophia’s life even after the judgment.
“Ugh, what should we do?” The prince was also deeply troubled.
That was when Sophia suddenly had a thought. ‘It’s not like there’s no method at all.’
But using this method might end up giving her wicked sister—who had become the villainess—another chance. Still, since she had already been branded as a villainess and was hated by everyone, the lifeline ultimately rested with Sophia herself. That was how Sophia saw it.
If they could put a collar around her neck and make her spend her entire life doing the queen’s duties in her place…?
“Um, Your Highness, there is a way.”
“Oh. You have an idea?”
“Think about it. My sister may be that kind of wicked woman, but in the end, she liked you, didn’t she, Your Highness?”
“That’s true. That’s why at the end she confessed all her wrongs and admitted she possessed such filthy traits.”
At least in Sophia’s and Schwald’s own view, Milene had shown herself to be deeply devoted to the prince, trying her best to please him all this time. Of course, that hadn’t pleased Schwald at all, especially since he had found new love. It didn’t really matter to him either way.
Still, since she liked him, wasn’t she the one tormenting Sophia? Schwald, completely unaware of the true feelings involved, thought so. It was a truly foolish judgment—he had decided on his own that Milene was a villainess who loved the prince.
Sophia also believed Milene loved the prince, which was why she had come up with this plan.
Yes. Exactly that.
“Right now, even His Majesty and the Queen are scolding you over this matter. In that case, how about you, Your Highness, forgive my sister with a heart as vast as the sea?”
Sophia smiled brightly as she spouted naive nonsense that would earn her finger-pointing from any outsider. But Schwald showed deep interest.
Wouldn’t that create problems?
“Certainly, that would make Milene happy too. But Sophia, are you okay with that? If so, then the position of official consort…”
“Of course I’ll take that position. And as a condition for erasing her crimes, we’ll make my sister live as a concubine who handles all the queen’s duties in my place.”
Schwald considered it. Yes. That way, they could dump everything onto Milene. After all, those would have been her original duties as queen. They would pardon her crimes and even grant her the position of concubine. Milene would surely be so moved that she would volunteer for it.
“Oh. That’s a good idea. Yes. After all, Milene would be endlessly grateful just for being forgiven. Father and Mother would be very pleased as well.”
To them, it seemed like quite a plausible plan. If it succeeded, the two of them could enjoy their love while having a slave to do all the labor for them.
“What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that!”
“How did our eldest son turn out like this? Sob, sob.”
Of course, this foolish idea of theirs was immediately crushed by the royal couple.
The magic itself wasn’t all that difficult, just as I expected. After all, the magic formulas were at the level of basic arithmetic. At least by my standards—they might only be basic arithmetic to me.
What mattered in the process was whether one could properly handle mana, and mana manipulation was key. It all depended on one’s mana manipulation ability and what attributes they possessed.
According to Ritz, memorizing magic formulas at an arithmetic level was something some humans couldn’t even manage. How far one could develop that mana manipulation ability was important, and attributes were another issue. Handling those attributes was apparently crucial too.
“Oh. You possess fire, ice, earth, and lightning. All of them.”
“Is that so?”
So I had all the attributes, then. Wasn’t that a good thing? This meant I could properly research magic for the hero party. Once I learned it properly, it would definitely be useful.
“The problem is that they all feel somewhat dark,” Ritz said seriously, tilting her head.
Ah, that was probably because of my awakening as a saintess. The issue was that the setting of being revived by a lich had given me the darkness attribute, but the fact that I apparently possessed it even before meeting the lich was probably that author’s setting error. That must be why.
Still, I shook my head. It felt a bit too delicate to point that out here.
“It must be your imagination.”
“You think so?”
“Alright, then let’s try using what I received from Mr. Jerry.”
Anyway, I had received quite a few magic books. Beginner’s manuals, intermediate ones, and even advanced ones. If I could borrow them, ordinary people could too.
“Are you actually studying with these?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“No matter how I look at it, these seem to be exclusively for archmages? Or rather, not exactly archmages, but they’re definitely for advanced users.”
Ritz’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Advanced users?”
“Yes. If you learn these wrong…”
Indeed, these advanced magic textbooks certainly looked difficult at first glance. But if you substituted the definitions of mana and the related terminology, it was basically just quadratic equations or functions. In other words, you mentally calculated the formulas and created the spell. Then you could either memorize the resulting formula as an incantation or draw the spell directly.
Something like that.
The educational level in this world seemed low compared to Korea, to be honest. Even in other developed countries, people faint when they see Korea’s education system, so comparing this world to Korea was nonsense. To me, it actually felt easy.
I had graduated from liberal arts, but was this really that hard? Besides, unlike real math with numbers, this used mana that you learned with your body, so once you got the hang of it, it was simple.
I even had silly fantasies like I could become an overpowered character~ but that didn’t suit my personality. I’d end up in a mud fight with those two, Sophia and Schwald. It would be troublesome.
The world wasn’t dangerous enough for me to step forward as an overpowered character anyway. So I decided to try dual-element magic, said to be the most difficult.
Since I was the Dark Saintess, I needed to mix attributes and change the colors.
I tried various spells several times. Mana control too. If I thought of it like typical fantasy, I supposed failing here would cause an explosion or something.
“How is it?”
“Huh? You’re doing it this easily? No, this shouldn’t be easy? This isn’t something you can do just because you have enough mana, right?”
Aha. So this was what magic was really about.
“It worked when I did it, though?”
“You really seem to have talent as a mage?”
“But I prefer being an author.”
That’s why I thought it would be good to write about magic from now on. Yes. Preferably a powerful mage suited for the first hero.
A character with outstanding talent who, due to the Demon King’s invasion of humanity, had all the magic books taken by the Demon King and thus couldn’t properly learn magic. Yet she still dreams of becoming a mage, catches the protagonist Ras’s eye, and joins the party.
Then, as Ras defeats monsters and collects magic books as loot, she learns magic from them. When they’re on the verge of losing, she uses the powerful magic she learned from the books to defeat the enemy.
And when hero Ras or the other party members ask how she learned such magic, she says, “It worked when I tried it.” That kind of development would be good too.
A mage character who would have long since become an archmage if the era had been normal, but in a world where humanity has fallen, she possesses talent yet faces limitations in battle because she couldn’t learn magic.
“What a shame.”
“Whether it’s being a mage or handling a sword, wouldn’t I eventually have to go outside? I prefer earning money comfortably at home. I don’t want to take any risks.”
Of course, the stronger you were, the less likely you were to die and the more you could rise in status. But that was only possible in novels. Once it became reality, I could think it over carefully and decide my career path step by step. There was already the path of being an author, and with enemies around, I couldn’t afford to gamble. I might even end up being the one defeated by the Demon King.
Things like this required pushing the item-dependent Schwald into a corner. The preparations for the work to do that were almost complete.
Should I start the engine now?
I went directly to Portmus Publishing. The romance manuscript I had been sharpening my teeth over was finally complete. Of course, it was only the submission draft.
“I never imagined Author K would come to the publishing house in person.”
Yugo greeted me quite warmly.
“I’m just a commoner and an author. Aren’t you using too much honorific speech?”
This was getting burdensome. This publishing house was treating me so well that I wondered if they were just playing with me. It felt like I had become some overpowered author.
“Hahaha. Well, isn’t it only natural? Aren’t you the greatest author in our publishing house?”
“Ah, is that how it is?”
“Yes. You can have a little confidence. Even though the judgment incident didn’t go well, you are our publishing house’s top author.”
“I see.”
Just how many empty-headed novels were there that I could be the best author? Anyway. This was a good thing. If they had such high favorability toward me, pushing my novel shouldn’t be difficult.
“But may I ask why you’ve come in person like this?”
Yugo had his secretary—not Jerry—serve me tea directly.
“Um. I mentioned it to Manager Jerry before, but it’s this.”
I took out the manuscript I had been carefully keeping in my bosom and handed it to Yugo.
“Hoo. It’s a romance work.”
“Yes.”
It should technically be classified as romance fantasy, but since this world itself was reality and modern, romance fantasy in this world was simply romance. Anyway, there was one reason I had come directly to the publishing house president to submit this.
First, it showed the confidence to come submit directly to the president, and that I was giving him the seal of approval, so to speak. Most of all, hadn’t Sophia’s submission been personally reviewed by Yugo? So I came in person to give him a manuscript far superior to what my pathetic little sister had offered.
“Let’s see… The title is Even Villainesses Have Their Reasons. Hmm. Unlike your previous work There Is No Defeat in My Hero Party, this title gives off a somewhat fragile and resentful feeling.”
“Yes. It deals with the regrets of the supporting characters and the happy ending of the condemned villainess.”
“Is the motive perhaps yourself?”
Since everyone already knew, there was no point in hiding it.