Overwhelming Strength Solves Everything
Suddenly? What on earth was this girl talking about?
Even in the game, I'd known she was pure-hearted to a fault—head full of flowers, basically—but I never imagined it would be this bad. All I'd done was take care of the wild boar right in front of her. And now she was asking if she could call me Unni? What exactly was I supposed to do with that?
As if things weren't already bad enough. This skirt was driving me out of my mind. A breeze kept slipping up under the fluttering hem, and the distraction was so relentless I couldn't even put a proper sentence together for her.
I mean, I'd been a man in my past life. Someone who'd only ever worn pants was never going to look natural in a skirt!
"I have no idea what you're talking about all of a sudden."
In the end, that was all I managed—looking down at her with cold eyes, one hand still outstretched. I hadn't even pulled off the villainess's signature ohohoho, or any of the properly nasty put-downs.
"Ah—n-no, I mean…"
And yet here she was, the actual protagonist, sniffling with her head bowed so low it was almost pitiful. She was tiny compared to me, delicate-looking in a way that made you want to protect her without even thinking about it.
"Haa…"
I let out a long sigh, fixed her with a sharp glare, and opened my mouth.
"A mage who can't even handle a single wild boar. How truly pathetic."
She froze solid, staring up at me in a daze, and the sight of her was so wretched it almost hurt. No wonder everyone in the game fell for her. The outside consensus had always been that she was too passive a heroine to be interesting—but looking at her now, I could see why the cast adored her anyway.
Still. If I wanted to get myself banished to the outskirts and live a quiet life of eating and loafing around, I had to heap as much scorn on her as I could manage.
The problem was, I didn't actually know that many insults. In the game, the villainess would let out that bizarre ohohoho laugh and launch into every personal attack imaginable—but I really didn't want to go that far.
So I wracked my brains as hard as I could. What would leave a lasting scar on this heroine? After turning it over and over, I finally landed on something.
Hand still held out toward her, I asked,
"What's your name?"
"M-me? I—Lunel…"
"I see. Get up, Lunel. How long do you plan on lying there like that?"
"Ah—y-yes!"
She seemed to snap out of it at last, taking my hand and scrambling to her feet. That ought to have stung enough, right? Needling her over something so trivial.
Ahem. Yeah. That should do it. Probably.
The hand clasped in mine was remarkably soft. She barely had time to brush off her skirt before I was already pulling her along by the hand.
Yanking someone around like that felt worse than I'd expected. So I drew her into my arms instead and calmly patted the dirt from her skirt.
"Your clothes are filthy. If you go home like this, you're bound to get an earful, aren't you?"
I was supposed to laugh—ohohoho—but somehow the sound just wouldn't come. All I managed was a little fufu, the barest lift at the corner of my mouth.
Ugh… being a villainess was so much harder than I'd thought!
"Ah… uh… hauu…"
Lunel's cheeks had gone bright red. She hung her silver hair over her face, looking completely lost. Thoroughly flustered, by the looks of it.
Well, of course she was. Some stranger of a woman had burst out of nowhere, dragged her around at will, and started brushing her off. Who wouldn't feel weird about that?
"By the way—did you come to this forest to gather materials?"
"Ah, yes… But then I ran into a wild boar all of a sudden. I tried to subdue it with magic, but I, um…"
So she'd botched it. In the game, spellcasting had a separate success rate—this was probably the story's way of representing that.
Honestly, that mechanic had annoyed me so much that early on it was just better to skip magic entirely and beat things down with basic attacks.
But the heroine couldn't exactly thrash a boar solo with that palm-sized stick that wasn't even a proper staff, so she'd had no choice but to cast. Was that it?
This felt dangerous. The male lead was nowhere in sight, and if I left her here she might run into another boar and get pounded into the dirt on the spot.
I needed her to hate me, sure—but I couldn't just leave her to die.
"Haa… Don't tell me you don't know how to use magic?"
"I'm still a little inexperienced. Uu…"
I looked at Lunel as she hung her head with a dejected expression.
Looks like I'd have to help her after all.
"Just this once."
"Huh?"
Lunel tilted her head, clearly not following. Surprisingly dense, wasn't she?
"I said I'll help you. Just once. You won't make it out of this forest on your own."
"Really? Thank you so much, Unni!"
Watching the girl bow politely at the waist, I gave a little shrug. It wasn't anything that impressive, honestly.
This body was ridiculously strong, and its physical ability was no joke either. I'd be able to tell at a glance what was waiting along the path ahead.
"All right—wait here a moment."
Leaving Lunel mid-protest, I walked up to a tree. Honestly, I wasn't sure this would even work. It seemed impossible, no matter how you looked at it.
But I was Eriana. If anyone could pull it off, it was this body—so I figured I'd give it a try.
I settled calmly in front of the tree and bent my knees. Gathering strength in my legs, I kicked off the ground with everything I had.
A rush of air shoved backward past me. The wind tore through my hair. I reached out, snagged a thick branch, vaulted up onto it with practiced ease, planted my feet, and launched myself higher to catch the next one.
Good grief—I hadn't thought this was actually possible. Even I was stunned, and I was the one doing it.
Being born into a mage family really was a curse… If I'd been born ordinary, I could have just lived a normal working life.
In no time at all I'd reached the top of the towering tree. The forest stretched out far below, and not too far off I could see a city ringed by stone walls.
That was where we needed to go.
Now then—how was I supposed to get down? Climb branch by branch? Even with this strength, jumping from here and walking away unscathed seemed unlikely.
And yet… somehow, I felt like I could. Based on everything so far, if I just leapt from this spot and landed on the ground, I'd be fine. An incomprehensible… judgment, I guess you'd call it.
I swallowed hard. This was high enough that a mistake could smash me to pieces. I could die instantly. And yet I was curious enough about what would happen if I jumped that I was about to do something completely unhinged.
I threw myself into empty air. Legs pointed down, feeling the wind shear past, I closed my eyes. The sensation of freefall felt so good I almost caught myself grinning with pure exhilaration.
A heavy thud—my legs hit the ground.
"U-Unni?"
There was a faint sting somewhere, but nothing felt broken.
It was so absurd I tilted my head without thinking. Wait. That actually worked? For real?
I stood up and checked myself over. Aside from a few light scrapes, I was completely fine.
Haa… this body was insane. I'd jumped clean off that height and walked away. At this point, calling myself a villainess felt wrong—superhuman seemed more accurate.
"Unni, are you okay?"
Lunel rushed over in a panic and started patting me down with fumbling hands. She clearly thought I'd been badly hurt.
"It barely hurts at all, so don't worry. Fufu… Come on, let's go."
"What? Unni, you fell from that high up! A normal person would be dead!"
"No, I—look, I'm really fine."
"Ugh… Seriously, what is wrong with you!"
She suddenly screeched and started pounding her little fists against me. It didn't hurt in the slightest.
She was clearly putting everything she had into it, but it felt like being hit with cotton mallets.
"How does jumping from up there make any sense? You just whoosh up there and then whoosh jump right back down? Are you actually trying to get yourself killed?"
"I'd rather not hear that from someone who can't even beat a single wild boar."
"Those are completely different things!"
She was properly furious. Very protagonist of her, I supposed. Still, this was getting annoying.
Thump-thump—she must have thrown quite a few punches, because Lunel finally ran out of steam. Her legs gave out beneath her.
"Ah—"
My hands shot forward on instinct and caught her in my arms.
Hmm… this was a little awkward.
"Uh… th-thank you."
"As long as you understand."
I set her back on her feet as I said it. Her cheeks looked a little red just now—probably my imagination. Come on. There was no way she'd fallen head over heels at first sight.
That was game stuff, and I wasn't even a man anymore—I was a woman. It was probably just some vague same-sex something-or-other.
That sparkling look in her eyes was admiration for strength this overwhelming, right?
I refused to entertain the idea that it might be affection. This girl already had someone she was supposed to fall for.
For now, I needed to keep acting colder. Once we left the forest and reached the village, the smartest move would be to vanish straight home.
It was hard to feel warmly toward someone who disappeared without so much as a goodbye, after all.
Honestly, she wasn't really my type as a man either—and she was just so small. This body, on the other hand, was exactly my type. The problem was that I was the one stuck inside it.
Reincarnated into a body that matched my own preferences perfectly… what a ridiculous situation.
Truly, the irony of it all was almost too much.