Building Affinity with Villagers
Building Affinity with Villagers
The world inside a novel is built on convenience.
There are settings arranged for the protagonist's exploits.
If it's a novel featuring a magic genius protagonist, then the magical level of that world shouldn't be too high.
The romance fantasy novel The Villainess Does Not Tolerate Magic is no exception.
In this world, practical magic is nowhere to be found, no matter how hard you look.
It's all the author's arrangement to make the female lead stand out.
The female lead, Ailiya, has no way of knowing that fact.
But she has always had a nagging feeling that something is off.
'How in the Empire does it run on this kind of garbage magic?'
No one knows.
Not even the author who wrote the novel.
What matters is how the female lead shines here.
The main plot of the novel is the female lead herself grumbling yet creating all sorts of magic, getting praised everywhere, riding a sort of ambiguous romantic tension with the prince, and normalizing the Empire.
The underdog story of rising from being treated as a nobody spare daughter of a Northern noble family from decades ago to becoming the center of the Empire is a bonus.
Even as a transmigrator, she is ultimately just the protagonist inside a transmigration novel. Ailiya knows nothing about the truth.
But still.
'It's frustrating.'
Even without knowing that truth, she had always been frustrated.
Ever since she first arrived in this world.
But the thesis paper before her eyes...!
'It's completely different from that.'
Is this person really a noble mage?
No, no. I'm a noble too, but still.
Seeing someone else who doesn't create useless magic, it almost makes me cry or something.
'And on top of that, the content is utterly insane.'
It's not just passable or not useless.
With the transmigrator perk, a quick glance reveals that the level of magic is on a completely different dimension.
'Because the magic continuously improves its own efficiency infinitely... eventually...'
It might completely overturn the entire field of magic as an academic discipline.
'And they dropped out of the Academy? With this level of skill?'
Ah!!!
They should have socialized with juniors and seniors, gone to meetings and such!
At that thought, Ailiya immediately sprang to her feet.
Bang!
"Eukkyak! You scared me!"
"Goggle-i, let's go."
"Does that mean... going outside the lab?"
"Yeah. I'm going out."
Ailiya had made up her mind. To charge out of the lab.
As a bonus, an innocent chair rolled away and fell over several times behind her.
Seeing this, the search owl spirit Goggle-i,
for a long moment, fluttered its beak in disbelief before finally speaking.
"I can't believe it..."
"What? What's with that."
It had been a full two weeks since Ailiya last went outside the lab.
In fact, it's safe to say she absolutely never goes out unless the prince comes looking for her.
And it's certainly not because this magic freak likes the prince.
It's because he wields immense power and the authority to allocate research funding, dragging her out by force.
"I can't believe it."
And now this Ailiya was saying she would go out on her own volition.
Goggle-i, still in shock, suddenly recalled something.
"Ail! I just remembered. How about taking a bath first? Before you go meeting people. Hmm?"
"What? I do bathe, you know!"
"Is it really possible to wash properly and get out in just three minutes?"
"By utilizing magic and optimizing the route efficiently, it's possible."
A short while later, a simply washed Ailiya appeared in the Academy hallway.
Zjeueuk, seu-euk.
Even as she walked down the hall, there was no clicking sound of heels.
Instead, only the sound of dragging slippers was heard.
After that, the inquiries began.
"Spare daughter of Wintervalt?"
"I believe I told you to drop that 'spare daughter' title here at the Academy. Are you skipping your studies to attend tea parties?"
"If you mean Liberio, that mage scholar."
"Yeah. Do you happen to know where he went?"
"A new boyfriend candidate?!"
"I'll kill you."
"Ail? Did something go wrong with an experiment? Ah, no? You're looking for a person?"
"Why? Did something go wrong with your experiment?"
"No. It's not that serious..."
"Anyway, answer my first question first."
"I'm not really sure..."
"Then next question. How's the mold cultivation experiment going?"
"Ah."
No one can stop the Northern bloodline.
Ailiya tore through every corner of the Academy, advancing relentlessly.
Finally, she found the laboratory that Rii was said to have used.
Unsurprisingly, security magic was cast on the door.
[Please present your access card.]
"Hmm."
Nothing had happened yet.
But Goggle-i had already spread both wings wide, blocking the door.
"Ail. You know. That. Are you really going to do it?"
"......"
"You know unauthorized entry into someone else's lab is absolutely forbidden, right? Our attendance is already terrible, so we've racked up plenty of demerit points. You know that, right? That fact is reflected in your decision, right?"
"I know."
"Ah! Thank goodness!"
Flicker-.
A blue spark flew from Ailiya's fingertips.
The lab's security magic was easily hacked and neutralized.
The round eyes of the owl spirit Goggle-i became even rounder.
After fluttering its yellow beak frantically, it finally screamed.
"You said you knew! You said you knew!"
"Exactly. That's why I'm doing it knowingly."
"Ah. It's over..."
And then the shocking sight before her eyes.
"Ah..."
There was nothing but blank white paper on the desk.
Among the hundreds of pages of research notes that should have been densely filled, not a single character remained.
Only hollow, bleached blank pages continued endlessly.
'There's no research data at all?'
A faint residual mana lingered on the papers.
Beside her, Goggle-i analyzed the magic in horror.
"It's a document incineration spell. It seems they used it to destroy all the research materials."
"Ah, shit..."
How badly must they have been hurt. A mage named Rii.
Just then, Goggle-i called out to Ailiya.
"Ail. Look at this."
The tip of Goggle-i's wing pointed toward the trash can.
Inside, a few documents with intact text remained.
Rustle-.
After examining the documents, Ailiya let out a heavy sigh.
"They're letters."
Not research data.
They were letters with harsh tones from sponsors.
Ailiya could immediately figure out what had happened.
"He must have been getting constantly berated by his sponsors."
As Ailiya spoke with a sigh, Goggle-i looked puzzled.
"Then if he destroyed all the research data, why did he leave the letters?"
"He must have come to believe he was wrong. Firmly enough to delete all the research data he treasured like his own life."
"Really? That much?"
"When you get a problem wrong, you want to erase the leftover wrong answer sheet, right? It's similar."
Ailiya's fist clenched so tightly it turned white.
"The answer he believed in... must have been left here in this lab."
Resentment tinged her voice.
"Just how hurt must this person have been."
The feeling of silently researching magic that no one acknowledges.
She knows that feeling better than anyone.
The persecution, the ridicule, and the disregard.
Because Ailiya herself was the same at first.
Even when she first started researching magic after transmigrating into the novel, the nobles were just the same.
"Goggle-i. You're a spirit that searches for knowledge, right?"
"That's true, but why bring that up all of a sudden?"
"Let's try searching for a person too."
"Stalking is definitely a different field from information retrieval..."
Crunch.
The letter clenched tightly in Ailiya's hand crumpled with a terrifying sound.
"Searching for information about a person is fine, isn't it?"
"Eep!"
"Find him, no matter what."
This is the Solanium territory, a remote border region a full fifteen days by carriage from the Academy.
I was currently facing off against the red-haired girl I had just encountered at the hot spring.
'I didn't expect to run into someone so soon.'
It was very early in the morning.
Had I underestimated the diligence of country folk?
While I was lost in thought for a moment, the girl spoke to me first.
"You're a face I haven't seen before. Who are you?"
Her impression was fundamentally bold and sharp.
Plus, her eyes were half wary, half curious.
Seems fairly capable with physical work, too, as she was carrying two tin buckets on her shoulders.
As expected, now that we've met, I can't just pass by.
But since I still don't know the sentiment of this place, introducing myself immediately as the lord is a bad move.
"My name is Rii. I was researching magic at the Academy, got burned out, and came down here to recuperate."
"Y-you're a noble-nim!"?
She was about to set down her buckets and bow, so I stopped her.
"It's fine. Feel free to be at ease."
In the healing game system, building affinity with the villagers is somewhat important.
Acting all high-and-mighty as a noble or lord from the start won't do any good.
"By the way, what brings you all the way out here... It must be hard to even find this kind of rural village."
"An acquaintance recommended it. They said the hot spring water was really good."
"Ah. That rumor... Actually, there are frequent landslides, and since it's a country village, there isn't much to see."
The girl introduced herself belatedly.
"Oh! My name is Gwen."
It was the name I had seen in the status window last night.
The moment I heard the name, a system message visible only to me popped up before my eyes.
[You have encountered the village resident Gwen for the first time.]
[The affinity system with Gwen is now unlocked.]
So the structure is that affinity is only reflected after becoming acquainted face-to-face like this.
I'll put the affinity building on hold for now and focus on understanding the situation first.
"Then I'll ask the same. May I ask what brings you here? Coming all the way up here carrying such large buckets. I was wondering what was going on."
"Well, the village water supply has completely cut off. Ever since the landslide, the plumbing seems to be clogged, so not a single drop of water comes out."
"The water supply is completely blocked?"
"Completely."
So it wasn't just our house that had its water cut off.
It seems the landslide caused problems with the water source or plumbing across the entire territory.
"So I had no choice but to come up the mountain to fetch water. And to check how far the plumbing is damaged..."
She's incredibly diligent.
If a girl wanders the mountain alone, she must be fairly tough in her own way.
"By the way, Rii-nim, did you just come out of the hot spring? Is the hot spring water flowing?"
"Yeah. The hot spring water is flowing really well. Thanks to that, I was able to wash up properly."
Hearing my answer, Gwen's face lit up with relief.
"Wow! That's a relief!"
"But are you planning to use the hot spring water for farming?"
"Well, all the plants would die. It doesn't taste good and can't be used for farming either, but we're desperate for water for people right now, so we have no choice."
Country folk aren't fools.
She seems well aware that it's hard to farm with hot spring water.
"Originally, there's a separate water source besides the hot spring. A lake surrounded by layered mountains. We almost had to go all the way in there. The roads are already a mess from the landslide, so it's rough. I think it would be tough and dangerous anyway."
After hearing Gwen's words, I roughly understood the situation.
"How long ago was the landslide?"
"It's February, and suddenly the weather got warm, plus it rained, so crash. So maybe about half a month ago."
The landslide a while ago caused problems with the water source.
So the village is experiencing a water shortage.
'Is it possible to build affinity like this?'
[You can build affinity by solving problems the residents are experiencing.]
It's not like I have to complete quests thrown by the status window and choose dialogue options to gain affinity.
[In this case, affinity is updated in real-time without a system message.]
This was written in the system I examined yesterday, so helping people is at least not a loss.
The problem itself might be easily solved by refining the magic a bit.
Especially in a disaster situation like this, giving help is perfect for pumping up early affinity.
Rustle-.
Just then, another person emerged from inside the bathhouse.
"Ah. Juin-nim? Juu-in-nim!!"
Whether she had been soaking in the warm water and resting until just now, her cheeks were flushed bright red, and her face was loose and relaxed.
It made me wonder if this was really the same ice-cold Northern maid from usual.
Completely disarmed, Miroa came walking out like a happy puppy, then stopped short when she noticed someone beside me.
"......Ah."
She must not have expected a stranger to arrive in that moment.
Miroa looked extremely embarrassed.