The Self-Proclaimed Villainess (4)

Before opening the box, Elaine began sharing the information she had gathered from the empire. "According to the intelligence I received, the Red Mage has fallen into despair and become a near-total shut-in. He's returned to his base in the beginners' city of Rotern, locked himself in his house, and hardly comes out at all. Except for the occasional times he buys a massive amount of alcohol and heads back, that is."

"Not being able to return to his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hometown... that's kind of sad..."

"And! My goal is to conquer that Red Mage, Jain, and make him fall completely for me! Then, using that as leverage, I'll make him fight for humanity! So we can't approach this with pathetic human emotions like pity! We need a cold, capitalistic approach that even assigns a price to one's own love and sacrifices it without hesitation!"

The younger sisters, who had been listening with sparkling eyes, burst into applause. Of course, these weren't words Elaine had come up with herself. They were lines she'd picked up from The Success Story of a Villainess.

"Sacrificing love so coldly... does big ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sis have a guy she likes?"

"H-huh? No? I don't?"

"Then what's so cold about it?"

Let's not keep derailing the point. Elsie sighed and urged her to continue the explanation. Elaine cleared her throat and pressed on.

"Anyway, the fact that he's a shut-in means he's in an easy-to-capture state. That's when this outfit makes its entrance!"

Elaine pulled the garment from the box. It was a lavishly decorated nun's habit. A pitch-black garter belt came with it.

"So far he hasn't given my seductions a single glance, but if I tempt him while wearing this mesmerizing outfit, do you think a man whose body and mind are worn to the bone can possibly resist? I'll put this on, give him a lap pillow, and then pull him tight against my chest?"

The younger sisters responded with another round of applause, but Elsie's reaction was ice-cold. She rubbed her temples as if suffering from a headache and said, "That's the cold strategy you came up with using a capitalistic approach?"

Elaine proudly unfurled the skimpy nun's habit, tilting her head with an expression that suggested she had no idea what the problem was. Until her family fell into ruin, Elaine had only attended all-girls schools. After the collapse, she had entered a convent to become a battle saintess. Her experience with men was extremely limited.

Yet the Success Story of a Villainess that she treated as her life's bible was, surprisingly, a novel aimed at male readers. True to its nature as light entertainment, whenever plausibility ran thin, the story simply had the beautiful protagonist press her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ample chest against the man, cling to him, and whisper until the problem roughly solved itself.

In other words, it grossly distorted male psychology for the sake of gags and convenience. Elaine, whose sexual concepts were essentially a blank slate, had absorbed it all without question. That was why she had spent so much time excessively emphasizing her breasts, and that very attitude had caused her to clash with Jain again and again.

The 'person whose sexual values were distorted by the influence of creative works' that some government ministry in a far-off country was desperately searching for was right here.

"So, can you really wear this?"

Elsie snatched the nun's habit from her sister's hands and asked. Even the clothes Elaine used to wear had questionable functionality as actual garments, but this was on another level. Not only were there side slits, but holes had been cut to expose everything beneath her breasts.

"Look, it's completely exposed like this?"

Elsie repeatedly thrust her fist into the chest opening and pulled it back out as she asked in a chiding tone. Watching this, Elaine suddenly became aware of the embarrassment, and her face began turning bright red.

"This, this is..."

"If big sis clings to a man's arm again and the guy slips his hand into this hole to grope your breasts, what are you going to do?"

"H-how could anyone do something like that? W-we're not even married, though if we were married it would be okay, but s-something like that... th-that..."

Her face grew so red one could almost imagine white steam shooting out if someone drilled a hole in the top of her head. Elsie continued her scolding.

"That hole exists for exactly that purpose from the start. Wearing an outfit like this and claiming you didn't expect anything to happen will only get you treated like a honey-trap seductress."

"R-really?"

"See? You can't do it after all, can you?"

Elaine hung her head for a moment, hesitating, then snorted with her flushed face and declared, "I can do it! This big sister is an adult, so I have to show everyone my adult charm!"

"Wow."

The younger sisters clapped again, calling her amazing, but Elsie simply let out a deep sigh and set the clothes down.

"Fine, let's set that aside. What's the second weapon?"

"That would be..."

Elaine returned to her bundle and this time pulled out a relatively small box. With a confident expression, she flung open the box on the desk.

"This!"

"Huh? What is it?"

Inside lay a single document written in elegant calligraphy. It appeared to be some kind of certificate, and at the bottom, the church's seal had been stamped in melted wax. Elaine picked it up and said, "This is a certificate proving that the protection magic I received upon becoming a saintess is still active! It's usually removed right before marriage, but I pestered my teacher and got it ahead of time!"

All saintesses swore to preserve their chastity upon entering the convent. To prevent any unforeseen accidents, they received protection magic against sexual contact. Even Elaine, who wandered around in such revealing attire, had naturally received powerful protective magic.

In the original story, this protection magic wouldn't have been much of an obstacle. The hero could have shattered it if he simply put his mind to it. But the hero of this world, Park Bongpal, was as weak as an anteater and naturally lacked the ability to break the spell. Thus the protection magic had performed its duty admirably.

In other words, Elaine was, just as she had repeatedly claimed, genuinely inexperienced. This document served as official certification of that fact.

The reason Jain had never guessed any of this was simple. While playing the game, he had been a notorious skipper who boldly skipped anything that didn't seem essential to progression. His skipping had been especially severe when it came to Elaine. So he had never even imagined such circumstances existed.

After examining the document, Elsie asked in a bewildered voice, "So why exactly does this count as a weapon?"

"That person, Jain, he absolutely loves virgins."

"Huh? What did you just say?"

Elsie thought she had misheard and asked again.

"I'm saying he likes virgins an incredible amount. Therefore this virginity authenticity certificate can become a powerful weapon."

Elsie's expression shifted several times in an instant. First it filled with bewilderment, then anger and disbelief took its place, and finally a look of pure pity emerged. Right now she was staring at her sister with the expression one might wear while looking at the most pathetic creature in the world. She wouldn't even make this face watching a raccoon dash to the stream to wash cotton candy before eating it.

With an expression that said she didn't know where to begin, Elsie clutched her head, then calmly chose her words.

"Look, big sis. Men do generally have that tendency, but it's not the kind of thing you say out loud. They don't go around declaring it openly. If they do, it's probably a joke. And when guys talk about that stuff among themselves, it's just banter, not a topic to approach with this level of seriousness. It seems like you're misunderstanding something again."

Elsie's reasoning was perfectly sound. However, a reasonable inference wasn't necessarily correct.

"No!"

"Now that the condition for opening that door or whatever is done, isn't it pretty meaningless?"

"It's really not! I'm definitely right about this. That person said virginity is a serious matter."

"What?"

Elaine puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms, looking sulky. "So I absolutely have to show him this and make him apologize. He didn't believe what I said, and he didn't even ask me..."

It was the face Elaine made when she dug her heels in. Once that expression appeared, persuasion was impossible.

Elsie pointed at the document. "So what exactly are you going to do with this and that outfit?"

"It goes like this."

Elaine quickly brought out some paper and began writing down her plan. Roughly summarized, it looked like this:

"How about it? A perfect plan that would make even demons cry, right?"

"Big sis... you must have been holding in so much hurt all this time without showing it..."

"Still, if you walk around wearing clothes like that, you can't complain when people treat you like a slut."

The younger sisters climbed onto chairs and gently stroked Elaine's head as she sat there with a satisfied expression. Meanwhile, Elsie let out what had to be her umpteenth sigh of the day.

"Is this person going to be all right..."

"Worried about big sis again, our sweet Elsie? But don't worry. This big sister will definitely complete the mission according to this operation and return!"

"No, that's not what I meant... I'm worried whether this person's head is okay... Did all the nutrients that should have gone to her brain go to her chest instead?"

In the end, that day's family meeting concluded there. After all, even Elsie had agreed that the mission didn't carry particularly high risk.

The next morning, Elaine boarded the mule cart once again while receiving farewells from her younger sisters. It was the cart heading to Rotern, the city where the Red Mage Jain currently lived.

"Big sis, have a safe trip!"

Waving back at her sisters who were jumping up and down to see her off, Elaine lay down on the pile of hay. The clear sky, as if freshly washed, filled her entire field of vision. As she entrusted herself to the swaying haystack, the mule's unhurried braying reached her ears from time to time.

A mule. A creature that was neither fast nor handsome, nor useful for military purposes. Yet it possessed a shameless tenacity in its efforts. Elaine liked mules more than horses.

Occasionally a gentle breeze would blow past, tickling her nose. Somehow, she felt like everything was going to work out perfectly.

'But who on earth is that idiot who gave both her body and heart to that hero? It said there was one...'

After traveling for some time on the mule, Elaine suddenly sat up straight and fell into thought. After pondering for a while, she soon gave up with a shrug and threw herself back onto the soft haystack.

"Ehh, as long as it's not me, it's fine!"

Behind her bold declaration, the mule's long bray rose up and faded into the clear blue sky.

*

Meanwhile, at that very moment, in the empire's greatest magic tower, Carpin Sahomu. In its deepest laboratory, a woman remained immersed in research even into the dead of night, long after the chief researchers had fallen asleep. A girl with burning red straight hair tied into twin tails, exuding an air of haughtiness. It was Karin.

Her desk was piled high with dusty old research tomes brought from the library. The titles read:

All of them were studies aimed at opening a door sealed by a curse.

Ever since the hero party had disbanded that day, Karin had remained shut away in this laboratory, devoting herself to research on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠how to open that door. She had been staying up for days on end.