Villainess
Villainess
Marisa pondered for a moment before nodding.
"I cannot keep you company for long."
The man's eyes lit up with hope, and he let out a sigh of relief.
"Yeah. A moment is all I need."
That was how we ended up in a reception room on the second floor.
Because the table was small, we stood in front of the fireplace while Marisa chatted.
Helsi and Hati killed time with a hand game similar to 'Rice, Rice, Barley', while I opened my ears to eavesdrop on the conversation.
"It's a war without a cause to begin with. The rebellion has already been suppressed."
"Besides, that massacre... Adel, you heard about it too, right? What happened in Hamington."
"We can no longer sit idly by and watch the noble faction run wild."
It was a familiar conversation.
It sounded like lines often found in period dramas about revolutionary eras, or perhaps things my friends used to blather about when I was a fresh graduate entering society.
If there was one difference from what I heard back then, it was that this was the answer to the question, 'So, what are you going to do about it?'
"Adel. We will complete this operation no matter what. I won't force you. But please, keep it a secret."
At the request of the handsome man who looked like a prince, Adel snorted.
A short silence.
Adel, who had been staring at the table with a blank expression, stood up and opened her mouth.
"Understood. I'll make up my mind quickly as well."
She then headed for the door, so I called out to Helsi and Hati.
"Let's go."
On the way back in the carriage.
Marisa, who was sitting across from me with the maid, asked abruptly.
"Are you heading to Karla once this request is finished?"
I thought about it for a moment.
Whether there was something I absolutely had to do here,
And if there was, when would be the best time to do it.
After thinking it over, it seemed there was nothing fixed.
"That is the plan for now."
I answered, leaving room for change, and Marisa got to the point.
"Could I ask one more favor before you leave?"
The content of the request she mentioned afterward was quite high in difficulty.
It was a request that could never be accepted with a mediocre reward.
Yet, there was only one reason I nodded.
"We will also give you our villa in Karla."
I can't resist real estate.
The door to the reception room opened.
A soldier entered with disciplined movements and reported.
"It has been confirmed that the Adel family's carriage is leaving Brington City."
The person who let out a sigh of relief upon hearing this was a man with a righteous impression, like a prince from a fairy tale.
"Whew— they're loyal after all. They must be desperate for military merit too."
The person responding to this was the plain-looking woman I had thought was the female lead earlier.
"Is it really okay? The Royalist faction list released by the General Assembly didn't have the Adel family on it."
As she worried, a young man with black hair retorted, and a brief argument ensued.
"The Adel family was the first to be excluded from the Assembly during the first purge. They haven't been able to engage in any activities since then, so they just weren't counted."
"That just means we don't know! They said all the noble factions that were close to the Adel family have been thriving since then. Didn't the Adel family support them from behind?"
"If they had, the General Assembly would have detected it."
"The General Assembly doesn't know everything. Let's investigate properly, even now."
"And if we get caught? Besides, we don't have time."
"But..."
The handsome blonde man who looked like a prince stated his thoughts as if to stop the two.
"Either way, if we go on like this, the probability of us dying during the operation is high. If Adel helps, we'll be grateful, and if not, it's just a loss. Let's not overthink it."
Afterward, the four of them left the city in their respective carriages.
Thanks to that, I now knew exactly that the eavesdropping range was approximately 12 kilometers.
If I went beyond that, there were problems even with moving the blood drop.
I ended the eavesdropping and hid the blood drop inside the carriage's suspension.
When I opened my eyes, I saw the ceiling.
We were in a lodging in a fishing village where the Adel family's Maritime Militia was stationed.
Unlike the other militias, the Adel family's Maritime Militia's departure time was delayed by about half a day.
The basic outline of the operation was for the army and general militias to deploy troops, the navy to carry out the pre-arranged bombardment, and the reserve fleet, including the Adel family's militia, to support with firepower or escort according to the situation.
So, originally, there would have been some leeway, but a personal matter had come up.
I got up from my seat.
I approached Helsi, who was sitting at the dining table, glaring at the newspaper with a scowl.
"Helsi. Take this."
The item I handed her was a necklace adorned with a red jewel.
Helsi asked, taking the necklace with a bewildered expression.
"What is this?"
The moment I was about to answer, Hati came running over.
Tadadadat
She stood in front of a startled Helsi, stared blankly at the necklace, then whipped her head around to look at me.
Grab
She grabbed both of my cheeks and wiggled them.
It was a reaction asking why she didn't get one.
Unfortunately, it was precisely because of this reaction that I only gave it to Helsi.
"If you have that, Hati will think of you as a comrade."
Probably.
"So if you think you might lose it, swallow it to keep it safe."
I had seen Hati's combat power firsthand, so I didn't need to explain, and I should get going.
"Act well while I'm gone."
Helsi tried to follow me with an anxious face, but Hati beat her to it.
"Ha, Hati-ssi?! Wait!!!"
At the same time as she dodged Helsi's hand trying to grab her, Hati climbed onto her body like a squirrel and hugged her head.
I watched Helsi's struggle to subdue her for a moment before heading outside.
The next day.
Gelimos, a port city at the southernmost tip of the Rehingel Peninsula.
The roar coming from the sea surrounding the city served as a bass, and the sound of shells pouring down like rain destroying buildings continued without pause.
Boom
Rumble
In a scene like this, gunfire was just noise.
"Tanks, advance quickly!!! We're taking the city hall ahead!!"
"Infantry, prepare to charge!!!"
The battlefield was chaotic enough to resemble a hellscape, but it was easy to distinguish between friend and foe.
People in military uniforms were the Red Team.
People in plain clothes were the Blue Team.
It was also clear who was winning.
'The Blue Team is a total mess, aren't they?'
While analyzing the war situation from the clock tower overlooking the plaza as if watching a sports game, I checked the location of the target.
The state-of-the-art tank and its escort unit were maneuvering to catch the rear while the enemy's attention was focused on the plaza.
As a part of the escort unit ambushed and decapitated the enemy a few blocks ahead, the tank lowered its output as much as possible and advanced in a nearly silent state.
At this rate, the time it would take for the tank to reach the train station, where the rebel leadership was expected to be, would probably be less than an hour.
It was clear that the merit for this war would be monopolized by that tank unit.
If I had known that, would something have changed?
I idly retraced my memories of my past life, and it didn't seem so.
Those kinds of people.
According to the worldview of the 'Prince and his companions' who had just begun their actions, 'merit' was not something someone could just hand to you.
'They'll seize it.'
Cool.
The way they wiped out the escort unit in an instant, popped the hatch of the state-of-the-art tank, and shot the people inside was very sharp.
The sight of the plain-looking girl and the black-haired young man taking the corpses out of the tank with guilty expressions was a bit unsettling, but it was fortunate that their leader, the Prince's, face was resolute.
The companions boarded the tank in time with the Prince's command.
A moment later, the tank rotated and turned its direction of advance completely in reverse.
'Shall I start moving?'
It was an unwilling situation, but it was too obvious.
Since I had already prepared everything, it was pointless to change the plan now.
I activated the magic I had created a while ago.
The temporary name was 'Liquefaction'.
It was a magic that allowed me to transform like a shadow, or a puddle of blood, and move along the surface of objects in a 2D form.
The destination was in front of the Trade Center building, which could be considered the Red Team's forward base.
It was a hot place on the battlefield, currently bustling with reserve troops and supply units.
After waiting there for a while, the scheduled disaster began.
Bang— Kwooooom!!!
The state-of-the-art tank's maximum output magic cannon annihilated one of the supply units.
Immediately after, the cannon, having switched to rapid-fire mode, spewed out magic shells with enough firepower to slaughter humans.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump—
As the cannon, which was mercilessly sweeping away soldiers while rotating horizontally, was about to strike the command post.
I activated the skill I had made to use in this war,
Or more precisely, the 'skill that was created first, but only just now completed'.
'Lotus Blossom'
According to the Introduction to Magic Studies, chanting a spell when activating magic amplifies the effect...
'Do I have to chant it out loud?'
Kwooooom!!!
Dozens of massive explosions occurred simultaneously in the alley where the tank had appeared.
Since they were all magic I had set up, the sample size was not small.
However, the 'amplification effect from casting' was not recorded on the result sheet presented by those samples.
'That's a bit disappointing.'
I restored my body amidst the dust and approached the front of the tank.
Fortunately,
As it was a state-of-the-art tank, the spec sheet I had obtained seemed to be accurate.
The plain-looking woman scrambled out, clearing away the peeled-off upper armor.
She screamed and fell backward after seeing the state of the Prince, who had been sticking his head out of the turret.
The black-haired young man who followed clenched his teeth at the same scene.
Only then did the two discover me.
As the black-haired young man tried to draw his sword, I moved one of the blood drops I had used to cause the explosion at high speed.
Thump!
Now, the aim was clean too.
The sword was sent flying by the shockwave alone.
The man frowned and clutched his wrist, which had been grazed by the shockwave, and the woman was startled and hugged his thigh.
"No! Don't fight! Stop...!!"
Why are they telling me not to fight?
I don't know, but thanks to that, I can finish the job without additional labor.
"Run away quickly. I'll clean up the corpses."
At my words, the two looked at me with wide eyes.
I conveyed Marisa's words in the most gentle tone possible.
"They said they're sparing you because you're a friend."
One of them died, though.
Fortunately, it was within the margin of error.