Prologue The Villainess’s World The Warrior Maidens’ Great Wall in the Kilvas Empire appears to almost touch the heavens. Just before winter arrives, the cloudless autumn sky is so clear that one feels as if they can see all the way to the edge of the world. The first time she climbed to the top, Cattleya strained her eyes, wondering whether she could see the imperial capital, where she’d left her precious little brother. Now, however, she finds herself looking in an entirely different direction. “Cattleya, it seems there really is something strange going on with Hausel.” This report from her best friend, who’s climbed the stairs to the top of the wall, makes Cattleya lower her binoculars. “I see… It still isn’t possible to contact them?” “There’s no response whatsoever. They just send the same declaration of war against Ellmeyer and an image of the palace floating in the sky.” “If we can’t contact them, we can’t use their facilities. If one of us is injured, how well can we treat it using only what we have here? We don’t know the status of the wall’s spell, either.” “The demons are quiet, though. Reports are coming in from every quarter that all is peaceful.” “…There’s something you want to say, Diana. Spit it out.” Diana pouts, looking rather uncomfortable. “I already told you. I heard something a little while ago in Hausel, that time I was injured really badly… They said the queen of Hausel is orchestrating the Valkyrie surgeries and the demon attacks and everything for the sake of the demon king in Ellmeyer. The doctors who treated me thought I was unconscious and were laughing about it. They said that Kilvas’s imperial family knew but pretended not to and that they just kept working the Valkyries to death. They said we were guinea pigs!” “Then why has Hausel declared war on Ellmeyer?” “It may all be a charade because I caught on… It really is strange. The demons are so quiet, it’s eerie, even though they’re always active between summer and the beginning of winter. I bet it’s because Hausel is fighting Ellmeyer.” It makes sense. Still, Cattleya can’t just simply agree with her. If what Diana says is true, then the reason for Kilvas’s obedience has something to do with Cattleya’s precious younger brother. Black hair and red eyes—the reincarnation of the demon king. It’s said that people like that are born into the imperial family of Kilvas every once in a while. The legend even comes with an oddly specific instruction: Such people must never be allowed to leave the imperial capital. Her parents never let her brother, Vica, go outside its borders. The information Diana has found may be a hint as to why. There’s something going on with her brother. Something going on with the imperial family. That’s why Cattleya’s parents didn’t resist making her, the first princess, a Valkyrie—as was foretold by the Queendom of Hausel. “Besides, it’s a fact that Ellmeyer’s current emperor is the demon king.” “Emperor Claude isn’t that sort of person,” Cattleya snaps back, surprising herself. She didn’t mean to get so heated. Diana’s eyes are wide as well. “I’m sorry,” Cattleya continues. “…I told you about this, but I met him once, quite a long time ago.” As she remembers, it gets a little easier to breathe. “He voluntarily gave up his right to inherit the throne because he feared the empire would be divided by a struggle over the succession. I don’t know how he became emperor, but he certainly isn’t the type of person to covet power for himself.” Exactly. That’s why she’ll never resent her own parents, either. Cattleya always intended to volunteer to become a Valkyrie and defend her country. She made that decision herself to keep people from sneering at the imperial family for being powerless, and for her brother, who people avoided out of suspicion that he might become the demon king. In fact, Cattleya didn’t learn about Hausel’s foretelling until after she’d had her surgery. It was probably fabricated after she’d volunteered to further highlight the first princess’s dedication. Gilding the lily or not, the last thing she wanted to feel was disheartened. After all, she was almost certain that honorable man didn’t feel that way. “He isn’t the sort of person who would voluntarily participate in a war. It isn’t that I doubt what you’re saying, Diana, but I’ll vouch for Emperor Claude’s character.” “Then he may have been exploited by others and forced to become emperor.” Cattleya opens her mouth to argue back, but then she thinks of her brother. He’s a puppet of those around him, having ascended to the throne when he was very young and never allowed a say in political matters. She can’t visualize Claude ending up like that, but he is kind, so perhaps it’s possible. Come to think of it, she heard a questionable rumor that the d’Autriche ducal family, which hounded Claude into giving up his right to inherit the throne, later changed its tune and helped him reclaim his rightful position. “…Even if that were true, he would take responsibility.” “But you met him more than a decade ago. I really do feel bad for Ernst.” “What? Where does Ernst—I mean, the captain—come into this?” With a deliberate-sounding sigh, Diana looks away. “Anyway. It’s best not to put much trust in men. You know why I became a Valkyrie, don’t you?” Diana was the daughter of a provincial lord, but her father fell head over heels for his second wife and began to treat Diana as if she were a nuisance. Her older brother bullied her as well, saying there was nothing endearing about her, and her stepmother and younger half sister always sneered at her. The only one she believed in was her fiancé, who ended up cheating on her. After all of that, she was falsely accused of summoning the demon who attacked their town, and she was forced to join the Valkyries to atone. The reward she received for signing up went to help pay off her family’s debts. She now lives happily surrounded by other Valkyries, but Diana still has a terrible distrust of men. Knowing her past, Cattleya can’t argue too strongly against her. Especially not since she uses that anger to stay standing on merciless battlefields. Besides, the Valkyries do wonder why only women like them must endure this. Cattleya is no exception. There are men like Ernst who fight alongside them, but the Valkyries are the ones who lose their lives on the front line. She still can’t bring herself to think of “Valkyrie” as an honorable position that men can never hold and to take pride in it like Irena, one of the more senior Valkyries. For that reason, she stays silent, gazing in the same direction as Diana. The sun has begun to slip toward the horizon and set, and the light scattering across the water’s surface has grown more intense. The sky has taken on a faint reddish cast, signaling the end of the day. That’s when it happens. The sky flashes silver-white. It’s a searing divine light that reaches to the backs of their eyelids. Cattleya claps her hands over both eyes, staggering. Diana has done the same. They can’t breathe. What is this? What Cattleya sees behind her eyelids is neither the silver-dyed sky, nor the ocean, nor even the sturdy wall that encloses them. It’s her own hands, unscarred and free of calluses, holding a machine of some sort. It shows a picture that looks just like her. Diana is there as well, as is her childhood friend and younger brother. There are strings of writing she’s never seen before, yet she’s somehow able to read them. She hears sounds she’s never heard before. Beside her is an array of strategy books and magazines. Character introductions. The villainess, Cattleya. “Cattleya, Diana! Hausel—the floating palace has fallen!” Her childhood friend comes dashing up the stairs, out of breath. Yes, he’s her childhood friend. Or at least he should be, and yet… “A white dragon was seen attacking the palace…but everyone’s confused, and nobody knows what actually happened. Please come at once! Cattleya! Dia…na…?” The fact that she isn’t responding seems to perplex him. He gently grabs her shoulder, and Cattleya immediately smacks his hand away. After all, this “hero” betrays her when she’s attempting to protect her brother and joins the “heroine” in destroying the nation. Even her little brother, the final boss, abandons her. “Cattleya? You too, Diana? What’s the matter? Are you feeling ill?” “…No way. This has to be a joke. What was that? Cattleya, you’re—I mean, you can’t really be…” She looks at Diana’s face. It’s the face of the heroine. However, as the girl’s lips curve in an attempt to force a smile, Cattleya can see the same thing in her eyes. After all, this world is… “Cattleya.” It’s her friend’s voice. Cattleya blinks several times, then exhales. “Diana…I’m sorry. Was I asleep? Is it time to go already?” “We still have a little time. You hate cutting it close, though, don’t you?” “Yeah.” Cattleya smiles and gets up. Today is the day they’ll be departing from the temporary lodgings where they’ve been hiding. She washes her face, then dresses quickly. “What are the other Valkyries doing?” she asks. “They’re already on-site. It sounds as if the conference members from other nations will be arriving soon as well. Kilvas is hosting, so they may be there already. I hear they’re planning to have balls and concerts and really live it up until the conference. It must be nice to be that carefree.” “The intercontinental conference wasn’t in the game, though… It’s also strange that Vica is still the emperor of Kilvas, instead of being dead at this point.” They know the reason for that. It’s because they underestimated the differences between the game and reality, and the revolution in Kilvas failed. “This time, we have the sacred sword as a trump card, but we should stay on alert.” “It would’ve been so much simpler if this were just the world of Valkyrie of the Magic Lance…” This world is identical to the world of an otome game both Cattleya and Diana played in their previous lives. However, it seems to have gotten entangled with the world of Regalia of Saints, Demons, and Maidens—another game created by the same developers—and reality isn’t unfolding in accordance with either one. “If this really were the same world, it’d be hopeless for us,” Cattleya says. When I played the game, it was that hopelessness that struck a chord with me and got me so hooked, but no one would be happy if you ended up like that yourself… Thinking back on it, I was such a child, being delighted over the fact that it was a downer game.” “But Regalia of Saints, Demons, and Maidens is an abysmally dim-witted, way-too-convenient reverse harem game. The type that gets mocked for being such a typical otome game. The story was sloppy; frankly, the art and the voice acting were the only good things about it. Being saved by a joke like that just doesn’t sit right with me.” “That said, the way things have unfolded there doesn’t match the game, either. I’ve never seen a route where the Maid of the Sacred Sword loses and the demon king becomes emperor. Not only that, but the villainess and the demon king got married… There must have been interference from our side. It was odd for Cattleya the villainess and Demon King Claude to have come into contact in the first place.” “…Are you thinking this might be your fault and that you’re responsible?” Diana’s voice rises a little at the end of her question. She isn’t trying to probe, though—just showing concern. Cattleya gives a wry smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t go easy on the demon king again.” “I believe you. But I’ve been thinking… Wouldn’t it be possible to romance him? You played RegaMaid, too, didn’t you, Cattleya?” RegaMaid is an abbreviation for Regalia of Saints, Demons, and Maidens. “Well…not as much as ValLance.” And ValLance stands for Valkyrie of the Magic Lance. “It wouldn’t have hurt to try, yet that face tells me the idea never even occurred to you. That’s very like you, Cattleya…but even now, it’s not too late.” “You think I should try now? But that story’s over and done with.” “You weren’t trying to romance him, though, were you? And the demon king’s wife is a villainess, just like you. That said, unlike you, Aileen hasn’t had to go through any hardship. When I see her pushing her luck and living without a care because she’s empress now…it just isn’t fair.” A clock on the small table chimes, interrupting their conversation. “—It’s time. Let’s go, Diana.” “Mm.” The women shelve their conversation, then leave the room together. Yet Diana’s words circle around and around in Cattleya’s mind. Claude was a boy she’d met and idolized before regaining the memories of her previous life. He’d been very calm, clever, and kind. All the other boys his age had seemed like children. Especially Ernst, who’d always competed with her. However, instead of taking Cattleya’s hand, Claude had chosen another woman. Did I…hesitate to romance him? Because he was my first love…? If so, that would mean she had extremely high expectations for a game character. “…Diana, I want to put up a bit of a fight. This is a game world, after all.” Her first love is over. They aren’t characters in a game. “Let’s make Kilvas and Ellmeyer ours.” They’ll win happiness for sure this time, by their own hands. No one else’s.
Chapter 146
12 min read