THINK about this calmly. Now’s not the time for panic.
I slowly sit up in bed and suck in a deep breath. It was just yesterday that I passed out after being hit by a volley of outrageous facts. Taking measured breaths calms my racing mind a bit. I pick up the gold hand mirror from the side table and stare long and hard at my reflection.
Glittering red eyes, long red hair.
Reflected in the mirror is a beautiful, bright-eyed girl who appears younger than her fifteen years. I’m looking at the spitting image of the weakest boss in Saint Aela of Gaea.
Elle is the short-tempered villainess with a loli character design, and the first Grand Magi to be killed by the manga heroine.
“How could I, the greatest sorceress and Grand Magi, be defeated at your measly hands?!” she bemoans like a typical villain before being offed by Saint Aela and her party.
Hell no…! I don’t wanna end up like that!
I know! Maybe I can get by without drawing Saint Aela’s attention…if I behave myself? That’s a decent thought, until I think back on all the things I’ve done until today. Uh, yeah, that ship has sailed. I shake my head.
I mean…I’ve already done plenty of things that warrant being killed.
Amid my despair, I hear a knock on the door.
“Come in,” I say with a start, and the maid who helped me yesterday enters the room.
She looks so nervous you’d think she was standing before her executioner. She jumps and trembles when our eyes meet.
Nervous sweat coats my hands as I squeeze them tight.
“…Don’t be so scared.”
The words come out bossy despite how freaked out I feel about the maid.
Sounding arrogant is already a habit I can’t shake.
That proves it. I’m doomed to shout a clichéd villain line like “How could I, the greatest sorceress and best of the Grand Magi, be defeated at your measly hands?!” even if I’m shaking in my boots.
The maid gapes at me for a brief moment before carrying over the tea set and prepping a cup of black tea for me.
“…Thanks,” I say, causing the maid to stiffen.
I bet she’s shocked because I said something so very unlike me.
This maid— Actually, not just this maid, but all the servants serving in my manor are frightened of me. No, frightened isn’t all—they should hate me, too.
I mean, I did kidnap them from Gaea and force them to work for me.
Blessed with an enormous supply of magic from birth, I deluded myself into thinking the Demon Lord loved me most, and was always delighted to do whatever it took to make him love me even more. I believed that living in the dominion ruled by the Demon Lord, and by the perfect laws he created, was the most wonderful, blissful thing in the world.
That’s why I frequently wandered into Gaea to bring people home with me as my servants so they could live in Analia. I truly believed that the people I whisked away would be happier this way.
I did it all out of the goodness of my heart!
I thought living here was the epitome of happiness and wanted others to enjoy living in the Demon Lord’s blissful land, so I abducted people, with the conviction that I was doing a good thing.
Blindly hanging on the Demon Lord’s every word, I sneered at Gaea and ridiculed them for being fools to resist the Demon Lord Army’s invasion. All because I had this delusion there was no greater joy in life than to live under the Demon Lord’s rule.
But once I gained memories from my past life, and once the logic and moral values from that world permeated my mind, it hit me like a ton of bricks: my good intentions were foolish acts that ruined lives.
The people of Gaea love their kingdom’s history, culture, land, and their families who live there, as much as I had once adored the Demon Lord.
How could they be happy after having their love and joy stolen, and then being forced to live as servants in the invading kingdom?
Things can’t stay this way…! I don’t want this to go on, regardless of how it plays into Saint Aela killing me.
Determined to change things, I raise my head and speak to the maid. “Hey, you. What’s your name?”
The maid blinks at me. “Canna,” she replies in a quiet voice.
I just asked a servant’s name for the first time. Ever. It never crossed my mind that they have names.
Canna is a girl around the same age as me. Really looking at her for once made me notice that fact after all this time.
“…I see. Do you have family, Canna?”
“I have…no family. Both my father and mother died of the plague, and the villagers…um…feared that I might…well…have it, too. You brought me here just before they were about to…isolate me, Lady Elle.”
Canna’s story eases some of my guilt. I’m relieved I wasn’t the one who ripped her from her family. But I’m a moron for being consoled by this.
I mean, I have kidnapped so many people from Gaea. Not everyone is going to be from miserable circumstances. I just know some of them must despise me for tearing them from their families. This is depressing.
Until I gained these memories, I never knew how painful it is to be separated from family. I have none to speak of, so I didn’t understand the concept.
Children stay with their parents until age three in Analia but are then raised in a communal facility from age four until they turn thirteen. There we train in magic, are taught about the Demon Lord’s laws and edicts, and grow up adoring him like he’s our parent.
Each day is spent having it drilled into our heads that we love the Demon Lord and are loved by him even though none of us have ever met him.
“Canna, do you want to return to Gaea?” I ask with my gaze cast down, too afraid to look her in the eye. I watch her feet as she takes a huge step back.
She drops to her knees and brings her head within inches of the marble floor.
“Please forgive me, Lady Elle! Did I do something unpardonable in your eyes?! I no longer have anywhere left to go! Please, I beg of you, allow me to stay here! Please! Oh, please!”
I gasp in shock at her tearful appeal.
What? You want to stay here?
“Uh, Canna? Come on. Quit prostrating yourself before me! You can stay if you want to. You know how I, like, took you without asking? So…uh…I thought you might actually hate it here…! Anyway, quit pressing your head against the cold floor and stand up!”
At my command, Canna rises, sobbing and sniffling.
Okay, so how am I supposed to process this? Canna is bawling her eyes out. She feels that strongly about not returning to Gaea…? She did just mention that both her parents passed away. Maybe that’s why? She can stay if she’s got nowhere to go. I’d actually prefer it that way.
Life will be rough if I lose all my servants in a day.
“You can stay if you want… But the others probably don’t feel the same way. Sorry, but can you speak with the servants and see who wants to go back to Gaea? Tell them I’ll take responsibility and send them home.”
“Wh-Why are you offering to do this…?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I snatched you guys away on a whim and now I…feel bad about it,” I stammer, restlessly twirling my hair around my finger. “I doubt what I’ve done can be forgiven just by sending you home with a sorry, but…I wanna make up for it even if it’s too little too late…”
Canna’s wet eyes round into saucers. She’s in complete shock. Not that I blame her. It’s a surprising turn of events. I’ve always brought people home and turned them into my servants like it was the most obvious thing to do.
“I-Is that so? I will go speak with the others since that is what you want, Lady Elle… But…erm…I don’t believe there will be any who will try to return to Gaea…”
“O-Of course there will be! It’s fine. Don’t mind my feelings! Enough chitchat. Go tell them this instant!” I demand in my usual spoiled, loli Grand Magi manner.
Canna rushes from the room.
I wonder if the people I kidnapped will forgive me... Nah. That’s asking for the impossible. Time to stop thinking about being forgiven.
Everything I did was out of the goodness of my heart, but…kidnapping people was a crime in my past life. Even if I can’t find forgiveness, I can at least apologize.
Wait. Now that I think about it, aren’t I the first to be defeated in Saint Aela of Gaea because Aela stumbles across Elle in the middle of abducting villagers and fights to save them?
What the heck have I been doing? Being killed is a just punishment…