Unfortunately, Nia’s guess had been correct. The room was rank with the nauseating stench of arousal.
Can I not just cut the two of them down now? Just as I was thinking that with a strangely cold mind...
“Wh-What are you doing here?! If you—if the heroine—comes barging in here, you’ll make me look like a villainess!” the third princess screeched, pointing at Nia.
Villainess?
That term made me stop in my tracks. It wasn’t one I was familiar with, but I remembered hearing it somewhere.
“So you recognize me,” Nia said quietly, looking conflicted.
Now that she mentioned it, that was right. Olivia, Sylvario’s third princess, had realized that Nia was Princess Sonia with a single glance. If she hadn’t, then there was no way she would’ve paid more attention to her than the fully armored knights right beside her.
“Of course I do! Just when I’d finally managed to drive you away!”
Ahh. So it was her. She was the source of all Nia’s problems, I thought to myself, mind surprisingly clear. That was right. The one who’d been most hostile to Princess Sonia was the third princess right here.
Even while I was remembering that, the princess kept on screeching vehemently back. And what she was saying sounded familiar to me too.
“You’re talking like that pink-haired nuisance.”
Ah, damn. My tone ended up being pretty rough. But it seemed that was effective in its own right.
The third princess flinched, face paling as she turned to look at me.
“D-Don’t tell me you arrested the previous game’s heroine?!”
It seemed like I was correct.
The baron’s daughter who seduced Brigandia’s first prince had pink hair. She had also called herself “the heroine.”
“I only understood half of that, but I wasn’t the one who arrested her,” I said. “I was only a kid at the time, after all.”
I hadn’t even been in school then, yet I still heard all about what the pink-haired woman had blabbered about—just the rantings of a crazy woman. You could call everything that came out of her mouth just that. And here was another person saying the same exact things.
“You bastard! How dare you speak so rudely to Her Highbuargh?!”
The man we assumed to be the commander of the Royal Guards got pissed and tried to slash at me, but I punched him in the face with all of my strength to shut him up.
Damn, he’s weak. But even a piece of trash like him could act like he owned the whole palace when he had authority. This all feels so fruitless, but just remember that this rotten place goes down today, I told myself in my mind, somehow keeping myself calm.
“What the hell do you mean with all that villainess talk?”
Ah, damn. My tone was still super deep. And hearing that threatening tone made the third princess freeze up before trembling like a leaf.
When I thought about how Nia, Princess Sonia, was abused for this witch’s sake, both anger and disgust welled up within me. And thanks to that, I managed to keep my reason.
“Remember everything you’ve done to Princess Sonia,” I growled. I wasn’t really sure whether she actually heard what I said, but I paused for a moment to give her time to remember before continuing. “You’re already villainous enough.”
That definitely hit her. The third princess’s eyes widened as her face froze in shock. It took a few seconds for Olivia to process, apparently. Then, a moment later, her shrieking, screaming voice filled the room.
“N-No! No no no no! I’m not a villainess! I’m not going to end up ruined as a villainess princess!”
I couldn’t help but sigh. Did she not notice that she had crossed into villain territory quite a long time ago and was in the process of being checkmated? Now that I thought about it, apparently the baron’s daughter hadn’t accepted reality until the very end either.
“Give it up. You’re done.”
“I’m not done, I’m not done at all! The scenario hasn’t even started yet!”
The scenario, huh?
“You really are saying the exact same things as that baron’s daughter. What the hell do you mean by ‘scenario’? Do you think this is a play or something?” I snapped at the princess.
Calm down, Ark. If I didn’t keep telling myself that, then I thought I’d snap any minute. And no matter what the situation may have been, I didn’t want Nia to see that. Especially since me losing control would actually push her aside, and after all, it was Nia who was the biggest victim in this room.
“So just how long, how many years, did you stomp all over Nia for that scenario or whatever? Just how important is your shitty performance to you?”
She wouldn’t answer. It didn’t matter. I didn’t need one. Plus, she didn’t have one in the first place. She hadn’t thought of any of that.
“You never even considered it, did you? That you were doing it to a human. That she had a heart. You just thought she was some moving doll that moved to your whims, didn’t you?”
“E-Eeek!”
I must have been right on the money, because she screamed and backed away. But her back hit the wall. There was nowhere for her to run. And I had no intention of giving her anywhere to run.
“Was it fun?” I asked. “Did you enjoy it? You two were having your little tryst now of all times, so it must’ve been real fun, huh?!”
“N-No, I... I...!”
She tried to blab out some excuse, but I didn’t care. I didn’t think anything she could say would matter to me, now or ever. We probably didn’t even exist in her world. I didn’t know why, but I was strangely sure of that fact.
“You don’t think people are humans, and you laugh as you stomp all over them. What’s the term for people like that?”
“Stop, stop! Don’t say it! I, I...!”
I wanted to sigh. Even now, she still wasn’t showing any remorse or apologizing. The way she tried to excuse herself the entire time was exactly like what you’d see from a villain at the end of a play.
“You’re already a hopeless villainess, Princess!” I declared.
“No, noooooo!”
I told the third princess exactly how I saw her. And the moment I shoved it in her face, she grabbed her head, scratching at it and messing up her hair as she screamed.
“What?!”
And then, something like a black mist started gushing out of her body. And that black mist, or whatever it was, was rapidly expanding.
This was bad. Something I could only refer to as instinct ran through my brain.
“Everyone, get back! Don’t let that touch you!” I yelled as I shielded Nia, and the well-trained knights of the Special Battalion immediately made a big leap backwards. Everyone probably managed to dodge it.
Everyone but me.
“Lord Ark?! Are you okay?!”
It was weird for Nia to scream like that. As that nonsensical thought ran through my mind, my lips curled upwards. But I was unfortunately far too drained to show her.
“I’m fine taking this much... But she’s...”
Having taken a full blast of the black mist while shielding Nia, I was barely staying conscious. It was probably something like a curse—something a human should never touch, and that was overflowing from the third princess’s body. “This woman really is some sort of monster from a fairy tale, isn’t she!” I yelled, forcing myself to stay conscious.
I was fine. I was still conscious, though for a moment I thought the tempestuous resentment in her scream nearly swallowed me up. And because I managed to get through that, I put power into my legs, managing to stay standing.
Possibly because I stood like a wall in front of her, I felt Nia still standing behind me. Judging from her breathing, she was apparently in better shape than I was.
“Unfortunately, I can’t think of any other explanation. The fact that a human body is emitting that black mist itself is just unnatural,” she said.
It was there that Nia paused her words. I heard her shoes clacking on the floor as she walked towards me. Then, she touched my back. The moment she did, I felt something like something warm flowing into me from the place she was touching.
“N-Nia? What are you...” I said, trailing off in shock.
“It seems I’m also something from a fairy tale.”
Her voice sounded like she was troubled but smiling. When I turned around to look at her, what I saw was bright white light.