I Favor The Villainess

"Salas! What did you do to Cardinal Lily!"

Vigilant of Lily-sama"s sudden change, Claire-sama questioned Salas.

"The commoner possesses two attributesDual Caster, doesn"t she"
"Answer my question!"
"I am answering though. My specialty from academy days was suggestion. My subject matter was "artificially inducing multiple attributes""

Salas said so with a dark smile on his face.

"Royal Guards, apprehend Salas and Lily"

At His Majesty"s command Royal Guards surrounded Salas and Lily-sama.
However――.

"Do you think those small fry can stop me"

With a flash of a small knife that was hidden who-knows-where, the Royal Guards were pushed back in one go.
From the above, the Royal Guards might seem truly weak, but only the kingdom"s cream of the crop is a.s.signed as the Royal Guards.
One-on-one aside, facing those numbers, not to mention me, even Claire-sama would lose.
The Royal Guards aren"t weak.
It"s Lily-sama who"s outside the standard.

"Cardinal Lily, stop this!"
"It"s useless. That is Lily, but also isn"t"

Kuku, Salas laughed.

"Artificially inducing a second attribute… The attempt was only half-successful"
"What do you mean?"

As I asked, Salas continued in a voice like he was lecturing a poor student.

"I succeeded in creating another personality through suggestion. And, I discovered that the new personality that appeared acquired a new magic attribute"

That is to say, it"s like this.
Lily-sama had the water attribute.
Then, using suggestion Salas created a new personality, which possesses a different attribute.
That means――.

"The ident.i.ty of that masked man was Lily-sama?"
"Exactly. That means, while my wrongdoings were investigated, in fact the investigation information was being leaked to me"

I was outwitted at the end though, said Salas with a bitter smile.

So that"s why.
The reason why when we went through the ledgers for the first they were perfect, without even a single fault, was because the information was leaked to Salas through Lily-sama, huh.

"However, the appearance was completely different! It is not a difference that could be concealed with a disguise…"
"Probably, it"s the magical tool. Look, at the time of Yuu-sama"s case, wasn"t it Lily-sama who lent it"

I used it to replace Yuu-sama.
At that time I wondered why Lily-sama had something so convenient, so that was its original usage.

"Is Lily-sama aware of her condition?"
"She"s unaware. Were she aware, don"t you think that child would end her own life"

What a cruel thing to do.
To make this kind-hearted Lily-sama an a.s.sa.s.sin to do his own bidding.

"Go on, Lily. Dispose of them all"
"Don"t say that so easily. There"s Rei and Claire here?"
"If it"s you, you can somehow manage, can"t you"
"It ain"t like I can"t, but I can"t guarantee your safety?"
"Hmm…"

Lily-sama who felled another Royal Guard while talking to Salas seems like a completely different person.
I thought I"ve heard that tone somewhere, it feels close to the insults Lily-sama sometimes blurted out.
Perhaps, it"s something like a harmful effect caused by artificially creating the second attribute via suggestion.

"Then, Lily. Prioritize escaping from here"
"I shall not let you escape!"

Looking in Claire-sama"s direction, the crests of François house were floating around her.
She entered Magical Ray firing posture.

"Salas, Cardinal Lily. I cannot adjust this magic of mine. If you value your lives, surrender"

While she shifted to the position where she had both of them in sight, she warned so.

"Is that so?"
"You could also work a… little!"

When Lily-sama defeated the last of Royal Guards surrounding her, she slashed at the Royal Guards surrounding Salas.

"Stop, Cardinal Lily! If you take another combat action, I shall shoot you!"
"Try"
"!"

In spite of Claire-sama"s final warning, Lily-sama didn"t stop her knife.
Claire-sama seemed to hesitate only for a moment, and,

"… Kh, I beg your pardon!"

unwillingly fired Magical Ray at Lily-sama.
However――.

"What was that!?"

The beam Magical Ray didn"t burn through Lily-sama, same as before it disappeared like a mirage.
It"s one thing when it"s a flame lance, but to even nullify Magical Ray, can Lily-sama use Spell Breaker after all …?

"This Lily is my magnum opus. She isn"t a match for Princess Manaria, but the magic she uses is not at all inferior to hers"

Salas said so with a smile stained with delight.

"It"s not Spell Breaker?"
"It"s not such an outlandish magic. This Lily has high wind apt.i.tude. Her forte is the magic to manipulate time"

Time manipulation!
When we first met the masked man at the time of the commoners" movement, he restored the destroyed demon bell.
To put it simply, that means he rewound the time of the demon bell.

"You"ve said magnum opus, haven" yout? That is to say, it was not just Lily-sama?"
"That"s natural. What parent would first attempt it on their own child. Lily was treated after I completed my research. Although――"

Then, Salas paused,

"For the sake of completing that research, it truly took a lot. Even ten or twenty orphans becoming crippled wasn"t enough"

and calmly said a repulsive thing with an unruffled face.

"You fiend!"

Glowering at Salas, Claire-sama fired Magical Ray at him.

"Uh-oh"

Having defeated all Royal Guards, Lily-sama nullified Magical Ray just in time.
Probably, Magical Ray was reversed in time and returned to magical power, vanishing, .

"Rei, aim at Salas! Focus on hara.s.sing him!"
"Yes!"

I created about twenty arrows and fired them at Salas from all sides.

"Tch… As expected, fighting that is hard"

The ice arrows were nullified, but Lily-sama can"t move from Salas"s side.
It"s possible to stop her from moving.
Claire-sama and I continue firing magic at Salas and Lily-sama nullifies it.
The situation has reached a stalemate - or so it looks, but it"s different.

"Surrender, Cardinal Lily"
"Why?"
"If it continues like this, it will be you who exhausts magical power first"

That"s right.
Over there is only Lily-sama, here are two of us, Claire-sama and I.
Moreover, the magic we"re using is the basic magical arrows.
I don"t know magical power consumption of time manipulation, but it can"t be lower than of magical arrows.

"Lily-sama, please stop it already"
"I also don"t really like doing this"
"Then!"
"But"

Lily-sama paused there,

"Even so, he"s my father"

She took the potion from her bosom, and instantly gulped it down.

"No way, cantarella!?"

Ah, it"ll be the repeat of the fight with Louis, or so we thought, but that wasn"t the case.

"It"s different. This thing is a super grade magic restoration potion"
"There"s no way you have a lot of them, is there"
"Even so, in my situation I can do something like this"

Lily-sama shifted her eyes to the potion bottle and stared at it intensely.

"!? Such a cheat!?"

The empty potion bottle quickly filled.
Probably its time was rewound.

"Well, it can also be used like this"
"Kh…"

This is bad.
The super grade magic restoration potion restores one"s magical power almost completely.
Like this, our situation will only get worse.

"Even so, like this, I ain"t ready for a drawn out fight"
"…"

Together with Claire-sama we stood on guard against Lily-sama.
At that time――.

The ground violently shook.

While everybody was in a turmoil over the sudden tremors, probably only I had different thoughts.

(No way… Too soon!)

I know the ident.i.ty of these tremors.
It"s an earthquake due to the eruption of Sa.s.sal Volcano that Rod-sama and Lily-sama were anxious about.
Antic.i.p.ating what will happen next, I pushed Claire-sama down, and immediately lied down to cover her.

With a smashing sound, windowpanes in the audience hall shattered.
Countless pebbles came flying inside.
They"re lapilli.

"What, in the world…"

From under me, Claire-sama raised a discomposed voice.
As for me, while stretching a small barrier with earth magic, I only waited for tremors to die down.
Lapilli continued falling for several minutes.

"It should be okay now"

I"m bothered by its timing, but this earthquake shouldn"t have aftershocks.
I moved from above Claire-sama, stood up and tried to grasp the situation.
Examining the previously resplendent audience hall, it completely changed to a tragic state.
Furnishings broke, on the red carpet roll lapilli of various sizes.

"Your Majesty!"

One of the Royal Guards noticed something strange.
His Majesty Rousseau fell from the throne and was lying on the ground.
―― Bleeding from his head.

"Rei, medical treatment!"

Even without being told by Claire-sama I approached His Majesty and attempted using healing magic.
However――.

"… It"s hopeless. He"s pa.s.sed away"
"What is this…"

This development follows the game.
Then――.

"That is right, Salas and Cardinal Lily are!?"

The two of them are already gone from the hall.
In the game there was no Lily-sama, but Salas did flee in the in the moment of confusion.
This also follows the game.

(Even though I hurried so that it doesn"t happen…)

The eruption of Sa.s.sal Volcano should still be few days away.
If I didn"t need to fight Lily-sama and my magical power was in a perfect condition I would"ve been able to cover this audience hall with defensive magic.
Why was it so soon…?

"Rei… Rei! Get a hold of yourself"

When I came to, I was looking up at Claire-sama.
It seems I fell on my knees without noticing.

"Forget about Salas and Cardinal Lily for a while. There is a great amount of thing we must do"
"… Claire-sama"
"After this, the kingdom will be on the verge of a crisis, will it not. I have heard that according to the history, after the eruption of Sa.s.sal Volcano a severe famine occurred"

Yes, rather than the direct damage from eruption, what happens later is the problem.
Volcanic ash will shroud the area around the Royal Capital and crops will spoil.
Not to mention, it"s the height of harvest around the Royal Capital.
I know it from the game knowledge, Claire-sama knows it from history.

"The kingdom must overcome the crisis. Moreover, without His Majesty Rousseau"

Yes.
The wise king Rousseau is no longer here.
We must choose the new king.

"Royal Guards, contact Lord Speaker of the House of Lords. Summon for an emergency a.s.sembly. Afterwards, immediately confirm Rod-sama"s and Sein-sama"s safety"

Claire-sama precisely issued instructions.
I vacantly stared at that situation.
Then, pain shot through my cheek.

"Straighten up! Were the words saying you would support me a lie!?"

Saying so, Claire-sama fixed her eyes on me.
The hand that hit me is red.
It"s a slender hand.
This frail person is now desperately trying to fight against the crisis that befell the kingdom.

Who will support her?
That"s already decided.

"I am deeply sorry. I"m okay now"
"Very well"

Having said so, Claire-sama hugged me for just a little while.
Noticing her body trembling, I returned a tight embrace.

"We shall overcome this crisis"
"Yes!"

We began acting immediately.
With Claire-sama"s precise instructions there was no delay to the initial response.
However, before long a report arrived.

The information was that Rod-sama was unaccounted for.

With this chapter, the translation is once again caught up with the raws. Thank you all for comments, likes, and just reading. I hope you"ve all enjoyed reading it.

Special thanks go to Inori-sensei, who on top of writing this wonderful work, . For more updates regarding I Favor the Villainess or to show your support, visit Inori"s twitter at @inori_narou