I, the Villainous Prince, Buy the Ruined Villainess with Money

Chapter 66: People Don’t Change That Easily

I figured since it was high-class gear, I’d probably need to swap out some equipment or whatever, but turns out I didn’t have to worry about it at all.

It’s partly because it’s dwarf-made, but mainly the materials are just that good, so there’s no chance of it getting damaged or starting to stink, apparently.

When Kaito heard that, he went, “Man, you finally get to silver rank and people start remembering your face, but you’re still way outta the norm, huh.”

While we were chatting like that, we followed Kaito’s lead and headed toward a district pretty far from the center of the city.

The place had zero energy. It felt a lot like the slum area I’d seen before—tons of people just hanging around.

“…This is…”

“Master, I think this used to be a shopping street way back. But when they expanded the imperial capital, they decided the location was bad and just kinda… left it like this.”

“Heh, you’re pretty knowledgeable (as expected from my favorite!).”

“N-no, I just… looked it up once before…”

Yulia’s eyes started darting around like she wanted to say something but couldn’t quite get it out.

She probably researched this place back when she thought she’d become empress and wanted to do something about it.

Even now that the role’s gone, it still hurts her to see it, I bet.

Man… what a sweet girl. She’s definitely hesitating whether she should even ask me for help.

“Tch, what a sad sight. You can polish the surface all you want, but if the details are falling apart, it ain’t beautiful.”

“Master?”

“Hey, what’re you planning to…”

“Holy rain, wash away the filth—Holy Shower.”

I raised my hand and rain started pouring down from the sky.

It didn’t soak anyone or anything, but it cleaned the dirty buildings and people perfectly.

Every step I took, the rain followed right behind me, wiping away more grime.

“Whoa…!”

“It’s getting so clean… and look, people are perking up right away.”

“Kukuku, I see, I see… Yeah, no doubt about it. You’re exactly the kind of person worth serving.”

“Hehe, you get it quick, don’t you.”

“What’re you two muttering about? Come on, hurry up and lead the way already.”

“”Yeah, yeah.””

For some reason both of them grinned and answered at the exact same time.

Grr… they’re getting along way too well. Kinda jealous, y’know.

We kept going deeper, and then this awful stench hit us.

I didn’t even have to ask—obviously the spot was down those stairs ahead.

“…This it?”

“Ugh…”

“Oh right—doesn’t this smell hit beastkin really hard? I heard your five senses are way sharper than humans’. Sorry, this is all because I asked for the request…”

“What? It does?”

“…Yeah. But don’t worry, I’m still gonna stick with the request. Yulia-sama, you don’t have to feel bad about it either.”

When I looked back, Kaizel was pinching his nose shut while admitting it.

His face said he hated it but had no choice but to agree.

If we leave it like this, my favorite’s gonna keep feeling guilty.

Then it’s my job to get rid of the problem, right?

“Same trick as before should work… Holy water, wrap around us—Aqua Field.”

“This is… a membrane of water?”

“Whoa, the smell’s way better now!”

“That should do it. Lead the way.”

Kaizel turned around and bowed his head.

“Alvis-sama… thank you.”

“What’re you talking about? I just did it ’cause I couldn’t stand the smell myself.”

“Sure, let’s go with that.”

“Hehe, same old Master as always.”

“…Hmph.”

Yup, Alvis-kun is still Alvis-kun—everybody knows it, himself included.

At this point even I wanna give up trying to fix him.

But if I don’t somehow make him at least a little better, he’s gonna crash and burn, so I gotta keep trying.

…People don’t change that easily. If they did, life wouldn’t be so hard.

—

Chapter 67: Sewer Exploration

We just kept going straight into the wide sewer.

Thanks to the barrier I put up, the smell was kinda dealt with, but even so, just seeing all the grime everywhere still made it feel like the stink was hitting me.

At the same time, the magic beasts that kept jumping us along the way were a real pain.

They were these big rats, about 30 centimeters long, scurrying along the walls toward us.

“Kikii!”

“High rats. These guys are the monsters that live in the sewers.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty damn quick… but they’re no match for me.”

“Please leave it to me—take this!”

Before I could even cast a spell, Yulia threw her knife and nailed one.

My hand was just hanging there awkwardly with nowhere to go, and while I stood there kinda lost, Yulia came trotting over.

Then she placed her head right under my hand… and looked up at me from below.

“…What are you doing? (Oh nooo! This girl’s doing the upward glance thing!)”

“Huh…? U-um, s-sorry, I was kinda hoping you’d praise me…”

“Ahh… (Aaaaaah!?)”

What are you doing is me, Alvis! You idiot!

I poured every ounce of mental strength into calming my raging heart, and while my hand was trembling a little, I gently patted her head.

“Ah…”

“You did great. Really smooth and quick.”

“Ehehe, thank you!”

And then she smiled all innocently.

I’m not sure if this is okay either, but if she’s happy, then that’s fine.

My favorite character being happy—that’s the most important thing… Anyway, I should probably report that my brain just got fried.

After that, Yulia kept using her knives to take down the high rats one after another.

Thanks to her, we moved through pretty easily… but once we passed a certain point, the whole scene changed.

The walls went beyond just black, and the flowing water turned into straight-up mud.

The farther in we went, the worse it got, and by the time we reached our destination, the place was completely clogged with sludge.

“I see. No wonder nobody comes here. What the hell are the city officials even doing?”

“I don’t know the details, but I think they just don’t have enough manpower right now. It’s tough work, sure, but more than that, the pay is really low…”

“Yeah. Adventurers don’t wanna touch it either. That’s why it’s always said to be the perfect first job for newbies. Of course veterans take it too, but they can’t keep up with the demand.”

“Seriously… it’s pathetic. This is exactly the kind of thing they should be throwing money at.”

I couldn’t help squeezing my hand tight.

I couldn’t remember the details, but I had a feeling that in my previous life they were stingy with money on important stuff too.

And the ones who always ended up suffering were the people at the bottom, right?

“Master…”

“Tch, this makes me sick… Kyle, is this why everyone hates coming down here so much?”

“Y-yeah… what insane pressure… If it wasn’t this bad—even including me—people would probably take the requests more willingly. The reward doesn’t match this at all.”

“Yeah, no kidding… The church hogging all the water mages is a big part of it too, huh.”

“That’s part of it. If someone who could use water magic helped out, they could just flush the filth away… but those guys charge insane amounts.”

“I think there are requests out for them, but they just half-ass it and leave right away. Probably because this is a precious source of income for them.”

“I see… So that’s how it ends up like this, and then people have to do it by hand.”

Doing this by hand would definitely be back-breaking work.

You’d probably catch some disease, and in the worst case you’d end up in the red.

So what I should do… isn’t to completely clean everything up.

I’ll ask the guild master about it later.

“Kukuku… which means if I fix this, I can mess with the church, huh. Now I’m suddenly super motivated. Yulia, Kyle, I’m going big, so step back a bit.”

“Y-yes! Kyle-san, let’s move back!”

“What, that much?”

“That much! Master is about to get serious!”

“O-okay!”

Looks like my favorite noticed how pissed I was.

Even I don’t really know why I’m this angry.

But there’s no reason to hold it back.

I get to show off in front of my favorite, harass the church, and feel better myself—one stone, three birds.

“Alright, the target is… over there.”

Just blasting a ton of water to push the sewage out would only scatter the filth all over the sewer.

The biggest problem is that the drainage channels are blocked.

So all I gotta do is clear the path to the drains.