I Got Reincarnated as a Villainous Noble, and When I Tried to Create an All-Male Academy to Avoid a Bad Ending, for Some Reason the Gender Ratio Reversed? - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: Accusation

Exactly one week after all the chaos with Marilyn blew up, the church put out an official statement.

――The crown prince should immediately break off his engagement with Marilyn Lily Crystal.

That was basically it.

The reason they gave was that his engagement to a duke’s daughter was seriously damaging the morals and order of the believers, and in the end it would shake the faith of the whole country.

More than half of it I didn’t even understand what they were going on about, but basically it was just nitpicking.
Who the crown prince marries shouldn’t have anything to do with faith, right? But they wrapped it up in fancy-sounding words to make it look like a proper criticism.

“Finally came out, huh.”

“…Yeah.”

While Fran and I read the newspaper the church published, I sipped my tea and took a breather.

Since the academy was closed today, probably a bunch of people were taking their time reading the paper just like us. The crown prince’s fiancée mess had definitely spread even further.

“Everything’s going exactly according to plan.”

Fran elegantly took a sip of tea and smiled.

Yeah, terrifyingly enough, this statement too was 100% her plan.

The reason she used the church was obvious.
The number of believers was on another level, so even the king couldn’t just openly suppress them.

Royal family, church, Adventurer’s Guild.
Those three existed in this super delicate balance.

On paper it looked like the royal family had the most power and could do whatever they wanted, but in reality it wasn’t that simple.

Without adventurers the country couldn’t be protected, and without the church they couldn’t win the people’s support.
This whole operation took advantage of that social structure.

“With this, breaking the engagement is basically right in front of us.”

Fran really was scary. The type of fiancée you absolutely did not want as an enemy.

“Still, I’m honestly surprised you managed to convince the church.”

Personally I thought that would be the hardest part.
But Fran finished the negotiations super easily and didn’t even look like she struggled.

What the heck did she do to persuade them?

While I was wondering that, Fran said it like it was no big deal.

“Saintess Alenaria-sama took our side.”

“That girl did?”

“Yes. I told her that if things kept going like this, Ol-sama would be in serious danger, and she immediately agreed to help.”

“……………………”

Fran smiled brightly as she said it.

Sure, Alenaria might be… well, like that, but she was still technically a saintess.
Inside the church she had a ton of influence, and plenty of people believed whatever she said without question.
Her opinion must have shaken the church’s decision pretty hard.

That being said…

“You threatened her?”

“I threatened her.”

Man, the method was kinda dirty.
Instead of talking honestly and persuading her, straight-up threatening her felt very villain-coded.

At the very least, it was probably something the protagonist or heroines weren’t supposed to do.
Well… but we’re on the villain side, so.

Depending on how you look at it, maybe this was actually the most fitting way.
As long as the crimes didn’t get exposed and we didn’t end up executed, it was probably the best move.

“Just… don’t go overboard with the crimes, okay.”

“What are you talking about?”

Fran kept that perfectly clear, innocent smile on her face. At this rate, the crimes were never gonna come to light.

※

The rumors kept spreading and the whole city got noisy real fast.
Apparently people started holding demonstrations.

“Take Marilyn down from her noble status!”
“An evil woman has no right to be crown princess!”

Crowds shouting stuff like that were protesting around the crown prince’s residence, apparently.

Normally they’d get rounded up and thrown in jail immediately, but there were so many of them, and church people were mixed in too, so the authorities were having trouble deciding what to do.

By the way, I heard there were even members of that cult that worships me inside the protest group. Looks like they teamed up with the church.
Too scary, I’m not going outside.

And so Marilyn officially became a legendary villainess.

She was the crown prince’s fiancée, yet now she was talked about everywhere as the poison eating away at the country.

Obviously there was a chance someone might try to take her life. She couldn’t just wander around carelessly, and there were crowds of angry protesters gathered in front of the ducal family’s mansion too.

So in the end, Marilyn was being sheltered at the marquis house.
Well… “sheltered” or more like she forced her way in and refused to leave.

She was acting like it was totally normal for her to stay. She even started planting flowers in the garden, and the balcony was already buried in them.
She was doing whatever she wanted way too much. This isn’t even her house, y’know.

Even so, she seemed to get along surprisingly well with the servants and maids—especially the women seemed to adore her.
She might actually be more popular than me at this point.

Apparently Fran negotiated with the ducal family so she had official permission to stay.
No idea what she did, but she probably threatened them again. What a strong fiancée.

Anyway, the plan had reached the final stage.
I figured I should share the latest info again while I was looking for Marilyn, and then I found her.

“There you are.”

She was standing on the balcony gazing out at the city.

A warm breeze blew through, making her glossy light-blue hair and black dress flutter softly.
Leaning against the railing and staring into the distance, she looked almost like a princess locked away at the top of a tower.

Well… maybe “princess” wasn’t quite right. “A beauty who could topple a kingdom” fit better.

A woman so beautiful she could charm anyone and bring a whole country to ruin.
That wasn’t far off at all. Right now the entire city was filled with talk about her.

“…You really came up with an insane plan, huh.”

She spoke without turning around. Half exasperated, half impressed as she commented on the whole strategy.

“Fran came up with almost all of it.”

“Your fiancée seriously doesn’t have a heart, does she?”

“The one who went along with it isn’t exactly innocent either.”

“Yeah, true.”

Marilyn turned around and gave a sly little smirk.

“But I’m a villainess, after all.”

“You really like that line, huh?”

“Yeah. It fits me perfectly.”

Yeah, it really did.

Those sharp, narrow eyes, that arrogant way she carried herself, the way she never sucked up to anyone and just did her own thing.
And yeah… her nasty personality too.

She was literally the definition of a villainess.

“Hey.”

She looked straight into my eyes.
There was a strong light shining in those sapphire-like pupils.

“Once the engagement gets broken off, I won’t be able to marry anyone anymore, right?”

“Probably.”

“Because of a certain someone, I’ve become the enemy of the whole country. Nobody’s gonna want anything to do with me. They won’t even come near me.”

“…Yeah.”

When I nodded, she glared at me.

“Even so, I’m not gonna change. I’m still gonna be cocky, my pride’s still sky-high, and I’ve got no intention of bowing to anyone.”

“…Yeah.”

“I’ve got zero femininity. Zero charm.”

“…Yeah.”

“Who the heck would want a woman like this? If anyone did, they’d have to be a total weirdo.”

“…Probably.”

“Even then…”

She started to say something, then snapped her mouth shut at the last second.
For just a tiny moment her eyes wavered, but she quickly shook her head.

“…No. Never mind. It’s nothing.”

She put her usual confident smirk back on and turned to look at the city again.

I wondered what she saw in those eyes.

I didn’t know.

I didn’t know, but I was pretty sure there was something she was thinking about deep down.
I figured I’d ask her after everything was settled.