I Thought I’d Reformed the Villainous Heroine. But Their True Nature Remained Unchanged, and They Were Still Being Doted On—I Just Don’t Have Enough Lives. - Chapter 16

The Process and Methods Aren’t Something I Can Just Ignore

Ilza sat in her chair sipping black tea, gazing dreamily at the lakeshore.

“What a pleasant breeze… Spending time away from everyday life with the person I adore. It has such charm. Myris, come sit over here too.”

“I’ll join you~”

Myris, who had been waiting nearby, sat down next to Ilza.

Ilza smiled with satisfaction and poured tea for her.

“Thanks so much. Sorry about that.”

Myris took the cup without looking very sorry.

“You serve Big Brother as his maid. That means you’re also a resident of my world.”

“I’m honored. I’ll work hard so I don’t get left behind by you two.”

“Hehe, it’s an honor to hear that from someone who lives in the darkness. Actually, I need to make sure I don’t get abandoned by you.”

“There’s no way I’d ever abandon you, Lady Ilza~”

“Well. Doesn’t my nature seem pretty evil?”

The two of them laughed together with soft giggles and happy chuckles.

Their conversation was way too evil for them to look like close sisters.

They were exactly like a mastermind and her follower.

Ugh, Ilza! You wiped out all the monsters around the lake, didn’t you?!

I used the relatively soft word “wiped out,” but basically it was mass murder.

Even if they were hostile creatures, killing them all just to turn it into a picnic was an evil idea way beyond normal!!

“Are you relaxing too, Big Brother?”

Ilza smiled at me.

“Yeah… it’s weird, but… when I feel like everything is definitely fine…”

“I’m glad if my busy Big Brother can truly relax from the bottom of his heart.”

I could feel Ilza’s thoughtfulness.

That’s right. She did it for my sake, wiping out the monsters. She massacred them just to make time with me… No, I can’t defend that at all.

I should probably say something properly here. Yeah, I really should.

“Hey, Ilza.”

“…I like that face Big Brother makes when you think ‘I really should scold her.’ It makes me feel like you’re properly thinking about me.”

“Then I’ll say it clearly. I came here for training.”

“I know. I’ve picked out things that should be good for Big Brother’s training. Please don’t worry.”

So she didn’t kill them all. Maybe she locked the monsters in cages or something?

Oh. She really is thinking about me properly.

“Is that so? Then that’s good.”

Good? Is it really good…?

No it’s not good at all!!!

That’s a completely superior-being way of thinking! The word choice is way too dark emperor!!

It’s not just about making relaxed time! I can feel the same ominous vibe as the original story!!

“…Ilza, if you’re going back, now’s the time.”

“Oh? Why would that be?”

“We’re camping out tonight for training. There won’t be a proper bed or a fluffy pillow. You might even have to sleep in a tree while bugs bite you.”

I tried persuading her from a different angle.

A girl wouldn’t be able to handle that. Actually, I didn’t really like the idea either.

Then Myris pointed in a completely random direction and shouted loudly.

“Ah! There’s a cottage over there~!”

There was a cottage right by the lakeshore.

It was a single-story cottage with a roof and looked brand new. The trees around the cottage had all disappeared, like they’d been yanked out by some kind of magic.

“Young Master, it looks like there’s an adventurer cottage. Some kind person must have built it for us.”

Myris said it with a face like we were super lucky.

“It was obviously built super recently!!”

“We’re so lucky~ It must be because of all the good deeds we do every day.”

“More like evil deeds?! That thing looks like it was made with your combined magic!”

The two of them gracefully ignored my comeback with smiles on their faces.

Ilza probably used [Domination] to pull out the trees, and Myris used [Fixation] to join the lumber together… The processing was probably a combination of both their magic…

No way…

We only decided to come to the lake the day before yesterday.

Considering the travel distance, they nearly wiped out the monsters and built a cottage in less than a day? The gap in our abilities was way too huge.

“If Young Master orders it, we’ll prepare anything you want right away.”

Myris whispered something that sounded like loyal advice.

But that suggestion felt like it was leading straight down the path to becoming a villain in the underworld.

“I want to manage with my own power.”

For self-defense too.

Maybe because I bared my teeth and growled, Myris shrugged her shoulders and looked at Ilza. My stepsister stared back with a lonely look.

“…I want to spend fun time in an unfamiliar land~♪”

Myris quickly joined in.

“I want to overwrite my dark youth with light~♪ Ah, I want to stay over~♪”

“””I want to stay over~♪ I want to stay over~♪ I want to stay over~♪”””

The evil master-servant duo harmonized while appealing to stay the night.

Like hell I’d be nice to you villains, damn it!! …But still.

“Fine, fine♪ Fine~♪”

Thinking about what would happen if I refused was scary, so in the end I had no choice.

※※※

And that’s how we ended up staying at the cottage.

The interior was pretty minimal, but it was comfortable inside.

There were individual rooms, and doors so we could move between them easily. There was fluffy fur… this isn’t monster hide, right…? With those two, they could probably do it in a day…

Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it.

“…I came prepared for training, but here we are.”

I got completely let down by how comfortable the adventure turned out.

Still, I checked my equipment properly.

Super happy Ilza came up from behind and hugged me while I was inspecting my gear on the floor.

“Big Brother Gant, what are you doing~”

“Don’t hug me from behind. You can see what I’m doing.”

“Ehh, I don’t know. I’m just a kid so I don’t understand at all~”

The way she innocently bounced around really made me think she was a child.

While checking my gear and keeping Ilza company, I thought about what to do for dinner.

Starting a fire would be easy with magic, but it didn’t match my magic nature at all.

My magic nature was [Control].

I was good at controlling matter. Magic that was far from my nature used a lot more mana and the precision dropped sharply. The spell codes got really long too. Creating something from nothing was especially hard.

If I pushed it, I could probably produce a tiny flame like a match from my fingertip.

Ilza, who had the Eisenburg family blood, was the same.

She could release flames, but the precision would be bad.

Well, we had solid fuel anyway. Victory for civilization.

While I was thinking about all that, Myris stood in the kitchen.

“Leave dinner to me~”

Myris placed a round lump on the counter.

Inside the round lump, flames were swirling. She fixed the lump in the kitchen, pressed a frying pan against it, and started cooking.

“It’s magic that fixes the flames in place. I only loosen the control when I need heat so it radiates out. I also brought condensed water, so just tell me if you need any.”

I see. So fire and water are all taken care of with magic.

Hey, God… the fundamental spec difference between me and them…

It wasn’t that I was jealous of their talent, but more like the atmosphere where I couldn’t go against them was getting stronger and stronger…

While I was feeling frustrated, the food got done.

It was a stir-fry packed with meat and vegetables.

Myris said she’d eat after her masters, but when we invited her to eat together, we ended up having dinner at the wooden table.

“I brought pudding chilled with my magic, so let’s eat that later.”

“You’re really capable. Good job, good job.”

“Ehehe~ Please praise me more~”

The meal was peaceful. There was no villain or evil there.

The mood was nice, so while eating I gave them a warning.

“Spending time with everyone is fine, but tomorrow we’re doing the mana contamination investigation. …You probably didn’t have time for that much, right?”

“Yeah. We didn’t have that much time.”

“Smile while admitting the evil scheme.”

“Well. What’s wrong with spending time with Big Brother?”

“It’s the process and the means?!”

I held my head while thinking about the mana contamination.

Mana contamination led to monster appearances and dungeon formation.

I’d heard it was small-scale contamination, so I probably didn’t need to worry, but the increased monster appearance rate still bothered me.

“It’s fine, Big Brother. It’s just small contamination, right?”

“That’s what I heard. There probably won’t be any dungeons… or monsters.”

“Hehe, of course. After all the preparation, it would be trouble if they appeared so easily. …If this time gets interrupted, I feel like I’d take it out on the whole world.”

The scale of her tantrum would be huge…

Ilza was in a great mood, but she kept showing glimpses of the original Ilza.

That’s exactly why I was scared—if this time got interrupted, she really might take it out on the world. Well, tomorrow would probably be peaceful too. …It would be peaceful, right?

Not like a flag or anything?

And so, a very tough adventure (mostly for me) began. Well, on that point, I did manage to grow a level, so that was good.

But still… just…

It became the adventure that made Ilza even more obsessed with me.