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.

Ordinary Life Is Tough

My daily life drifted further and further away from anything normal, and it kept getting more intense.

Real combat got added to my training sessions with Bakudou-sensei. We stopped using those practice blades from before and started swinging actual weapons with no edge blunting.

“Gant, young master, you’ll never get strong if you don’t learn the real weight and the real pain.”

“Aaaah—ow ow ow ow owww!!”

While I gritted my teeth through the raw, stinging pain, I threw myself at it like a madman.

On the side of learning the border count’s work, I kept spending more time with Ilza too.

“Yes! Here’s Gant-kun’s short skit, ‘Watchdog Cerberus VS Three-Headed Hydra’!”

“Fufu, I wonder what on earth my dear brother-in-law Gant is going to show us. I’m so, so excited… I’m really looking forward to it, okay?”

“…H-hey, cut that out! I’m gonna unveil my newest original dish instead!”

I went straight for her stomach to keep that scary smiling Ilza happy.

There wasn’t a single moment to catch my breath.

I was constantly on edge, wondering when I’d hit a death end.

“Gaaant, my adorable, lovely Myris is heeere~”

“Uwaaaa… Myris! Don’t scare me for no reason like that?!”

Sometimes the maid would tease me too.

While all that was going on, Ilza steadily built up her position inside the mansion.

She’s cute, she’s friendly, and she stopped controlling corpses in front of everyone. I think that helped. Still, I knew she kept sneaking out at night. I had no idea what she was doing.

I’d decided I would never let my guard down around her… and that’s when it happened one day.

“—Huh? Bakudou-sensei, you’re heading out on an expedition?”

Right in front of the mansion entrance.

I was in total shock seeing Bakudou-sensei geared up for travel.

Right beside me, Dad said, “Papa’s going too, y’know?” but I ignored him.

“Mm. I’ll be away with Dust’s husband for a while. Seems a swarm of monsters showed up near the border. We’ll crush them before the damage gets worse.”

“Don’t gooo! Stay heeere!”

“Wha—?! What’s this, what’s this. It’s not like we’re hunting some vicious monster. Don’t worry, I’ll come back. More importantly, don’t you dare skip training, got it?”

Bakudou-sensei laughed like it was no big deal, but I felt like the anxiety was gonna crush me.

The stopper, the violence control device that kept things in check… if he left the mansion, then when something happened…

Suddenly I felt someone’s probing gaze on me.

“My dear brother-in-law Gant really is a spoiled little baby, huh.”

My little sister—or rather, the most terrifying villainess—giggled softly, looking amused.

That smile was scarier than any monster, and cold sweat poured down my back.

“Papa’s going too, y’know? I want you to worry about me~?”

Dad was saying something, but I ignored him.

※※※

The sun had completely set; it was the middle of the night.

I’d finished every single daily task and was dead tired. Even though I flopped onto my bed in my room, I should’ve fallen asleep right away like always, but I couldn’t sleep at all.

“Man… I can’t sleeeep…”

The terror of having no one—no sensei, and technically no dad either—who could keep the current Ilza in check. My sister-in-law’s smile wouldn’t leave my head, and I couldn’t get any food down my throat.

There were a few servants, but Ilza’s strength had already surpassed them long ago.

I didn’t think she’d do anything too obvious, but my mind kept jumping to the worst-case scenario anyway.

“Are these days really gonna keep going on like this…?”

As I sat there feeling sick about the future, I suddenly noticed something off.

It was that weird restless feeling, like when you sense wild animals in the forest. There was a strange smell too.

“What the…?”

Thanks to the mindset I’d built from constant training, I jumped out of bed instantly.

I quickly slipped on some easy-to-move shoes and ran to the window.

“…No way! Are those… undead?!”

Dozens of blue flames were floating outside the mansion.

Inside those blue flames were corpses.

Some were just skulls, some were only upper bodies. Even the dog that had turned to bones in the courtyard was running around.

“They’re swarming… Are they all low-grade undead? Did Ilza do something? Damn it! Right when sensei and Dad aren’t here!”

I roughly scratched my head, thinking hard.

There was an emergency contact person, but the mansion was quiet, so they probably hadn’t noticed yet. Maybe they’d already been taken out? But what would Ilza gain from that?

At the very least, she’d been trying to worm her way into the Eisenburg family.

“This isn’t Ilza’s doing… Some irregularity happened…?”

Did it have something to do with her sneaking out at night?

…I’d heard that people with overwhelming magical talent sometimes get approached by demonic beings, but no way. That kind of thing had nothing to do with me in my whole life, but if it was Ilza…

“If that’s the case, this is gonna be a huge pain!! The death route’s gonna speed right up!!”

I couldn’t just sit here doing nothing, but even if they were low-grade spirits, could a weakling like me actually handle them?

While I was hesitating, my eyes met with the skull floating right outside the window.

“Oh crap!!”

I sprinted over to the big box that held all my weapons.

I yanked out a silver sword, flipped a flower vase upside down, and poured the water over the blade to purify it.

That should give it a simple anti-evil effect. I gripped the silver sword and got ready.

“Good thing I ordered all kinds of weapons while I was looking for one that suits me. Seriously.”

“—Kikiki!”

A skull wrapped in blue flame slipped into the room.

It passed straight through the window without breaking it, so yeah, definitely a fantasy creature. Back when I was little I’d tagged along with Dad on monster hunts a few times, but now there was no one around me.

“Kikiki… Looks tasty! Looks tasty!”

The skull locked onto me and my whole body almost froze up.

I nearly lost it realizing I was all alone in a fight for my life, but even while my teeth chattered I took a deep breath.

“F-fuuu…… Alright, I can fight!! I didn’t prep all this for nothing!”

The moment I made up my mind, the skull shot straight at me.

“Hyaaaaa—!!”

I jumped sideways to dodge.

Right away I swung the silver sword, but the low-grade spirit dodged it.

“Idiot idiot! Kid kid, kiiid!”

It was taunting me, damn it!!

Sure, my sword skills were still childish, but I hadn’t used any magic power yet!

I held the silver sword ready and moved carefully, measuring the distance, while I recalled Bakudou-sensei’s lessons.

“Young master. Raising magic output boosts your physical ability, but if you raise it too much, your body won’t hold up under the heavy strain.”

“So that’s why mages focus their output on one point, and warriors put magic into strengthening their bodies, right?”

“Mm. Either way, when you fight someone stronger, the magic consumption gets crazy.”

I kept dodging the low-grade spirit’s charges left and right.

No magic—just pure physical ability.

“With my amount of magic power… if the fight drags on, I’m probably done…”

“Nah, the important thing is when and where you use it.”

“…Um, meaning?”

“Young master, you need to become a warrior even in your base state.”

So I could fight while saving magic, and even without magic I could take down average monsters.

Sensei had taught me how important building a foundation was.

“Young master, use magic only in that decisive moment.”

“Like when you switch to attacking, right? Raise output in an instant and strengthen the body at the same time… I’m still bad at fine magic control, though.”

“A little sloppiness is fine. Sloppy is okay, but keep the time as short as possible.”

“…That’s still pretty hard, but I guess I just have to get used to it.”

The low-grade spirit started drifting around looking irritated.

Probably because some random kid, some pathetic human, kept dodging its attacks. I only raised my magic output in dangerous moments, so it was probably hard for it to tell.

“Alright, young master, come at me with everything.”

“Yes! Uwooooooooh!!”

“…Mm. Like this—when you raise output instantly, sometimes the strengthening of muscles and joints can’t keep up. Magic control can be rough, but if you mess up the crucial parts, your shoulder bone will pop out. Learn it with your body.”

“Aaaaaah!! My shoulder bone came out!!”

There were times when my shoulder bone really did dislocate.

When a joint bent in a weird direction, I screamed in a voice that didn’t sound human.

Luckily, since the family was a border count’s, we had convenient healing salves, so the bones healed quickly, but that didn’t make the pain any less.

It hurt like hell, and visually it was pretty nasty too.

Even so, I never stopped training because I wanted to survive.

I wanted to grab a plain, normal, safe future.

“You damn brat!!”

The low-grade spirit yelled in frustration and charged again the same way.

I gripped the silver sword tightly.

“…Sensei, I do feel like I’m growing little by little.”

“What’s up? Something worrying you?”

“…When it really becomes a life-or-death fight, I wonder if I’ll actually be able to fight properly.”

This time I didn’t dodge sideways. Instead I instantly raised my magic output.

I boldly stepped toward the low-grade spirit and swung with all my might.

There was no fear, no trembling.