I Was Reincarnated as a Mob Noble, and I Swear I'll Protect the Villainess Who Got Married Off to Me No Matter What ~To Dodge Our Total Downfall, I Went All Out Training My Trash Skill [Super Recovery] Through Crazy Hard Work, and Before I Knew It, I Could Totally Wreck the Game Protagonist Who Condemned My Wife Easily - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Valeria Falls for Zenon and Decides to Support Him with Everything She’s Got

[Lady Valeria Asphodel’s POV]

The boy Zenon, who carries the same [Miracle of Healing] as the saintess.

He’s only just started waking up to that power, but…

If I—Valeria Asphodel—pour everything into backing him up, he’s definitely gonna become the true hero who takes the saintess’s place.

Zenon, you might not even realize it yet, but you’re my hope—no, the hope of every single person living in this kingdom.

Because if an evil being like saintess Alicia gets worshipped as the savior and climbs to a seat of power, this country—no, the whole world—is finished…

I remembered what happened three days after Harold broke off our engagement, on the road to the Greivan border count territory.

That’s when saintess Alicia and some mysterious group following her ambushed me.

※※※※※※

—Five days ago, on the road to the Greivan border count territory.

“Please cheer up, my lady. Once we repel the empire army, you’ll be able to redeem your honor.”

Inside the carriage, Gawain—the knight who swore loyalty to me—tried to encourage me.

I’d completely lost my appetite. For the past two days, I could barely force anything down.

Because I’d become a major criminal, the Asphodel ducal house’s reputation had hit rock bottom.

Thanks to that, Father got stripped of his duty guarding the capital.

With the empire attacking, that was a huge blow to the kingdom.

Father said he was moving forward with the marriage talks between me and the Greivan border count’s eldest son.

On the surface, it was supposed to be so I could defeat the empire army and restore my honor…

But I could tell there was cold calculation behind it: by marrying me off to another house, he could claim “Valeria’s no longer part of the Asphodel family” and salvage the ducal house’s reputation.

If he didn’t do that, Father could never get his capital guardian role back.

“Please eat something. If this keeps up, it’ll hurt your health.”

“…Yeah, you’re right. I can’t just sit here moping forever.”

Father had assigned me eighty of the absolute top-tier knights from the elite Schwarz Ritter order as my escort. Gawain was their captain.

Right.

As the unbreakable sword of the kingdom, I had to lead them and beat back the empire army.

That was Father’s real wish—and the new mission he’d given me.

Finally pulling myself together, I reached for the bread Gawain offered.

That’s when…

“…Guh!?”

Gawain suddenly coughed up blood and slumped over.

“G-Gawain!?”

I had no idea what just happened. Gawain was one of the kingdom’s strongest knights—he’d never even gotten sick before.

“My lady… it’s poison…!”

One of the Schwarz Ritter knights following the carriage shouted it out.

“What!?”

I jerked toward the window and looked out—knights were rolling on the ground, groaning in agony.

“Kyaa!?”

The next second, my carriage lost control, hit a rock, and flipped sideways. Looked like even the driver had gotten poisoned.

“Ugh…!?”

I got slammed hard all over but managed to crawl out of the wrecked carriage.

What spread out in front of me was a nightmare.

Not just the knights—servants from the other carriages were clawing at their throats too, suffering like crazy.

“W-Wait… was the food poisoned?”

I was the only one who hadn’t eaten anything… so that’s why I was okay…?

“Ahahaha! Easy peasy! What’s with ‘kingdom’s strongest knight order’—they went down so fast!”

Right then, saintess Alicia stepped out laughing her head off, holding her stomach. She had a group of black-cloaked people with masks following her.

“Wh-Why are you… here?”

I was super confused.

The face saintess Alicia showed His Highness Harold was all angelic—but right now she looked straight-up evil.

I’d sensed she had two sides, but I never thought it was this bad.

“Huh? Valeria, what—you’re still alive?”

Alicia walked right up and stomped down hard on my head.

“Agh!?”

She ground her foot in while grinning like she was having the time of her life.

“Aha? Did you maybe not eat the special poison bread? I bribed your servants to do it—too bad!”

I was so furious my head went blank.

The one who poisoned us and wiped everyone out… was saintess Alicia herself.

“A-Alicia, do you even realize what you just did!?”

Alicia snorted and snapped her fingers with a pop.

“What? Doesn’t matter to Valeria who’s about to die, right?”

Then all the black-cloaked guys pulled out daggers at once.

“But hey, it’s funny—so lemme tell ya. I’m the one who sent undead after Harold-sama. It was all a setup by me so I could become queen!”

“Q-Queen? That’s insane. If you kill us here, the Greivan border count army loses, and the kingdom gets trampled!”

“Ahahaha! Then I show up with my [Miracle of Healing] as the big savior—nobody’s gonna oppose me becoming queen anymore! Everything’s going exactly according to plan!”

“Guh…!?”

Alicia kicked me hard in the stomach while I was on the ground. The pain was so bad I couldn’t even scream.

“You were the crown prince’s fiancée—the biggest obstacle in my plan. Once you’re gone, it’s perfect.”

“Y-You bastard—get away from my lady!”

Gawain, barely breathing, crawled out of the carriage.

“Gawain!?”

“Aha! A leftover who won’t die! Is this what they call knightly spirit or whatever?”

Alicia pulled out her own dagger and stabbed Gawain right in the back.

“Gaaah!?”

“Alicia…!”

“Don’t glare at me with those scary eyes. It’s just a little joke, okay?”

Alicia cackled like it was the funniest thing ever.

“’Cause with my [Miracle of Healing], I can save anybody. Poison? Easy peasy to fix! Ahahaha, it’s the best! The rush of controlling people’s lives—it’s addictive!”

“This… this is a [Saintess]!? A girl this evil…”

Gawain glared up at her with pure rage.

“Yep! I’m the one God loves—the real saintess! Everyone’s gonna bow down to my [Miracle of Healing]!”

Alicia puffed her chest out all arrogant.

“Aha, I just got a great idea. Valeria—if you lick the bottom of my shoe, I might save your precious Schwarz Ritter guys?”

“Wh-What…?”

I was hit so hard by shock.

“Come on—before I change my mind. Hurry up or they all die, okay? You fine with that? Don’t you wanna save the kingdom? Oh proud sword of the kingdom, Lady Asphodel duchess daaaaughter!”

Alicia threw her head back and laughed like crazy.

Even if I did it, no way this girl would keep her word.

“Guh…!”

But still… watching Gawain and the others die like this was too painful to bear.

So, swallowing the humiliation, I made up my mind.

“…F-Fine, I’ll do it.”

“My lady, no…!”

I squeezed my eyes shut tight and licked the bottom of Alicia’s shoe.

“This girl actually did it! No pride at all!? Or wait—my power’s just that amazing, right!?”

Alicia looked like she’d hit peak excitement.

“If this saves everyone, I’ll do whatever. You just wanna kill me, right? Please—let Gawain and the others live!”

If even just Gawain and the knights could make it to the Greivan border count house as reinforcements, we might still beat the empire.

“Idiot. Like I’d keep a promise with you. You crazy?”

Alicia just shrugged.

“For now, I’m gonna slaughter your retainers right in front of you. Cry and scream for me, okay, Lady Duchess?”

“…My lady, we can’t let evil like this run free. Please—turn us into undead!”

Gawain yelled desperately, and multiple daggers stabbed into him.

“G-Gawain…!”

Screams echoed all around. When I looked, the black-cloaked guys were finishing off the knights who were still breathing.

Right then, the dying voices of the Schwarz Ritter souls rang straight into my heart—I’m a [Necromancer], after all.

Every single one said the same thing Gawain did.

‘We’ll protect Lady Valeria even in death!’

‘We can’t bow to evil like this!’

‘Our souls will stay with you forever!’

‘Only Lady Valeria can protect the innocent people!’

I made my choice.

“…O-Okay, everyone!”

“Hah. I know all about [Necromancer] skill magic. Turning the dead into undead takes a decent amount of time—”

Alicia’s mocking face twisted in terror.

Because Gawain—who should’ve been dead—stood right up and swung his sword.

“Th-That’s impossible…!”

Gawain’s blade grazed the tip of Alicia’s nose as she jerked back.

“Bl-Blood!? A scar on my beautiful face aaaah!?”

Alicia freaked out and used her [Miracle of Healing] on herself in a panic.

Her minions tried to cut Gawain down, but he mowed them all down in one swing.

“Uoooohhh!”

Gawain roared with rage.

He’d been reborn as an A-rank undead monster—the [Death Knight].

“If the dead lend me their power, turning them into undead finishes fast!”

I turned the Schwarz Ritter into undead one after another and sent them straight at saintess Alicia.

Every single one became A-rank monsters—Death Knights, Demi-Liches, you name it.

“W-Wait, I played too much!? Gotta run…!”

“You’re not going anywhere!”

My life force got sucked away super fast by the undead—I started feeling faint.

But saintess Alicia—her alone—I had to take her down right here…! For the kingdom, and above all, to avenge Gawain and everyone’s grudge!

“Kyaaaa! Protect me—protect me!”

Alicia’s scream rang out.

Her masked minions blocked Gawain and the others.

But Gawain’s group didn’t even slow down—they smashed right through.

“Go… Gawain…!”

Gawain’s sword came down toward saintess Alicia—but a huge scythe blocked it at the last second.

Clang!

One step short, a reaper-like monster with a scythe appeared in front of Alicia.

An overwhelming pressure crushed down like it was squeezing my soul.

“Th-That’s… an S-rank undead monster, [Soul Eater]…!?”

I sucked in a breath without thinking.

“You’re late—late! What were you doing!? Protecting me is your job, right!?”

“My apologies. You said you hated unclean undead, Saintess…”

From their back-and-forth, it looked like the enemy had their own [Necromancer] who sent this minion.

This monster’s controller was probably the real culprit behind trying to assassinate His Highness Harold.

Their skill was clearly way above mine—I’d only just gotten the [Necromancer] skill this year.

But…

“No matter who you are, you’re not stopping our charge!”

I sent the Schwarz Ritter charging straight at Alicia.

We would never forgive anyone who harmed the kingdom.

“Va-Valeria, I’m never forgetting this humiliation! I’ll kill you—definitely kill you! I’ll make you suffer and kill you! I, saintess Alicia, am the real star of this world yooo!”

Alicia screamed full of hate while scrambling to escape.

※※※※※※

That was five days ago.

After that, I ordered the Schwarz Ritter to chase Alicia down… but I’d lost too much life force and passed out, so it didn’t happen.

Even as my mind went foggy, I kept pushing forward to the Greivan border count territory to carry on everyone’s will and beat the empire army.

But my body was wrecked from overusing [Necromancer] skill magic like crazy.

Even with rest, my heart had always been weak, so it wouldn’t recover at all. The heavy price of that power shocked me.

If things stayed like this, I’d end up dying without accomplishing anything. Panic and despair crushed me.

Father had told me the empire’s new weapons were stronger than we thought.

And if saintess Alicia and her mysterious group were secretly working to make the kingdom lose on purpose, we didn’t have a second to waste.

Even if it cost my life, I had to crush the empire army no matter what. I’d never let saintess Alicia get her way.

With that resolve, I reached the borderlands and met my fiancé—Zenon.

‘If I take you to the front lines, you’ll die. You really think your body right now can be any kind of real fighting force?’

At first I thought, who does this guy think he is—talking so rudely without knowing his place.

But…

‘I don’t want you to die, Valeria. Because I’m the guy who’s gonna be your husband!’

‘You’re the one I’m definitely gonna save. So just rest quietly till tomorrow!’

Nobody had ever come at me with that kind of raw passion before.

Zenon wasn’t just some guy destined to replace the saintess as the savior—the true hero.

He was the first man who really loved me…

For the first time in my life, my heart raced like crazy for Zenon.