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 17

Chapter 17: Skill Level Goes Up and Valeria Calls Me the Strongest in Human History

“You… you bastard! Even if you take me down, it’s not over! Valeria, your death is exactly what that person—the saintess Alicia—wants!”

The Soul Eater spat out its final parting shot.

“No way I’m letting things go the way you want. Starting today, Valeria’s my number-one favorite heroine.”

Up until yesterday, Saintess Alicia was my top pick, but I’m completely dropping her now.

The one who got condemned as a villainess—Valeria—was actually the only one truly trying to save this country. She’s the real heroine of the story, no question.

Right then, a light fanfare played in my head, and the system voice rang out clear.

『Congratulations.
You have defeated the S-rank monster, Soul Eater!

Skill [Super Recovery] has ranked up to Level 2!

You have gained access to the new spell [Excessive Recovery].

This is an attack magic that over-recovers a touched target, causing them to collapse. MP cost: 10 to infinite. The more MP you pour in, the stronger the effect.』

“…Hell yeah!”

A rush of joy shot through my whole body like electricity.

In this game, the more you use a skill, the higher its rank goes, and it evolves into something way more powerful.

All that blood-spitting and spamming skill magic was worth it.

Now the odds of dodging total ruin just shot way up.

Of course, leveling the skill up this fast only happened because Valeria helped me out.

Magic-type skills get massive proficiency boosts when you use their magic to beat strong monsters.

There’s no way I could’ve taken down the Soul Eater by myself.

The finishing [Heal] was huge, but more than that—Valeria stayed up all night holding my hand, worried sick about me. That’s what pulled me out of my slump and let me fight at full power.

Maybe Valeria’s literally my goddess of luck.

Still… [Excessive Recovery]? Never heard of that spell before. And it’s attack magic?

Could [Super Recovery] be a magic-type skill that lets you use spells from a completely different branch than the [Saintess] one?

This mysterious skill might still have a ton of hidden power left.

I couldn’t help sinking into thought.

“…Zenon, um… could you put me down soon?”

“Oh crap, sorry.”

Valeria gave me that deadpan stare, and I finally noticed I was still holding her in one arm the whole time.

I quickly set her down on the floor.

“Thanks to you, I made it out alive, Zenon.”

Then Valeria did this super graceful curtsy toward me.

“I’m deeply grateful. I, Valeria Asphodel, am truly proud to be your fiancée.”

“…You’re really acknowledging me as your fiancé?”

A curtsy is the bow a woman does to show respect to someone higher-ranking. For a duke’s daughter like Valeria to do that to me means she’s officially treating me as an equal—or higher.

“Yes. You’re braver and more honorable than anyone. You’re perfectly worthy of wearing the black rose of Asphodel.”

Gawain and the rest of Schwarz Ritter nodded like they totally agreed with their master.

“Geez, when you put it like that, I get kinda embarrassed.”

All I wanted was to flip my own doom flag and make sure Valeria didn’t end up with the same awful fate as my sister.

I’m not honorable or anything.

The one who’s truly honorable is Valeria.

Even with that haughty attitude, deep down she’s a good person—this duke’s daughter I wanna protect all over again.

The scenario where she gets framed and killed? Total garbage.

“But y’know, you’re a little reckless, so from now on I’m gonna be the one supporting you, okay?”

“Nah, the reckless one here is you, Valeria…?”

“Huh?”

Valeria blinked fast.

“I mean, come on. You were half-dead yourself, but you kept pouring mana into me all night long.”

“Th-that’s… because you’re the one this world needs! You took my side… A-and anyway, you’re the one with mana deficiency who still tried using magic—I don’t wanna hear that from you!”

Valeria huffed, all worked up, and turned her face away.

“Well… yeah, maybe. But look, the one thing I wanna say is… Valeria, take better care of yourself!”

“Zenon, you take better care of yourself!”

Our last lines overlapped perfectly.

We just stared at each other, stunned. Then we both burst out laughing.

“Hehe, well then… from now on, let’s be family, okay, Zenon?”

“Yeah, uh-huh. Looking forward to it, Valeria.”

Valeria held out her right hand with a bright smile, and I grabbed it, feeling kinda shy.

The villainess I thought was totally messed up in the head turned out to be way too good for me—like, seriously the perfect wife material.

“By the way, I was really shocked by how insanely strong your body is. It’s on par with the Soul Eater. So how come Sword Saint Baldo treated you like a total failure?”

Valeria tilted her head a little.

“Oh right, I never properly explained. My [Super Recovery] isn’t just healing—it’s also a skill that ‘rebuilds an injured body stronger than before.’”

“…Huh?”

Valeria froze like time stopped.

“Getting slashed by Gawain, taking internal damage and stuff—that’s how I got so strong so fast. This time too, getting beat to hell all over let me power up during the fight. The leg strength boost at the end was especially huge.”

“…W-wait. So you’re saying you’ve got [Miracle of Healing], insane regeneration, and on top of that, physical enhancement? And the boost is on the level of an S-rank monster!? The more you get hurt in battle, the stronger you get with no limit!?”

Valeria got super excited and leaned way in toward me.

Her cute face was suddenly right up in mine, and my heart skipped a beat.

“…Uh, yeah. And also, this time the skill ranked up, so I got a new attack spell called [Excessive Recovery] too.”

I leaned back a bit while adding that part.

“Ehh!? But anyone who receives the [Saintess] skill can’t use attack magic anymore!? Th-then that means, Zenon, you’re without a doubt…”

Valeria stopped mid-sentence and stared hard at me.

“…The strongest being in this world—no, in all of human history—surpassing even the saintess!”