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 22: Valeria’s POV. Carrying Out the Plan to Condemn the Saintess

【Ducal Daughter Valeria’s POV】

I’m Valeria, daughter of the Asphodel duke.

That afternoon, I was in the study at the Greivan frontier count house, happily scribbling a letter to my father.

The gist was that thanks to my fiancé Zenon, we’d set everything up to prove my innocence, so please help us out.

I was in such a rush to let Father know—even a second sooner would be better.

If only I could use communication magic, I wouldn’t have to bother with a letter…

But in the Greivan frontier count house, the only person who could use communication magic was the one Sword Saint Baldo kept close by as head of the family.

No way we could borrow someone that valuable during wartime.

Plus, this was part of Zenon’s plan to trap the Holy Church anyway.

『…That concludes my report.

P.S.
Thanks to Zenon, my life was saved. I’m truly grateful you introduced us. Zenon is exactly the kind of man worthy of becoming my husband. What makes him so wonderful? Well, first off, he seems reckless at first glance but he’s actually really thoughtful』

I started the postscript to thank Father, but I ended up just rambling on and on about Zenon.

“…Ah, th-this is basically just me gushing about him.”

My cheeks suddenly burned hot.

In all my fifteen years, I’d never met a guy who could shake me up this much inside.

Ever since I was little and got engaged to Crown Prince Harold, I’d worked my butt off learning every bit of knowledge, etiquette, and magic to support him properly.

But Prince Harold just kept giving me these cold looks, like he was mocking all my efforts.

From his attitude, it was super obvious—he was only putting up with the bare minimum because it was arranged by our parents for the kingdom’s sake.

But Zenon was the total opposite.

The second we met, he threw this fiery, passionate energy at me—risking his life to save mine.

It hit me so hard my whole body went numb.

More than anything, the way he willingly charged into danger to protect the territory… that noble spirit was exactly what Father always talked about as the ideal of 【noblesse oblige】—the embodiment of it.

“Hah…!? Oh no, I did it again—nothing but Zenon stuff.”

I crumpled the letter into a ball, annoyed at myself, and started over from scratch.

I was getting way too caught up thinking about Zenon—it was messing with my head. Gotta pull it together…

I quickly scribbled away: the one who framed me was a 【Necromancer】 named Gideon from the Holy Church.

He was the actual perpetrator behind the attempted assassination of Prince Harold. Since he was going in and out of the palace until recently, please investigate him from that angle.

I wrote the letter assuming Holy Church agents might steal it—so only stuff that was fine for them to know.

This letter was basically bait to lure out the Church’s operatives.

“Alright, this time it’s done for real. Okay then…”

I chanted the spell and summoned one of my Schwarz Ritter—【Death Knight】 Gordon.

“Here, Gordon. Deliver this letter to Father.”

Gordon dropped to one knee and respectfully took the envelope.

The envelope I gave him had the Asphodel ducal crest sealed in wax—super fancy. It proved that even as an undead, Gordon was an official messenger of our ducal house.

“Um, Lady Valeria… are you really sure that thing won’t attack us?”

The maids I’d had stand back were trembling in fear at the sight of Gordon.

Well, yeah, that reaction made sense.

To me he was a precious retainer, but a Death Knight was an A-rank monster that was basically humanity’s natural enemy.

“…It’s fine. Don’t worry—just go ahead and disguise him.”

“Y-yes! Understood. This is to repay Zenon-sama’s kindness too!”

The maids steeled themselves and stepped up to Gordon. They polished his grimy armor and helmet till it shone, then slathered thick makeup on his withered face to make it look alive.

The maids really adored Zenon from the bottom of their hearts.

Apparently he’d always been kind to the castle servants—talking to them warmly, treating them nicely.

In a world where most nobles acted arrogant toward anyone lower-ranked, that was honestly shocking.

“Thanks. You did an amazing job. He looks totally like a living person now.”

“Oh, thank you so much— we’re honored, Lady Valeria!”

When I copied Zenon and gave them gentle praise, their eyes lit up with joy.

…Yeah, this felt kinda nice, didn’t it.

Back at the palace, I’d always believed being strict with myself and others was the right way.

But watching Zenon, I’d started wondering if maybe that wasn’t it.

Come to think of it, Prince Harold once told me with this grim face, “What you say is correct, Valeria, but you lack compassion. Being around you feels suffocating.”

Maybe the reason his heart turned toward Saintess Alicia was because I tried so hard to be proud and noble that I unknowingly gave off this intimidating vibe to everyone around me.

…If that’s the case, I should probably watch how I act from now on so Zenon doesn’t end up hating me.

“Alright, Gordon. You’re gonna travel through the main cities, make yourself as noticeable as possible. Hold up the black rose sword as the Asphodel duke’s messenger, and stay at fancy inns every night.”

『Yes ma’am. Leave it to me, Lady Valeria. I will accomplish this even at the cost of my existence.』

Gordon’s strong, loyal voice echoed in my mind.

Since a 【Necromancer】 and the undead they control were mentally linked, we could communicate even when apart.

That meant everything Soul Eater saw and heard had gone straight to the enemy’s 【Necromancer】.

Zenon used that to feed them controlled information through Soul Eater.

『I’m sending a letter to the Asphodel duke asking for cooperation. I know your master’s name and location. In a month I can throw him in a cell.』

Something like that.

Zenon’s bet was that the panicked Holy Church and Saintess Alicia would try to stop it by ambushing the messenger and stealing the letter.

Above all, the Church would want to confirm how real Zenon’s info was…

If we caught the assassin, we could turn it around—denounce the Church’s crimes and prove my innocence.

“Seriously, coming up with a plan like this on the spot… that’s Zenon for you.”

I wrote one more letter.

This one added to the previous info: our loyal retainer Gordon from the Asphodel ducal house had captured an assassin and was heading there with him—please interrogate the assassin to expose the Holy Church’s conspiracy.

Since Death Knights didn’t need sleep or get tired, if he wanted he could sprint day and night and deliver the assassin to Father super fast.

I also wrote down where the enemy 【Necromancer】 Gideon—the one who framed me—was hiding.

Apparently there was a secret basement in an abandoned church on the outskirts of the capital, and Gideon was holed up there.

Zenon told me that…

But how he knew such a top-secret detail about the Holy Church was honestly a mystery to me.

Still, according to Zenon, the Holy Church was the one pulling strings behind the scenes to make sure the kingdom lost this war—so we needed to get this to Father as quickly as possible.

Luckily, the Asphodel ducal house had a torturer whose skill could force anyone to confess under torture.

Anything confessed under that 【Torturer】 skill was 100% true.

If we caught the assassin or Gideon and made them spill, it should lead straight to Saintess Alicia in a chain reaction—we could condemn her crimes.

Then we’d avenge Gawain and the others…

I could never forgive Saintess Alicia—the one who poisoned them and was trying to throw the kingdom’s people into the flames of war.

I summoned a flying undead monster—【Skeleton Bird】.

A moving bird corpse with nothing but bones left.

“Here, take this to Father. As fast as you can.”

The bare-bones bird rattled its throat in a nod.

I tied the letter tightly to its exposed ribcage so it wouldn’t fall off.

With one loud caw, the Skeleton Bird shot out the window.

In just a day, the letter would reach Father—he was out on a monster-hunting mission in the south.

That way, even if Gordon’s letter got stolen by an assassin, we’d be fine. It was a double-layered plan: lure out the enemy’s 【Necromancer】 Gideon by making him think he was safe, then catch him easier.

“…Phew.”

After the summons drained some of my life force, I felt a light tiredness and sank deep into the chair.

Since I was born with a weak heart and low life force, this feeling of having my life shaved away was kinda rough on me.

“Lady Valeria, are you alright!?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, but could you go get Zenon for me?”

I smiled at the worried maids.

If Zenon healed me with his 【Miracle of Healing】, it’d be no problem at all.

“If I hadn’t met Zenon, I never would’ve noticed the Holy Church’s conspiracy… I would’ve definitely died here.”

I looked up through the window at the endlessly clear blue sky.

Under this sky lived countless people—like the number of stars.

Out of all of them, meeting Zenon didn’t feel like a coincidence.

It had to be fate—or maybe God’s will.