I Was Reincarnated as the Villain Who Confines the Heroine in an Eroge World, But for Some Reason I'm the One Getting Confined by the Heroine Instead - Chapter 25-26

Chapter 25: Not Peaceful at All

One month later, it was decided we would go to the grape farm Safira was developing. Well, that was fine.

Even though I aimed to escape abroad, I wasn’t shortsighted enough to pass up grapes right in front of me.

If there were grapes, I would dive in. That was the basics.

Even so, nothing ever went smoothly in life.

“The plan has changed.”

That happened after classes ended and we returned to the dorm.

When Safira headed to the duke’s house because His Grace the Duke summoned her, Lavanda appeared as if she had been waiting for the opening.

She entered my room without permission and sat on the bed with a bold attitude before opening her mouth.

It was information she should never leak to anyone outside the organization.

“One month from now, right when we planned to carry it out, the young lady will visit the grape farm for inspection.”

“…Yeah.”

“Unlike the duke’s house where we control security, the people stationed there aren’t under the organization’s influence. That means the risk of failure goes up.”

“…Yeah.”

I understood why the duke’s house had such lax security, but I let it slide without reacting.

If I said something careless, it would reveal I was an outsider with no connection to the organization. I wanted to avoid that trouble.

“So we’re changing the plan. Specifically—”

Lavanda muttered calmly without changing her expression.

“We’re kidnapping the young lady tomorrow.”

I felt shocked at those words.

“Tomorrow!?”

“I know it lacks planning. We can’t count on reinforcements from Lord Masquerade, and the forces we can gather are honestly insufficient. But the young lady’s security outside the mansion or academy is strict. We won’t get close easily.”

“Yeah…”

I thought the same, which was why I confined her in advance.

It ended up being irreversible, but I agreed the security was strict.

“That means tomorrow. Tomorrow, we’ll attack the young lady inside the academy.”

“Inside the academy!?”

“It’s more convenient for us. There are many organization members in the academy.”

“…I see.”

It was dangerously extreme.

Of course, since it was the game’s setting, incidents probably never stopped at the academy the protagonist and heroines attended, but the security was still way too bad.

If I lived in a vineyard, that wouldn’t happen.

“And we have a strong ally in you. With you, who has the young lady in your grasp, achieving the plan will be easy.”

Lavanda muttered that with a composed face.

Her expression screamed spy, yet she lounged boldly on the bed, and I couldn’t quite grasp her character.

Was she natural, or just spacing out?

Either way, there was one thing I had to deny.

“I haven’t got her in my grasp at all.”

I meant I couldn’t control Safira.

It was impossible for someone like me, a full grape human, to tame a wild beast.

That meant I couldn’t provide the support Lavanda expected.

Just as I walked my own path (the grape path), Safira charged ahead on hers.

“We’ll give the signal on the day.”

“Yeah.”

“—All for our long-cherished wish.”

“…Oh, yeah.”

“Then I’ll go.”

After saying that, Lavanda walked toward the window.

I wondered what she was doing, and she gently opened the curtain and put her foot on the windowsill.

“Huh? For real?”

“For real. I’m a maid, after all.”

The next moment, Lavanda slipped out the window and vanished.

She was… gone. No footsteps either.

I hurried to the window, but no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find her.

“What kind of stunt is that?”

She remained a mysterious person.

Why did so many weird people gather around me? It was truly strange.

“Even so, tomorrow, huh.”

Tomorrow, an incident would happen in the academy. A certain assassination organization would try to abduct the duke’s daughter.

“…I want to escape abroad.”

But no matter what, I probably couldn’t make it in time.

Leaving the academy now and taking a carriage to escape abroad wasn’t realistic.

“Should I beg Luxol on my knees?”

Beg on my knees for him to guard Safira. Yeah, that was good.

Safira guarded me, and Luxol guarded Safira. A perpetual motion machine complete.

Thinking that eased my chest a little.

Having the protagonist around was best.

“Please take care of it!!!!”

“What’s with you? That’s creepy.”

“Come on, please!”

Needless to say, I knocked on Luxol’s room later, and the moment the door opened, I got on my knees.

He flat out refused. He even looked totally freaked out.

Even so, I kept my head down.

—All for my own self-preservation.

—

Chapter 26: I Want to Take Over the Duke’s House

【Side Safira Hartz】

“Hey, Lavanda. Could you kidnap my father for me?”

That happened when I visited the duke’s house after His Grace the Duke summoned me.

In the end, even though I got called, no one was in the room, and feeling like someone tricked me again, I ordered the maid Lavanda while irritated.

She muttered in her usual low tone without changing her expression at all.

“Please stop joking.”

“I’m not joking. I think the duke’s house needs to change. Enemy spies have infiltrated inside. That’s why I’m getting attacked every day, and today, I thought I got summoned, but no one was in the room.”

“…”

“That means someone deliberately lured me out, right? It’s unbelievable. The fact that such things are allowed shows the duke’s house is wrong.”

“I won’t deny that, but…”

“That means the duke’s house needs reform. Specifically, I need to inherit the duke’s position and cut off all suspicious people. So—kidnap him.”

“Young lady, that’s too unreasonable.”

“You’re a maid, aren’t you? As a maid, handle an order like that.”

“Do you want to make me a traitor to the country?”

Lavanda directed a displeased, heavy-lidded glare at me.

As always, she was insolent for a maid.

“By the way, what has Father been doing lately? I haven’t seen him once since enrolling in the academy.”

“He’s been bedridden from shock since you broke off your third engagement. Because of the effect of you breaking off the engagement.”

“You don’t need to say it twice.”

“He’s lamenting that the duke’s house is finished because of your selfishness, apparently.”

“What’s finished is Father.”

I didn’t trust my father at all.

In the past, I got mistreated in a detached shed, and I never felt any affection.

When my siblings died, he resented me for it, and we probably didn’t even think of each other as parent and child.

For me, the only one I could trust was Ask-kun.

He was the only one who could become my family.

“Lavanda, kidnap Father.”

“As I said… it’s impossible.”

“You’re really insolent. I’ll fire you?”

“If I follow your order, my head will fly.”

“You don’t need to make puns. Just do something about it.”

“Please spare me.”

As expected, anyone but Ask-kun was no good. I couldn’t trust them at all.

I headed back to the dorm while thinking of ways to take over the duke’s house.

※

【Side Lavanda】

Is the young lady saying it on purpose?

Did she know I was targeting her and order me to kidnap His Grace the Duke deliberately? Or was it really coincidence?

I thought it was probably the latter.

The young lady repeated suspicions verbally, but essentially, she was someone who wanted to believe in people.

That’s why she fell into traps easily.

Because of her personality that trusted people readily, she hadn’t noticed the trap of being summoned by His Grace the Duke, the fact that the mansion’s security was infiltrated by the organization, or that I was a traitor.

She even believed comrade Ask-san’s words blindly.

People whispered things like “Execution Princess” or “Devil,” but the real young lady was a maiden.

Though her words weren’t cute.

Honestly, it would be a lie to say my chest didn’t hurt from deceiving the young lady. People called me blunt, but I had normal guilt.

But I had a purpose.

For that, I had to be ruthless.

And our purpose was simple.

To spread beer in this country.

That was my aim, and the organization’s.

Suddenly, I came from the Northhild Empire and was the daughter of the organization’s boss.

In that country, beer was mainstream, and it was essential to the people’s lives.

Working for beer, living for beer.

There were people called that, to the extent that beer culture was rooted.

In contrast, this was a wine country.

Vineyards occupied most of the land, and fruit dominated daily life.

Trade, culture, economy—everything centered on wine.

The ambition to repaint such land with beer—that was the goal of the organization I belonged to, the religious group.

To spread beer faith in this world.

The plan’s outline was straightforward.

It was to assassinate the duke’s house heirs, throw the territory into chaos, and stagnate grape cultivation.

The current duke had implemented many policies to strengthen grape cultivation and increased grape production 1.5 times in the last ten years—he was that much of a grape duke.

As long as the duke wielded power freely, beer distribution would remain a pipe dream.

So the boss thought to throw the duke’s house into chaos.

Assassinate the heirs one after another, and in the gap when the duke’s house couldn’t focus on grape cultivation, distribute beer and expand influence rapidly.

From wine land to beer land.

What seemed reckless at first glance progressed smoothly.

We succeeded in assassinating the heirs one by one.

But the young lady was different.

Only the young lady didn’t die even from drinking poison and repelled surprise attacks with her own hands, apparently.

Even after I started serving as her personal maid, the young lady grew rapidly.

To the point even His Grace the Duke couldn’t handle her.

The plan stagnated in an unexpected way, but it still advanced steadily.

Due to the duke suffering mentally from repeated misfortunes and abnormal weather in recent years, grape production decreased greatly.

Because of that influence, we succeeded in spreading beer recently. The atmosphere in town changed a bit, and if you visited a tavern, you could surely see at least one person drinking beer.

That was unthinkable a few years ago. So beer culture took root steadily.

But the organization wasn’t satisfied with that extent. With grape production recovering in recent years and aiming for further faith expansion, we set up a certain plan.

It was to abduct the young lady and make His Grace the Duke sit at the negotiation table.

In exchange for the young lady, make him abandon grape cultivation. Erase surrounding vineyards, expand barley fields. And establish new beer faith.

That was the organization’s new plan.

Of course, taking the young lady’s life wasn’t the goal.

On the surface, we would threaten, but behind the scenes, we planned to let the young lady escape to a safe place.

This was purely personal, but I wanted the young lady to live with someone she could truly trust.

To live out a normal girl’s life in a place unrelated to power.

It was atonement for taking everything from her.

But no matter the personal feelings, I had no intention of stopping the plan. I was prepared to devote myself to expanding beer faith.

“Tomorrow, for sure…”

Tomorrow, we would carry out the attack in the academy.

To achieve our long-cherished wish now.

That was my—Lavanda’s—resolve.

By the way, why did comrade Ask-san always drink grape juice?

As someone promoting malt faith, that should be taboo.

But he undeniably existed on the organization’s roster. So he must have been acting to avoid letting the young lady realize he was a traitor.

Even I, who knew the circumstances, believed he was truly a grape believer—his acting was that real.

He was truly a mysterious person.

But that didn’t change that he was reliable.

Now, since the young lady returned to the dorm, shall I prepare for tomorrow’s attack?