The Abandoned Villainess Decides to Take It All Chapter 33

Chapter 33

…So this was why she wanted to know exactly where that man was right now.

Hah. What do I do about this.

“Don’t meet him.”
“Don’t ask about him.”

It was a perfect shutdown.

Technically, that was an outright order from the villain.

And she had no desire to find out—personally—what happened when she disobeyed one.

Then I just have to make sure I don’t need to meet him myself.

Why did Lillian have to do everything alone?

There were plenty of people around her who could meet a duke instead.

“By the way, Your Highness. Where exactly are we right now?”

“Outside the capital. The Black Forest.”

“If it’s around the Black Forest—”

“You know Rousen?”

“Yes, that’s—”

Lillian answered automatically, then froze.

This place was—

Isn’t this where the Second Prince—aka the original male lead—screwed up and dumped the blame on the Shadows?

The Rousen Forest, the largest forest near the capital.

Before the original story even began, a small incident occurred here.

And what was the cause?

Performance metrics.

Whether in her past life or in Ferenies, people were still people.

For espers who commanded knight orders, performance was measured in one thing:
How many monsters they had slain.

The higher one’s status, the fiercer the pride battle over that number.

And the one with the highest record so far—

Was the villain.

Well, mostly because he tore out monster cores instead of using control stones, but still…

The original male lead tried to match that record—and caused an incident right here.

Kyle Tarandia Ferenies. The Second Prince.

—

“At the time, I was still inexperienced,”
Prince Kyle confessed calmly.

“I brought the Imperial Knights and my ‘Dawn’ unit with me… but I failed to properly supervise my subordinates.”

It was a period when he was experimenting with wide-area extermination methods.

That was why he planted esper mines.

Unfortunately, the mines caused something close to an earthquake.

“I didn’t know that the Boliver direct line had a secret training ground there…”

“This isn’t Your Highness’s fault!”
Iris comforted him.

Among the Five Great Houses, each had their own secret techniques.
As long as they didn’t oppose the imperial family, keeping such secrets was an unspoken rule.

Kyle smiled bitterly.

“If you had been there back then, I wouldn’t have made such a mistake.”

—

It sounded reasonable when you read it.

But if you thought about it again, it was laughable.

If it was a mistake, you should’ve confessed it in the imperial council.

But the male lead didn’t.

And ironically, the fallout landed on the Shadows.

Because of the massive vibrations caused by the mines.

People claimed it was Baltazar-type earth magic causing a quake.

Later it was proven false.

But by then, the rift between the two houses was already carved deep.

The Boliver elders were injured, after all.

So insults flew.

—

“You damned Boliver dogs!”
“You gullible Baltazar fools!”

—

In public, they maintained noble courtesy.

But…

Was Boliver really neutral all the way to the end just because of “principle”?

Human hearts are all the same.

That was where the knot began to tangle.

From now on, problems had to be handled before they exploded.

With that in mind, Lillian requested a sweep of the area.

It’s not impossible.

Sir Jeanne could check through the ley lines.

“Location confirmed!”

Jeanne returned after checking the flow of earth energy.

“Lady, you were right. Esper mines are buried throughout the area.”

Was he insane?

That was Lillian’s honest thought.

Even if you want to be efficient, there’s a limit.

Esper mines were banned near the capital.

He didn’t care who was nearby as long as he got his numbers, huh?

Meanwhile, the Shadows carefully lifted the mines using earth magic.

This must take incredible focus.

The Moon’s Blessing bracelets they wore shimmered faintly.

Maybe they helped—at least a little.

Soon, over ten bluish orbs the size of human heads emerged.

The Shadows stared at them, leaving them suspended underground.

“…Ha.”
“Seriously, this lunatic…”
“What was he planning to do with this place?”

They were horrified.

Anyone could imagine what would’ve happened.

Step on one, and a massive explosion would follow.

Even if you survived that, the condensed esper energy inside would kill even high-rank espers.

Lillian shouted.

“Careful! Espers, fall back first!”

“Lady, that’s dangerous—!”

“This needs to remain as evidence. Strip the power with control, leave only the shell.”

She motioned to Margaret and the controllers.

“Think of it as cutting the threads inside the orb.”

“Yes!”

Truthfully, Lillian could’ve handled this alone.

Infinite control power plus original-story knowledge made it easy.

But—

One day, I won’t be here.

So she held hands with everyone and did it together.

Pink butterfly afterimages fluttered through the air, then vanished.

Once the dismantling was complete—

“…If it weren’t for you, Lady, this would’ve been a disaster.”

Elias clenched his teeth while staring at the now-empty blue orbs.

The villain let out a short, humorless laugh.

“So my little brother’s resorted to tricks like this.”

“But, Your Highness. These esper mines weren’t made by the palace.”

“Of course not. Convincing the palace to approve this as monster-control equipment would take ten years.”

Which meant—

Private manufacturing.

Lillian added casually,

“He probably sourced them through an information guild called Archive.”

“…! I’ve never heard of them.”

“You wouldn’t have. Favil is their main client. They don’t deal with anyone who hasn’t been trading with them for at least fifty years.”

A completely different route from the First Prince and Baltazar.

When Elias and the Shadows looked at her in awe, she felt slightly embarrassed.

She turned to the villain.

“Then, Your Highness, shall we prepare the next step?”

They’d need Boliver’s cooperation anyway.

…And being framed for something you didn’t do was just irritating.

Rumble… rumble…

As evening fell, shallow tremors spread through the Rousen Forest.

Prince Kyle Tarandia, the Second Prince of the Empire, narrowed his eyes and smiled.

He looked at the knights who had followed him.

“Well? What do you think of the power of esper mines?”

“We are in awe of Your Highness’s insight,”
the Imperial Knight Commander replied quickly.

Gotta show loyalty at moments like this.

Kyle nodded.

“Combat should be conducted efficiently like this from now on.”

Invisible, wide-area attacks—how efficient they were.

And if something goes wrong—

It’d be easy to pin it on Baltazar.

Earthquakes were rare in Ferenies, after all.

But as Kyle continued observing, his brow furrowed.

Why aren’t they detonating anymore?

The Black Forest was usually crawling with monsters this time of year.

Yet no matter how long he waited, the remaining mines didn’t explode.

“Cedric Bain!”

“Yes—yes, Your Highness!”

A bespectacled aide with messy brown hair hurried over.

“Go check it.”

“Y-Your Highness, perhaps it would be wiser to stop—”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s… too dangerous.”

Cedric hesitated.

“The blast radius is excessive. If this continues, it could affect civilian areas—”

“That’s exactly what you’re supposed to confirm.”

“…!”