I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss, Vol. 4, page 17
“I know. And Aileen may not look it, but she cries at the drop of a hat.”
She’d boldly attempt to charge down an unfamiliar road, then trip, fall, and cry. She’d cry about not being able to lift a sword that was as big as she was. She’d fight with her brothers and cry. She’d get yelled at by her parents and cry. She’d read a sad story and cry.
“In every memory I have of Aileen, she’s wailing. I really don’t understand why the demon king would want to make her cry…,” Marcus says, as if he feels it keenly.
For the first time in quite a while, Cedric laughs out loud.
The sound of footsteps joins the sound of dripping water, and Claude’s eyes open a crack.
He’s hanging by his chained wrists, and his body aches. His hair and the wound on his cheek are caked with dried blood; it feels disgusting. His skin has been whipped raw.
“Yikes… They did a bigger number on you than I thought they would.”
“…Isaac, huh? …That figures.”
Every time he moves his mouth, he tastes blood. His cut lip hurts. It’s almost as if he’s human.
“What do you mean, ‘that figures’?”
“The plan I overheard… It sounded perfect, but it had this…clear flaw that practically screamed ‘If you take advantage of this, we’re finished, so go right ahead’…”
“Are you complimenting me or running me down?”
“It was so convenient for us that I thought…it might be a trap. You’ve infiltrated and are manipulating the general, hmm? I see… As always, you…can’t do it if you don’t try.”
“Right, got it, you’re not complimenting me.” Gingerly, a light illuminates him. “…Are you okay?”
He probably looks awful. Isaac is being unusually solicitous. It strikes him as funny, and he laughs. “…It hurt more than I expected. It still hurts.”
“Well, yeah,” Isaac replies. “…There had to be some other way. Why would you pull a stupid stunt like this?”
“When I imagined Aileen too worried and uneasy to sleep, it made my heart flutter, and before I knew it—”
“Okay, sounds like your head’s fine. Business as usual.”
“…Is the principal consort all right?” He’s been concerned about that.
Isaac frowns. “She’s safe. Her life isn’t in danger… I had them go easy on her.”
“…I see… I told them to leave her and just take me…but that man, Ares…”
He feels more pity than anger. The man’s almost certainly not a bad person. How easily people fall.
Well, he’s reaping what he sowed. Claude chuckles deep in his throat.
“I know where the fiend dragon is,” says Isaac. “I made it so the demon’ll head your way; was that the right move?”
“…Yes. Do as you see fit.”
“Hearing that just makes me worry more. Don’t tell me you could lose to the dragon.”
“You don’t need to worry about that… How is Aileen?”
He can sense that the question irks Isaac. “She’s toughing it out. Obviously, since she hasn’t come rushing in here.”
“I see… Heh-heh. Apparently I win our little fight.”
“I don’t think any guy in your condition should feel like a winner.”
“By the way, have you managed to see Rachel?”
“Now is really not the time for that. It’s probably the same on her end.”
Work takes priority, hmm? Claude’s impressed, and at the same time, he sighs. “You’ll never get anywhere that way. You can’t do it if you don’t try, so be a little more proactive.”
“Shut up, all right? Just wait here quietly until help shows up!”
With that parting shot, Isaac leaves, taking the light with him. Apparently Claude’s managed to make him angry.
With the light gone, darkness falls again. Under the cover of that darkness, a shadow nestles close to him.
“Oh… It’s all right. Don’t worry. He wasn’t an enemy.”
A black haze seems to crawl up from beneath Claude’s feet, pleading with him. He gives a wry smile. “I know. Once this is over, I will, I promise. I see… You feel your sanity fading? Humans do truly terrible things…”
The haze slips around him smoothly, clinging to him as if begging for affection, but it’s growing thinner. It seems they’re out of time. The moment must be about right, though.
Possibly because he’s taken Aileen’s will into account, Isaac’s plan is a kind one.
But what’s needed is a clear villain. A story where everyone can see who’s evil and who’s on the side of justice… If possible, he’d hoped to avoid doing things this way. However, when he’d told that man not to hurt Roxane, he’d ignored him.
Aileen’s going to be worried about somebody besides me.
That is a serious crime.
“Yes, it’s fine. I won’t be angry with you. Go ahead.”
The fiend dragon: The former ruler of this land, who had been sealed into the demon realm by the holy sword—a copy of the sacred sword—and a woman known as the Daughter of God. An ancient demon who possesses the power to create a second demon king in the unlikely event of Claude’s death.
Although the dragon had been captured, nothing dramatic had happened because the Daughter of God and the holy sword are both frightening.
It was because hurting humans would have violated Claude’s orders.
“Go and teach those foolish humans a lesson.”
Lifting his red eyes to gaze into empty space, Claude issues a gentle command.
The first blow comes at dawn.
In her bedchamber in the Sea Palace, Aileen is startled awake by the tremor. A demon’s ominous aura instantly banishes her drowsiness.
Small ornaments rattle, then smash on the floor. Rachel dashes in from the antechamber. “L-Lady Aileen! Are you all right?!”
“Yes. Let’s go outside. I can’t believe it: a natural disaster, today of all days…”
The first shock was intense, but the trembling subsides quickly. Tossing the shawl Rachel has brought her on over her nightclothes, Aileen makes her way out the door. I can’t imagine they’ll call off the plan, but… There’s someone she wants to rescue as soon as possible. Right this very minute, even.
However, impulsively doing so would mean squandering the wishes of the two who’d stayed behind. And so, both she and Baal have been desperately restraining themselves.
When she’d heard people arguing about whether it was really the demon king if he bled when they wounded him, she’d clenched her fists so tightly her fingernails bit into her palms.
It’s only been two days, but she doesn’t want to endure this for a single day longer. Baal must feel the same.
The stage is set. She must lay the groundwork and ensure that nothing goes wrong— But the moment Aileen steps outside, she realizes she’s misunderstood.
This isn’t a natural disaster.
The dawn sky looks bloodstained.
An expanding darkness is seeping across it, and it isn’t the last traces of the night.
“L-Lady Aileen… That…thing…is moving…”
Shifting like a sinister cloud, the thing gradually bleeds across the kingdom’s sky. Abruptly, as if searching for prey, it opens its eyes.
Countless red eyes.
—The fiend dragon!
A demon with a host of red eyes, lurking in darkness and cloaked in an ominous miasma.
“The fiend dragon is supposed to go to Master Claude. Why fly over the harem?!”
“Lady Aileen, something’s coming!”
As Rachel shouts, the dragon’s eyes flash red. Attacks streak toward the sky, trees, buildings, people—but a membrane of light repels them.
It’s the holy king’s barrier. Floating above the palace, all alone, the king of this land confronts the demon. In no time, the screams turn to cheers.
“Master Baal!”
Noticing Aileen, who doesn’t look as delirious as the people around her, Baal descends to the ground. “Hey, this isn’t the plan we heard about. Isn’t that the fiend dragon’s true body?”
“I believe so. But I haven’t heard anything, either. Something unforeseen must have hap—!”
A roar rings out. This time a gaping hole—probably a mouth—opens between the clouds and spews out an enormous quantity of magical energy.
Tsking in irritation, Baal sweeps his right arm to the side. Layer upon layer of sacred magic circles fan out, repelling the fiend dragon’s rays. Explosions soon fill the air.
…That’s a shock. Apparently “holy king” isn’t merely a fancy title.
However, as the wife of the demon king, she can’t stand by and let him injure the fiend dragon. “Master Baal, until we understand the situation, could you refrain from attacking the dragon?”
“Have no fear. All we can do is defend!” He says the words decisively, and she catches herself gazing steadily at him.
“…Don’t tell me that’s why you made me your consort…”
“If we could attack, we would need neither the holy sword nor the sacred sword, obviously.”
“How do you manage to be arrogant even about a thing like that…? At any rate, I’ll try to make those attacks weaker!”
“Leave the defending to us!”
The way he says it—standing tall and bursting with confidence—irks her, but now isn’t the time for that.
She must be delicate so that she won’t end up killing the demon. The damage has to be kept to a minimum… Picking up on Aileen’s intent, the sacred sword flies from the palm of her right hand, straight toward the fiend dragon. It goes right through, as if the dragon’s body were a cloud—but the sword’s power has clearly been repelled.
“…It didn’t work! Why didn’t it work?!”
“Hmm. So that isn’t the dragon itself, then? —Or rather, the moment it slipped through our barrier, it could no longer be considered a mere demon.”
Startled, Aileen looks up. The fiend dragon has begun to cover Ashmael’s sky. This demon emerged inside the holy king’s barrier, which even the demon king’s power couldn’t penetrate, and begun to attack, which means…
“It’s attacking through some human intermediate. Only the holy sword can defeat it— Let’s go.”
“Go where?!” Aileen asks in confusion.
“Change of plans. We’ll have Sahra repair the real holy sword.”
“But if we do that, then our scheme to make her lose power won’t—!”
According to Isaac’s plan, Claude was supposed to take the dragon into his care, while the holy sword would be switched for a fake, forcing the restoration to fail.
If the fiend dragon didn’t resurrect and the Daughter of God failed to repair the holy sword, they could corner Ares. On top of that, if they brought up the fact he’d been secretly communicating with the Queendom of Hausel and had forged the evidence he’d presented against Roxane, the man would probably give up. Most of all, Baal had hoped to avoid involving his citizens in a civil war.
“Not only will we be unable to curb Ares,” Aileen says to him, “you’ll be blamed for the fiend dragon’s resurrection!”
“It doesn’t matter. If the fiend dragon has truly revived, the damage will be far worse than anything a civil war could do.”
“…! Let’s release Master Claude at once! If we do that, this may still work out somehow.”
“It’s too late. If people learn that man is the demon king now, no matter what excuse we give, everyone will think he’s behind the attack. Everything will be ruined.”
Issuing evacuation orders to the people around them, Baal sets off for the palace, walking fast. “Even if Ares’s power continues to grow, now isn’t the time to worry about it. The holy sword, the Daughter of God, Ares’s troops, the consorts with sacred power who’ve gathered in the harem: using all the resources at our disposal and sealing the fiend dragon comes first. As long as we don’t kill it, you shouldn’t have anything to complain about.”
“Yes, but in that case, you’ll—”
“What good is a king who fails to protect his people?”
Aileen has been following Baal at a trot, but at those words, she stops. Even at a time like this, she’s smiling. Lady Roxane. Your decision was correct.
This man is a true king. Just like Claude.
“You’re going to help us, too. You are our consort.”
“Don’t even joke about that. I most certainly am not your consort. I refuse.”
“Are you telling us you won’t help, this late in the game?”
“Rephrase it as ‘neighbor.’ ‘Friend’ or ‘comrade’ would also be acceptable.” Drawing herself up to her full height, Aileen greets him, slowly and formally. “I am Aileen Jean Ellmeyer, crown princess of Imperial Ellmeyer.”
The sudden introduction makes Baal blink. Looking up at him mischievously, she makes a vow: “I swear on the name of my husband that I will aid you, Holy King of Ashmael, Baal Shah Ashmael— As a matter of fact, after the demon king, I am the strongest in our land, you know?”
Sixth Act
The Villainess Wins with a Foul
“What is the meaning of this?!” Ares bellows.
That’s what I want to know, Isaac thinks, privately gnashing his teeth. Why would the fiend dragon choose now of all times to go out of control? Don’t tell me the demon king did it?
That’s it. That has to be it, he decides half out of spite.
“What does the Queendom’s envoy have to say?”
“All I’ve heard is that they know nothing,” Isaac tells him honestly.
“Of all the irresponsible—!” Ares spits out the words bitterly. “The holy item they gave me isn’t working. They told me that tool would let me imprison the fiend dragon and gain complete control over it!”
“There’s no point in blaming them now. More importantly, please be quiet. At this point, it would be a bigger problem if anyone were to learn you’d had the fiend dragon in captivity, General Ares.”
“Why? I was keeping it under guard until the holy sword was repaired. I even risked bodily harm to do my duty.”
“It will look as if you were sheltering it until it grew to this size.”
The warning makes Ares’s eyes widen. He probably never dreamed he might be suspected of wrongdoing.
“Calm yourself. In a way, they’ve stolen a march on us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Right now, the kingdom is being protected by the holy king’s barrier. In that sense, this development is working in the holy king’s favor.” Isaac continues to explain, assessing the situation even as he details what might happen following such an unanticipated series of events: the results and possibilities. “Not only that, but I just received a report that the crown princess of Ellmeyer has arrived.”
“The crown princess of Ellmeyer? What business does the demon king’s bride have here? Has she come to grovel?”
“The Maid of the Sacred Sword has come to save this kingdom from the fiend dragon. At least that’s how other countries will see it.”
It isn’t just Ares; everyone around him looks startled.
These people are hopeless.
This kingdom really can’t hold their own in the world of foreign affairs. Even Ares knows only what the Queendom of Hausel has put into his head.
No wonder the holy king’s concerned. If anything happens, the first blow will flatten them.
However, that worry won’t matter unless they get through this situation.
“The fact that Ellmeyer has dispatched the Maid of the Sacred Sword is extremely significant. It signals their intent to save our kingdom from the fiend dragon. They’ve essentially announced that the demon king doesn’t condone the dragon’s actions.”
In that sense, the fact Aileen has chosen this moment to reveal her true identity is very important. Isaac deliberately delayed his report to Ares, so his people probably won’t be able to suppress the rumors at this point.
“S-so what? Ultimately, the fiend dragon can’t be defeated without Sahra’s holy sword. No doubt that’s why Baal ordered me to bring her to him.”
“That’s right.”
That’s the weak point of this maneuver: No matter how much Baal and Aileen do, in the end, the Daughter of God is the one who’ll secure all the glory. At the moment, the people are accepting this assistance from Ellmeyer with skepticism, and only because of their immediate fear of the fiend dragon. Unless Aileen manages to pull off something truly impressive, they’ll just say she was trying to put them in her debt.
Aileen must have decided it doesn’t matter, but Isaac can’t afford to do the same.
What do we do? Should we get the holy king to remove that barrier and have the demon king shut down the fiend dragon? No, that would make it look even more like he’d intentionally resurrected a demon to cause havoc. If all we do is send aid after the battle, we’ll be shooting ourselves in the foot. Argh! Push comes to shove, we can set up that second prince as the mastermind and execute him— Yeah, let’s go with that. Wow, that’s the demon king’s little brother for you; he sure comes in handy.
They need the holy sword. That fact isn’t going anywhere. Think. Isaac keeps on talking and racking his brain. “The Maid of the Sacred Sword may have joined the fight, but her sword hasn’t worked on the fiend dragon. In other words…” The fiend dragon has already possessed a human. Abruptly, his lips curve upward. “As long as Lady Sahra is the Daughter of God, General Ares— You won’t have to worry about a thing.”
As he says this, he casually takes a piece of paper out of his pocket and jots down a note. He has to get this to Aileen.
Paying no attention to what Isaac is doing, Ares nods, looking satisfied. “True. However, if things go on like this, we’ll end up giving the holy sword to Baal…”
“Have Lady Sahra proclaim that you are the one fit to wield the holy sword. Besides, you’re a general. Under these circumstances, there’s no problem with your fighting on the front line. On the contrary, if the holy king happens to disappear in the meantime—”
“Who’s there?!” Auguste yells; he’d joined Isaac in Ares’s camp.
