Chapter 61: Starting today, I’m becoming an SSS-Class Villainess Adventurer! (9)

“To handle dolls well, you must first understand their structure thoroughly.”

“It’s just like alchemy, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s right. Your magic dolls are, after all, artificial spirits created through alchemy, homunculi.”

Quite some time had passed since Ria became my private tutor.

Summer had passed, and it was early autumn, a time when the harvest season was about to begin in earnest.

In this season where a cool breeze pleasantly tickled the ears, we were diligently engaged in our alchemy lessons again today.

“Unlike magic, instead of focusing on the flow of mana within your body, feel the core of your doll.”

Following Ria’s advice,

I focused on sensing Kiriel’s energy rather than the flow within my body.

Something felt like it was just within reach, yet I couldn’t quite grasp it; I felt like I understood, yet I didn’t….

“I-It’s not working well…”

“Hmm, perhaps it would be easier to get a feel for it if you made one or two yourself.”

Ria changed the subject, suggesting we do something else for today.

Knowing the disparity in our skills now, I followed her words without complaint.

Although I had spoken informally to her in the middle, ever since she became my private tutor, I had been using honorifics out of respect.

This was more comfortable anyway.

And above all, Heine’s jealousy bothered me, so I couldn’t help it, shall we say….

Anyway, that’s right.

Ria’s alchemy skills were truly astounding.

Her talent was one thing, but more than anything, the sheer volume of her accumulated knowledge was no joke….

It was to the point where I suspected that perhaps, like me or Cain, it wasn’t a modern person who possessed Ria, but an old master alchemist from within the original work.

Well, something like that couldn’t possibly happen, though.

“By the way, at first I just thought you were a defective product.”

“Defective product!?”

“Still, in alchemy at least, you’re about half as good as Leonard, huh? You have aptitude.”

I already knew Ria was a possessor, but even so, it was a bit awkward for her to call my mother by her first name so casually….

Then again, I myself didn’t always attach honorifics when thinking about older characters like the protagonist Cain, or when contemplating future developments alone.

In a way, I guess it’s a peculiar habit unique to possessors.

More than that… hmm?

Am I merely ‘having aptitude’… ?

Isn’t this level talented enough?

I feel it from time to time, but Ria’s standards were set too high.

“That’s right. To put it precisely… it’s an aptitude that might appear once every 50 years.”

“That’s vague…!”

I won’t even ask for the word ‘talent.’

But at least say once every 100 years.

Isn’t 50 years a bit too much?

No, certainly, once every 50 years is impressive, but….

When you say something like that, isn’t it usual to say at least 100 years as a minimum!

The number is so vague it doesn’t sound like a compliment at all…!

“Vague…. It certainly is vague.”

However, contrary to my thoughts, Ria hadn’t just been praising me.
It turned out she meant my aptitude was genuinely ambiguous.

“But your effort is more diligent than anyone else’s.”
“……”

With those words,

Ria looked at me with eyes that seemed to say she pitied me.

As if consoling a child who had learned the reality, she patted my head with a compassionate smile.

‘…No.’

‘It’s not that I lack talent, it’s just that your standards, Ria, are too high….’

But I couldn’t say anything back.

All I could do was quietly feel Ria’s warm touch.

Well, Ria too, started from scratch like me, no.

Unlike me, who was born a noble, she built up this much skill from a rural corner in the southern empire.

It’s not strange for her standards to be high.

It’s not… but.

I felt unjustly aggrieved.

‘Ah. Wait. Already?’

‘I-It’s okay if you pat me a little longer….’

Every time Ria patted me, I felt it.

‘Ah, it’s no wonder Michael and the other men are crazy about Ria, huh?’

To put it bluntly, a warmth so great it was like a walking, warm light itself.

How should I describe this feeling?

Should I say it’s like the selfless maternal love of a grandmother I felt when I visited the countryside as a child?

It seems not just anyone can become a saint.

The next day arrived.

Ria, being the type to strike while the iron is hot, had already prepared to make a magic doll.

“Now, just watch carefully and follow me. It’s surprisingly simple.”

For reference,

There has never been a single time when something Ria said like that was easy.

The homework is also incredibly extensive, and I somehow feel like a graduate student….

Well, despite all this, learning is incredibly fun.

“See? Just do it like this.”

While my thoughts drifted for a moment,

Ria instantly whipped up a magic doll.

The newly created doll flew around in the air, orbiting Ria like a satellite.

…Huh?

Ria’s gaze, urging me to try it myself now, was sharp.

Even though I wanted to try making it, I had missed an important part because I had looked away for a moment, so I had no choice but to raise my hand high.

“I-If you could show me just one more time…”

“Is this that difficult? I thought I explained it according to your level sufficiently…. Alright, then, I’ll make it easier.”

Ria disassembled the magic doll she had painstakingly made.

Seeing her hand stop midway through the disassembly, it seemed she was doing it to show me.

‘Hmm, hmm.’

‘Aha.’

‘Is that so?’

‘Oho, it goes like that there.’

‘The structure is quite fascinating, isn’t it?’

‘Wow, it fits together like that?’

‘Heeh.. The world of magic dolls is profound~….’

…

Perhaps because it was in reverse, I was confused and didn’t understand anything.

“Now, you have to watch carefully again, okay?”

“Yes…!”

Fortunately, I was not a fool.

I was only confused because it was in reverse.

When I focused as usual, I succeeded in creating a magic doll on only the third try.

It seemed that having watched Kiriel or Exia being clumsily repaired in the meantime had been somewhat helpful.

“I-It’s done…!”

“Well… this much is about a passing grade…”

“Please just praise me! I did really well this time, didn’t I…!”

When I puffed out my cheeks at the unusually high hurdle, Ria said she understood and praised me profusely.

Meanwhile, unlike the doll Ria made, my doll was flying rather unsteadily.

“Today’s magic doll making class ends here.”

“…! Then now, I’ll go out for shooting practice…!”

“We’ll take a 10-minute break, then have a herbalism class, so review.”

“Shooting… practice…”

“Things like that, can’t you just give them to the dolls? Why do you insist on shooting them yourself?”

“B-But…”

How could I possibly give up on being the villainess noble lady who takes down enemies with a six-shot revolver fanning, tat-tat-tang!

…Wait.

‘Giving guns to the dolls?’

And so, for a moment, I imagined countless mass-produced ordinary magic doll musketeers taking a firing stance behind me.

And I pictured myself, standing at the center of those dolls and one step ahead, lowering my raised arm, and countless muzzles spewing fire simultaneously.

……

‘…Cool.’

‘That’s incredibly, incredibly cool.’

“After I learn all the doll lessons, I’ll have to make uniforms for my magic dolls.”

“Lin, you too, have a girly side to you, huh…?”

Hmm?

Don’t boys usually like this kind of thing more?

Then again, even if she’s a girl, how could she resist mass-produced magic doll musketeers.

Above all, even I, the world’s greatest villainess noble lady, can’t resist.

“Hmm, I’m missing a few necessary ingredients.”

“Ah, if it’s alchemy ingredients, I have plenty piled up in my company’s warehouse and personal storage. Which ones should I bring?”

“No. I don’t need such common ingredients.”

“…I have them.”

When I asked out of pride what alchemy ingredients were needed, ingredients I had never heard of in my life came pouring out.

‘What is that.’

‘I’ve never seen it in any encyclopedia.’

I understood about half of them at best, but even among those, most were top-tier rare materials whose acquisition methods I still didn’t even know properly.

“Two… about that many are in my warehouse.”

“Hmm? Really? That’s amazing. At your level, they should have been as difficult to obtain as plucking stars from the sky.”

“Teacher Ria? Shall we set just one rule from now on? When praising, let’s just praise without unnecessary embellishments.”

“…? Alright. I understand.”

Ria put on her outing robe.

She said she was going to get some necessary ingredients for a moment and told me to review with the materials I had, then disappeared with a whoosh.

‘No, those rare materials, as if she’s just going on a stroll….’

‘According to the encyclopedia, there were numerous cases where people spent their entire lives barely finding them, or couldn’t find them even if they dedicated their lives.’

‘Just how thoroughly did she read the original work?’

‘Is she actually the author who possessed someone?’

‘Unless she wrote it herself, there’s no way she could know it in such detail….’

Well, Ria should be fine.

With that thought,

Lin happily began the review her private tutor had assigned.

She was even whistling while slowly stirring the alchemy cauldron.

“Hmhmhmm~.”

That’s right.

Lin treated Ria as a crazed Magitech Scholar who had sold her soul to alchemy, but

In reality, if someone else looked, Lin wasn’t much different and was definitely not a normal person.

“I never knew our Sara could be this affectionate.”

“Indeed. I’m surprised myself.”

Sara collected the desired ingredients, or ingredients with similar effects, one by one in the Abel Forest.

The acceleration enchantment on her shoes was one thing, but this was something only she, who knew the forest’s structure in detail, could do.

“This should be enough. Even if it’s a replica, I’m glad I made various versions.”

Sara, the creator of the forest, smiled purely.

Was this change in Sara due to the influence of Lin, her beloved disciple’s daughter?

Or was it due to the influence of the warmth her current body unknowingly possessed?

No one knew the detailed reason.
Not Sara, not Asmodeus,
And not the translucent eyes that were glaring at her as she slowly returned, an armful of alchemy ingredients in her bosom.

“…You’ve been tagging along since earlier, what an ill-mannered child.”

Sara’s eyes, which had been smiling until just now, changed.

An arrow flew at her высоким with her detection.

Sara snorted and stopped the arrow in mid-air, but a poison pouch attached below the arrowhead burst, and a small mist enveloped her.

“This isn’t even a child’s prank…?”

Ria’s hand, which was about to dispel the mist with wind magic, momentarily tingled.

It was strange.

Magic wasn’t coming out.

To be precise, her circuits were twisting due to the poisonous mist that had instantly penetrated her skin.

‘She knows I can use magic.’

‘That means, this isn’t something she’s doing impulsively.’

Nevertheless, Sara’s composure did not crumble.

For reasons unknown, this seemed to be a premeditated crime.

The effect of the acceleration enchantment on her shoes had long since subsided,

And she couldn’t use magic temporarily to re-enchant them.

In this situation, what Sara chose was none other than spirit arts.

Making an antidote using the alchemy ingredients in her hand was simple enough.

But she considered it a great waste to squander ingredients meant for her precious new disciple.

Above all, it was also troublesome to go and pick them again.

‘No matter how unaccustomed I am to this body right now, a mere child is nothing….’

The wind created by the spirit pushed the mist away.

She might have coughed once.

Her eyes, reddened by burst capillaries due to poisoning, were still calm.

‘…Where is she?’

Sara, who had intended to immediately use a spirit explosion to kill her.

She tilted her head at the unnaturally severed mana reaction.

“Yes. Fortunately, it seems you can’t use Ria’s divine power.”

“…!?”

Then, as if answering that question, Cain attacked her from behind.

He choked Sara with all his might, cutting off her carotid artery.

“Keoheok… Keok…”

“I’m sorry, Ria. Just a little, just bear with it a little longer.”

The force with which he was clearly trying to strangle Sara was so strong.

Ria’s body was naturally lifted up.

Pressed by Cain’s arm and gravity, she desperately kicked her feet, but they didn’t reach the ground.

‘This is… dangerous.’

Magic, of course,

And for some reason, even spirit arts were blocked, reducing Sara to a mere powerless country girl.

No matter how much she was adapting to Ria’s body, to be so helplessly defeated by a boy who wasn’t even an adult yet was unthinkable for her.

Her internal circuits had begun to recover as soon as she was hit by the mist, so magic should have been coming out by now.

Yet, only futile struggles continued, and her vision was gradually blurring.

‘……Is this, your doing…?’

In her blurring vision.

A face approached Sara.

“I’m sorry, Sara. This one is an apostle of another god. It seems even I can’t intervene.”

Before she knew it, black snakes were coiling around her limbs.

An unpleasant sensation of them swimming through her circuits and burning them engulfed her entire body.

The reason she couldn’t use magic or spirit arts was simple.

Asmodeus’s snakes were swallowing all of Sara’s mana.

‘What… are you thinking…?’

“Just. I wanted to go on an outing with you for a while. It was fun and nice, for the first time in a long while. But… it felt like Leonard’s child was going to ruin you. Personally, I don’t want to repeat that kind of mistake ever again.”

‘……?’

“Then. Sleep well until that day, Sara. As planned, let’s meet again in the next world.”

Sara collapsed powerlessly.

As she sagged, hanging from Cain’s forearm, a subtle weight was pulled down by gravity.

“It’s all, over…”

Despite having noticed through the status window that another person was possessing Ria,

He dripped cold sweat onto the grassy field from the revulsion of having killed Ria and the tension of having been on the verge of life and death.

“Let’s go back, Ria.”

He had saved up the ‘resurrection fee.’

Thanks to a certain villainess noble lady who had appeared suddenly, he had also tasted quite a bit of money.

Now, he just needed to preserve Ria’s body with the pre-prepared freezing potion.

And go to the southern church to revive her, and everything would return to normal….

“Where to?”

Click

A gun muzzle was aimed at the back of Cain’s head as he looked at the fallen Ria with affection.

“Hands up high.”

A voice filled with anger echoed quietly.

Even though he had just managed to set things back to normal, Cain had no choice but to slowly raise his arms.

“Stand up.”

Cain slowly straightened his knees.

Lin’s arm, which was aiming at him, rose along with him.

“Three steps forward. And turn around and show me your face.”

‘I have to confirm that dirty face that killed my precious friend.’

A tone too rough for a noble young lady.

Cain’s head tilted slightly as he glanced sideways at Lin behind him.

Simultaneously, numerous pieces of information appeared on Cain’s status window.

Cain, having confirmed who the person holding the gun was, obediently continued to follow Lin’s command.

“…Is this it?”

Cain turned to face Lin.

Finally, the boy and girl faced each other.

“…………Huh?”

Lin, upon seeing Cain’s face.

“Uh, uh, uh, uh…???”

Her eyes widened at the unexpected identity.

“Wh-Why are you here…”

‘The culprit who killed Ria is Cain?’

Wondering what on earth this situation was, she desperately racked her brain, and eventually, as if overloaded, she momentarily blanked out.

“I don’t know if you’ll believe me…. This Ria isn’t the Ria you know.”

“Hmm? Mmhmm…”

“To get straight to the point, Ria is alive. To be precise, I’m going to bring her back to life.”

“Right. Since it’s you, Cain, doing it. You must have your reasons.”

“…Have we met somewhere before?”

“Mmm, should that be called meeting…”

Lin crossed her arms and tilted her head greatly to one side, as if deep in thought.

A situation where they were communicating unusually well.

The fact that she didn’t point out a commoner speaking informally to a noble young lady supported his hypothesis.

Cain still suspected she was a reincarnator like himself but didn’t voice it out yet.

The most urgent matter right now was to revive Ria.

“Well, whatever. I can hear the story gradually! For now, follow me!”

“……Alright.”

Afterward, Cain, carrying Ria on his back, followed Lin.

Clang─!

And was promptly locked up in the underground prison.

“…?”

“Then, would you care to explain? Why you killed Ria. Ah, just so you know, if I’m not convinced, even you will be hanged immediately, alright? We still have to follow the law.”

“……You know you should at least hear a person out to the end, right?”

“Mmhmm. I know, I know~.”

So, why did you kill our Ria?

And so.

It was a night where the conversation between the two deepened.