“What a surprise. To think she’d make a full recovery in such a short time from that state……. The advances in our country’s healing magic really are remarkable.”
“……Yes, I suppose.”
Luna takes a half step back and gives a noncommittal reply.
It’s a clear rejection, but whether Howard notices or not, he closes the distance further.
“Still, you’ve grown even more beautiful than before. How to put it……yes, you seem overflowing with something like vitality.”
He rattles off the hollow flattery without missing a beat——and smoothly extends his right hand.
“What do you say, how about spending tonight with me……?”
The next instant, a tremor of shock runs through the ladies on Mount Status.
“Oh, oh my……Lord Howard is……!”
“He’s inviting that plain nobody to spend the night……!?”
“This must be some kind of dream, it simply must……!”
Howard von Grazer is a grand noble, granted the rank of duke by the royal family.
Having inherited the Grazer household headship at a young age, he has developed his territory even further through astute management, skillful negotiation, and progressive military and financial reforms.
Beloved by his people, regarded with respect even by the royal family.
Excellent family, excellent looks, excellent standing——the supreme prize that every warrior at this soirée has set their sights on.
But there is no deceiving the eyes of a saint.
Luna sees clearly through the murky black desire smoldering in the depths of Howard’s eyes——sees through the malice that is Howard von Grazer.
“I’m terribly sorry. I have other plans this evening……”
The instant Luna delivers her polite refusal——
“[…]!!!!?????”
A silent shockwave rips through the party venue.
Refusing an invitation from the master of House Grazer, one of the kingdom’s foremost great nobles——the very idea was beyond comprehension.
As for Howard, on the receiving end of that refusal——
“Is that so, what a shame. If you change your mind, come to the Egio detached palace. I’ll drown you in sweet, gentle happiness.”
He shows not the slightest sign of offense and dissolves back into the noise of the party.
With the evening’s greatest shock now past——
“That plain little thing……. How dare she brush off Lord Howard’s invitation……!”
“Oh, how tiresome. So high and mighty……. Who does she think she is, anyway?”
“It’s not as if a better prospect than Duke Howard just walks through the door……. Whatever did she come here for?”
Ms. Sarko (provisional name), Ms. Saruti (provisional name), Ms. Sarmond (provisional name)——the gaze of the beasts on Mount Status converges on Luna all at once.
(I-it’s fine, I’m not the enemy, I’m not the enemy……)
Retreating from the carnivorous predators, Luna slips out of the soirée proper and onto the observation terrace.
Safe in her neutral ground, she stares up at the night sky thinking something carefree like “what a beautiful full moon tonight” as she waits for the soirée to end.
The orchestra’s elegant performance draws toward its finale, and just as the feeling begins to settle that tonight is almost through——it happens.
“——”
Someone activates a wind spell, and every light in the venue is snuffed out.
The next instant, the sound of shattering glass rings out, followed by a man’s rough bellow.
“——Find Princess Alicia! A beautiful woman with golden hair!”
At that command, a large mob of bandits pours into the venue.
Simultaneously——
“[Everyone]: Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!?“
The ladies of Mount Status let out piercing shrieks and cling to whichever noble they had been targeting.
(A-amazing, what an accurate read of the situation……!?)
Luna is speechless.
A credit to the monkey mountain coalition, as it were. To make use of even an emergency like this——what tremendously resilient spirits they have.
“Damn it, where did this many come from!?”
“Get a light! Quickly!”
“Everyone, please stay calm! It’s dangerous, head outside for now!”
The guards on security detail spring into action to suppress the rioters, but……the chaos in the venue tangles their feet and they can’t move as intended.
As a result——
(Hahhh……. How does this keep happening……)
Luna has been abducted.
She is currently being jolted along in the back of a cargo wagon like a calf.
(I have silver hair……not golden hair……)
She fiddles with her own hair and lets her shoulders droop.
The group that attacked the soirée had extinguished the venue’s lights with wind magic and then moved to seize their target, Alicia.
Blinding the space had dulled the guards’ sight and slowed their response.
But without sight the bandits were equally blind.
So they had used Alicia’s hair——celebrated as ‘golden,’ the color of gold itself——as their marker, and swept up every golden-haired woman in the room one after another.
Luna had the bad luck to be on the balcony at that moment, lit by the pale moonlight, and her clear silver hair had looked golden——and so she had been taken along.
(Hahhh……)
Luna lets out another large sigh and casts a glance sideways to take stock of her situation.
At present, two other young ladies are being held in this cargo wagon alongside her.
One is Alicia, the target.
“……”
Timid and reserved by nature, she is huddled in the corner of the wagon, making herself small and trembling.
The other is the queen of Mount Status, Sarko (provisional name).
“You——you ruffians! Do you know who you’re dealing with? I am Sarl Ko Layton, firstborn of House Layton!”
She is shouting at the top of her lungs and hammering the wagon door with powerful kicks.
Quite the contrast, the two of them.
(Even so……what sloppy work)
Luna wears a wry smile as she reassesses her situation.
(The knot on the rope is loose, and there’s no gag. What would they do if we happened to be mages or magic swordswomen? This lack of follow-through……amateurs, I’d say)
Having received the kidnapping-then-imprisonment combo set more times than she can count in her previous life, Luna is able to read the competence of a criminal group from their methods.
(Even by my own reckoning, what a sad skill to have. I never asked for this……)
As Luna sighs and Sarko rages——Alicia lets out a fragile little voice.
“Wh-what is going to happen to us……from here……?”
“Who knows.”
Luna’s tone is entirely detached, and depending on how you hear it, comes across as a little cold.
But of course, she means no harm by it.
In truth, she really genuinely isn’t interested.
The thoughts of people who commit an insane crime like this aren’t worth bothering to think through——that is her position.
(I could escape whenever I want, but I don’t want to cause a big scene……. I’ll wait for the right moment and slip away quietly)
Luna is thinking along those lines as she continues to be jostled about in the wagon.
After some time the wagon stops, and Luna and the others are brought into a dilapidated old manor sitting quietly deep in the forest.
(Goodness, so much dust……)
Passing through a cobweb-strung entryway and down a wooden corridor that feels like it could give way underfoot, they emerge into a large sitting room.
The room, entirely without any sense of habitation, has a chair placed at its center, a fireplace crackling and casting light around it.
(……Quite the reception, I must say)
Looking more carefully, figures line the walls——ten men standing as if to surround them.
Each holds what looks like a blunt weapon, and they wear unpleasant grins.
A tense silence takes hold, and then from the corridor in the back comes the measured sound of footsteps. Click. Click. Click.
Emerging from the dark passageway beyond, walking with an elegant gait——
“——Well, sorry about the rough treatment.”
——Grand noble Howard von Grazer.
“Hahhh……. You again.”
“H-Howard-sama……!?”
“Lord Howard, what are you doing here!?”
As Luna sighs, Alicia stares in shock, and Sarko’s eyes go wide——Howard makes an unbelievable demand.
“Hate to rush things, but would everyone mind getting undressed?”
“[Everyone]: ……Huh?”
“My, didn’t you hear me? I said get undressed.”
Howard snaps his fingers, and simultaneously, two men appear from behind him.
Wearing vulgar smiles, they pull heated iron rods from inside the fireplace. The glowing tips are engraved with the Grazer family crest.
“W-what on earth do you intend to do, bringing out something so dangerous!?”
To Sarko’s question, Howard answers smoothly.
“I thought I’d brand my property with the family crest. You write your name on your own belongings, don’t you? It’s the same thing.”
“[Everyone]: ……!”
He intends to brand Luna, Alicia, and Sarko——to carve the Grazer family crest into their bare skin.
And that isn’t all.
“Now, let’s hurry. If we dawdle too long, the night will get away from us. We do have a ‘photography session’ scheduled after this.”
Behind him stands a man holding a portrait camera, wearing a vulgar grin.
Not content simply to brand them, Howard intends to add their likenesses to his collection.
Amid the deeply unsettling atmosphere——
“Lord Howard……. A fine lord like yourself, why would you do something like this……!?”
Sarko presses him with an expression of pure disbelief.
“Why, you ask. It’s simply that I love the look on a beautiful woman’s face when it’s painted with pain and humiliation. You understand, don’t you? It’s what you might call a ‘predilection.'”
“I-I’ve completely misjudged you……! I respected you, I thought you were the finest lord there was——you fiend! You pervert! You’re absolutely despicable!”
Hearing Sarko’s fierce torrent of abuse, Howard gives a small drop of his head.
“Hahhh……. I really can’t stand noisy women.”
The instant he twirls a finger, a man who has silently closed in behind Sarko brings the shovel in his hand down on the back of her skull.
“Ugh, ah……!”
A cry of pain, a spray of blood. Sarko’s body sways.
She pitches forward face-down and goes completely still.
The man finishes his work, tosses aside the blood-spattered shovel carelessly, and kneels at Howard’s feet with a servile rubbing of his hands.
“Hehehe, boss. What should I do with this one?”
“Do as you like. But don’t leave a body. Once you’re done with her, dispose of her properly. Understood?”
“That’s what I love about you, boss! Much obliged!”
The man bows his head again and again, not even trying to hide his base desire.
“……Even three hundred years ago, people this vile were hard to come by.”
Luna immediately deploys a healing spell.
A mystical light envelops Sarko’s entire body, repairing the head wound completely.
She hasn’t yet regained consciousness, but there is no longer any risk to her life.
“Well now, how surprising. So Luna does have some knowledge of magic.”
Brushing past Howard’s words of appreciation, Luna extends her right hand straight out, filled with magical energy.
“I would prefer not to do anything too forceful. Raise both hands and get on your knees.”
Between those who can use magic and those who cannot, the difference in power is absolute.
Absolute enough to overcome the disadvantage of a woman against men, and the disadvantage of numbers, with plenty left over.
“I see——indeed, with the absolute power of magic, overturning this predicament would not be difficult. However——foolish.”
The next instant, a malevolent flame rises in Howard’s right hand.
“You can use magic too……!?”
“Heh, surprised? Whatever I may look like, I am the ‘strongest mage’ in House Grazer.”
He says this with a composed smile to spare.
(This could be……a little bad)
It was three hundred years ago that Luna was called a saint.
Magic evolves day by day.
Even now, as they stand here, magical research advances and new magical theories are being born.
However much of a saint Luna may be, a gap of three hundred years is simply too vast.
(What do I do, try to escape? But then Princess Alicia and Sarko would……)
Just as she thinks that far——something clicks.
(Oh……right. I’m not a saint anymore)
Luna has stopped being the Saint.
There is no more need for self-sacrifice. No obligation to risk her life saving others. No reason to take on needless risk.
Having set aside the banner of ‘saving humanity,’ she calmly analyzes Howard’s capabilities as a mage.
(He has a fire-attribute spell deployed, and yet I can’t sense any magical energy from Duke Howard at all)
Since time immemorial, it has been said that ‘the more skilled the mage, the less their opponents can sense their power.’
Indeed, right up until the moment Howard used magic before her very eyes, Luna had not even been able to tell he was a mage.
(……He is terrifyingly skilled at concealing his magical energy——almost certainly a high-ranking mage, no question about it)
Luna sharply raises her threat assessment of Howard.
“Now then, Luna, give up your futile resistance and surrender quietly.”
“……Whether it’s futile or not won’t be clear until I try it, will it? (The exit is ten steps away, outside the manor is a dim forest. If I can escape with wind magic, shaking them off shouldn’t be too difficult)”
Luna keeps the conversation going while plotting the best escape route.
On the other side of that conversation——
“Hah, I know it will be. Any number of maidens have said that, fighting desperately right to the end——only to end up weeping as they lick my shoes.”
Howard keeps that gentle smile on his face as he recites these vile things with great ease.
“……Why does everything you say have to be so vulgar?”
“Who knows. Probably a problem with my character, I’d say.”
Pure evil.
Howard von Grazer is a true monster who has strayed entirely from the path of humanity.
“Still……the more I look at you, the more beautiful you are. If I could avoid fighting you, I would. I truly love your face, Luna.”
She hasn’t heard words this empty in quite some time.
“What light words those are. (Wind magic ready, escape route confirmed……alright, I can do this!)”
Just as Luna is about to bolt like a startled hare——
“Hah, not light at all. I made the trek out to a shabby manor in the middle of nowhere and put on a smile for a pair of grimy old codgers. The fact that I’d go to such trouble should tell you how much I love your face and figure, Luna.”
“……Grimy old codgers……?”
Her thoughts come to a dead halt.
“Hm……? Ah, sorry about that. Did I offend you? I’ve always been terrible at lying. Things I’m thinking just slip out.”
What crosses her mind is the faces of Carlo and Trebas——kind and warm, when they learned that Luna had survived being run over by the carriage.
“Luna, Luna……”
“You’re safe, thank goodness, thank goodness……”
(Those two, so kind and warm……grimy old codgers?)
She could not let that pass.
Not as Saint Luna——but as Villainess Luna Spedio, there is a line she cannot cross, must not cross.
Luna narrows her eyes and squares herself for a fight. Howard rolls his shoulders in a what-can-you-do sort of shrug.
“Hahhh……. So you do want to fight?”
“Yes, there are things I can’t back down from on my end as well.”
“Is that so. Can’t be helped, then. We did once pledge ourselves to each other, after all. Consider it a small mercy that I’ll end it in one blow. ——!”
The instant Howard extends his right hand, a searing flame shoots out in a straight line.
At that instant, a powerful sense of wrongness hits Luna.
(Slow……? This spell is a feint, the real attack is coming from another angle! But wait, there’s no magical reaction anywhere around me. Could it be an unknown spell!? Or a delayed-activation spell!? No——a high-level spell triggered on cancellation!?)
A string of dangerous possibilities flashes through her mind. She plays the best move she can think of.
(When in doubt……hit it as hard as you can!)
She wraps her right hand in holy magical energy and punches out the flame bearing down on her.
“……What?”
A dumbfounded sound slips out of Howard.
The spell he had cast had simply vanished before his eyes.
His dynamic vision could not catch what Luna had done.
“……Hm?”
A confused sound slips out of Luna as well.
She had simply punched out the feeble flame that had been sent at her.
Her capacity for comprehension could not grasp what Howard is currently bewildered about.
“……Just what are you——”
“……Just what are you——”
“[Both]: ——doing?”
Their words overlap, and an indescribable silence falls between them.
A brief stillness.
What breaks it is Howard’s laughter.
“Ha, hahahahahah……! Luna, you never stop surprising me. Even if I did hold back with a low-level spell, to have it simply negated……you’re a little capable, aren’t you.”
Heightening his guard, he deploys a stronger spell.
“But what will you do about this? ——!”
A flame a size larger than before drives straight toward Luna.
“……? (The same spell as before? ……I don’t understand, what is he even trying to accomplish?)”
She puffs a breath at the approaching crimson fire and snuffs it out like a candle.
“That’s……impossible……!?”
This time, true alarm rises in Howard’s expression.
He cannot begin to figure out what is happening, what trick is being used.
However, the concrete reality is that fire-attribute magic——his greatest strength——has absolutely no effect on Luna whatsoever.
That plain and simple fact deals him a heavy shock.
“Excuse me……what exactly are you doing over there?”
The question Luna poses comes genuinely from the bottom of her heart.
A magical duel is a fight to the death.
In a life-or-death contest, using something as childlike as this——she cannot fathom at all what Howard is trying to accomplish.
“I-I see, I understand now! A divine blessing! Luna has a divine blessing that enhances magic resistance, doesn’t she!?”
“What?”
A divine blessing. A miraculous power granted by the heavens, possessed only by those born chosen.
Howard has deduced that his magic was blocked because of Luna’s divine blessing.
“No, I don’t have anything like a divine——”
“——But alas. No matter how much one strengthens magical resistance, there is a wall called the ‘reinforcement limit.’ ……Heh, you’ve made me get serious. Boast about it in the next life!”
Howard declares this with great confidence and slowly raises his right hand.
“Now——witness this! Ultimate-tier magic——!”
The next instant, a large fireball about a meter across appears above his raised hand.
The intense heat wave strikes the surrounding men with awe.
“Th-that’s immense magical power……!”
“Whew, that’s our boss for you!”
“Even with a divine blessing, nobody could take a hit from a spell like that!”
And of course, Luna too receives a shock.
“T-this……is ultimate-tier magic……!?”
“Heh, surprised now, are you? But regret won’t help you anymore. You’ve touched the dragon’s reverse scale and——”
“——Hahhh……. Magic in this era has really fallen into decline.”
“What?”
“——”
The next instant, a colossal blazing mass floats up above Luna’s head.
Too enormous to take in at a glance, it is a scorching inferno that would reduce everything in existence to ash.
The massive spell——which could almost be mistaken for the sun itself——completely incinerates everything above the manor’s second floor.
“Th-this is……the transcendent-tier spell !?”
Luna tells the dumbstruck Howard the truth, flatly.
“Nothing so grand as that. This is just a low-level spell.”
“Th-that can’t……this is……impossible……!”
Confronted with the undeniable difference in their standings, Howard loses the strength in his legs right there on the spot.
“By the way, Lord Howard——crying while licking someone’s what was it again?”
The figure with that blazing mass at her back, the words that slipped out naturally, the gaze looking down at Howard——it is unmistakably the look of a ‘villainess.’
“P-please, spare——”
“——No discussion.”
In an instant, a tremendous roar rings out, and a scorching shockwave and crimson explosion tears through the air.
As the remnant fires flicker through the ruined manor, Luna stands calmly in the moonlight.
“All that bluster, and underneath you’re a coward.”
In the direction of her gaze——
“Ahh, ba, ahbaba……”
——Howard and his subordinates have all fainted from the shockwave of the spell.
It would have been pointless to actually reduce them to ash, so she had brought the down far from the manor.
She had intended it as a light warning shot to break their fighting spirit, but she hadn’t expected them to foam at the mouth and fall unconscious.
(Princess Alicia and Sarko are……good, they look like they’re alright)
Alicia, struck by the saint’s immense magical energy, is hugging her own shoulders and trembling. Sarko is still unconscious——but thanks to the defensive spell Luna had deployed, both of them are unharmed.
(Right then, time to head home……hm?)
Just as Luna is about to leave, she hears the neighing of horses in the distance.
(The whinnying and hoofbeats……judging by the direction, probably the kingdom’s regular soldiers)
Her prediction, for once, is correct——the Kingdom of Elgia’s Holy Knight Order has come to recover Alicia.
(If they find me it’s going to get complicated, better slip away quickly)
As Luna is thinking this, Alicia calls out in a nervous, tentative way.
“U-um……thank you very much.”
“Please, don’t worry about it.”
She says that briefly, and then draws characters in the air with her index finger.
“——“
The instant the spell activates, pale lights float up all around——and every trace of Luna’s presence in this place, strands of hair, droplets, remnants of magical energy, is erased completely.
(Good, even if they use a tracking spell, there’s nothing here to identify me)
Luna has a past of having been imprisoned in any number of places in her previous life as the Saint——detached palaces, underground dungeons, inner courts, you name it.
Flight and escape are old habits, and her skill at them has long since reached the level of a craftsman. She really would like a more girlish talent than this.
With every trace of herself erased, Alicia calls out to her.
“Pardon me for asking out of nowhere, but what do you intend to do from here?”
“Withdraw, of course.”
“W-well then……may I ask just one more thing?”
“Yes, what is it?”
“Just who are you……?”
“I am a……no, that’s not right anymore. I’m a passing——villainess.”
And with that, Luna starts running and disappears into the darkness of the night.
The next day.
Luna sits in the chair of her own room, drinking tea with the newspaper in hand.
“……”
The headline on the national paper is the previous night’s soirée attack, and right alongside it is a large picture of Howard’s face, swollen black and blue.
(Well, a fitting punishment, I’d say)
According to the article……House Grazer has been stripped of its ducal rank, and the mastermind Howard has been sentenced to 999 years of hard labor in the Arzas Far-North Penal Colony on charges of high treason——in effect, a life sentence.
Not an execution over in a moment, but forced labor until death in a frigid territory.
The king’s fury could be read from this decision.
“Mmmm——”
As Luna finishes the paper and stretches out in a great yawn, knock knock knock sounds from the door.
“Pardon me.”
Ro, saying this as she enters the room, stacks wooden box after wooden box after wooden box with a series of heavy thunks in the corridor.
“Um……what is all this?”
“Something you requested, Luna-sama.”
“Wha——r-really!? You found them!? Truly!?”
Rummaging through the boxes, she finds, of all things, a complete set of every volume of Villainess Arshe——the novel she had been an avid reader of three hundred years ago.
“Ohhh!”
Luna’s eyes light up like a small child’s, and she immediately picks up the first volume.
The cover has faded in the sun and shows spots and wear with age, making it unsuitable for collection purposes, but……for the purpose of enjoying the contents there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
“Th-thank you! Ro, I love you!”
“I’m honored.”
The sky is perfectly blue, a pleasant spring breeze blows, and the beautiful voices of birds ring all around.
“On such a glorious day……let’s shut ourselves inside and devour every last villainess novel!”
Arc One: Saint Reincarnation, Complete.