Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 132.1
Castle Where Darkness Dwells (1)
“I wonder if it was really a good idea…”
Clara muttered to herself in her room in the Dandol family’s mansion at the Magic Academy.
Recently, she had not been attending classes much due to her poor health. In fact, she had not been feeling well since she got the [Gift] in the dungeon, and she had lost some weight.
Her brother Rockwell, worried about her and thinking that her role as the Crown Prince’s first fiancée had become a burden, comes to visit her every day, but her fiancée, the Crown Prince, no longer comes to see her as often as he did in the beginning.
Rockwell was not happy with the attitude of the Crown Prince Ervan, and as the future head of the Order, he and his close friend Mikhail of the Melrose family were gradually distancing themselves from the Crown Prince faction.
The reason Ervan no longer visited Clara’s place was probably because she had become a troublesome woman. Clara, who had memories of her previous life, could understand this, even if she could not agree with it. But the main reason was most likely the Heroine who had been by Ervan’s side recently.
The Heroine’s appearance was different from the Heroine Clara knew, but her behavior and her “role” were the same as the Heroine of Otome Game.
She would go through the dark hearts of her targets, give them whatever words they wanted, and pamper them with her full affirmation. The only problem was that Heroine was very dependent on men, and her unusual pampering and affirmation naturally made Rockwell and Mikhail distance themselves from her, but the Heroine’s pampering and cajoling always made the men side with her.
The Crown Prince Ervan, the King’s brother Amol, the Baron Nathaniel, and Viscount Theo, the butler who admonished Heroine and looked at them with cold eyes, were the four people who were now on Heroine’s side in the Otome Game.
What were the Crown Prince and the royal brother thinking, distancing themselves from the Dandol and Melrose families, the leading royalist factions? If things continue as they stand, the country will be split in two and a new conflict will erupt, which would not only weaken the royal family’s unifying power, but would also leave an opening for other countries to take advantage of it.
Even if Heroine, a viscountess for two generations, were to be made Queen, she might be able to unite the country if she could clear Ervan’s darkness and awaken him as a king. However, from Clara’s point of view, those three did not seem to have awakened.
Heroine Alicia must be eliminated. And quickly.
To do so, Clara planned to force the start of a major event, “The Evil Race Conspiracy”, which was supposed to take place in the second year.
“The Evil Race Conspiracy ” was a big event that took up to half a year to complete, and it was supposed to occur only in the Crown Prince route, but in the real world, flags have little meaning. The event actually involved the villainess Carla, who brought the Evil Race into the Kingdom of Cleydale, and the outcome depended on the likability and awakening of the capture target and the Heroine at that time.
If a certain number of the characters in the game had a certain level of favorable impression toward Heroine, then Heroine and her friends would be kidnapped by the Evil Race, and they would go on an adventure to finally defeat the king of the Evil Race, or a reconciliation route would occur.
However, if the likability was low, the kidnapping event would not take place and the war with the Evil Race would begin again, and if the likability was really low, it could end badly, with even the Heroine dying.
Clara’s knowledge of her past life included information about the Evil Race’s hideout, and she was able to get under the radar and use her hired help to contact the Evil Race’s “collaborators”, who were able to gain access to the city they were trying to attack and secure a route into.
Unlike in the game, Alicia is now unawakened to the magic of the light attribute. In this state, Clara planned to eliminate her with a high probability of success.
There would be many rough spots in the plan. A sane Clara would not risk drawing the Evil Race in with such vague information. But Clara chose to carry out her plan for the kingdom and for Ervan’s sake, making excuses that would make her look like she was lying to herself.
“I won’t let her do as she pleased…”
Such words leaked unconsciously from Clara’s lips.
She was unaware that her feelings were not out of a sense of justice for the future of her country, but out of an ugly jealousy that Ervan was taken from her…
***
There were Evil Races in this country other than my master. Moreover, they were Vampires, and were not treated as demons, but as the spearhead of the Evil Race nation, they were plotting something in this country. And it was Carla, a noblewoman of this country, who invited the Evil Race, the enemy of humanity, to this country.
“What are you thinking about when you set them up?”
“Nothing…I didn’t have a particular reason.”
Carla played a joke on my question like a little girl who was playing a trick on me. But behind her eyes, a dark fire still burned, and I could sense her hatred for the Kingdom of Cleydale.
“You wanted to be a Vampire?”
“…That’s an interesting thing to suggest, isn’t it?”
Even if she looked unconcerned, a body that could vomit blood just by moving violently must have been in a great deal of pain even in normal times. If there was a way to escape the pain, I would accept it, even if others pointed the finger behind my back.
I took Carla’s cold hand and turned my face toward her, and Carla, who always had an emotionless smile on her face, laughed as if she were troubled.
“Aria is so mean.”
I asked her to live even if she became a monster. But Carla wished to die beautifully in a life of pain.
There was no right way to live. Only one can decide how to live one’s own life.
Carla had her own sense of beauty. As for Carla, who obtained [Gift] and became able to break it by herself, the Evil Race that she invited in the past may no longer be necessary for her to be concerned with the way she dies.
However, Carla’s sense of beauty would not allow her to let others use something that she had thrown away without her permission.
“I will clean up my toys, Aria, kill your enemies and become stronger.”
“…”