The Strange but Effective Villainess Life

Episode 18: The Villainess Is Back (XVII)

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Grandpa brought a large box from his office and showed it to me.

It was the first time I had ever seen Grandpa’s hands tremble.

Inside, were piled up letters from the academy.

The princess is doing very well. Within two months she skipped to the intermediate class, and she was involved in three joint studies.

The princess has moved to the advanced class. The advisor suggested sending the duke a letter, but he refused. She is currently involved in five joint studies and is doing very well.

The more I read, the more I laughed.

It will be better if the contents of the letter are a little simpler. Last time, Princess Kiana said, “I don’t want to reply because it’s too complicated.” If you want to get a reply, please keep it as brief as possible.

You’d better not come to the graduation ceremony. Princess Kiana is going to receive a certificate of commendation, but she says she won’t attend the graduation ceremony if her family comes.

“Haha… haha.”

The shock was great.

I didn’t even know that the professors were sending letters like this to the ducal residence. Additionally, the part about how they told me to send a letter… It was clearly a blatant lie.

Rather, my professors were always busy comforting me on special days like birthdays and New Year’s Day.

“Princess Kiana, it’s been a long time since you’ve cut ties with your family. You can marry academics here. You can always be with us. At least, this is a place where you are treated according to the number of papers.”

“At times like this, if you’re sad, you’ll just lose energy. Princess, why don’t we just research as usual? We will all celebrate your birthday together.”

All these were lies that should be known immediately.

But it was something we didn’t put together.

Very sneakily, short and simple letters from my grandfather or older brothers reached me. That’s why we thought we were indifferently contacting each other.

“Wow, those nasty things.”

Joshua muttered as he shook his head.

“They totally ruined a family.”

<You have to say it right.>

Hou solemnly declared.

<It was originally broken.>

Anyway, Hou was right.

Even if we contacted each other infrequently and sparingly, we were able to say, ‘Ah, it’s like that because our relationship isn’t good.’

That in itself was a testament to the current state of our family.

“Those crazy things…”

I read the letters my professors sent to my family over and over again.

It felt like something inside me was quietly collapsing. Even though I already had been betrayed once because of what happened before the regression.

If my trust in the people of the academy was like before, the psychological shock would have been enormous.

‘I was desperate to get a sense of belonging. I’m afraid I won’t have a place to belong to again if I don’t do well.’

So I whipped myself even more.

Of course, magic engineering was fun and research was my hobby, but I thought I had to give satisfactory results at the academy every time. So, I stayed up in the lab without sleep, and I lived a life where I got accustomed to eating a little because I couldn’t digest well if I ate more. 

And the reason why the academy had to hold me this far was obvious.

“I will check one more time. If Professor Kiana Prelai dies, according to the laws of the Principality of Liloney, all patents in her name will belong to the Academy, right?”

Anyway, all of my achievements were related to the academy.

I noticed before regressing that they weren’t sincere, but I didn’t know that I was psychologically further away from my family because of them.

They were afraid I would go back to the Duchy of Prelai… 

The hard lumps in my heart were big and I felt stuffy inside.

Of course, I was going to get revenge on the academy. But I was so angry that it was regrettable that I had delayed it even a little bit.

“Grandpa!”

Joshua was outraged.

“Are you going to leave that damn academy alone?”

“I can’t believe I left it…”

Then, with a cold expression, Grandpa said,

“…I have to send Alex.”

Oh my god. Sending that mad dog?

At those words, I murmured involuntarily.

“Oh, I feel sorry for the damn academy…”

Then I immediately came to my senses.

Wait a minute, the opponent was the academy.

I reacted too reflexively to the name ‘Alex’.

Immediately, I shook my head and corrected my words.

“No, no. Cancel the pity. It’s very appropriate.”

Just imagining Alex standing in front of the academy made me feel like all the stuff that was clogged up in the heart was resolved in an instant.

Joshua also nodded with a satisfied face.

“That academy is ruined.”

Joshua even clapped and added.

“And it’s very fortunate the mad dog has gone far. I might not see your face for a while. That bastard said that if I stepped into the ducal mansion, he would cut my hair to its roots.”

The Principality of Liloney was quite far.

I heard he had gone far away to investigate the last assassination. But the day Alex would come home became even further. 

“If you wait here quietly, the mad dog will take care of everything.”

Joshua declared proudly.

I just silently nodded. There was no need to go to the academy anymore.

Sending Alex, haha.

No matter how much I thought about it, there was no revenge better than that. My stomach felt relieved.

But still, I had to protect what I had to protect.

“Here, Grandpa.”

In addition, I had to make sure that there were no obstacles to various plans for the future.

“…Please write a letter to ask students, no– just the graduate students. What do they know. Also, don’t destroy the academy itself. I still have work to do at the academy.”

“I’ll do that. I’ll make sure to cut only those at the top.”

Grandpa nodded firmly.

It was then. Suddenly, outside the greenhouse, I heard a light flapping of wings.

‘Uh?’

It was just the sound of Peep’s wings.

But I thought it couldn’t be Peep. Didn’t she say it would take a week to secretly transport?

It hadn’t even been a day, let alone a week.

However, my expectation was wonderfully off.

<Ta-da! I’m here!>

Because a yellow lark with a cute voice sat on my head and started talking.

“What?”

In a panicked voice, I asked Peep, who arrived way sooner than expected.

“You said it would take a week?”

<I came very early, right? I don’t even know why! It’s really weird, it always took a week with Melissa!>

Grandpa and Joshua looked at Peep and I with startled eyes.

‘No, I can’t believe this embarrassing situation happened so quickly…’

“Uh, Grandpa! This, this…”

I truly panicked, so I blinked rapidly and spoke hastily.

I was very flustered, feeling the gazes of the servants around me.

To think that Peep appeared at this point when I was finally getting closer with Grandpa… 

“Melissa, that kind-hearted girl… She said now she wasn’t a Prelai and sent Peep to me…”

And after one glance at Grandpa, I added quickly.

“This time I didn’t really threaten, I didn’t get angry and I didn’t bully! I really didn’t want it, but Melissa just suddenly…”

There was so much karma accumulated in childhood that I had no choice but to make excuses in a hurry.

But before I could finish my words, Peep flew up with a shocked face.

<What do you mean you don’t want to have Peep! You’re so mean! I’ve changed my mind! You have a dirty personality, and you’re so capricious!>

Tears welled up in Peep’s eyes.

<When I was young, you wanted Peep and kept doing bad things! Are you losing interest now that Peep is coming to you? You awful woman! I hate you!>

Then, with a whoosh, Peep flew into my room.

“…….”

It was a much more extreme reaction than I expected.

Ame: ^^ from now on, this project will be updated twice a week! I’ve created a stock~

EDIT: I changed the title for this arc as after reading more, it will fit better