The Strange but Effective Villainess Life

Episode 33: Someone Is Back (XI)

The emperor, who was looking at me with a benevolent expression, stiffened just a little. Then he replied like he was a bit troubled.

“Thank you for your concern, Princess. But the Princess… Um, so…”

For a while, the emperor struggled to choose his words. Then he uttered with a light sigh.

“I understand that you don’t have Prelai’s special ability yet.”

As expected, the emperor didn’t seem to know that Peep came to me.

No, even if he knew, nothing had changed much. Anyway, the person who summoned Peep was Melissa.

Neither Grandpa nor Joshua immediately said something like ‘Kiana has a summon’.

Everyone in the capital knew that Peep was Melissa’s pet. In the midst of all this, it was obvious that even if I now owned Peep, it wouldn’t help my reputation very much. No one would admit that it was a proper summoning.

I answered politely.

“Thank you for your consideration, Your Majesty.”

I was sincere.

“Consi… deration?”

The emperor cautiously asked, and I calmly continued.

“First of all, Your Majesty thought that I wasn’t like a ‘real Prelai’, but you didn’t kick me out, saying, ‘A lady like you who is obviously not going to be of any help doesn’t even deserve to be here.”

The emperor’s face slightly heated up at my answer.

“Also, you answered the contextless question of the ‘useless but childish princess who takes the position of Prelai and listens to His Majesty’s inner affairs’ in a sincere manner.”

“Euk, ahem!”

“Finally. Instead of saying, ‘I know you can’t call a summon, but you’re being silly,’ you went around and said, ‘You don’t have the ability yet.’”

I bowed my head once more to express my deep gratitude and looked into the emperor’s blue eyes.

“I could feel the consideration and warmth of Your Majesty the Emperor.”

Joshua and Grandpa exchanged glances, which said, ‘Even if we don’t step out, she is good on her own… But what is this feeling?’

“Ahem, Princess Kiana? I, um…”

It was when the emperor, who had difficulty responding to my excessively polite attitude, kept clearing his throat.

Grandpa interjected with a grin.

“Okay, Kiana. What is your solution?”

“Duke?”

At the emperor’s doubtful tone, Grandpa said, unable to hide his satisfaction.

“Your Majesty, I think you can trust this child.”

“…Did the Duke just praise one of his descendants?”

The emperor let out another cough as he turned his gaze to me.

His eyes had already changed. Grandpa’s ‘positive tone’ had great power.

“Princess, what do you need? I will prepare it quickly. Does it take a lot of time?”

“I can stop by the store and buy the things I need right away.”

I answered with composure.

“So, you can go to Tales Tree immediately. Oh, and I would also like to have an escort knight who is good at shooting a bow. That’s all.”

The emperor looked a little confused. But then, after glancing at Grandpa’s face, he nodded as if he had made up his mind.

Even if Grandpa didn’t believe it, he had a face that suggested he believed. Once again, I felt how much trust Grandpa had as the head of Prelai.

“Then let’s go.”

The emperor jumped to his feet.

“As the Princess said, let’s go together. It won’t take long.”

─➽⊰

The Tales Tree boasted a mysterious presence in the Imperial Palace garden.

It was the first time I had seen the Tales Tree up close.

The tree was so tall that even if I bent my head and looked up, I could not see the top.

Arriving at the Tales Tree, the emperor standing in front of the stairs asked with an expectant face.

“Well then, what should I do?”

“Just wait a moment, please.”

Before coming here, I went to the general store. 

I couldn’t describe just how excited I was to put a lot of items in my bag.

Sitting in the carriage, I couldn’t help feeling good. I scribbled a note in the corner of a piece of paper, something like, ‘Also on the side of the crown prince.’ Anyway, it was certain that the emperor was on the side of the crown prince.

In some ways, his position was different from the mysterious empress.

The empress, of course, was sad, but it didn’t seem like she was actively waiting for the crown prince’s return. She was just secluded, not showing any political moves.

Thus, Prince Heaton and his biological mother, the third empress, were dominating the political world.

Anyway, the spy maid quickly brought what I had prepared from the carriage.

“…Princess? This? What is this?”

The emperor approached with a curious face.

“It’s a magic tool that can quickly increase the temperature. Its name is Portin, but it would be convenient to think of it as a fire that goes out quickly.”

“Oh, there is such a thing?”

“Yes. It’s too expensive and does not last long, so it has not been commercialized.”

In fact, most magic tools were like that. Everyone would light a fire rather than use Portin.

Anyway, this case was a little different.

In front of the tree, I took out a piece of paper and started counting.

“Well, since you said the weight of the Elistone is 44 pelots…”

After quickly completing the calculation, I took out a rather large balloon-like item.

“What is this?”

“I’ll put the Elistone here.”

The Elistone was not fixed well, so I went through my bag and wrapped the Elistone in paper and attached it to the contraption.

“And…”

After that, I put the Portin in… and that’s it.

Instantly, the balloon inflated and began to fly into the sky.

“Oh, oh!”

The eyes of everyone watching widened.

Keeping an eye on the Elistone hanging on the flying balloon, I said to the escort knight,

“The Portin will not last long. When I tell you to shoot, align the arrow and drop it on a suitable branch.”

Before the regression, this was one of the projects I was working on at the academy.

Theoretically, people could also be lifted this way. I named it ‘hot air balloon’.

“It’s so amazing…”

The emperor looked up and murmured.

Unable to resist, I responded.

“Can I explain the principle?”

“Of course.”

I smiled at the emperor’s answer.

It was very rare for me to smile so openly. He had no idea how happy I was to be able to explain.

“Air expands when heated. When the inside air becomes lighter than the outside air, it goes up.”

“…Huh?”

For a moment, there was a hint of ‘I made a mistake’ in the emperor’s voice.

Whatever, I was excited to say more.

“Let me explain in greater detail. Firstly, you need to understand the power of buoyancy.”

“Hmm…”

“If you look at the formula here…”

“…….”

When I started explaining in earnest, the face of the emperor as well as the escort knights next to him suddenly darkened.

However, they were in a position to stay close to me the whole time the Elistone went up. And before regressing, my job was a professor.

“Surprisingly, the air surrounding us is also a fluid and obeys the laws of hydrodynamics…” 

It meant that I had the ability to talk endlessly about fun topics, as long as I could forcefully keep the listeners by my side no matter what they thought.

I had always dreamed of an environment like this. An environment in which listeners could not escape from me.

“Isn’t it so interesting, Your Majesty? That the world runs according to the rules of this formula.”

“That’s… that’s right.”

“Ah, now would be perfect. Shoot the arrow now.”

As soon as I finished my words, the bewildered escort knight frantically shot the arrow.

The Portin was still valid, so the Elistone could go up a little higher. But it would be bad if it couldn’t get out of the contraption and fall into the tree.

The sharp arrow hit and cut off the string that was holding the Elistone. The balloon that was cut off flew away into the skies, and the Elistone landed on a very high tree branch.