A Strange But Effective Villainess Life - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 2
1. The Villainess Returns
“Senior? Senior!”
Someone shook me awake.
I jolted upright and looked around frantically. A shabby, decrepit student research lab, and cheap experimental equipment….
‘What? I was just in prison a moment ago.’
“You can’t sleep here. I understand you’re passionate about your degree, but please respect the student research lab’s operating hours.”
My junior’s blunt voice came from nowhere.
‘Wait. This junior….’
She was incompetent but kept appearing as a co-author on my research papers because she was the Dean’s relative.
Bewildered by the current situation, I reflexively answered in a timid voice.
“What’s a doctoral candidate doing lecturing me? Get out of here right now, before I beat you senseless with a pendulum motion,”
“A doctoral candidate? What are you talking about… Are you still half-asleep?”
My junior clicked her tongue and left the research lab.
‘What? What on earth is happening?’
First, I checked the lab coat I was wearing.
‘Wait, this… is the one I wore during my doctoral program?’
…I shouldn’t have said “doctoral candidate” just now….
I blinked, then suddenly noticed a newspaper headline lying in front of the lab door and rushed over in shock.
【Breaking News】 Melissa Prelai Returns Prelai’s Castle and Volunteers as a Nun at Erloar Monastery.
“What, what on earth is this?”
She declared her commitment to devote her entire life to charitable work.
The newspaper was dated, remarkably, one year before my last memory.
“I’m going to turn back time. With all these memories intact, I’ll return to one year ago. And then I’ll immediately enter the convent and live a life unrelated to House of Prellay. I absolutely won’t die so pathetically again!”
‘What, did Melissa really use divine power to turn back time?’
I was dumbfounded. Regardless, shocked by all of this, I immediately sent a letter to the convent where Melissa was supposedly staying.
Since it involved treason, I minimized my words to avoid any potential trouble later.
‘By using the word “after,” she’ll realize I’ve also regressed with my memories intact, right?’
I believed we could communicate at least to that extent.
‘The fact that I’m even sending her a letter is remarkable in itself. She’ll definitely understand.’
After sending the letter to the convent, I locked myself in my dormitory room. I needed to make some plans for what to do next.
‘…Anyway, this is all because of Prince Hitten, isn’t it?’
I decided to wait for Melissa’s reply before taking action in earnest. While thinking through as many possible strategies as I could.
But a few days later.
While I was holed up in my room like a recluse, drafting my hundred-and-twentieth plan, something bright yellow tapped against the window with a ‘knock-knock’ sound.
“Hm?”
In my room, covered with memo notes listing every possible scenario, I stared blankly out the window through my glasses.
“What are you….”
Upon discovering the source of the ‘knock-knock’ sound, I muttered absently.
“…Could it be Piyak?”
Piyak, the yellow lark summoned by Melissa, found me carrying a letter envelope in her beak.
The moment I accepted the letter, Piyak began chirping excitedly, fluttering her fluffy wings.
【Kiana, I’m Melissa’s…】
I greeted Piyak warmly and spoke to her kindly.
“You’re being noisy, so why don’t you close your beak for now? We can chirp all you want after I finish reading.”
【Hmph!】
After closing Piyak’s beak like that, I unfolded the letter.
Kiana, it’s been such a long time. You were always complaining to me, but it turns out you were actually very worried about me.
“What is she talking about?” I furrowed my brow in confusion.
‘Something feels off about this. What do you mean it’s been a long time? And worried about what….’
Everyone else called you a spoiled, jealous noble brat, but I always believed that you possessed a tiny, tiny bit of kindness within you.
Even if your last words to me were a threat: “Next time we meet, I’ll make you remove the seeds from my strawberries.”
I quickly skimmed through the rest of the letter.
One morning I woke up and suddenly felt the calling to become a nun and enter the convent. Isn’t this divine revelation?
Wait, didn’t she say with her own mouth, “I don’t want to die, so I’m going to run away to the convent alone”?
Now I’m traveling with the other nuns to do volunteer work wherever our feet take us, so I won’t be able to contact you for a while. Well then, goodbye.
The letter ended there, with only a postscript attached.
P.S. I’m sending my deepest admiration for that tiny bit of kindness in you that only I noticed, along with a meaningful gift for you.
My eyes widened in an instant.
‘A meaningful gift?’
Could it be a notarized document saying something like [I hereby transfer all my assets to my worthless cousin Kiana]? Just as I was frantically flipping the envelope over.
【Ta-da!】
Piyak, who had been keeping her beak shut following my orders, suddenly spread her two short wings and interjected.
【That gift is me, Kiana!】
She had even tied a dirty ribbon that had been rolling around on my desk around her own neck.
【Melissa no longer considers herself part of House Prellay, so she thought she didn’t need a summoned beast anymore. That’s why she sent me to you.】
“What?”
I nearly dropped the letter I was holding in shock.
Everyone in House Prellay could summon beasts. Usually, around the age of eight, each person would call forth their own summoned beast. Each summoned beast possessed various abilities that were helpful to their respective masters.
‘Everyone except me….’
But even as I grew older, I was unable to summon a beast. There was a reason I left Prelai Manor and came all the way to this remote Academy.
But that wasn’t the important thing right now….
‘No, isn’t it too much to abandon both Prelai’s Castle and her summoned beast?’
【Reversing time with divine power is an extremely difficult task. How could it have gone exactly as Melissa wished?】
While I sat there dumbfounded, Piyak casually sprawled out on my bed and spoke.
【It just so happened that I was in contact with you at that moment, and something went wrong, so it seems only I and you retained the memories of regression, not Melissa.】
“Good heavens….”
【I’m not entirely sure about divine power either, but based on what I’ve gathered, that’s how it is.】
I stood there blankly, recalling the situation from that time.
Piyak had collapsed at Melissa’s feet, and I was shaking Melissa’s shoulders, telling her to come to her senses. Yes… we were in contact….
“Then what about Melissa?”
【She doesn’t even know she’s regressed. But that final resolve of hers—’I’ll become a priestess and abandon Prelai’s Castle’—seemed like brainwashing.】
Piyak fluttered his wings as he explained.
【So right after regressing, she said she’d immediately enter the Convent.】
That made the vague, flowery tone of her letter finally make sense.
She has no memories of before the regression. She simply lived her life and then suddenly gained enlightenment, becoming a priestess under that impression.
We probably regressed simultaneously, but I was asleep at the time, so Melissa acted faster than I did.
“So Piyak, you didn’t tell Melissa about the regression?”
【No.】
Piyak nodded confidently.
【Melissa is no longer Prelai. Summoned creatures don’t pledge loyalty to those who aren’t Prelai. Even if she were wicked, it’s only right that I serve another Prelai instead.】
To be acknowledged as Prelai by Melissa’s own summoned creature—the feeling was truly peculiar. But what mattered for a summoned creature was the act of summoning itself. So even if Melissa had transferred Piyak to me, that didn’t mean I had truly summoned her as a genuine Prelai.
As I sighed, Piyak tapped the bed with his small wings and grumbled.
【This bed is really terrible. The whole room smells musty too. I mean, did sixteen-year-old Kiana really cause such a fuss and flee Prelai Manor just to come to a place like this?】
He was already lashing out with his words. I gently offered him some advice about the proper attitude of living with one’s master.
“Piyak, you can’t start flopping around in front of your master. Straighten up right now.”
【Oh my, already throwing your weight around as master? Just as expected.】
But Piyak was no ordinary creature either.
【Poor little Piyak is exhausted from coming all the way to this rural backwater. I need to rest on this shabby, cheap bed at least for a while.】
That bird with nothing but a mouth…. We truly didn’t yield an inch to each other—a remarkably equal and harmonious atmosphere indeed. In any case, thanks to Piyak, I finally understood the situation.
Only Piyak and I know about the future. Hmm, so then….
【But Kiana, what is all this?】
While I was lost in thought, Piyak spoke as he looked at the wall covered with sticky notes.
【Just looking at it makes me dizzy. You’re like a real shut-in hermit.】
I looked at Piyak and answered.
“This is just, well, traces of me worrying about what to do going forward.”
【Traces? Of worrying?】
“If things continue as they are, House of Prellay will fall helplessly to Prince Hitten again. And then I’ll be hanged helplessly.”
【So?】
“In the end, I’m the clever and capable one, so I have no choice but to directly save the House from this crisis myself.”
【But… you worried about this so much?】
Piyak looked around, his expression somehow uncomfortable.
“Yeah. I’m naturally the hardworking type.”
【Hmm…. Well, I suppose. But is it even possible for you to save the House? You’ve been stuck in the countryside, so you don’t know anything about the Empire’s current situation. You only know one person behind it all, don’t you? The road ahead is too long.】
“You’re right. Just as your cheeky observation points out, I know nothing right now.”
I readily agreed.
“That’s why I was truly at a loss, but now I’ve come up with quite a good solution.”
【A solution, you say?】
I smiled at Piyak, who tilted his head in confusion.
“You’ll know about the Empire’s affairs that are about to unfold, won’t you? Since you were always in the Empire beside Melissa.”
【…Wait, then that solution you mentioned…】
“Listen.”
I pulled out a fresh notepad and pen as I spoke.
“Tell me everything you know. Anything at all, even the most trivial details. I’ll add each piece to my notes and reanalyze the situation. Two weeks should be enough, right?”
【Two weeks?】
Piyak’s beak fell open, his expression growing distant.
【Two weeks? Kiana, how can you be so full of such toxicity? You’re like a person made entirely of obsession…】
“Piyak.”
I cut off Piyak’s words with a stern expression. My specialty was magical engineering grounded in mathematics and science, and I simply couldn’t tolerate such remarks.
“I’m made of cells.”
【…】

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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