The Villainess Has No Regrets in this Life - Chapter 15

I don’t know how much time had passed like that… did the spirit answer my desperate heart or did it come to my dream?

“You’re an idiot…”

To be called an idiot by the spirit in our first meeting.

This life is really spectacular too.

I gave an awkward smile to the spirit who was looking at me pitifully.

When the spirit sighed, tiny bubbles emerged from that breath.

The spirit… honestly speaking, looks very, very cute.

About the size of my fist…

Looking like a mermaid from a fairy tale, it flew very gently around me.

“Um… perhaps…”

“You want to ask to borrow my spirit power, right?”

I nodded at the spirit’s words.

Then that spirit let out another sigh mixed with water droplets.

“Then… you could have just closed your eyes quietly and called me… Mafi, really…”

…Oh, that Mafi.

So the spirit emitted blue light while moving back and forth around my body.

Then soon those lights spread out and enveloped my body.

“The situation is getting worse. Wake up quickly and help the people.”

As the spirit clapped once with its small body right in front of my eyes, I opened my eyes.

And in a very clear state of mind.

—I never imagined I’d use my first spirit power to make you come to your senses after contracting with you.

“What? I thought you said we couldn’t talk in a conscious state?”

—So… I’m telling you that was all a lie from Mafi, okay?

Feeling the rush of betrayal, I made a mental note to go find Mafi later and give him a knock on the head, then I got up from my seat.

Whoosh–

At that moment, I felt like something that was standing in front of my room door disappeared, but it didn’t seem like the time to worry about that.

Because the murmurs of the servants who were just telling me to look at that fire before I fell asleep drunk were gradually turning into screams.

So I hurriedly went down the stairs and arrived at the garden where the back mountain was visible.

The flames were growing rapidly.

—In this weather, for flames that big… it’s obvious who did it.

Ah, I’m really not used to hearing voices in my head.

I quietly mumbled to respond to the voice I was hearing in my head.

“Who did it?”

—…You really are an idiot, just think… don’t say it out loud…

‘Ah, um…’

—Who else could it be? It’s the work of a spirit like me. Unless it’s a blessing directly bestowed by a god, there’s no one in this empire who can create a fire capable of devouring all that snow.

Fire spirit…

“Miss, we need to go quickly! At this rate, the flames will reach the Marquis’s mansion!”

While I was pondering what the water spirit had told me, Mylene urgently grabbed my shoulder from behind, urging me to quickly get in the carriage and move.

Come to think of it, everyone in this Marquis’s mansion should know that my blessing allows me to maintain my composure and reason even in dangerous situations…

If I use spirit power here, what will people think of me?

If there had been someone among the Masipacius ancestors who could use the water blessing, I could somehow miraculously claim to have inherited the blood of the water blessing, but that’s not the case…

As I was being led by Mylene’s hand towards where the carriage was, I thought of one alternative.

Right, a horse!

So I first got into the carriage as Mylene led me, giving the appearance that I was leaving the Marquis’s mansion.

Fortunately, it seemed that all the family members were moving in different carriages.

Seeing the imperial carriage rushing ahead, it seemed the Crown Prince had evacuated first.

I took advantage of the moment when the speed of the running carriage slowed down a bit, opened the carriage door, and jumped out right from inside the carriage.

I felt a little sorry hearing the shocked voices of Mylene and other servants, but I didn’t care and started running back to the Marquis’s mansion.

The place I arrived at was the stable managing the horses.

So I took out one of the horses that was leisurely eating hay, not knowing what was happening, and rode towards the burning mountain.

When I arrived, the mountain was engulfed in much larger flames than when I first saw it.

Even I, who’s quite far from the flames, could feel the heat on my skin.

—Imagine.

As I approached the flames, the spirit spoke to me.

‘Um… spirit?’

—My name is Wolti.

‘Okay, Wolti… what exactly should I imagine?’

—Think of this mountain… being completely covered in water.

Following the spirit’s… no, Wolti’s words, I imagined a huge sea swallowing this mountain.

As I concentrated on that imagination for a while, the heat from the flames subsided and I felt a cool breeze welcoming me.

And the moment I felt the air touching my nose was very fresh, I opened my eyes with the certainty that the fire had been extinguished.

…But why am I in the water?

I can even breathe…?

No, the burning mountain and I are completely submerged in water…

Is this the power of spirit force that creates something from nothing?

—It’s natural for someone with water spirit power to be able to breathe underwater, right? The fire is out. Now we need to get rid of the water…

So I closed my eyes again and imagined this huge water droplet covering the mountain evaporating and disappearing.

Then the surrounding wind seemed to rise upwards, and soon the fresh scent of grass enveloped my nose.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the mountain looking the same as usual, except for the burned parts.

With the tension released, my legs gave out and I collapsed on the spot.

No, is it not that my legs gave out but that they’re just hurting?

As I lifted the cumbersome dress, I saw my leg with a large wound bleeding, probably injured when I fell.

…I’m doomed.

How am I going to ride a horse back to the Marquis’s mansion with this leg…

As I was holding my complicated head in a sort of self-pity, I felt someone tapping my shoulder from behind.

The moment I realized in my head that someone had seen my actions, my mind started to turn white.

I’m doomed.

Completely doomed.

If someone saw a young lady from a family that has never received a water blessing using a water blessing…

Tomorrow’s newspaper front page will be filled with all sorts of strange speculations about me.

So I turned my head to see who had been watching my actions, but…

Huh?

The man in the black cloak I had bumped into in the fog a few days ago was looking down at me.

This time he was even wearing a cloth covering his nose and mouth.

“Why are you here…”

He definitely introduced himself as someone from the imperial palace last time, so did he perhaps mix in with the escort knights when the Crown Prince came and entered the Marquis’s mansion?

Then does this mean… this incident will be reported to the Crown Prince, no, to the imperial palace?

My anxious mind started to breed numerous questions.

As I looked at him with anxious eyes, he picked up my body that was sitting on the ground.

“What… let go!”

As I struggled, he clicked his tongue once and then looked at my wound.

“How and where were you planning to go with this leg?”

“Where and how I go with this leg! Then to put it bluntly, how am I supposed to know where you’re taking me…!”

I continued to struggle in his arms, but he paid no attention and took me into the mountain that had been burning until just now.

We arrived at a small wooden cabin located in a place untouched by the flames.

This person… what exactly is he?

He put me down on a wooden chair near the cabin for a moment and then went to the back of the cabin to bring a key.

The cabin we entered was small, but extremely neat and furnished.

This level of neatness is impossible unless someone regularly tidies it up…

As I looked at him with eyes full of suspicion, he let out a sigh and then put me down on the bed and approached me with bandages and first aid supplies he took out from a nearby drawer.

Then he bent one knee and sat in front of me, closely examining the wound on my leg.

“…How exactly do you have to do something to get injured like this?”

“Ha, what’s it to you?”

As though he didn’t like my tone, he seemed to frown and then pressed a gauze soaked in disinfectant firmly on my wound.

I wanted to kick the man in front of me and scream from the oncoming pain, but not wanting to be any more disrespectful to someone who might be from the imperial palace, I just bit my lip hard and hid the escaping groans.

The man seemed to glance at me like that and then carefully started disinfecting the wound and applying medicine.

So, feeling awkward in the sudden silence, I pointlessly rolled my eyes here and there.

Then I saw a glass display case containing well-maintained weapons engraved with the imperial emblem.

“Um… will this incident also be reported to the imperial palace…?”

As if he found it funny that I suddenly spoke more politely, he let out an exasperated laugh and then lowered my dress skirt and stood up. It seems the treatment was finished.

“We’re not a group that prevents individuals from trading spirit power. We’re a group that manages how that spirit power is used.”

I carefully raised my head at his words.

So are you saying you’ll report it or not…

“If the spirit power had been used for something strange, it would have been reported to the imperial palace, but this incident can be seen as a good example of using spirit power for the right thing. I won’t report it. A report about a mysterious woman extinguishing a forest fire with a water blessing might go up, but your name won’t be mentioned.”

I let out a sigh of relief at his words.

Thinking I shouldn’t say anything unnecessary anymore, I tightly closed my mouth and diligently rolled my eyes following his movements, and he soon handed me a warm cocoa.

“But, isn’t it a good situation for you if the spirit power you have becomes a blessing and gives you strength?”

I said as I received the cocoa from him,

“I just… don’t want to catch the eye of the imperial family, you could say… Blessings related to water or fire are also specially managed by the imperial palace…”

The man in the cloak tilted his head at my words.

“Everyone’s making such a fuss trying to meet a member of the imperial family once in their lifetime, but why…?”

Ah, I said the wrong thing.