Somehow, I’m the Otome Game Villain 28:

Somehow, I’m the Otome Game Villain 28:

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by LordMarksman

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Princess Hertrauda and was accompanied by the Black Knight. While the rest of the fleet I destroyed was put in one of the immobilized ships and towed back to Alzer, while the rest were destroyed, I kept the Princess and her bodyguard for the sake of diplomacy.

Or, at least, attempt diplomacy.

“So, the same knight of Alzer that defeated the first fleet and stopped the prince of Holfort’s uprising returned to defeat us.” The Black Knight, Vandel, addressed me first though he stood behind and over the should of the Princess. Hertrauda resembled her sister in that she had very pale skin and black hair and red eyes. In terms of three-sizes though, the younger sister outstripped the older one by an order of magnitude. I almost ogled, but she wasn’t even in highschool yet, and that killed the mood. Poor kid probably gets leered at enough without me added into the mix. Wait, were they twins? “So, the tales are true. You were smitten with your first meeting to the Queen of Holfort… or Alzer has designs on ruling Holfort themselves with their new Ancient Artifacts.”

This guy sure had an active imagination.

“I never thought that someone so distinguished could still have such a vibrant imagination. I hope that I’ll have as sharp a mind when I’m your age, Sir Vandel.” I took a seat and the man snorted, but there was no ill will. If anything, he seemed amused that I put down his attempt to control the conversation. It was a firm reminder that I’m an up-and-coming heir with talent and skill and manners. I didn’t need to tell him that I was better than him, or fall for his words. That would just signal for him to keep attacking. No. We both knew that his words were beneath my notice at best. “Lady Hertrauda, my apologies for not including any of your servants along with your imprisonment. I hope that the golems have been suitable caretakers.”

Hertrauda’s mouth opened and closed at my words, then she turned to Vandel, who just gave her a nod.

I made sure that Vandel saw my raised eyebrow at their little interaction.

His face was stony and unresponsive at my questioning, while the younger princess spoke up.

“T-the golems are of fine make and have provided decent accommodations. H-however, this remains an act of aggression by the Alzer Republic that will not go u-unaddressed.” Hertrauda was stuttering, but that would be rude to point out, so I listened patiently while sitting across from her at the table. I was sure thy already both noticed. The ship was new, incredibly well-furnished, and fantastically armed. From their eyes, I defeated their whole fleet with this one ship, and it had the capacity to host royalty.  Basically, I was just letting them blow hot air. “You defended Holfort before, but now you have a-attacked us! This is grounds for war!”

Now, it was my turn.

“You have no ships. I came here quickly to destroy your incoming fleet, but I have another force going into your lands. They are destroying your shipyards as we speak and scuttling the rest of your fleet, and retrieving the floatstones.” I wanted this whole event chain to stop. If this continued, Alzer and Holfort will come to blows and go to war, which will lead to horrific amounts of deaths and end the already-crumbling Holfort. Even without Alzer intervening, with the Prince’s antics, half of the noble houses looking to Alzer instead of their own crown, and everything else? Holfort is going to fracture and implode. “Don’t worry, though. Holfort is in no place to move. In fact, I’m working on seeing the place crash as safely as possible right at this very moment.”

The fact of the matter was that I changed too many things to rely on my knowledge form the games. We had insider knowledge, some facts that might surprise others, but with all the changes we’ve done? Yeah. There’s no way that the things that happen in the games are guaranteed anymore. So, now, we had to make actual plans, implement them, and focus on keeping the world intact against the coming threats.

While keeping as many people alive as possible.

“…Alzer will move to take both nations, then. An ignoble end for us, but a truly pathetic one for Holfort.” Vandel seemed almost approving. But I could see it in his eyes. A little, quiet madness. The way his teeth grit. No, he was still not satisfied. Luxion and Ideal’s words regarding New Humans being more emotive and holding grudges for far long, because emotion was integral to guiding and controlling magic, resounded in my mind. No. This guy’s not going to let this peace stand. He’s already planning something. “What of the Royal House of Holfort? Dukes? Or will they be dispossessed completely? Alzer cannot hold all of Holfort and all of Fanoss at once.”

Time to play my trump card.

“Alzer can’t, but I can. All that you’ve witnessed today is under my household’s direct control. All the soldiers, all the munitions, and even the ships so high that you can’t see it.” I gave the man an out. I declared the simple fact that I had immense firepower at my disposal. The damn bastard smiled. Probably thinking about how he can hunt down the Holfort royal family after everything has happened. “The option will be given, though. They’ll probably start a rebellion. Then, I’ll put that down. Harshly.”

“…So, that’s why you didn’t kill anyone in this battle. You made your point in the previous one.”

“I made too good of a point. Too few soldiers and officers went back to tell the tale. Now, you’ve lost another fleet, and all the survivors saw what happened. They should know that they’re lucky.” The plan was simple. Threaten and intimidate these people into compliance, then saturate them with improvements to their lives to the point where whatever resistance movement pops up will find most people disinterested and uncaring. Destroy any chance of protest or endeavor to be free by making everyone wealthy and comfortable. Oh, and of course, deploy mobile surveillance drones that can turn invisible, tase people into unconsciousness, and phase through walls. That helps, too. “Tell me, Princess Hertrauda, what will you do if Holfort’s royal family is deposed along with the majority of its nobility? Will your people exact vengeance on the common people of Holfort? Do you believe them to be at fault for the wars of the past?”

Basically, I was asking if Hertrauda believed in some sort of justice or if she believed in vengeance. Vandel obviously believed in the latter. He wanted to make Holfort pay. I was sure that once he got his hands on the Royal family, he’ll keep killing and need to be put down.

Yeah.

It’s best that I give Ideal and Luxion the go ahead to give him a fragment of Demonic Armor and have them test weapons on him.

I had no doubt that his grievances were fair, but he should be content with Holfort ceasing to be and most of its upper nobility deposed.

Instead, it was more likely he’ll become sort of Sky Pirate and wreak havoc before getting put down.

The princess was silent for a long time before she answered.

“I… I want my people to be happy, and for them to be treated as people of Fanoss. If Holfort is conquered, then we don’t want to be associated with them. We should be dealt with as our own people.” Hertrauda spoke and surprisingly that got Vandel off his dreams of vengeance. He looked at her with pride and sorrow. Pride for her being able to speak so well. Sorrow at having to do so at such a young age. Or, maybe, it was the fact that he and the other nobility of Fanoss turned her and her sister into weapons to use the Magical Flutes passed down their families. It looks like, despite their best efforts, they created two people capable of ruling instead of two weapons. “If we are exploited, if you seek to turn us into no more than slaves to a crown, we will do the same as we did against Holfort and rebel even against the greatest of odds.”

Yep, she’s hopped up on a false narrative that Alzer didn’t attack first and had to be beaten back.

The negotiations are going well, so that little tidbit of information can be presented later. Alzer kept a pretty good record of the goings on in the region. We picked our allies very carefully. Holfort, even with its massive market for energy crystals and floatstones, wouldn’t be a trade partner of ours if they were just going to go around waging wars. That would make us targets of their enemies, thus we’d have to put money into our fleet. While it’d be great for us in the short-term to sell to whoever can pay us, doing so would’ve gotten us in hot water, if we weren’t careful.

I’ll inform the Princesses about the real situation later, but I don’t think there’ll be any issues keeping a territorial border between the two.

“That’s fine. I’d rather whatever tension between the two of you just turn into competition on which can be more prosperous. Your future generations will all join our Academy, and we’ll segregate your houses if needed.” Luxion and Ideal both wanted to elevate humanity back up to their pre-collapse stage, which was kinda like what I knew back in my old life, but with a few more technological luxuries. They both agreed that proliferating AI as rulers wouldn’t be good. Humanity as it was needed to improve and grow, essentially being guided until they can take up the mantle of having such potent partners. In a hundred years or so, if all went well and the world didn’t end, they could reveal themselves fully and guide the world back to what they knew. “And, to be frank, I’ll just your nation and Holfort towards improving your economies and making lives everywhere better. In a few decades, hopefully, you’ll be as prosperous as Alzer.”

Vandel spoke up again after my statement.

“So, what you want are… cultivated lands that produce taxation through multitudes of people?” He tried in vain to make me out as some sort of villain. Sure, dude. I’m a bad guy for conquering your people and telling you guys to not go to war and just improve your countries. What a horrible act. I had to roll my eyes. “As a Knight of Fanoss, I cannot abide with this decision unless I know your true aim.”

He called himself a knight, but in the end, he had the connections to the ruling party of Fanoss and the princesses were just figureheads. My bet was that they intended on conquering Holfort and getting their ‘justice’ by pillaging it and exploiting it. Sure, the last war was just a few decades ago, but I doubted their propaganda, their militarization, and all their efforts aren’t born from vengeance alone. They wanted the same thing as the Duke of Fanoss did before he made the Principality: to become the new ruling house over Holfort and take the crown themselves.

Yeah, these guys definitely can’t control AI like Luxion and Ideal anytime soon.

In fact, I’d go as far as to say that a century is too short.

Maybe two would be better.

Right, Vandel was waiting for an answer from me.

“When I found the artifacts that I did, I realized: there are others like it out there and that one is enough to overwhelm Alzer. Be it the Magic Flute that you have, the ship that Holfort crown uses as the base of their power, and finally something akin to mine.” I sanitized the simple fact that the world would end if we didn’t do anything. In their context, I needed to make it clear that I was working against ancient superweapons that can be found by normal people and shape the course of history. That way they’d understand. “The best way to do that is to create stable nations where it’s not necessary for the common person to use such weapons for riches and fame. For example, your Magic Flute used to control monsters and potentially something even worse. Imagine if your lands were peaceful and you didn’t have to worry about Holfort. It’d just be something for study bought for an extravagant sum by the rulers of the land, right?”

Vandel listened, but came to a different conclusion than I did.

“So, you want to ensure the primacy and rise of your nation at your core. That I can understand. You will conquer, you will declaw, and then you will turn ravenous animals into content pets.” Vandel shook his head and sighed. The princess stiffened at his words. This motherfucker was using the trauma he inflicted on her to fuck up my proposal. That’s it. “I shall bring word back to Fanoss, but rest assured that we will not yield.”

I looked at Hertrauda, but I knew that the peaceful solution was lost.

She was glaring at me with hate, even though the people that truly imprisoned her and her sister were represented right behind her.

Fuck it, then.

I’ll drag you all kicking and screaming into peace and prosperity.

“I see that negotiations have failed, then. Luxion. Ideal. You know what to do.” I got up and both of my two AI came into being. Vandel reacted swiftly, but was too slow. Hertrauda and her knight were both summarily stunned and fell unconscious. Luxion made sure to lower Hertrauda gently to rest her head on the table. Vandel was allowed to fall onto the floor by Ideal. “Go ahead and do as you like with Vandel and get rid of any of the nobility that has New Human genetics like he does. The rest we’ll imprison and see if we can give the same offer after destroying enough of their ability to make war.”

Both Luxion and Ideal bobbed up and down at my statement, while I considered the next step forward.

We’ll need to secure both princesses and make sure neither can get their hands on a Magical Flute through some conspirator making their way to them.

With Fanoss’ weapons and assets destroyed, it’ll be easier to roll in and take them over.

After that, these two can rule together and I can find a good knight under my household to marry one or the other of them off. Someone strong enough that we can make excuses of poison somehow not working on him. With that, we’ll wait until we get an heir and take whoever that is in.

That should settle the matter of the Principality neatly.