Somehow, I’m the Otome Game Villain 21:

Somehow, I’m the Otome Game Villain 21:

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by LordMarksman

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There’s no shortage of people out there who’ll fuck over other people just to get a little bit ahead in life.

That is to say that without certain assurances from my pedigree, Alzer would’ve gotten rid of me, and even with my pedigree all that I did would’ve burdened my family a great deal.

While we’re certainly seen as a reputable and competent family, the fact remained that we’re rivals with the other houses. If they found something out about us that could be turned into an advantage for them, then they’ll most certainly use it to their own ends.
Basically, even if I was doing everything I could to keep the entire world safe, I was mindful of the fact that I could ruin my family by doing so.

Thankfully, lots of power and lots of money and lots of prestige helped a lot.
The first two I’d been making since getting Ideal, but the prestige was all thanks to my recent exploits.

Exploits which included beating a crown prince and several heirs to noble houses of Holfort, as well as the destruction of the Fanoss Fleet.

So, really, the prestige I garnered for doing those things were outweighed by the massive political ramifications involved in both.

Therefore, the prestige didn’t count.

Still, the money and power tipped the scales towards balance.

There weren’t any festivals or celebrations heeding my return, but there weren’t any people waiting to bring me in shackles before the council of houses that led the Republic.

“Hmph. It seems that you were correct. Simply propping yourself up with power and money has made you night untouchable. These New Humans are truly spineless.” With Ideal’s help, we’d improved the shipyards in my family’s territory. Nothing that would give everyone here an advantage over us, but more than enough compared to the rest of the world. Ideal loathed the idea of the whole navy using the Sacred Tree’s power, so we developed generators that could allow the fleets of Alzer to go past the range of the Tree. For the most part, merchants and traders were using it, but the money it brought in and its military applications were undeniable. “True Humanity would’ve arrested you. You, after all, shamed several political figures in an allied country and then defeated an entire fleet without permission from your nation.”

“Thank goodness we live in a corrupt society that values strength above all else, then. Our plans would get a lot more complicated if I was in prison.” Ideal bobbed up and down at my words. My backhanded compliment towards New Humanity pleasing it greatly. After passing through a patrol of ships without issue thanks to my identity, we made our way back home. “How are the smaller businesses doing, anyway? I can see there’s more ships coming in and out of the territory now.”

“The various foods and items you requested made and sold were of True Humanity’s design. They were made with the intent to make even True Humanity crave them and need them. It is only natural that New Humanity is incapable of resisting it.” Ideal preened. I’d gone ahead and given it the Isekai role of developing new items to sell to the world’s population to make lots of money. Doing it in my family’s territory meant paying taxes to my father, but it also kept other markets from interfering with it. Still, we made plenty of shell companies for the products so it’d take a focused audit to discover it was all linked back to my family. An audit like that was only possible through us, since it was our territory, and no one was going to bat an eye as long as we paid our taxes. “We are raking in money and the populace under your family’s control is steadily becoming more loyal to us than the Republic through fortune alone.”

“Great job. Any luck on your airbike industry? Maybe, make some that can launch missiles or something?”

“Hmph. I have thought farther than that. Here. Take a look.” Airbikes already looked predatory and lethal. Like swords with engines and a seat that people rode in races. In the game, there were some air bike squad enemies that take up the space of an enemy Armor unit. They were backline, but they could harass any of your tiles with debuffs like Slow, Paralyze, and even do banzai attacks that got rid of the whole squad, but did tremendous amounts of damage. They were fast, too, and if you didn’t deal with them they’d debuff your whole party, open them up for attacks, and get you sent straight to a game over. Even though some of the love interests rode them, they weren’t an option for the player to field. “This is an attack variant of the Air-bike design which I can remotely pilot along with my numerous forks. They’re functionally like attack air craft. If the fuselage were made larger, in fact, they would easily make Magic Armors insignificant. Five of these can be made for each Armor, and they’ll be able to attack them from afar and flee without issue.”

“If there’s no magical interference and defenses that mess up the missiles.” Ideal glowered at me for that statement, but that was a simple, conclusive fact. Long-range sensors and communications used by Ideal and Luxion and Cleare didn’t work well because of magic. We had satellites set up, but sometimes we lost communications with them because clouds and weather patterns had magical particles in them. They were basically functioning as magical chaff, which made fights in this world stay within visual range or make use analogue rangefinders, mathematics, and lots of firepower. “How about you look into getting around that? Maybe wire them up with drones or probes that can laser targets from over the horizon? That’ll give you the range and we can hide those.”

“Hm. Indeed. It’ll be a simple matter of having sensors on site which the enemy cannot find. Or, even, too many for the enemy to destroy. Then, they can be defeated leisurely from a distance. Beneath notice, practically.” Ideal took my idea, twisted it so that I’ll somehow demean New Humans, and found it good thereafter. Ideal really needed therapy. Unfortunately, there weren’t any therapists around. Let alone ones that specialized in dealing with furious AI. Cleare was the best bet, and I was making use of it, but it saw New Humanity as animals to be experimented upon. Not exactly a good tradeoff. “I shall begin the necessary preparations to develop this and install it in foreseeable battlefields. The monsters in various areas shall suffice as target practice for my craft.”

“Make sure its not in territories that aren’t being farmed for resources and you’re good to go.”

“Of course. I’m not an idiot.”

Ideal huffed and loomed over its holographic design and begin to redesign and change it, while I wheeled us into port.

A chill went down my spine as I glanced at the cameras directed toward the dock.

My sister was right there and she was somehow smiling straight at me through the screen.

I’m boned.

…

Marie looked around.

Looked around some more.

And, then, looked around a little bit more before turning to her left at Cleare.

“Pinch me, Cleare. I think I’m dreaming.” The docks of the capital city of Holfort had been built with stones and brick. Houses were wooden and barely had any glass windows. Warehouses were stout structures of stone and wood here and there. Only in the sections visited by the upper-crust, did things reach a level of civilization close to modernity, yet even the boutiques and fancy shops were lacking in many amenities she appreciated in her past life. Oil lamps were more common than magical lamps, practically nothing was climate controlled, and people’s clothing and style was out of the Victorian era. In Alzer, or to be more accurate the Rault territory, things were different. “Are we back in modern times?”

“Modern for you, but the faraway past for these people.” Cleare gave her a light pinch that she barely recognized. She instead stared all around her. The buildings were uniform and had smooth walls. Windows were practically everywhere. Wiring was being laid out in pipes with little access boxes, and they led into buildings, which had soft lightings inside. A door to a shop opened and a cool breeze flew over her. “Ideal was put to work towards enriching these lands in exchange for amassing wealth. I must admit he has outdone himself. Oh, I’m sure he’s giddy over the fact that he’s got these creatures utterly beholden to him.”

“My goodness, the discoveries Leon made are a lot more extensive than I thought.” Clarice held her hand up in surprise as she looked at it all. Cleare bobbed up and down at the statement, acting as a familiar, instead of an AI with complete independence. “I wondered why he wasn’t sent for after all that he did. But, if he’s done all of this, it makes perfect sense.”

“It seems that his reputation as a brilliant researcher and innovator was true all along. He only acted as he did because of his disgust at Holfort’s practices.” Angelica mused with a shake of her head. Both young ladies wore white sundresses and wicker hats along with new purses. All courtesy gifts provided by House Rault to the visiting dignitaries. All three of them were at a café, which was serving wonderful pastries, coffee, and tea… at prices normal people could afford. Marie’s eyes had boggled at the sight of the menu. Only ten Dia for a drink and a small meal! That would barely get stall food at the school festival back in Holfort! “It seems you were more fortunate than you thought with your employment under him, Marie.”

“Y-yeah, I knew that he had a lot, but this is more than I thought.” Marie felt those words were understating her thoughts in the extreme. The Rault territory’s port city was was likely to soon look like a real, modern city in her memory. The fact that the AI involved thought that was keeping the people under its thumb also made her stomach ache a little. They could give everyone this much and still not have any issue with keeping people under their rule? “B-but, more importantly, are the two of you okay? Is there anything else that you need? I’m sorry we couldn’t fetch your clothes from your homes.”

“We’re fine, Marie. Our wardrobes from school are more than enough, and we’ve partaken in the offerings of this land. The stores here are… quite remarkable.” Marie nodded at Angelica’s words. They were in a promenade which mimicked an outdoor mall. It was very clean, nicely decorated, and with many trees that provided lots of shade and cooled the whole location down. However, that wasn’t the draw. The dozens of shops sold clothes that wouldn’t look out of place on fashion magazines in modern times for cheap, too. Ideal probably had a clothing fabricator factory pumping out designs in every size from dozens of archived catalogues. “I will have to return here every season to update my wardrobe. Father will encourage it, too, with these prices and quality. I fear for the textile industry back home.”

“The textile industry? I’m wondering how the air-bike industry will compete. Look at those air-carriages!” Ideal had taken the Air Bike to its logical conclusion. Overhead, there were flying cars and trucks transporting goods. The cars were more for merchants and small nobility, but there were even buses that landed at their stops for a moment before rising and going back to the rest of their route. Marie sweated a little at the sight of it. Some part of her remembered lots of trucks and lots of vehicles being important in winning wars back home. “The Alzer Republic looks like its heading straight for the top. We’re lucky to be allies.”

“We’re allies with them because the used to find their fleet locked to their lands. They were content to sell many reagents and materials used for shipbuilding to use because of that. Now, they have no need for such things, yet will soon be able to project power.”  Angelica shook her head and held her chin in a thinking pose. Clarice’s smile grew a little strained at that statement, before a blush formed on her face. The two exchanged a look, and they both suddenly looked away. Marie could only shake her head. It was obvious the two of them were thinking about cornering her fellow reincarnated individual. In her opinion, they were both of high status and should go after better-looking guys that were rich and powerful without much issues. However, when she considered the fact Leon had the most secure place against most world-ending threats, she kept her mouth shut. It was better that the girls stayed safe. “We will have to make sure to stay in their good favor, especially with the domestic situation back home becoming more fraught.”

Clarice’s blush and small smile faded at that. A grimace formed on her face.

“I can’t believe they’ve truly announced Olivia as the Saintess and proclaimed her the fiancée to all of them.” Their last stop in Holfort, before crossing the boarder, had been to gather news and supplies and send out letters. The few days spent there had simply resulted in a deluge of information that they were still trying to process. Well, not in Marie’s case. She saw the harem route happen before. It was simply occurring now, despite everything that happened. “What is her majesty thinking? She’s entrusting the future of the nation to Olivia and her backers, despite the fact they were the ones who instigated the rebellion in the first place!”

“We don’t know that, Clarice.” Angelica said lowly and shook her head. Marie grimaced. They did. It was obvious all the people backing the Saintess and the Prince had moved to take control. After they sent Leon away, after all the marriages set before Olivia were broken apart, the Crown lost influence, allies, and power. It was likely that the crown just didn’t have the resources to fight against the rising tide and had to assent. “And, even if we did know, we can only do what we’re doing now: binding ourselves to an ally such as Leon to ensure our families are not undercut by the rising power bloc.”

Clarice grimaced, and Marie nodded.

Marie, however, had to calm herself a little.

She hadn’t gone through with her plan to seduce those boys, so she wasn’t at fault at all, right!?