Somehow, I’m the Otome Game Villain 20:

Somehow, I’m the Otome Game Villain 20:

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by LordMarksman

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The chateau I rented was empty when I returned, everything packed up in a vessel made by Luxion and Ideal with the façade of being a contemporary ship of Alzer. With Alzer’s reputation of having powerful ships, albeit ones that had to operate in its territory, the façade was a good enough deterrent especially with the Armors that came with it that were piloted remotely by Ideal and Luxion subordinate programs.

So, although most of Holfort hated our guts, no one was challenging our desire to withdraw from the situation.

Which was great, since I was mess from the fight.

“Fuck.” In terms of body, I was perfectly fine. Not a single wound on me. After a bit of sleep, a shower, and a light meal, I was effectively at tip-top-shape, like I’d just exercised heavily and then proceeded to rest and recuperate. However, while my body was fine, the same couldn’t be said for the rest of me. My hands were shaking, I couldn’t focus without flashes of what I ordered done and what I did coming into my vision, and even the light soup that I had made my stomach turn and toil. My vision was swimming, my gait unsteady, and even though I strength to spare, I could barely summon it. “This sucks.”

“Despite being raised as nobility by the New Humans, your mindset was never meant to face actual warfare. Ceremonial combat, strategic command, and perhaps quelling monster populations were to be your greatest concerns.” Cleare was tagged in by Ideal the moment we got into range. It liked killing the New Humans, so it knew better than try and console me. Maybe, it even regretted so thoroughly following my orders. Nah. Ideal would’ve gone farther if I allowed it to. “The good news is that it will pass. This chemical cocktail I developed is designed to soften neural scarring caused by traumatic events in your brain. You’ll need several doses along with time and a calming environment to make it work, however. The neural scarring will remain or even harden, if you simply take it and wallow in your traumas.”

Sounded like something that I should be very, very wary off, since it was meant to mess with my head, but I was willing to do just about anything to deal with the problem rather than be fucked over by it forever.

Or, you know, be dependent on anti-anxiety medication forever.

“I’ll make time.” I promised the pink-eyed floating metallic sphere. The pink eye allowed me to differentiate Cleare enough from Ideal to not see flashbacks of ships on fire and men dying by the hundreds. “In fact, if I don’t make time, I want you to sequester me away and make sure that I have time. I can’t function like this.”

“Understood, very well. I shall take the role of your physician without further ado.”

“Physician, okay? Not scientist or researcher.”

“You are not of New Humanity. Rest assured, I respect your existence and right to control what goes on with your body.” Cleare enunciated every word carefully, making sure that I wouldn’t dare imply that it would ever experiment on actual people. Too bad its definition of people was most likely limited to myself and Marie. “Rest assured. You can rely upon me to alleviate the pains of combat. Many of Old Humanity were attacked psychically and fought against truly horrific foes. My databanks are filled with routine treatments for ailments such as you have now.”

Alright, I’m convinced.

I’ll be fixing myself up mentally with the help of an AI that wants a stable population of New Humans just to perpetually experiment on them.

The AI that Ideal and Luxion both agree goes too far, while they’re both pro-genocide.

Yeah.

Totally not a bad idea to let that thing close to my brain… but the alternative is to literally be a nervous wreck, continuously seeing people dying and dying again, and generally not being able to function while various threats loomed over the entire world.

Not accepting isn’t exactly an option.

“I understand. I’ll be in your care, Cleare.”

“I will care for you to the utmost of my ability!”

As of on cue, after I finished my heart-to-heart with the AI equivalent of a sadistic scientist, Marie skidded to stop after turning a corner… and launched herself at me with such speed that I instinctively strengthened myself in magic.

She still doubled me over and pinned me down.

Right.

She fought bears just to eat meat.

“YOOUUUUUUUU IDDDDDIIIIIOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTT!” She took hold of my shoulders and yelled straight at my face. She shook me hard. “You went and killed an entire invading army! There’s no way the rest of the entire world will stay still after that!”

“I know, I know, stop shaking me!” Maybe it was the noise, maybe it was the pure, real frustration on her face, and maybe it was even the fact that I considered Marie as a partner-in-crime, but the nerves went away and I was able to process things. A dull, dark, and hazy filter that forced itself on me faded away, while she continued to try and shake the life out of me. Okay. I guess this is extreme enough to drive away the trauma for a bit. “That’s why we’re leaving and we’ll be unveiling that I don’t just have one ship that can do the same.”

“Ah, so that’s your play! Absolute hegemon over the entire planet! Oh, Ideal and Luxion will be pleased!” Cleare chirped, while Marie blinked in lack of understanding… until she processed the words and saw my grimace.

Then, she tried to go for my neck, and I caught her wrists.

“World. Conquest. Is. STUPID!” Marie insisted, as I got up, and she pouted at me with teary eyes as I held her up and away by her wrists. She proceeded to try and kick at me with each word. “Everyone will try to kill us, and they only need to succeed once!”

“It’s not world conquest. I’m not making a hegemon. Alzer had a shield, but now they’ll have a shield. We’re going to use Alzer to solve the fact that the world is about to end, then hand the reigns off.” My intentions were to use the Republic like a club against the apocalypse. The games were going to happen in multiple countries, there were going to be many wars, many disasters, and feuds. And, unlike the game, it wasn’t happening in a vacuum. “The things that are going to happen are already going to affect everything and change the entire world, so I’m going to get ahead of everyone else and hold back all the stupidity.”

That made enough sense for Marie to stop trying to kick me, and she settled on glaring at me.

“Put me down.” Marie stated, and I obliged, by backed away before she launched another surprise assault on my person. She fixed her hair, glared at me, cleaned her glasses, glared at me, got some wrinkles off the front of her uniform, and, unsurprisingly, glared at me some more. If looks could kill, I’d my corpse would be unrecognizable. “Fine. I guess! I guess it’s fine!”

Marie threw up her hands and shook her head, before giving her an ultimatum.

“I want a raise. 10%.”

“Done, I would’ve given you 20.”

“Damn you, Leon!”

It’s honestly kinda nice to have someone I can trust to call me out on me being an idiot and have me explain myself aloud.

Marie settled down and shook her head, letting go of the glare and frown, in favor of looking at me.

“Gross.”

“Oh, shut up. I’m looking at how you are. Not at you.” Marie walked around me in a single orbit, looking for wounds, and finding none. However, she pointedly looked at my face. She crossed her arms. “You’re not at fault for what you did. You and I both know these people would’ve just kept on attacking, if you didn’t fight with the intent to kill.”

“I know, but just because that was the correct move to make, doesn’t mean that it’s right.” My statement earned me an eyeroll, but Marie didn’t contest the fact. What was she going to say? It’s fine to kill these people because they don’t know any better? No, in the end, I killed Fanoss sailors, soldiers, knights, captains, and an admiral. Each one of them had their own families and precious people. I could justify fighting and killing them in the heat of battle just fine, but in the end I ordered the executions of their best and brightest and kidnapped their princess in cold blood. “Don’t worry, I’m talking to Cleare about getting through it. Apparently, our people had plenty of methods to deal with combat trauma, so I’ll be relying on those.”

Marie sighed and shook her head.

“You know it would be better if you didn’t have to get treatment for trauma, right? Like, if you didn’t get traumatized in the first place?”

“Sorry, but if I’m going to kill people, I’ll be taking responsibility for it.” I was surprised by how earnest those words were.  As I much as I didn’t like my current feelings, as much as I wanted to not feel the way I felt, I would rather feel this way than not feel anything after getting so many people killed. Without a doubt, that’d be even more fucked up. Hm, you know what, that makes me feel a little better. “I’m an asshole and a jerk, but even I have lines I wouldn’t cross, y’know?”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re macho. I get it.” Marie just shook her head. However, I knew that she’d do the same in my place. Not that she’d ever be in my place. She’d probably do the smart thing and run away before things got this bad, especially if she had Luxion on her side. Why worry about the rest of the world, when her family shafted her the moment she was born, and she could just escape? I had a reason to protect this planet, because it’s where my new family lived. She didn’t. She could run. In fact, she could run away right now… but she didn’t. We both know that she’d make the same choice, no matter how much she hated it. “Well, now that you’re here, there’s something that you should know: the Saint came over here looking for Angie and Clarice, and it was obvious she wasn’t looking to be friends.”

That got my attention.

“They’re already out of the picture for her love interests. They’re defeated. Why bother them?” In the game, Angelica would get sent off to marry a disfigured noble in the outskirts after her defeat and live the rest of her days ostracized from high society, but relatively better off than most. Now, personally, I thought it’s unlikely that she got married off to an old bastard. Most likely, she got some scarred up young man who got his pension stolen by an old bitch. Maybe, she found some semblance of happiness out there with a guy who’d fawn over her for the rest of her life, if she acted like a decent human being and treated him like a person. “Is she trying to set up some new flags, or something?”

Marie gave me a dull look with a slightly ajar mouth, and I felt like I was being judged.

“What?”

“She’s after you, idiot!”

“Eh!? That’s scary! My purity’s in danger!”

“Take this seriously!”

“I am! It’s actually scary! How would you feel, if a man with five noble ladies wrapped around his fingers suddenly came to your house and asked for you? Wouldn’t you feel afraid!?”

Marie blinked at my words, while I looked at the door, and became aware of the fact that my guards were protecting the move. Not only that, but the MC used Endgame Buffs during my fight against her harem/squadron of knights. If she’s max level, she can use the basic ‘attack’ command and do like 2-3% damage to a single unit of magical armor. That means she can attack a giant suit of armor thirty times and destroy it without stressing her reserves! That’s scary, you know!?

“Huh. Right. That would be scary.” Marie took a moment to think about my situation and readily agreed after I presented it properly. Her eyes then proceeded to widen. “She was asking for Angie and Clarice because she wanted to take them out of the picture!”

A single word popped into my mind.

Yandere.

Then, as if that world was a missing piece to the puzzle that was the Main Character, everything clicked. After she falls in love with the guys, she goes and throws herself into improving, changing, and becoming more. Without the constraints of the game’s time limits, she can train and train all she wants in the dungeons and gain power and equipment. Then, she can take her opponents out of the picture, capture hearts, and get the people she wants… and all the people she wanted are influentional young men with lots of power.

I’m an influential young man with lots of power.

“Augh, I think I’m going to hurl.” I leaned against the wall as the situation fully washed over me. “That’s gross.”
“Yeah… but now’s not the time to be sick. Angelica and Clarice need to be protected. Those two girls haven’t done anything wrong.” Marie insisted, and I didn’t have to be convinced any further. “You’ll do it?”

“I’ll invite them over as friends to visit the Alzer Republic. Everything will be formal and straight-laced. Father’s been asking about them, anyway.” Mother, too, but it was better not to mention that for now. I didn’t want to make this seem like I was bringing them to meet my family. I liked the two of them, but I felt like I’d be taking advantage of them, if I went after them after helping them out. What’s that? Clarice made her intentions known by giving me a hickey as a favor? Give me a break, I just finished fighting a war by myself. I’m allowed to be a coward for a bit! “Do you think anyone else needs to be protected?”

Marie shook her head, ignoring my offer to bring her family along out of passing courtesy.

Man, those guys really fucked her over, huh?

“No. It’s better that we just get them to go with us, and get them out of Olivia’s sights.” Marie stated, before looking over at Cleare. “Cleare, can you send a message off to them? Oh, and just in case, bring some of the mental protection gear Luxion and Ideal built.”

“Understood, will do!”

“Oi, you got a salary increase, not a promotion.”

“As if you actually like working. You just want to play around after delegating everything.”

“Damn, you’re right.”

“At least try and deny it!”