Somehow I’m the Otome Game Villain 12:

Somehow I’m the Otome Game Villain 12:

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by LordMarksman

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“Wow, you’ve really made this easy.”

‘The New Humans are just less than worthless. They can’t even reach the maximum output of their vehicles.’

Most of the love interests fell quickly in the matches. I stuck to fighting them ‘fairly’ with a sword, shield, and just my super-customized and overpowered Knight Armor. In my defense, it was practically just endgame equipment and not cash-shop cheat item level. That I saved for what I was serious, and because the political ramifications would be a headache.

Only an idiot would go around using superweapons for common battles.

At least hide it as an ace-in-the-hole, like me, if the going gets tough!

“So, the prince is up next, huh? I wonder if he’ll be using his super move like the rest?” When you levelled them up, they unlocked skills and traits. It was essential to survival, since the main character was just a healer. The prince and the muscle-head were on the front. Jilk was the evasive assassin. Glasses and pretty boy were DPS. The other guys pretty much unleashed all their special moves a few minutes into the fight, probably after gaining enough TP or AP, whichever the special attack gauge was called. “It’ll be pretty dumb if he did, and we’ll need to be careful.”

‘Or, we could just kill him.’

“Denied.” I shot down that idea and Ideal huffed petulantly. The Prince’s special move converted all defense into attack. It paired with muscle-head’s taunt. The strategy was to end battles more quickly with the prince getting all the defense of the OP cash-shop item, which had a mountain of HP, so even when the taunt wore off you’ll still break through the enemy. It’s an OP ability with the right equipment, but with the wrong equipment, it was a death sentence. “Hm? Who’s that on the podium where the Main Character is?”

‘It appears to be the head of the Church of the Saintess, and they’ve brought along the last piece of the puzzle.’

I put two and two together just as Prince Julius stuck his sword into the ground to deliver his speech.

“Behold, everyone! The descendant of the Saintess herself: Olivia!” This particular cut scene was supposed to happen a bit after this event. The MC only got the attention of the Church with her powers after healing the love interests after the duel, which would lead to getting all the other pieces. You needed all three to avoid getting split up from your love interests by the Queen. It validated the Main Character as a viable pride for the prince and the other nobles. “With her at my back, our love will conquer all! Even the mightiest knight of the Alzer Republic!”

I looked the Saintess’ way with my armor and had to stop myself from recoiling as she seemed to match my gaze perfectly through the screen.

“Creepy! What hell?” I checked and my cameras confirmed that I hadn’t moved the head of my Armor. How the hell did she manage to look right at me? I shook my head and looked away, but in the corner of my vision I saw her raise up the staff of the Saintess. “Well, let’s see how much power the MC has right nowwwww… that’s Rainbow Blessing.”

‘Rainbow Blessing?’

“It’s the Level 90 support skill! The best in the game. It literally upgrades all the stats via a flat bonus and a percentage bonus! The percentage bonus comes after!” What the hell was going on? Why the hell did the Saintess have that spell already in the first year? Did she spend every day grinding? Wait, because she could stay there and pack as much food and rest items as she wanted, did that mean she could just grind away without any issue!? That’s broken! “Get the shield ready!”

‘Done.’

I didn’t get another word in before one of the best combos popped up right in front of me. Rainbow Blessing can be applied after Julius’s Defense-to-Attack conversion skill, which gave him defense since it cast after the fact because of the flat bonus. It was one of the game strategies once you hit endgame and spent time grinding out levels. Even with the cash-shop items, I used the combo myself to get through the final levels faster. If I remembered the correctly, both the defense bonuses combined to literally slap on at least mid-game defense values onto the prince, which was enough so that he didn’t get murdered by a critical attack.

However, in this case, it was more important that I survive the attack combo meant to chunk down the final boss’ HP, even if it was in sub-par equipment.

“Engarde, Knight of the Alzer Republic!” The prince surged towards me, his armor blazing with azure wings and a rainbow aurora. He crossed the length of the Arena in a second and, if I were any less skilled, his sword would’ve slipped past my shield before I put it up. Only by predicting his move, and the fact that he was an amateur, did I manage to block the strike. “I-impossible!”

‘Perhaps for the Knight Armors of your people, but nonesuch is the case for true humanity.’ Ideal gloated, but I didn’t reprimand it. I focused on keeping the sword at bay and shoulder-checked the prince’s armor with my thrusters flaring. Distance was important. Melee attacks from the prince were supposed to be the heroic coup-de-grace, or whatever it was called, and I had no intention of being finished off like a mid-game boss. I’d rather be the extra game boss at the very end, thank you very much. ‘Hmph. It seems the armor cannot withstand the power its outputting. You must start breaking the machine down to let the power bleed out, Leon, or the New Human will get himself killed.’

Damn, I knew that there was a realistic catch when you pumped a lot of magic into the starting armor sets.

So, with that in mind, I nodded at Ideal.

“Time to stop holding back. Give me the halberd.”

‘Finally.’

I dodged another semi-wild, semi-competent swing while sheathing my sword and plucking my other weapon from my back. I’d asked for a jousting lance to make use of the strong legs and the boosters, but Ideal did me one better. The halberd was about as tall as the Mobile Armor with an axe head and a spearhead at the end. Very durable and with heated edges and/or points, it gave me greater range in melee combat and could be wielded with one hand or two. It was useful for cleaving through even the hardiest of monsters with ease, or even multiple in single swings, but I preferred it mainly because I could use it with my shield and boosters to act as a very well-defended, very mobile, and very deadly armored threat on the battlefield.

“Rault, do you intend to shame me with a peasant’s weapon—oof!?”

‘A peasant’s weapon. Leon, I’m going to kill this boy and his entire family. You may keep the Queen as a personal concubine, but I won’t tolerate anyone of direct relation.’

“How about we settle for beating his ass, even though he’s fully powered?” I suggested, while leveling my shield forward and the lance over my shoulder near its ‘bottom’ end. From this position, I was limited to overhead swings coming from the upper right. Seemingly. If I let it fall into my hand, I’d have an axe that I could use more flexibly in short quarters. If I turned it around, I could give my opponent a swift hit or sweep them without hurting them. It gave a lot of options and I wasn’t below putting down an opponent whose legs I cleaved off. Winning’s what matters. “Look at him. He’s declared himself the chosen one with a Saintess backing him. Kicking him down right now’s a long fall, y’know?”

Ideal glowered at me, but didn’t complain any further, while I advanced forward.

Alright.

Slow and steady, chip away at him, let him lose his buffs, and bring him low carefully and methodically.

Safety first, always.

…

Marie winced at each blow that the Prince made that did nothing, and winced again with each counterattack that Leon sent the Prince’s way.

She looked around at the stands, where anger from losing so much money had transformed into hate, and now just about everyone watching was looking at what was happening in anger.

“Yeah, there’s no way in heck I can stay in this country anymore.”

“There was no intention of that happening. Rest assured, you will be taken care of.’

“Thanks, Luxion-kun.” Marie sighed and looked at her sides. Loads of people sat away from her now. Some of it was her fault, since she’d been ecstatic about winning so much money. However, now, it was because Leon’s guards came in to create a perimeter. Through that perimeter, she was getting deathly glares. “It’s a good thing I’ve already moved my stuff. They’d have wrecked my room.”

Marie turned her attention back to the fight and sighed.

“Boys will always be boys, but I guess I can’t complain. That Saintess is making things too complicated.”

‘Did you not intend to do the same?’

“Y-yeah, but I didn’t! You can’t call me guilty for something I didn’t do!”

‘You were stopped, if I recall correctly. You didn’t stop yourself.’

“A-alright, fine! I would’ve made as big of a mess too… but I don’t think I could’ve made the Prince and the others as strong as they are now. I only watched the CGs.” Marie bit back the hurt that rose up at the mention of the CGs when it came to this particular ‘game.’ She swallowed thickly and bit back her tears, before soldiering one. She can cry later in her very nice bed and nice home and with her fat paycheck. She was feeling better already! “Besides, I don’t think the protagonist is normal. In the cutscenes, everything just happened right whenever she showed up, but I guess in the game she’s just scary powerful. Unlike me.”

Marie stared at her hands and grit her teeth. Years of work led her to merely be able to heal. It was a grand achievement by many standards and marked her as a descendant of the Saint. However, she couldn’t go past simply healing, let alone casting a magic that would let a Prince fight against someone in endgame gear with full knowledge of the game. Without a semblance of a doubt, she knew that she’d never have managed to replace the real ‘heroine’ of the game.

But, at least, she could still have a comfortable life.

If she managed to save the world from all the disasters that lay ahead.

Incoming steps reached her through the din of warmachines beating at one another to the yelling and cheering of the crowd.

“Lady Marie, Lady Redgrave and Lady Atlee have requested to enter the section.”

“Oh, they’re fine, Charles. Thank you. You can let them in.”

“Understood, Lady Marie.”

Luxion faded into obscurity as Marie watched the two women she’d planned to tear fiancés from approach.

Both didn’t at all look fazed by the glares sent their way, nor the constant smashing and screeching of metal from the Arena.

Marie felt a cold sweat break on her back as she realized she’d nearly made enemies of the two, high-class noble ladies in front of her.

“Marie.” Redgrave addressed her first, and Marie stood up and gave a little, prim curtsy. A nod was returned, and Redgrave crossed her arms. Marie’s teeth grit at acting so subservient, ugly memories working wherever she could with a smile rose up, until she reminded herself that her life wasn’t like that anymore. She had vacation hours, a pension, and a spot as a retainer for a powerful family. It was the easy life ahead… if the world survived. “Please, if you have any means to contact Sir Rault, have him end the battle quickly. The longer that this goes on, the worse things will be for him the future, even with my family’s assistance.”

Marie blinked at the statement for a second, before realizing what the scarlet-eyed blonde was saying.

“O-oh, is it that bad? I thought people were just angry over losing their bets.” Marie cast a shaky eye over the whole stadium and picked apart the yelling. She winced. There were a lot of people calling Leon very mean things.  “The fight isn’t over yet, but they’re already attacking Leon’s reputation?”

“Indeed, they’ve shown their true colors once again.” This time, it was Clarice speaking, and Marie shivered at the dull, dark gaze the girl had while looking at her fellow students. She looked at them like they were little better than animals.  Marie could commiserate. They abandoned here the moment she was spurned by her fiancé, like she meant nothing. Her followers had the same stare at the rest of the student population. “It’ll be best if Leon-kun beats up the prince more quickly, Marie-chan!”

“Don’t say things like that so freely!” Redgrave groaned and shook her head, but Clarice just stuck out her tongue. Marie stared at Angie for a second. How concerned was she about the prince? Or, was it just because of what was going on around Leon? The web of alliances and power that held together Holfort came to mind… and how things could go even worse if Leon stole such prominent families away as allies. Allies who would be far less interested in supporting the crown and only paying it lip service. “Marie, if you can contact Leon-kun and tell him this, it would be for the best.”

Marie hesitated for a second, until she felt a little something placed into her pocket. It looked like a walkie-talkie. Luxion must have made it in the spur of the moment, and she nodded at both the girls. Even if it was fake, Luxion could just transmit the conversation itself.

“Alright, then, but you can’t tell anyone about this gadget. Leon’s still trying to replicate it, okay?” Marie lied and brought the gadget up to her near her lips she pressed the only button there. “Leon, are you there?”

“Hm? Marie? H—

“I’m using the communicator that you gave me. Don’t worry, I’m with people we can trust.” Marie congratulated herself with her quick thinking, as well as having a boss that wasn’t an idiot who managed to play along in an instant. “Lady Atlee and Lady Redgrave are here. They both say that you need to win as soon as possible. People are spreading rumors that you’re playing with the Prince instead of just beating him.”

Marie already knew what her employer and fellow reincarnate would say before he said it.

“Gross. Got it. Beating him now.” The words were followed by the sound of metal being torn apart and a massive pair of arms suddenly arcing through the air holding a sword. It crashed into the ground behind Leon’s Armor, before a sudden strike with an open palm the size of a garden shed surged forward and sent the Prince’s armor flying and embedding into the wall. “That good?”

Marie looked at Atlee and Redgrave.

The first was giggling and the other was sighing.

Marie sighed, too.

“No, it didn’t. That just made it look like you just got tired of playing around.”

“Well… crap.”

Marie concurred under her breath, but she glanced at Redgrave and Atlee.

Both had their eyes solely on Leon’s machine, while the whole arena hurled insults at him and screamed at him for cheating.

Well, at least, she didn’t have to worry about her boss failing to get these two on his camp.