I Raised the Villain's Daughter Too Well-Chapter 49: Didn’t Know! -
Just in case, I decided to check a few more things.
“Lady Emily. I’m going to ask you a few questions now. They’re extremely important, so please answer all of them truthfully.”
“...What now?”
“Besides the two I just mentioned, have you made enemies with anyone else?”
“I haven’t made any enemies! What do you think I am?!”
“I think of you as the heiress of House Laurencia. Even if it’s not a grudge, if there’s anyone who might target you for political or personal reasons, I need to know.”
“Ugh, why do you need to know that now...”
“It’s urgent.”
Emily flinched for a moment, then avoided my gaze, looking uncertain.
“...There are some who’d like to bite me, but only those two are actually trying to do anything serious.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. At least for this exam, there’s nothing to gain from chasing me. Even if my family’s declining, I’m still Laurencia... And anyway, even if those losers joined forces, the only reason they can come after me is because of your mistress!”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have gone around mouthing off. What are you, a pelican?”
“Why you—”
I left Emily to stew and looked down in thought.
If she wasn’t lying, then it’s unlikely anyone else would be after her.
But what’s their real goal? To take us out?
Or monopolize the command post?
Maybe both.
Whatever it is, they’re too dangerous for us.
“Tch.”
“...What? What kind of weird questions are these?”
“Look over there.”
I pointed toward the carriage with my sword. Emily narrowed her eyes.
“Hmm... I can’t really—huh? Huh?!”
“Yes. The disaster you summoned, Lady Emily...”
“I didn’t summon that!”
Wait—what?
I looked at the carriage again.
There—
“...What is that?”
“...Indeed.”
Was Olvesia.
With Elija and Cysphia tied up in ropes, crying.
****
Elija and Cysphia had known each other for quite some time.
Even before entering the Academy, they were acquainted—and now, atop the carriage, they were able to communicate with only hand gestures and glances.
Which allowed them to exchange thoughts, even in this absurd situation.
‘What do we do?’
‘...No idea.’
Not that it helped much.
All they could do was glance at each other anxiously and monitor the situation.
The other cadets were the same. Even in the silence, everyone kept sneaking glances at the armored young lady sitting in the back of the carriage.
“Hmm, is the edge dull...?”
Olvesia, of course, paid them no mind as she tended to her sword.
‘Try talking to her.’
‘It’s not that easy...’
In the end, it was Takraphision who stepped forward.
He sighed and cautiously approached Olvesia.
“Um... Lady Olvesia.”
“...”
Olvesia didn’t reply, only glanced his way briefly—then returned to sharpening her sword.
Takraphision didn’t seem too bothered. Olvesia rarely treated even noble heirs like actual people.
He cleared his throat and, voice trembling, asked:
“May I ask why you’re riding our carriage? Surely you were issued your own...”
“No coachman.”
“...Excuse me? Why...”
Olvesia let out a faint chuckle and murmured:
“My whole team died.”
“???”
Her whole team died?
...Who the hell did that?
“B-But even if your teammates died, your assigned coachman mercenary wouldn’t have vanished—”
“Ah, I killed him right at the start. Said he couldn’t drive the carriage without the team.”
“Excuse me??”
“Never been in a space like this before, so I mistook him for an enemy and attacked. Didn’t last long.”
“But... the system-assigned coachman is supposed to be invulnerable.”
“Hmm, he was annoyingly tough.”
“...”
As Takraphision fell silent in disbelief, Elija cautiously stepped forward, realizing Olvesia could, in fact, talk.
“Q-Quite unique, aren’t you? To say you’ve never experienced a mana space before. As a lady of Senfenesia, I would’ve thought you’d trained in them regularly...”
She stammered a little, but managed to speak without trembling too much.
‘Whew. Not bad, right?’
Just as Elija started to feel a bit proud of herself—
Olvesia, without looking at her, brought up something completely unrelated.
“The North isn’t fit for humans to live. No matter how much wealth or noble blood you have, there’s no safety there...”
“Excuse ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) me?”
“Mana spaces are lacking in that regard. When facing death, your first thought is ‘ah, I should try again next time’... You can’t temper yourself that way.”
Olvesia, satisfied with the edge of her sword, turned it this way and that under the light.
“When you’re at death’s door—right before life slips away—and you flail to survive... that’s when you find your true weapon. Not here. Not in a mana space.”
Shhnk. Olvesia sheathed her sword—for the first time, locking eyes with Elija.
Her gaze was flat and soulless, like she was looking at a pebble by the road.
“But I see you want to ask something else. I let you ride, so I’ll give you one answer. Go on.”
“A-Ah...”
Elija felt suffocated by eyes no cadet should possess, but still managed to swallow her dry throat and speak, voice shaking:
“A-Are you planning to... take our outpost from us?”
“...Ha.”
Olvesia let out a mocking laugh at that question and replied:
“No. Sometimes you do need to act like a vulture—but now’s not the time. If you want, I’ll swear it on my house name. I won’t touch your outpost.”
“R-Really?!”
“Yes. On the name of Senfenesia—I won’t lay a finger on your base. Satisfied?”
Elija, Cysphia, and the other cadets exchanged looks of visible relief.
They believed their safety had been guaranteed.
“...”
One person—Takraphision—seemed deep in thought.
Sisyphia, however, having assumed Olvesia just lost her team and was hitching a ride, had relaxed a bit and asked more casually:
“So... what happened to your teammates? Why did they drop out?”
“They sacrificed themselves for me.”
“...Huh?”
“That reminds me. That one—Emily, was it?—is she really working together with Firnea’s butler? I haven’t seen it with my own eyes.”
“Ah, yes. Have you met him before?”
“I have. And you?”
“...Ugh. That bastard beat us.”
Sisyphia bit her lip in frustration as the memory resurfaced.
“We tried to extract some intel, but we didn’t know he was a magic-swordsman...”
“Next time we meet, I’m going to crush him.”
“Best of luck.”
That response made Elija and Sisyphia tilt their heads and ask:
“Um, but why are you looking for that butler? Do you have some kind of business with him?”
“Yes. There’s something I need to do.”
“...What is it?”
If it were Firnea or Emily, maybe they’d understand. But the butler?
They themselves had a vendetta against him, sure—but Olvesia taking interest in someone like that was strange.
There was no way she held a grudge against a mere butler.
“I don’t know much about male-female relationships. What people call romance, you know...”
“...Come again?”
Once again, Olvesia brought up something completely off-topic.
“However, I do understand courtship. All animals, when in mating season, offer something valuable to their desired mate. Humans aren’t any different. Am I wrong?”
“Uh, excuse me, but... what are you talking about?”
Naturally, the two noble girls didn’t understand a word of it.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
Olvesia gave a gentle smile.
“Even if you don’t want to.”
****
“W-What the hell is this?! Why are you doing this?! What did we even do? I don’t care if you’re Senfenesia—if you keep doing crap like this, you think we’re just going to sit back and take it?! You really think so?!”
“...”
When I arrived at the entrance to the command post, I couldn’t immediately process the ridiculous scene before me.
Elija and Sisyphia were tied up like wriggling caterpillars.
The rest of their team wasn’t much better—pathetically bound and looking resigned.
To see nobles of that rank tied up like slaves—if surrealist painters made war art, this would be it.
I turned a suspicious stare toward the artist in question: Olvesia.
“...What is this?”
“Hmm...”
She paused to think, choosing her words carefully—and then said something I never could’ve imagined:
“I came to apologize.”
“...Huh?”
Emily blinked in disbelief, looking between me and Olvesia, rubbing her eyes as if she misheard.
I felt the same way.
Senfenesia? Apologizing? Was this a doppelgänger?
But Olvesia continued without hesitation.
“I felt that our first meeting involved... hmm, overly aggressive actions. I brought these as an apology.”
“By ‘these’ you mean...”
“Your enemies, no? Or am I wrong?”
“W-Well, if we have to categorize it, then yes, I suppose they’re our enemies...”
“U-Uhh?? Why me?! I didn’t do anything!”
The moment Olvesia turned her gaze toward Emily, she darted behind me to hide.
She didn’t even react like this to Firnea.
Suddenly, I understood what the name “Senfenesia” meant to other nobles.
“Still, she’s our current team leader, so they are technically my enemies. Thank you...?”
“Good. I was worried it might’ve been someone else. I’m relieved to hear it.”
CRACK!
Without the slightest hesitation, or even looking, Olvesia stomped one of the cadets’ heads in.
“Eeeek...!”
Elija flinched in pure terror at the sound.
“Takra... whatever his name was. He resisted too much. Couldn’t restrain him, so I made him drop out ahead of time.”
“...Lady Olvesia.”
“What is it?”
“Why... why are you doing this?”
To be honest—
If Olvesia had allied with Elija and Sisyphia and come here to kill us, that would’ve been less frightening.
That, at least, I could understand.
But this? This weird gift and apology—I couldn’t wrap my head around it at all.
“There’s no need to overthink it.”
Olvesia spoke in a soft tone, as if soothing a wild animal.
“It’s just an apology. I don’t want anything from you. I only hope you’ll forgive what I did. Of course, if you don’t, that’s your right. I won’t object.”
“Uh...”
I hadn’t expected this at all.
I looked over my shoulder at Emily, silently asking for help.
From the hardened look in her eyes, I got the answer without a word:
“Just say ‘got it’ and get her out of here—fast!!”
“...Understood. I forgive you.”
“Thank you for granting me your mercy twice.”
Olvesia grinned with satisfaction and raised her sword.
“W-Wait a sec! What the hell are you doing—”
Even a noble lady’s skull makes the same noise when it shatters.
