I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 205: Reckless Righteousness Strikes Again...

*** More Days Pass

Once again, nothing. No movement from the creature in the mine, and no signs of elven activity. It wasn’t like we were slacking, either—I kept watch from time to time for anything suspicious, and every time, there was nothing.

If trouble did show up, we’d notice. Elves might have centuries of experience, but in a city like this—where most of the power was crammed into the center—anyone out of place stuck out like a sore thumb.

Even the slightest bit of magical strength was enough to make them stand out to the two of us.

But for now? Still nothing.

"Don’t slack off—move it!"

I shouted, overseeing the reconstruction of an entire street. Evelina’s business ventures were, frankly, ridiculous in how well they were doing.

She bought ingredients from the outer district dirt-cheap, dug up citizens who knew how to cook—literally using old census records—and then sold the finished goods to the inner district at a high markup.

The gap between production cost and selling price was absurd.

Thanks to that, fully renovating an entire street or two wasn’t some pipe dream anymore.

On top of that, it seemed like the refugee citizens here had finally started to warm up to us. Well... at first, they were pretty much forced to obey.

But now? They were doing it because they wanted to.

We’d gone from ruling through threats to earning their willing obedience.

How perfect!

"This should be done by the end of the day."

I wiped the sweat from my forehead. Everyone here worked fast; as soon as Evelina and I announced this massive construction project, a ton of people had rushed to join in.

They’d already seen the jobs the previously rebuilt businesses created. And we weren’t exactly stingy with the benefits for the construction workers, either.

It was costly, but the results were more than worth it.

"My lord, a group of men from the inner district just entered the street."

A worker approached me, concern written all over his face.

The inner district? Now? What could they possibly want on a street that was still basically a work-in-progress?

"I’ll take a look."

[Dark Step]

I teleported the ledger I was holding back to the mansion. While the people here were definitely hardworking, I still didn’t trust them enough to leave paperwork like that lying around while I went to investigate.

I headed to the end of the street, and he wasn’t lying. But he had definitely overreacted...

In fact, this visit had more benefits than drawbacks.

Suits, ledgers, pens, glasses, and impeccably clean faces. These weren’t debt collectors or soldiers here to rough up Evelina’s operations.

It was the census team Evelina had requested.

Took them long enough...

"Census?"

"Yes," the man in front answered. "We’ve already finished the other streets."

"Got it. Well, don’t let me stop you, then."

The man leading them nodded, then went off to find a suitable building to use as their base camp. But that didn’t seem to be the only reason they were here.

"Lord Hosuh asked me to have you investigate something." One of the scholars approached me. Unlike the others, he was armed, and his sidearm definitely wasn’t cheap.

That wasn’t just an ordinary steam pistol.

"Am I allowed to tell Evelina about this?"

That was the most important question I needed answered. If this was something Evelina wasn’t allowed to know, then I wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"I see no problem with that. We would honestly prefer if you two deal with this together."

"Alright, then. Speak."

"Well, you’re aware of the other people who were also assigned to rule this land, correct?"

Other people? He was obviously talking about Julius and Marcellus. Had they already messed something up...?

"Did they do something dumb...?"

The scholar adjusted his glasses. "You could say that... Apparently, one of them has been supporting a local uprising group. As far as our scouts can tell, the other doesn’t seem to know."

"That’s going to cause trouble for both our districts."

I replied, crossing my arms. Supporting an uprising group? Really? Why am I not even surprised?

[Photographic Memory]

Right, because I already knew this would happen. I just didn’t expect Julius to follow the novel’s original path. Evelina and I had been assigned here, after all—something that didn’t happen in the original story.

So yeah, the fact that he was still marching along his original fate was... annoying. But if that was the case, shouldn’t Lillian have been sent here by now, too?

In the original novel, she was the one who shoved that idea into his head in the first place.

"Was there a girl with them?"

"Yes. White hair and blue eyes."

Yeah, that confirmed it. Would it kill the academy to send us a letter when they ship in someone new? I could’ve shut this whole mess down before it even started.

Unless there’s some kind of national emergency, sending us a simple notice can’t be that much paperwork...

"Tell your boss I’ll pay them a visit. Just focus on your job."

"Very well. I knew you’d see reason."

"Hard not to, when they’re about to ruin our source of income."

The scholar laughed. "Well, good luck—you’ll need it. Apparently, all three are S-Ranks."

"I prefer to call them A-Ranks, but you do you."

***

[Dark Step]

"Evelina."

"Yeah, yeah... I heard everything through the tracker."

Evelina pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

"Can’t those brats do anything right? What the hell is their plan after they take down the inner district? Those three don’t even have any idea how to run land properly!"

"Even Marcellus?"

"Please. Unlike me, he needs Mommy and Daddy’s servants just to rule properly."

Evelina mocked him, and I couldn’t blame her. Marcellus had been annoyingly antagonistic every time we ran into him. And as far as either of us knew, he absolutely couldn’t back up his confidence.

"Let’s go. Better if I come with you."

She stood up, changed into something more practical, then stacked all the paperwork on the desk, slid it into a drawer, and locked it with magic.

"You can leave it to me. You already have a lot on your plate."

"I know, but you know as well as I do it’ll be hard to convince them to stop."

"Okay, but I’ll try my best to make sure you don’t even have to lift a finger."

"I’m looking forward to it, then," she said with a faint smile.