A Villainess Should Be Strong

"How should I deal with this?" Estelle scratched her forehead, troubled.

Getting closer to the object, Estelle's trance was interrupted by a clicking sound.

It came from the door, which had now been slightly opened.

"Who's there?!" Estelle asked, getting into a battle ready stance in case something bad happened.

A woman's chuckle then played out, confusing Estelle. She was sure that she had heard this voice before.

But it was hard to tell someone's identity from just their chuckle, so she still kept her guard up.

"Chill a little bit, won't 'ya?" The clear and vibrant voice followed. This time, the woman opened the door wider and revealed parts of her figure.

It was Minerva Eire, the Witch.

"Minerva!" Estelle called out.

"Thought so. I knew it was you! I sensed your mana, and was confused since the storm in the city hasn't subsided yet. Why are you here, hm?" Minerva peeked from between the door's gap and looked left and right, taking in the study's situation into her brain.

Minerva then entered the room, still wondering as to why the girl was there.

Estelle didn't think much about Minerva's arrival because she did stay in the manor when she left for the city.

"Do you remember when we first looked through this manor to find an item?" Estelle hesitated, bringing up the topic.

Minerva nodded. It was back when Estelle first tried out the process of mana transferring, which bettered her relationship with Yulia. It was quite the significant event. "I remember, why?"

"Well, I might've found the item now. Yulia couldn't pinpoint the exact object, but it should be that box on the floor," Estelle picked up the black box one more time, careful as to not administer her mana in case she suffers another backlash.

Estelle was mindful of the fact that Minerva wasn't all that familiar with her trip to the Underworld. She didn't mind telling the woman about her adventures there, though.

She told Minerva about how this particular object had ties with an element that could harm her the moment she came in contact with it. Minerva took the news with a complicated expression, nodding from time to time.

They both sat on a chair to discuss the matter further, for convenience's sake. Estelle prodded the object and tried to make her way into opening the box.

All of her efforts were futile, she couldn't even create a scratch on the box.

Estelle sighed, wondering how she could approach the trouble. She first wanted to try using force to get her way, but the more she used her force, the more it pained her. She couldn't take it.

Even for her, who had built a decent resistance around this obscure element, it was too much.

After observing Estelle's continuous failure for a while, Minerva decided to step forward and ask.

"Let me try?" Minerva offered, extending her hand to take the box away.

Dispirited, Estelle gave the box to Minerva.

Minerva had a confident smile plastered on her face as she happily fiddled with the object.

She materialized her mana, disturbing the box's own energy. Her face distorted ever so slightly in the process, as she focused deep into the object's structure.

"Do this, do that, and..." Minerva concentrated heavily, as her hair started flowing in the air thanks to an unknown source of wind.

Her signature color, a vibrant crimson red enveloped her figure. It was most concentrated around the box, which was know showing signs of cracking.

Then, the box finally opened. Not exactly in a refined way, but it was enough for her to use physical force and get the object sealed inside the box from that point on.

"..Voila!" Minerva exclaimed. In her hands was a sparkling, silver ring. A proud smile bloomed on her face as she showed the ring to Estelle.

Estelle widened her eyes in shock as she watched the box be destroyed by Minerva's magic and the item inside safely recovered from the sides. It was so hard for her, but simple for Minerva.

"What did you do?" Estelle asked.

"Ehe!" Minerva grinned, raising her free palm and coiling mana in the air one more time. She executed the same spell that helped her open the box.

"Simply put, it's a corrosive magic. I'm able to control my reach from the object's exterior down to the structural integrities of the object I aim at. It's something I made to make jewelries.. and, what do we have here?" Minerva twirled the elegant ring around as she brought it close to her face to observe it.

"A ring," Estelle answered, raising her brow at Minerva's obvious question.

"Well I can see that! But, like, why a ring?" Minerva rolled her eyes at Estelle's answer.

"How would I know?" Estelle extended her palm to ask for the ring. Minerva handed her the piece of jewelry, and Estelle immediately pinched it with her two fingers and brought it up high in the air to observe it.

The ring was just a silver circlet. Its body had swirling patterns, and it had a socket. However, the socket was empty. It was in the shape of a circular claw hold, in which a suitable object had to be inserted to make it complete.

Like an unfinished work of art, the ring was a spectacular piece of jewelry. It had a relatively simple build quality, but it felt refined and sophisticated.

Inside the empty socket, Estelle was able to find letters that symbolized something unknown. It was two italicized letters.

"S.. V?" Estelle squinted to read the fine print. SV sounded like the initials of something. She didn't know what, but there should be an extended version of it.

"SV?" Minerva tilted her head. "Who is that, your ancestor?"

"Don't know. As far as I'm concerned, the letter S would be.. My mother Sheila, or my grandmother, Silvanna," Estelle mused.

Her mother's full name was Sheila Riviera, so the initials wouldn't match. Her grandmother, on the other hand, did not have a publicly known surname. The Clareste family was a relatively new noble lineage in the first place compared to the others. Her family records were short and simple.

Inside those records, her grandmother's name was written as only Silvanna. No surname, no nothing. Those who knew her addressed the woman as 'Duchess Clareste'. From the moment she was introduced to the society, her name was already linked with Reichter Clareste, Estelle's grandfather.

Her background was unknown, but Reichter firmly protected and shielded her from the curious nobles who wanted to look for exploitable mistakes in regards to the family.

Perhaps the initials didn't even pertain to the owner. It could be the craftsman's signature, as the ring should have a special background judging from how it is stored with such care and had a special feel to it.

Estelle played around with the ring. Then, a strange thing happened.

The ring seemed to rise up to the air, as it drew Estelle's mana and took it into itself. This time, no backlash was there.

Moving by itself, the inanimate object trailed up to her ring finger and finally shoved itself down. The ring fitted perfectly around Estelle's finger.

Amazed at the strange actions, Estelle was further taken aback by another event.

"The ring.. is like, calling towards the storm," Estelle felt a magnetic force pull her towards the direction where the storm raged on.

She tried to pull the ring off her finger, but it didn't budge. It was stuck to her finger.

Grumbling in displeasure, Estelle huffed. She was meant to go back to the storm right after she finished her task here, so she didn't mind that much.

"This should be all that I'm looking for. I'm going to go back to the storm now, what are you going to do?" Estelle asked, creating a space rift as a quick shortcut to her destination.

"I'm going there, but not with you. Go ahead, I'll follow later," Minerva said, waving goodbye to the girl.

Estelle nodded in agreement, jumping into the space rift without much thought.

Left alone in the study, Minerva had a gleam in her eyes. A crafty one.

"Mmm... this material is indeed..." Minerva picked up crumbles of the box she destroyed. She recalled it being very hard to corrode. However, it had a joint point. Through attacking that point, she was able to shatter the box completely.

"If I recall correctly," Minerva threw the dust into the air in amusement. "This is definitely that thing,"

Her mana spun like a thread and bound the floating shards together, creating a net around the small fragments and gathering it up.

"My eyes weren't wrong after all," Minerva watched as the fragments joined together and created a small sphere. "I ought to research it, then,"

"I'll be taking this as payment, Estelle honey~" Minerva skipped out of the room in a jolly mood. She had just obtained something that would potentially bring her research to another level.

Even if it wouldn't do that, it must have a use for future events. The material was that important.