I Don’t Remember the Number of Regressions of the Villainesses Who Have Returned.

“Sir Aslan. If you say that one more time, I’ll really snap.”

“Alr…ight.”

What am I looking at right now?

A scene I couldn’t imagine happening even with the word “what if” is unfolding before my eyes.

As soon as Aslan’s words about me being played were heard, a silent fist came flying.

An expression of anger buried into Aslan’s solar plexus without a moment of hesitation.

Aslan, who took Sephir’s fist head-on, was slammed into the ground.

‘…Is that right?’

Aslan isn’t a good-for-nothing who lives off the ducal family’s name; he’s a hard worker who proves his worth as a ducal member with his skills.

He’s not someone who would easily meet the dirt like that…

While Sephir turned her head and left for a moment, perhaps to calm her anger.

“Sir Aslan. Why do you keep lying there?”

I carefully asked Aslan, lying on the ground, either from pain or minding his image.

Then, Aslan’s returning answer was

“I made a remark rude to a lady, so I’m just paying the price for it as well.”

He just seems to be minding his image.

I clearly asked why he was not getting up, but he was making excuses for getting hit, really…

“Just get up already. Sephir went somewhere else, so she’s not here.”

“That’s a relief.”

Aslan immediately got up as soon as I said Sephir was gone.

“……”

I thought there must be a reason why Ninian curses at Aslan for being frustrating… I think I found out today.

“As for you getting up when I said Sephir isn’t here…”

“I’m right here though?”

“…?!?!?!”

As I was about to speak as if sighing, Sephir’s voice came from behind my back as if licking my ear, and my whole body tingled as if goosebumps had formed.

Of course it would tingle.

Something sharp was touching my back.

“Uh…Sephir.”

“What.”

“The thing touching my back…is it by any chance a dagger?”

“…Mistake.”

As the sound of rummaging was heard, the stinging sensation on my back disappeared.

‘I guess it really was a mistake.’

I don’t know if a dagger accidentally pops out of clothes since I haven’t tried it, but let’s say it was a mistake.

Thinking it was a relief and turning around

“Aaron. What did you mean earlier by saying ‘that’s possible’?”

Sephir looked at me with a vicious smile.

I thought she had put the dagger away, but it felt like a different dagger was stabbing me.

“…Sorry.”

Her anger lasted a few more minutes after that.

—–

“Anyway, to introduce again, this is Sephir.”

Sephir bowed her head.

“Nice to meet you. The next head of the Reinhardt ducal family, Sir Aslan Rheinhardt. I am Sephir Livris, who humbly calls herself a small-time merchant.”

As expected of a merchant. Her self-introduction is quick and concise.

However

“Hmm…”

Aslan’s expression began to change.

“Is the Empress calling herself a small merchant and hiding her status as one of the Great Clan Chief’s daughters even to a ducal heir who wouldn’t know about it a deception or a recklessness anticipating I would know?”

Aslan started cornering her by spitting out the information she hid.

“It’s simply that I’m not ignorant enough to waste time introducing my everything to a ducal heir who would already know.”

She easily escapes.

“Clarify one thing before continuing the conversation.”

Aslan’s appearance changed so much that I wondered if he was the same person as earlier, which sparked a small suspicion in me.

“Are you meeting me as the Great Clan Chief’s daughter? Or are you meeting me as the Empress?”

This is a question to clearly judge whether Sephir is standing before him as a noble leader of the demi-humans or as the ruler of the underworld.

For Aslan, how he must definitively handle the situation changes depending on that standard.

A moment of silence.

Sephir opened her mouth while precisely meeting Aslan’s eyes.

“I am standing before you as Aaron’s friend.”

Sephir answered brazenly.

‘…Why me?’

The person whose name was used felt conscious.

Silence visited once more.

However, Sephir and Aslan finished conversing with countless gazes in that silence.

“Well then, I look forward to working with you from now on. It seems we’ll be seeing each other quite often.”

“Of course. I welcome it as well.”

It was a self-introduction time, wrapping up with a warm handshake-

“However,”

The atmosphere around Aslan grew heavy.

“Please understand that I can’t fully trust you yet, considering your status is what it is.”

“I feel the same way about you.”

It was a beautiful(?) end where they understood(?) each other.

On the other hand, from the perspective of the third party watching…

‘You guys. Even if you’re setting the mood like that now, the situation where you got punched in the solar plexus and were minding your image make it go away.’

It looked like they were trying to quell the embarrassment that arose from the emotions that popped out with a solemn atmosphere.

Well, whatever the case, it’s fine as long as it’s resolved well.

What’s good is good.

“Now then, the introductions are over, right?”

I spoke to the two with a relatively bright voice to dispel the increasingly heavy atmosphere.

With applause, their gazes gathered on me.

“Then, please teach me some aura.”

They both seem to have forgotten while just minding each other. This was a gathering to learn aura.

Turning their heads and exchanging glances, they nodded in a way I couldn’t comprehend and looked at me again.

“Alright. Then first, sit in front of me.”

Following Aslan’s words, I sat cross-legged in front of him.

“You seem to have investigated to some degree at least. Immediately sitting cross-legged.”

“Do I look like someone who wouldn’t know even that much?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

To think I have that kind of image to Aslan…

“Aaron. I’m going to go somewhere for a bit, okay?”

Sephir’s voice was heard as I sat in front of Aslan to prepare.

“Uh…do as you like.”

It might sound a bit bad, but Sephir can’t provide any help when I’m learning aura.

There shouldn’t be any problem with her going somewhere.

“Have a safe trip.”

A greeting to Sephir who was turning to walk away.

I waved one hand to see her off.

-Flinch

Upon hearing my greeting, her constantly wagging tail and ears flinched and stopped momentarily.

Sephir, walking with her back straight, stopped in her tracks.

“…Yup!”

She didn’t turn her head, but she affirmed and ran off.

She jumped onto a tree at once and disappeared from my sight.

“Is this the new version of being played?”

“Let’s just proceed quietly.”

Again with those words as soon as Sephir disappeared.

“Then, take a deep breath and sharpen your senses within your body.”

Aslan spoke with a serious voice.

“I will flow some aura now, so try feeling it.”

Aslan brought his palm to my back, precisely behind my heart.

‘I wonder what kind of feeling-‘

-Thump

There was a ringing in my body.

At the same time, I faintly felt… heat starting from my heart.

How should I put it?

I felt a heat in my chest that you feel when your insides are stuffy.

It’s like a heat that feels like it would disappear if you put on a poultice but without the stuffy feeling?

The heat felt in my heart gradually started to move…

“Huh?”

It disappeared.

When I focused and continued the sensation from earlier, the heat presumed to be Aslan’s aura that entered from my back to my heart passed right through my chest as if penetrating it.

“Hmm…let’s stop for a moment.”

I heard Aslan’s stop signal from behind. Matching that, I untangled my legs from the cross-legged position and exhaled.

“Is there some problem?”

I don’t even know if this heat is aura, but Aslan’s expression doesn’t look good, as if a problem has already arisen.

“Well…don’t be surprised.”

Aslan’s words continued with a serious look as if pondering while holding his mouth with his hand.

“Aaron, it seems you already have aura.”

—–

Meanwhile, Sephir who suddenly left.

She was sitting on a tree branch, throwing a snow globe-like sphere.

“Isn’t it about time for you to show yourself? I know you’re nearby from the smell.”

Down below, in the dark evening forest, snow-white hair faintly shining even in the shadows of a giant tree, receiving the sunset glow, begins to appear.

Under the leaves, even in the dark shadows, visible violet pupils.

It was Vivian.

“So it was you.”

Vivian spoke while lifting her head to look at Sephir with an expression as if filled with disinterest, as if not giving her even a little bit of attention.

“I knew it was you.”

Sephir looked at Vivian as if she already knew.

Lightly jumping from the tree branch she was sitting on, she landed softly like a cat.

“The bitch who has been popping my observing summons since yesterday.”

“The damn bitch who has been peeping on Aaron’s room since yesterday?”

The overlapping gazes, along with their words, seemed to show their emotions.

Vivian’s empty-looking pupils and Sephir’s sharp eyes.

At the same time, Sephir threw the sphere she was holding in her hand underneath Vivian’s feet.

“…Tsk.”

The moment Vivian clicked her tongue, the eyeball-shaped sphere rolling under her feet shriveled up, sounding like a deflating balloon.

After that, she stepped on it without hesitation.

Crushing it with force as if relieving stress.

Sephir, who was watching that sight, took out a dagger she had put in her bosom and threw it above her hand while opening her mouth.

“I clearly popped that eyeball yesterday too. Why are you doing it again when I let it slide quietly?”

Golden eyes, the pupils starting to shrink within them.

The fur on her tail stood up stiffly, looking like it would sting rather than feel soft.

“I barely held back because Aaron was there.”

The voice that seemed to contain leisure just before gradually cooled down as fast as an autumn wind.

The current Sephir was harboring hostility too antagonistic to be called the appearance before hunting prey.

That appearance gave the impression of a wolf preparing to tear out the throat of an existence that entered its territory.

“…You bitch like a mongrel.”

The mouth of Vivian, who had an expression that could be thought of as a doll, opened.

“Don’t follow my assistant like a whore.”

Only upon hearing that voice could I understand.

Right now, Vivian’s expressionlessness wasn’t disinterest or anything like that.

A straight face that habitually appeared because she couldn’t express her emotions with anything.

“Huh?”

However, Sephir’s expression distorted the moment she heard those words.

“Why are you arbitrarily calling what’s mine your assistant?”

At that moment, cracks began to form in Vivian’s expressionlessness.

With something beyond the emotion of anger.

“Yours? Aaron?”

Poultice- A soft, moist mass, also known as cataplasm. It is usually heated and medicated to treat aches, cuts, and inflammations on the skin.