《Villainess and Grimoire》Chapter 40 – Adventurer Arc
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As the game went the pieces decreased from each sideboard.
Sweat started falling both from the crown prince and the people around the table except Aurora.
The room atmosphere felt warm and tight, due to that, Ryu got up and opened the window a little making the room gain a small breeze to recycle the air.
Mark having analyzed for quite a while starts going into deep thinking. 'This girl is incredible she hasn't sweated a bit, doesn't look nervous, and takes no time at all to play whenever her turn comes up pressuring the Prince with each play.'
'The moment the crown prince moves a piece, she's already moving hers, and despite playing as second, she was able to gain the initiative and even give quite a tough time, her moves are a lot sharper, and I haven't noticed a single mistake. Just what kind of brain did the goddess Aria bless her with?'
After a long time passing, the crown prince who never resigned was checkmated by a big marge of 7 pieces.
For the first time since the prince was born, he applauded someone's else talent as the clapping would usually go to his own achievements.
The men around the table followed the prince, especially Luke who was proudly clapping with a lot of strength while smiling at his daughter super excited and happy, relieving himself of the possibility of losing his daughter.
Ryu who could no longer help his curiosity stopped clapping and opened the folded paper, unfolding it and placing it between him and the crown prince.
In it was written 3 sentences, lose the first game as the black to entice the prince to go forward with this offer.
Win the second game as the white by a very small margin to make him believe he could win the third game.
Win the third game flawlessly to show your brightness.
"This is unexpected," the prince laughed awkwardly while placing his hand on the top of the head, followed by Ryu who couldn't believe what had transpired in this room, he then pushed the paper to show it to Mark.
'It seems like I was totally played by this little girl, I can't help my interest growing on her amazing mind, that and the fact of the sister knowing how it would end.'
'I wonder what skills Aurora's sister could have, it's truly phenomenal, these two will surely contribute to the kingdom in the future.'
The prince then made a motion for the butlers and maids and Ryu's subordinate who had come along with Luke to leave the room.
Leaving himself, the old man, the head of the blue rose family, Luke, and Aurora in the room then spoke, "you're a special human with a great intellectual, however, I cannot trust in you with the kingdom's army, however, I have written that letter for you to be able to enter any place of this kingdom, it'll allow you to further deepen your knowledge."
"Be it in the magic institute, the battle academia, the church, or even the guild as a higher ranked, it's also written that you may even join our strategy meetings from this day onwards, what do you say?" He asked her curiously while clenching the hands onto one another.
She replied coldly showing a bitter and sorrowful expression to those around marking them further, as she hadn't made many expressions through the whole afternoon by saying.
"I'll refuse all of them as that was not what we betted on, and I'll return home and spend my days doing quests at the adventurers guild that I and sister are already part of."
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"Girl it is the crown prince you're talking to," Ryu shouted remembering Aurora of her place.
The daughter then looks sadly at Luke and says with an ironic tone, "it seems like in the end, your words did not reflect the rightful truth father."
She gets up from her chair and starts walking towards the exit.
"Hold it! I forbid you from leaving!" Ryu shouted as he was starting to heat up from anger due to the earlier disrespect.
She who was already with the back to him turned to Ryu, and then he felt overwhelmed by a glare, shaking everyone around her with an unknown skill to them, the killing pressure one.
The guards from both doors entered and the aura ceased instantly the moment she heard it.
"Was that my imagination?" Rudolf asked while looking at the guards on the other side then looking at a little girl with an innocent expression standing between both doors while looking at Ryu.
The man regaining his composure stated, "the crime to use magic in the presence of a member of the royal family is death," he said with a menacing tone, to what Aurora replied by saying," I did not use magic, I do not have an element, after all, that was my life force for almost dying every day for 5 years, some people refer to it as life force manifestation."
The guards then said that they didn't feel any type of magic it was more like an aura similar to the head of the royal guards that Sylvia uses, but sort of more intense which didn't make sense as she's just a kid.
"I just wished to lead this kingdom towards a better path as at any given time the dragon up the north can drop by and destroy us."
"The demons can come through the sea or the mountains, the south factions can come and conquer us."
"The Saintess declared that humans will perish in the future, but seeing as negotiations didn't work I'll do what I can alongside Iris, I believe that is not a problem right your highness crown prince Julius Lumen."
She smiled kindly with her most adorable childish expression while bowing in the most educated way swaying the different guards from both sides into taking her lightly.
'Now I want you to work for me even more,' the crown prince thought excitedly as his hands were still trembling from the earlier pressure, releasing him of any doubts as there was truly something unique to the girl.
"I command you to join the army in three years by the time you're 11 as a tactician general under my orders unless your talent allows it to be earlier," he said mentally unfazed by everything that happened.
'That's as much time as I'll still need to get the whole army under my command.'
Aurora stared at the prince's eyes and smiled lightly, then he continued speaking, "I am one who will use both nobles and peasants by their talent, and it'd be a waste to have you murdered in this room since you didn't break any laws."
"You will however learn discipline and the arts of war our kingdom has mastered through generations with the old man, the best teacher in the kingdom," upon hearing that Mark bows his head while smiling.
"You will further learn the innovated principles by the head of the blue rose family lord Ryu," upon hearing that Ryu bows in accordance knowing fully well that this is what would've happened from the outcome of the chess games.
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"With the 60% of the army I own together with lord Ryu, I will allow you to show us your resolve and knowledge."
"I do not intend on making you the acting general based on a chess game alone if you prove yourself and exceed the three of us in the art of war the same way you beat me today in chess," he regained his breath and then spoke," if you do that then you will have that right, leaving myself as the only person in the kingdom that you'll pay declarations to."
"This is my final offer and these are my conditions, do they sound fair Luke?"
"Yes your highness, but I'll leave it to my daughter to decide, even if she's young, I believe in both of them, to the point of allowing them to choose the life Aurora wants to have," Luke smiles at his daughter nervously as he didn't expect the outcome to have such an impact making him realize clearly that there was no irony on her words during the trip here.
"What do you say Aurora?"
"I wish to inquire on some things and propose some conditions of my own for it to be a," she makes a brief pause and then says," a truly fair deal."
'This girl truly is taking the crown prince lightly, but she's a peasant, and a kid, so she has yet to learn her place in this world,' Ryu thought calmly as his anger dissipated along with the prince's decision some moments ago.
Julius placed his elbows on the table and put his head to rest on top of the hands and spoke," come and sit again, let us discuss such details, guards you can wait outside, everything is clearly fine."
The guards moved out and closed the doors once again without saying anything, then Aurora sat down and started speaking.
"First I appreciate your conditions, however, I do not care about the teachings of these two men as I can beat them both if we ever would war against one another with armies of similar sizes."
'Most likely half would be enough to handle either of them.'
Mark started laughing lightly then said," that may be very well true, but I'd still like to stay in my role as an advisor," he looked seriously at her.
"That is fine, as long as you ultimately follow my decisions no matter how weird they may sound."
"If his highness doesn't complain this old man won't either."
Aurora's cold gaze strikes Ryu who speaks as the attention of the other men also falls on him.
"This lord promises to help you as long as achievements are earned in wars to come."
The gaze then returned to the crown prince and she spoke.
"Secondly, I will not sit back, I'll expand the Lumen territory southwards, I believe that's where the Saintess premonition has fallen from."
"That's correct, the goblin king will arrive in a few years," Ryu added wondering how she wants to expand through the dense forests on the south, a natural territory to the beasts.
'If this truly happened it would make our kingdom richer, especially with the woods and mines further south,' crown prince thought as he nodded in agreement.
"Thirdly, I'll reform the arts of war used by this kingdom for that reason I'll teach them to both advisors, Mark and Ryu, who will assist me transmit them to the armies."
'I'll teach them a poorer version of the real thing just in case they betray us in the future,' she thought to herself while calculating far, far away in the future.
"So far so good," the crown prince replied seriously wondering what else would come out of her mouth.
"Fourthly I want to make sure the church will not take control of this country while I'm out of the kingdom due to the fanatics, and as such I want the Saintess to be part of the army along with their elites."
'With this, they won't move lightly in the shadows and the fanatics will fill the crown prince pockets every time there's an expedition, not only the church ones.'
A smile surged in the crown prince's face as he didn't expect such a request.
'This girl is making my life harder, however, the profits aren't small,' he once again nods in agreement knowing that the alliance Julius shares with them isn't small.
"Fifthly in case the crown prince is not able to gain control of the entirety of the army as he is not yet king, every faction will give a big percentage of their best troops for every expedition for the same reason as the fourth."
"Yes, in less than 3 years I believe I'll have the power necessary to have at least 80% if not 100% of the total army."
"Sixthly I'll be teaching both advisors from my home so they should get a temporary house in the village as I still have to..." She looked down thinking and then looked at the crown prince, and continued speaking, "pay declarations to my sister."
'This girl sure is straightforward using my own words implying that there's someone she sees close to my level, such arrogance reminds me of Zylph since he's pretty eccentric too.'
"I have a counter offer which is that your sister can easily come to the capital to study if she'd like, Iris would have all her living expenses paid for," Ryu starts writing a letter similar to the one the prince did towards Aurora.
"I'll leave the negotiations between the two of you in that regard even though... I believe she wants to continue her work in the adventurers guild so I wouldn't waste my time."
"Nonetheless, I'll give her a recommendation letter," he extends the paper to the prince who seals with his emblem and then places it on top of the other one pushing both to her.
"One way or another, like this, both of you can have access to more things than the normal tournament recommendation, but we'll still want at least one of you to participate in it, and since you don't have an element, and normal mana might not be enough."
"I've already registered Iris to partake in the tournament in two years," Luke said as it was a surprise he was saving for the future.
"Even better this will give some merit and face to the crown prince, especially if Iris manages to rank in the top 10, since you're both twins we can say that you were the one who got in such ranking of the tournament Aurora increasing the respect and morale of the troops."
"Since you're a rare case of not having an element, speaking of which can you even use mana?"
"Yes, a bit," she makes a soft light appear in her hand to not cause trouble for herself.
"Very well, in that case, do ask that of your sister and on our side, we'll make it so that she's introduced with your name."
"That should be fine since she enjoys fighting it would be a good experience for her."
"Seventhly I wish to have access to all the documents inside the church and know the true reasons as to why they exile people with disgraceful classes since I seek to repair this issue and use both fame and disgrace classes in the army making it stronger."
'This one is to see how I can help Iris and perhaps even myself.'
"That one will shift unnecessary attention to you and your sister which will be dangerous, both could even die," Mark advised with a low cautious tone.
"What's so wrong about such classes?" Aurora asks making a startled expression as she doesn't understand how they could pose such a notable menace.
"Personally have read some of their books, however, I had the backing of the king back in the time, and it was his highness personal request, and apparently those classes come with troublesome abilities aggregated to them."
"How so? Since if they are troublesome as long as they are used rightfully it could bring a great change during wars!" Aurora said full of conviction to her startling the men around who got used to the expressionless side of her.
"For example the class berserker makes the person go insane the more they use their skills, and their strength increases exponentially, we've had to kill someone in the past due to killing random people for becoming fully crazy."
"It took a hero and some other strong people to do it," Ryu adds calmly to Mark's words.
In a low tone, Ryu added information to the conversation taking the lead of the conversation on the explanation side, "another example and this is classified information is the church Saintess sister who was exiled for having her skill cursed and having the disgrace class witch."
'Witch class like Iris? Her skill was cursed which one?'
"The Saintess has a skill named Oracle it is a blessed skill that was inherited by her mother, and that skill is said to have been given by the goddess Aria."
"Her sister received the same skill but cursed grade so her visions are completely different than the Saintess, and they come in riddles, and there's a skill that she's unlocked that is extremely powerful and dangerous."
"When she was exiled she used it to kill a great number of priests who took her out of the kingdom as revenge, she has been gone ever since."
"We wanted to find more about her so that she could ally to the crown prince as he judges by character, but our scouts couldn't find her."
"Due to all those reasons she was exiled from our country by the church and is living somewhere in the southern territory of the monsters if she's still alive."
"She too has green eyes and green hair like the Saintess, but she's the younger one."
"What's her name?"
"We don't say a witch's name it is known that one can be cursed though we don't know if it's true."
'Pretty sure it isn't, even in my past world the strongest witches couldn't curse random people they didn't know from knowing their name alone.'
"Is there a chance she'd pose a threat to any expedition I'd lead?"
"Don't think so, in the end, even if the Saintess tags along with, they're not on bad terms with one another, just the church with her."
"Isn't the Saintess part of the church though?" After a long dialogue between Ryu and Aurora, to this specific question, the crown prince replies.
"It's a complicated thing since she's the closest person to the goddess and because of that they force her to be part of it, but she only cares about the goddess and the human survivability, not the religion that the church defends."
"She always tries to harmonize the humans and to pass an equality image between the citizens, I favor her work."
'In other words, there's a chance I can get to reason with her, of course, that I'd need to show her enough achievements.'
'In the end, they're giving me a chance to prove myself and will study my every move towards what I do to their army, if they don't like something they'll dismiss my services instantly.'
'It's not like I'm not used to any of this, so it'll go well, just wonder if the soldiers will take my order seriously.'
"How about the soldiers will they take orders from a little girl such as myself?"
Understanding the problem immediately the crown prince clarifies.
"After we see what you can do, we'll publically appoint you as a general, if you pass all the tests meeting the conditions referred earlier, then we'll give you the royal crest emblem that will make every human in the kingdom know his place in your presence."
'Instant high level of authority to a random peasant such as myself, what about the nobles will they accept it? I guess they wouldn't try to fight the royal family orders directly.'
"Can I expect problems with the different noble families?"
"There'll be many who will oppose the idea certainly, however, very few will attempt to do anything as to go against Julius the royal prince, after all, they want to do the exact opposite, be in his grace since he's the successor of the entire kingdom."
"On my side, everything is said then."
"Very well Aurora," the prince extends his hand for a handshake while saying," I look forward to figuring out and eventually using your talents."
The little girl handshakes with her delicate small hand making the prince think about her,' to think this is truly an 8-year-old girl, I can't wait to see her growth, just what kind of woman will this child mature to?'
'These humans are as dumb as the ones I met in my past life,' she smiled gently towards the men in front of her.
Yellow divine light started shining down from the sky illuminating the entire capital.
"It seems the time has come for the heroes to arrive," the crown prince said in a light tone turning behind, towards the windows.
As they all looked to the light coming from the window while raising from their seats, a shadow from them formed covering the small girl behind, who was wearing an evil expression of a demon about to ravage the world.
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