I Favor the Villainess - CH 254

※From Salas Lilium’s perspective.

For a moment, I thought Prince Rodd noticed me, but it seemed that was a needless concern.

I was currently in a forest a bit away from the imperial castle.

From there I used a magic artifact to watch the Demon Queen’s fight.

Originally this magic artifact was a prototype developed by the Empire to allow anybody and everybody to use teleportation magic.

It was meant to open a door, a Gate if you will, allowing people to easily go to and from distant lands. However, the plans were abandoned.

It’s not as though the project ended in complete failure, but opening a large Gate required magic gems of high purity and an immense―almost demon-like amount of magical energy. As an extra, the burden would break all of the magic gems involved. It was clear that the cost was too high.

Previously, I had used this to assist the former queen, Lishe, in her attempt to assassinate Rei Taylor.

It was only because I had magic gems from the Demon Queen’s prized stash and Rates, a being who held abnormally large amounts of magical power, that I was able to execute a large scale teleport at that time.

However, I need not make use of it in such a luxurious way.

Just a few centimetres―if I could open a Gate that could carry my gaze, that would suffice.

These artifacts were very rare so they weren’t something I could use repeatedly, but now was the time.

Now, while that loathsome Rei Taylor and Claire François were fighting the Demon Queen.

While their attention was concentrated on the Demon Queen, I decided that I would steal what was most important to them.

That of course, would be their daughters.

They had decided to raise orphans with whom they had no blood relations.To me it was nothing more than playing house, but to them it appeared there was nothing more precious.

They had stolen everything from me, so now, I would steal from them.

After the ill-fated revolution, I had been thrown into prison.

Having lost the Empire’s backing, I offered my diplomatic expertise to avoid capital punishment. However, that terrible lifestyle could not even be compared to the one that I had lived prior.

It was as though I had been returned to the circumstances in which I was born.

Though I was originally a noble, we were at the very bottom. In the worst case we would’ve been even worse off than the Orso family. We were on the verge of collapse.

While we did have nobility, it was only in name.

My father drowned himself in alcohol, and though my mother constantly lamented our situation, she made no attempt to improve it. It was that kind of home.

A realization came to my young mind.

Were I to remain in this household, I would only rot.

I had to find some way to break free.

What I did was very simple.

I studied.

After graduating, my abilities secured my position as a bureaucrat.

At that time, the Kingdom’s governing body was largely corrupt. There were very few nobles who could properly accomplish their duties.

Even there, I was treated coldly, but as I was getting work done, I was never ostracized.

You could say that I was simply being used.

With the high ranking nobles who had abandoned themselves to leisure always in the corner of my eye, my days where work chased me both day and night continued.

I had long abandoned my family.

My father and mother occasionally begged for money, but I ignored it all.

A household such as this, that would not even better my reputation, at best just served as proof that I was in fact a noble.

Eventually my family had stopped contacting me. Shortly after, it came to my knowledge that my parents had commit suicide.

Without feeling anything, I inherited what was left to me.

My family had a large outstanding debt.

In order to pay it all back, I again threw myself into my work.

These days were without hope.

My turning point came when the previous king, Rousseau took the throne.

Rousseau, who had become king at a young age, prioritized function over form. He established policies that benefited the competent regardless of their social standing.

It had seemed like a pipe dream, but Rousseau appointed me.

I had outmaneuvered the nobles who had once looked down on me, taking charge of Rousseau’s practical affairs.

This is also when I met Lulu and Lishe, who would later become queens.

Because the two were exceedingly high ranking nobles, almost all of the men around were of lower rank than they were.

Perhaps because of that, neither of them discriminated against me.

Instead, they properly assessed my abilities.

Though it was a past that I wished to distance myself from, I had developed a romantic interest for the two. Yes, I had come to know something useless and pointless as love.

Even after Lulu had become the queen, we continued our rendezvous.

Having gained her backing, I aggressively forwarded my position.

The beginning of my collapse was caused by Lulu’s pregnancy, with my child.

This child, clearly different in appearance from the eldest prince Rodd, was named Sein.

I had resolved myself to face ruin.

Curiously, Rousseau did not censure me.

Sein was accepted as the second prince and I had become the Kingdom’s prime minister.

Was it possible that Rousseau was still in the dark?

No, some of his glances toward Sein held sadness, so he had surely realized.

However, he was a coward who would not put that to words.

This was when I questioned whether this man was fit to be king.

I had obtained the position of prime minister.

At this point, I may as well aim even higher.

With that in mind, I secretly made contact with the Kingdom’s enemy, Naa.

In exchange for making the Kingdom one of Naa’s vassal states, the Empress promised that I’d have authority over it.

Everything had been going so well.

With just a little to go, I would become a country’s king.

It was then that Rei Taylor and Claire François took my blood, sweat, and tears returning them to absolutely nothing.

Those two divulged my secret dealings with the Empire and as though that wasn’t enough, they ended the aristocracy, completely changing the country’s political environment.

With my ambitions to lead the country’s new government crushed, I was incarcerated.

It was all their fault.

Having lost everything, I swore vengeance on them..

Relying on Lishe I managed to break out. However, the Empire had long abandoned me.

It was the Demon Queen who had taken me in.

The Demon Queen asked for my cooperation to kill Rei Taylor and Claire François.

Though the Demon Queen was terrifying, our interests aligned so I accepted.

If I could enact vengeance on those two, I no longer cared.

The fact that she was the spitting image of Rei Taylor irked me, but I endured, resolving to one day make use of her.

However, both Rei and Claire were tenacious.

The assassination that I used Lishe to orchestrate, and the kidnapping that I had prepared Lana for since before my incarceration, they had overcome both of those.

My hatred only continued to grow. With no place for it to go, it rampaged violently within me.

And now, I faced my greatest opportunity.

Directing my attention at the girl named Mei, through my Gate, I very subtly woke her.

“Mm…?”

The girl’s eyes faintly opened.

Through the Gate, I fixed my gaze on them.

“Now, Mei or whoever. You will now serve as my hands and feet.”

“…”

The girl’s eyes seemed to melt and dim.

It was the effect of my suggestions.

I had become convinced of my success.

In spite of that―

“Salas, that’s as far as you go.”

“!?”

From the girl’s mouth, I heard a voice that couldn’t have come from a child.

That voice was one that I knew.

“Dor François!?”

“Both my daughter and granddaughters are currently standing up to destiny itself. They don’t have the time to get mixed up with someone as insignificant as you.”

“What was that…!”

I wracked my confused mind to think.

What, just what was happening?

“From now on, we’ll have you roam through an unending dream until you die. Whether you curse everything or regret your actions, do as you like. However, the rest of your days will be spent in that dream.”

“Wait, Dor!”

“You may have something that you want to say, however, this message is but a recording. I no longer have the ability to stop this.”

“Wait… please wait!”

“Farewell, Salas. Go on and wait for me in hell.”

As the voice cut off, my field of view completely changed.

When I came to, a rundown mansion was in front of me.

“What… is this…?”

Taking a look around, there were several eyes peering at me from the shadows.

“Father… Mother… Baron Thompson and Earl Yale…! Lily, and Lana too…!”

Beginning with my parents, all of the people that I had cut down to further myself began appearing. They all peered at me from the shadow of the pillars or from the other side of the window.

“Don’t look…! Don’t look at me…! I’m different from all of you! I refuse to let things end here!”

Unable to bear the weight of the resentment I felt from their gaze, I broke into a run.

I ran, and ran, until I thought I’d be okay, but then realized.

I was still in front of my childhood home.

“S-save me!”

As I shamelessly begged for salvation, I continued to run.

No matter how long, or in which direction I ran, in the end I found myself in front of the same mansion.

And again, I’d be under the scrutiny of those eyes.

The scene only repeated itself.

“…End… just… end it already!!”

Suddenly the mansion disappeared and I was surrounded in a pitch black void.

Not knowing where I was, not even knowing what ground I stood upon, I was encased in a total ignorant darkness.

“What the… what the hell is this place…”

I desperately sought help, but no voice replied.

This space, where not even sounds seemed to reverberate, what in the world was it?

Dor had said that I’d be trapped here until I died.

A place like this… would be where I met my end?

“No… I don’t want an end like this…! Someone! Someone save me! Uwaaaahh!!”

Though I continually screamed within the darkness, ultimately, the hand of salvation never came.