A Villainess Should Be Strong

Chapter 2: Reincarnated (2)

A sudden miasma spread, causing others to be aware of the jarring scene. Guards comprising knights and magicians ran up to the place. One used teleportation magic and immediately enveloped Helen with a shield, isolating her from everybody.

"Sheila, are you unharmed?" The man who spoke had striking silver locks and light blue eyes. He commanded the soldiers while hugging the madam by her waist. His face turned grim at the sight of Helen on the floor, lifeless and covered with black blood.

"I am fine. I wasn't able to notice the black magic in her, but someone did. If it wasn't for them, I would not be talking with you anymore," Sheila's eyes misted.

The silver-haired man's expression repeatedly changed, like he wanted to say something but couldn't voice it out loud.

[Hm? They can't notice my magic?] Estelle, on the other side, was eavesdropping on them while trying to familiarize herself more with the so-called 'magic'.

[That's even more of a surprise, but yes, they can't. It's over now. That man is your father, and he is very much enough to take care of everything from there. Your job's done.]

Heine narrowed his eyes as he found all of this to be a strange occurrence. Still deep in thought, he morphed back into a ball of light.

[Well, then. Estelle, I'm going to go for a bit. I'll come back to check up on you later, so just rest or something. ] Heine flew away while talking, not leaving Estelle any chances of extracting more information from him.

And with that, he disappeared with no traces, leaving Estelle unable to do anything besides stare at his previous position. She heaved a deep sigh.

[What exactly is happening... I don't even know anymore. Let's shut down my brain for a bit.]

Perhaps coming from the sudden magic exposure she just had while being a baby who has never had prior experience with it, her mind had a slight migraine, but it was still at the point where it can be tolerated, so she just let it be.

She needed time to process everything.

Staring at the spirit tree, Heine was standing mindlessly. He raised his hand to gently go over the tree's deep trunk covered in vines.

The spirit tree's consciousness had previously told him about Estelle's existence.

Spirit Tree. Even though they couldn't move nor touch the higher realms, no being on the lands could escape its grasp. It was the bane of existence for nature and faes. Of course, Estelle's existence must've caused a disturbance that failed to escape it as well. It sensed something changing, something unknown.

The world was changing, and it came from a mere newborn baby. A human, at that.

Of course, it would shatter its calm.

And so, it sent a message to the fae king, the only one capable of communicating with it.

To respond to the call, Heine visited the alleged disturbance's position. And what greeted him was definitely worthy of the Spirit Tree's quick reaction.

A baby. A baby was using magic moments ago. It was something no one has ever heard about. If you take into account that the baby was from the human race, it'll be even more shocking.

Even faes, who were known to be especially adept and talented in magic, would have to spend at least months to feel and use mana. For humans, the expected time was when they reached the age of 10. That's why, the church would annually send people all over the kingdom to hold a magic detection test. For those who had an abnormal or special talent, they would be discovered through this method and offered to attend the royal academy.

Heine sighed.

The royal academy, as good as it sounds, was actually just a forced breeding ground for future manpower. To add on, most of the students are part of nobility, since only those with exceptional skills would be able to attend this academy, and nobility had prior magic education whilst commoners didn't have such a thing.

This is why most commoners prefer to attend the Academy in Elysium rather than the royal academy to avoid discrimination and oppression. However, the deluded nobles prefer to mingle with each other, alienating themselves from the diversity in Elysium's Academy due to their prideful behavior in being nobles.

The church's sole purpose came to play exactly for this reason. 'Offering to attend' was not the church's way of conduct. It was more suited to be called forced. A farce to forcefully admit the talented commoners into the Royal Academy. To hone them into future resources.

Considering how Estelle used magic moments after being born, a feat even Heine, the Fae King himself achieved in a month, her magic aptitude would be considered phenomenally high. Even higher than himself.

Heine laughed bitterly.

[For you to notify me of this girl, what is your intention? To take her into the spirit kingdom? Eradicate her while still weak?]

For a split second, Heine's eyes showed a dangerous glint. He was more than willing to do that.

In fact, although faes, including himself was created through the tree's life spirit, he did not consider it his parent. If anything, he only felt pity towards the tree. It was unable to travel across the world it had control over.

Even though it possessed power over nature, it could not physically do anything by itself. It had to channel its thoughts through a medium, which would be the fae king in this case.

Heine received back not a single sound. Indeed, the Spirit Tree only came and by whenever it had purposes for the fae king. It wouldn't respond to such a call.

Feeling irked, he thought back to the human baby.

If a human was to receive such absurd powers and someone with ambitions got their hands on her... It would certainly cause an imbalance over the other Kingdoms.

[Or perhaps... you want me to watch over her and guide her.]

Heine thought that since the Spirit Tree did not directly issue an order to kill the budding spirit, it had left the final decision for him to make.

Whatever her intentions were later on, as long as she doesn't touch the spirit kingdom and maintained a friendly relationship, wouldn't it be fine?

Looking back, she held a perfectly normal conversation with me, could see my body even when I'm in my light state and didn't purposely show myself, and killed a fellow human being who she judged as hostile. As a newborn baby.

She seemed far too logical. As if she already had prior living experiences.

Being born while already having intact memories of your previous life.

Now that he seriously thought about it, this statement did would justify the logical thinking and decisions she made.

Still, it was an absurd idea.

[All of this is too ridiculous... What exactly is she?]

Heine, now in his adult form, sat down with his back against the tree and hung his head low.

Meanwhile, back in the Clareste Dukedom, two separate parties had their minds filled with two separate things.

First, everyone was still in shock over the breach of security concerning the life of Sheila Clareste, the Duchess.

This was something unprecedented for years. More precisely, because the Duchess herself was able to do forms of self-protection to a certain extent, normal dangers like attempted assassination would be caught in no time.

However, the danger today came in the form of a personal maid, someone the Duchess is supposed to trust.

Personal maids did not come out of nowhere, they had to undergo several selection processes and a period of interaction with the madam herself.

If the madam deemed her as unsuitable, the maid would not be chosen.

And the maid in particular was Helen. Someone who had stuck with them for years. Someone who the madam herself would even go as far as to call her a 'friend'.

The Helen in their memories was a simple and innocent girl, who also housework skills was also quite exceptional.

Upon further investigation, it was revealed the the maid Helen they knew was probably gone from this world.

It wasn't that the madam's judgement on Helen that was false. It was that the maid itself had been switched with someone who had looks that exactly looked like the former Helen.

This would elevate the case from just being a maid who was controlled to despise the madam to a clear planned murder.

One that went unnoticed until moments right before the deed was done.

Whoever it was that saved them from having to experience a tragedy, they ought to thank them one day.

The other party was of course, our beloved Estelle in regards to the recent events.

She was Estelle, but at the same time, her soul didn't only belong to the newborn's body.

As she closed her eyes and fell into deep focus, her mind started to replay what she pertained to be past memories... in a completely different world.