A Villainess Should Be Strong

Chapter 21: Changes

Perhaps it was because Estelle's offensive capability was revealed, the process of getting Minerva and Heine to be accepted as her mentors were far easier than what they first thought.

Not only the Clareste couple, other residents of the manor also deemed that her current teachers would only hold her development back. Estelle was clearly far more adept than the tutors.

Alan only administered some limitations and regulations for the teaching methods, most of it concerning Estelle's safety. He had already acknowledged the fact that his daughter was superb in what she does, and did not intend to impose on that matter.

To tell the truth, the five years prior to the invasion was enough for Estelle to memorize the magical spells that were exposed to the public. She even had the opportunity to learn unique magics thanks to Minerva and Heine.

There was one glaring fact that bothered her every time she cast a spell.

The magic spells that existed were simply put, impractical.

The power depended harshly on the amount of mana you exert, which would invalidate tons of people from being able to use it. You were restricted by your innate mana bank.

The concept of imagination was also too vague to be taught systematically to the public.

Unique magic that derived from everybody's affinities could not be explored to the fullest extent thanks to the lack of knowledge regarding magic itself.

There was strangely little knowledge surrounding magic.

Practicality.

This problem surfaced as Estelle experienced her first battle.

If the current world's situation was to be translated to a metaphor, it would be that of a world where everyone aspired to be a trickster, a magician that did not care about the results and only viewed the obnoxious displays as the strong ones.

[Hellfire] was one of these cases. A flame that was in a shade close to black, whose effects could be amplified through supplying more magic. It took up a huge chunk of mana just for summoning it. Even for monsters like Heine and Minerva, it took a toll on them.

It's effects were indeed devastating, but the cost was too high. The time taken to summon it was also not desirable in the slightest.

In contrast, Estelle realized that she was able to fix this in a certain way. During one of her experiments, she was able to compress her spells, cutting down the mana expense multiple times.

Not only did she increase its functionality, the casting delay she had was also significantly less.

She was able to perform chantless magic, but there was a slight delay in the spells that would stack up to an undesirable waste.

However, by not focusing onto one enormous spell and dividing it into several spells that conjoined to form an entity, that delay was nonexistent.

With the smaller spells, she was able to cast one of them without delay, and the same logic applied even when she cast hundreds of them.

With the larger spells, she had to bear at least five seconds of delay for each casting period. In a close combat fight, that delay would affect the outcome without exception.

Not to mention, the offensive spells were all categorized into 'weak' basic spells and 'strong' advanced spells.

Sure, a huge meteor fireball would be stronger than a fire bullet.

However, in a fight, wouldn't the bullet be much more proficient and advantageous?

The learners all focused towards mastering advanced magics, but she doubted that they had ever considered the consequences of it.

In a large battlefield, where the enemies were collected over in one side, yes, it would be more efficient to blast them off with an advanced spell.

However, battlefields were mostly close combat. Within a fight, your comrades would be mixed together with the enemies, leaving you no choice but to blast them off along with the foes if you only mastered advanced magic.

Spells like [Hellfire] was hard to control. Not only the enemies, you would blast off the ground too.

Full of disadvantages.

Estelle had a headache as she thought about it carefully. As a person living in modern Japan in her former world, she was exposed to fantasy - themed cultures ranging from animations, literature, down to the media itself.

The concept of magic was always vaguely defined in the stories she got to view. Perhaps because it leaned more towards the comical and humorous side, the content revolved around how the main character dominated over the others while still somehow being tricked, forced to do things, and ending up on the brink of death.

That same girl who worried about stuff a five - year - old girl was not supposed to brood upon was currently sitting inside the training ground's resting area, debating on how she was supposed to channel her wish and manifest it into realization.

[At least bullet like blows... Compressing [Hellfire] to compact sizes and stacking hundreds of them? Trajectory magic, I wonder if I can develop that...] Estelle considered her chances.

[Hellfire Shot]. By containing the flame in an imaginary close space, perhaps she would be able to create marble - sized bullet. It could lessen the burden on the caster and also on the battlefield.

Trajectory effects was desirable but not necessary. Just the development of the bullet would be significant progress. Akin to introducing guns to spear - wielding people.

She sighed in distress, worrying over the future.

"You are like, five. Sometimes I wonder if you are actually an old man reincarnated inside a baby with how much sighs you've let out," Minerva said.

Her staff was shining brightly by her side, the golden plating in addition to the ruby red gems embedded in the circular tip catching everyone's eyes.

Estelle's eyes winced.

Don't even let her talk about staffs.

She was sure than a small orb would suffice. The large staffs endowed with gems and stones were pleasing to look at, but they thwarted the meaning of convenience entirely.

Using her elbow as support, she leaned her face onto her palm, cupping her cheeks while staring at Minerva with nothing inside her head.

"Minerva, rewriting the world's magic, how well do you think we'd fare?" Estelle said in a casual manner. She did not expect a serious answer, she only wanted to express her thoughts.

However, this single sentence shook Minerva's heart and incited something inside of her.

Sure enough, as a powerhouse, she had always felt that the world's magic was always lacking in a lot of departments.

Estelle's words did nothing but serve as a fuel to that dim fire inside her heart.

The fire to develop the deteriorated magic to its fullest extent.

Estelle's thoughts that were supported by the genius Witch, became the initiator for the future establishment of a magical institute, but that was for another time.

Instead of training her magic on the spells she deemed 'useless', she decided to focus more towards the possibilities she could jump on, starting from the very basics like a literal wisp of flame, slowly raising the levels.

Minerva had joined in on the plan, she was fully on board with it.

"Come to think of it, where is Heine?"

"Should be helping my sister out. If my sister did not chase me... It's likely that she dragged Heine to do the experiments in exchange for my presence," Minerva replied.

Yulia was a steadfast person, there was no way she's turning back once she delved inside one topic.

Whether that was a good quality or otherwise, the judgement can only vary between different individuals.

For Estelle, she disliked the fact that Yulia did not care about her antics' effect to its surroundings. She was someone that used to be a company's founder, she knew how much a simple mistake could trigger a domino effect and cause ripples to everyone's workload, not just theirs.

Thus, the character was carried to this world and Estelle tried to dodge said mistakes in whatever way possible. It was not a rarity that she hated herself for not being able to achieve something.

That same logic applied to the lack of fundamental basics of magic in this world.

[If if comes down to a pinch, I can decimate everybody along with my foes, but I don't want to that.]

Estelle had finally gained her newfound purpose after being reincarnated to this world.

Since she was designated as a villainess without a hero, she had the freedom to do anything, right?

Changing the world's magic, she did not believe she was unable to do it given the unlimited time.

"Calling for me?"

A certain jade - haired fae donned in royal garments descended down from the sky, landing safely on the ground.

"Heine!" Estelle greeted the man's arrival.

"What were you doing? I felt some huge vibrations in the magic field..."

"The bullets are made out of compressed higher fire magic, specifically derived from [Hellfire] and laced with blaze properties. The metal surrounding it is a metalloid covered in a membrane so it won't burst. Like a capsule, the metal can melt when it comes in contact with a targeted surface. Once the fire erupts, it won't go out unless it's overpowered by another magic source... I wanted to lace the bullet with poison and trajectory magic as well, but it's impossible for now. This is just an experiment," Estelle snapped her fingers and made several bullets appear in the air.

The bullets she had on hand was the latest prototype of her idea, the stock she had was not that many.

She was getting closer to her vision day by day, so she didn't mind the slow progression. It was better to get something wrong in the experimental period than when it was time for battle.

"A shame, but it only means that I still have a lot to improve in,"

"Is this the gun you were talking about?" Heine snatched one of the bullets and examined it with bare eyes. To him and the rest of the world, the concept of guns and bullets were foreign.

Estelle had mentioned the project before, but Heine didn't think that the result would arrive this soon.

Bullets were identical to pellets, which existed in their world. However, the firepower of magic - imbued pellets would be incomparable to those of Estelle's bullets.

So small, so frail, yet so powerful.

"Not exactly. Guns are the objects that will spew out these magic bullets in the future... I'm planning to make the compartments one by one after I find a suitable material. If I get the chance, I want to make several types of these bullets.. Maybe a corrosion effect or an electrifying shock," Estelle listed down her wishes one by one, although the criteria was somewhat terrifying.

Heine raised his brows as his imagination created a beautiful scenery where the girl went ham with her weapons. Her ballistic tendency unfolded and created a tragedy.

Waking himself up from the daydream, he convinced himself that the Estelle he knew was sensible and logical.

"Do you want me to help? I can try and search for a material that suits your requirements.."

"No... I will focus on the bullet's development first. My grasp on the Creation Magic is not enough to create these guys mid - fight.. That's my goal for now,"

"..Alright," Heine placed the bullet down on the table and sat down.

After thinking for a second, Estelle made a confused look. Heine rarely visited because he had official duties as a King, but he was somehow here without any notifications and seemingly did not have any purpose.

"Why did you come here? Wearing that, on top of it,"

His royal garments certainly caught her eye. She had only seen him in them less than ten times.

"Huh? You don't know?"

"Hm?"