A Villainess Should Be Strong

Chapter 4: About the World

After gathering her thoughts, Reina, now called Estelle concluded the events that led up to her death. Her 25 years worth of life, gone just like that because of her emotionally unstable childhood friend.

[Humans often called this type of emotion jealousy, if I recall correctly. Hikari... Pray that you never get reincarnated to this world. For I will hunt you down.]

[...Hm?]

There was something amiss.

Estelle was bewildered. She had realized it before, but didn't think much about it. However, now that she was given the chamce to ponder upon it, her mind really was no longer in its mechanical state.

She had emotions. Her words were very different from the way it was back then, in the memories she had.

She was at a loss. This method of thinking was something she never experienced before, so to be exposed suddenly... it was truly a weird feeling.

[Is this what it truly means to be human?] She questioned.

Emotions. Pesky little things that can cloud one's judgement.

Unable to do anything in an infant's body, she laid still in her comfy crib and debated on whether she found this newfound way of thinking to be a great addition or just pure bothersome. It was like tasting freedom. Her thoughts were no longer constricted and rigid. Like someone had placed a seal on her mind and the seal only broke now because she reincarnated.

[Ahh, to hell with that. The most relevant task right now is to process this world's language... But I won't be able to get anywhere in this body. *sigh* How troublesome. If only I could find a teacher...]

Around this time, something clicked in her head.

[That fae... Heine said he was coming back right? Perhaps I could ask him to teach me? Eh, but I conversed with him properly?]

Estelle scrunched up her face in confusion.

[That's because you and I were speaking in the spirits' language. I also don't know what's going on, but apparently you're a lot more special than any other baby... Of course you are, what the hell am I thinking.]

Heine facepalmed as he recalled the former events of Estelle achieving a 'first blood' kill possibly hours after being born.

[But how do I know the Spirits' language? Am I not a human?]

[Hmm... You probably have the Spirit's Blessing. All Spirits are automatically born with the title Spirit's Blessing, but there are other cases where the Spirit Tree randomly bestows the blessing upon those of other races.]

[Can you explain how this world is?] Estelle was a genius no one had ever seen, but her body was just of a normal baby. Sitting was clearly impossible for the infant, let alone other complicated movements.

Seeing a baby wearing a serious expression while lying down like a dead log in the crib made Heine's laughter on the brink of eruption, but he did his best to hold it in.

Estelle seemed to have sensed the mockery and tried to glare at Heine, but as a baby, it only made the whole picture funnier.

[*cough* Hmmm, to start off, I already double checked, but your race would be human. There are 5 main races and 6 kingdoms in total.

The first kingdom is called Alynthi, ruled by the humans. To be frank, I hate your race. They are the weakest and yet the most eager to trigger a war. Power-crazed royalties, fucked up politics. The crime rates are also astronomically higher... They are the smallest kingdom... but they love war for sure. They've always wanted to colonize and oppress the other races, but the success rate is low... Even if they succeeded, the stolen land would be recovered in a matter of months. Right, for some reason, they always birth out these maniacally strong people, but thank God those people aren't idiots and chose to go for peace.

The second is my homeland, Sylvania, dwelled by the spirits. To be honest, the kingdom itself isn't a formal one. It's centered around the Spirit Tree, and since the forest around it was originally unmarked territory and other races tried to obtain it because it had bountiful resources, we decided to declare our forest as a kingdom and prohibited access. You have to pass through a magical barrier to get inside. Sylvania is the most abundant place for mana. On that note, we are also first place in terms of magical abilities.

The third would be Eliredien, also known as monster kingdom, home to beastkin. Eliredien is a diverse kingdom in terms of... everything. Since literally all monster races live there, the cultures, cuisines, goods, and just everything is completely diverse. All the races are unified by the beast kin king, a muscle-brained lion with a uselessly huge robust and muscular body. Their main strength is... literally strength. Brute force. They can swiftly handle heavy weight weapons like toys, and their swordsmanship is considered the best in average.

Fourth is Alfheim, it's managed by the elves. Alfheim is royalty based, and the people there really respect the rulers. The rulers are descendants from the first ancestor, so they are the most powerful in terms of bloodline. They value their morals and ancestry so much to the point of blind worship. Alfheim is close to Sylvania, so some assume we are comrades since both of us are forest-based kingdoms, but! We are by no means comrades with those over proud people! They excel in archery and wind manipulation, by the way.

Fifth is Vaitral, the dragon's lair. They are a pretty closed community and are usually hostile to others. Their king holds the title 'Naga' and has no relations to royalty blood. If the current Naga dies, they'll just hold a strength competition. In there, strength rules over all. They are overpowered since birth, but as far as I've seen, your current state tramples over the dragon babies like they're trash on the ground. They have this thing called 'dragonblood', something you'll never see outside Vaitral's people. They can transform themselves freely into human form and partially transform back to dragons. They also have the advantage of aerial fighting.

Last and the final one, Elysium, is home to no races. It is a kingdom founded by the 5 ancestors which came from all the previously mentioned races. All race hold equal power in there, and since apparently the previous Sage went ham on the equality system, if you do some stupid shit there you'll automatically be transferred to the barren lands. The Sage is one of the stupidly strong people from your kingdom, by the way.

The vast land outside of these kingdoms' territory is called Intemerata, meaning 'untouchable', but that is just the formal name. We have always been calling it the Plains. No one is allowed to own this land. At the same time, everybody is allowed to use it. No rules, laws, taxes, or any others are applied there. Most of it is just barren lands, but monsters typically appear there, so except for travelling between the countries, people don't cross it in fear of getting attacked.

Any questions?]

Estelle was slowly losing her mechanical mind, but her memory was still strong. She quickly remembered all of the information Heine told her.

[By your story, you seem to hate humans, so why are you helping me?]

[Hmm... I can't say I hate humans as a whole, because even as a fae, I do have human friends. And for your case.. let's just say... I'm here to prevent a future monster from going astray? You're interesting anyways, so I don't really mind.]

Heine was truly speaking the truth, although he left the part about how the Spirit Tree was the one to give information about Estelle.

Although he didn't know what the Spirit Tree's desire was, he truly found her, who was completely unfazed and devoid of emotions upon another life's death interesting.

In addition, the Spirit Tree shouldn't be hostile to the baby if it gave her the blessing.

The spirits' language itself wasn't something meant to be learnt. All of his people could speak it right after being born, it was something ingrained in them.

Not only could she converse in it while still being a human, she could also see him, the spirit king, a feat even some higher spirits could not achieve if he tried to hide himself.

That day, he did not fully hide himself and was just in the light form. He was just scouting and didn't expect to be discovered. Most humans wouldn't be able to see him in the light form, so he had let his guard down. He wondered if he truly hid properly, would Estelle be able to find him?

Heine unconsciously smiled. After moments of silence went by thanks to him drowning in his own thoughts, Estelle called upon him.

[Heine?]

[In short, in conclusion, in everything, you are a very interesting little monster!]

Heine proudly declared a statement that one would not be that grateful about when it was directed to them.