In fact, she was the first one to suggest that the Ministry take me in, despite the amount of trouble I had caused them. Those around her thought of her as different, maybe even a little bizarre. A while after I had been transferred into her department, I decided to ask Larna why she would have taken in a previous Wielder of Darkness like myself.
At the time, her answer was simple — “Because you seem interesting.” The moment I heard that, I could not help but agree with her colleagues — Larna Smith was indeed strange.
After I had worked under her for some time, my assumptions were proven correct, time and time again. Larna was a woman who was faithful to her own interests, first and foremost. She simply had to do everything with her own hands, or she wouldn’t truly feel at peace. For instance, Larna would often take part in infiltration and investigative missions — excursions that were usually handled by staff below her station. If anyone were to try to stop her, she would set off on her own without a sound either way.
To make things even worse, Larna was an undisputed professional in the art of disguise, to the point where one would wonder how what she did was even possible. Because she would often end up looking like someone else altogether, no one would notice if she decided to act on her own. While she did have set appearances that she used for most of her disguises, even I could not keep track of how she really looked — perhaps she was even disguised on a daily basis.
As a result, Larna basically did whatever she pleased, and was quite a difficult person to work for indeed, especially if she were one’s direct superior. While we did have a fair number of complaints to make about Larna as her subordinates, we all did respect her, and I was no exception.
She was reckless in many ways, and would often disappear if you took your eyes off of her for a second. We did a lot of extra work because of her tendencies, but Larna was sure to protect us if anything went wrong. She would always take responsibility for her actions, never blaming her subordinates.
Her knowledge of magecraft was something else as well — along with her sheer ingenuity when it came to inventing magical tools and the like. While we all did complain about Larna Smith, we all respected her in our own ways.
Even so... in a situation such as this one, we were giving it our all, when—
THUD!
I turned my eyes toward the source of the sound — one of my departmental colleagues had fallen, face first, on his table. He most likely lost consciousness from the sheer amount of work we had to go through.
That was to be expected. Even I had been working non-stop these past few days, without a wink of sleep. My superior, Larna, had taken a few of our new staff members out into the field. To give them a good experience, she said... even during such a busy time in the Ministry. This incident stood out for many reasons, of course, earning us the ire of other departments, who did their best to offload as much work onto us as possible.
If Larna had been present, she would have grabbed the proverbial bull by the horns, telling the Ministry that certain tasks simply could not be done. Either that, or she would sit down and simply finish a good half of it on her own. But now, the unfinished work remained stacked like small hills.
Larna’s real reason for going out into the field was to investigate the sudden disappearance of Keith Claes, son of Duke Claes. Needless to say, work had to be done with regard to that, too. As a result, our departmental office had been hell on earth for the last few days.
I had worked with Keith together in the student council when I was attending the academy, and it was likely that Dark Magic had been involved in his disappearance. I was certainly worried, so I wanted to do what I could to be useful. The enemy, however, was quite clever themselves, and I simply could not get my hands on any kind of useful information.
On top of that... there was this ever-growing pile of work before me. I could feel my heart slowly breaking. But I could not give in now — I would not give up now. As Larna had entrusted everything to me for these past few days, I had no choice but to overcome these obstacles.
To begin with, the fact that Larna had left her work and assignments to some unknown individual who had just been with the Ministry for a little over a year was surprising — not only to me, but to a great number of her colleagues. Perhaps that was why I had to ensure that I executed what I was tasked with to the best of my ability.
I felt deeply for my colleague who had collapsed at his desk, of course... but I would soon have to wake him, by force, if necessary. We could not afford to lose even a single person right now.
All right then... Just as I gritted my teeth and honed my resolve, mentally preparing myself to dive into yet another mountain of work... there was a knock on our department’s door. Who could it be, at this busy time...? I felt myself becoming somewhat annoyed.
“Please, do come in,” I said, and a familiar face appeared. It was ex-student council member and my colleague, Nicol Ascart. Behind him was a female staff member — she had guided him here, perhaps. Her face was entirely red from blushing. I could see that my friend’s alluring aura had not changed in the slightest.
At the very least, this wasn’t a visit from some troublesome higher-up from another department, and that was a good thing.
“I was here on business, and thought I would pay you a visit. I see it has become... quite an incident. Are you all right, Raphael?” Nicol’s expression clouded slightly as he gazed upon the horror that was our departmental office.
“Quite an incident indeed, yes. I can feel my heart breaking, actually! And so... while I do thank you for visiting me all the way here, I don’t really have time for guests. Apologies.”
At my words, Nicol withdrew what appeared to be a letter from his pocket. “It would do you well to read this, then. Perhaps it might even mend your almost-broken heart.”
Saying so, Nicol handed the letter to me — and written on it were the words of someone I knew very well. I reflexively took it and skimmed over its contents. Written within were carefree and happy descriptions of a certain journey.
She still did not know that her brother had been kidnapped. I suppose she would feel horrible if she knew... but for now, she was still enjoying her journey away from Sorcié. From her wording and tone, I could almost picture her enjoyment — and as Nicol said, I felt my fractured psyche slowly start to recover.
“Thank you. I do feel a little better than before.”
“I see,” Nicol said, smiling faintly as he retrieved the letter. I could see the female staff member behind him swooning.
Immediately after, a female staff member in my department, who had up until moments ago been deeply engrossed in her work, happened to see Nicol’s smile. It was as if she had lost all remnants of her free will. Soon, she was like the woman at the door.
This was bad... yet another one of my colleagues had fallen. What a disaster...! Now that it had come to this, I would have him take responsibility for his actions. “Nicol. Do you have any appointments for the rest of the day?”
“Hmm. Not quite, at least until the late afternoon today...”
“Well then, I suppose I’ll have you take responsibility for what you did, yes? Quickly now, help me with these tasks! But make sure you don’t show anyone that alluring smile of yours!”
“Responsibility...? Alluring smile...?” Nicol seemed confused. Even so, he quickly agreed to help me, perhaps spurred on by my desperate expression.
As expected of Nicol — although he only assisted me for a few hours, quite a lot of work was done. Perhaps I should ask him for help again next time... if I did that, though, I might as well write off the female staff members in my department for that entire duration. A conundrum, indeed...
★★★★
“What are you doing, Katarina?” Jeord asked.
I showed what I was holding in my hands to him. “I thought I’d send a letter.”
“A letter, hm?”
“Yes, to tell everyone back at the academy how our trip is going!”
“But Katarina, we are only two days into our journey. In fact, there has not been much in the way of progress, no?” Jeord seemed exasperated.
I felt somewhat embarrassed. He was right, but... “But... but... This is my first trip! I’ve always wanted to write letters back home while on a trip, you know?” I said, sulking slightly as I did so.
Jeord smiled, though he looked somewhat troubled. “Hmm. I suppose they will really be suffering now, yes. Perhaps a letter would do them some good.”
“?”
“Well then, Katarina. I will accompany you — should we have this letter sent?”
“Yes, let’s.”
And so Jeord and I set off to post the letter back to the academy. On the way there we stopped by a sweets shop, where everything looked delicious! I ended up sharing half of a sweet with Jeord. It was incredibly tasty. I thought I would describe this snack in my letter, too, and how we shared it together.
“It would be best for you to exclude anything of the sort, Katarina,” Jeord said, stopping me before I could write down any of it.
I didn’t know what that was all about. Jeord just immediately offered to buy me another treat though, so I soon forgot about it.
After we were done eating, we arrived at the post office, and the letter was soon safely on its way.
Afterword
Hello, everyone. This is Yamaguchi Satoru.
It is now the fourth volume of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! I had never imagined that I would end up publishing the fourth volume.
This is all thanks to everyone’s support. Thank you very much.
This volume is about a new problem that the protagonist, Katarina, faces as she moves close to graduation. Her brother Keith runs away from home. Katarina, who assumes that she is responsible for this, ends up gathering the strongest party and leaving on a journey. This volume also features the debut of a cute (?) mascot. I would be very happy if you enjoy reading it.
I would also like to once again thank Hidakanami-sama, who provided the illustrations for this volume, and all the previous volumes. The omake manga was wonderful as well. Thank you very much.
Lastly, I would like to thank the editorial department and publishing staff, as well as any and all who have lent me their kind assistance during the publishing process. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Everyone, thank you very much.
Yamaguchi Satoru
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Copyright
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 4
by Satoru Yamaguchi
Translated by Shirley Yeung
Edited by Aimee Zink
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 Satoru Yamaguchi
Illustrations by Nami Hidaka
All rights reserved.
First published in Japan in 2016 by Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.
Publication rights for this English edition arranged through Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: July 2019
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Volume 4 Page 18
