Raising Villains the Right Way

“It wouldn’t be such a bad condition for you either, Marquis.”

“……Hmm.”

At Torimavia’s proposal, Alon suddenly thought of the princess.

‘I think it was… Serena Raksasia?’

Serena Raksasia, the daughter of Queen Torimavia Raksasia of Raksas.

Alon knew a fair bit about her.

In fact, it was impossible not to.

During Psychedelia gameplay, Serena was a major NPC who gave multiple quests to players visiting the Raksas region.

On top of that, her illustrations and in-game model were quite beautiful, so she was always listed in the player-voted “Top 20 Most Beautiful Characters in Psychedelia.”

Of course, she was ranked outside the top 15.

In any case, because of that, Alon also knew Serena fairly well.

Including the fact that her personality was surprisingly rambunctious for a princess.

Of course, it wasn’t the unattractive kind—more like a slightly gap-moe sort of rambunctiousness.

“Thank you for the proposal, but I’ll need some time to think about it.”

Having thought that far, Alon gave Torimavia that answer.

On the surface, it sounded like he was asking for time to consider.

However, everyone gathered there knew.

That Alon was politely expressing his refusal.

‘At least for now, I have no such intentions.’

Alon himself wasn’t unaware.

The moment one ascended the throne, taking a consort was indeed a path to stabilizing the kingdom.

Even so, he felt no particular desire to marry Princess Serena.

More importantly, the kingdom Alon was about to build didn’t require a political marriage, at least not for initial stability.

After all, it was when nobles began fighting over the queen’s seat that a nation became noisy.

And to begin with, Alon’s country had no nobles who owned territories.

No—strictly speaking, it was impossible for such nobles to exist.

The only lands were the marquisate’s territory and the distant Divine Land.

So how could there be nobles in the first place?

And above all, Alon didn’t particularly want a political marriage.

Some might say that for someone who had lived in this world for over ten years, he was unusually pure for his age.

But Alon’s thinking had always been the same.

If he were to meet a companion, he wanted it to be as natural as possible.

“I see.”

At Alon’s gentle refusal, Torimavia nodded as calmly as she could.

Then she made an additional request.

“Then, if it’s not too much trouble, would you be willing to meet my daughter just once?”

“Princess Serena?”

“Yes. She came here with me this time.”

Seeing Torimavia smile, Alon hesitated.

If he were being honest, he wanted to refuse.

But refusing yet another request from a monarch who had personally attended the proclamation ceremony felt awkward.

Of course, this wasn’t actually a situation where Alon needed to mind such things.

Still, after a brief moment of consideration—

“All right.”

Alon accepted.

“Thank you for your consideration, Marquis.”

A small smile slipped onto Torimavia’s lips.

Afterward, the two monarchs returned to the accommodations Alon had prepared in advance.

“You’ve worked hard, Marquis.”

After confirming that the distinguished guests had departed into the distance, Evan spoke.

“I never thought a king would come in person…….”

“I was surprised too. To think they’d personally attend at a time like this……”

As Alon rubbed at his eyes in fatigue, Penia chimed in.

Normally, kings did not attend such proclamation ceremonies.

Even if one were to make every possible concession—

Even if they were extremely close and a king decided to attend just this once—

At the current time, it was dangerous for those two monarchs to move around at all.

The divine-blood could appear anywhere, anytime, and devastate a nation.

“Well, aren’t they just trying to get on your good side early, Marquis?”

“Going that far just to curry favor?”

“Didn’t you hear? It’s already spread everywhere that Caliban was saved from the divine-blood because of your statue. Considering that, their behavior isn’t that hard to understand.”

“……Is that so?”

“You didn’t hear about that?”

“Hm?”

“I heard from Sili that all kinds of important figures from different kingdoms are practically living in the Divine Land right now, begging to receive a statue of you.”

“They want my statue?”

“Yes.”

“That thing……?”

“Yeah……?”

At Evan’s final confirmation, Alon covered his face with his hand.

He felt a little embarrassed.

‘……Why did it have to be that pose.’

If only the pose had been normal, he wouldn’t have felt quite this embarrassed.

But no matter how many times he looked at it, he couldn’t get used to the pose of that statue Deus had gifted him.

‘If I get the chance someday, maybe I should change the statue’s pose.’

As he was thinking that—

“Ah, Marquis.”

“What is it?”

“I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier, but gifts have arrived from Asteria as well, along with representatives from House Zenonia and House Altia.”

“Is that so? I should go meet them right away.”

“And there was also a personal letter addressed to you, Marquis.”

“A letter?”

“Yes.”

Evan nodded and handed Alon the letter.

Taking it with a puzzled expression, Alon said,

“This is……”

“It’s from the Queen.”

Realizing it was a letter from the Queen of Asteria, Siyan, Alon unfolded the paper without hesitation and read it.

It didn’t take long to read.

In fact, it didn’t even take three seconds.

There was only a single sentence written on the unfolded page.

‘Come find me after the proclamation ceremony. You must be curious too.’

Alon fell silent for a moment.

Just as she expected, Alon had many questions for Siyan as well.

‘I should go see her as soon as it’s over.’

After that, Alon stood up to meet Count Zenonia and Duke Altia, who had come to see him.

Right after Alon left the room—

“Jealous?”

Evan spoke to Penia, who had been standing silently.

“Huh? All of a sudden?”

Penia made a face as if asking what nonsense he was talking about.

But Evan wore a knowing expression, as though he’d already seen through her.

“You know—Princess Serena is your friend, isn’t she?”

“Well, yes, that’s true.”

“Then you must be jealous. It’s basically the same as her going on a blind date with the Marquis.”

At Evan’s words, Penia let out a long sigh.

“You didn’t seriously say that because you thought I’d actually be jealous, did you?”

“Weren’t you?”

“I wasn’t.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Why?”

At the quick follow-up question, Penia answered as if it were obvious.

“Because the Marquis has no intention whatsoever. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“Hm…….”

At Penia’s perfectly reasonable point, Evan cleared his throat, but still didn’t stop teasing her.

“Aren’t you underestimating her because she’s your friend? She’s still a princess, you know.”

“So you think the Marquis would be interested just because she’s a princess?”

“Wouldn’t he?”

But Penia let out a short, cold laugh, as if amused.

“In my opinion, Serena probably won’t even go meet the Marquis.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I don’t know. I just have a feeling.”

After briefly picturing someone’s face who would soon be at the marquisate, she left those words behind and followed after Alon.

“Why?”

Only Evan remained behind, staring at her back with a baffled expression.

***

Serena Raksasia, Princess of Raksas.

Having come to the marquisate at the urging of her mother, Torimavia Raksasia, she was experiencing something strange late at night.

In truth, it wasn’t particularly strange.

She was simply—

“Good evening, Princess.”

“……Ah, um…… yes.”

—talking with someone who had invited her.

Serena Raksasia looked to one side.

There sat Yutia Bloodia, the Cardinal of Rosario whom she knew all too well, smiling gently.

On the other side sat Rine Groff, a high-ranking councilor of Lartania.

To be honest, Serena didn’t really want to be with either of them.

Because she already knew.

That in Lartania, councilors who opposed Rine Groff had been disappearing one by one over the course of several months.

As for Yutia Bloodia, it went without saying.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Rosario was practically ruled by her.

In other words, anyone who defied her ended up completely finished.

So why was Serena Raksasia sitting here?

Normally, it would’ve been natural for her not to know.

Serena had no connection whatsoever with either Yutia Bloodia or Rine Groff.

But unfortunately.

Right now, Serena could easily guess why she’d been brought here to meet these two alone.

‘Marquis Palatio.’

It was because of that man.

The two women before her were extremely close to Marquis Palatio, and Serena Raksasia had just had marriage talks involving him.

So while she briefly racked her brain, staring at the two women who were clearly smiling yet giving off a strange killing intent, as if they might drown someone at any moment—

‘……Huh?’

Serena suddenly realized something.

“Could it be that… I might be able to get through this without marrying him?”

In truth, Serena Raksasia didn’t particularly want to marry Marquis Palatio.

To her, he didn’t seem very attractive.

No—going beyond that, he was closer to the realm of outright dislike.

Even so, the reason she had followed the queen here was—because she was well aware that she couldn’t choose her own marriage in the first place.

But if she could use these two well to persuade her mother, or make the marriage talks disappear altogether?

For Serena, it would be an unparalleled opportunity.

Of course, she knew this marriage was extremely important to the kingdom.

But she didn’t feel all that guilty about it.

In Raksas, unlike herself, there was a second princess who liked the Marquis but hadn’t been considered because she wasn’t the best card.

Wouldn’t it be more fitting for that sister—who actually liked the Marquis—to be here instead of her?

—Having finished that peculiar self-justification, Serena opened her mouth.

“May I ask… the reason the two of you called me here is because of the marriage talks with Marquis Palatio, correct?”

At her cautious question, Yutia smiled.

“Oh my, not at all. We simply wanted to have a conversation with you, Princess.”

“……A conversation?”

“Yes. As you know, My Lord—no, the Marquis—and we have known each other for a very long time. We’re quite close, you see? Because of that, we were a bit worried. Worried that someone might be approaching the Marquis with ulterior motives…… something like that.”

To the point of basically kidnapping me in the middle of the night? she thought.

But Serena didn’t voice it aloud.

“Oh, of course, if you truly love the Marquis, we have no intention of stopping you. The choice belongs to the Marquis, after all.”

“……Is that so?”

“But there could be intentions other than love behind meeting the Marquis—”

That’s basically saying it’s not allowed, she thought.

But once again, Serena kept it to herself.

“For starters, I’ll be honest. I actually have no intention of pursuing marriage with the Marquis.”

“……?”

She brought up the main point first.

“But aren’t the marriage talks supposed to proceed?”

“That’s true, but…… as you know, that’s something my mother pushed through on her own. I have no feelings about it.”

“No feelings……?”

“I mean exactly that. I don’t have any desire to marry the Marquis.”

A moment of silence fell.

Yutia looked at the princess with an expressionless face.

Serena tensed without realizing it.

Yutia’s gaze seemed ordinary, yet somehow terrifying.

But only for a moment.

“Mm—so it’s true, then?”

At Yutia’s words, Serena let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

“That’s right.”

“Then the marriage talks—”

“As I said, my mother is the one who pushed them unilaterally. Even if I do meet the Marquis, there’s no chance it’ll develop into that kind of relationship.”

If possible, it’d be best if it ended without me meeting him at all, so I don’t have to hear my mother nag about it, Serena muttered softly.

“Mm-hm—then I suppose there was no helping it.”

“We’ll help you with that part.”

The heavy atmosphere from earlier vanished as if it had been a lie.

“Mm—Princess, you seem quite thoughtful.”

“You really do.”

Seeing them now offering light praise instead of suspicion, Serena felt slightly dazed.

“Thank you for saying so.”

She replied with an awkward smile.

“But, if you have no intention of marrying the Marquis, may I ask why?”

At the naturally flowing question, she hesitated.

After thinking for a moment, Serena answered,

“To be honest, he’s just not my type.”

Noticing that there was still suspicion lingering in Yutia Bloodia’s eyes, Serena decided she needed to cut it off completely and began speaking candidly.

“Oh my, is that so?”

Yutia and Rine looked at her with curious expressions.

Serena continued.

“Yes. Honestly, other people say the Marquis is handsome, but to me, he looks a bit gloomy. I prefer handsome types, you see……”

“Mmm~”

“And since he always has such a blank expression and never shows his emotions, I can’t tell what he’s thinking. I don’t like that either.”

“Mmm.”

The two nodded at Serena’s words.

Feeling their suspicion fade, Serena added more.

“And honestly, the statue the Marquis sent…… no matter how many times I look at it, it just convinces me that his tastes and mine don’t match at all.”

“……Hmm.”

“To my eyes, it doesn’t really look cool.”

Seeing the two simply listening, Serena grew more animated.

She’d always found the Marquis strange and unappealing, but since everyone everywhere praised him, she’d had nowhere to vent.

However, there was one thing she overlooked in her excitement.

“And honestly, the titles attached to the Marquis…… I find them a bit embarrassing. He’s human, but people call him a god and all that—it’s ridiculous, isn’t it? I don’t think there’d ever be a romantic atmosphere either.”

At some point—

the eyes of Yutia and Rine, who had been responding with interest, turned cold.

“If I’m being even more honest, I think he’s kind of a turn-off—”

“……Huh?”

“Ah…… I mean, that is—”

She only realized it—when she had finished insulting the Marquis completely.

Her pupils, which had been lively just moments ago, began to tremble violently.