I'm in Love with the Villainess!

"Y’know what? You’re totally right."

I slipped my hands into my pockets and took in the place. It hadn’t been hard to find a picture I could use to teleport here; the grounds were popular, after all. When they weren’t being used for training, other nobles even paid the Crestwoods just for the chance to tour them.

And honestly?

It was fairly underwhelming.

The D’Arclight Gardens looked far better, but to each their own.

"Anyway, the two of you are coming with me."

"Eh...? What do you mean...?" Vivianne asked.

"Training. But this time, all three of us are going to train together."

Kevin didn’t look any different when I made my announcement. He remained completely blank and neutral, arms crossed, still covered in sweat from training with Vivianne.

"Sure, that works for me."

"E-Eh? You don’t even know where he’s taking us! Also, you can’t just bring that up after saying the church is killing millions of people!"

"You don’t want to save millions of people...?" I said, feigning shock and doing my best to look as punchable as ever as I dramatically slumped against the dummy. "And here I thought you were better than that..."

"When did you get so animated...?"

"I don’t know either. I guess it’s because you’re too easy to mess with."

Vivianne’s eye twitched. "I hate you."

"No, you don’t."

"I really, really do."

"You literally just said Cael rubbed off on you. That’s basically a confession."

Her face went red again—a deep, burning crimson that spread from her cheeks to her ears, but more from actual annoyance than anything romantic. She sputtered something incoherent, grabbed the nearest training dummy, and hurled it at my head with enough wind magic behind it to shatter stone.

[Dark Manipulation]

I caught it with a shadow tendril an inch from my face, set it down gently, and patted it like a pet.

"This thing’s tough."

Kevin sighed. "Can we please focus?"

"Right, right." I straightened up, dropping the act. "Here’s the situation. Marcellus is pulling together everyone he can trust. That means me, Evelina, Julius, Lillian... and you two."

"Everyone?" Vivianne’s anger faded into something more focused. "That’s a lot of heavy hitters."

"Because we’re going up against something that needs a lot of heavy hitters. The church isn’t messing around. Three weeks until they try to purge the continent."

Kevin’s jaw tightened. "Where are we training?"

[Photographic Memory] 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

I scanned the novel for good training spots. It had been a while since I’d used my knowledge of future events to my advantage, so this was as good a time as any to make use of it again.

Let’s see...

Something good for Evelina and these two... as for the two brothers and Lillian, they could handle themselves. They didn’t need me babysitting them—God knew they hardly needed it with their talent.

I think I got it...

Somewhere that’s like the Emperor’s Tomb, but with far more trials—and far more treasure that all of us could use.

Normally, it was something I would have raided earlier, but the sheer number of trials was too much for me to handle alone. Besides... I hadn’t had all the required elements before.

Now? That wasn’t a problem anymore.

"Xenian Library."

I said, trying to sound as ominous as possible to make sure they were excited. But...

Absolutely no reaction from either of them.

"Where’s that?" the two of them asked.

Huh, so it wasn’t as popular as I thought. Guess they’ll figure it out on the way.

"Better if I show you."

[Darkfire Step]

Fire erupted beneath my feet, spiraling outward in a blazing ring around us. The flames climbed higher and higher, until they towered like a building, closing in as if to swallow us whole. Normally, casting something like this would have knocked me unconscious.

[Command Hydra]

Good thing my brain wasn’t the one doing the work.

"M-My Lady! What’s going on?!"

"Fire!"

Servants shouted from beyond the flaming barrier, but then again... Marcellus himself had said he’d handle it, which meant I had the perfect excuse.

"Imperial orders. Talk to the imperial prince if you want an explanation."

"Are you taking us there now?"

Vivianne asked, both wary and awestruck by the massive teleportation spell.

"Obviously."

SNAP!

The flames swallowed the three of us, tearing us away from the gardens in an instant, while the servants could only stare in shock as their lord’s daughter seemingly got kidnapped.

"Did he just say imperial orders...?"

***

"I can’t believe him, teleporting me in someplace like this..."

Evelina sat on the edge of a large fountain in the center of a vast gilded library, light streaming through the painted windows and making everything look like some surreal dream. She hadn’t even had the chance to catch up before I convinced her to let herself be teleported somewhere.

"What did he mean when he said he still wasn’t sure this was the actual place we’d be training?"

She crossed her arms and stood, scanning the books around her. As expected of a strange library like this, absolutely nothing was understandable.

[Darkfire Step]

"Did you wait long?"

I emerged with Vivianne and Kevin slung over my shoulder. Looks like neither of them could handle being teleported thousands of kilometers away in a circle of flames without passing out.

Even if they weren’t the ones casting the spell, I hadn’t expected them to be affected this badly.

Looks like teleportation even affected normal passengers if the distance was far enough.

THUD!

I dropped the two of them onto the marbled floor, dusting my hands off as I looked around the library again. I’d read about this place before, but seeing it in person really was beautiful.

"Good news. Looks like we won’t need to relocate."

"Why weren’t you sure in the first place?"

"I wasn’t sure if Vivianne would be available. Good thing, when I teleported to their gardens, I happened to find the two of them training."

"Y’know... I’m still surprised you managed to get that much information out of a High Inquisitor, especially since the one I interrogated didn’t have nearly as much useful info. You really do have a talent for attracting trouble, huh?"