The Guidebook for Villainesses

‘I need to capture this moment with a drawing!’

Acerus squeezed his overwhelmingly large chest with one hand and wondered how to preserve the scene that was unfolding before him for a long time.

Even if he were to ask a talented painter to draw, he was not confident in explaining it well. No matter how outstanding the painters were, it was unlikely that they could properly draw the scene in his eyes. If so, he should somehow engrave the scene in his head without even missing any trivial thing. He thought he might be able to memorize everything if he kept staring over and over again.

Acerus stuck closer to the door gap. In the process, he even pushed Konny who was standing next to him.

“Good for them.”

A powerless murmur leaked from Acerus.

“Why is my dad the Emperor?”

Yeah, why are you the Crown Prince?

The Crown Prince casually said something that could easily make the Emperor get high blood pressure and collapse. Seeing him, Konny was worried about the future of the Empire for the first time.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

After a long conversation with Paimon, Lara judged that hell was not far away.

In her life before she died, or until Valac ascended to Prince Sidhar’s body, for Lara, hell was just a very far and difficult place. It was the deep abyss or the end of the demon’s realm that humans could not dare to step into. She believed that was the reason why even a weak demon like Valac could not bring his body and had to borrow Prince Sidhar’s body, and why a powerful demon like Paimon would need so much sacrifice, karma, and time to ascend.

But it was not like that.

“It depends on what the offering is. It seems that those who followed Valac thought they could just offer any humans or beasts… But every demon in hell has a specific sacrifice that suits them.”

In Paimon’s words, ascension could only be achieved by offering a sacrifice that was related to the demon.

“That was the reason why my followers offered the elemental sorcerers that had long since disappeared.”

Most of Paimon’s power attributes were focused on magic. He was able to ascend on this land at the expense of the rare elemental sorcerers.

“Even so, the human’s realm is different from hell, it’s still a place where the influence of the Gods works much stronger. So after coming here, I could not use all my strength.”

He was frustrated, like a warrior fighting with one hand tied. Paimon grumbled, saying that he would not have easily lost to Demian if he could use all of his strength as he could in hell.

Demian did not respond to his words and only gave a faint smirk. He did not think it was worth it to talk back.

Lara was lost in thought. Up until she received Paimon's oath of obedience, Lara had just thought that Valac being her servant was a unique case, something akin to luck overlapping with coincidence. But just like with Valac, even Paimon considered himself as her servant. A possibility arose in her mind.

A demon ate another demon to become stronger. The throne of the demon lord would be taken by the strongest of them. Demian was said to be fated to be the demon lord. However, Demian did not eat the demon he had captured, but wrapped it beautifully and gave it to Lara as a gift.

Abraxas’ first name that Lara found out was the ‘God of Fate.’ In addition, he said he had a past in which he was called a ‘God’ and at the same time was called a ‘Demon.’

Lara’s eyes sank darkly. Her scarlet eyes, which were dim like a sunset, were very red for a moment. Her long eyelashes fell down like combs. Even though she was just lost in thought, she had the illusion that the air around her was getting heavier.

Paimon, who was prostrating before Lara, slightly lifted his head. Then, he courageously opened his mouth.

“Saintess.”

Lara’s eyes that were looking very far away were fixed to Paimon again. He looked at Demian and Valac once before asking Lara.

“Why do you collect demons? Is this…all God’s will?”

“No way.”

“Pardon?”

“God doesn’t force me to do anything. I receive gifts from him, but I’m not giving him anything.”

“Is that true?”

“He’s much more generous than you think.”

“No way…”

Paimon muttered that it could not be. The Gods he knew were just boring beings living as slaves to the laws they established without even an ounce of flexibility.

They were arrogant things that would take out a sword first if their pride was touched, they would rather die than to bow down.

What in the world is this saintess’ identity that she is favored by God even though she has demons as her servants?

Paimon was sincerely curious.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Last night, a natural disaster occurred on the outskirts of Dandelion. The wide roads and plains were dug up horribly and black smoke continued to leak out of the overturned ground. The quiet land, which was nothing more than a wasteland, was cracked open, exposing the underground.

A lot of people thought it was an earthquake. Last night, a great earthquake occurred outside Dandelion, turning the ground upside down. Even those in the city felt the vibration, so it was only natural that the vast plains were destroyed.

However, some people questioned that opinion. Why did the earthquake only happen there? This was more like divine punishment. The grounds of about one village were overturned and black smoke rose from the cracks day after day. The villagers wanted to look inside the cracks but they did not even dare try because of the smoke and heat.

The incident soon reached the Emperor, he said it was all the trick of the black sorcerer sent by the Eastern Union.

Following the theater fire, a disaster happened on the outskirts of the capital. From the nobles of the Tarragon Empire to the powerless people, the hearts of everyone living in Dandelion was boiling with anger.

The people rallied together and raised their voices, saying the Eastern Union should be punished.

How dare they challenge the stronghold of the Empire?

The hostile nobles took out their armor and weapons and the knights in the Imperial Palace called for war with one united voice.

It was at that time when the saintess appeared.

Saintess Lara, who appeared with Crown Prince Acerus’ escort, stood there for a while, staring at the horribly dug-up plains.

Her wide robe and long hair fluttered in the wind. Though her expression was invisible from afar, people believed that she was very sad. Not long ago, she nearly died at the hands of the black sorcerers. The saintess rarely showed her face in public, so considering her public personality, the people thought that she came out because she could not stand what the black sorcerers had done.

Of course, not everyone thought so. There were bound to be people in the world who watched any scene differently because their minds and eyes were twisted.

“Why does the saintess only stay still every day? God gives her miracles. She knows how bad the black sorcerers are, why is she just sitting still like a doll?”

“I heard the saintesses long ago healed the sick with prayer and made miracles in places where disasters occurred.”

They enjoyed it when their twisted gaze got attention. And even if there was one sympathizer, they moved to incite the remaining majority.

“Has anyone ever seen…the miracle that the saintess has caused?”

“The Emperor must have seen it, with the nobles.”

“Hey, stop it. The saintess kicked out the wicked priests and allowed the priests to use the power of God again.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Do you know how much the Emperor wanted to put away the Temple of Glory? If I were the Emperor, I would have made a saintess and told her to change the temple first.”

“What if someone hears you?”

“The Emperor has sorcerers, I’m sure. Even the countrymen from the Eastern Union live with black sorcerers. Does it really make sense for the Emperor to not have one? Reflecting a halo on someone is just a piece of cake for him.”

“What? So it’s not a miracle?”

“This is why you shouldn't be ignorant. You have to doubt everything that the higher-ups say and listen to them upside down.”

There were only a few people who said, but despite that, it did not mean they did not have anyone to take their side.

The number of priests excommunicated by Lara in Dandelion alone reached the thousands. The priests still could not believe that the wealth and fame they had never doubted to be theirs were thrown into the trash at the words of a young girl who claimed to be a saintess. They argued that there was no God in this land, that the saintess was an illusion created by the Emperor, and that it might not be only the Eastern Union that joined hands with the black sorcerers.

“Have you heard of that rumor?”

“What rumor?”

“In Hautean, the saintess…”

The excommunicated believers thought they had to bring the saintess down to regain their original positions. When the negative rumors about the saintess came out just in time, they thought this was the right time and began to add words. The whispering was just like the sounds of rats in the gutter.

Even though she knew, Lara stood with a calm face. Sometimes she even heard the word ‘reprobate daughter’ or ‘lewd woman’ but she just squeezed her lips and flashed a short smile. On the contrary, Acerus, who was standing next to her, was restless and wiped out his cold sweat.”

“It’s okay, Crown Prince Acerus.”

“Saintess, those…”

“Don’t worry about it. Even if I dance with God here, they will still keep whispering about things like that.”

“But I’m angry.”

“They have to make others dirtier than themselves to hide their own dirtiness. Even if they know it wasn’t the case at first… Later on, they really will believe it. People with bad feelings really believe in their lies. What’s really bad is those who use those people.”

“Are there really people like that?”

“There are a lot.”

Following blindly could also become a blind hatred. Lara recalled the faces of the spectators who shouted loudly to offer her as a sacrifice to the demon in her life before her death. They were all the people who cared for, loved, and believed in Lara, the fake saintess.

“It’s really not that difficult to ask to restore this ruin to its original state. God will find it strange but he will not turn down my request.”

“Yes.”

“But I don’t want to waste Demian’s hard-earned karma on this.”

Lara said firmly.