I’m a villain, but I want to live a long life.

Chapter 8  “I’m a villain, but I want to live a long life.”

Someone walked out from behind a bookcase and stared down at me.

“Nu, Nu, who are you?!”

The other person said harshly, staring at the fallen me.

“That’s what I wanted to ask you.”

His tone was dry. Tired eyes peeked through the ash-colored hair that covered his forehead.

He shook his head and muttered, trying to keep a straight face.

“Ah…… no way. Princess Celine?”

“…….”

“……I thought it was Celine.”

I groaned and slowly rose from my seat. My ass hurt from where I’d fallen.

I glanced at the man, dusting off my skirt as he continued to mutter to himself.

“……Celine? Cellophane? Cellulina? Celestina?”

How can I get so close to all of them and never get it right, I said, dumbfounded.

“……Celvia.”

“Ah, yes, Princess Cecilia.”

I let out a short sigh and looked at him.

He slowly lowered the book he was holding to the floor and took a step toward me.

I reflexively took a step back and eyed him warily.

He looked intrigued for some reason, his deep black eyes shining against his impossibly white skin.

Then his lips parted, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned.

“This…… is more than I expected, I wasn’t expecting to run into you in a place like this. We met at the welcome ceremony, didn’t we?”

He spoke in a slow, languid tone that would have made a lesser person’s heart sink.

“Oh, no. You don’t remember? Why, you were laughing your ass off when I gave you the fire show.”

What the hell is he talking about?

I raised my eyes in exasperation, and he shrugged.

“Don’t look at me like that. You’re a princess, and you’re the one who walked into someone else’s bedroom.”

I narrowed my eyes at the absurdity of his comment.

“Hey, this is the library.”

Despite the sharpness of my voice, he didn’t seem surprised.

Instead, he just let out a small chuckle.

“Oh, yeah, it’s a library, but I’m using it as a bedroom, so it’s a bedroom.”

“Is that now…… some kind of nonsense?”

The man’s eyes twinkled in amusement, and he snorted.

“Why wouldn’t it make sense?”

Then his face hardened into a stern expression, and he said eerily.

“I’ve been rotting in here for a week now, thanks to ……your father, who doesn’t know the first thing about employee benefits.”

“Write, rot……?”

“Yep. So what if you come in here with high hopes because you’re a noble knight, but the work intensity is the same as some crappy mercenary group from the provinces?”

I stared at him, my eyes glaring into thin air.

But he soon returned to his languid expression. Then he muttered deeply as if bothered.

“I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Ansen. As you can see, he’s been abused, so you’ll forgive him if he’s a bit grouchy.”

I stared at the pale hand held out in front of me and shrank back.

After a few minutes.

“What do you think is the most important thing about your work, Princess?”

Startled by the question, I leaned against the bookshelf and looked over at Ansen, who had been engrossed in something ever since I’d seen him.

“…… What, it’s not even a job interview”.

But I muttered, pointing to my fingers.

“If it’s important to you, it’s…… work-life balance, right?”

Ansen narrowed his eyes and asked.

“Work…… what?”

I blurted out, then added.

“Oh, it’s like…… work-life balance, where you can work and still have a personal life or something?”

I had never heard of work-life balance in my previous life.

Ansen made an ‘aha’ sound as if he understood.

He nodded slowly, then looked back in my direction and said.

“That sounds perfect.”

“……What is it?”

“Just what I need to tell your father when we escape from here.”

I stared at Ansen blankly.

“This guy seems a little crazy”.

From the way he spoke, I could only assume he worked for my father, but then again, he was dressed differently.

He had bushy gray hair and was dressed in a raggedy robe that looked like…….

“Worms…….”

I quickly clamped my hand over my mouth at the word that involuntarily leaped out.

But Ansen had already stopped flipping through the book and turned to me.

“Did you just say something……?”

“Oh, no.”

I stammered, embarrassed, and grabbed one of the books next to me at random.

But after a few seconds, I snuck my head back up.

I had a question for Ansen that I’d been meaning to ask for a while.

“……Ansen, you’re a manifesto, right?”

He turned and shook his head. I spoke quickly.

“No, why, at the welcome ceremony, you gave me a fire show, and I just remembered, that’s a power, right?”

He paused for a moment, then shrugged impassively.

“I don’t know, psychic is a bit of a fancy word, isn’t it? Everyone else calls it a freak trick or a nasty trick.”

“What?”

“Well, I suppose the word is reserved for nobility, not for a commoner like me……….”

He gave me a self-help smile. Puzzled, I quickly shook my head.

“Eh, that doesn’t make any sense, an ability is an ability, Ansen is a manifesto, and besides, Ansen works with fire!”

I had read that in a book earlier. That there are many manifesters of the elements, but few who can control fire.

That meant Ansen must be something special.

He looked at me with a puzzled expression and nodded reluctantly.

“Formally, yes. And yes, I do control fire.”

I swallowed hard. Somehow, his reaction made sense.

The book had said that psychic powers ran in the “imperial blood.

That meant it was a privilege of the powerful, not easily enjoyed by commoners or the lesser nobility.

But if you’re a noble, you don’t know.

What if a manifesto appeared from among the commoners, who couldn’t possibly have any imperial blood in them?

Of course, the appearance of the imperial family would be ridiculous.

It would prove that they were nothing special.

‘That’s why commoner manifesters don’t seem to be able to call their abilities abilities.

No, not Hong Gil-dong. What is that?

The scrawny man in front of me looked salty for the first time.

As if he noticed my stare, he replied casually.

“I don’t care. It’s not like my powers are that great, but maybe…….”

I looked at him puzzled at his sudden trailing off.

“But what?”

But Ansen shook his head as if that was enough.

“……It’s not a big deal.”

What the hell, why did he stop talking?

“Why, tell me what it is, if it’s not a big deal.”

Ansen looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and sighed.

“Definitely. You do take after your father in the obsessive department.”

“Excuse me?”

I asked, the dreadful man?

I shoot him a raised eyebrow, and he reluctantly responds with a muffled reply.

“It’s nothing, I was just getting something ready, but I lost it a couple of days ago.”

“Lost what?”

He stares at me, and without answering, he raises one hand. He pointed at his palm as if to say, “Take a good look”.

I pulled my head away and stared at his hand, wondering what the hell it was.

In the blink of an eye, a blaze of flame burst forth.

“Argh!”

I quickly pulled back from leaning toward Ansen.

“What the hell, stop! You’re going to set me on fire!”

He looked at my terrified face and folded his open palm. In an instant, the flames died down.

The flames were so intense that the ceiling was slightly charred.

As I stood there stunned, Ansen said gravely.

“This is my skill, my talent, my gift.”

I swallowed the nagging lump in my throat and nodded.

“But the princess’s father wanted something more, something greater.”

“Something greater, like what?”

He slowly raised his hand in the air.

I flinched, expecting another burst of fire, but Ansen slammed his hand to the ground with a muffled “pie-” sound.

After a moment of surprise at the out-of-context behavior, he said.

“You know, fireballs falling, exploding, that sort of thing. Your father’s favorite…….”

“……?”

“The stuff you use to kill people in war.”

My eyes widened. But Ansen didn’t seem to mind.

“So, I thought of something else fun.”

I perked up my ears in disbelief.

“I was wondering if there was some sort of potion that could instantly amplify your powers.”

I said, bouncing up and down in my seat. Ansen looked up at me, puzzled.

“You’re really that impressed with my idea?”

“Come on, finish it.”

“No, it’s nothing fancy, just a rough estimate. I mean, I know how to mix drugs, after all.”

“Of course, that’s how I got here,” he shrugged, adding.

“Anyway, I’ve been mixing things up and came up with something useful…….”

“You mean you succeeded in making it?!”

“……Yes. Well, I succeeded, because I’ve created an amplifier that can, in theory, amplify your abilities in very small amounts…….”

“How much is a small amount?!”

Ansen interrupted, looking at me strangely.

“Well, a drop or two, assuming the concentration is 100% because any more than that would be incredibly dangerous.”

I cursed under my breath.

The drug Ansen had concocted must be the Tears of God I was looking for.