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

Chapter 9 ” I’m a villain, but I want to live a long life.”

“So I made a batch of just one bottle. I thought I’d give it a try when I had a chance, but…….”

He sighs heavily and looked around at his messy surroundings.

“I woke up and realized it wasn’t there.”

“Oh…….”

“Well, it must have rolled somewhere, like under the bookshelf.”

After Ansen finished speaking, he went back to rummaging through the stack of books beside him, then glanced back in my direction.

“Come to think of it, Princess, you seem to be free right now.”

“…….”

“Well, perhaps we could look it up together, I’ve been doing this for days and now I’m having potions in my dreams.”

I stared at him with an incredulous expression.

How dare he pamper his master’s daughter?

But he added nonchalantly.

“Of course, if I find it, I’ll let you taste it. I’m sure it will have a tremendous effect on your abilities…….”

Ansen was dumb founded.

“……Ah. Princess Cecilia wasn’t a manifesto, was she? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upstage you, I just got confused with your fearsome father for a moment.”

“It’s Selenea, not Cecilia.”

“Oh, don’t worry about getting it mixed up with the other options, I’ve got a giant label that says ‘Death if you eat all of this’ just in case. I’m sure you’ll find it if you look in there…….”

He glanced behind me. Then he started looking under the other bookshelves himself.

I barely stifled a sigh and shook my head.

“What’s the point of looking like that, it’s not going to come out anyway.”

It was probably because someone had already stolen Ansen’s pills from the library a few days ago and given them to Selenea.

“I wonder who it was.

Whoever had gotten the pills into Selenea’s hands to get her to do what she did.

Humming to myself, I finally turned to Ansen, who was covered in dust and sniffling.

“Look, Ansen. Why don’t you just give up?”

He turned his head and looked at me. His face was suddenly puzzled.

“I have a pretty good sense of touch, but I have a strong feeling that I’m not going to find that drug.”

“Because it’s already in my stomach…….’

No, it hasn’t. It should be digested by now. But then something flashed in my mind.

“Wait a minute. Didn’t Ansen know why I drank the Tears of God and collapsed?

I scrambled to my feet and rushed over to him, and he jumped to his feet, startled.

“Ansen, I suddenly have a question!”

“……Okay, let’s talk in private, you don’t seem to realize that your expression is quite frightening right now.”

“Seriously, what happens if a non-Manifestor drinks the potion?”

“……then nothing would happen, because, as I’m sure you’re aware, Manifestors have magic in their bodies that specialize in manifestation, right?”

I wasn’t sure, but I nodded for now.

“The potion I made reacts to that exact magic, so for unmanifested people without magic, it’s just what…… dirty expensive water?”

“That’s right, isn’t it?!”

“Yeah, what……. right?”

Ansen looked at me incredulously. I pondered for a moment, then asked with a twinkle in my eye.

“So, what if a non-Manifester drank the potion and collapsed?”

Ansen frowned.

“Since you said earlier…… what the hell are you talking about?”

“No, I’m saying, let’s say, hypothetically, that a non-Manifestor drank it and collapsed, and then woke up two or three hours later, just fine! Why is that?”

Ansen stared at me with round eyes for a long moment, then reluctantly asked.

“……How much did you drink?”

“All of it in a bottle this big, assuming the concentration is 100%!”

I held up my index finger, roughly sizing up the vial. Ansen’s eyes narrowed.

After a moment’s consideration, he finally answered.

“Well, it’s not human, unless it’s a mutant or something.”

I fell silent, at a loss for words.

“……Mutant? What makes you think it’s not human?”

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? A normal person would be fine no matter how much of that drug they drank because they don’t have the magic in their body to react with it in the first place.”

I nodded slowly.

“But he wasn’t fine, you said he collapsed after drinking the drug.”

He tapped his index finger against his head as if to say, “Think about it”.

“Wouldn’t that mean that there was at least some magic coursing through his body that reacted with the drug?”

That made sense, but something didn’t feel right. It didn’t make sense.

As Ansen had said, a person with magic in their body was a manifester, someone who can use it.

But Selenea, I was not a manifestor.

Of course, I didn’t have the power to use it, and yet I drank the tears of the gods and collapsed.

“No way…….”

I muttered, my voice trembling slightly.

“You’re a manifesto……?”

I stare at Ansen with the slightest hint of anticipation in my eyes, and he scratches his head, making a “mmm…….” sound.

“That’s a bit of a stretch.”

“Why?”

“Because if he was a real manifesto, he’d have been there before he’d finished that many bottles of pills, not just passing out and waking up for a while.”

“…….”

“I told you, it’s dangerous if you drink more than the right amount. He’ll probably spit up blood and die from the power surging through his body.”

I shut my mouth, imagining the horrific scene. Ansen continued to mutter.

“That’s why it was weird. It’s not a normal person, it’s not a manifesto, it’s… what wass it? It has to be a mutation.”

“…….”

“……Wait. Maybe it’s possible if you’re a demon or a monster or something because they have a different flow of magic…….”

I looked at Ansen with a frown, but his expression was somewhat amused.

“Well, that’s quite an interesting theory the more I hear it. At first, I thought it was absurd, but it wouldn’t hurt to research it.”

He whirled around and picked up a few books from among the stacks on the floor, then spoke, his face much more animated than it had been a moment ago.

“You have a quicker mind than I thought, Princess, making such interesting assumptions in the space of a few moments. I must admit, I’m a little surprised.”

I snorted wordlessly. But he was still smirking.

“I’ve been a little behind on my research lately because I lost that damn vial.”

I backed away, feeling like I somehow knew what was coming next. It was like…….

“Sounds like when a deputy takes over your work.”

I shook my head desperately, not even listening to the end of his sentence. But he was already one step closer to me.

“So, speaking of which…….”

I was about to said something when he grinned evilly.

The library door swung open.

“Miss, you’ve been waiting a long time, haven’t you?”

Anna stood in the doorway with a silver tray of cakes and sorbets.

* * *

“……Well, I was, and then you popped in from behind without warning! I mean, eating and sleeping in the study?”

Anna let out a small laugh at the incredulity in my voice.

“Well, the library is always empty, so maybe they didn’t expect you to come?”

Nodding reluctantly at Anna’s answer, I put down my fork and asked.

“I suppose so……. But I don’t suppose many people use the library?”

“I suppose not, the master always uses his private study. ……Ah, I’ve seen out-of-town guests use it occasionally.”

“I see.”

I shook my head nonchalantly and popped the last bite of cake into my mouth.

Suddenly, Ansen’s scowl flashed across my face again.

“……I’m a mutant?”

My conversation with him had been deeply disturbing.

“No matter how you look at it, you’re not a demon, you’re a mutant…….”

I burst out laughing.

Sucking on my refreshing orange-flavored sorbet, I muttered to myself.

“That’s so fucking awesome.”

Anna looked up from her cleaning and back in my direction.

“So, what happened with Lord Ansen in the library?”

“Lord Ansen?”

“Oh, he’s not fighting on the front lines, but he’s still a member of the Order, and my lord has bestowed upon him the title of knight.”

“You mean, that insubstantial human is a knight?”

Anna smirked, “That’s not exactly the image of Lord Ansen, is it?

I shoved the cake back into my mouth without another word.

The slice was now almost gone. Anna chattered.

“He’s a bit of an oddity,” she said, “He didn’t come from a noble family, but he was very talented.”

I nodded, remembering Ansen’s enormous pillar of fire from his hand.

“Yeah. He seems to have some pretty incredible abilities, doesn’t he?”

Anna’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, come to think of it, he does have psychic powers. I was referring to his expertise in pharmacy.”

That’s right. Ansen can made and mix drugs. I asked.

“Is Ansen famous for making drugs?”

“Well, technically, he became famous after he came here.”

I put down my fork, my curiosity piqued. Anna smiled as if she thought I was cute, then continued.

“Lord Ansen is someone my master brought back from a visit to a conflict zone a few years ago. From what I heard, he was in some kind of mercenary organization…….”

“Oh?”

“Yep. He used to make healing potions for the mercenary organization, and he seemed to be good at it, so they brought him back. But…….”

“And?”

“Well, on the way back, he was attacked by a bunch of fiends, and they said there were quite a few of them.”

I swallowed hard, intrigued by the story.

“Fortunately, the horde was quickly dispatched, and you and the other knights were unharmed, but then he suddenly remembered Sir Ansen, who had been following in the rear, and he, too, was a man of…….”

Anna trailed off. I looked at her as if I knew what she meant.

“He’s so flimsy like he’ll fall over if you hit him with one.”

“Exactly! That’s why he went to the end of the line to make sure Lord Ansen was okay…….”

“He went?”