The Utmost Evil And Brilliant System

Three weeks had passed since I began treating the townspeople.

Treatment with healing magic and medicine had not been easy at all.

But I was truly grateful that the rioters had cooperated.

Because they knew the town well, and because they were young and strong, their cooperation made the treatment of the townspeople progress much faster than expected.

After casting healing magic nonstop for three weeks, I had, for the time being, finished dealing with the people who needed urgent treatment.

Now that I had some breathing room, today was my first day off since coming to Lineage.

Transparent morning sunlight spilled through the curtains.

I stretched deeply and opened the curtains.

A clear blue sky.

The smell of breakfast drifted in from the next room.

After narrowing my eyes a little, I changed clothes and got ready for the morning.

An elegant magic-powered washroom and vanity.

My older brother had fled this land in a panic because of the infectious disease and the worsening public order.

Thanks to that, the expensive furnishings in the count’s mansion in Lineage had been left exactly as they were.

There must have been people who tried to break in because the owner was absent, but it seemed the strict magical barrier protecting the estate had completely prevented any intrusion.

(The nobles of the magical kingdom spend so much money on security precisely because they know the commoners resent them.)

A widening gap between rich and poor, and the sad reality.

(Thanks to that, though, I can live comfortably and won’t have to worry about funds for the time being.)

I ate the breakfast Ciel and Vincent had made for me.

Eating together had become our new daily routine.

Vincent, an ultra-first-rate butler, seemed to feel quite resistant to eating with his master, but when I told him, “I’d be happier if you ate with me,” he nodded, looking a little troubled.

(Meals are fun when you eat with someone.)

Two years of confinement.

I had been eating alone the whole time, so having the two of them eat with me made my cheeks relax into a smile.

Fond as I was of fantasies, I told Ciel and Vincent about the new setting I had come up with.

The two of them responded delightedly, saying, “So that kind of under-the-table deal was happening at the trading company…!”

A peaceful morning.

After finishing my meal without leaving even a single bite, I thought about what I should do with my day.

At last, a day off with nothing scheduled had arrived.

I was free to spend today however I liked.

I could do anything.

I could go anywhere.

I could do whatever I liked, however I liked.

The thought made my heart leap uncontrollably.

Free, easygoing time in which I did not have to worry about anyone else.

(What do I want to do?)

I asked my own heart.

The answer came immediately.

(I want to do something like a cool villainess would!)

A dignified and cool way of living—an existence I admired.

I thought about what the villainess I loved so much would do.

(If it were the villainess I adore, she would surely make preparations for her ambitions. She would steadily build her foundation and move forward with her plans.)

I opened the Crimson Book.

This was my beloved notebook, set up as a terrifying tome that contained the full details of the 《Brilliant Villainess (Albertine) Plan》.

What would I need in order to move the plan forward?

It did not take long to find the answer.

(For now, I want lots of money.)

The villainess I admire loves money, and I love money too.

You absolutely need money to eat delicious food, buy cool dresses, and beat up corrupt nobles and feel good doing it.

More than anything, money is something that makes you happier the more you have.

(If possible, I’d like to build the utmost evil and brilliant system where money comes in while I do nothing but sleep.)

Making use of the knowledge I had studied so far, I decided to think of a way to turn that ideal into a realistic form.

What caught my eye was the money that a lord governing a territory collected as an obvious right—tax revenue.

(If lots of tax revenue comes in from the townspeople, then lots of money will come in while I do nothing but sleep…!)

What an overly ideal dream scene for a villainess.

Unable to suppress the excitement that sweet phrase stirred in my chest, I promptly decided to explore Lineage.

I inspected every corner of the territory, listened to what the local people had to say, and spent the entire day gathering information.

Lineage was a land with poor agricultural productivity.

The conclusion I reached from my investigation was that the reason was the excessive overworking of both the farmers and the soil.

The lords up until now had imposed crushing taxes on this land far beyond a proper level.

Fireplace tax, window tax, brick tax, wallpaper tax, horse tax, dog tax, mantel clock tax, wristwatch tax…

A truly horrible array of taxes that made me want to force them to read public economics textbooks two hundred million times each.

Because of that, the farmers had not been able to let the soil rest, and the nutrients in the earth had been depleted by multiple cropping.

The territory’s circumstances were far too tragic.

But even so, my obsession with money was not so weak that I would give up over that.

(First, let’s lower the tax rates to the optimal amount. I will normalize the management of the territory and build a system that can earn a great deal of money over the long term.)

Using the authority of the acting lord, I lowered the tax rates.

The people of Lineage were greatly shocked in response.

“Y-You’re lowering the taxes that much…!?”

But no matter what kind of reaction came back, the villainess way was to press onward down the path she believed in.

In addition, to normalize the management of the territory, I decided to cast 《Magic That Gives Nutrients to the Soil》 over the fields and the wasteland.

It was low-level household magic, but if I made use of my abundant mana and cast it ninety times over each area, I could provide plenty of nutrients to the devastated land.

I had never been interested in farm work at all, but when I actually tried it, it was far more fun than I had imagined.

I carefully observed the soil and coolly determined what each patch was seeking.

What became necessary there was a conversation with the soil.

The soil was speaking.

In tiny voices too soft to shake an eardrum, it was telling me what it wanted.

What mattered was listening to those voices.

I must not merely assume I was hearing them.

I must not stop listening and decide, This is probably good enough.

Even if they looked the same, they were different.

Just as each of us had a different personality, history, and soul, each patch of soil had its own different character.

(Don’t worry. I can hear your voice.)

Putting my heart into it, I swung the hoe and stirred the soil I had infused with nutrients.

The hoe felt heavy in my small child’s body, but that sensation itself felt fresh to me.

Of course not in my previous life, and certainly not in this life either, I never would have been allowed to do something like this.

A memory from my previous life, where I had been told like a catchphrase, “You need only do as I say.”

Precisely because I had lived in such a harsh environment without freedom, breaking that teaching was so enjoyable that I could hardly stand it.

(Right now, I am doing something I shouldn’t be doing…!)

Holding that wicked delight in my heart, I swung the hoe.

I listened to the voice of the soil and narrowed my eyes at the sight of the hardworking earthworms.

Since I had grown up in the countryside in my previous life, I had absolutely no resistance to bugs.

(This is wonderful. Fieldwork is the best…!)

The crops growing so vigorously healed my heart to a truly strange degree.

The farmers, who had been astonished and asked, “Why is Lady Mythia doing something like that!?”, completely warmed up to me as we worked the fields together, and now every day we chatted idly while swinging our hoes side by side.

(With this, delicious vegetables and the profits from selling them will increase. I am steadily moving toward that villainess-like life of passive income, where money comes in while I do nothing but sleep!)

Feeling that the plan was advancing, I wore a wicked smile.

The sight of the young lady lord wearing a work cloth over her head and swinging a hoe in the fields had a tremendous impact on the townspeople.

That was because the common view of the magical kingdom’s nobles was that they looked down on farm work as something vulgar.

And this was not some performance to improve her own popularity.

She genuinely, truly seemed to be enjoying the farm work.

Even when her tall maid tried to stop her, saying, “The sun is setting already,” she had stubbornly replied, “No! I want to do more!” so there was no doubt about it.

Even when she found earthworms, she did not act disgusted in the slightest, but gently picked them up and returned them to the soil, and the townspeople could not help but be moved by the sight.

And despite still being only ten years old, what a kind-hearted person she was.

Moreover, the household magic she used was completely different from the ordinary sort used in Elmia, the magical kingdom.

By layering magical formulas over and over, she produced effects that exceeded the very bounds of low-level household magic.

More than anything, the number of times she used it and her endurance were abnormal.

Even with household magic, which consumed little mana, it was only natural that using it many times would wear down one’s mana.

And yet, no matter how many times she used it, her mana did not show even the slightest sign of running dry.

Using her abundant mana, she layered the same spell over the same place again and again.

Land that had been ruined transformed before their eyes into rich soil overflowing with nutrients.

The sight looked just like a miracle.

The townspeople held their breath, and then they thought:

(Amazing… This person really does have something special about her after all…)