The Villain Bought the Female Lead - Ch. 44
Class 5’s base.
In this place, located between Class 2 and an unsafe zone, Diphelia, the leader and a saint, was deep in thought.
Her thoughts stemmed from anxiety.
‘This is ominous.’
Things were starting to go awry.
The expulsion of Arterion was too early.
Leon blocking the first intermediate base.
Erica, who requested support and then lost contact while trying to capture Vargan.
The alliance between Classes 4 and 5 was slowly starting to crack.
Looking closely at these events, you could see a connection.
Class 1.
Class 1 was involved in all these incidents.
Arterion, Leon, Erica.
All were related to Class 1 and interacted like clockwork. It felt as if Class 1 was the body of a machine, while they were just small cogs.
‘The morale of the alliance has significantly dropped.’
Diphelia knew that the alliance she formed temporarily with Erica was not solid.
They joined forces under the common goal of eliminating Class 1, considering Erica’s character and abilities. However, not everyone welcomed this alliance.
Therefore, Diphelia tried to persuade everyone of their usefulness and the necessity of the alliance, and eventually, they nodded in agreement, and it seemed to pass smoothly.
However, it was as if someone had intervened.
As if someone who did not want this alliance to hold was sowing seeds of discord everywhere.
Malicious rumors were spreading rapidly within Classes 4 and 5.
—Erica is colluding with Vargan. In the end, the saint will be betrayed.
—No, the saint will betray Erica. Class 5, which took over the second intermediate base, is aiming to take advantage when the alliance army with more members from Class 4 heads to the first intermediate base.
—Actually, the alliance is a facade, and behind the scenes, they’re poisoning each other’s blades.
Whispers.
No matter how hard they tried to stop it, the word without legs kept running.
The signs of collapse in the alliance between Classes 4 and 5 might not be related to Class 1.
That would be normal.
‘It should be like that…’
For some reason, it felt like this too was orchestrated by Class 1. Was it due to her ugly nature trying to deny her lack of leadership?
She couldn’t shake off the thought that this was all the doing of Vargan Troa Schugenhartz from Class 1.
Diphelia had the opportunity to meet him in person before the class battle started, in a meeting of the leaders.
She had seen him a few times in shared classes before that, but it was the first time she had had a proper face-to-face conversation.
A suspicious individual.
Someone who seemed to be hiding something.
She felt sorry for thinking that way about him, but the image that came to mind after just a few words was exactly that.
Even so, he was Erica’s fiancé, and she knew she shouldn’t judge a person by their appearance, so she tried to think positively.
But whenever an incident occurred.
Whenever the initiative started to shift to Class 1.
His sly smile came to mind, sending chills down her spine. It even felt like he was saying this.
With that smile of someone who represented a villain.
Whispering to her.
—I can see the future too.
“……”
Diphelia shook her head, trying to dispel her irrational thoughts.
He was not a saint.
There could be one or two saints in an era, and they were extremely rare.
Additionally, to become a saint, one had to receive the church’s holy baptism. If he had become a saint through that, Diphelia would have known.
It was certain.
He was not a saint.
He could not perform <miracles>.
He could not receive <oracles>.
“Yes, I must not be confused.”
Anything more would be delusional.
She decided to stop her negative thoughts and regain her composure.
If she, as the leader of Class 5, was flustered, who would believe in and follow her?
As Diphelia tried to calm her confusion and gather her thoughts, someone came running frantically as if to stop her.
The way the girl was running, so urgent and anxious, made Diphelia’s heart start racing again just as she was about to calm down.
She knew who that girl was.
She must have come from the slums of a small kingdom far away.
Her name was.
“Frida. What brings you here in such a hurry?”
Diphelia looked at Frida. Although her eyes weren’t visible, it seemed like her face was turning in that direction.
“Over there… that is…”
Frida, catching her breath, hesitated despite having rushed over so urgently.
She seemed hesitant, as if something was holding her back from delivering her message.
“It’s okay. Take your time to calm down and speak. No one will blame you.”
This was also something Diphelia said to herself. As Diphelia waited patiently for her, Frida, as if gaining courage, clenched her fists and spoke.
“We need to recall the support sent to Erica! It’s a trap!”
“What do you mean? A trap?”
Frida threw off her gloves as if to prove something and held out her hands. Her hands were clean without a single scar.
“I was bought off by Vargan—!”
***
Diphelia clutched her throbbing head.
It was hard to understand Frida’s bombshell statement that she had suddenly rushed over to deliver.
“So… Vargan is colluding with Erica behind the scenes, and Erica disappearing with warp magic was to meet him outside my familiar’s domain and continue their conspiracy?”
“That’s right….”
“Frida….”
Diphelia sighed.
“I want to believe you, but it sounds too far-fetched.”
Frida said she had been offered a deal by Vargan on the airship to this place. The deal was to act as a spy within Class 5 and provide information.
In return, she received an advance payment of one gold coin and was cursed to prevent her from betraying him.
“It’s hard to believe, but it’s true! There was definitely a curse mark on my hand!”
Frida emphasized, pushing her clean hand forward. To the naked eye, it was an ordinary hand without any marks.
“But there’s nothing there….”
“Yes, I know… I don’t understand it either… the mark disappeared, which is why I could come to tell you…. ah, ah. A way to prove it….”
Frida’s eyes darted around in anxiety. She seemed to be struggling to come up with reasonable proof.
Diphelia carefully observed her lowered hand through the small bird on Frida’s shoulder.
‘… there’s a trace.’
The intricate and complex magical formula seemed to have been recently lifted.
Although it looked like nothing was there, traces of mana remained, indicating that the curse had been removed not long ago.
These traces inevitably contained information about the caster. Judging by the formula and the color, the person who cast the curse was likely.
Vargan.
Remembering the magic Vargan had displayed during the entrance exam, Diphelia could easily tell that this mana belonged to him.
However, there was no need to inform Frida of this fact.
Considering Frida’s grades in hermeneutics, it was almost impossible for her to realize the existence of this formula.
Diphelia had a special talent for magic analysis and countermeasures, so she could detect and understand the intricate formula and recognize it as Vargan’s curse, but Frida was different.
She wouldn’t be able to notice, let alone identify, even a small hint.
Even among the remaining members at this base, none could recognize this trace.
If Frida had noticed it, it would be more questionable.
“Uh, so….”
Frida stammered with a lack of confidence.
“… I have no way to prove I was cursed.”
Was that so….
It would have been easier if she had mentioned the trace left behind.
This made things complicated.
Diphelia asked Frida, who had a troubled look on her face. If what she said was true, certain measures would be necessary.
“How were you supposed to deliver the information?”
Assuming what she said was true.
When scrutinizing this piece by piece, contradictions could arise. If such distortions occurred, then she would be lying.
“It was communicated through a curse… I can’t show you now because it’s gone.”
“That’s strange. A curse shouldn’t have a communication function.”
At least it seemed more plausible that a familiar capable of communication was stationed in a specific location or that she had a crystal ball, which would be too large to hide.
“No, it was possible! The information to be conveyed was a signal indicating a specific timing.”
“What do you mean?”
Diphelia furrowed her brows.
“You know that if you resist the curse, the caster can notice, right? He used that to ask me to inform him of the timing.”
“What timing?”
Diphelia was surprised by the unusual way the curse was being used, but she continued asking without showing it.
She needed to follow up immediately so that Frida didn’t have time to think otherwise.
“Hurry up and answer, Frida.”
Diphelia urged her.
With a trembling voice filled with earnestness, Frida said.
“The timing when the number of personnel at Base 5 drops below ten.”
“…!”
Diphelia swallowed her breath.
She felt a stifling sensation, as if her throat was blocked.
“This is why I think Vargan and Erica are in an alliance! He provided no information other than asking me to inform him of the timing. He must have considered the possibility of me betraying him.”
Frida hurriedly poured out her words, perhaps wanting to convey that there was no time left.
Diphelia listened to her words, trying to calm her surprised heart.
“Fortunately, the curse was lifted before sending reinforcements, so I didn’t end up committing an act of betrayal. But when I heard that reinforcements were being sent to Erica… I suddenly had a thought.”
“…”
“What if the reason the curse on me was lifted was because I was no longer useful? What if Erica requesting reinforcements and the reduction of personnel at the base are related?”
Such doubts and questions chained together endlessly, eventually returning to Frida herself.
Her voice, soaked with water, was trembling.
“And then… cruelly… the guilt of nearly betraying the faction just for money… it strangled me…”
Frida, shedding large tears, confessed her sins as if she were in a confessional.
Normally, Diphelia would have embraced and comforted her as she wept on the floor.
But the current saint couldn’t do that.
There were parts of her story that were incomprehensible, and because she couldn’t understand, she was shaken.
Ultimately, Frida’s words were a delusion created by suspicion, with no clear evidence to support them.
… still. If.
Just if.
If her words were true and she had been bought off by Vargan…
It was certain that Vargan cursed Frida. This was reliable information since Diphelia observed it herself. Her task was to inform the timing when the personnel at Base 5 fell below ten.
Then how did he plan to create that timing?
⎯Diphelia. It seems I might not be able to contact you for a while. I have somewhere to go.
Even if she tried not to think about it, Erica’s voice echoed in her ears.
⎯We’ve found our target. Please send about five elites for support.
Erica had precisely requested the support of five people. If those personnel were sent, the remaining number at the base would be seven.
Was this just a coincidence?
Followed by Frida’s statement.
⎯What if the reason the curse on me was lifted was because I was no longer useful? What if Erica requesting reinforcements and the reduction of personnel at the base are related?
The curse on Frida was lifted. Why? Could it be that all these situations were anticipated and done to deceive her? Because Erica had called out an exact number, reducing the personnel at the base to below ten, making Frida no longer necessary?
No, the first assumption was impossible unless he foresaw the future through a prophecy.
The second one also made no sense; even if Erica reduced the personnel at Base 5, there was no reason to lift the curse on Frida. In fact, it should remain to prevent betrayal.
Then what was this current situation?
“… ah.”
At that moment, a particular incident struck Diphelia’s mind like a blow to the back of her head.
They were engaged.
However, they didn’t seem to get along as well as expected.
To dispel such doubts, Vargan recently challenged Erica to a rank match and lost spectacularly. It was assumed that this was to give Cattia to Erica.
But think about it carefully.
What if that event was connected to this situation?
If the rank match from back then was related to this?
Cattia was an absolutely essential score in Academia.
It couldn’t be lightly handed over like a few coins.
Some mocked, saying that their relationship was too good to warrant such corruption⎯ but most thought differently.
There must have been some other reasonable exchange.
This was the general perception.
If that was the case, couldn’t it be that this exchange was happening during the current class battle, where Cattia could be earned?
For example, helping another class….
‘My head feels like it’s going to explode.’
Erica seemed like a trustworthy person. Although they hadn’t known each other for long, she didn’t seem like someone who would betray others.
However, not everything could be handled with mere human feelings.
Perhaps she trusted Erica too much. Even if Frida’s words were lies, look at the current base.
Only seven people were guarding this vast castle.
Wasn’t this a clear crisis?
Diphelia’s wooden staff rapidly grew, extending to her chair.
It reached close enough to touch the sobbing Frida, allowing them to feel each other’s body heat. Diphelia embraced her.
“Thank you, Frida.”
Diphelia smiled kindly. While she couldn’t be sure of Frida’s statements, it was true that there was some validity to her words.
“I will order a retreat. It’s unsettling to have so few people at home.”
“S-Saint….”
“You are truly brave.”
Frida buried her head on the floor and wept bitterly. Diphelia felt like she might start crying as well.
It was a warm scene.
But she didn’t know.
The saint, who loved and trusted people, didn’t know.
Right now, Frida.
The girl, tearfully confessing her seemingly unforgivable sins, had the corners of her mouth curled up.
Grinning⎯
Upward like a crescent moon.