A Regressed Villain: Heroines, Villainesses and Me?

"Marquess, there are a total of 39 departments as of now, and the new one will soon open next year," Rihane replied as she came forward, increasing her pace to appear to be walking beside the Marquess. By doing so, she hoped to embrace her image as someone who has connections with him.

"I see. So, Ms. Rihane, for the task, you need to find a boy with pink hair and pink eyes from those 39 departments within 30 minutes," Avendial stated, moving through the garden area while directly giving Rihane the task.

Even though the director would have the list of the students and could do a better job than Rihane because he had most of the control, there was a risk that, by mentioning that particular student, the director would start treating that student as someone related to Avendial Croceaus—which Avendial definitely did not want.

"Huh? Marquess, there are a total of 23,000 students if we combine the school and other lower departments too. How can I?" Rihane felt that the first task he assigned her was of an impossible difficulty level given the time limit.

Though there were solutions she could think of, they were not feasible in such a small amount of time, and to accomplish them, she needed more time than this due to the sheer number of students.

"So? Go ahead and keep my search intentions to yourself." With an empty gaze, Avendial turned his attention toward her, arching an eyebrow that prompted her to wince a little. She glanced around, weighing her options before darting straight toward the director and the rest of the group.

"Do you think she will be able to do it?" Aecilia, who also heard the task details, could clearly understand that it was inherently a tough task, but of course not impossible if resources were used in an optimal manner. As she looked toward how that woman joined the director and started to explain things to him, Aceilia glanced back at Avendial, inquiring, "Should I do it?

It would not take more than 10 minutes."

"I know, but shouldn't she prove herself?" Avendial stated that it was a test for Rihane to prove if she deserved to be chosen to join Croceaus estate. Since it may appear the task was too difficult due to the time limit, it wasn't much of a deal if one had an information network as strong as the Sertsul family.

"Fine, I will just make a call," Aecilia said before directly dialing the number, not caring if it was a test. In her understanding, if this was a test, then she also needed to know the results beforehand to check if the answer was correct. As the call connected, she added, "Search for all the families whose members have pink hair and eyes in City A, starting from sector 15 to sector 20."

"It will take some time for them to go through government records," Aecilia replied as both of them walked throughout the campus while Avendial kept glancing toward the students in hopes of finding someone familiar from his past life.

However, as most of the students were attending class, there weren't many for them to remember, except for a few faces that weren't particularly highlighted, and he couldn't recall their abilities.

This made securing the woman for whose search he had arrived today even more important.

Though, of course, it would take a few weeks to make things work out. Specifically, he was trying to search for that young man, instead of the woman, knowing well that her physical appearance might be different from her previous life, making it impossible to search for her.

However, knowing about her love and affection toward that young man, it was most likely she would be in the same department as him.

As she walked, time flew by due to the campus's distance, and 10 minutes had already gone by when, precisely at the 12-minute mark, Aecilia's phone rang, prompting her to answer the call, "Hm, I see."

"Did you find him?" Avendial inquired as he glanced toward Aecilia, who ended the call while looking at her phone.

"How are you sure that there could only be one family with that pink hair trait? There could be many," Aceilia said, hearing his statement. Since she mentioned finding someone, she felt that Avendial was sure that the pink hair was possessed only by a single individual or family, not many.

"Indeed, but there are always some unique people who are favored from birth," Avendial replied, resting his hands in his pockets and tilting his head. He spoke in a gentle tone as he gazed ahead, contemplating the appearance of the young man who had stood in his way in the past life.

This was the first obstacle he could acknowledge, though he didn't view him as anything more than a mere pebble. Nonetheless, this young man, seemingly favored by fate, possessed luck, loyal subjects and everything one could ask for. Considering this favoritism, it was improbable that many would resemble him.

"...There is the Diego family in sector 18, where a noble woman chose to marry a businessman, and due to her trait, he inherited the pink hair and eyes from her." Aceilia managed to acquire crucial information within just 10 minutes by leveraging her network.

Her team effectively communicated to the government authorities that this data was essential for Marquess himself, which prompted their cooperation and granted her access to their servers. This access made it relatively straightforward for hackers to retrieve the family's data by using keyword tracing.

So, they did use the name of the Marquess, which wasn't new for the Sertsul family, as Sertsuls were the only noble family that always remained active in the free cities. They often used fake names, mostly the name of Marquess Croceaus, due to his habit of never visiting the free city to gather information as they saw fit.

Of course, it would be illegal if found by the royal family, but nothing is illegal until it is found.

"Diego? I must say you are fast, Miss Aecilia—" Avendial was just complimenting her for finding the name of the family, but before he could finish, he saw Rihane sprinting toward him while gasping for breath. She was running, her curly hair messier than before, her eyes red as if she had just been through de-aging by two years.

"FOUND HIM!" she yelled from the distance as she secured the time limit. Finally reaching the Marquess, she gasped, supporting herself through her knees while trying to breathe in, "Haah....Haaah.....L-lin, it's Lin Diego. He is in the art and culture department."

"Lin?" Avendial, looking at her gasping for breath while revealing the information, felt good that she was competent enough to do this work. This prompted him to glance toward Aecilia and add, "I should thank Ms. Aecilia for providing me with such a potential talent."

Though, of course, he didn't compare Aecilia and Rihane, given that Rihane needed to go through only the information of 23,000 students, while Aecilia had to go through all the family details living in City A, which was enormous and something nearly impossible in itself.

"So, how did you do it?" Aecilia folded her arms and inquired with curiosity while looking calmly at Rihane. Given the fact that if she were in her place and had to find a particular student, given his facial traits among the 23,000, she would have used 'facial recognition.'

"Haah... Haah.... F-face recognition AI!" Rihane Revealed