A Villainess Should Be Strong

Outside of the room, the quartet held a meeting.

"..Estelle. I don't know if I should be saying this, but the Duke Miller.." Minerva hesitated before continuing. "He didn't question your existence, not even once. Although you haven't told him your maximum capability yet, you were able to look at his status through an appraisal spell, which would entail that your strength is above his. If I was in his position, I would've..."

"You're telling me that the Duke predicted my arrival, knew my powers, and is currently in a position where he is to give me trials to this 'acknowledgement'?" If Estelle's instincts were correct, Augustine Miller's speech and the pronouns he used pointed at her, and not the rest of her group.

"I mean, he was waiting for us, wasn't he? He knew what you were looking for, wasn't suspicious in the slightest, heck, what kind of old man is he?" Minerva complained.

"Well, considering the outrageous things that's been happening.. Nevermind that, did you see his title?" Estelle asked.

"?!" Minerva and Heine made a sound of surprise. Yulia, however, looked unfazed.

"I did. [Contractor], wasn't it? Had to break through some annoying filters, but got in anyways," Yulia spoke up.

Minerva and Heine, the only two who didn't found out about this hidden matter frowned.

"Right. I'm different because I overpowered his status assisted by my appraisal skills, but even you had to deal with the troublesome barriers first. Heine and Minerva couldn't even see the barrier,"

"Urk," Minerva pouted. She wanted to protest that she didn't excel in barriers, nor did she possess enough power to overpower the Duke. "Wait... hm?"

Thinking about it, Minerva blinked repeatedly. Could it be, the Duke was stronger than her? She couldn't overpower him?

"Minerva, I know what you're thinking. That's not it. The Duke's barriers are too profound, but it doesn't necessarily mean that he's strong," Yulia cleared up.

Acknowledging her statement, Estelle nodded.

"Thank God I've renounced my title as the Fae King.. The recent events would shame me to death if I still held the title," Heine was now freed from his expectations, so he had no guilt in saying that he wasn't powerful enough compared to the undiscovered elements in the world.

"That said, we have been finding outrageous things left and right ever since the monsters' invasion.. I don't like this development, it's sketchy," Minerva added.

Estelle contemplated the rest's thoughts and tried to reason it with her own set of opinions. If the world was a big puzzle, they were currently in the four corners: having found a suitable puzzle piece to fit in the four, but has trouble in finding the rest within an enormous pile of similar looking pieces.

Indeed, in a puzzle, the corners were always easy, but the rest of the puzzle would look the exact same when they are clueless and devoid of significant information.

Duke Augustine Miller. The title [Contractor]. [Spectre Magic], the parent Unique Magic.

Reichter Clareste. Silvanna, the wife of unknown origins. The house's connection to the Elven Kingdom, Alfheim.

"What would it take for the Elves to acknowledge us..?" Estelle asked in curiosity. It was better to start somewhere rather than sit around and do nothing.

"In the first place, elves are proud beings. They hate half - bloods more than they hate the pure - blooded humans, because they consider it as the action of tarnishing the royal bloodline.. Which is," Yulia momentarily stopped her memory recall. Her expression turned to that of someone who just received a tremendous revelation, bringing her the shock of her life.

Estelle looked at the stunned Yulia in confusion.

"Could it be..?" Yulia pondered.

The frequent stops were making Estelle crazy. She wished that they could forsake all hesitation and spout it out.

In this scenario, every piece of information was valued highly.

"Any clues are gladly accepted. Just tell it," Estelle urged her to speak.

"Do you know the story of the Elven Moon Goddess?"

Looking at the three's confusion, Yulia coughed and continued her theory.

"Well, this is something that I learned on my trips to Alfheim.. In exchange for setting up their barrier. To be precise, the Goddess is apparently not of Elven ancestry, but she gave a divine blessing to the Elves. The reason the Elves detest half - bloods so much is because every elf in existence contain bits of what the Goddess blessed them with. The divine power. Although it has been diluted through the countless generations, there is one group of people that still contain high volumes of this divine power.." Yulia started to narrate the story.

Moments like this made Estelle remember that the trio she interacted with were truly peerless figures in their fields.

"The direct descendants of the blessed ones. The royals. This is also the reason why Alfheim's people worship the royals so much.. it's like worshiping their deity through a vassal,"

"Although this was just a fleeting rumor, Silvanna, the Duchess Clareste at the time, was rumored to be a deserted royal elf," Yulia dumped out the information like it was nothing, but the shock that came to those who heard it for the first time was greater than an earthquake.

"..Sister, how did you-"

"Minerva, my pitiful, dumb, but cute younger sister, I am a half - elf, am I not?" Yulia sneered in a joking manner. In addition to that, I helped them a lot. They gave me the authority to access their libraries, albeit not all segments,"

"..Urk," Minerva scolded herself for not thinking of that possibility.

"Continuing the story.. I believe that this theory is feasible, ah. To begin with, the title [Contractor] is attained when you successfully form a contract with a higher spirit, his [Spectre Magic Code] would make sense if the spirit he contracted was a real spectre,"

"The reason why the Clareste mansion has a relation with the Elven Kingdom's palace could also be accounted for thanks to Duchess Silvanna, huh?" Heine added.

"Right,"

"...Even after knowing that, what are we supposed to do?" Minerva questioned.

Knowing the clues was one thing, applying the clues and forming a solution was another.

[Am I supposed to search in the Elven Kingdom instead? If the history books are incorrect.. If grandmother is an Elvish Royalty, then..] Estelle recalled Duke Miller's warning. It was possible.

"Obviously.." Estelle looked at Yulia in expectation. "Break down this entire mansion's defenses and find other clues, right?"

With the permission from Duke Miller, Estelle was no longer pretentious and wanted nothing more than breaking down the mansion into smithereens.

Yulia blinked repeatedly. She, a dignified Witch, was actually being made to infiltrate a person's mansion for clues that might not even be there?!

The audacity!

Just as she was about to retort, Estelle offered her a deal she couldn't refuse.

"I'll let you peek at my status right after this," Estelle blankly stated.

"...Deal!"

The expression of 'You got me, I'm really drawn to that abnormal status of yours!' was clearly written all over Yulia's face.

And so, with both the voluntary work of Yulia and the permission from Duke Miller, the crew starting working on different matters.

Estelle was taking a look at Yulia's map and searching for parts she could improve, noting it down and going back and forth from minding her own business and supplying mana for Yulia. She estimated that everything would take time, so as an unlimited mana bank, she provided mana for everybody.

By doing this, they were also starting to get used to the mana sharing process. They started to get comfortable with it.

It was a shame that they were racing against time. If she had the chance, she wanted to properly try and learn the Arcana Magic.

She didn't believe that it was impossible for her to contact the otherworldly Spirits. In a sense, she was an otherworlder too, no?

Yulia worked seriously, waging the chance to research Estelle's status made her fired up. Estelle had told her that the chances she could get would vary according to her performance. Thus, she worked very hard to decode and break down the seals and barriers placed on the mansion, looking for something out of place.

Minerva was trying to spy on the nobles that were under their suspicion, such as Duke Alfonso and his underlings. Of course, this couldn't be done without her personally going over to the places. She lamented that Yulia's map would've made her work much easier, but she had to waste mana creating and jumping in and out of space rifts since the indirect option was not possible yet.

Heine told the others that he would go back to Sylvania, the Spirit Kingdom, to supervise the newly enthroned King and take a look at some of the records to see if he found anything.

They picked up their pace, concentrating on each task and careful as to not disturb each other.

"I'm done," Yulia breathed out, exiting of her focus session. She had used too much mind power, her thoughts were in a disarray.

Luckily, Estelle provided her with boundless mana that even enhanced her status. The maximum was found out to be around a 5% core purity increase.

A measly five percent might sound small, but it really wasn't a little number. The change even a 0.1% increase could bring would be equivalent to attaining a valuable resource, which was time.

Those with higher core purity would have an easier time understanding the laws and rules of magic, such as how it operated, how to channel said energy, and how to circulate the energy around your body.

The time disparity was enough to make one lose their minds. Just because of the low innate talent, one could be disqualified from entering the world's pinnacle stairs.

Of course, Estelle's effect was not permanent, it only lasted for minutes. If it was permanent, one could only imagine the world's reaction when they found out.

"..." Yulia glanced at the serious faced Estelle, complicated thoughts running through her brain.

She still hasn't forgotten the pain she had to face as the repercussions for the actions she took. She was certain that it wasn't Estelle's wrongdoings. Even Heine assured her that it was Estelle's backer.

A backer would also not make sense, since she couldn't feel a mana disturbance. Such a powerful magic would at least cause waves of disturbance even if it was concealed to the highest degree, no?

However, she considered Estelle's personality. She wasn't someone who would bite the hands of the ones who treated her with good intentions. Just like how Minerva and Heine stuck with her even though she was a ticking time bomb, she thought that following her wasn't a bad idea.

After all, being by her side brought a change to her life's dynamics, seeking the mystery of this world intrigued her quite a bit. In the end, won't she find out about the attack's perpetrator if she got to unravel Estelle's mystery?

She began to suspect another element. An otherworldly being, just like the Spirits she contacted.

Maybe Estelle had an entity that watched over her like a Spirit.

Forget it, this was akin to a trial period for her. She wasn't something who cared enough to deeply consider the future's matters.

As someone who has lived for hundreds of years, she couldn't care less if she died, so why not bump up her life's excitement and see through the journey with these three, and more to come?

Though unplanned, a small smile bloomed on her face without anybody noticing.

"I'm afraid that the Spectre is no longer present in this world," -Yulia

"The Spectre Duke Miller is connected to is gone," -Heine

"Duke Miller's Spectre is something that has been deleted from the world long ago!" -Minerva

Yulia, Heine, and Minerva respectively conveyed the same message, at the same time. Estelle, who didn't know anything, felt a bit left out, but that wasn't important, eh?