A Villainess Should Be Strong

One of the things Heine's document detailed was where the possible hideouts were.

They were all reasonably spaced apart, but Estelle could travel through that distance in no time.

If the matter was left to Alan and the rest, they would be overloaded with the task of protecting the city, not rooting out the masterminds. They would lack enough hands to ring the culprits in.

"Are they Duke Alfonso's.. people, too?" Estelle muttered, donning a black cloak and throwing the hood over her head.

[Whatever it is.. I have to stop them.]

If she couldn't fight the chaos, then she would just fight the one behind said chaos.

First and foremost, the closest hideout.

Estelle was burning with determination as she leapt to the roof, wanting to gain some height advantage before she comes into the city.

"Let's see...." Estelle sucked in a cold breath as she recorded the supposed place inside her mind.

Locking onto the location, she propelled herself with the help of Wind Magic towards the necessary direction.

Continuing on slithering with no hindrance as if she had perfectly functioning wings, Estelle was able to reach the first building.

Pursing her lips, she prepared herself to fight as she approached the door with light steps.

Knowing that she lacked physical strength, Estelle resorted to using a heavy stream of water to knock the door down.

Conjuring a condensed pulse, the simple door was broken into pieces in no time.

With it, Estelle also noticed that there were strange seals placed on the entrance. This further indicated, that her current location was indeed correct, and there was something more to the normal looking house.

Inside, she was not able to find much stuff. It was generally empty, but the most distinctive thing out of all would be the gigantic magic circle drawn on the floor.

The stench of what presumably might be blood was also present.

But unlike her predictions, there was no one inside.

"...I should be careful," Estelle covered herself with protective magic before lighting the room up with some spells.

Her radar showed that there were no other individuals here except for her.

The first thing that came to mind was to research the magic circle, but she didn't have that much time.

[Then I should just memorize it.] Estelle concluded.

Going around the circle multiple times to note down all the inscriptions, Estelle spent quite some time just trying to read the text since it was practically unintelligible scratches.

Thankfully, through correlation, Estelle was able to piece out the mantras. There were also spells that she couldn't recognize, and that was what she was going to trace after she was done with this whole ordeal.

After making sure that she retained the information, Estelle went ahead and destroyed the magic circle.

Just by glancing over the spells, Estelle could deduce what the force behind all this planned for when they constructed so many building points in the city.

"Detonation, Energy Absorption, Mana Eater," Estelle read off her notes.

These 'points' were required to cover the entire city under their jurisdiction.

[How were they able to get away with this?] Estelle was stumped. Clearly, dangerous spells like this will impact the entire city when triggered. If Heine didn't present her with this data, the city would be at these people's mercy.

Estelle gritted her teeth. Emotions did not need to be involved right now.

She needed to work fast.

Covering her head with the same hood, she made sure that the building had no more features that could be exploited before leaving for the second location.

This time, there were actual people inside the building.

A total of five.

Estelle's gaze became cold as she infiltrated the building through the front door, with a similar way like before.

Extending her palm to the air, she spread sleep and paralyzing mists throughout the room after taking precautions for herself.

Without a fight, the five people were immobilized. They were still conscious, however.

Estelle did not pay them much heed as her main priority was to inspect the bigger truth behind this matter.

Once again, she found a similar circle in the center of the room.

Studying it while the men laid on the ground, unable to do anything, Estelle saw that the spells were the exact same as the previous one.

"..You there, what is this circle for?" Estelle turned her head to one of the men, asking.

"I- I won't, kuh! I won't answer!" The man's teeth were chattering, with his veins bulging out of his skin from trying to resist Estelle's spells.

Estelle couldn't afford to waste time.

She didn't like violence, but some scenarios needed violence. Even if it wasn't needed, these men were planning something that would be detrimental to her city.

The territory they all sought to protect.

They were trying to harm it in a large scale.

Estelle resolved herself after being reminded of the storm that was going on the city and the monster swarms. Her people were trying to combat it while risking their lives.

If these men dared to attack the city, they must be prepared to lose their lives the moment they were caught.

Without wavering, Estelle cut off one of the men's heads.

"I only want answers. I know that you have other comrades in this city, so if you're not going to answer, just die," Estelle proclaimed, sweeping her gaze over the remaining four men.

The men were silent.

Whatever the plan was, they had the integrity to not reveal it even when their lives were on the line.

"Very well," Estelle nodded.

She had to applaud them for their, unfortunately, pointless bravery.

With for slices, four heads were cut sharp at the neck, killing them off without any effort.

Just like that, the second location was done.

Estelle steeled her heart as she burned the corpses and destroyed the circle once again, not leaving before the scene was cleaned up to the highest degree.

Third location.

Estelle glanced at the list of places. There were a total of fifteen 'bases' she had to lovingly visit.

Out of all of them, would there really not be even one man that would spill the bean?

Approaching each location with high vigilance, Estelle continued trumping over the places one by one.

Within an hour, she had reached the final location.

This base was the farthest from the manor, closest to the borders.

One thing that Estelle noticed was that the spell's intensity worsened the more their location neared the borders.

Perhaps it was because the security was more lax and the high mana fluctuations wouldn't be detected that they became brave.

With each building, she also had to bear witness to monsters scattering about and the evacuation process that combatted it.

There was also a visible storm boiling inside the city, but the storm's severity was lessened by what seemed to be Alan's flock of magicians.

There was no second where Estelle didn't worry about the city when she traveled across it to destroy the bases one by one.

Luckily, there was an end.

"..This is the last one," Estelle heaved a hard sigh, convincing herself to bear through this final ordeal.

She was standing over the last building's roof.

Jumping down from it, she made a perfect landing with her two feet and glared at the door.

This was the farthest from the manor, which meant that the toughest spells would be located in here.

Estelle didn't know to what point, but she was determined to bring it down.

Just as she was about to break down the door and finish her last job, a voice called out to her.

"Miss! Please help me- ahk!!" A man collapsed on the ground. Blood seeped out of him as he tried his best to extend his arms towards Estelle's way.

His eyes were full of pleading, but there was something that wasn't quite right at first glance.

[..Did I see wrong?] Estelle thought.

A glimmer of hatred and anger. The man didn't have any reason to hate on her, did he?

She was a stranger.

Or did she know him? No, that shouldn't be.

Just as she was doubting the man's intentions, more words came flying into her ears.

"Miss! What are you waiting for?! I can't handle it any longer, please! Please heal me!"

[As I thought, there's something wrong.]

A sane person would ask a passing child to heal them, would they? The correct words should be to bring them to someone else.

Moreover, the man's speech was too clear.

[If I don't save him and he turns out to be innocent, it'd be way worse. If he tries anything funny, I can just subdue him anyway.] Estelle made a simple resolve.

Estelle approached the man, wishing to see what he intended to do.

When she was just centimetres away from his head, strange chuckles began sounding out.

Chuckles that turned into loud laughter. A maniacal laughter.

A hand grabbed at Estelle's feet, securing her right ankle inside their grip.

[Puny tricks.]

The man must've thought that she was a weak, defenseless child.

Estelle wished to manifest mana. Something enough to immobilize the other without killing him.

However, a familiar condition hit her. Her mana wouldn't materialize.