Became the Villainess’s Guardian

The oblivious young boy was filled with the thought of escaping this dark space. The faintly glowing flame left behind went unnoticed.

And some time later, around 1 AM, the fire had spread to the cloth, consuming its surroundings as it grew in size.

“…Huh, what?”

-Patter, thump!

-Whoosh!

It was then that a girl who had come to the basement storage in search of tools discovered the blaze.

“What do I do in this situation… Ah! I need to report it to the supervisor.”

Waking him over a trivial matter would likely earn her a beating. Even though he said to wake him for urgent matters every time, it seemed ‘urgent’ excluded anything short of someone getting crushed by the machinery.

But surely… a factory fire qualified as urgent, did it not?

The girl scurried over to the sleeping supervisor and shook him awake.

“Supervisor.”

“Hm, what? I told you not to bother me unless it’s an emergency…”

“There’s a fire, a fire! The basement storage is on fire!”

And the factory supervisor, slowly regaining his senses as his dazed eyes blinked open, said:

“…So what?”

“Pardon?”

“Ah, you must have seen wrong.”

What?

“It’s just the heat getting to your head. I’ll let it slide this time.”

So a fire breaking out right under their feet wasn’t an ‘urgent matter’…

The girl felt the common sense of the human world she knew crumbling.
And whether the girl was confused or not, the supervisor simply rolled over and muttered,

“I’m going back to sleep, so don’t wake me up.”

“Eh.”

The sole adult authority figure here had simply gone back to sleep.
With no one out on the streets at this late hour past midnight, there was nowhere else to seek help.

What now?
As the girl fidgeted anxiously, acrid smoke began seeping out from the basement.

Thanks to advancements in magic engineering, water mages sometimes installed sprinkler systems, but this factory lacked such cutting-edge equipment unlike palaces.

Naturally, the textile materials stored underground were not properly maintained.
Left dry and dust-covered, gathering time, they had now found their purpose illuminating the basement.

A trifecta of carelessness, indifference, and lackadaisical follow-up.
It was an accident bound to happen sooner or later, not just today.

The scent of smoke wafted from somewhere.
Just as Freugne thought something seemed amiss from the faint aroma tickling her nose, the spinning machinery let out an ominous groan.

-Shhhhhh!

“The machines stopped?”

“Seems there’s an issue with the power supply again. Anybody here who thinks they can take a look, raise your hand.”

The smell was likely coming from here, after all.

Freugne cautiously raised her hand. She had often resolved similar issues in the past.

She felt she might be able to make a living as a technician later on.
While she would need to undergo proper training as an apprentice under a veteran technician for full recognition, it wasn’t a bad start.

Freugne climbed the stairs and ladder following the threads emerging from the spinning frame.
With each step, the faint smoky odor grew stronger. If a wire had burned out and caused a malfunction, it would complicate matters. She would have to wake the supervisor, unavoidably.

“…That’s strange?”

But contrary to expectations, the wires connecting to the generator were intact.
Was the generator itself the issue then? Freugne let out a soft sigh and gave the generator a firm kick.

-Thump!

-Fwoosh!

“Oh, it’s working.”

While not a cheap device, this crude method worked best for the aging machinery.
To be honest, Edan would probably give any malfunctioning magic tools a few good whacks before disassembling them for inspection as well.

And with the generator crudely fixed, the signal that the machinery was operating properly again should be relayed soon.
Freugne poked her head out the door at the end of the ladder and strained her ears. As expected, faint shouts could be heard.

“Here… hel…”

“Supervi… sor… fire…!”

“…What are they saying?”

Shouldn’t they just say clearly whether it worked or not?
Freugne descended the ladder and stuck her head out over the railing. The factory’s first floor was visible from here.

What she saw below were people scurrying about in a flurry, sobbing girls her age, and inky black smoke too thick to have simply been emitted by the machinery.

And then.

-Bang!

-Fwoosh!

“It’s a fire! There’s a fire!”

“Why didn’t anyone report this to me? What were you all doing while I was occupied elsewhere?!”

“Everyone get out! Before the exits are blocked, hurry!”

Whether fuel oil had been ignited, one corner of the factory erupted in a resounding explosion, flames swiftly engulfing the lower levels.

Young girls clutching adults’ hands as they were dragged away in a sprint.
An errand boy panicking that a collapsed wall had blocked one of the exits.
The supervisor performing a memory wipe on himself in meta-philosophy mode: ‘I didn’t see or hear anything, and bear no responsibility.’

Even though Freugne had been gone for barely 15 minutes, the factory had descended into pandemonium.

Looking back, Freugne realized she had not lived an especially fortunate life.

Facing numerous brushes with death unlike ordinary people, as if the world itself was trying to kill her.
It was stranger that she had managed to forget, however briefly. A sign that her body and mind had been at ease recently.

So if there was one mistake on her part,
It was becoming complacent, taking for granted the future she had witnessed of herself still being healthy years later.
Now that she had decided to act differently, she could no longer trust the futures she had previously seen.

Normally, she would discreetly touch people’s hands to glimpse their futures, but for the past few months she had only done so with Edan, so it was hardly surprising she failed to foresee this.

If she had accepted Edan’s offer to send her to school a few days prior,
Perhaps she would be blissfully unaware right now, having returned from classes and fallen sound asleep.

Then her survival years later would have made sense.
But this was mere futile speculation that did nothing to resolve the present situation.

“Hah.”

Upon confirming the fire had spread to the base of the stairs she had climbed, Freugne let out a hollow laugh.

I didn’t bother renting a place in the West End.
While housing prices were steep in the palace and industrial district, I would be staying at Ceres Palace regardless.

“Employee dorms? There’s a small building next to the palace, that’s it.”

“But I can probably just sleep in the research lab, right?”

“Well, as long as it’s not another magician’s lab…”

Thus, my temporary lodging became the floor directly below Palace Master Freyja’s research lab.
It seemed she was quite busy preparing for the next shareholder meeting as well, as I could faintly hear her footsteps pacing overhead even past midnight.

While Ceres Palace had become a beacon burning bright through the West End nights, there were times I needed to step out as well.

-Rustle

“Where did I put those blueprints…”

I rummaged through the drawers in the lab and my bags for the blueprints I had painstakingly drawn line by line after raiding Professor Magni’s experimental equipment, but to no avail.
It seemed I had accidentally left a few pages behind at home amid the process of packing and moving into the palace.

Right.
While I had come to reside at the palace for a while, that didn’t mean I didn’t have a separate home.

I had my privacy too. And I wouldn’t be living at the palace forever.
Until recently, I had stayed in the room next to Professor Magni’s, but after declaring my independence, it would be rather awkward to raid his den again carrying my bedding and pillows.

The home I had prepared was located around the border between the East and West Ends.
Not an unreasonable walking distance, even on a regular basis.

I glanced out the window. The moon was shining brightly in the sky.

‘Should I go get them now?’

I had tried lying down, but the musty odor was off-putting.
I considered postponing it until tomorrow, but judged it better to retrieve them in the cool night air instead of wandering under the scorching sun.

After haphazardly dressing, I grabbed a cutting-edge hand-illumination device – in other words, a flashlight – and stepped outside.
In the time I had dallied, clouds had drifted over the moon, shrouding the city in deep darkness.

Not an ideal time for a stroll,
But perfect for reciting a poem or two in the wee morning ambiance.

“I wonder what Freugne is up to.”

But as a mature citizen, I decided to pass the time with slightly different thoughts.
By now, she would be diligently working. The name was… the Brian Textile Factory, if I recalled correctly from our last meeting.

And just as I had arrived home,
Before I could even insert the key, a faint glow emanated from behind. Turning around, I saw a distant, flickering yellow-orange speck in the air.

‘Fireworks?’

No, there was no reason for such things in the dead of night when everyone was asleep.
And wasn’t Londinium a city ill-suited for such bright, cheerful celebrations?

Upon closer inspection, the wavering light was unmistakably a fire.
The direction of the fire was towards the East End, and being the slums, most buildings were constructed from wood rather than bricks, allowing fires to spread easily.

But for some reason, an uneasy feeling nagged at me.

Just as I was about to take a few steps in that direction, wondering if there was anything worth checking out, a shout dispelled my doubts.

“There’s a fire!”

“Where at?”

“The Brian Factory! The fire brigade must have just been dispatched!”