I Woke Up as the Villainess's Friend. I Don’t Want to Be the Next Dark Queen

As for the dungeon, it goes like the day before, in the two runs we do. When I use earth channeling as a precaution since my life-saving necklace is still on cooldown, I get the following notification:

Congratulations. Your level of channeling with the earth element has increased. Earth element channeling advances from intermediate to high.

High earth element channeling costs two mana points and lasts 4 minutes. It further increases the density and hardness of the body or object to which it is applied. The area to which it can be applied increases to one of the following options:

the user's entire body

plus one weapon, piece of armor, or small object.

three weapons, three armor pieces, or three small objects

a terrain area equal to what the user can control with her earth control spell. Essential requirement: simultaneously using the earth control spell.

It also allows applying channeling to a weapon that already has channeling from another element applied.

More armor or weapon/armor durability? (And weight…) Great!

Reading the description makes me realize that I can't apply earth and fire to my body at the same time, but I'm confident I'll be able to do it with future spell improvements.

Curiously, I notice it's not five minutes but four that this high-level channeling lasts.

I don't level anything else, and the only noteworthy thing is that, for a moment in one of the troll villages, I freeze up.

In that frozen moment, my mind goes back to when I finished off the assassin. His covered face overlaps with that of the troll I'm about to finish off, and with Gump giving me those puppy-dog eyes. As the troll starts to react and, despite being knocked down, is about to attack me, I shake off the mental image and finish it with a slash from my sword channeled with fire and earth.

Yes, both. The truth is earth doesn't do damage, but I was testing it in real combat. And since it weighs more, I think maybe with a bit of luck I'm even training for pack mule mastery. Or building muscle, at least.

Are you alright, my lady? Ronan's concern reaches me through our mental link.

He's not getting into melee combat unless he sees the situation is very safe. After all, he's not a warrior and has more common sense than I have. It's one thing to raise his mastery with sword or mace, and another to foolishly expose himself to serious or fatal damage.

Of course, he doesn't have my earth channeling defense. Too bad I can't apply it to him.

Oh! It hits me.

Not to his body, but I can apply it to his armor. In fact, I could have been doing it from the beginning. Nowhere does it say it has to be my weapon or my own armor.

No… wait… we already tested the weapon thing with Catrina. That first day she made me try a bunch of things. Among them, I lit my sword on fire, passed it to her, and the channeling burned and hurt her—probably one damage point back then.

But the armor… earth doesn't do damage; it only increases weight, durability, and protection from physical damage, so I figure yes, I should stop overthinking and cast it on Ronan.

My lady?

I dodge a troll trying to attack me—easy since it's exhausted by Ronan—and answer him.

Yes, I just realized something. I'll tell you later.

He must sense it's something good from the excitement in my mental voice because he doesn't say anything more. We finish cleaning the village and I approach Ronan. Mary comes over too.

"I'm limited by my mana, but I think I could enhance a piece of your armor to give you more protection."

"That's great," Mary tells me. "Do it for Ronan. I already have my light shield."

"Let's try it in the next village then."

We check to see if there's a chest in the council hut (they have to let us take that out of the dungeon, at least), but as we figured, there's nothing. The poor dungeon already has enough trouble regenerating the creatures on the first two floors without also creating loot on top of that.

I'm confident that on the third floor, which we're not going to, it is generating a decent chest.

We go to the next village, I ask the pup for a discreet lick, and cast my spell on Ronan's lich robe.

"I think it works. At least it no longer feels like light fabric," he tells us.

"Great, so you can practice melee a bit more after using your area exhaustion."

And we continue, finishing the floor and the dungeon.

We rest to eat and I meditate, then we repeat it in the afternoon.

Then, back to the academy.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

By the way, Tovan is waiting for us. He tells us what I thought he was going to order us yesterday: no taking materials out. Only the troll blood vials from the commission or the yeti hide.

"Yes, that's right," Mary smiles at him with her peculiar sweetness that disarms the veteran.

"I see you were already doing that," he observes, somewhat confused.

"Yes, the vendor told us."

"Perfect. You're milking the dungeon to its limits. I think the army won't be clearing it again for months."

"What can I say?" My friend shrugs. "We're very grateful for the opportunity you and the academy are giving us to improve our studies and level up."

"A young woman with light magic like yours is always welcome."

Wow, and the poor necromancer isn't. I hold back laughter. It wouldn't look good and the soldier might even get mad at me.

Ah… poor Ronan, how poorly necromancy is viewed and how well they regard the pretty young mage with healing magic.

Berta.

The magical alarm she had left outside the teleportation chamber went off and let her listen in for a few seconds. Karina Morven's voice was easily recognizable. That girl loved to talk way too much.

Berta finished folding the sheets, told another maid she was stepping out of the laundry for a moment, and headed to the male students' dormitory wing. It was mid-afternoon and she was a maid so nobody would question her presence there.

When she saw the prince walking down the corridor, talking with Theodore Dravenholt, she waited for them to pass her position, then approached from behind discreetly and placed a hand on his shoulder.

There was no point waiting for him to separate from the Marquis of Dravenholt's son, since their rooms were adjacent.

"Excuse me, Your Highness. I would like to speak with you for a moment."

He startled slightly. He tried to hide it, but Berta felt it through the vibration under her palm.

She had expected him to be more alert and notice her approach.

"Aren't you Bianca's maid?" he asked.

"She certainly is," Theodore answered. "She chaperoned my trip with Mary."

Berta noticed the young man was still annoyed about that.

"Did Bianca ask you to find me?" the prince asked.

"Your Highness, as I requested, I would like to speak with you for a moment. Alone."

"Well, see you at dinner, Theodore," he said, bidding him goodbye.

Theodore entered his room, which was less than half a meter away.

"Go ahead," the prince encouraged once they were alone in the corridor.

Berta focused, extending her senses. It was safe.

"I wanted to inform you that your brother, His Highness the Crown Prince, knows about your intended bride's elements," she said in a serious, low voice. "As you can imagine, she is now a more appealing match than Faith Vassilea."

"What?"

Vincent spoke too loudly. Berta gave him a reproachful look.

He was a prince, she a maid, and yet he apologized.

"That is all I wanted to tell you, Your Highness. If you'll excuse me, my domestic duties call."

She turned to leave.

"Wait," Vincent whispered. "Did Bianca ask you to inform me of this?"

"Bianca hasn't connected the dots. She doesn't realize what Sigfrig is capable of. You do."

Berta left, leaving the prince pale by his room's door.

Vincent.

What Sigfrig was capable of.

Those words echoed in Vincent's head and images from the past surfaced in his memories.

His brother taking away a toy just because he discovered it was Vincent's favorite. Or blaming him for things Sigfrig did to escape punishment. Countless times Vincent had even seen him take credit for their sisters' achievements.

From Alistair, who had many siblings, he knew that spoiled behavior was more typical of the youngest. In this case, Lily fit that description a bit. But Sigfrig took the cake, despite being the firstborn.

Vincent had learned to stay out of his way and make it clear that he wasn't interested in the throne. Though this last part cost him some pain because, while it was true he had no interest in being king, he did worry that his brother might make decisions that would harm the kingdom's welfare, like wasting crown money on parties and whims or raising taxes.

Despite everything, when one of the noble factions had approached Vincent suggesting he would be a better king, he had firmly made it clear that he was loyal to the crown and to his brother.

He had accepted that his role would be to try to guide him down the right path. In fact, he had spoken with his parents about them giving him an advisory position once they abdicated in favor of Sigfrig.

He approached his room's door, opened it, and entered. His valet approached and Vincent asked to be left alone.

He sat on his bed, allowing the emotions he had been containing to overwhelm him.

Sigfrig and Bianca.

Bianca meant everything to him. She had been his first kiss. Unlike his brother, he didn't make a habit of breaking the hearts of girls who showed interest. He simply rejected them kindly, as he was waiting for the right one.

That's why his first kiss had been with someone who filled his heart and thoughts.

Sigfrig, however, had even lied about his feelings to achieve his goals, and afterward, crown officials had to clean up the mess, silencing both the poor young woman and her parents. He wasn't even married yet and was already filling the kingdom with bastards.

The mere thought of his brother forcing Bianca to kiss him turned his stomach, not to mention that something worse might happen.

The fact Bianca was more than capable of knocking him flat with a punch was comforting; but she was nobility, an earl's daughter, so if his brother managed to get the king and queen to approve a wedding...

Just thinking about it made his blood boil.

He had never felt anything like this before, such intense emotion.

But his parents wouldn't allow it. He had to cling to that. His parents had told him they weren't going to force any of their children into a marriage. He had already spoken with them to say that he and Bianca wanted to get engaged, that they would make it public soon, as soon as she tactfully resolved the matter of her previous engagement.

When he had been alone with his mother, she had asked if he was sure of his feelings and he had answered, with complete honesty, that he was. His mother had smiled—she had seemed happy.

So he had a defender there.

Now he had to act, figure out how to prevent his brother's whims and schemes from bearing fruit and stealing his fiancée away.

He could imagine him whispering into the right ears that such a valuable young woman surely belonged as the future queen.

What if he talked to Faith?

Sol was determined to marry him, so she would be delighted if Sigfrig broke up with her sister and got engaged to Bianca. She wouldn't care about the insult that would mean to their ducal house. But Faith was another matter.

Hmm... no. Faith would be capable of trying to assassinate Bianca if she found out.

The simplest path would be to accelerate the engagement with Bianca, make it official. He doubted his parents would then allow Sigfrig to break it.

He also knew his brother. He was capable of approaching Bianca and causing her to do something foolish that would get her in trouble. After all, one had to treat the crown prince with respect, and his beloved sometimes got carried away by impulses and emotions. You could tell she had fire magic too.

Bianca...

The memory of her smile, combined with Vincent's own personality, attuned to his air and water magics, had already calmed his initial anger.

"I promise you, my love, that I won't let them separate us," he whispered, into the solitary silence and calm of his room.