The Baby Villain Dreams of Conquering the World

Chapter 80

Episode 80

"Janet, faster!"

The closer they got, the clearer the sound of sobbing from beneath the monster's huge body became.

"We have to get there quickly! The Count might die at this rate!"

At Flora's urging, convinced by the terrified voice, Janet's movements sped up even more.

The thought that the talent who could bring progress to their business might have met with an accident made her feel impatient.

However, what Flora saw upon arrival was one of the most unexpected scenes.

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"Ugh, ugh, ugh."

In the deep shadow beneath the monster's huge body, a grown man was curled up, weeping.

From sadness? No.

From fear? No.

"I succeeded. Uuuh, Father, I, I succeeded."

His pronunciation was naturally slurred from his sobbing voice, but the man, Count Vittora's face, was filled with ecstatic joy.

"What? Why is he like that?"

Wondering if he had gone mad from fear, Flora was puzzled when Janet explained the reason for his behavior.

「Master, he has the Shalias fruit extract in his hand. It seems the monster isn't attacking because it sees that.」

"Oh ho?"

As Janet carefully landed on the ground, Flora jumped down immediately. Then she ran awkwardly toward Count Vittora, who was lost in emotion.

"Gasp, Young Lady?"

Startled by Flora's sudden appearance from the darkness, Count Vittora fell backward.

Simultaneously, the bead he was holding in his hand fell and rolled onto the ground.

Groooowl.

As the bead rolled away, the monster, noticing the strange aura had disappeared, tried to attack Count Vittora again.

"Argh!"

Count Vittora jumped up in surprise, hurriedly got to his feet, and hugged Flora, who had come close to him.

He anticipated the coming pain and squeezed his eyes shut, but even after a long time passed, the pain of being torn apart that he expected wasn't felt.

"Count, what are you doing?"

"Huh? Well, of course, because the monster was attacking... Huh, where did the monster go?"

Janet had long since scattered her demonic energy and driven it away, but Count Vittora scratched his head with a puzzled expression.

His face, relieved to be alive, looked quite foolish, but it wasn't an unpleasant sight.

"Silly."

It was only moments ago that he was kidnapped by strange men, dumped among monsters, and threatened with his life. He should be worrying about his own life, not being so meddlesome.

'He doesn't even know his own nose is three feet long, really.'

Even while trembling in fear, his instinctive act of shielding Flora revealed his character.

'But it was worth coming to find him.'

She confirmed he hadn't betrayed her and ran away, and she saved the life of a useful subordinate, so the monster incident she caused out of midnight anger turned out to be a fairly profitable venture.

"Oh, Young Lady! I succeeded! I crystallized the Shalias extract and put it in a bead, and the monster seemed to sense it and didn't attack! It was full of signs of avoidance!"

"Is that so?"

"Yes! I think it can be a great help for the business! If you entrust me with its commercialization, I'll do my best! I swear my loyalty!"

"Did you really think I would entrust it to someone else?"

Even as she told him not to say foolish things, the Count grinned broadly, so pleased.

Then, noticing something strange, he abruptly stopped laughing.

"But why are you here, Young Lady?"

"Why else? I came to save the Count who was kidnapped and almost killed."

"Alone?"

Count Vittora looked around with a startled face. His expression held the certainty that it couldn't be, but unfortunately, she was indeed alone.

"I came with my bird."

"Your bird?"

No sooner had she spoken than Janet, who had been hovering high above, descended at high speed and carefully landed in front of Flora.

"...Young Lady, you have another companion bird?"

"I'm only telling you, Count, but my companion bird is special."

As Flora tapped Janet's head, the giant hawk's form shimmered and smoothly shrank.

As Janet returned to her original form of a sparrow with white and grey tail feathers, the Count's eyes widened.

"Ah, what?"

"Unique, right? Only you should know."

"I-Is it a monster?"

At those words, the cute sparrow's face scrunched up. It was understandable to be offended, being compared to a mere monster.

Janet flapped her wings fiercely, flew up, and quickly pecked the forehead of the dazed Count Vittora.

"Ouch, ouch. Sorry, sorry. It was a, a slip of the tongue. I said I'm sorry!"

Janet pecked Count Vittora's forehead until she was satisfied, then flew back to Flora and perched on the child's shoulder.

"It's not like a monster. She's just a special bird. Like me."

"Oh, that makes sense somehow."

She had spoken vaguely because it was bothersome to explain, but it seemed he understood well.

"Her name is Janet, and Janet found you, Count."

"Is that so? She really is a special bird."

At his words, which came out without a hint of doubt, she narrowed her eyes, wondering if he was joking, but he had a very serious expression.

"You didn't show up at the meeting place, so I came to find you."

"Ah, about that, I had unavoidable circumstances."

"Making excuses first isn't a good habit, you know?"

"My apologies."

"Okay."

She taught him that excuses could come after an apology, and he absorbed it perfectly and used it.

Flora crossed her arms and smiled contentedly, then realized this wasn't the main point and shook her head vigorously.

"Anyway. What happened?"

"Well, actually......"

Count Vittora let out a deep sigh and then laid out in detail everything he had experienced.

Marquis Strode, whom he met on his way to see Flora; the suspicious Marquis Strode suddenly acting friendly; the damnable Marquis Strode who drugged and kidnapped him.

After the long tale of badmouthing Marquis Strode ended, the spectacular escape story followed immediately.

Three assassins in suspicious attire tried to kill him; he ran for his life with all his might; monsters appeared, allowing him to barely escape. A tale you couldn't hear without tears.

And the story of surviving thanks to the sample of the protective item made from the Shalias fruit.

When the long story of events spanning half a day ended, tears welled up again in Count Vittora's eyes.

"Saying all this out loud makes it really sink in that I'm alive."

"Okay, you didn't die. Well done, well done."

'Praise should be given generously.'

Unlike Lucifer, Isaac, or Flora herself, Count Vittora was a weak individual who couldn't protect himself, and he held out well until Flora arrived, so he truly deserved praise.

Flora diligently stroked the head of the still-seated Count Vittora with her small hand.

"So, the root cause of all this is because of Marquis Strode?"

"I suppose that's likely the case."

He didn't want to disgrace the highest-ranking vassal of the North, but considering what he had been through, exposing the Marquis was the right thing to do.

"He was greedy for power from the start, so he probably didn't want to see Lucifer's situation improve. He's a despicable old man; how about getting rid of him this opportunity?"

"And have you sat in his place?"

"You are astute."

His flattery toward Flora was now very natural.

It was only natural that Flora was astute, so the flattery had little effect, but still, due to this incident, it seemed she could give him the reward of placing him within her circle of trusted people.

"I'll think about it."

"Thank you. I swear my loyalty with this very body."

"Let's start with your head before offering your whole body for loyalty."

"...My head?"

Wondering what on earth she was thinking, he made a pitiful expression, holding his neck.

"Are you going to discard me as soon as I'm accepted?"

"Don't think such foolish things. Can we commercialize this, do you think?"

"Ah!"

When she showed him the bead made from the Shalias fruit that Janet had picked up and spoke, he nodded with a confident expression.

'Then the contest should be fine. Now we just need to deal with Marquis Strode properly, right?'

Daring to be in the position of the North's highest vassal and yet thinking of joining hands with a Southern Ducal House, she absolutely couldn't let that slide.

'I need to make an example of him.'

The damn descendants of heroes, one of the Ducal Houses leading the discrimination against Lucifer, Duke Deshimo, who even tried to steal her business idea outright, was a problem, but Marquis Strode, who was swayed by his temptation, was also a problem.

'If we handle this well this time, such things won't happen again.'

No matter how much he disliked Lucifer, no matter how much he didn't like Lucifer making money, he had committed an unforgivable act and deserved punishment.

'He's probably happy right now, thinking the Count is dead?'

Wait a minute. Thinking about it, if it weren't for Marquis Strode, wouldn't she have avoided all this hardship in the middle of the night?

She wouldn't have been swept up in anger, she wouldn't have let the Northern monsters run wild, and the Northern knights, her father, and her brother wouldn't have had to be urgently deployed in the middle of the night!

Of course, causing the monsters to run wild was Flora's doing, but anyway, the root cause of the anger was Marquis Strode, wasn't it?

Flora concluded that she herself was not at fault.

'Right, if someone suddenly overturns a cake just before it's finished, wouldn't anyone get angry and hold a grudge?'