The cunning NPC and his reincarnated villainess

"Y-yes... that's right..."

Charlotte nodded, lowering her head as her shoulders trembled.

Medea went silent, but not because of compassion or anything silly like that – he was feeling relieved.

Relieved that he didn't actually try to take the imposter to the palace where the truth would be exposed uncomfortably fast and get him in way too much trouble than he was willing to go through.

With that in mind, he shook his arm and...

*shuu*

The knife silently fell into the palm of Medea's free hand as he was about to deal with the problem right then and there.

He still had plenty of fire pellets that would make the cleaning-up instantaneous, albeit a bit flashy.

The black-haired man didn't harden his grip on the girl's hand, and he didn't even start smiling.

It was nothing more than a chore.

"...she didn't deserve that..."

"...?"

Charlotte sniffled and actually made Medea clinch and withhold the knife.

"Then you're saying that the one captured and killed was the second prince's body double – a girl to boot... hmm..."

Medea expected the uninvited information drop to be bait, but he decided to act as if he got hooked on it and hummed, intrigued as to what play the little actress wanted to perform.

"...ah....! I-I meant he! He didn't deserve that...!"

"..."

But then, to Medea's surprise, the pale-blond-haired girl's face turned bluish, and she looked him straight in the eyes while stumbling through her words, trying to correct herself.

If that was acting, then... Charlotte must have been a one-in-a-billion prodigy because she actually made Medea believe that it was a slip-up and made a mistake she sorely regretted.

"No, you knew what you said. Explain."

"Ghh...!"

The black-haired man shook his head while raising the teenager's hand in the air and making her go on her tiptoes...

"!!!"

...while also putting the knife to her throat and making her turn ghastly pale from fear.

"Calmly. If you raise your voice, it's over."

Medea felt the need to clear out the possible misunderstanding that Charlotte might have had about her situation, so he nicked the skin of her neck with the blade and drew blood while the girl's eyes turned even wider than they already were.

"W-we were kept in the same place...! A-at first, I didn't realize that she was a girl, but then one time I woke up, and she wasn't there, so I started looking around and walked on her peeing and saw everything...!"

Charlotte gulped down her saliva and did the reasonable thing – complying with the villain's request.

"..."

|If she was a well-trained body double, then there's a chance she expected Charlotte to be a decoy or a trap that would lure her into danger... Still, the return of a body double isn't a bad distraction~|

Medea was silent but had a chuckle on the inside.

He even lowered his hand, letting the pale-blond-haired girl stand normally – although he didn't really take back the knife away.

"It was awkward for a bit, but then we started talking. It turns out that she had a twin brother, but he died as a toddler because of some inborn disease. The thing is, her mother – the third concubine, didn't want to lose the status of being a second woman to give the king a male heir; she declared that the girl was the one who died. The third concubine raised James as a boy, only referring to her by that name."

Charlotte continued, encouraged about the possibility of not getting killed by the same person who saved her.

"The thing was, with James being studious and talented in fine arts slowly winning over the king's heart, the first prince started to see her as a threat... that kidnapping wasn't the first time the direct actions were taken against her by him... Do you know what was the worst in all of this?"

|In Wondalandor, the female heir cannot inherit the throne.|

The girl explained and smiled sadly into the distance while the black-haired man thought in silence, figuring out what will she say next.

"When I asked her why didn't she reveal to the first prince that she was a girl and wasn't a threat to him, she just made that stunned face and opened her mouth completely dumbfounded. That mother of hers must have really messed with her head for her to not realize something so obvious on her own before it was too late. Ack...!"

Charlotte said and lowered her head, getting herself cut on the knife and letting out a short yelp as the wound was nowhere as insignificant as the earlier scratch from Medea.

*thump*

Without any prior indication, Medea suddenly dropped his knife and let it fall to the ground before grabbing Charlotte's shoulders and leaning down to stare at her face.

"MARVELOUS~!"

"!!!"

Forget about cracking the friendly smile – the black-haired man's face twisted into the most demonic expression that terrified the pale-blond-haired girl so much she clenched her legs and barely kept it together.

"Ahh~! Brilliant! Amazing! Incredible! Exquisite! I could only dream of going with this plan, but now it can be done~!"

Medea's shoulders trembled as he broke into an unhinged giggle while moving his hands from Charlotte's shoulders to her neck and then to her face, coupling her cheeks and squishing them and making her unable to even ask what in the world he was talking about.

It was like a king cobra coiling around a chipmunk about to devour it as a light snack.

"Hmm?"

Medea caressed the girl's face with his thumb and furrowed his brows when his movement smeared something red on her skin... which turned out to be the blood that was pouring out of the wound the girl inflicted on herself.

"No, no, no. We can't have that now, can we?"

The black-haired man shook his head with disgust and instantly took out a green marble from his pocket without even looking.

*crack*

"...!"

He pressed the healing pellet to the girl's neck and crushed it, unleashing the spell that made the wound disappear in an instant, leaving only the blood staining the clothes.

"Yeah, that's much better~ We can't have a royalty going around with injuries like that."

"..."

Medea nodded his head with satisfaction before returning to staring into Charlotte's face with a demonic grin causing the girl to be utterly confused and struggling to comprehend what she should do.