I Raised the Villain's Daughter Too Well-Chapter 20: Didn’t Know! -

"What the hell is that guy doing?"

Misellini lowered the binoculars with a tired expression.

The fourteenth yeti had died.

- Grrrr...

"Stay still. You're being noisy."

He muttered while stroking the nape of another yeti.

It wasn't a big deal. The yetis were supplied endlessly.

Behind him, including the ones that had just arrived, thirty yetis were gnashing their teeth, ready to be dispatched.

Their bloodshot eyes and the constant drool dripping from their mouths were so grotesque that even someone unfamiliar with yetis would find it suspicious.

- The Creshel Family's secret art, Bloodline Manipulation.

A technique that allows the blood sorcerer to control any monster that has consumed his blood. Simple yet powerful, but it required prior preparation.

And Misellini had been secretly spreading his blood throughout the Crovan Mountains for the past two months.

All thanks to a well-paying benefactor who had revealed the exam location in advance.

'I didn't expect it to be like this, though.'

Misellini smirked faintly and sent out two more yetis.

In truth, it didn't matter what the exam content was. The biggest obstacle, the blizzard, was being handled by the yetis, and they were clearing out all the other hindrances along the way. Whatever the test was, his first place was already secured.

He might even leave an excellent impression on the observers.

Since they wouldn't know he had prepared in advance, they'd think his Bloodline Manipulation was some godlike ability to control monsters with a mere glance.

Though he had already fed them plenty, he wondered if he could squeeze out a little more, chuckling as he picked up the binoculars again.

"...Tsk."

And then, his expression twisted as he watched two more yetis drop dead in an instant.

...What the hell?

No matter how he looked at it, that was not the combat capability of a mere exam participant.

Of course, he had known it wouldn't be easy.

That benefactor had suddenly shown up yesterday, looking sullen, and had made a request.

Make sure that man in the butler's uniform doesn't pass the exam. It shouldn't be too difficult... they said.

"Bullshit."

Not difficult?

Misellini spat on the ground irritably.

He could guess what they were up to.

A test. They had invested so much, so they wanted to see if he could handle the lackey of a rival noble family.

It was supposed to be simple. If he wanted to milk his sponsor to the fullest once he got into the academy, he had to make the best possible impression now.

That butler must have already realized someone was targeting him.

Maybe that’s why he was keeping his cards hidden and taking down the yetis with minimal effort.

Misellini scoffed, finding it ridiculous.

How long could he keep that up in such extreme conditions?

Meanwhile, the number of yetis he had dispersed around the mountains was slowly converging on him.

As long as he didn't make the mistake of sending them all at once, but instead sent them one by one, gradually exhausting the target, forcing him to reveal his hidden cards...

The result was already set in stone.

Soon, he would finally be free from the disgusting fate of being treated as a commoner despite being a noble.

Lost in such pleasant thoughts, Misellini lowered the binoculars and prepared to send out another yeti. But then, he suddenly felt something was off.

'...Why the butler uniform?'

A butler's uniform was hardly appropriate attire for someone challenging the Empire's most brutal exam.

Usually, only butlers wore butler uniforms... but why would a butler be participating in the exam?

Misellini shrugged it off, readying the next yeti.

Whatever. He could just ask after subduing the guy.

****

"That's sorcery, huh?"

I muttered, poking through the yeti's corpse with my sword and examining its bloodshot eyes.

Sorcery in the Empire was considered a primitive technique used by savage tribes and was generally avoided.

It wasn’t outright discrimination, but the stereotype existed for a reason. Sorcery and those connected to it were never treated well.

Even among nobles.

I had heard of a few noble families whose secret arts were based on sorcery.

I couldn’t recall the exact details, but...

If they were that low-class, they wouldn't have been invited to the academy in the first place.

Not a real noble like Firnea, but more like a fake noble, like me.

"Disgusting..."

I sighed and quickened my pace.

Sorcery was ultimately a lesser form of magic, but depending on the situation, it could become a more dangerous tool than magic.

If the sorcerer had absolute control over the yetis, then honestly, I was screwed.

My stamina wasn't infinite. If I kept fighting without rest, I would eventually drop dead.

The only solution would be to find the sorcerer and take him down, or to escape the area as quickly as possible, but finding them in this blizzard was nearly impossible.

Meanwhile, the sorcerer could use the yetis' sense of smell to pinpoint my location and attack whenever he wanted.

Running away wasn’t an option either. There was no way I was faster than a yeti in the Crovan Mountains. Otherwise, I’d be a yeti myself.

Of course, there was one possible method.

A straightforward method where I stripped off all my clothes, covered myself in yeti blood, then tore the corpses apart and scattered the pieces all around me before running like hell.

'...I'd rather die.'

The observers might be recording everything.

If Firnea saw that?

Death would be a mercy.

Even if pride wasn’t the issue, there was no way I could show such a disgraceful sight as a Seriratus butler.

Alright, let’s think...

"...! ...!"

"..."

While I was lost in thought, a strange sound mixed in with the howling blizzard.

I immediately sharpened my hearing.

Behind me, about a hundred meters away.

Visibility was completely obstructed by the snowstorm, but I had a general sense of their location.

Pretending not to notice, I continued walking forward –

- Bang!

I detonated a fireball beneath me, launching myself into the air.

"So, if we combine our strengths...!"

"What the hell?! Who's this guy?!"

Slicing through the blizzard with my sword, I quickly assessed the three people standing there.

A hulking brute dressed in thick furs.

A mage in a robe with fierce eyes.

And –

"...Arin?"

"Hello."

Arin stood there in her plain clothes, unfazed.

How is she not frozen to death? Upon closer inspection, not only was she not frozen, but the snow around her was melting.

If my eyes weren’t deceiving me, she was radiating heat from her entire body.

It was absurd to think she was the sorcerer; she was too clueless for that.

I scrutinized the other two, but there was no sense of tension in their wary expressions.

If they were the sorcerers, they should've been panicking the moment I got close.

I sighed, sheathing my sword. Things weren’t going as smoothly as I hoped.

"Sorry. Mistook you for someone else. Carry on with whatever you were doing."

"W-Wait a second!"

The mage called out to me.

"Who the hell are you? How can you withstand the cold in such light clothing? What kind of magic are you using?"

"She’s the same."

"Y-Yeah, but... she’s not even human!"

"...?"

I glanced at Arin to see what he was talking about. Arin lowered her head, avoiding my gaze.

"What do you mean? She's just another participant."

"Hah, you really don't know? That thing’s a witch!"

"A... what? A witch?"

"Yeah, a witch! You can sense mana, right? So why don't you know?"

"Know what?"

"Mana! That girl – you can't sense any mana from her!"

At his words, I looked at Arin.

Indeed, even as she kept avoiding my eyes, I couldn't feel any mana from her.

But that was only natural. She wasn’t a magician.

"But she uses magic. People who use magic without mana are witches – those who can use the powers of monsters..."

"Are you an idiot?"

"W-What?"

"That’s not magic."

I shook my head, feeling a dull throb in my temples.

"Stop talking nonsense! If what she's doing isn't magic, then what is it?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"?"

"But one thing's for sure – it's definitely not magic."

I had heard the folk tales – those who use magic without mana are called witches.

But Arin wasn’t using magic.

How many hours had I spent studying dwarven techniques, trying to detect the flow of mana?

There was no flow of mana in Arin.

It wasn't that she was using magic without the fuel of mana –

...She was simply boiling her blood to generate heat. It was more like a bizarre physical stunt than magic.

How she was doing it, I had no clue. It wasn’t some cutesy "witch" trick; it was something much stranger.

Not that I cared. I had no intention of explaining it to them, nor the time to do so.

As I turned to leave, the mage hurriedly tried to convince me.

"...Hey, wait! You know it too, right? This test – it’s designed so that no one can pass."

"And?"

"So instead of wasting your strength on something impossible, why not try a different approach?"

"Hmm..."

The hulking brute clenched his fist as he listened.

"Yeah, they said it’d be cold, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad. Fine. I'll do it. It’s better than collapsing here."

"Good thinking! If we fail, we’ll have to cough up all the sponsorship money!"

"And what exactly are you planning to do?"

"Witch hunt."

The mage pulled out his staff and began chanting something.

"If there's a witch among the participants and we manage to defeat her..."

"It’ll be the perfect excuse. We might even get extra points as a special case!"

"Haa..."

What a load of crap.

They were just panicking because they knew they couldn’t pass the test, so they latched onto some pointless nonsense.

Their brains must have frozen solid.

For one, Arin wasn’t a witch, ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) and even if she were, the so-called "special case" they were hoping for only existed in their delusional fantasies.

What concerned me was Arin.

"Why aren't you saying anything to defend yourself?"

"..."

Arin kept her lips tightly sealed.

If she at least said, "I’m not a witch," or "This isn’t magic, it’s something else," they might not resort to such drastic measures.

But her silence was only encouraging them to believe their nonsense.

I wondered if she was just enjoying the opportunity to beat the crap out of people under the guise of self-defense, but...

Her head was still lowered, and her hand gripping the sword was trembling slightly.

It wasn’t because of the cold. The snow was melting before it even touched her.

"You should think about it too. If that witch passes the test, then–"

"Oh, right."

"...Huh? Y-Yeah! That’s right. Let’s split the credit three ways!"

Looking at the mage’s hopeful expression as he tried to recruit me, I responded.

"Perfect. I just happened to need someone to get covered in blood in my place."

"?"

The mage was wearing a compass attached to his belt.

How considerate of him.

Made it all the easier to target him.