I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 178: Evelina Always Brings Good Luck!
I wasn’t wrong; the tasks were mind-numbingly mundane.
At every turn, every time I opened a cabinet or anything that looked slightly ajar, there was another note from her. Each one listed a task, and every time I finished one, I found a congratulatory message—some mix of "good boy" and whatever else she could come up with.
She was right about this being obedience training. I could definitely feel myself getting more used to following orders.
It wasn’t like I’d ever been against taking orders before this, anyway.
And that alone was enough to make this more effective than it had any right to be. She knew she didn’t have to put this much effort into something like this.
Thud.
I closed another drawer in who-knew-what part of the main estate’s mansion and spotted yet another letter, one that more or less complimented me.
It was simple.
But it sure as hell worked wonders at keeping me subdued.
"Hehehe..."
I read the letter, then pocketed it, just like I had with every other one I’d found so far. I planned to treasure them until the day I die.
Before I could leave the room, however, something else caught my eye. And it obviously wasn’t part of Evelina’s plan—it didn’t have succubus energy flowing through it.
"Huh? That’s... strange."
[Photographic Memory]
If I had to describe the feeling, it was like what the novel called magical saturation—an area so dense with magic that everything in it was amplified.
One example would be the Hunt’s grounds, but even that felt light compared to this. During the Hunt’s scenario, the saturation was barely noticeable—but here, it was the complete opposite.
"Don’t tell me... did I hit the jackpot?"
I was still at the D’Arclight estate, after all. Anything that looked out of the ordinary here wasn’t just some strange coincidence—nothing was without a purpose.
I looked around, and the thickest part of the saturation was in the corner, right by a slightly loose floorboard—maybe an inch off the ground, just inconspicuous enough to overlook.
If I hadn’t sensed the magical saturation, I never would have noticed anything strange at all.
The question was... why hadn’t I felt it the moment I entered the room?
Why did I only sense it after closing the drawer and receiving Evelina’s congratulatory letter?
I pried up the floorboard and found a small gilded lockbox underneath. For something that had such a strong effect on a room this small, it was way too underdefended.
Even the lock itself was stupidly simple.
CLANG!
All it took was a bit of brute force to snap the lock and wrench the box open.
Inside was what looked like a simple marble amulet, and beneath it lay a letter—clearly not Evelina’s, judging by the unfamiliar seal.
[Photographic Memory]
I tried to check the novel for more information, but I couldn’t remember the D’Arclights ever having an artifact like this...
Maybe it was just another part of the story the novel never bothered to explain?
I unfolded the letter.
’Is this really supposed to be the talisman that contains the great serpent’s soul? All it does is saturate the area whenever it’s exposed to demonic magic...’
When exposed to demonic magic? So that’s why I didn’t feel it before I finished Evelina’s task. Fully opening and closing the drawer must have released enough of her demonic energy to trigger the talisman’s effect.
I continued reading.
’This was a disappointing endeavor, J. We’ve tried everything, and it still doesn’t seem to do anything. I’m sending it to you because I’ve given up on it. If you manage to get anything out of it, you can keep it. But if not, just hide it somewhere, just in case. Don’t waste too many resources hiding it—if even you and I couldn’t make use of it, it’s better off locked away in a cheap box.’
Huh. Well, that was convenient.
That letter alone was enough to answer all my questions, and judging by the initial used in it, it was obviously referring to Evelina’s father—or his nickname, the Jester.
The last part of the letter was a bit discouraging, though. It meant that whoever wrote the letter, and whoever received it, had never managed to make sense of how to actually use the thing.
That would have been enough to discourage most people. But I still had something most people didn’t have:
A system.
Finally, I could make use of it again.
I placed my hand over it, and just like in the past, the system revealed that it had far more functions than it ever openly stated.
One of them, I had just discovered now: item inspection.
[Inspecting...]
[The Serpent’s Amulet (???)]
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
I didn’t let that stop me.
[Continuing Inspection...]
[Requirements: Dark Serpent...]
[Achieved]
[Unlocking First Ability]
[The Serpent’s Amulet (???)]
- Primordial Pressure
- Unknown
- Unknown
Obviously, I also didn’t stop there. I needed more information.
[Primordial Pressure]
- A living myth condensed into a small vessel. Unleashes fear and pressure equal to that of a conqueror.
I smiled. Well... that was more than enough to satisfy me. No wonder they never figured out how to use the damn thing—it literally required them to decipher a book everyone thought was useless.
Although... why in the world would that even be a requirement?
Sure, they’re both called serpents, but that feels like a stretch.
Maybe the writer of that book had some kind of history that the story never bothered to explain.
Well, just like with most things like this—
"Not my problem."
I shrugged, grabbed the amulet, and slipped it into my pocket before leaving. I definitely needed to test this out.
I’d definitely hit the jackpot with this one. Unlike any other normal, powerful artifact, nobody even realized this thing was actually useful. Evelina or her father wouldn’t mind if I walked off with a supposedly "useless" artifact.
This treasure hunt really did end up being an actual treasure hunt.
And it only reinforced something I’d already believed in: whenever Evelina is involved, things always turn out in my favor.
God, I love her...
