I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 194: Threatening a Demon Prince...?

*** Evelina’s Mind - Third Person POV

"Darkness, huh?"

Evelina’s voice slipped into the void, small and unsteady, as she realized she was naked. The place around her felt like the bottom of the ocean—cold, endless, and suffocatingly quiet. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

A cool, weightless pressure slid over her bare skin, gliding along her shoulders, brushing the swell of her breasts, tracing the curve of her waist as if invisible fingers were testing every line of her body.

Her hair floated around her like a dark halo, strands whispering across her neck and collarbone. With no floor beneath her, no up or down, she hung in nothing—exposed, weightless, and acutely aware of every inch of herself.

The only thing she could sense was her own voice, drifting through the emptiness as she searched for answers.

"I guess I passed out..."

She pressed a finger to her lips. The answer tasted bitter.

"Pass out? That doesn’t sound right... Even an aircraft crashing shouldn’t damage me that much."

She kept swimming through the void until she finally found something.

Purple energy.

Something she had seen before—so familiar it had practically become part of her daily life. Cael’s strange chaos and divine magic.

"Hm?"

She moved toward it, and as she did, she saw a familiar figure—or at least, as familiar as something could be when you’d only ever seen it in textbooks.

Horns where the eyes should be, a refined dark suit, and a smile that looked normal yet somehow wrong at the same time. The very embodiment of the uncanny valley—and the demon she knew was deeply entangled in Cael’s personal life.

Beelzebub.

But there was something different about him now. Instead of the single horn on the left side of his head, there was an eye. The same eye Cael used to have.

’So that’s where it went...’

"Hello, mortal. Or should I say, my future champion’s mistress?"

Evelina narrowed her eyes. Unlike her original self in the novel, who went mad and did everything she could to obtain power, this time she didn’t need to do that. This time, she had a reason to be careful about where her power came from.

And here, she absolutely did not trust Beelzebub.

"How are the souls I gave you?"

"Unwanted..."

"That’s quite harsh."

Beelzebub laughed, feigning pain and hurt.

"Harsh? You think getting mad at you for messing with Cael’s feelings is harsh?" Evelina shot back, her voice rising.

’This bastard. Did he really think putting the souls of people Cael regretted losing into me would be fun?’

"He doesn’t seem to mind, though," Beelzebub argued.

"Doesn’t seem to mind!? What else do you expect him to do—cry and writhe in anguish forever? Of course, he’ll act normally despite what you did. He isn’t some whimpering, pathetic child."

Evelina wasn’t afraid of Beelzebub. Of course she wasn’t. Even if this Beelzebub was far stronger than the one she’d read about, she still knew he couldn’t really touch her.

She had already planned for this.

She had planned it from the moment she and Cael became official—and especially after she learned about Beelzebub’s involvement with him. While she refined the darkyte and stayed away from Cael, she worked in the shadows, plotting her next move.

She wasn’t some damsel in distress who relied only on Cael. She was still Evelina, an expert in demonology.

"Is that really how you speak to a demon prince, mortal?"

"Demon prince?" Evelina snorted. "Please. All you have is borrowed power."

"And yours isn’t?" Beelzebub shot back.

"Oh, please. Unlike you, I could’ve made a contract with a succubus on my own. You, on the other hand... that eye of yours, that sudden confidence?" She narrowed her eyes. "It’s all because of Cael, isn’t it? Without him, you’d still be a sniveling coward—"

"Enough."

Beelzebub’s voice cracked like a whip. Evelina felt something clamp around her throat, as if invisible fingers were choking her. But instead of fear, all that rose in her was cold contempt.

She glared at him, eyes full of disdain.

"Hit a nerve, did I? Mark my words, I’ll kill you for messing with—"

Evelina didn’t get to finish. With a surge of power, Beelzebub expelled her from the void, flooding her with magic before she vanished and left him alone in the empty dimension.

"That girl... what the hell is wrong with her?"

Cael was one thing. But another human like that? Someone who shattered everything he thought he knew about mortals?

"I really should be more careful..."

He had always thought he was the insane one. Now he knew there were mortals far crazier.

Either that, or they were just plain stupid.

And Beelzebub was inclined to believe it was stupidity. After all, higher beings like him always underestimated humans.

***

GASP!

"Mistress, you’re awake?"

The succubus stared, shocked. Her mistress had woken far earlier than expected. Instead of opening her eyes the next morning, Evelina had awakened in the dead of night—three a.m., to be precise.

On top of that, the succubus could feel a strange energy radiating from her.

"Chaos magic...? W-What happened?"

Her eyes widened. Chaos magic was the only thing that could explain why her master had woken so soon. But that only raised a bigger question: who on earth could have given it to her?

"Just a bad dream, that’s all," Evelina said with a short laugh.

"It has to do with the two other yous inside you, doesn’t it?"

"You cheated. You just read my mind, didn’t you?"

"That’s besides the point. Are you worried about him?"

"Yes."

"He doesn’t seem to mind, though."

"Of course he doesn’t. He’s simple like that. But as his girlfriend or whatever I am, it’s my job to worry about his well-being, even if he doesn’t realize the problem himself."

"You’re being paranoid."

"Paranoid? Do you know anyone else who’d stay sane when their dead failed lover is literally living inside their current one?"

"...You make a good point."

"I always make a good point."

Evelina sighed, then pushed herself to her feet and looked around. "Where are we?"

"This is the mansion on the land you’ll be ruling. Cael saved you from the elven attack."

"Of course he did..."

"Oh, and he told me to tell you this when you woke up: he cleaned up the entire place for you."

"Of course..."