Episode 11: The Hapless Young Lady and the Villainess (1)
To be perfectly honest, Melissa was already half out of her mind.
‘Where am I? Who am I? What is even happening?’
Her head had already been full from the tension of meeting an author she adored.
On top of that, she was having trouble keeping up with the rapid flow of conversation.
And beside her was Aria, that famous minstrel, whose reason for being here she could not even begin to understand.
The woman was pressuring her with a gaze filled with a strange heat.
How could anyone possibly stay sane and focused in a situation like this?
If such a person existed, Melissa was seriously prepared to ask them their secret.
It would be of great help when she acted in public.
“Lady Melissa? Could you perhaps tell me what led you to make this analysis?”
In the end, unable to simply watch any longer, Author Wade asked her a question, apparently trying to ease Melissa’s nerves and lead the conversation along.
But the pressure was so overwhelming that even Melissa herself could not properly recognize what she was saying.
Yet even amid all that chaos,
these words from Author Wade lodged themselves in her ears without a single syllable missed.
“Miss Melissa. Would you like to do something nice with me?”
“…Yes? Nyeh?!”
All of a sudden, he was tempting her with a serious expression!
‘Th-this! I read this in the book?!’
It was undoubtedly the line from page 83 of [I Became the Ice Duke’s Maid], when Mary took the gloomy Mikael out into town.
Since that marked the point from which the two of them rapidly grew closer, among the fans this line had come to be understood as a kind of seduction toward someone of the opposite sex.
And Melissa, who knew that fact, naturally went pop! as her face turned red at once.
Even her tongue got tangled, and she began letting out strange cries.
‘I’ve only met the author a few hours ago, and already?!’
Even Mary had only said that after several months had passed since meeting Mikael, yet he brought it up so easily!
Was this how different the author who had written the book himself was?
Enough to seduce a young noble lady he had only just met?!
‘W-what should I do?!
I should refuse for now… But what if the author is hurt by that…?’
Revealing without restraint her true shrinking-violet nature,
Melissa began to waver back and forth in anguish, unable to decide what to do.
However, whether to call it unfortunate or fortunate, that anguish of hers soon became meaningless.
Because Wade’s next statement informed her that her thoughts had been a misunderstanding.
“Miss Melissa, I would like you to write the story of this fiancée young lady in my stead.”
“…Pardon? You want me to do what?”
“I said I would like you to write the story of the fiancée young lady.
In my opinion, Miss Melissa, you seem to be the most suitable person to write this story.
Ah, if it does get written, the official title will be changed to villainess.”
But his true intention was far more shocking than the seduction she had imagined.
‘Write what? The story of the villainess?’
‘Who? Me?’
None other than Author Wade, the original author himself,
was asking her to write the story of one of the characters in his novel, the fiancée young lady—no, the villainess.
Judging by how seriously he had brought it up, he probably did not mean for her to write a simple speculative essay like the fan letter she had sent last time.
In other words, he really meant for her to create this villainess’s hidden story from scratch!
She had no idea what he had seen in her to make such an incredible proposal.
But Melissa, who had suddenly been made to shoulder a burden far greater than she had expected, reached her mental limit.
“Hweeeh…”
“Huh? Miss Melissa?!”
Overwhelmed by the pressure, she ended up losing consciousness.
***
“Uwah—when you suddenly collapsed, I was so startled I thought you might have some chronic illness.
Are you all right now? If you’re still dizzy, it’s fine for you to lie down a little longer.”
“Y-yes. I’m all right…
I’m sorry for startling you…”
After hearing my proposal, Melissa had suddenly fainted.
Thanks to that, I nearly fainted too.
‘A young noble lady collapsed at a meeting I invited her to?
If this had gotten out, what kind of rumors would have spread…?’
—Shock! Suspicious Circumstances Spotted During Famous Author Mr. W’s Meeting with a Fan?—
Some article like that might have come out.
I would like to believe the newspapers of this world are not yet capitalist monsters so obsessed with views.
But the species known as trash reporters, the money-crazed among the money-crazed, can spontaneously generate anywhere, so caution is necessary.
Fortunately, Melissa soon regained consciousness and got up.
And I once again made my proposal to Melissa.
“So, Miss Melissa.
Would you be willing to take on the role of author for the villainess’s story?”
“C-can I really do it?
I’ve never written anything separately before.”
“Of course.
As I said earlier, I believe Miss Melissa is the most suitable person to be the author of this work.”
Melissa seemed to lack confidence, asking if I was really sure she would be all right.
But my thoughts did not change.
‘A villainess story served up by a real noble young lady whose personality is similar to the protagonist’s? How am I supposed to resist that?’
At least, I could not resist.
If she had shown no promise, that would be one thing, but Melissa’s character analysis had been quite accurate.
And in the part of her fan letter where she had considered what the villainess could have done better,
I could glimpse a fairly decent ability to construct a story.
On top of that, since she herself had said she had been acting similarly, it would likely be easy for her to apply that experience while writing.
Wouldn’t that produce a much more vivid and plausible work?
It was truly the union of author and protagonist!
‘I can’t let a talent like this go.’
Come on, let me enjoy a novel someone else wrote for once.
Why did I start doing this in the first place?
Self-sufficiency?
Self-sufficiency is fun in its own way, but didn’t I begin this because I wanted to see works made by other people?
So if a suitable talent has been found, of course I should have that person try writing it.
If I just leave it alone, when on earth would I get to see it completed?
Of course, writers as a species tend to have roughly the same stat values as ocean sunfish.
There are plenty of people who cannot dare to challenge themselves carelessly, afraid they will be wounded by a thoughtless evaluation and die with a gasp.
So at times like this, it is necessary to push them from behind and tell them to swing.
“If you agree to take on this work, I will personally sign every work I create from now on and gift it to you, Miss Melissa.”
“…Truly?”
Perk—
Thus, I threw out bait to Melissa, who had once again entered her shrinking-violet mode and was hesitating.
“And if you place your order… no, make your decision right here and now!
Not only will I specially sign the two existing works for you as well, but I will also grant you the right to decide the name of the protagonist who will appear in my next work!”
“I-I’ll do it! Actually, I’ve always wanted to do it!”
Having possessed the spirit of a show host from my previous life and scattered bait, Melissa bit down hard and immediately promised to take on the role of author for the villainess’s story.
You think those conditions are too much like getting something for nothing?
What an utterly un-fantastical thing to say.
Do you think the young lady of that high-and-mighty Count Gideon’s household is lacking in material abundance?
For people like this, you do not offer monetary compensation.
Products that satisfy their fan heart like this are the best.
“Hehehe. Works with the author’s handwritten signature…
I’ll gather them all and pass them down as heirlooms!”
See? Even the person herself is delighted.
I get to make an easy deal with signed copies I was going to give away anyway and a one-time naming right for a protagonist.
Melissa became happy too.
This is what they call a win-win.
“Then shall we have a brief discussion about how to make the villainess’s story?”
And since the contract had been made, it was now time to properly discuss the villainess’s story.
Since I was not the one writing it this time, me stepping forward might look like interference.
But as Melissa had said herself, she was a novice author who had never written before.
She did not even have knowledge from a previous life like I did, so I should help her set the rough framework and direction.
To put it simply, I would be acting as a bootleg editor.
‘Of course, I have no intention of interfering with every single detailed sentence.’
If I did that, what would be the difference from me writing it myself?
And the fun of reading it would plummet too.
I merely intended to help with the basic parts.
“In that sense, do you agree that the theme of the villainess story we will write this time is ‘the villainess succeeds in love without being ruined’?”
“Yes!”
And first of all, we finished agreeing on the theme of “the villainess succeeds in love without being ruined.”
“In truth, quite a few parts of the villainess’s harassment were justified.
Her harassment went too far, and people were immersed in Mary, the protagonist, so it turned out that way.
But I think there were aspects in which the villainess was wronged too.”
As Melissa passionately argued for the villainess’s grievances,
I silently nodded to show my agreement.
Because it was true.
From the perspective of Mary, the protagonist, it was a beautiful romance.
But from the perspective of the villainess, his fiancée, her fiancé had suddenly been NTR’d by a commoner maid.
If you did not get furious in that situation, could you even call yourself human?
In fact, judging by the common sense of this world,
the villainess, who did not immediately seize Mary and kill her but instead merely harassed her and let her leave on her own, was truly on the merciful side.
It was just that, for the sake of the plot, she had no choice but to become a wicked woman.
There was nothing to say if one claimed she had been sacrificed.
Therefore, this time we would reveal her grievances and make her happy too.
And the core of that was—
“Come to think of it, was my guess that the villainess was actually in love with her commoner attendant definitely correct?”
“Yes. It was never officially revealed,
but in terms of the setting, that is indeed the case.”
“Then I think that is precisely the key point of the story.”
—another love and pairing.
At some point, Melissa had cast off her shrinking-violet appearance.
As though she herself had truly become the villainess, she smiled haughtily and arrogantly as she laid out her opinion.
The villainess secretly loved her attendant as well, but for the sake of her family, she gave up her feelings and accepted the engagement.
But then, of all things, her fiancé Mikael and the commoner Mary tried to casually obtain what she herself had given up, so this was the first burst of anger.
And when the attendant, thinking of his mistress, tried to stop the villainess from harassing Mary,
she thought the person she secretly liked had taken Mary’s side, leading to her second burst of anger.
And after crossing the line and going on a rampage like that, she was ruined.
That was roughly how Melissa organized the villainess’s inner feelings and the process of her downfall.
The theme began from there.
“What if the villainess had been honest with her own feelings?
Instead of a fiancé merely decided by her family, what if, like Mikael, she had chosen the attendant she loved with the resolve to throw everything away?
Then couldn’t she, too, have achieved a happy love?”
A story about what if she had made a different choice from the original.
Through what is commonly called an IF timeline, we would create the villainess’s happy love story.
That was our goal.
This way, we could also maintain the previous work’s theme of “love that transcends status,” reducing the readers’ sense of dissonance.
And we expected that, while revealing the villainess’s inner feelings and grievances, we would be able to rehabilitate her as well.
“Sounds good. I think you can proceed with it just like that.
I’ll take my hands off now and happily wait for it to be completed.”
With this, the rough framework and direction had been decided.
Since I had no intention of interfering any further, I washed my hands of it and stood up.
Now I only had to truly trust Melissa and wait for the novel to be completed!