The Villainess’ Beloved Plan: The Struggles to Avoid a Doomed End

Zazan—.

The sound of waves in the distance.

‘Hey, wake up.’

Someone smacked her on the cheek and Sophia slowly opened her eyes.

In her blurry vision, she saw a tall man with tanned skin. His tanned, almost orange hair shone even redder in the sunlight.

‘hmmn …… McKeel-san ……?’

‘I thought it was McKeel in front of me – but it was something a little different. McKeel had reddish-brown hair, but the man in front of me has a more orange haircut than that. And the atmosphere was more rough, more like a pirate or a brigand – rather than an actor.’

Sofia’s eyes widened with a huff.

‘No way. ……’

‘The man in front of me. I knew I had seen him somewhere before. How could I not recognise him? I didn’t recognise him in The Snows of Glastona because he had a diagonal scar under his right eye, as if he had been cut by a sword, and his eyes were sharper. If I had looked closer, I would have noticed it.’

‘D’Artano, ……. I did. D’Artano’s real name is D’Artano Feldrad McKeel ……. Royalty of a small, defunct country. I was so careless with myself. ……’

Right. D’Artano the Pirate, one of the targets of The Snows of Glastona. I didn’t realise it because it wasn’t the beginning of the game yet and it wasn’t in the game information that he had an acting career. McKeel was D’Artano.

“Here is…….” Her voice was terribly hoarse. Apparently, Sophia was on the beach.

When Sophia tried to get up and failed, D’Artano sighed and picked her up.

“We’re on the beach near the town of Rivadel, north-west of Verhund. We got lucky.”

Sophia twisted her head as D’Artagno moved swiftly and dangerously along the beach.

“Um, why da ……, Mr McKeel?”

Sofia almost called him D’Artano, but she hurriedly corrected herself. Dangerous. Calling him D’Artano would look suspicious.

D’Artano looked down at Sophia and smiled a little.

“I saw you fall into the water and chased after you as fast as I could. You passed out and it took a lot of effort to swim this far with you in my arms.”

D’Artano had already abandoned his gentlemanly tone. He is no longer willing to keep the mask of actor McKeel.

Sophia wondered if she should pretend to be confused, but she was tired and had no energy left to do so. Sophia, who originally knew D’Artano’s tone in the game world, was not surprised when he spoke in this tone.

“I see. That’s an inconvenience ……. Thank you for your help.”

When Sophia thanked him with an unconcerned face, D’Artano looked at her curiously.

“Heh, you’re not surprised, are you?”

“What’s that?”

“The way I look.”

The first name has also changed from me to me. In the Daimu, D’Artano had always referred to himself as ‘I’, so this did not surprise him.

“There’s so much going on, ……, I don’t know what to be surprised about.”

“Well, sure. I can understand why you would want to be stunned.”

When Sofia replied, D’Artano seemed to agree.

But how did D’Artano know that Sophia was at the stern? D’Artano was the one who saved her, but she was skeptical..

When Sophia honestly expressed her doubts, he simply told her.

“Remember the magic show? The trick with the box was that after you got into the box, you go out through a hole under the box and the stage and move to a separate room. In that room, there were some strange things. There was a box and some kind of handcuffs. And the room was locked. Well, I’m used to picking locks, so it was no problem to get out of the room. That’s when it hit me. Cedric approached you first. I mean, I thought maybe this was set up to get you.”

“But why was Cedric the one who ……”

Cedric was a very kind and helpful service staff member. How could he have targeted Sophia? D’Artano shrugged.

“How was I supposed to know what he wanted? But when I saw him take you, I thought maybe. I checked with your husband to make sure, and he said he hadn’t seen him. So I rushed after him and he almost threw you overboard.”

“So why did you save me. ……”

“If you were left alone, you would have been used as food for sharks. You are very beautiful, and it would have been a shame for you to just disappear to the bottom of the sea.”

Is that the reason? She was a little stunned, but she still thinks she should be grateful because she was saved because of him.

“So, um, what are you going to do now?”

‘What do you mean, there’s no way I’m going to stay here. I’m going to the town of Rivadel. I’m going to change my wet clothes and then I’m going to do a bit of work – ah, ……, I see. I could use you.”

“Um?”

“That’s what I call a turn of fortune.”

“Um, …….”

D’Artagno chuckled at Sophia’s confusion.

You know what they say: you pay back three times what you owe.

Sophia had a bad feeling about this, but she was in a foreign country, penniless, and he was a pirate. It seemed unlikely that she would be able to escape in any way