The Villainess with a Heroine Harem

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With Cynthia's guidance as well as having experienced quite a few highs and lows in her past lives, Emilia had clearly learned being selective with what information she shared with whom, regardless of her personal trust in their character.

It might be unlikely that they would end up betraying her, but not everyone who was 'trustworthy' had to know all her secrets. After all, it would be meaningless at best, and in the worst case, it might even put them at unnecessary risk.

That being said, Emilia still liked to share many things with her lovers. This was especially so for Crystal and Noelle, whom she believed were generally the most insightful and astute with their advice.

Of course, Cynthia just criticized her for having a love filter on, but Emilia insisted it wasn't like that at all.

After listening to her explanation, though, the blonde girl couldn't help but scratch her head in confusion. "Wait, hold on. Emilia… if I understand this correctly, you're the one who swindled the prime minister…?"

When her girlfriend first explained that she managed to reach an agreement with Bella, Crystal really thought that she had ended up 'exposing' most of their previous actions.

This was one of the reasons why she had been so worried about the price that her girlfriend might have had to pay in exchange. But clearly, she had been quite mistaken.

Emilia pouted, clearly dissatisfied with the blonde's disbelief. "Hey, that's not nice! I didn't lie to her or anything, you know? There were just some things I had to omit to make sure nothing went wrong!"

Given how hard Justine and her team had been working on pulling this all off, it would truly be a tragedy if everything was ruined because of her mistake. Even if they might forgive her for it, Emilia knew that she would still regret it very much.

Needless to say, she had only told Bellatrix what she 'knew' about the relationships between Rhea, Alexander, Kristie, and Amos. Combined with a few additional details of the past events, the prime minister came to certain conclusions on her own.

Bellatrix naturally understood that given their past 'interactions', people like Alexander and Amos would obviously receive considerable attention from those looking out for Emilia, and the girl knowing more about them than usual was more than expected.

And with her sense of justice, it only made sense for her to step in and try to help out people in distress. This was especially so for someone like Kristie, who was so similar to one of Emilia's dearest girlfriends.

The only thing Bella found slightly surprising was how cleverly Emilia managed to guide the two into 'fighting' each other, and didn't even flinch when one of them really ended up dead.

But recalling how the takeover of Blue Dawn had been far from peaceful, the prime minister soon came to accept it.

Despite how she looked, Emilia could be just as decisive and ruthless when needed as she was kind and caring otherwise.

Had that not been so, the crimson-haired beauty would never have been able to do what she did, regardless of the price her guardians paid to help her out.

Of course, accepting that the girl she admired had schemed against her enemies and tricked them like that was one thing, but helping her with the resources of the country she led was something else entirely.

Regardless of how attractive and irresistible she found the girl, there was no way Bellatrix would make her own country suffer just to help Emilia out. Not without proper compensation, at least.

Fortunately, the 'damage' that Phoenix would suffer because of this event wasn't very significant, given how Amos would end up taking most of the blame. And Bellatrix was more than happy to help her out after Emilia even agreed to some of her more 'outrageous' demands.

Getting a few favorable trading agreements went without saying, though Bella seemed reluctant to take advantage of her, but what really baffled Crystal were the 'additional conditions'.

Not only did the prime minister want Emilia to change the policy of not having explicitly written laws in the Empire of Blue Dawn, but she also insisted that the girl do so within a year!

Although Crystal found it a little hard to believe at first, both her judgment of Bella's character as well as trust in Emilia quickly allowed her to come to terms with it.

It was true that Emilia would be going 'against her original intent' in a sense, but as long as it was the will of the empress herself, Crystal knew that few would dare complain.

Not to mention, the changes that the prime minister of Phoenix wanted Emilia to make didn't really seem like things that the girl herself wouldn't want on her own, which made it much more acceptable in Crystal's mind.

In the end, she could only sigh. "Fine, I get it. I'll do my best to integrate our current system with your new laws. But when are you planning to introduce them?"

Sweet, soft lips pressed against Crystal's lips like a heavenly reward, and she couldn't help but be happy to have made the right decision. 'As long as Emilia is happy, isn't everything else of little consequence?'

If the Crystal from a few years ago heard her thoughts, perhaps she would want to just bash her head against the wall repeatedly.

The crimson-haired girl grinned happily. "As soon as we're back home!"

Crystal smiled. "And when will that be?"

Emilia hummed thoughtfully. "How long do you think it will take for Bella to drag Amos out of his turtle shell?"

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Unfortunately, what Emilia expected to be an already cracked turtle shell that Bella could easily pry open turned out to be something more akin to a spiky rock instead.

Not only was it incredibly tough and difficult to pry open, but there was also no sign of any meat inside.

Even when Bellatrix herself flew over to negotiate directly with the president of Oriana, she was left reeling in disbelief. "What do you mean you don't have him?!"

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