The Villainess with a Heroine Harem

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It was a blatant attempt at sowing discord in the forces of the empire, but everyone in the Federation believed it would still have some effect.

Even if they failed to cause any riots or rebellions within Blue Dawn, they should at least be able to rattle the determination of their people, and significantly lower their morale.

Unfortunately, they greatly underestimated Emilia's influence on her people.

Not only did their attempts fail to sow discord, but they also greatly 'motivated' the people of Blue Dawn by filling them with fury and indignation.

"How dare these fools spout all that nonsense against our princess? Can they not see everything that she's actually done?!"

"They're just being hypocritical assholes. You're greedy for everything that she has, but you don't want to show your true face to the world, is it? Don't worry, we'll expose it to everyone when we tear your skin off anyway!"

At this point, even if the Federation withdrew its declaration of war, it almost seemed like the people of Blue Dawn would try to demand one from their empress instead.

Crystal, who was keeping a close eye on the situation, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. 'Luckily, not many people believe their nonsense… otherwise, Emilia would definitely be sad.'

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Blue Lotus Palace had understandably 'busy' ever since the Federation's declaration of war, and Crystal had seen more than a few people rush around almost as if they'd lost their heads.

Of course, if there was one place that was still as desolate as ever, it would be the especially prepared room in their basement that housed Amos Black.

The silver-haired boy sneered when he saw who had opened the lock on his room's door. "Are you here to gloat again?"

His tone might have been mocking, but for someone who could read his emotions like an open book, it was impossible to not notice the excitement he was trying his best to hide.

'He must be thinking I'll do my best to ruin his day if I knew… well, not that he's wrong.' The blonde girl giggled to herself, ignoring the silver-haired boy's increasingly twisted expression.

"What the fuck are you laughing at? Does it make you that happy to see me in this state?"

Obviously, Crystal had already told him more than a few times how little she cared for him, and how much of an 'eyesore' he really was in her eyes, but even if he'd long since stopped 'loving' her, the silver-haired boy still believed somewhere deep down that it couldn't be the 'real truth'.

Perhaps convincing himself that Crystal must be doing everything she could to not let her regret of 'missing him' and betraying him overwhelm her was one of the only ways Amos was able to keep himself sane.

But Crystal knew that simply showing him her distaste was far from enough to really 'break' Amos, so she didn't even bother.

Instead, she turned on the TV that she knew Amos had only just turned off before she came in, and sneered. "What, are you so happy by dreaming of these clowns defeating my Emilia? Unfortunately, such a thing can only happen in your delusions, and can never become a reality."

Amos scoffed at her confident words. "Has she really brainwashed you to the point that you think she's invincible? If only that girl believed in herself just as much, she would not have needed to lock me up here."

Looking at the headlines on the TV, he couldn't help but gloat. "Look, that slut is finally going to get what's coming for her. Wars don't care about your feelings, and when it comes to real strength, Carmen is only as good as perhaps one of those thirteen, right? Anyone with half a brain can tell where this is going. Do you think those people are going to let her go?"

Crystal chuckled in amusement, but she didn't refute his words. After all, there were many things that she felt that Amos would be better off not knowing right now.

There was a reason she asked Emilia to 'improve' the boy's living conditions slightly, and also had a TV installed in his room.

'When smashing something doesn't break it, you first have to raise it high up before bringing it down, after all!'

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Crystal's actions were obviously not hidden from Emilia, but the crimson-haired girl pretended not to have noticed anything unusual. After all, there were too many things that urgently needed her attention at this time, and the crimson-haired girl couldn't possibly split herself and take care of them all at once.

Every moment that passed by without any sign of fire from the other side brought the main combat forces from Carmen ever closer to Blue Dawn, but at the same time, it also meant that the enemy she would be facing next was getting stronger.

As much as many people hoped this 'strained peace' after the declaration of war would last longer, or even forever, Emilia knew that it was a candle in the wind, about to go out at any time.

And as she expected, just a few days later… Noelle called her with a grim expression on her face. "The border town of Norlean was bombed a few minutes ago. The enemy used stealth bombers that managed to evade our radars for a while, and while we managed to shoot them down, the damage to the structures is still huge, and not much can be recovered from the debris."

Even if they were to simply compare the cost of the bombers against the buildings and structures they'd managed to damage, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Emilia's side had paid nearly twice the price this time.

Considering the already outrageous cost of the bombers… Emilia could imagine why Noelle didn't look too happy about their success.

But even though she knew all that, the crimson-haired girl smiled. "Fortunately, we predicted their move correctly this time, and there were no casualties. Don't be so glum."

The gray-haired girl sighed. "I'm just worried that we won't be so lucky next time."

Emilia grinned. "Maybe not. But that's exactly why need to shift the fight to the enemy's turf instead."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━