Chapter 225: The Villainess Kept Giving Her Ideas
Alexandra stared at the title for several seconds.
It was shameless. It sounded like cheap wish fulfillment written by a man who had never spoken to a woman without embarrassing himself. A review beneath it insisted the story was surprisingly sincere under all the fanservice, which sounded impossible enough to be interesting.
She tapped it anyway.
The story followed an exhausted office worker who escaped into an immersive fantasy game and quickly discovered that fighting monsters was easier than understanding the women around him. He was stubborn, competitive, and dense enough to mistake obvious flirting for a threat.
Alexandra smiled despite herself.
"That sounds familiar."
The heroines didn’t fall into his arms simply because he was the protagonist. They had goals of their own, argued with him when he deserved it, and made him earn their trust. Some of them clashed with each other just as often as they fought the monsters.
Whenever an argument broke out, the protagonist somehow ended up in the middle.
At first, Alexandra assumed he was too dense to escape. After a few Chapters, she realized he was stepping in on purpose.
He let the women vent at him before they could say something cruel to each other. If someone needed to take the blame, he took it himself. When two heroines misunderstood each other, he listened to both sides and refused to let either of them walk away believing she mattered less.
He wasn’t graceful about it. Half the time, he made the argument worse before stumbling into a solution.
In one Chapter, he promised three women that he would spend the evening with them, only to discover that they had planned three different activities at the same time. Rather than choose one and disappoint the others, he ran between all three locations until he collapsed from exhaustion.
Alexandra laughed into her pillow.
"That is exactly what Martin would do."
The fictional protagonist had the same irritating habit of trying to carry every problem himself. He wanted everyone around him to be happy, then looked shocked when the responsibility became too heavy.
The more troubled he became, the more Alexandra thought of Martin.
She could already picture him trying to calm Katherine, reassure Cassandra, and stop Elisebeth from declaring war on everyone else. He would wear that strained expression, rub the back of his neck, and search desperately for an answer that didn’t hurt anyone.
Alexandra’s smile widened. She loved putting that expression on Martin’s face.
The villainess in the NovelFire seemed to agree.
She understood how hard the protagonist was trying, but that never stopped her from making his life more difficult. During serious meetings, she whispered shameless things into his ear. Whenever the other women were watching, she sat far too close and phrased innocent comments so they sounded scandalous.
The more flustered he became, the happier she looked.
Alexandra immediately understood her.
"Finally, a woman with common sense."
The villainess didn’t torment him because she wanted him to fail. She trusted him enough to know he would recover, and she enjoyed stripping away his composure until his honest reactions slipped through.
Alexandra teased Martin for the same reason. His confusion was adorable because it was genuine. He tried so hard to remain respectful, yet one suggestive comment could leave him staring as though his thoughts had crashed into a wall.
More importantly, the villainess knew when to stop.
When the protagonist was truly overwhelmed, she was often the first to step in. She redirected the argument, drew the other women’s irritation toward herself, and gave him enough time to breathe before anyone noticed what she had done.
Alexandra’s smile softened.
That part mattered. She didn’t want to make Martin miserable. She wanted to trouble him just enough to make his real feelings slip through.
The rest of the story kept surprising her. No magical drug pushed anyone into the protagonist’s bed, and no convenient accident decided that two strangers were suddenly in love. The relationships grew because the characters fought beside one another, made mistakes, apologized badly, and returned when it mattered.
The women had relationships with each other too. They could spend one Chapter arguing over something ridiculous, then risk everything for one another in the next.
Alexandra curled onto her side and hugged the pillow against her chest. The story was messy and shameless, with plenty of crude jokes and fanservice, yet none of the women felt like prizes waiting to be collected.
Whenever someone new joined the group, the others didn’t disappear. The balance changed, people got jealous, and the protagonist had to deal with the consequences. He didn’t always have the right answer, but he never treated anyone’s feelings as disposable.
It looked remarkably close to the kind of harem Alexandra had just imagined.
At some point, she stopped judging the story and started hoping it would prove her right.
The protagonist loved every heroine, and he worked himself to exhaustion trying to make all of them happy. Alexandra could respect that.
She could also imagine making Martin’s job much harder.
If this ridiculous idea ever became real, perhaps that would be her contribution. Martin could work himself into a panic trying to keep everyone happy, while Alexandra made sure the whole arrangement never became boring.
She grinned into the pillow.
Alexandra reached the bottom of the Chapter and pressed the button beneath it.
[Next Chapter]
When she finally checked the time, far more of the night had disappeared than she expected.
The villainess had just cornered the protagonist inside an empty guild hall. She planted one hand beside his head, leaned close enough to steal his breath, and told him that she had already decided he belonged at her side.
The idiot thought she was threatening him.
Alexandra tightened her arms around the pillow.
"Come on. Kiss her already."
The Chapter ended before the villainess could make her move.
Alexandra stared at the screen in disbelief, then jabbed the button again.
[Next Chapter]
"Just one more Chapter."
Somewhere around Chapter three, Alexandra had stopped taking mental notes and started rooting for the harem to succeed.
Worse, the villainess kept giving her ideas.