Villainess x Grimoire

The moment my eyelids opened, a very bright and yellow moon stood there. Its closeness made me wonder if the tips of my fingers could touch it.

The moonlight was peculiarly intense. There was something mystical as it focused on a single direction. It astonished me how the ray of light became whiter the lower it went.

Only when my sight reached the bottom did I perceive a silhouette: one of what appeared to be a girl.

The most intricate detail was how her incredibly long hair floated upwards, leaving her bare, pale, and beautiful naked back reflecting a smaller version of me. Her back thus reminded me of a mirror, and to my surprise, in that sole reflection, my eyes turned out to be green. Even stranger, there were two red dots above that smaller version of me.

"How odd." I took gentle steps her way.

I swore she was the moon, and that the light came from her, not the other way around. However, the more I approached and appreciated, the clearer it became that they were two distinct entities.

Henceforth, I kept observing her through day and night as time passed by in rapid succession.

Other figures passed by: young and old, men and women alike, some with peculiar appearances that were clearly not human. But all of them had something in common: they evaded her encounter with disdain in their eyes.

"Why? Did she do something?"

The darkness was her only friend. Wherever she went, it followed. Under the sun, it became her shadow. And below the veil of the nocturnal sky, it turned into something more.

She looked distinct from my friends. Her eyes were icy blue, and her hair was white, silky smooth, and long.

And in a way, she resembled me.

For my friends, I too was different, possessing an unnatural blonde color. That turned out to be alright after a while, since my mother also had it. Thanks to her, I didn’t feel alone or unloved despite being discriminated.

Still, through some effort, I managed to befriend very few villagers.

But the girl in front of me was all alone, making me want to say something to change that, to do whatever I could to help her feel better. Yet my feet didn’t move past a certain point, for I had seen the shadow move behind her before, and the unknown scared me.

'I was and still am a coward. Even in my dreams I only run...’

In rage, I gripped my hands, clenched them tightly onto my skin, and I dared to make a difference. This was, after all, a dream. Nothing could go wrong, or so I thought.

Thus, with a step forward, one after the other, I approached both during the night sky when the moon shone poorly. Like before, the shadow became a humanoid figure, and its arms blocked my path to reaching her.

"Out of my way!" My hand shone in tones of blue, preparing to freeze it if necessary.

Suddenly, as it felt threatened, a screech followed, piercing my eardrums, causing my head to hurt.

"Freeze!" I shouted as loudly as possible, touching the darkness itself. I froze the humanoid from top to bottom, turning it into an ice sculpture.

"Stay there quiet, will you?"

The scary silhouette didn't give me any kind of answer; it couldn't.

I went to the girl's encounter, facing her. "Hello, I'm Iris!"

To my disappointment, she didn't utter a word. It felt like she couldn't even hear me.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" A little forcefully, I shook her shoulders, and I heard this entire space make a heart-beating sound.

"What the?" My eyes looked above and to the sides.

I had triggered something eerie.

The sky above turned red, and from it, drops of blood began falling as some letters appeared. Slowly they descended from the sky, golden were they tone like the tales of Artana book.

I felt the girl tremble, and when our gazes met, tears escaped the corners of her eyes. I could tell then that she could finally see me.

"You mustn't unse-" she coughed, and I felt myself being pulled. My vision turned upside down, and then something grabbed my back, pulling me with immense force.

I fell, and once I got up, I noticed the blackened figure in between us. Its hand caressed the girl whose eyes looked hazy once more. The sky began to turn dark once more.

"So its your fault!" My legs rushed at it, hand shining far brighter than before.

From the darkling, an aura of darkness attempted to consume me. But I dodged to the side just in time. Then, with a dash, my arms embraced the figure that opposed me, freezing it.

"Please don't get in my way. I mean no harm."

Black inked drops fell through its dark sockets as it shook its head to the sides.

It seemed to oppose me to the very end, willing to do anything it could, but to no avail. In my dreams, I was far stronger than ever, apparently capable of unleashing an amount of mana I hadn't even dreamed of owning.

Quickly, before it released itself again, I turned to the girl next to me and shook her a bit more violently than before, "Wake up, wake up!"

To my surprise, a black aura expanded from her, pushing me away. From within, a book surged and intensely shone, forcing me to recollect the one under my bed. But this one was far different, magnificent even. I examined the details of the cover with the red letters, but I couldn't read them.

"I'll freeze you too!"

And as soon as I said that, a malicious aura expanded from it to a level far more intense than everything I had ever felt. For a moment, it surpassed what I felt from the Saintess. And upon realizing that, my heart began to ache.

I stood still, powerless. When I thought the magical book would attack me, its aura went upward, pushing the golden letters, which had reappeared, away from the girl.

The dark figure broke off from the ice with the help of such an evil aura, but it didn't chase after me. Its face looked above at the glorious golden symbols that I couldn't decipher by myself. It must've been the language of some ancient race.

I had failed to wake up the girl, but against the two of them, it was too much of an ordeal. Thus, I aimed what little power was left in me and shot it upwards.

The golden symbols shone and faded successively, causing them to resist my skill.

The darkened silhouette stared at me and wailed with all its might, causing my ears to bleed. I forcefully covered my ears as I yelled in fear and pain.

"Why? What do you want from me?" I didn’t understand what was going on, but it looked like the light itself was hurting the trio: the girl, the book, and the darkling.

But the white-haired girl didn’t move, nor did anything about it. It made me curious about the reason why. Was she alive? Why didn't she care about any of this? Doesn't she feel pain?

I noticed then that between the girl and the light, a dark and red layer protected her.

Why were they so resolute to shelter her?

"Who are you?"

What looked like divine words made me unsure of what should or should not be done. However, if they were so desperate to protect this white-haired lady, I couldn't possibly go against them.

Thus, with all my might, I placed my hands on the light without thinking twice. But the moment I touched it, to my despair, my hands ignited.

From the harm, I too wailed, feeling the blaze that wasn’t meant for a human being.

Finally, I had understood that this light was the real enemy.

I used all the power I could fathom to dream about freezing this brilliance away.

Thus, I suffered, but soon the sky turned dark again.

My heart stopped aching, but my hands still hurt.

The darkling looked away from the night; instead, her abyss-like eyes struck at me. "You look like the one from back then."

"Who?"

"But the kitsune priestess died. We failed with our master." A pressure made of nothing but wrath made the space violently shake. "That filthy hero and the wicked sage!"

"What?" At those odd words, I felt the trembling of something deep within me, deeper even than my heart.

Forcefully, I woke up.

“Ah!” I gasped for breath, looking down at my hands, cooling them off with my freezing breath. That had been the only thing I could think of amidst my drowsy state, and as far as logic went, it felt like a righteous action.

“Why!?” My confused self couldn’t understand this heat, and the way the temperature didn’t drop, no matter how much mana I spent.

Because of my screams, my parents hurriedly barged in, shouting, “What’s wrong!?”

“My hands burn!” I yelled back, lifting my hands in the air, showing them my hands surrounded by a blue aura.

Confused, my father approached me, close enough to grab one of my hands. “Halt your mana.”

Upon his request, I stopped, feeling a burning sensation propagating yet again, followed by a lesser pain.

And his yellow aura illuminated the room, slowly becoming something more, “heal.”

That was when my hand started to incinerate further for the first few seconds, but the pain slowly disappeared, leaving my hands in a pleasant state.

I extended my other hand to him, so he repeated the process, and thank goodness, he did, “I don’t get it...”

“What happened, Iris?” My mother questioned me, half-dressed. She must have picked up any clothes that were close to her before coming to my room.

“I think I had a dream... didn’t I?” I tilted my head to the left, trying to remember, but only a fog remained in its place. “I... uh...” My mouth ran out of words. There were no traces of what I had gone through. Not even the pain I had just felt. Everything was mysteriously gone.

“Maybe you had a nightmare where you hurt your hands,” Dad did his best to subdue my confused state. It was normal to have bad dreams, especially after horrible things happened.

“I’m sorry...”

My dad’s hand reached out for the top of my head. "Everything's alright now." He patted me softly, then he kissed my forehead and wished me goodnight.

My mother followed through and pulled the sheets up to my chin, passing softly on my hands, and caressing them briefly. I could tell she was satisfied with their good condition. She added a smile, wishing me better dreams.

I nodded softly and then allowed myself to try again, clenching my fingers on the sheets, scared of what the dreamland had in store.

It wasn’t until the afternoon of the following day, the 9th of the moon season, that the adventurers returned. A few from the more experienced ones brought back what they could find of Brook’s body, along with the gear we had lost there.

They were nice enough to deliver the bags without seeking a commission out of it, meaning that the guild staff had handled this matter yesterday. Likely, they had paid on our behalf.

From a small cart pulled by a vigorous man, we could see a white sheet covering what was inside.

A woman, whose appearance looked slightly older than my mother's, ran over to the cart in tears. Hastily, she removed the layer, still not believing the story the guild told her.

Once she picked up the rest of what could be considered an arm and analyzed it in silence. Then, she fell on her knees, embracing the deteriorated piece of meat.

Watching her like that made me recall the emotions of that day. The painful ones of hearing his last moments: that was the detail I hadn’t told the guild, I couldn’t. And in a way, that made me relieved. The thought of knowing that his mother wouldn’t get to know about it, believing her son died as a proud member of the guild, brought me a bit of relief.

Ryze stood close by her. He must’ve known his mother. I didn’t hear anyone say anything. Aside from the sounds the woman did. The silence was profound and impactful, almost cutting some of the air around, making us breathe as carefully and as little as possible.

“My son... my poor son,” the woman mumbled some words, lifting her chin, and looking up to the sky. Took her a long while before adding something more. “May the goddess Aria look over him.”

“May his soul return to the goddess.” Many added in unison. Mainly, the few wearing white robes: the fellow priests part of the church of Astia village.

That was one of the places I had never set foot in.

‘His soul... what happens to it now?’ Dad had told me the same thingthey said. It returns to Aria's embrace. But it made me wonder. Didn't we leave a soul stone behind when we die? Isn't that our soul? Hadn't the stone been eaten by those beasts? Yet, I didn’t have the guts to question them.

I took a deep breath, regaining some of my calmness and restoring my sanity.

The priests took the body out of the cart, carefully placing it on the ground.

“Ma’am, cremation or burial?”

Her sorrowful eyes glanced over at the priest, and, whimpering, glass-breaking words followed. “There’s nothing to bury.”

The man held on to her thoughtfulness with open arms, picking up every piece of him and making a pile. There wasn’t much of a ceremony for a lowborn like us. But that was fine.

To the villagers, it still had meaning, and it would ease the heart of Brook’s mother and even my own.

Once it was done, they lit up a stick with fire magic and burned the remnants from four different spots.

“May his soul find rest in the goddess’s realm.” He declared finally, leaving the mother’s heart with some hope, and reducing her pain if only by a tiny bit.

‘If Aria was a proper goddess, she would’ve saved him,’ I scorned her in my mind. The helplessness within me made me drive my dark emotions to anything else, to someone else, to her. Whilst that was not okay, she had become my scapegoat. It helped me come to terms with my lack of power. After all, if she was a goddess and didn’t bother to save him, how could I? I turned around, escaping from the smell of rotten, burnt meat. The intense smell that propagated like a disease, and the smoke that would soon bring more tears to my eyes.

I was done crying. Thus, I moved away from the cemetery, all the way to the faraway fountain in the center of the village, where I took a seat and stared at the water. It flowed mysteriously by itself.

‘Why were we born into this world?’ I pondered deeply whether there was an answer to my question.

‘Couldn’t we live in a world just for humans?’ I leaned my head forward and then shook it to the sides.

“That’s not it,” I recollected the war books of my past life, whose stories pictured humans who had fought amongst themselves many times.

“The world belongs to the strongest side. That’s it, isn’t it?” I grinned in a twisted manner at my conclusion.

“And because Brook was weak, he died.” My mouth returned to normal, and my emeralds dimmed.

‘He and I, grains of the same sandbag.’ Such was an old saying from my old world.

‘How will I protect my family if I can’t even protect my companions?’ My right leg began shaking, up and down, as I became more and more anxious. My eyes caught a glimpse of my left hand.

‘If only I had a teacher.’ I required an expert for the ice element. There were ways to expand and improve my freezing skill, but my father didn’t have such knowledge. Thus, my growth had halted.

I still felt proud of what I had already achieved: a skill without as much as possessing a class. This meant that, independent of the class I decided on, I’d keep it with me.

‘If only I had managed to turn that entire area into ice...’ The chances were likely that as long as the creatures didn’t have a mobility skill. They would have kept slipping on the icy ground, allowing my teammates to kill them. One of them had even died thanks to it. But I needed far more mana than what I currently possessed.

‘They’re not invincible!’ I thought to myself, a bit more exalted. After all, if one died, others could too. But I needed to find a way to turn this idea into reality.

'How?' I gripped my fingers on my knee, making the relentless shivering stop.

‘The next time we meet...’ I recollected Brook, deciding to get revenge on his behalf.