I’ll Become a Villainess That Will Go Down in History

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T/N: Today I want to give another big thank you to my Cookie Donor, Rich!! Thanks for sending more sweets my way!! 😀

So it seems that even within the darkness element, there are different levels of magical power. It starts from level 1, but I wonder what the highest level is….. Out of curiousity, I flip to the last page in the darkness magic section of the book.

『The highest level is unknown.』

Unknown!?

…….That’s right. I remember now!

For the five main elementsーdarkness, light, water, wind, and fireーno one knows what the highest levels are.

And this book’s records only go up to level 100.

As for in the game, level 100 was thought to be basically the pinnacle of magical power since aside from only two people, namely Duke-Sama and the heroine, no one else was known to have surpassed it……

Wait, doesn’t that mean that regardless of how hard I try, Alicia won’t be able to exceed level 100?

……No way. So it’s pointless no matter what I do?

What’s with this Otome game? That’s not fair! Agh, I want to lodge a complaint with the creators.

But, wait…. Alicia seems to be someone who can do whatever she puts her mind to…. So maybe if I train extra hard from now on, I might just be able to overcome the level hurdle?

Though, well, first I should learn how to use the level 1 spells1 I suppose.

But even though I was able to find this book describing the different types of magic and spells, I still haven’t found any books about how to actually use magic.

Well, baby steps I guess. For now, let’s just focus on learning what sort of magic exists in this world.

I pore over the book starting from the descriptions of the level 1 spells.

Seeing the variety of applications, I’m starting to feel a little excited. There really is all manner of different types of magic…… For instance, I wonder if there will ever come a day when I’m actually able to use this spell to close a door?

Although it’s called darkness magic, the effects of these spells don’t seem to be particularly dark nor sinister.

Like, once you reach level 10, there is a spell with the power to clean things that you can use!!

That’s super convenient. I spill things on my dresses all the time so I’d love to be able to use that spell!

And on the page denoting level 50 there’s a note:

『Level 50 magic can only be used by the upper nobility.』

Oh, then that means I should have no problem using it, right? As long as I practice really hard, of course.

Level 50…… I have this feeling that the Alicia from the game didn’t actually get to that poi…….

At level 50 you become able to create magical barriers……! So that means that the one who created that barrier around the impoverished village must have been an upper-class noble…..!

I continue to read through the book, completely fascinated, and before I know it I had already reached level 80. It was around there that I read something that made me pause.

……Magic to exchange something of someone else’s with something of yours?2

『At level 87 you can exchange pieces of yourself with the corresponding parts of someone else.

Things such as your internal organs, skin, hair, or eyes are examples of exchangeable items.

This spell is unique to darkness magic.』

Eyes……?

You can even exchange your own eyes with someone else’s!?

Which means that I can exchange Grandpa Will’s eyes with mine?

But if this spell is at level 87, just how long will it take me to be able to use it…..?

I turn back a couple of pages, looking once again at the note written for level 80.

『Level 80 spells can only be used by upper nobility and will take at least 3 years to acquire.』

At least 3 years…….

I quickly flip forward in the book again.

『Level 90 spells can only be used by upper nobility and will take at least 5 years to acquire.』

So if Level 80 takes 3 years and Level 90 takes at least 5, then doesn’t that mean that to reach Level 87 should take around 4 years?

That’s quite a long time. It seems that the road ahead will be quite the steep one. But even so, I won’t give up.

I continue to flip through the pages again.

『Level 100 spells can only be used by upper nobility. Very few people in the world have ever reached this point.』

Woah, only a few people in the entire world!?

Then, doesn’t that mean that Duke-Sama and the heroine who surpassed Level 100 are absolute monsters?

And the heroine is even a commoner to boot!

To be able to not only reach but to actually surpass level 100 as a commoner…. Sometimes life just isn’t fair. But, then again, it is the heroine that we’re talking about.

What sort of magic was she able to use again?

……Wait, that’s right. That girl was literally able to use every element.

Ugh, the heroine! This is exactly why I can’t stand her. I completely understand why Alicia would have felt the desire to bully such a girl.

“Alicia-Sama! Everyone has gathered in the guest parlor,” Rosetta calls, coming into the library.

I wonder how she knew that I was here…..

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!

That’s right! When I had just gotten back from the impoverished village, I had carelessly let it slip that I was going to the library.

My brain hadn’t been functioning properly at that time.

Agh, this is awful. Even though I had so painstakingly kept it a secret for these last three years……

But, I somehow got the feeling that Rosetta hadn’t been all that surprised when I said that I was going to come here……

I wonder why. Since I’ve been getting up early and avidly learning the art of the sword, maybe she’s just gotten used to my unusual conduct?

If I had told her that I was going to the library three years ago, I’m sure she would have had quite the dubious expression on her face. Human adaptability truly is a frightening thing.

I place the book back on the shelf and then head over to the parlor.

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T/N: Lol, I love the fact that Alicia specifically wondered if she would ever be able to use magic to “close a door” XD This girl really dreams big it seems! Also, the fact that she wants to exchange her eyes (or maybe just one?) with Will’s…. She’s such a sweetheart! Though I can’t think of that as a very villainess-y thing to do haha.

Chapter Note: As this is the first real mention of magic, I have no idea how it works in this novel, so some of my translations might be slightly off. Because of the nature of Japanese, I can’t even tell if each level has multiple spells available for it, or if it’s a 1-to-1 correspondence. Just keep that in mind going forward! To know a few more particulars about this, please refer to the footnotes.

1As of right now, I haven’t seen any descriptions of how magic works in this world yet. For ease of translation, I said that they use “spells” but Alicia hasn’t actually used a word equivalent to “spells” in Japanese, so I might have to change this later on.↩

2This was written really vaguely and in a way that initially made me think that you could exchange objects in someone else’s possession with something of yours, but in the following description, the examples it gives are body parts…. So it’s possible this spell is restricted only for use on parts of the caster’s and target’s bodies, but I’m not quite sure. I translated the book’s words as focusing on exchanging body parts because it sounds better that way, but once again I might have to come back and change that once I know more.↩