The Main Character is the Villain

However, the only proof I had that Aira was a swindler was her status window. Since she hadn\'t actually done anything yet, there\'s still a long way to publicly shame her. Even if I accused her, saying, \'You’re a swindler!\' it’s not like she would nicely reply with, \'Yes, I am!\'

If I recklessly pushed the accusation that she was a swindler, it would just backfire and alert her. It\'s easy to catch an impostor who has infiltrated from within, but once they turn into a thief, catching becomes a hassle.

In the game, Aira betrays Lucius just before the hero party arrives. Based on my scouring, Aira only recently started working at the mansion but was assigned to attend to the lord because of her exceptional work skills.

Right. No matter how much of a pushover Lucius was, he wouldn’t suddenly entrust accounting duties to a maid he didn’t know. Aira must have worked by the lord’s side for quite some time and was trusted by him.

At this point, I needed to figure out exactly where I was in the game\'s timeline. I currently have three urgent tasks: dealing with Aira, preventing the NTR event, and finally, defeating the Demon King.

These three tasks were intertwined. The event where Sieri was forced to marry the NTR pig happens roughly a week to a month before the hero party arrives. The event where Aira embezzles money and flees also happens around a week before.

Lastly, the Demon King\'s resurrection would be about halfway complete by the time the average four-member hero party arrives at Lucius\' territory.

Why is the Demon King\'s resurrection halfway done based on a four-member party? In [Heroine Legend], the game\'s difficulty is adjusted based on the number of party members. Recruiting new companions involves lengthy events which makes the in-game days pass quickly.

So if the main character skips all the events and doesn\'t recruit any companions, and heads straight to the Demon King\'s castle, the Demon King won\'t even be resurrected. Instead, they will arrive just as the Demon King is about to gather the necessary sacrifices for the resurrection ritual and kill everyone involved.

Conversely, if the main character recruits all his companions by completing various quests, they\'ll engage in a bloody battle against a jacked-up Demon King, who has grown stronger in the meantime.

Therefore, this is a game where the player can choose to defeat the Demon King with a moderately leveled party or to take their time, and fight tooth and nail to win. But according to my independent research, the prophecy designating the hero hasn\'t been made yet, and the elf princess, who\'s in the quest to vanquish the Demon King and eventually meets the hero, is still living peacefully in her forest.

So, I started thinking that maybe I should just defeat the Demon King myself, since it will take a while till Aira\'s betrayal or for the NTR pig to become fully active.

Why? Because if the hero enters the mastermind\'s mansion on his own without any events, they would be around level 20. The mastermind is merely an ambitious lord, one slash would be enough to dismember him.

Even at level 20, you can one-shot the final boss.

But Lucius is currently level 36, and he\'s a priest specialized in slaying demons. Plus, having played the game, I know who the mastermind is. The mastermind\'s domain is quite close to Lucius\'s territory, blocked only by executives during normal gameplay.

It would take about a week for a round trip on horseback. I wouldn\'t say it\'s easy to get there, but it\'s not too difficult either.

However, since the prophecy designating the hero hasn\'t been revealed yet, it means that there\'s no sign of the Demon King\'s resurrection, let alone any preparations. If I just barge into the mastermind\'s house and massacre the entire family, I\'ll just be branded as a crazy murderer.

No matter how high Lucius\' reputation is, if he commits such acts, his reputation would only amount to, “He didn\'t seem like the kind of person to do that.” It wouldn\'t do any defending. Even as a lord, killing people from another territory without due cause would immediately lead to territorial war or a trial. A trial would be a major headache in many ways.

To summarize, the things I need to handle in time are dealing with Aira, blocking the NTR, and eradicating the Demon King. To defeat the Demon King, I need to go far. Since there\'s still time before that, my immediate priority is to gather evidence against Aira and uproot the tumor.

Why not just fire her? If you dismiss someone like her, she\'ll just come back disguised as a thief next time. It\'s annoying, so it\'s better to catch her with solid evidence while in the mansion. Then, I can torment her as much as I want.

She\'s got a big chest and a pretty face. What else would you do with someone like that in an eroge?

So I started planning how to punish Aira. If she didn\'t show any suspicious signs, I would have to force her to reveal them. I had neither the time nor reason to sit around waiting for Aira to commit crime. �

Before planning, I began to observe Aira\'s behavior patterns. The pink-haired, freckle-faced Aira wakes up every day at 6 a.m., checks on me, and prepares my clothes. After that, she cleans various parts of the building with the other maids and then the aftermath of the knights\' training in the territory.

For reference, the knights have been loyal since the time of Lucius\' father, Sirius. They\'re trustworthy. Even in the game, they say nothing else but express their concern or loyalty towards \'Lord Lucius.\'

After finishing the cleanup from the training, it’s lunchtime. Aira eats lunch with the other maids and then immediately assists her lord in his duties. Since the territory is small, there are no major projects or large expenses, so my work was pretty relaxed.

In fact, Aira looked more stressed standing beside me while I worked. She stood by her lord\'s side during his work hours and brought me anything I needed immediately.

"Could you fetch me some water?"

"Yes."

Having observed Aira, I concluded that she worked extremely hard. After work hours, she would clean the estate again after dinner during the evening cleaning time. And at night, the servants and maids take turns patrolling the mansion.

Then she would wake up again at 6 a.m. and repeat the cycle. Starting the day at 6 a.m. with night shifts was grueling work.

As it was a lord\'s estate, the pay was quite good, but even with that in mind, the conditions were extremely tough. Maybe Aira wasn\'t a swindler in the first place, but decided to escape because she couldn\'t endure the harsh working conditions?

"Aira, isn\'t the work hard?"

"Pardon?"

When I asked Aira if she was having a hard time, she looked at me with wide eyes and quickly shook her head. Despite the fatigue evident in her eyes, she didn\'t seem willing to show it. Her shock, combined with the desperate head-shaking, was so convincing that I began to doubt if it\'s really acting.

And her breas†s that jiggled with each shake was mesmerizing as well. Her swaying pink hair was tied up like Anne of Green Gables, making her look like an innocent country girl.

“No! I’m fine, My Lord. I should be trying harder to be of more help to My Lord, but I’m not good enough…...”

Of course, Aira\'s saintly act was unmasked by that one overly flattering remark. In such harsh working conditions, anyone who says things like that was either shot in the head or had an ulterior motive. She should have just ended with \'I\'m fine, it wasn\'t hard at all.\' Excessive flattery tends to arouse suspicion.

That evening, I started digging into Aira in earnest.

I decided to entrust the investigation to Robin, the captain of the knights, whom I favored and was utterly loyal to Lucius in the game. But isn\'t leaving such a task to the captain too much of a hassle? With only 10 knights in this small territory, the captain\'s position was actually quite idle.

Thanks to this, even if Captain Robin wandered around, the maids and servants only sees \'Robin\' and wouldn\'t think much of it. Although I wondered if this was an appropriate image for a captain, I decided not to interfere since he was diligent in his work.

A week after assigning Robin to monitor Aira, a report from Robin landed on my desk. Robin was perceptive of Aira\'s presence nearby, with the paper he handed me, saying, \'Knights’ Regular Patrol Report.\' I too, very nonchalantly, looked at Aira and said.

“Could you fetch me some water?”

Fetching water was probably the task that took Aira the longest. Since there are no water purifiers in this world, she had to bring water from the kitchen on the first floor to my office on the third floor.

Once Aira was gone, I spoke to Robin.

“Report.”

“Yes. The maid Aira currently makes it a point that the people around her know that she is skilled in accounting, and periodically tells the head maid that her skills would be helpful to you, My Lord.”

It was within the range of what I had expected. It might be difficult for her to take charge of the accounting books right now, but if she continues to appeal and show her sincerity like that, even the strict head maid would eventually give in and suggest to me to have Aira handle the accounting work.

Once she takes over the accounting, she would start handling larger sums of money, and to control each and every thing, it would be easy for her to run off with a significant amount. However, I didn\'t plan on waiting that long.

“And, there\'s also talk that she regularly meets with the guard Karl...”

“Is that so?”

This might just turn into a fun plan. I didn\'t care whether Aira was a virgin or not in the first place. Given that she was fundamentally a swindler, she was likely promiscuous wherever she went.

“Robin, I have a plan.”

“Please speak, My Lord.”

I felt the corners of my mouth rise.

[Previous Chapter]