Chapter 5 : Yuri-chan's on a killing spree !

Sadly, her first death wasn't enough to convince her to back off.

Look at her, still prancing around like that.

Her target this time is the country's first prince.

Ewww, he's slobbering all over her...

Annoying.

Ah, she's coming towards me.

"Hello , midget, just wanted to let you know that your plans won't work."

I tilt my head.

"They won't?"

She looked at me, with a smug expression on her face.

"I think they did"

I giver her my most innocent smile, and she loses hers.

"What ?"

I lean towards her and fake whisper.

"I saw Elimia-san fiddling with your drink while you were busy shoving your tongue down First prince-san's throat, if it is what I think it is, it should be kicking ..."

She fell to the ground, her body seizing and blood seeping from her mouth.

"Right now."

She looked at me heinously.

That, should keep her from coming back, right ?

Ah, perhaps I should explain what happened ?

Well, we realized we were stuck in a time loop tied with the heroine, who happens to be a player from somewhere. If she dies, it resets. So for now, we decided to use and abuse this time period for research and making her life hell within the limits of legality. Well, we're starting the plan , anyways, since it's only the first loop.

So, she decided Oriens' first prince was a no-go and decided to go to see Meridionis' instead. Being the sleazebag he is, he almost jumped over himself at the offer. All I needed was to hypnotize the castle's healer into giving me their deadliest poison, stuck a notice on it saying 'very deadly poison', go see the rival, and the conversation went like that:

I saw Elimia heading towards the party, and so ran towards her.

I bumped into her, then 'clumsily' fell to the ground.

"A-ah, ow, sowwie."

The woman, Elimia, a high class... courtesan, the prince's favorite obviously recognized me and faked a  smile.

It's not because we're fellow Rivals that we have to like eachother, you know ?

"Ara, if it isn't the little duchess, where were you going?"

I 'nervously' fiddled with my fingers.

"Well, you see, since I couldn't sleep, I was reading in a room and then , I saw first prince-sama and first duchess-sama entered. They shooed me out, you see, so I went to the healer to make him give me a sleeping potion so I could sleep, but he gave me that instead."

I gave her the bottle, and she raised an eyebrow at the label, carefully peeling it off, and her eyes widened when she saw the composition.

Ah, apparently, she did know her poisons.

"So I tried going to my room, but they were next to it and doing lots of weird noises, there was moaning, and groaning, I couldn't sleep at all !"

Ah, she looked positively enraged,  only one more push ~

"And this morning, I heard them talk about a marriage after tonight's party...."

"Aaah, it was nice speaking to you, but I remembered I had something important to do. My apologies duchess."

She gave me a tight smile and rushed towards the party.

And didn't gave me back my poison bottle.

"Success!"

...

Ah, she stopped twitching, everything's going black.

Onward to the next turn !

What am I going to do to her this time...

The light comes back, and I'm drinking coffee again with Nagito-kun.

"You couldn't resist, could you ?"

"Awww, but she was so unguarded, so sure of herself, of course I had to do something, the first step in defeating her is stamping out her spirit after all~"

He sighed.

"You're a twisted, twisted woman. Both of you really."

I smirked, he was obviously alluding to the Queen. She'd been sitting back in my mind , looking at the current events instead of playing around with the lesser Yuri. Her constant presence had a certain influence on my comportment and actions.

"You're saying this, but you're not much better, you're the one who suggested 'manually resetting' the timeline to gain research time..."

He put his cup down with dignity, but his eyes were shining with mirth.

"I prefer to call myself a pragmatic. Since you decided to play the stereotypical villain, though, why the attire ?"

Ah, my frilly, shiny, white and blue dress ?

"Simple, really. Bright colors throw people off, because they think evil is black and or red , so unconsciously, they'll think there is more to me than pure nastiness."

"The Overlord's list ?"

"Yup"

I popped the 'P' Looking supremely satisfied of myself.

I jumped out of my chair and went to his side.

"Well, I'm off."

I squeezed his hand.

There was an embarrassed silence.

I could feel both Nagito-kun and the Queen looking at me disbelievingly.

"And ?"

I shouldn't be the one pointing it but...

What is it, Yuri-en.?

Say it Yuri-jo, it is beneath someone of my station to make such statements.

So, what is it Yuri-jo ?

Th-That was p-pretty l-l-l-lame... You're d-d-d-dating **squee , I finally got to say it!** you know ?

Well, if you girls are so smart, what should I do then, huh ?!

...

Ha!

I glare at Nagito-kun.

"If you've got a better idea, do tell, because I've got absolutely no idea of what I should do right now!"

Yanno, Yuri-hime, that was supposed to be a disbelieving silence. You're supposed to kiss him goodbye.

No way in hell I'm doing that, we've been dating for less than a day !

I've listened to your meaningless prattle long enough. We are not the kind of woman that would give their everything to someone unless they prove themselves to us.

Yes your highness...

Phew, saved.

That said. I expect development on your part very soon Yuri. Setting your heart on someone and not acting on it is unbecoming of us.

B-b-b-b-b-but that's embarrassing!

So embarrassing. I knew this was a bad idea from the start!

"Haaa..."

Hey, why do you sigh ! Do you now how embarrassed I currently am ?!

"Eighteen years old and less experienced than me when I was twelve..."

What with that disappointed expression ! And twelve years old is MUCH too young to start that kind of things !

"...Ah, well, you've worked hard, I suppose."

He mused, rubbing the top of my head.

This feels nice.... Not!

I refuse to be trained like a pet!

Take off your hand right now !

Stupid caaaaaaaaaat ~

Ten minutes later, I'm finally set free. He redid my hair too, since he messed it up in the first place. I'm not too sure about the braid though.

I'm finally off. Heroine is avoiding me.

Puhuhu, as if that was going to stop me.

I spy her from afar, and this time, it's Second duke-san she's going after. That shameless woman, two different men, in two days...

Aaah, the thing is, to drown his heartbreak at not getting pretty-maid Heroine-chan, he drowned in alcohol and a girl became pregnant, so he married her out of duty. Aaand now he comes at her like a dog, hanging his tongue and wagging his tail in joy.

Sigh

All of those love interest guys are scumbags, aren't they?

Well, at least Meridiens' prince remains single because he knows he can't keep it in his pants...

How disappointing.

At this rate, they'll let her sink alone, instead of trying to 'save' her when the destruction end comes and sinking with her...

They're currently doing the nasty behind a rosebush.

Where am I ? I am sitting in the same rose garden, drinking tea (eugh) with miss Second Duke's wife. She' a nice girl, well mannered, and quite pretty. I suppose she's the kind of rival that plays 'by the rules' or even befriends the Heroine, making her subsequently bad for betraying her and stealing her man away, in the first game. In the second, the player playing the heroine better feel utterly rotten for breaking her marriage and leaving her pregnant and destitute.

Poor girl, being married to such an irresponsible guy...

If I were that Tasu-guy, I'd punch him in the face.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

But since I'm me, I'll be content with killing his mistress.

I never said I was a good person, after all...

Too bad he won't remember the consequences for his cheating on her...

"So, Olivia-san, you were about to introduce me to your new pet?"

The brunette smiled gently at me and got an animal out of her basket.

"Indeed, Lilia-sama. Here, this is Iliaste, she's a crowned scarlet viper. Don't take off her muzzle, her bite is deadly."

Awww, ain't she a cutie pie? That venomous color, that hatred for everything in her eye, the pure nastiness emitted from its whole being...

I pet her for a moment, while leaning back. That thigh I see poking through the leaves definitely isn't male. They're doing a surprisingly good job to keep it quiet, the goddamned animals.

"So, how does they work ?"

"Ah, they're a breed specially trained for defense. You see , you roll them like that, don't push too hard or you'll hurt it..."

I do as she instructs coiling it at the hem of my sleeve, with the tip of the tail between my fingers.

"Then you just 'aim' and throw it. It is trained to instinctively jump when you do, so its strike is lightning fast."

"Oh my, how convenient."

I take off the muzzle and aim by 'accidentally' tripping over my feet, and the serpent flies. The small, feminine scream I hear signals that the snake flied true.

Olivia-san looks both surprised, and upon recognizing whose voice it was, immediately turned suspicious.

She walked over and paled, a hand on her heart and a furious expression on her face. I get up and join her.

Oh wow. I think he's still 'inside'

Gross...

Ah, it's darkening again.

"You should really learn to not open you legs to the first man that passes like a bitch in heat, Duchess-san, not every snake is good to receive..."

Awww, she thinks she's impressive by glaring at me like that, how cute.

"I'll beat you..."

"Not today, not ever. But do try your best, I need someone to amuse me after all."

I smile at her condescendingly.

The screen goes black again.

And lights up again.

And we're back drinking coffee.

"We really need to establish ground rules about this , Yuri. No killing the heroine anymore."

"Wh-what makes you think I'm the one doing it anyways?"

"The fact she doesn't last a day."

"Buuut, she was doing it in the rose garden... In public... I got to saw that guy's junk, I need eye bleach now ..."

I whined.

Oh well, I was running out of creative ways to kill her using Rivals anyways, so I decided to wait.

The following day, I'm feeling pretty tired, so I went ahead to take a nap in the rose garden.

A while later, I felt something touching my arm.

"Yuri, time to wake up. Now."

Muuu, that tone.... Hard to wake up... feel so drowsy...

"Fuwaaaaah, Nyagito-kyun?" I yawn graciously, asking what was the matter.

Waking up always left me tongue tied, that's annoying.

The sun's too bright, everything is blurry. I try to rub my eyes to see things clearer.

"Lilia, we have a guest."

I still don't see correctly, but from his tone, I think I know who he's speaking about. I squint my eyes, trying to see her precisely, but fail lamentably.

I'm not a morning person.

But since she went out of her way to meet me, I should at least greet her correctly...

"Ah, you. Want to finish what you started with my cousin ?"

By talking to her aggressively and in an insulting tone of voice.

"Why, good morning to you too, I wanted to ask how you were adapting to the life at the castle, but by this scene, I would say pretty well. Though, I would advise you to reign in your servant and stop that attitude of his, he might offend the wrong person."

She chirped. Okay , now I know she's here to annoy me.

...

What was that about Nagito-kun? She's actually threatening him in front of me ?!

It seems you didn't learn from your previous experiences, Bitch.

"I find Nagito to be quite the good judge of character."

Sadly, this wasn't the last of her I saw.

For a week.

She stalked me for an entire week !

Trying to speak to me, being all creepy about how I would be cuter if I did this and that.

Back off already you pedo lesbian !

I was more and more tired... That's bad, I'm starting to show symptoms. Okay, Tomorrow, I drain her dry.

I was angrily complaining about her to Nagito-kun while planning my moves, until the arm that was holding my cup to my lips stopped working and fell lifelessly to my side, sending said cup cluttering to the ground, its content spilling everywhere. I couldn't pale even more, but my expression told it all. Nagito-kun was almost immediately holding my arm, and testing it, leading me to a nearby sofa.

He looked at me with an entirely too calm and neutral expression.

"It feels dead, there is no energy flowing through it and no nervous response. I think you owe me an explanation."

Scaryyyy....

Of course, when he's like that, I have no other choice than to cave in. I mean, it's my selfishness that led us to that situation ?

"You see, there is an itsy, bitsy problem we didn't take into account when we came here, it's that my body isn't really human, and as a nature spirit/lich/whatever the hell I am, I need to feed on lifeforce to keep living."

He signalled me to continue, and so, I did.

"There's a reason spirits don't go around possessing bodies, or if they do, the body soon falls in ruin. If the spirit and body are just not compatible, the strain means more lifeforce consumed.

So the more I stay here, the more my body deteriorates, because I can't feed on people here, and disappearing often would be suspicious. That's why having that timeloop here has been a boon of sorts. Since there are a lot of information around in their library, We've been able to locate some ancient lairs where other necromancers work, right now."

"So the continuous reboots..."

I nodded

"Resetting it, means resetting this body's lifeforce levels, so I can keep on moving like that. I intended to keep the loops short enough so that we wouldn't have to worry about that. It seemed like a good idea to remain relatively low key....

I didn't think The Queen would keep that from you. That was why she was only targeting masters of the undead, because they are often hoarding stockpiles of lifeforce for their summons."

I looked down contritely.

"I'm sorry , I really thought you were aware of it since it's been this way for a while."

There was a moment of silence and...

"Haaa, I really should have expected something like that..."

He sat besides me and pushed me to his side, his arm over my shoulder and his other hand pinching the bridge of his nose.

I didn't say anything, poking at my dead arm awkwardly. I didn't feel anything from it. Almost as if it wasn't there.

Nagito-kun got up, walked away and came back with bandages, effectively mummifying my arm. He then threw a scarf around my neck and tied it up so that it would hold my arm.

"That should keep people from noticing the true problem. How long do you think you can hold out?"

"Hm, with the flow cut from my arm, two weeks, easily, but it will start rotting away in a week, I think ?"

Here it comes, his infamous 'are you naturally that dumb or are you faking it?'  look.

"Well, I was intending to kill her today. There were a few plots I laid that should fire this evening anyways..."

He put on his jacket and helped me up.

"I'm off to training, you have council again ?"

"Umu, This is going to be boring. And then the creep is gonna stalk me againnn... I don't wanna gooooo..."

But I went there, got richer, got harassed by the Heroine who somehow decided in her dense skull that I was a capture target and finally escaped into my room.

The screen goes black again.

And lights up again.

And we're back drinking coffee.

I raise both my hands first.

"I don't know what happened, but I swear it wasn't me."

Nagito-kun chuckled.

"I'm sure."

"It really wasn't me!"

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Aaaand here goes the second Answer chapter...

Things sure look different on the other side, huh...

And yeah, the snake thing was totally a deadlier version of the Bakarina toy snake.