Reincarnated as the Villainess's attendant

"I'm not sure whether you noticed or not, but Aspakeony's power is spread evenly through hundreds and thousands of puppets, making her an extremely dangerous opponent when there is enough space for large scale combat but that strategy also fails completely when she's facing an opponent that is small in number but extremely powerful individually and also gains strength the more they kill. I am not like that though. All my strength is concentrated within me, and if that is not enough, I can tap into the mana available in the element that I mastered more than anyone in this world ever did – at least to my knowledge – water."

The dark-blue-haired man said and reached his hand to the side – within the same heartbeat, the room filled with heavy mist, that then condensed into a sphere that turned into clear ice – clear enough to allow the two boys to see the liquid part boiling on the inside.

Zoemi's curiosity took over him and he reached out his shadow towards it and...

"H-heavy water...?! Hydrogen...! You...! Imbecile, that's the first step to creating a hydrogen bomb! Do you want to blow us all up?!"

The black-haired boy gasped didn't waste any more time before extending his shadow and swallowing the extremely dangerous sphere.

"Young master, no, it's dangerous!...! Wh-what did you do with it?! It is indeed extremely dangerous so don't do anything hasty!"

After suddenly losing the connection to his spell, Benevirau panicked, and the first thing he was worried about was Zoemi's safety – which would normally result in the black-haired boy warming up to him but the circumstances certainly didn't work in the dark-blue-haired butler's favor...

"It's gone – don't you ever just create that willy-nilly when there is no grave danger – especially not near my friends!"

"...!"

The black-haired boy shouted angrily, still greatly disturbed by a close encounter with something so ridiculously dangerous in the hands of someone who didn't seem to understand the risks...

"Young master I... I'm sorry. I promise to be more careful from now on."

Benevirau fidgeted and apologized.

"Alright – I think I understand what you meant before. The Ghosts showed up here and you kicked their teeth in, then they swore revenge. Is that it?"

Zoemi breathed out and asked, massaging his forehead.

"Thank you for giving me so much credit, but the actual encounter was cutting it a lot closer than that. I don't know what happened to them, but they aren't normal sages. They claim to be at the peak of human capabilities, supporting that by saying that they can no longer gain any more mana – which they called reaching the human limit of mana. As ridiculous as it may sound, a single member of the Ghosts of Bellcephora is as strong as all of them, so facing twenty of them just feels like fighting a single person that uses twenty different styles of combat. They tried to face me two times and each time I managed to repel them – but it seemed like one of them was especially angry about some of my spells I believe her name was Rethaq and her darkness blade was creating a thin, mist-like layer of darkness that allowed her to attack form basically every possible angle, but it was completely countered by my actual mist. She sure had a lot to say about what she will do to me and to everything that I love and hold dear..."

Benevirau furrowed his brows and revealed with concern.

"That one makes sense. Apparently, they are really into the originality of their darkness blades and how they spent a lot of time developing them into the perfected form – she must have got angry at seeing something similar to her own spell."

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders, nodding his head

at the information he received.

"...do you think that they did that to young lady Learen because of me... Because they held a grudge over not being able to kill me?"

The dark-blue-haired butler slouched and asked in a tense voice, sounding as if he was praying for Zoemi to deny his words, outright dismissing the idea.

"Huh... I think I can humor you on that front – as far as I know, the Ghosts of Bellcephora approach every darkness magician that they find interesting..."

"...!"

The black-haired boy tilted his head to the side and sighed, making the misty-gray-eyed butler breathe out in relief.

"...umm... Zoemi...?"

Using the moment of silence, the green-haired capture target, Reo, moved towards the black-haired attendant and shyly tugged on his sleeve while leaning towards his ear.

"Hmm?"

Zoemi turned to him with an innocent expression and let out a curious sound,

"...you... were talking about Ghosts of Bellcephora... and someone called Aspakeony, just like our Academy... and I'm pretty sure I've heard something about corpse puppets... Just... what is going on? Are we in trouble now...?"

The green-haired boy asked awkwardly, nervously looking between Zoemi and Benevirau while holding onto the black-haired boy's arm as if it was an anchor tying him to reality.

"...oh... ooohhhh, that's right... you... oh..."

Zoemi raised his brows and gasped, suddenly struck with a realization.

He and Benevirau had certainly mentioned a lot of really secret stuff that certainly shouldn't be spread around – the existence of Aspakeony alone was supposed to be so well protected that only the kings were supposed to know about her...

"Reo..."

"Y-yes...?!"

Zoemi took a deep breath and looked the green-haired boy in the eyes, making him flinch and blush instantly.

"It would be best if you just forgot what you heard here tonight."

"...eh...?"

The black-haired boy raised his hand and put it on Reo's shoulder before nodding his head and declaring in a flat voice, leaving the green-haired boy speechless.

"Benevirau – let's say that I believe you. With that in mind, considering that I am the actual heir to the Banemor territory, I can assume that you will keep your word and let me inherit it just as my grandfather's will stated?"

Zoemi patted Reo's shoulder again and leaned to the side to have a better look at the dark-blue-haired butler.

"Let you...?! Young master, don't even joke around! I will make sure to deal with all the preparation and legal documents required for you to become the official ruler of the territory as soon as possible!"

Benevirau gasped and jumped out of his seat, flabbergasted at the notion that Zoemi thought that he would be against the inheritance process.

"Great – with that in mind, show me to my room, please. It has been a... well, a day."

Zoemi smirked, shaking his head, and sighed unable to find a proper word to describe his feeling about all that happened in such a short time.