The Villainess With A Heroine Harem

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Fortunately, Emilia never intended to hide it in the first place, and responded to their curiosity with a smile. "She usually just hides in my heart."

"Eh…?"

"What…?"

Looking at their confused expressions, the crimson-haired girl couldn't help but giggle. "You can think of it as a small pocket dimension in my body, if you like." She paused. "Honestly, it's not really a physical place, so I don't know how to explain."

While the others were still somewhat confused, Crystal thought about it for a while before tilting her head curiously. "If it's not a physical place and she can go in there, what happens to her body?"

Emilia sighed. "Actually, she doesn't really have her own physical body, yet. She, uh, lost it a long time ago, and the one she has now is just something we temporarily form using our ability."

Thinking about how unfortunate the seemingly smug and proud girl they had met really was to not even have her own body, Crystal couldn't help but feel a little sad. "I-Isn't there a way for her to get it back, eventually?"

Dixie also nodded, as she didn't like the idea of someone 'using' her princess as their permanent residence. "Isn't there anything we can do to help?"

Emilia's older sister couldn't help but chime in as well. "Right! It would be so much easier to play with my little sister's little sister if she didn't have to worry about whatever time restriction it was that you two were talking about!"

Of course, her real meaning was more along the lines of 'it's easier to bully her if she can't hide', but now that she knew the raven-haired girl might sometimes be listening in on their conversations, Sam wouldn't so easily 'expose' her 'plans', would she?

Feeling Noelle's judging stare on her back, the taller girl quickly corrected herself with a cough. "S-Some people always think the worst of others, huh! B-By playing I d-definitely don't mean anything bad!"

The crimson-haired girl giggled. "Alright, I get it, big sis. Really. But while I'm sure Cynthia will be very touched to see everyone being so concerned about her, there's no need to worry so much."

Although well aware that only Emilia could hear her, Cynthia still scoffed. "How impudent. Do I look like I need their help?"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

While they were still a little concerned about their 'new friend' at first, once Emilia assured them that her missions were pretty much a 'treatment' for Cynthia, their worries soon completely shifted in focus.

Even if Emilia assured them that her missions were mutually beneficial, how could they not tell at this point that it all started because she wanted to help Cynthia?

Of course, none of them were able to voice their concerns out loud this time.

Crystal simply didn't believe she should interfere in matters between the two of them, and while Dixie was concerned about her princess working hard for someone else, she never intended to try bending Emilia's will either.

As for Sam, since she already believed Cynthia was like a little sister to her little sister, how could she possibly voice out such 'ugly' thoughts?

After all, if someone told her not to do everything she could to help her little sister out when her little baby needed it, she would definitely have introduced them politely to one of her 'luxury' crowbars.

That left only Noelle to carry the torch, so to speak. But much to their disappointment, the gray-haired girl had long since moved on from the topic, and was too busy fiddling with her tablet to pay any attention to their subtle expressions.

Noelle frowned. 'Why do I suddenly feel so chilly? Did those idiots turn the temperature too low? I guess it's my own fault for accepting Penny's suggestion, though.'

Making a mental note to never repay any 'favors' from the knights in a way that might cause Emilia inconvenience in the future, the gray-haired girl remained completely oblivious to the grieving expressions being directed her way, and quickly turned her focus back to her task.

'Let's see, now, Cindy has already made the arrangements there, so that leaves…'

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

With Michelle and Cindy directing the ground staff according to Emilia's needs and Noelle making sure everything was up to spec, the crimson-haired girl naturally didn't need to worry about anything going wrong with her announcement once she returned to her empire.

Instead, most of her time was spent interacting with the 'sullen' people crowding around her on the way to the stage.

"Princess! Princess!"

"Why did you leave for so long?!"

"We missed you so much!"

Of course, while they were still mostly civil, and Noelle was able to follow Emilia's instruction not to call in much security unless necessary, it didn't stop the crimson-haired girl from being caught in a few tough situations.

Just a few feet away from the stage, a slightly chubby little kid who appeared to be around seven or eight years old easily darted past the adults and glomped onto Emilia's boots without a word.

Fortunately, the toughened boots weren't long enough to really smack against her face, which ended up being safely cushioned against the crimson-haired beauty's leggings.

Luckily, Emilia wasn't too startled or alarmed, and quickly signaled Noelle not to panic as she picked the girl up into her arms. "Did you get lost?"

The little girl seemed to have never expected her 'plan' to succeed, and only stared at Emilia's face dumbstruck.

Of course, while the child was calm, her parents weren't, and quickly came to confess their 'negligence' in front of Emilia under the admonishing eyes of the crowd.

"Mary!"

The girl's father patted his wife's shoulder to calm her down before coughing in embarrassment. "W-We're sorry, princess—cough, cough, I-I mean Empress… uh, our daughter is usually quite obedient and docile, s-so we didn't expect…"

Although she could tell that they were probably more worried about annoying her than thinking she would be cruel enough to punish someone over such a minor thing, the crimson-haired beauty couldn't help but pout. 'Shouldn't they understand I'm not this type of person by now?'

Of course, the more she didn't like how nervous the parents were, the more she found the little girl's delighted, twinkling expression pleasing to the eyes.

Emilia grinned. "Alright, are the two of you this little angel's parents?" Without waiting for them to nod, she turned around while giggling mischievously. "I'll return this lucky charm after the announcement, then."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━