I Favor the Villainess Chapter 125

"…… A derivative work..….?"
"Yep."

The night after we decided that we were all going to the Empire together, Claire-sama and I were having a meeting to discuss our plans.
Mei and Alea were already asleep.
The materials that I prepared were laid out on the living room table.

"As I explained to you during the revolution, when I woke up in this world, I already had prior knowledge of the world."
"Yes, you did say that. You mentioned that there was something like a prophecy book in your previous world, or something along those lines."
"That's right."

That's what I told Claire-sama, although in reality, it was an otome game.

"The prophecy book is titled 'Revolution', but there's also a derivative work that's called 'Revolution Lily Side'."

Revolution Lily Side――or commonly referred to as "RevoLily" instead, was a work that spawned based off of "Revolution".
As you may have guessed from the title, RevoLily was a yuri game.
To be honest, I actually played RevoLily before "Revolution".
I was an omnivorous otaku who would consume all genres of games, but because of my own sexual orientation, I was particularly fond of yuri games.
Back then, there were hardly any yuri games that were released, but among the few that were, RevoLily was considered a well-known masterpiece.

"Revolution Lily Side――since that name is a bit long, let's call it RevoLily for short – had some information on the Empire. I think we might be able to put that information to good use."

Due to the popularity of "Revolution", RevoLily was only one of many derivative works of the main game, and the story was set in the Naa Empire.
The main protagonist was an imperial princess who had the option of romancing either the emperor, a bureaucrat or fellow classmates at school.
Of course, all of the main characters were female.
On my playthrough of RevoLily, that was where I first stumbled across and became obsessed with the guest character, Claire-sama, who had been exiled from her country. I subsequently ended up playing through the base game, "Revolution", as a result.

"The imperial princess' name is Philine. If we can use her to our advantage properly, we can destroy the entire structure of the Empire."
"I-Is that really possible?"
"It is."

This is similar to the revolution route that takes place in RevoLily.
In RevoLily, you could enter a romance route like normal and enjoy the love that spurs between the protagonist and the love interest; however, if you choose not to pursue a love interest at all, that would raise the revolution flag, which is a route that involves overthrowing the imperial government.
In other words, it was the same as how I managed to enter the revolution route in Bauer Kingdom.

"Well, if the entire structure of the Empire collapses, it'll probably bring about too many problems right now, so that's something we should think about one step at a time. For the time being, our goal should be halting the Empire's attempts at invading other nations."
"I have no objections."

I'm almost certain that this talk hardly made any sense to Claire-sama, but she still agreed with my plans nevertheless.

"I like you."
"W-What are you saying all of a sudden?"
"Well, it feels like you really trust me."
"Isn't that obvious?"
"Kufufu."

After Claire-sama reaffirmed her love for me, I continued.

"When it comes to neutralizing the Empire, there are a lot of key figures that will play a part in it, but the most important target is Philine."

I pointed to her name on one of the documents that I had laid out.

"She is a rather quiet, shy and timid girl."
"And you're telling me someone like her is going to start the revolution?"
"No, but wouldn't it be interesting to see how she'll grow?"
"…… Grow? Is that a term from the prophecy book?"
"Ahh, my bad. I was just talking to myself."

This is probably a bit judgmental and prejudiced of me to say, but a lot of main heroines in otome games seemed to be quite weak in terms of personality.
It seemed that if the main protagonist's personality was too strong, a lot of players found it more difficult to relate to them, but I also just wasn't really a fan of that type of character.
Philine, the main protagonist of RevoLily, was one of those heroines that had a weak personality at the beginning.
However, as the story progressed, Philine gradually grew to become an independent woman.
She grew a lot during individual capture target routes as well, but in the end, I'd say her development during the revolution route took the spotlight.

By the way, the guest character, Claire-sama, was the biggest obstacle that stood in Philine's way.
She was a villainess just like her role in the base game, but she had more cool scenes in RevoLily.
Like the scene where she was sentenced to execution by Philine, or the scene where she laughed pridefully as she was beheaded – I completely lost count of how many times I reread them.
…… Well, I was depressed for about three days after that.

"Well, in any case, we'll need to make contact with Philine first, and it's important that we make use of her well."
"I understand. So is there anything you want me to do? I cannot just make you do all of the work, Rei."

Claire-sama said, offering her support.
Unlike how I struggled by myself before the revolution happened, I felt reassured now that things were different this time around.
If it's like this, I feel like we can do anything.

"First, we'll need to make sure that the knowledge I have of the Empire's history is correct by doing some fact checking. In the history that I knew of, you were a prominent noble in the Empire, Claire-sama."
"In the Empire!? What even happened for things to end up that way!?"
"Well, that's just the gist of it."
"I am extremely curious though!?"
"That's the gist of it."
"…… I don't understand."

I mean, it'd take too long to explain.

"Anyway, the position you're in right now is different, Claire-sama. The Claire-sama in the prophecy book sided with the Empire's system, but the you of right now is the complete opposite of that."
"That's true. In other words, are you saying your knowledge may not be as useful this time around, Rei?"
"Compared to what I knew during the previous revolution, yeah. But I don't think it's completely useless."
"I'm counting on you."

What should I do? I'm incredibly happy.
I wanted to give Claire-sama a hug out of nowhere, but because we were in the middle of a serious conversation, I had to hold the urge in.

"Well, Claire-sama's position may be different here, but it might actually make things easier for us."
"What do you mean by that?"

Claire-sama tilted her head as she encouraged me to continue.
Yep, she's cute.

"Since Philine is kind and quiet girl, I doubt she appreciates what the Empire is doing right now in regards to their foreign affairs."
"So?"
"Someone like Claire-sama, who successfully fended off the Empire's forces and led an entire revolution to success without shedding any blood, surely must be somebody worth admiring in her eyes."
"Do you really think so……?"

Claire-sama looked puzzled.

"Well, I don't think it's that simple, but at the very least, her interests should be aligned with ours. Let's use that to our advantage."
"Somehow, it feels like we are deceiving an innocent child. You are turning into a bad adult, Rei."
"Honestly, that's not too far from the truth. Let's do it then, we'll become bad adults."
"…… Well, we don't really have time to be concerned with appearances."

For the time being, it seemed that Claire-sama approve of the plan.
As I watched Claire-sama take a sip out of her teacup, I continued.

"Since we'll be going to the Empire as exchange students, we can probably try to get in touch with Philine there. Let's start from there."
"It seems like we are leaving much of it to chance."
"Call it "adapting to the situation", if you will. Besides, I'll be writing out everything I can about RevoLily and then I'll have you thoroughly memorize the contents of it."
"Are you sure about this? If I am not mistaken, didn't you mention last time that if I knew anything, you'd end up losing your advantage, Rei?

Claire-sama sure remembered a lot.

"Last time was because it was something that directly involved you, Claire-sama. This time, we're teaming up to capture Philine."
"Please don't say that we're "capturing" her. It sounds indecent."
"….. Claire-sama, you pervert."
"Oh, did you want to get burned?"
"It was just a joke, Claire-sama. Please spare me from your magic rays. You'll set the house on fire."

Fearing that I'd see the François family's crests appear above her head, I tried to soothe Claire-sama.

"Let's start with everything related to Philine. There are a lot of topics to cover."
"Memory is one of my strong suites. Leave it to me."

And so, that was how our plan to capture the Empire began.

Chapter end