The Villainess [Edited]

"You can have it all if you want," I said, narrowing my eyes as I regarded her.

Strange.

Really strange.

This doesn't feel like a coincidence anymore.

Liliana.

That was the name she went by in the game. No middle name, no surname—just Liliana.

"Really?" she asked, her voice soft and hesitant as she looked at me. I nodded in response.

She stepped forward and began cutting into the meat the same way I had done earlier.

At first glance, she looked fragile, almost delicate, but that was far from the truth. Liliana was anything but weak. She was a villainess—one of the most powerful villainesses in the game.

In fact, her arc was the one I could never clear.

The third arc of the seventh act.

The Hurt One.

But why is she here? None of this makes sense.

Wait… was she also involved in the first Arten raid?

I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that this wasn't some random coincidence.

[Stop repeating yourself already. You've said that before,] the voice in my head chimed in with its usual sarcasm.

'Then… can you tell me what's going on?' I thought back.

[Sure, I'll even give you a discount this time. Ask as many questions as you like.]

'Really?' I glanced at Liliana as she sat across from me, devouring what was left of the meat. She must have been starving.

[17 Life Points per question,] the voice added smugly.

'So… I can barely ask two questions before I drop dead?'

[... Well, yes.]

'... Screw you.'

I turned my attention back to her. "Where did you come from?" I asked, hoping to extract as much information as I could.

Liliana wasn't just any villainess—she was the ultimate villain of the game. Her powers had no clear limits, and I was pretty sure the supposed "ten acts" mentioned in the guide were a lie. I never managed to beat her. No matter how much I leveled up the protagonist and his hare—cough—companions, she was always a step ahead.

When the game started, Liliana had been an ally. For the first three acts, she was one of the protagonist's lackeys. But everything changed during a certain background event—one that I had tried countless times to prevent but never could.

It was her second awakening.

That was when she started drifting away from the protagonist. Instead of staying by his side, she aligned herself with… Amael.

Yeah, Amael.

It happened during the Darkness Arc, the sixth arc of the second act. God, I hated that arc. It was one of the most frustrating in the entire game.

The first-year students were on an exam in a desolate island located in the Higher Realm. Everything was going fine until agents from the Order of the Voiceless God infiltrated the island, hunting for the avatars of the primordial gods. That's when things went to hell.

The worst part? The protagonist had to choose who to save. With so many heroines to protect, he inevitably forgot about Liliana. By the time I—or rather, the protagonist—reached her, Amael had already saved her.

And that's when she awakened.

It was like one of those awful NTR scenarios I couldn't stand. No matter what I tried, I could never reach her in time.

Sigh.

Looking back, Amael's death in the fifth act was what drove her insane in the seventh act. It was the catalyst for her descent into madness.

"… I… I came from…" she began, but her words faltered, repeating like a scratched record.

Of course. The game never gave her a proper backstory.

"So… you don't have a specific place you call home?" I tried to help her out, sensing her struggle to articulate her thoughts.

"… Hm." She nodded, then bit into the meat again.

Cute.

[You're the very definition a pervert!]

'Okay, shut the fuck up... I just admired her cuteness, so stop labeling your own perverted thoughts on me.'

[What?!.]

'You heard me loud and clear.'

[….]

"I've always lived in the forest… I don't have a home," she finally said, her voice quiet.

I stared at her, my brain cells dropping by the second.

How the hell has she survived this long?

SO HOW HASN'T THE MANA BEASTS KILLED HER?!