Reincarnated As Both The Villainess And Heroine...?

Even The Villainess Has Morals

"Come now! Are you going to let fire scare you from going after one of the most important individuals of this country!? You really going to let a little bit of fire stop you!?"

"Miss Bathory! Is it really necessary to keep using fire? We're trying to protect someone here!" Isaac shouted.

That was true. A quick glance towards Chloe was enough to tell me that. For someone who did not specialize or practice with fire magic, she wasn't doing too well hiding behind the massive pillars of flames I had created.

"I'm...I'm okay! Do what you have to do! Just don't hurt anyone innocent."

Goody two shoes.

I pretended I didn't hear her, "Can't really spare the effort here, Sir Isaac! In case you haven't noticed, we're fighting for our lives here!"

Among the elemental magic used for offensive purposes, only six were basic and require no combination with other elements. Fire, wind, water, earth, dark, and light. Rather, light in the sense of the literal light, not that sham of healing magic.

Dark and light were a bit too troublesome to actually use as it exhausts far too much mana to be useful. Wind and earth were heavily dependent on the environment so I had not put too much practice into it. In the end, it came down to fire and water.

Water was readily available as vapor in the air, but to turn them into attacks that actually hurt took some degree of effort. As for fire, it was simple enough. I needed oxygen, fuel, and heat. Oxygen was present almost everywhere. Heat came naturally from a combusting fire. I simply had to supply my mana as fuel to keep the fire going.

Good for offensive purposes, I suppose, but not quite so much in a hostage defense situation. At this current deadlock, I was going to burn away all the oxygen before we could escape. If only I figured out void magic to throw all concerns out the window, eh? I'm only kidding. I hope.

"Princess. Can you use water magic?"

"I am royalty, you know," she smiled weakly between troubled breaths. "I know at least that much."

I knelt down beside her, gripping the side of my skirt. With a forceful jerk, I tore off a small piece of fabric.

"Use water magic on this."

"What?" she was rather confused.

"Please."

She did as she was told, and soaked the fabric in a ball of water she conjured in an instant with minimal incantation. As expected of royalty, I suppose. Could be useful to have her fight, but I wouldn't want to deal with the prince's nagging later.

I placed the soaked fabric gently into her palm, motioned for her to cover her mouth with it.

"Better?"

"Yeah..."

A very odd situation for my experience with fire drills to be useful, that's for sure.

"It is a temporary solution, so don't be careless. We're living on borrowed time."

"A time you borrowed," Isaac pointed out.

"To give us at least a miserable portion of hope," I snorted. "What a pain. That prince better keep his promise..."

"Whatever the plan is, we are in dire need of it! Miss Rin isn't going to hold out much longer!" Isaac shouted as he blocked another attempted attack.

"A little bit of a pinch, eh?" Rin me smiled bitterly as she hung onto dear life.

Hang in there, me! I'll have you work to the bone for just a bit longer!

Nothing good ever came from being the heroine, damn it!