Banished Villainess

117 : ' ' Momo!! ' '

‘Did Miss Momo regain consciousness!?’

As the group of men scrambled in front of the room, Chloe gestured her finger close to her lips to make them silent.

Momo sat up on her bed, gazing into the open air with her half-opened eyes.

‘Momo, can you recognize me? Pull yourself together!’

‘Hn…nnn.’

Locke waved his hand in front of her face which caught Momo’s eyes. As the young adventurer entered her field of vision, the lady twinkled her eyes. As her vision finally regained its focus, Momo’s eyes opened wide. That was when the tears began to spill.

‘Locke…?’

‘Momo!!!’

‘Fuaah~! I slept so well!’

Their desperate calls to her name were answered by a carefree yawn. But this behavior of Momo made Locke’s eyes teary. Chloe merely watched over them, petting Melamphus above her knee with a complex expression on her face.

‘You’re… back to normal… Really…thank god…’

‘Wha-whatcha cryin’ for, Locke? Besides, you rascal! Since when did ya get to become so big? You surprised me, ya know?’

(–!!??)

Suddenly hearing such an unknown voice, bewildered, Leddorio and the others’ attention surveyed the entire room for the source. Leddorio found the voice so puzzling. It felt so terribly familiar to him, yet his mind was seemingly wanting to just brush it off.

Locke cast his face downwards, his tears dripping towards the bed while Momo petted his head like a child. That’s when the lady noticed the gaze of the several men, she turned her eyes towards them and the sight of them made her in awe.

‘Whoa, each and every one of em lookin’ like some kind of actor! Who the heck are these guys!? Wait, I get it. Y’all are some kind of performer group, ain’t cha? Hate to say it but our remote of a village ain’t gonna yield you some customers’, ain’t that right?’

The words that kept spilling out of her lovely lips were exactly that of a country bum. They were not mistaken in assuming that the voice they heard earlier was from Momo, herself. The gap brought by her pleasant-sounding voice had made Leddorio and the others paralyzed. They were shocked in realizing that a designated saintess had turned into a witch, but this development was also far outside the confines of their imagination that they couldn’t figure out how to react.

But they were not alone. Even Chloe who had the game’s knowledge and played the game from Momo’s perspective was just as bewildered. She stealthily whispered into Locke’s ears.

‘Hey, did Momo talk like this in your village too? You didn’t have that kind of accent, though?’

‘I was forcefully corrected in the Count’s house. But then again, even in the village, we were raised by the chieftain who had many opportunities to interact with outsiders, as well as a priest who got sent from the capital. Oh, Momo’s mother originated from the city too. But well, she got absurdly spoiled by the old folks of the village so…’

As Chloe examined the lady, Momo was holding her growling stomach nonchalantly saying— ‘I’m starvin-, ain’t we eatin’ yet?‘ to Shin.

‘T-That reminds me, during the game’s first scene in the village, it showed Momo talking to Locke and the others but the entire thing was a monologue. She entered the academy after an entire year and was able to speak grammatically there. I see… the pope must have really worked his hardest to correct her for an entire year.’

Chloe came to understanding on her own. As the inexplicable ambiance filled the air, Momo was told what happened entirely thus far.

‘Hieee! I got possessed by a bad gal and seduced Sir Prince and the others!? And for three years? Damn it, what the heck!? I… I’ve done hella bad…uhh….’

‘Momo!!’

The lady lost consciousness and reverted to laying in her bed. The men who were her adherents previously had seemingly turned into living corpses. Dai just lost consciousness, foaming in his mouth. Sei was just like one of the church’s reliefs, a figure who bids farewell to angels, although nobody knows to whose goodbyes he was bidding. Dai who has been watching over Momo silently all this time was already unconscious; a bubble in his nose. Lastly, Shin who has been attending to Momo earlier, upon closer observation, had distant eyes.

Meanwhile, Leddorio… was just having a terrible headache. Although Momo, who now lost her memories of her past life, was just as he imagined her to be, as far as personality is concerned, her verbal tone makes his ears reject recognizing the lady as an opposite sex. He couldn’t help but doubt whether he would’ve fallen for her just as he did were she like this from the start. Just thinking about that gives him migraines.

‘Is it that shocking? Even though I got rebuked so much for having a crude heart to discriminate based on a person’s origin.’

‘No, this was too much. Do Lady Chloe really feel nothing seeing her like that?’

Sei who came to his sense from his farewell pose, asked Chloe while wiping his tears.

‘Well… I mean there’s gotta be one savior who speaks like this right? Like one who can deal with anything without losing composure-‘

‘She just lost consciousness, though.’

With a tiresome look on his face, Leddorio took his hand off from caressing his temple and shook his head.