|I'M THE OP VILLAINESS| {Yuri}

CHAPTER 7 『ASSASSINATION』

Far away as I was from the castle, this didn't stop me from asserting my influence inside the Imperial Court. I was, and still I am a princess, after all. Just in exile.

All members of the Imperial Family have different factions rooting for them. I shared the same faction with my sister until the fiasco with her fiancé happened.

And here I was, living the quiet life of an exiled, long forgotten noble. Or rather, I am posing as living a quiet life as one.

All I've been doing these past few weeks is recruiting people for my cause, just like Artemisia. Except for carrying out my duties as a regular professor here, I've been spending my time analysing my classes and pupils to see if there's any point in recruiting people in here.

I've also experimented with many things here, with the knowledge I had acquired from my past life. My unique, Special Odos. Its colour was red and black, signifying probably my malevolent but equally powerful nature.

I also have found, prior to my Blood Pact with Artemisia, about the 9 Cores. The 9 Cores were the products of mysterious, ludicrous, and hedonistic rituals involving Urgs.

In the past, the Urgs went in great lengths to get for themselves tremendous power. There are numerous attempts involving Urgs trying to increase their magical capabilities and can involve simple, innocent charms to drugs, sacrifices, and massive explicit sexual parties.

There's a legend, that our clan's ancestor, is probably Dionysus, the Ancient Greek god of wine and partying. That's why our strength gets multiplied when experiencing pleasure.

That's when I found out about the 9 Cores. Whenever that pleasure is either shared or contributed in some form to one another, it stays there, amplifying our powers.

After Artemisia, who's my second in command now, she has taken the role in recruiting other people for me, the not-so-important on my agenda.

After what I did to her, she probably views me as some kind of Messiah, a deity. In her eyes, I granted her wish, so I must be God. Cause only God exhibits greatness in such lengths, or so she believes, apparently.

Our organization has grown quite considerably: from just 2 conspirators, to a dozen. And it's increasing every day. Especially since the ones I have on my side are considered as the brightest minds of the Empire. And they are all of them, at my disposal. All I need now is a little something to push it over the edge, and trigger all this admiration and love they have me, to blind devotion and worship.

My carriage has been my brainstorming headquarters. Just a closed space with me in the middle. I've ordered the carriage master, this Knight, to not talk to me while he was transporting me. It's kind of distracting, you know.

I'm on my way home after quite a productive day. I have become even more powerful because of more Blood connections with my followers, and they have become even more affectionate towards me. It's just like creating a paramilitary faction here. But it solely consists of underage maidens.

Look, I'm not homosexual. Even if I get transported into a girls body, my sexual preferences haven't changed; I don't view males as my choice. And that is why i only recruit girls. I say "it's because an innocent young maiden's Odos is much more potent than a males, whose mind is taken over by obscenities and vulgarities."

In such a way, I get to avoid establishing relationships, regarding my hedonistic plans.

The long way up the mountain started ending, and we went faster now that we passed the uphill part of the road.

Now, all it remained, was to reach the Fortress of Ia, my home. Yes, I reside inside a Fortress. I mean, how cool is that? It would have been a lot cooler if there was a garrison in here. This makes it pretty vulnerable to attacks. Hey, I'm the Duchess in here! I can do whatever the hell I want!