Exiled Villainess Becomes Ruler (Republished/Edited)

Melody

"You want some grass?" The man that look similar to a hillbilly said with a gruff and careless voice.

"No I don't!" Eve immediately refused. But she is looking a specific plant on the table that suspiciously look like marijuana.

"But it seems you are interested since you are eyeing my Majana plants," the man continues.

"Again no! Look I am not interested in your weed! I just want to get my friend here that is sitting beside you!" She told the man, gesturing towards the incoherent Zeke.

Zeke is just staring into the sky with glazed eyes and a lopsided smile.

The man stopped smoking from his pipe and gave Eve an offended look.

"Hey! I will have you know that these plants here are not weeds! These grasses here are the highest quality cultivated plants that has the ability to give people the best experience of their life!" The man argued passionately.

"You are from Grass Village aren't you," stated Eve with a deadpan look, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, what about it?" The hillbilly man said defensively, having a feeling she is going to continue insulting him.

"Now I know why I was told to stay away from people from Grass Village. You guys sell drugs and enjoy being HIGH OFF THEIR ROCKERS!" Eve yelled out the last bit.

"I don't know what being high off their rockers mean but I think you just called me crazy," the man stated calmly with a look of indifference.

Eve growled at seeing how unaffected the grass village man is at her yelling.

"I am taking Zeke back with me! Come on Zeke, let's go back to your brother!" She went over to Zeke's side behind the stall and grabbed ahold of his shirt sleeve, pulling at it. Zeke started to struggle in her hold.

"Zeke come on...don't stay with this man who is an obvious bad influence on you!" She continues to pull Zeke but he grabbed hold of the arm of the chair, refusing to go with her.

"Nnngh...no! I'm too tired to move. Just let me sleep for a bit," Zeke replies slurringly still.

The Grass Village stall owner just watched the two struggle with each other while exhaling smoke from his pipe with a look of indifference and not saying anything more.
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At a further distance away from the stall, someone is heading their way.

That person walks stompingly through the crowds of people with fists clenched on both sides. The people seeing that person's scary expression moved out of the way and made a clear path.

The mystery person continues their trek towards the grass village stall where Zeke and Evelina is at still fighting with each other. Or more like Eve being an annoyed mother trying to get her kid to come home with her.

Once the mystery person got close enough to be in hearing range, they open their mouth and yelled out:

"ZEKE!"
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Zeke, who had his eyes closed to get some shut eye despite Eve pulling at him, snapped it open immediately after hearing the familiar angry voice and his body froze.

"M-M-M- Melody...!" He stuttered out in shock. Eve also paused in her actions.

"Melody?" She asked in confusion, then turn to the source of the voice.

In front of the table appeared a very angrily looking beautiful woman.

The woman looks about a few inches taller than Eve, with long magenta hair and gold eyes. She is furiously heaving from her chest and Eve swore she can see the pits of hell behind her.

"What. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing?" The woman, Melody, said in a deadly calm voice.

Zeke jolted his body to be awake and stumbled out of the chair. Eve backed away to give him space.

Now Zeke stood up and became alert, looking at the woman in fear.

Zeke finally got his wake up call.

Melody first look at Zeke who fidgeted from her stare, then to Eve who shifted awkwardly, and finally to the still unnamed grass villager who is ignoring all the others around him and just continues smoking from his pipe.

"What the hell are you doing Zeke?" she asked again angrily, "You told me that you are helping your brother selling crops but I see you left poor Jon alone and idling away."

"Melody my sweet," Zeke began nervously," You see, I am just here to see what the market is offering...this stall just happens to catch my interest and I couldn't help myself."

"This stall?" Melody gestured towards the piles of different grasses on the table and look upon it in disinterest.

"How are these boring piles of grass any interest to you?"

Suddenly, the grass stall owner coughed out some smoke and dropped his pipe after hearing Melody's words.

"You think these grasses are uninteresting?! You are the second woman after this disrespectful one here,"he said pointing to Eve, "to insult my own products!" The man suddenly stood up from his chair, surprising the 3 people around him, and grabbed bunches of the weird looking grass in each hands.

He held the grasses out towards Melody, shaking them in front of her face.

"These grasses will make anyone have the best experiences of their life!" He repeated the same thing as before but added: "If you consume these grasses, it will make you feel like you can be anything! You can believe you are a bird that can fly! Or a king with many riches and women surrounding him! Or even feel like you are a powerful god! It will make dreams feel like it is real! It is the greatest escape from the reality of life!" He ranted.

Eve gave a cough.

"Drugs," she stated for the second time.

"Yes drugs," the man unexpectedly agreed after he heard Eve,"Who needs medicine from a healer when you can just boil these plants and heal yourself."

"That is not what I mean," Eve deadpanned.

"Anyway," the man ignored her," your friend here already traded with me for some of my plants," he gestured towards Zeke.

"Eheh," said Zeke with a sweatdrop after receiving the look from both women, rubbing the back of his head.

"So if the both of you are not going to offer any trade with me, get the hell out of my sight!" The man yelled out and pointed at a random direction.

Melody rolled her eyes, unfazed.

"Whatever, come on Zeke dear, let's get back to poor sweet Jon," Melody came towards Zeke, grabbed his arm, and dragged him away.

Zeke hurriedly grabbed for the grasses he got traded for before letting his belove Melody drag him away.

Eve followed behind them.

Once the three are far enough from the grass village stall, Melody turn to Eve while walking and still dragging the clumsy Zeke.

"You must be Evelina Loughton," she stated to her.

"How do you know?" Asked Eve, surprised.

"Zeke and Jon told me all about you so I recognized you from their description. Also, I know what you did for them and our village so thank you for that," she said.

Wow, she is a very nice person.

"Oh, thank you for saying that," said Eve, suddenly feeling bashful.

"Who are you if you don't mind me asking?"

"My name is Melody Ivie, Zeke's girlfriend."