Voyage of the Villainess

Chapter 7 – Sulkira Village

The sun had already set when Nicholas arrived at the Sulkira Village to check its condition. Nicholas gazed over the beautiful place, a smile on his lips, looking in a certain direction. He was standing on the roof of the bell tower. "The village has regained its vitality," he mused.

Despite the darkened skies, the village was alive with laughter and songs that rippled in the wind.

It was as though the entire village is expressing how delighted they were right now. They were yelling it for all the world to hear.

Vivian and the girls she was with, did actually appear outside the village of Sulkira only a few hours ago; just like Malaya had told them.

They were seen by farmers who were wrapping up their harvest at the time. When several of the girls recognized their parents among the farmers, they sprinted to embrace them. Their hearts were overflowing with delight..

"Mama!"

"Papa!"

They wailed out loud, yet as tears streamed down their cheeks, big smiles spread across their face. Vivian dashed towards their little house at the top of the hill near the village, without wasting any time. Her brother was waiting for her there.

"Vivo!" She screamed. Her speech had an air of eagerness.

"Vivian!" Her four-year-old brother raced to her while she was already close to their house. He appeared to be waiting for Vivian outside their modest house.

"I'm sorry, but I wasn't able to bring you any delicious food today as I promised!" Vivian uttered this as she tried to keep the tears from falling.

Vivo didn't respond quickly, which led Vivian to believe he was upset with her. But just as she was about to speak again, Vivo surprised her with a hug. Vivian returned the hug after being momentarily stunned.

"It's ok, Vivian. We can go out together again tomorrow and buy bread. I'm glad you're back home." Vivo gently pulled his plump tiny hands from Vivian's embrace. He gave a kind smile. That's when Vivian saw he was missing one of his front teeth, which startled her.

"Vivo what happened to your tooth?"

"Grandma Selda offered me a lot of cooked corn, and the first time I ate one, my tooth fell out. But I didn't cry at all, and Grandma Selda praised me for being such a grown child already."

"That's fantastic news. You should place your tooth beneath your pillow tonight so the Matilda can find it." As she stroked his brother's head, Vivian remarked.

(A/N: In case you haven't check the Auxiliary chapters, Matilda is the tooth fairy in this world.)

"Yes!" Vivo cheerfully answered.

The entire village feasted the entire night till midnight. Not only that, but they were overjoyed when they learned that the Marquess had been arrested. The new Marquess who took his place announced that the people would not be required to pay taxes until the first crop after the winter. They all rejoiced and celebrated.

They will no longer have to worry about preparing for winter.

Vivo came screaming the next day, waving an envelope in his hands. "Vivian! Matilda delivered it to me under my pillow!"

Vivian received the envelope from his brother, and inside she saw a gold coin, which nearly caused her to scream.

"It's a gold coin!" She had never been able to hold a gold coin in her life. This is already the equal of a typical farmer's half-year crop.

"It's that very big money?" Vivo asked.

'Yes! We could buy a lot of bread with this!" Vivian became dizzy thinking about how much bread they could buy with this.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed Vivo picking up a hammer and nearly hitting his teeth. Fortunately, she was able to stop it in time. "Vivo, what are you trying to do?!" She screamed with mixed anger and fright.

"You said that it is a significant sum of money. Matilda will give us more gold coins if I lost more teeth!" Vivo reasoned, but he was smacked in the head due to this.

"Ouch!" Vivo had a tear in his eye as he stared at her.

"Don't do that. Matilda will be upset if you do not let your teeth fall out naturally." Vivian shook her head as she looked at Vivo with dismay.

"Huh?" Vivian then noticed there was something more within the envelope. "A letter?" She picked it and opened it. She read what was written within.

"Dear Vivian,

I will visit you soon.

– Malaya."

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Malaya had already returned to her school dorm. She was in her living area. One can notice that her chamber was extremely large. No, it was more like a little house within a room. There was enough for a living room, a large bedroom, and bathroom, plus two more rooms for staff. That was because she is the Duke of Marina's youngest daughter. Even at the academy, though it was said that status doesn't matter. But her room was solid proof that it was only in words.

Malaya inhaled the calming fragrance of her chamomile tea. Then she took a sip on it savoring its sweet taste. As she sipped her tea, Rein appeared in front of her.

"Milady, I have delivered the letter as per your orders." Rein politely bowed.

"Good," Malaya remarked as she finished her drink, nodding her head. After a few more minutes, she saw that Rein had not yet departed. She replenished her cup once again.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me, Rein?" Malaya queried, a smile on her face.

"Yes, Milady." Rein answered quickly.

"What is it?" Malaya asked as she took another sip of her tea.

"When will you finish your homework? The school will resume already tomorrow." Rein asked.

"When I feel like it." Malaya casually answered. "Don't worry there are only a few things left to do."

"Oh, what you mean by a few are your two essays on your reflections in magic, the Alchemy of spells project, the botany of magical plant research, the literature of the empire…" Dorris exclaimed as she walked into the room carrying a platter of cookies. Malaya's smile became strained as Dorris continued all the homework she didn't finish yet.

"Milady…" Rein looked at Malaya. An ominous aura growing around him.

Malaya gave him a casual grin and some nonchalant gaze. "I suppose there's still a lot of it left, lol."

Rein eventually exploded as a result of this. Malaya was forced to complete all of her schoolwork throughout the day.

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Extra Scene:

A certain tooth fairy came over to Vivian's house to get her prized tooth.

But then when she carefully checked the tooth under Vivo's pillow, she saw that it was already gone.

"Oh no! Where is the tooth?!" Her two antenna in her head started moving. It picked up some tooth signal. She disappeared into Vivo's room and reappeared at a certain sleeping girl's room.

The tooth fairy detected the tooth beneath the girl's pillow. 'Why is someone's tooth under a different person's room. Well whatever, at least I will still have the tooth.'

The tooth fairy got the tooth and put one silver coin under the pillow of the sleeping girl. Then the tooth fairy disappeared with a poof sound.

When Malaya woke up the next day. She immediately checked her pillow and saw the silver.

"Oh! So tooth fairies exist in this world. But…" She glanced at the silver coin in her hand. "Only a silver coin. How stingy."

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