The Villainous Noblewoman Is About to Be Forced into Love, Isn't This Wrong?-Chapter 79: The main character is gone!

As expected, it wasn’t long before another knock came at the door.

From outside, Naibet's voice called out.

"Aileen-sama, may I come in?"

"Come in."

"Thank you, Liana-sama."

As # Nоvеlight # Naibet entered, she noticed Princess Mepeilu and gave a respectful bow. "Your Highness."

"Did you need something from me?" Liana asked directly.

"Liana-sama, I’m actually not here for you," Naibet replied. "I need to speak with Loraviel about something."

Loraviel?

Liana didn’t even need to think about it—this was Mepeilu’s doing.

"Well, there are some matters that aren’t convenient for Loraviel to be privy to right now," she admitted.

"Fine, fine, take her. Just don’t bother me while I’m eating."

"Thank you, Liana-sama."

After another polite bow, Naibet approached Loraviel.

"Loraviel, come with me. I’ll take you to the designated servant quarters. You should get familiar with the place."

Loraviel glanced at Liana, then at Mepeilu—her gaze lingering on Mepeilu for several seconds before she finally nodded.

"I understand."

Following Naibet, Loraviel paused at the doorway and bowed.

"Apologies for disturbing your meal, Liana-sama, Your Highness. Please enjoy. We’ll take our leave now."

Once the door shut behind them, Mepeilu leaned back in her chair, visibly more relaxed.

Liana had fully expected her to press closer, but surprisingly, she didn’t.

"Where’s your royal knight? Did you leave them behind because we’re inside the palace?" Liana asked curiously.

"Ugh, so annoying."

As Mepeilu spoke, she placed her hands on Liana’s shoulders, using just the right amount of pressure to massage them.

"Can’t your knight enter like a normal person through the front door?"

Liana sighed as she watched Minoja—who, as always, had managed to slip in unnoticed.

"Professional habit."

"You’re an assassin?"

"Not quite." Minoja chuckled.

"Stop messing with Liana!" Mepeilu protested.

"Understood, Your Highness." Minoja let go, swiftly shifting to sit across from them, casually picking up a handful of sunflower seeds from the table and beginning to crack them open.

"But really, since even Her Highness is holding back so much, I might have gotten a little too comfortable myself."

"Minoja!"

Mepeilu turned back to Liana, "Sorry about her. She’s just in a good mood, that’s all. No offense meant."

"It’s not like she’s done anything offensive to me."

Why does Mepeilu keep treating me like a child?

I was only banned from using magic for five years. It’s not like I stopped growing since five years ago.

Well, technically—when it comes to magic, that might actually be true.

"Anyway, it’s a bit early to ask, but did you find the person I asked you to locate?"

Liana hadn’t forgotten the original protagonist.

"Angus Territory, Côte d'Avonnas, right?" Mepeilu confirmed.

"Yes."

"Is he... important to you?"

"Extremely important. I need him to help me crush the Demon King."

Something about Mepeilu’s expression seemed off.

"What's wrong?" Liana’s tone grew serious. "Don't tell me—something happened?"

"I sent people to investigate using the name and details you gave me, but..." Mepeilu hesitated. "They couldn't find anyone by that name. And not just that—after further investigation, there are no records of such a person at all."

"Mepeilu...?"

"Why are you looking for him? If you need someone, I can help instead."

"No, that’s impossible. Absolutely impossible."

Liana knew it for a fact.

The protagonist had to be in Angus Territory.

In the original story, he and Loraviel had passed the same entrance exams together, which was how they ended up at Velens Magic Academy.

There was no way he could have just disappeared.

"What's wrong, Liana? You look pale."

Mepeilu seemed concerned.

"Maybe it was an oversight during the investigation. Do you want me to have them check again?"

Liana shook her head.

Mepeilu’s information network was too thorough for it to be a simple oversight.

The protagonist of this world had vanished.

Even his entire existence—his past traces—had been erased.

This was bad.

This was very, very bad.

Without the protagonist, how the hell were they supposed to fight the Demon King?!

"Should I call for a healer?" Mepeilu asked, worried about Liana’s increasingly grim expression.

Liana took a deep breath.

At the very least, she had learned magic now.

And what if the protagonist was never here to begin with?

What if he was meant to appear later—as a transmigrator, just not yet?

She tried to reassure herself with that thought, but she knew—this was something she had to face.

The protagonist was gone.

"I’m fine. Don’t worry about me."

She said it, but her expression remained dark.

"Alright." Mepeilu didn’t push further.

"But if you ever need anything, just tell me. I’ll help you. I promise."

"Got it. I won’t be shy about asking."

There was no point in being polite anymore. With the protagonist missing, her only option was to get stronger.

"By the way," Liana turned to Minoja, "what about the matter I asked you to handle?"

"Kuhak—!"

Minoja choked on a sunflower seed.

She hadn’t expected Liana to suddenly call on her.

"Of course, it’s ready. Every Creation-type magic I could find has been copied into this."

A thin book appeared in Minoja’s hand—only a few dozen pages thick.

"Thanks."

Liana took the book and flipped through it.

Each page had only two or three spells.

She could understand the written descriptions, but the incantations made no sense.

"I can read the words, but I can’t make sense of the spell chants."

"Magic is something bestowed upon individuals by the gods. If you want to learn someone else's magic, someone has to teach you how to recite the chants."

"And the price for that?"

"Extremely high. Often, not even money can buy it."

"If only these spells could be broken down into syllables like Chinese characters."

Liana sighed. "These chants are a mess."

"Do you want me to find a magic tutor for you?"

Mepeilu offered again. "Even I don’t understand all of these spells."

After all, most magic people learned was inherently tied to their own inborn magic affinity.

But Liana’s magic had no correlation with Mepeilu’s whatsoever.

"At most, we all learn the basics. Beyond that, it’s like a completely different world."

"Not for now," Liana had her own plans.

"Alright. But don’t push yourself too hard."

"If you ever change your mind, just tell me. I’ll help you."

"Yeah, yeah." Liana nodded.

Seeing that Liana seemed to have returned to normal, Mepeilu let out a quiet sigh of relief. Just moments ago, Liana’s face had looked so pale, it was genuinely frightening.

Leaning back in her chair, Mepeilu sighed, "Lately, so many things have been happening all at once."

"First, Liana discovered that spellcraft could be altered and created the first-ever new magic. And now, the anti-magic stone statues have moved."

There was also the matter of Liana’s mother and some issues in Kosat’s royal capital, but Mepeilu decided it was best not to bring those up for now.

Liana not being able to find that person had already dealt her a major blow. Bringing up her parents' situation now would be inconsiderate.

"The anti-magic stone statues moving—what’s the significance of that?"

Liana knew that Creation Magic was a game-changer, but the statues? She wasn’t too sure.

The original story never described them in detail.

In fact, more and more things were happening that were never even mentioned in the original plot.

With the protagonist missing, and Mepeilu scheduled to announce the discovery of Creation Magic tomorrow, the original timeline was about to be completely derailed.

"The anti-magic stone statues have only moved three times in recorded history," Mepeilu said.

"Three times?"

Liana was intrigued. So Olivia wasn’t lying after all?

"Exactly. It’s a rare occurrence—one that only happens at significant moments in history."

"The first time was when the world’s very first magic was born. The statues reacted to its emergence."

"The second time was when the first Demon King appeared."

"The third time was during the demonic invasion—when the statues awakened and aided in sealing away the demon race."

"And now, the fourth time—today."

Mepeilu’s expression turned serious.

"And this time... all because of a low-level thief? It really doesn’t make sense."

Liana had already started piecing things together.

"Maybe... maybe they moved because they sensed the emergence of Creation Magic?"

"After all, when the first magic in the world was discovered, the statues moved as well." Mepeilu smiled faintly.

She was already preparing for the worst-case scenario—being overprepared was always better than getting caught off guard.

But she didn’t want to worry Liana, so she framed it as a joke instead.

"How much time passed between the discovery of magic and the demonic invasion?" Liana asked.

"There aren’t any precise records, but from what we do know, the time gap wasn’t long—about fifty years at most?" Mepeilu replied.

"Then... isn’t it possible that the discovery of Creation Magic is meant to give us a new means of fighting against the demons?"

Seeing Liana voice her own suspicions, Mepeilu felt relieved.

"Don’t be afraid of hurting my feelings. I’m not as fragile as you think," Liana assured her.

Mepeilu had been holding back a bit, worrying about her too much.

"...Sorry." Mepeilu apologized.

"You should start fixing that habit, Mepeilu-nee." Liana teased with a small smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Mepeilu finally loosened up.

"How’s your magic research going? If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can contact me through a crystal orb—I’m usually on night watch duty anyway."

"If necessary, you could also ask Olifiya... uhh, actually, just ask me instead."

Mepeilu’s expression grew slightly awkward.

She knew that Olivia was technically a magic scholar, but...

"She’s a Mid-Tier Grand Mage, which is impressive, but..."

"Olivia’s grades in magic were never that great," Liana noted.

"You already figured that out?" Mepeilu looked a little embarrassed.

"More or less. But I haven’t told Olivia yet."

"Why not?" Mepeilu asked, confused.

"You trust Olivia, don’t you? She could keep it a secret, and it’d make things so much easier. Right now, she’s pretty against you, isn’t she?"

"It’s not that I don’t trust her," Liana explained.

"But Olivia is someone with a strong sense of pride. If I suddenly told her that the person she’s been opposing all this time was someone she never even considered, she’d feel uncomfortable about it."

"So instead, I want her to gradually realize my determination on her own—to see my growth firsthand, and slowly come to terms with it."

Mepeilu stared at her for a moment before chuckling.

"You’re so kind, Liana."

But Liana wasn’t being kind.

She knew that Olivia had a misunderstanding about her, so she had deliberately made sure to train harder in front of her.

If Olivia ever found out that Liana had been faking incompetence this whole time, it’d be a huge blow to her pride.

Besides, Liana’s body was still weak—even if Olivia held back, she still wouldn’t go easy on her if she found out the truth.

She had already wasted so much time because of outside factors.

Now, with the protagonist missing, the only one who could protect Liana was herself.

If she didn’t push herself, she really might not be able to keep up.

She might not be able to replace the protagonist, but at the very least, she didn’t want to become a burden to Mepeilu.

Liana shook her head.

"I need to work even harder."

"Liana, you’re already working hard enough," Mepeilu countered.

"To get this far... at least, I wouldn’t have been able to do it."

"If I hadn’t read the general plot before transmigrating, I wouldn’t have been able to take these steps either," Liana admitted to herself.

She had already used forbidden magic before—but no one had ever noticed.

And the forbidden magic she had access to... was something very few people in this world even knew existed.

"I don’t want to be a burden to you, Mepeilu. I want to help you."

Mepeilu suddenly stood up.

And then, she hugged Liana tightly.

"Thank you."

"Do we really need to thank each other for this?"

"Shut up, let me have this." Mepeilu squeezed her tighter.

"I need to work harder, too. With everything happening recently..."

Her father, the king, was considering an early abdication.

The heir selection process was accelerating.

They needed to be ready for the best- and worst-case scenarios.

"Click!"

A small magic stone glowed in Minoja’s hands—recording the moment in its memory.

"What is that?" Liana asked.

"It’s a new type of magic artifact recently developed," Mepeilu explained.

"It lets you record what you see and store the image, which can later be transferred onto paper using special magic."

Liana understood immediately.

"So, basically... it’s a camera?"

"Let me see."

She reached out.

Minoja injected some mana into the crystal, and an image appeared in the scrying orb—Mepeilu hugging Liana.

Mepeilu subtly gave Minoja a thumbs-up behind Liana’s back.

"You did well!"

"Liana-sama, should I make a print of this?" Minoja asked.

"I shou—" Liana was about to refuse, but then she felt Mepeilu’s gaze on her.

"...It’s not a bad shot. Send me a copy later."