Get Ahead of the Fallen Heroine and Make the Bull-Headed Man the Victim

56. Both Sides Feel Awkward

After a brief rest, Valentina got up and headed towards a knight order’s stronghold outside the palace.

This incident seemed to have come to a temporary end, but dealing with the aftermath was quite troublesome.

How to handle her impostor, how to deal with the united nobles, and what to do about the criminal Marlow, who had grasped the weaknesses of most of those nobles.

These matters were enough to give Valentina a headache.

However, for now, she still planned to meet with her teacher Allen and childhood friend Clyde, who were waiting for her at the knight order’s stronghold, to inform them about what had just happened in the palace.

“Tina, it looks like things have wrapped up.”

As soon as she entered the building where the knight order was usually stationed, Valentina ‘coincidentally’ ran into Allen, who was chatting with knights in the first-floor hall.

This was certainly not a coincidence; Allen had been waiting here to speak with Valentina before Clyde arrived.

In the eyes of the knights, seeing the charming scholar with a smile approach the princess they admired, they surely understood that compared to that other guy, he was far more suited for the princess.

Beneath Allen’s humble exterior, he couldn’t help but think this.

“Yeah, it’s over, thanks to your help, Mr. Allen.”

Unlike her usual calm demeanor with Noah, Valentina was humble and polite towards Allen.

Because she genuinely admired the reliable Allen from the bottom of her heart.

—

But that’s all there is to it.

“It’s nothing serious; it’s what I should do. When an excellent student gets into trouble, I certainly can’t just stand by and watch.”

Allen shook his head, smiling to indicate that it was unnecessary to be polite.

Inside, he felt satisfied with Valentina’s ‘obedience.’

It seemed that his choice to act back then was indeed the right one. If he hadn’t helped Valentina catch the imposter who was now being interrogated, it would have been quite difficult for her to win.

Because Valentina had concealed her use of Marlowe to threaten the nobles into silence, Allen was unaware of this aspect, thinking that it was solely his assistance that allowed Valentina to triumph, feeling quite pleased with himself.

After the two chatted for a while, Clyde rushed out upon hearing the news that Valentina was safe.

And he immediately launched into a typical, overly dramatic speech.

“Tina! I’m so sorry! It’s all my fault that you almost had to accept the crime!”

Clyde’s face was full of self-reproach as he hurriedly apologized to Valentina.

In truth, he was genuinely remorseful.

However, Noah, who was monitoring everything through the magic array, knew that Clyde was simply worried about disappointing Valentina, realizing he had dragged her down this time.

“It’s fine, it’s okay, Clyde. It’s not your fault.”

Valentina, who had never held high expectations for Clyde from the start, thus wouldn’t be disappointed in him. She comforted him gently, like a childhood friend would.

This made Noah shake his head in disbelief.

The girl he once thought was just an ordinary childhood friend turned out to be the king’s illegitimate daughter. It was only natural for Clyde to worry about being abandoned, especially since he genuinely liked Valentina.

But here’s the question: who would dislike a beautiful girl with a pleasant personality, a beloved princess?

In the original story, nearly all the blond-haired characters, even the monsters, acted against her because they were enamored with Valentina’s beauty and body.

Clyde was merely the one who happened to know Valentina first; there was no other reason.

And because Valentina was marginalized and lacked her own power, she had no choice but to grow closer to Clyde, the only one she could talk to.

But now it was different. Valentina had defeated Prince Morley and Princess Dilia, and her reputation among the knights and the common folk was rising. Ultimately, she would drift further away from Clyde, who was just an ordinary commoner.

Even though Valentina still cherished the beautiful memories of their childhood and held a faint affection for Clyde, it seemed they could still get along harmoniously for now.

But there were always those who couldn’t stand it, like Allen, who was watching the young people with warm eyes.

He couldn’t accept that such a good woman as Valentina would become the girlfriend of a timid commoner like Clyde, who only had gentleness and kindness to offer.

Noah stood on the same ground as the original story’s blond-haired villains.

The difference was that while the blondes wanted to possess Valentina for themselves, Noah wanted to see Valentina take revenge on those blondes and live freely.

Noah’s mindset was probably similar to that of a protective father.

Now that he had matured considerably, Noah decided it was time for Valentina to see the true faces of Allen and Clyde.

One was a leader of the demon race disguised as a reliable, mature scholar, who actually wanted to ravage everything about her and take her kingdom.

The other was a kind-hearted but useless commoner who would only bring Valentina countless troubles with his gentleness.

To be honest, if Noah had to choose between these two people, he would choose to eliminate both.

He had originally tried to make Clyde strong enough to stand by Valentina’s side, but unfortunately, Clyde was just too much like mud that couldn’t be molded.

While it was possible to forcibly make a fallen mage stronger, it wasn’t necessary; it would be better to let Valentina fall on her own.

If he had to compare, the blonde-haired Allen definitely had more initiative.

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Thus, Noah decided to let Valentina completely defeat Allen, the self-righteous actor with blonde hair.

Noah would not forget how Allen treated Valentina, who had always regarded him as a true brother.

Even if the goddess could accept such things, he, as the evil god, could not.

In order to make Allen understand the heart-wrenching feeling of being robbed of his beloved woman, Noah needed to think carefully about how to modify the plot’s direction.

“…It’s a bit of a headache. If my goal were the same as those blondes, just to covet the heroine’s body, I could just step in, charm the heroine, and then defeat the blonde head-on. At that point, the blonde would surely understand what the victim feels.”

“But the problem is, I don’t want Valentina to develop any negative emotions towards me, like hatred or disgust, especially not any positive feelings. I like Valentina, but not in that way; it’s more of an affection than love.”

“Disguising myself as the victim to defeat the blonde? Hmm, that doesn’t seem like a great idea. Disguising myself as the blonde to defeat the blonde? …Though that’s more interesting than the previous idea, there should be better options.”

To free Valentina from the blonde’s clutches while also satisfying his own emotional needs.

For this reason, Noah began to fall into deep thought within the ruined temple.

However, what Noah didn’t notice was that on the other side of the magic circle monitor, the princess was also somewhat distracted.

Even when she was with her childhood friend, who usually calmed her heart the most.

She couldn’t help but think about the evil god who had suddenly appeared before her.

This feeling of inexplicable annoyance was something she had never experienced before.

Could it be that she had unknowingly been cursed by the evil god?

—