Villainess Correction Officer Chapter 13 (Patreon)

Days quickly passed by as we did some murder hobo shit outside of the capital. Staying at the nicer inns at the towns we rolled on by as we basically did a giant lap around the Capital City of Melromarc outer area.

Basically doing a lap from like thirty miles away from the capital city, clearing out the weaker monsters and more importantly to myself. Intergrating and speaking with the shitheel nobles that always wanted to check in with me.

As despite me humilating both the King and Malty herself, the noblity had this wonderful idea that I was going to end up being the big political player for some reason out of the four Legendary Heroes.

Still in the week of traveling around, killing monsters, unlocking new spears, and keeping very busy. Two major things happened.

First was the powder keg in Lesty and Malty's 'friendship' utterly exploding.

I watched from the chair I was sitting in, in my own room as Lesty freshly dressed left my room after a night of keeping me company and she all but collided with Malty who was coming out of her own private room.

As she obviously refused to bunk with the lesser commoners, and 'animals' in Changli, Raphtalia, and Atla.

So seeing Lesty come out of my room. Freshly bathed, in clean clothes, and with a spark of a fullfilled woman in her steps.

Malty fucking snapped and went to slap her out of nowhere.

But... Over the last couple of weeks, Lesty had been killing even more monsters both subtly and with my aid in funneling said monsters to her to finish off.

So when Matly went to slap her. Lesty blocked the slap, and then sent a flying knee into Malty's lower waist. A womb bash if there was every one and Matly was forced to be laid up for the rest of the day as we went without her.

As I just looked at her with pity and made a tsking noise and just said she was becoming more and more of an unworthy royal.

And just to make her mind snap a little bit... Just as I left the room and was about to close the door. I asked quietly. "Is the king even your father? Aultcray looks nothing like you, and you clearly don't have any of the talents of Aultcray who wielded the Legendary Staff." 

"Maybe... I was right all along, you are just a bastard born of the Queen playing around with a servant or something. Maybe that's why she is so busy leaving Melromarc all the time. She is busy with a secret family with children she actually loves." I finished before closing the door with Malty's eyes going dull at my words.

That was Malty's little mind break episode of the week. Not that I didn't keep her pressured and otherwise subdued as well the rest of the time with calculated pressure release moments so she didn't completely break down.

Besides Malty being herself the other event was obviously Atla and Raphtalia's growth as they gained levels...

More particular in Atla who with her body properly growing up and with my efforts in finding martial artists who had tiny bits of knowledge in Ki senseing. She shed much of her complete reliance on others.

Which led to today's 'issue'.

"Atla... You sneaky little tiger." I said helplessly as once again. The striped white and black hair of Atla was the first thing I saw after feeling her weight next to me as Atla just hummed and snuggled up harder into my side.

"I literally locked the door to keep you out you Atla." I said dryly with a sigh as I knew Lesty already left. Which meant no morning head... Truly my day was ruined!

"Hmm, no mere lock can keep your shield away from you Master Jake." Atla said proudly and with zero fucking shame.

My face twitched at that and I asked flatly. "How did you even get in? This a noble room with an actually good lock at that?"

To which Atla nodded and said seriously. "It was a good lock indeed. But it's pins could still get stuck and I could still see them easily with my ki sensing bouncing on the insides of the lock to map it out!"

I could only exhale softly in exasperation as while this silly tiger girl had grown up into her teen form with the levels. She was still innocent thankfully.

So with a helpless exhale I just patted Atla's head before mentally complaining. 'No wonder Naofumi always slept with a giant cauldron or boulder next to him... He didn't want the little girl brigade that was following him around to do something crazy.'

As already I had a blind tiger girl who could 'see' through the life force of the world and through vibrations like Toph from Avatar could.

Thankfully even though Raphtalia had likewise latched onto me. She wasn't troublesome at all.

Still now awake, and no Lesty to plow into the bed. I rolled over to the edge of the bed before saying thoughtfully. "Alright, you go make sure that Raphtalia and Changli are awake and getting ready. We got a quest to deal with an Gold Eating Beetle that are eating the ores in the local mines." 

I yawned as Atla grumbled at needing to get up at all as she was a lazy tiger when things weren't to exciting.

And for a brief moment as I watched her tail wagging as she left my room. I wondered if she would follow a laser pointer if they existed in this world to begin with.

Then I remembered that she was blind and that making her try to follow a laser pointer was probably racist.

Not that I even had a laser pointer in this boring feudal fantasy world.

"Alright... Time to get the show on the road." I muttered as I summoned the Legendary Spear back into my hands.

-

Raphtalia was in 'true' form as she was lightly scolding Atla for sneaking into my room again and as I made sure the carriages horses were well fed. Changli came up to me while the rest of my party members likewise checked their own personal supplies.

And Changli had in fact took my advice in taking a large dagger and binding it to the metal nubs that covered up where her hands were cut off at the wrists.

"Hmm, you know that princess is looking ready to explode right?" She said quietly as she leaned partly into me to make it so no one could read her lips.

And I meanwhile nodded before I said likewise silently as I loaded up some rations for the rest of my party into the carriages storage racks.

"I am aware... I am relying on her snapping to hopefully fix her." 

Changli gave a thoughtful hum before she said rather blandly. "Malty Melromarc becoming a better, normal, or otherwise 'good' person. I can't see it." 

To which I said with a light chuckle. "Oh... I am well aware it won't be so simple. She isn't going to be fixed with a simple mental breakdown. No, she is going to kill her own chances of mental, and social recovery."

As I already had some... Plans to put in motion once the Waves came to be and the Queen started throwing her power around to soothe the other pissed off countries that didn't get a Legendary Hero.

But when the Queen came back and I started asking questions? Like is Malty even her daughter? Why is the Three Heroes church 'trying' to kill Naofumi abroad. Why weren't we the Legendary Heroes getting actual support and teachers for the power system of this world?

So many ways to pull things at Melromarc's seams and all of which would put more and more pressure onto Malty which would assuredly lead her into self destructing like she does many a time in canon. And had already done even without my efforts.

Still I refocused on Changli and asked quietly. "And how has your wrists been feeling? Your pheonix bloodline is getting ever stronger with each level."

And Changli's expression became pained as she admitted. "Its... Difficult Jake, I can feel my strength returning and with an even stronger foundation. But these nubs aren't anything magically conductive obviously. The issue is I need to remove them when my bloodline is strong enough to truly reproduce my hands."

The issue with it currently was with a weaker bloodline level. Her wounds would just heal over, forming a new flesh nub instead of properly regrowing a complete hand.

"Any idea what level you might to be for limb regeneration?" I asked curiously.

She shook her head and said helplessly. "I have no idea. Maybe after the Wave I will be able to do it with all the EXP we will get. If I had a powerful magical conduit like the Legendary Staff I would have a better shot as well." 

I considered her words for a moment. Did I want to steal or weasel the Legendary Staff out of King Melromarc who may one day have his actual name changed to 'Trash'. Honestly I wasn't against it.

The legendary weapon itself had abandoned him. And I had zero fucking clue if I was going to fuck up to the point that Raphtalia and others would be dropped into other worlds for them to steal said world's own Legendary weapons.

So if anything... Yeah, I wasn't exactly a 'true' hero, and I wanted Changli and the rest of my party to be as strong as possible. And the humans in my party? Their potential wasn't nearly as great seeing as they didn't have the bullshit stat boosts that came from being a slave.

Yeah, if anything, I woudn't be surprised if they fell off after the wave when I got much more powerful and started to go after other very powerful monsters and such.

"I will see in the future then." I said thoughtfully.

Then, with a shru,g I said. "Alright, let's get going to the mines. I am looking forward to getting some ore to enhance my spears."

And so we got going... With Atla sitting next to me and Raphtalia staring at her pointedly to make sure she didn't do anything weird like hopping into my lap.

The cart got moving once Lesty started driving the horses pulling the large cart and thankfully, the road to the mines themselves was clear of monsters, at least so the ride wasn't too much of an issue.

"The cave is filled with not only with magical ores, but also with magic stones, so it's well lit at least." I muttered thoughtfully as I was rather worried about fighting in a completely dark cave with nothing but lamp light and whatever magic we conjured up.

My party moved down to the deeper cave section into a large atrium, where several piles of raw ore were previously stacked up. But we were now scattered as giant beetles the size of small horses were eating what was the ore with more magical energy.

In other words... The more valuable ore was being eaten by these damned monsters!

Without a word, I switched to the Armor Piercer spear that I had made via fusing a pickaxe into the Legendary Spear. And the giant beetle whirled on me while screaming as my spear rammed home into it's armor plates.

The armor peircing effect of my spear made it feel like I was shoving the spear into a thick gelatin that was fighting me for a good inch. But after bypassing the armor. The spear then rammed into the large beetles far less defended innards.

With a quick twist I then yanked out the spear and as the beetle still whirled on me. I spun my spear around and with a flash it turned into the Fire Lion spear which had large burning fang end at the end of the spear.

And as the beetles unfucked wing beat hurriedly to help it charge at me. It was met with my burning spear point smashing it across the facial area to push it to the side.

Then Raphtalia came down with a yell as she stabbed her long sword into the hole I made in it's armor.

All the while Atla cast a weaker lightning spell into it's legs to make it unable to move as the rest of my team also worked to finish off the rather wounded beetle.

As I left that beetle behind as from the off shoot tunnels came the skittering noises of the metalic armored limbs of the other beetles.

-

Dealing with the level twenty five to thirty beetles was thankfully 'easy' due to my spear being their perfect counter as the Legendary Spear had the strongest armor penetration especially. Along with having the second strongest speed besides the sword hero's.

"Gold Harvesting Pincer Spear... Increases the amount of EXP I get from killing a monster with the spear by ten percent. Not bad." I muttered thoughtfully.

As should I reach Mastery 100 with it. I could keep the EXP bonus even while using a different spear form... But if I combined that method with the Legendary Sword's 'Rarity' evolution method. I could enhance it's base skill at it's base level!

But it would require me to reset it's Mastery level once I maxed it out which would in turn make me lose that passive exp boost while I 're-mastered' the spear.

"It's annoying as it will take a fuck load of work. But if I can get a twenty percent passive increase to EXP gain even while using another spear. It would be so fucking worth it." I muttered thoughtfully.

A sigh escaped me before I brushed a hand across my face as I also began feeding raw ore chunks of 'Blazing Gold' which was used to commonly to make heating elements for noble's homes as well as being used in making fire attuned magical staffs and such.

And with dinging noises ringing out in my mind as the EXP spear was 'leveled up' I stopped when I got it to level eight after failing twice and having the level reset and losing all it's previous enhancements.

With a hum I inspected the +eight spear and it didn't look any different with the ores making it stronger. Instead the ores merely made the spear's innate stats better which was good even if it didn't enhance the exp gain passive skill.

"Wait... With how the party shares exp in a sixty forty split with them getting the forty percent. If I kill the monsters personally it will make sure we get the optimal amount of exp." I muttered.

But as I saw Malty trying and failing to get Elena to do her part of work in tearing apart the corpses of the monsters so that we could sell the important parts.

Because for whatever the fuck reason. We needed to waste hours each day gathering materials and selling them in order to properly support this party of murder hobos that were supposed to save this world.

'Fuck you Autcray. Fifty silver coins to get started in this world is an utter insult. Every single noble in attendance at our introduction spends that much just feeding the show horses a week that pull their damned carriages!' I thought spitefully.

Pulling me out of my inner grumblings was Atla who carefully made her way over and gently massaged my shoulders as she said softly. "Hmm master Jake. Your ki was looking bubbly with annoyance. Did Atla make you upset?"

My lips twitched before I said in fond annoyance. "You? No, you are a careful angel who only annoys me with how clingy you are in breaking into my damned room most nights. I have an even bigger annoyance I was thinking about."

There was a pause before I said flatly. "Nah actually I got an even bigger annoyance... I want to get you all registered with the Dragon Hourglass so we can keep track of the Wave timer and make sure you all can rank up your classes but there is one issue." I drew off at the end.

And Changli who was walking over to keep an eye on her fellow beastmen royal gave a light titter before she said in amuesment. "Ah yes... Melromarc's Dragon Hourglass is hosted by the Three Heroes Church. They will not be so receptive to us Demi-Humans." 

A part of me was even thinking I woudn't be surprised if they also had issues with me seeing as I ruined Naofumi's sham of a trial.

But that was just something I would need to figure out when it came down it.