Reincarnated as the Villainess's attendant

"Wait, but wasn't you the person who helped create the kingdom and always helped out the royal family? Why would you need to do that if there already was someone like that in the first place?"

Zoemi frowned and asked in a bothered voice.

"Yeah - I helped. I have not done everything on my own. Besides, the problem with Bellcephora is that she isn't exactly a normal human being..."

"...?"

Aspakeony explained to the extremely confused, by that point, Zoemi.

"Bellcephora is a humanoid creature that was created by the Presence itself. Although she does have free will, she does not care about anything other than following the will of her creator. And before you ask, that is very problematic. There were instances where Bellcephora stopped wars and even personal fights, but she didn't lift a finger when the Ghosts betrayed and assassinated almost the entire royal family of the time. And neither did she do anything when the Ghosts went on a killing spree. She did fix a broken toy one time though she turned it into a deadly artifact... which was arguably weird and uncalled for... nowadays she mainly guards the main vein of the mana crystal that was originally used for creating the spell-blocking bracelets that recently got destroyed by the second prince... that being said, the last time she showed up, that being after the Ghosts stopped their rampage, she announced that sages cannot fight with each other and she will stop all attempts of such."

The gray-haired girl gave a lengthy speech about a completely new person who never appeared as a character in the game and certainly wasn't mentioned during any of the lessons that Zoemi attended in his current life, but honestly, the black-haired boy was kind of not convinced on the matter...

"You made it sound as if the Ghosts were protected by Bellcephora, but I killed two of them. Even if Raseriat didn't count because I wasn't actually a sage at the time so technically the ban on sage on sage fighting was not violated, with Rethaq it was most definitely the case!"

Zoemi groaned in annoyance and actually moved away from the gray-haired girl and get out of the stuffed-toy-filled drawer.

"I get it, you want to keep me in the dark for some reason, but seriously, trust me a bit would you? Or be better at lying at least."

"...I wasn't lying about Bellcephora though, compared to me she's a super weirdo..."

He scoffed with a tired expression - to which Aspakeony reacted by mumbling into all the plushies that she burrowed herself into in exchange for the black-haired boy who ran away from her.

"...anyway. Going back to the subject I originally came here with - you and I talked about Ehmi before in this very office. Not about the red-haired sage Ehmi, but about the platinum-haired time attribute user Ehmi. You were very concerned about her too. Do you remember that?"

Zoemi shook his head before straightening his back and talking in a stern, serious voice, that made Aspakeony peek at him out of the layer of stuffed animals.

"You do know that I could use a convenient excuse of saying that presence must have erased my memories just like it did with everyone else so I have no clue about what you are talking about, right?"

The gray-haired girl asked in an equally serious voice.

"Well, since you are talking about it like that, then I guess it's your way of showing the will to cooperate. Because that's a yes to my question?"

"That is a yes, yes."

The black-haired boy asked and the gray-haired girl confirmed.

"So, what was the case with the platinum-haired Ehmi?"

Zoemi took a deep breath and motioned at Aspakeony with his chin.

"Presence was possessing her. She can do that, but usually, she was using Bellcephora for that. And before you ask, I can't be sure why she switched to the little lady Victureo, but my best bet is that she was more convenient to use at the time."

The gray-haired necromancer answered straight up without even trying to hide anything - this time at least - and shared whatever knowledge she had about the subject.

"I KNEW IT! Ha! Whew, okay...what is the connection between the presence and the second princess who was murdered by the Ghosts of Bellcephora...?"

"!!!"

Zoemi called out triumphantly before furrowing his brows and looking straight at Aspakeony. His following question ended up causing her to dive under the plushies and pillows, burrowing herself completely.

"...I don't know... one is basically a god, the other is dead and her body was put into the royal crypt, you can go check that out for yourself if you get permission. Why would you even ask about something like that? It's even more ridiculous than any of my stories!"

She scoffed awkwardly without ever surfacing from beneath her cover.

"...is that so...? I might be imagining things but since the presence wanted to contact me and originally my soul was the artificial soul that you have created..."

"Zoemi, don't say it."

The black-haired boy shrugged his shoulders and sighed with suspicion, but then Aspakeony sat up straight amidst the stuffed animals and cut him off with a strict face.

"And why shouldn't I say it?"

Zoemi raised his brow and asked, slightly irked off.

"Because if you figure out things too soon Bellcephora might show up and make things difficult for both of us. She did so before to me and personally, I do not want a repeat."

Aspakeony responded without changing her serious expression while staring straight into Zoemi's eyes.

"..."

The two of them were glaring at each other for a good while and neither of them even blinked through the entire duration of the staredown.

"Please. There is a reason, things are going fine as they are for now. Can you just go along with it?"

Shockingly enough it was Aspakeony who threw in the towel first and her shoulders slumped down as she made a pleading expression.

"Things are going fine you say? For who though?"

The black-haired boy breathed out before looking away in annoyance.

"Alright. I will not pursue the subject - but in exchange, I have two questions that I want you to answer."

After a moment of silence, Zoemi decided to drop the subject for the time being and switched to another.