The Villainess With A Heroine Harem

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Hi, baby! Did you miss me?!"

To her credit, the gray-haired girl was only slightly taken aback by the childish face on the other side of the screen before she shook her head in amusement.

Fortunately, no one else could snoop in on their conversation, or they would definitely label her as a pervert who liked to be called baby by girls much younger than herself.

Just knowing that 'the thought didn't bother her as much as it should' bothered Noelle quite a bit, and she couldn't help but shake her head in exasperation. "Could you not have changed into your normal appearance before talking to us, at least?"

The crimson-haired girl stuck out her tongue cheekily. "It's safer this way, just in case I forget to change back early in the morning. Wouldn't the manager faint from the collapse of her faith if she saw me in place of little Emi?"

Noelle snorted. "Maybe it would be good to tone down the unhealthy obsessions of certain people."

Emilia couldn't help but pout. "It's not unhealthy! Besides, you didn't answer my first question. Didn't you miss me? If you did, quickly find an excuse to get little Emi by your side without attracting any suspicion!" She paused. "… or should I just sneak over?"

Noelle snorted. "Stop making trouble! Do you want your own plans to fail because of a moment's impulse? Besides, with how overworked I've been recently, do you think I had the time to think about much else?"

Telling Emilia the truth would only cause the younger girl to tease her endlessly, and since they couldn't meet right now anyway, it was far from a desirable outcome as far as Noelle was concerned.

Sadly for the gray-haired girl, a certain 'traitor' by her side was more than happy to expose her true thoughts.

"Don't listen to her nonsense, baby! The number of times she's spaced out over the past few days while thinking about you has got to be in the dozens, no, thousands!"

Noelle angrily pushed Sam off her shoulder before she could get too comfortable, though fortunately she still retained enough sense to not use too much strength. "Why aren't you working? And stop blowing things out of proportion!"

Having been with Sam for so long, Noelle couldn't help but believe that she could handle even a hundred disobedient and unruly children on her own.

And as Noelle expected, the taller girl quickly started making excuses the moment she realized she had been caught. "I-I've finished it already, and you didn't deny it!"

Thinking about how both the girl's parents and her little boss had given her the right to make all sorts of executive decisions for the White Deer, Noelle couldn't help but snort coldly. "… I see you're particularly free and leisurely. Don't worry, though, I'll see to it soon."

Had it not been for this girl slacking off so frequently, would she need to work herself so hard every day? Of course not!

Sam took a deep breath in apparent despair. "B-Bullying! This is bullying!"

Emilia giggled. "You shouldn't tease Noelle so much if you don't want to be punished, big sis."

Samantha sighed. "But where's the fun in that?"

Seeing Noelle's expression get darker, she coughed. "A-Anyway, forget about that. I heard you wanted us to speed up our plans a bit?"

Emilia nodded. "Carmen is like a quicksand pit, after all. But if we can't stay still or make steady progress… why not just blow it up?"

Of course, both Noelle and Sam understood that what Emilia meant by 'blowing it up' wasn't an actual explosion, but the effects of their actions on both the people and the country.

After all, the less stable things were, the easier it would be for them to bring about change.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

When the initial report of the incident involving the apparent little mascot of the White Deer Corporation and the subsequent arrests was made to the higher-ups in Carmen, their reaction actually wasn't that intense.

After all, while it was annoying that one of their pawns had forgotten the proper way of handling things in their country, it wasn't like it caused much damage.

Besides, it wasn't as if her actions made much of a difference to the overall situation. After all, the damage had already been done when the White Deer Corporation sent people to recklessly beat up everyone in the gangsters' stronghold to rescue their mascot.

It was probably just an unfortunate coincidence that the Nightingale clan's people happened to be there as well, and the two had a conflict. Even if acknowledging this fact made them unhappy, they were still willing to look past it for the overall situation.

Thinking about it this way, aside from the bad influence that the arrest itself might have, the chief of police was actually quite helpless this time.

With one of their own kidnapped, the White Deer Corporation's movements were both expected and alarming. After all, these foreigners were clearly just flaunting the fact that they didn't put the culture and laws in their eyes, and that everyone had no choice but to bear with it!

But as long as that woman heeded their advice and didn't continue with such foolish actions, maybe they could even twist the story to appease and please people as needed. Of course, they would have to be careful not to mishandle things or overinflate their egos, but that was something they were already experts at.

Compared to trying to play the mediator in the conflict between the old and new generations of Gray Wolfe, this could only be considered a small bump on their way, and nothing more.

Although there were certain members of the Nightingale clan also involved in the matter, as long as the Gray Wolfe wasn't involved as well, there was no need to be too worried.

With the phyisque of the Nightingale clan's people, whatever damage the White Deer's men could have caused them while rescuing their little mascot could only be considered superficial at best.

Or so they thought.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━