The Villainess Wants To Be A Sidekick

Chapter 7: Lake Of Silence

‘Ack, wait a minute, what’s happening?’

As I reached out to Velkina, I suddenly lost my footing as well and started stumbling. Tripping like this was absolutely not part of my plan.

I quickly grabbed Velkina’s shoulder in panic, but it was a futile effort since I could not support both her weight and mine in this state.

Splash!

Together, we fell into the lake with a loud splash.

“Phew, huff, huff, huff…”

“Haah, haa, haah, cough…”

Raising my head above the surface, I sputtered and managed to get rid of most of the water that entered my nose. Fortunately, I realized the lake was not that deep since I was still somehow able to touch the lake bottom with my feet.

I whirled my head around to search for Velkina, who was coughing and flailing wildly nearby. She seemed to have gulped too much of the lake water and her delicate face looked at me with worry shining brightly in those sapphire eyes. Aww, I thought. Even while drowning, she still looks so pretty.

“I’m sorry, Miss Senephin…” she gasped, “you were going to tell me that there was a trap there, right? I must have lost my balance because I got caught.”

‘Yesterday I told you not to call me ‘Miss’ anymore. It must be hard for you to get rid of the previous mentality you had about me.’

“It’s okay,” I replied, trying my best to ensure I answered her as kindly as I could. “For now, we need to focus on getting out of here.”

I was about to kick my legs towards the shore, but I realized I could not move. Something was grasping both my arms and my legs.

“Huh?”

“Thi-This is…”

Velkina was also experiencing the same thing as me. Her face hardened. I looked down, trying to discern what was lurking beneath the surface.

Even though the water level was only up to my chest, I couldn’t make out anything holding my arms and legs. Not being able to move my body as I wanted was a strange sensation. I felt as if a transparent string had tied my limbs together.

“I can’t move my arms and legs,” Velkina fretted, a slight panic rising in her voice. “Its… it’s my fault, right? It must be mine, right? I’m so sorry…”

“Ca, calm down Lady Velkina.”

Despite my own concerns, I tried my best to calm her down.

Ah… But it was a bit of a hopeless cause because I couldn’t even calm myself down. I thought back to what had happened during the middle part of the game…

The Lake of Silence was revealed to be something far more sinister than a seemingly tranquil body of water. In reality, it was more like a giant monster in its entirety. All the traps that were laid around the water’s edge were placed there by the lake to lure unsuspecting victims to their dooms. At the beginning of the game, the player only encountered the lake for a brief moment, and the entire ordeal was over with pretty quickly. Later on, however, when the player returned to the lake, the level of danger changed dramatically.

There was an event where the player could witness the real dangers of the lake on Lumins’ route.

In order to gather the essential items needed to progress from the middle of the game, the heroine’s party was supposed to be given a quest that required them to return to the lake. Unlike before, when she merely twisted her ankle at the water’s edge, Velkina would fall into the water this time, without yet knowing the lake’s true identity. Afterward, her whole body would be tied by an invisible force attempting to consume her, like what was happening to us now. I think it was around that time when Lumins would heroically leap into action to save her from such a difficult situation.

Oh, I forgot to mention: if the player accidentally did something slightly wrong during the event, Lumins would end up dying as a result. Honestly, what kind of game is this? Really.

“Lady Velkina, what magic can you use?”

“I’m, I’m so sorry. I’m just a sorceress in training. I haven’t learned any proper spells yet, so I can’t…”

That’s right. This was only just the beginning of the game. What was I hoping for?

‘What should we do? Is this where the target character makes his appearance?’

I wondered if Jean was still going to show up. Was it worth the risk to wait for him? Would he even come to our aid and save us from freezing to death in the middle of the lake? And even if he did, would saving our lives in this way have a greater impact on his charm than the original event where he carried Velkina like a princess?

The lake event with Lumins was supposed to happen in the middle part of the game. By falling into the waters so early on, we were probably already intercepting the original plot, right?

“It shouldn’t be like this!” I shouted in frustration.

Upon hearing my sudden outburst, Velkina looked at me with her eyes wide open. When I became aware of her shocked gaze, I flinched. Oh my, I hadn’t even realized that I just shouted my thoughts out loud…

Well, whatever. I couldn’t help it! No, it wasn’t supposed to be like this!

As if I needed to add insult to injury, I remembered how I had just crushed Lumins’ event yesterday and prevented him from increasing his intimacy with Velkina. At this point, I couldn’t possibly allow Whitey to get any points of intimacy with Velkina at all. Absolutely none! We had to find a way out of this situation by ourselves.

The body I entered had previously belonged to Senephin Cromwell. She was also a sorceress. If that’s the case, then shouldn’t I also be able to do something with magic?

How did Lumins save Velkina during the lake event, again? How did he get his ice to…

Wait, that was it, right? He froze the whole lake except for the spot where Velkina was standing, and then he smashed the ice to break it into pieces.

… Well, there was one slight problem with that solution. I can’t freeze an entire lake.

Plus, I was pretty certain that the game’s developers wouldn’t have set Senephin, a villainous side character, at the same sorcery level as Lumins, a main character and also a known genius.

“Miss Senephin…”

Velkina looked apologetically at me as tears started brimming at the corners of her eyes.