Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord - Volume 1 - Chapter Pr

Prologue

“The eldest daughter of Count Dolkness, Yumiella Dolkness. L-Level...99.”

We were gathered in the great hall of the Royal Academy, the school for the Kingdom of Valschein’s children of the aristocracy, where the entrance ceremony had just concluded. The warm, inviting atmosphere of the occasion dissipated as my level was announced, and the excitement of the teachers and upper-level students greeting the incoming students vanished as everyone stared at me, speechless.

At that moment, I came to the realization that I would already have to give up on my goal of being as inconspicuous as possible. As I accepted my fate, I began to think back on the events that led to me reaching level 99 as if to escape from my current reality...

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I was five years old when I regained memories of my past life and realized that I had been reincarnated as the villainess of an otome game. It all started when I was looking in the mirror in my room and felt strange about how young I appeared.

The face reflected back at me was a doll-like face with dark black eyes. Though my eyes had been black in my past life, this was a much deeper black that seemed to consume all the surrounding light. The perfectly straight hair also complimented the other features.

If I wore a kimono, I might look like a Japanese doll.

Upon thinking about my own appearance, I realized that I knew terms that I had never heard before, like “kimono” and “Japanese doll.”

From there, my memories of my past life came back one after another—I was born during the Heisei period in Japan, I was an introverted female college student, and I probably was killed by a car that crashed into the sidewalk. In a matter of seconds, twenty-something years of memories flashed before my eyes, and I was left gasping for air while my heart was beating out of my chest. All I could do was crouch down, close my eyes, and take deep breaths until I calmed down.

When I felt a little bit better, I thought about what I knew of my current life, only to realize that I didn’t know much at all. The extent of my knowledge was that my name was Yumiella Dolkness, I was five years old, and I was an aristocrat. I had almost no memories that took place beyond the doors of my bedroom, nor any memories of meeting my parents. Though the servants did the bare minimum in caring for me, they didn’t offer much in conversation—I suspected they were avoiding me—so I was left not even knowing the name of the kingdom I was living in.

Naturally, my first course of action was to bombard the maid with my arsenal of questions. She was surprised that the quiet child, who she had barely spoken to before, was suddenly so talkative, but she took the time to answer everything I asked about. Through my interrogation, I found out that I was in the Kingdom of Valschein and that I lived in the lord’s mansion in the county of Dolkness, where I was the eldest daughter of the count. My parents lived in their mansion in the Royal Capital and hadn’t returned to this county since before I was born.

Though the maid was hesitant, I coaxed her into spilling the reason why I was sent here alone. She said it was because my parents wanted to distance themselves from me, their black-haired child. Apparently, black hair was seen as unlucky and a symbol of evil in this kingdom, which explained why the servants around the mansion were so unfriendly. A quiet little girl with black hair would seem creepy. On top of that, my parents, who despised me, were their bosses. It only made sense that they’d be cautious in dealing with me.

Aside from all that, the name Yumiella Dolkness rang quite a few bells. It was the name of a character in an otome RPG that I played in my past life. She’d been the villainess, or more accurately...the hidden boss.

The title of the game was Light Magic and the Hero, commonly known as LMH. It was a world with swords and magic, and despite being a commoner, the main character could use light magic. Thus, she was allowed to attend the Royal Academy, where she worked together with her love interests to grow stronger and eventually defeat the Demon Lord. It was a very classic story; at worst, it was predictable. The game alternated between the academy portion, where you raised the affection levels of the love interests, and the RPG portion, where you worked together with them to defeat monsters.

Yumiella was a typical villainess. She occasionally appeared during the academy portion of the gameplay to bother the main character and get in her way. However, as the story progressed, she appeared less and less, and by the time the main characters began their journey to defeat the resurrected Demon Lord, she was already forgotten. But that wasn’t the end of Yumiella’s story.

After the game’s ending, if you went back to the Demon Lord’s castle, there was a hidden boss that appeared as bonus content. Most players were probably shocked to see her as the hidden boss. That’s right. The hidden boss was Yumiella Dolkness, also known as me!

Of course, as a hidden boss, she was much stronger than the final boss. As most players probably experienced when going up against her with a party that just barely defeated the final boss, you’d get your ass kicked and end up having to flee the scene. Wearing equipment with dark magic resistance and then using light magic to weaken the damage you take from the dark magic may have worked on the Demon Lord, but Yumiella would just hit you with a physical attack and kill your whole party. If you took the opposite strategy of defending against physical attacks, you’d only be left vulnerable to her strong dark magic.

The RPG portion of LMH was actually quite well-balanced for an otome game. All of the enemies had weaknesses to physical or magical attacks of various elements, and exploiting them was the key to beating the game. But Yumiella? There was no other strategy other than to level grind and beat her with brute force. She was the embodiment of unreasonableness. Players called her the Balance Breaker.

According to a member of the production team, she was only added in because they felt that the villainess didn’t have enough screen time. She was built to be strong enough that grinding to the maximum level was the minimum requirement to defeat her. In contrast, players only needed to be around level 70 to defeat the Demon Lord. The developers made Yumiella detest the heroine for getting closer to all the love interests so much that she awakened the ability to use dark magic. The reason wasn’t that deep; they probably didn’t put too much into it since the hidden boss was just bonus content added after the fact.

I was someone who loved level grinding in my past life, so of course, I’d beaten her once. Though I will say, Yumiella must have morphed from a villainess into an entirely different beast because she was able to hold her own against my party of four level 99 heroes.

However, it still would have been premature to say that this was indeed the universe of LMH just because my name and appearance matched that of Yumiella’s. I had to gather more information to be sure. When I told the maid I wanted to learn how to read, a tutor was immediately hired, and my lessons began. Once I learned my new skill, I proceeded to spend all my time in the mansion’s library. I read through everything, regardless of the genre, from picture books to discourse on history and politics, and found too many similarities between the game and this world. The names of the members of the royal families, detailed names of places, legends about the kingdom...the list goes on. As a result, I had no doubt that this was the world of LMH and that I was Yumiella Dolkness.

The realization tormented me. Yumiella was the hidden boss of this world whose purpose was to despise the main character and her companions, only to be defeated in the end. Was there any point in my existence? Was there any point in living this life? I was a hidden boss, so awful that I was the embodiment of unreasonableness.

That means I have the potential to be stronger than the final boss, more athletic than the swordsman in the main character’s party, have stronger magic than the mage, and use dark magic, which is limited to enemy characters... Hold on... Isn’t this kind of awesome?!

My inner gamer was ecstatic. All I had to do was not meddle with the main story of LMH. I could keep my distance from the main character and the love interests and let them deal with the Demon Lord. If that didn’t work, I’d just have to secretly take down the Demon Lord. With Yumiella’s stats, that should be an easy insta-kill.

I have to start grinding.

From then on, I would sneak out of the mansion behind the servants’ backs to level grind. As expected of a hidden boss, my base stats were already quite high, and I was able to defeat monsters even as a child. I was also able to use dark magic without any issues. It seemed that hate had nothing to do with it.

Efficiency is vital to level grinding, so I bought items that increased experience by selling the magic stones that monsters dropped.

When I was no longer satisfied with the monsters that appeared near the town, I moved on to the dungeons in the mountains, where I hunted monsters endlessly. I spent roughly ten years level grinding, and when I turned fifteen, I received a letter from my father. It was the first message I received from my parents in all my years of life, and the gist of it was, “Attend the Royal Academy. While you are at the Academy, become acquainted with as many high-ranking noblemen as possible. Your future partner will marry into our family and be my successor, so he doesn’t need to be the eldest of his family.” I was immediately taken to the Royal Capital by carriage and promptly thrown into the Academy dormitories.

Uh...really, guys? Is this okay with you? Your own child doesn’t even know what you look like.

Every noble child attended the Royal Academy for three years, starting at age fifteen. The Academy was tied to the origins of this kingdom, as it was founded by the hero and saintess who defeated the Demon Lord. Because of its history, the Academy not only focused on academic education but combat education as well. Consequently, when the kingdom was facing an emergency, aristocrats were encouraged to fight on the front lines. Though in practice, this rule seems to have become outdated.

The exterior of the Academy was gorgeous enough to believe it was the Royal Palace. Though I had seen it on-screen when I played the game, it was absolutely breathtaking in person. As for the dorms, I was, of course, provided my own room, as well as separate servants’ quarters, making me very aware of my status as the daughter of a count.

Apparently, I barely made it to the Academy on time because the next day was already the entrance ceremony. I dressed in my uniform and headed to the ceremony, but I couldn’t help but feel that people were staring.

I’ve learned enough etiquette to not be laughed at, so it shouldn’t be that. Could it be my face? I know I’m not a doe-eyed child anymore, but I don’t think I look particularly evil...

After some time, I came to the realization that everyone was staring at my head. It was my black hair that was attracting all the attention. Some were very obvious about their disgust, not even trying to hide it, which made me a bit worried about my future at the Academy.

The disdain for black hair in this kingdom seemed to run very deep. It may have been because some legends said the Demon Lord had black hair, and all the villains in the fairy tales of this kingdom were always dressed in black from head to toe. It was no wonder that everyone subconsciously equated the color black to evil.

I was planning to hide my powers and act like an NPC, but I wasn’t sure if I could after standing out that much on my first day.

As long as I don’t interact with the main character and the love interests, I should at least be able to avoid the hidden boss route...

The entrance ceremony began and proceeded without any issues. Though I wanted to take a peek at the main character and her love interests during the headmaster’s welcome speech, I remembered that the new students were supposed to introduce themselves at the end of the ceremony. With no need to find them now, I sat back in my chair with a nonchalant expression.

However, that didn’t last very long. After the headmaster’s speech, there was an announcement that level assessments would be conducted for new students.

Huh? No one told me about this!

I barely manage to stop myself from shooting to my feet in shock. One after another, students walked to the front and placed their hand on a crystal-like magical instrument to get their level assessed. Most were in the single digits, with only one student over level 10.

I don’t know what level I am. 

I had never measured my level, nor did I know what level I was when I regained the memories of my past life. A five-year-old shouldn’t be able to defeat a monster on their own, so I had to be level 1 by default. I was probably only able to take down monsters because I was extremely athletic and had magic that was just potent enough.

Everyone was cheering for the level 10 student, so coming in at level 5 would most likely be my best bet to not stand out.

Level 5... I hope I’m around level 5. I would be so happy if I was around level 5. 

But I had been level grinding for the last ten years. On top of that, I had been using my knowledge of video game mechanics to utilize effective items, and I’d been training in dungeons.

Of course, there was no mercy for me, and eventually, my turn came just like everyone else’s. I walked up to the front but froze in front of the magical instrument. The elderly headmaster spoke kindly and reassured me that there wasn’t anything embarrassing about being level 1 as a new student, but that wasn’t the problem. I prepared myself for the coming result and made a selfish wish.

Please, oh magical instrument, malfunction and give me a one-digit level. 

Alas, my wish went unanswered, and we now return to the beginning...