This is Not How You Use a Villainess Sir

Chapter 4: Adults, That’s Not How You Use a Bad Woman

A girl stood guard against the wind while several boys “dog-paddled” through the debris, occasionally finding small trinkets like a broken mirror, dancing with excitement, yet silent for fear of waking the slumbering soldiers.

Soon, they prepared to leave, and one boy pulled out a carved monster skull, murmuring some incantation.

Flames burst from the skull’s mouth, the magic of the fire giving an uneasy sensation.

In the blink of an eye, the trash was incinerated, black smoke dispersed, and the stench of char filled the air.

The fumes woke the sleeping soldiers, who began to curse in flowery language, as the children scattered in panic.

Just by their clothes, Chu Yan could tell there was a slum-like area in the city of Elysium.

“Are these children the city’s scavengers?”

This method of disposal was not good; the trash may have disappeared, but the lingering stench was hard to remove.

Chu Yan wanted to ask around, so he followed the children’s footsteps.

“…Who are you!”

The girl among the children noticed Chu Yan’s pursuit, and they froze like startled birds, too panicked to flee.

Their faces were covered with frustration and helplessness, muttering to themselves, “What should I do, sister?”

“Relax, I’m the newly appointed unlucky lord, I mean no harm, just want to ask some questions.”

Chu Yan raised his hands in the old French military salute, showing no threat.

“A lord? Does that mean a new noble from outside?”

The girl’s unease persisted, her eyes darting around, looking for an escape.

“If you’re that scared, I can step back further, I won’t stop you from leaving, I just want to ask a few questions.”

Seeing the handsome young man really increased the distance, the girl breathed a sigh of relief.

Chu Yan asked, “Are you responsible for dealing with the city’s trash, and the nobles don’t care?”

The boy who had used the skull to start the fire finally mustered the courage, hiding behind the girl, he said:

“We’re not in charge of that, the likes of Lord Pigo would never deal with trash, they just wait for it to pile up, then have the magicians wash it away with a flood, sending it to our homes!”

Elysium’s terrain was sloped, with the city built on higher ground, while the children’s area was near the Dead Sea, at the bottom of the slope.

If the city washed away trash with a flood, it would indeed clean efficiently, but the trash would flow directly into the slums.

Chu Yan looked back the way he came, still within Elysium, but the scenes on either side were starkly different.

The upper city had grand houses, streetlights glowed like fireflies, and lush ivy decorated the walls with elegance.

But in the lowland slums, there were only crude shacks, wooden boards cobbled together into cramped “boxes,” the homes of these children.

He could already picture the magicians washing the streets, and the slums being showered with an uninvited rain of trash.

“You don’t want Baron Pigo to let the trash flood down, so you burn it in advance?”

“…Yes, if there’s nothing else, then we’ll take our leave now.”

The girl already intended to retreat, yet she dared not turn around rashly, as if afraid the lord would steal a glance at their backs and stab them from behind.

Chu Yan had wanted to suggest a different method for handling the trash, but the words just wouldn’t come out.

Even though burning the trash created billowing smoke and haze, they had no other choice.

The task of creating a civilized and cultured city was proving to be so difficult!

He wanted to ask about the skull-shaped magical artifact, but seeing the children’s wariness, he decided to save his questions for another time.

Chu Yan took out several silver coins and tossed them through the air to them, saying:

“This is your payment for the trash cleanup, you may go now.”

The children left with surprise and delight, their steps light and bouncy, worried the lord might change his mind, they ran off swiftly.

While Chu Yan was still pondering in place, the voices of the children could be heard again.

“Wow! Run fast!!”

The figures that had just disappeared reappeared, scattering and running towards Chu Yan.

Chu Yan, puzzled, wanted to ask what had happened, but then he saw a blob of slime monster following behind the children.

This monster was extremely hostile, its size comparable to an adult elephant, and within its murky, muddy body, a fierce single eye was exposed.

Strictly speaking, this was a mutated variant of a slime, perhaps due to the geographical features of the Dead Sea border, it lacked a transparent and frozen body, and its aggressiveness was much stronger.

Was the slum still a monster spawn point???

“This level of demon, I can still handle.”

A fireball had already formed in Chu Yan’s palm, and a graceful figure swept past from behind.

Xia Nuoya appeared, holding a sword hilt in her hand, a hilt without a blade.

In a moment of trance, magical power converged into a broad blade, and with a heavy sword slash, the slime monster was split open.

The monster was swiftly dealt with, and Xia Nuoya sheathed her weapon, turning to Chu Yan with a serious expression, she said:

“The enemy is dealt with, my lord, you owe me a favor. I’ve made a note of it, don’t think of reneging.”

Chu Yan: “……”

Wait, you took down a head, and I owe you a favor?

Just then, the slime monster that Xia Nuoya had just cleaved with her sword split into six smaller slime monsters, slowly gathering together with the intention to revive.

Chu Yan’s large fireball in his palm hadn’t dissipated yet, and immediately turned into six smaller fireballs, which he launched directly.

The slime monster was completely annihilated, leaving behind a magical crystal core shaped like an eyeball.

He spoke rapidly:

“Xia Nuoya, I’ve taken care of the six little monsters that followed, offsetting the favor I owed you just now. Now you owe me five favors.

I’ll mark a ‘正’ on you to keep track, don’t think of reneging.”

“……”

The female knight was momentarily at a loss for words.

Chapter Four: The Lord and the Female Prisoner’s PY Trade

The children harbored fear and caution towards the people of the Rich City District. Seeing Shanoa’s knightly attire, it was clear she wasn’t from the slums, and they began to think of leaving.

The girl picked up the eyeball-shaped demon core, her shrinking gaze tentatively looking towards the lord.

From their brief interaction earlier, this foreign lord seemed easy to talk to.

Chu Yan did not try to detain them, nodding his head and saying:

“I have no use for the core. If you want it, take it. We’ll talk more next time we meet.”

With the lord’s permission, the children scattered.

They no longer considered the sudden appearance of the slime monster a danger; it seemed to have become commonplace.

Watching the children leave, Chu Yan turned to Shanoa with a greeting smile.

He sensed the knight’s goodwill; she probably feared he would unknowingly perish outside, which is why she followed.

“Shanoa, good morning. What a coincidence, you’re up for a walk too?”

It was about five-thirty in the morning. The sky was no brighter than before, still oppressively dark, with occasional slivers of light seeping through the clouds.

The dim light fell on Shanoa, highlighting her stunningly beautiful face, where valor and delicacy blended perfectly. Her nonchalant expression made it difficult to grasp her thoughts.

In this dim pre-dawn light, the knight’s graceful figure was accentuated by the interplay of light and shadow. Her chest was modestly clothed, not a hint of skin showing, yet the contours were strikingly full, casting shadows over her slender waist.

“Yes, I was walking when I inadvertently heard some noise. I didn’t expect to come over and find the lord in such a sweaty predicament.”

Shanoa spoke evenly, as if narrating something quite ordinary, but her tone seemed to stress the word “inadvertently.”

Chu Yan chose not to argue with her about this, his gaze returning to where the slime monster had appeared, his mind filled with questions.

“Do these demons appear directly in the slums?”

“You are the lord, yet you seem so unfamiliar with the Dead Sea border…” Shanoa sighed, but replied, “Yes, but it’s a rare occurrence. There are people in the slums who deal with these things, and the nobles ‘ servants will also take action to clear the demons, as it is their duty here.”

“Tell me more about this place.”

Chu Yan earnestly requested.

Shanoa met his gaze silently, then led him to sit on a stone by the roadside, sharing the intelligence she knew.

The female knight was not under the Dragonflame family’s banner. She was also new to the Dead Sea border, imprisoned here simply because the Dead Sea border is one of the continent’s places of exile.

Ordinary prisons could not contain those who touched the taboo, the defiant.

“Lord, you must have seen the dangers of the Dead Sea border. Peace only extends to the affluent area above, which also serves as our prison.”

“You must be curious why the prisoners can be so free. It’s because those nobles can only rely on the power of the tabooed to suppress the whimsically appearing demons here, the even more powerful ones.”

“If the nobles were to deal with those demons, their manpower would be wiped out, and the Dragonflame family is unwilling to regularly reinforce manpower here.”

On the point of “unwilling to reinforce,” if Chu Yan had not yet witnessed the true state of the Dead Sea border, he might have vehemently criticized the family’s negligence and inaction.

Having witnessed it firsthand, Chu Yan could understand why…

Because the source of the monsters, identified as that ocean, was beyond containment, they couldn’t simply fill it in.

With the Dragonflame family’s limited population, it was impossible to keep sending people to suppress the monsters. It was a bottomless pit that couldn’t be filled.

Thus, the local minor nobles who were vassals to the Dragonflame family, if they could handle it themselves without troubling the higher-ups, the elders would naturally turn a blind eye and enjoy their success.

Chu Yan grasped the general situation and nodded in realization, saying:

“So that’s how it is. No wonder the people in the lord’s prison, despite being highly dangerous individuals, are actually free… Then why don’t you just run away?”