(CR) I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss

[ryllharu]

This was a very cute start to a follow-up arc as far as villainess series go.

Usually they're quite clumsy as they try to continue on past the initial setup they create for themselves through the game/novel conclusion. Some of them even get very boring after losing the conflict.

Claude now being thoroughly tamed by Aileen to the point of comedy and a hindrance to her own covert activities because of it is a good way to handle it while drawing out their overall romance. Little hints that while Claude has it quite bad in their separatation, Aileen is far from immune herself.

We're also starting to see the effects of Aileen's actions in breaking the original story progressively undermine her advantage in subsequent settings, which is how to do it properly in my opinion. The new villainess isn't quite as such and more of a victim of circumstance, the new heroine is an antagonist specifically against Aileen, and Aileen is accidentally picking up the male leads even though she's disguised as a man.

In satisfactorily ending her own story arcs in a way that left everyone alive, she's created significantly more problems for herself that she now has to resolve before they spiral out of control.

[magnuskn]

Well, damn, despite finishing its arc very satisfyingly, the second arc is starting out very strong as well. Very impressive show.

[EroKing]

So much cheese in that love letter

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by EroKing

So much cheese in that love letter

It's funny when the male lead is the most romantic one in the relationship .

[Cloudedmind]

Originally Posted by EroKing

So much cheese in that love letter

Originally Posted by Frontier

It's funny when the male lead is the most romantic one in the relationship .

Who knew Claude would be such an adorable ball of cheese. I was definitely getting second hand embarrassment from that letter.

[Frontier]

Aileen can pretty readily tell that someone is using the Demon Incense to rile up James to attack people as a berserk demon...luckily she's able to ward him off before Walt can shoot him and ruin everything. Although now she has to answer to Walt .

Ah, so "Ailey" was binding her breasts to appear as a boy. What about her hair? Did Aileen just plan to grow it back once this is over or have Claude magic it back to it's normal length ?

Secret Church Assassins out to root out a demon student? The plot of this sequel is definitely not going how I expected it too .

Walt is wasting no time flirting with Ailey after figuring out her gender, even throwing out a -chan in her name, and it seems like Aileen can't help radiating strong Main Heroine energy because she seems to be having more of a Reverse Harem experience than the actual Main Heroine of the sequel .

So Rachel wasn't the culprit, or even really a Villainess, just another victim. All she wanted was to get herself and her friend out of an abusive engagement, and got used by a scummy professor who was going to blackmail her into paying off his debts. Luckily Isaac was able to put the dirtbag in even more debt and under Aileen's control while Rachel is going to try to be more confident and assertive for her own sake !

So is the culprit and secret Villainess...Selena!? It seems like Rachel came to her with her problems but that didn't go anywhere, she screwed over the girl who gave her a love letter by posting it on the bulletin board (does she do that to every girl interested in Auguste?), and she was trying to help a girl get together with an obviously abusive jerk. Also what is it with the actual Main Heroines of these games wanting to steal Aileen's man? Lilia is one thing, but then Selena gets all flirty with him and seems keen to make Claude hers and justify hooking up with a demon lord through Lilia logic. As if Aileen didn't need more of an excuse to dislike this woman .

Ah, so the demon threats are escalating...which means more Claude at the school...which means trouble for Aileen. Especially because Claude wants to find the duck .

Look at Aileen so proud of how far Belzebeth and Claude have come in their relationship !

So Kyle's the tsundere of the Harem. And Aileen gets through the thick of it in a matter of seconds. Helps that she played the game, of course .

Aileen's putting everybody in the student council on her hit list when they keep insulting her female self when she's literally right there, but I think she's reserved a special place in hell for the person who drew that portrait of her. If you can even call it that .

Tension in the student council! Aileen wishes the student council could genuinely bond and grow as friends despite knowing they all end up turning on James, but James's own secret and Kyle's and Walt's just prevents them from coming together despite Aileen's best efforts. And now James is suspicious of Aileen .

[ryllharu]

Is Selena another transmigrator who is secretly a fan of Claude?

Everyone is a least a little correct that Aileen has some intense jealously regarding those who want to steal her fiancé.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by ryllharu

Is Selena another transmigrator who is secretly a fan of Claude?

It does seem mighty coincidental that we have another instance of the "Main Heroine" acting more like a villainess than the actual villainess and trying to romance Claude...

[ryllharu]

If the running joke of all these scenarios is that Aileen already caught the "hidden route" lead that all the other transmigrators actually want in their own personal isekai adventures, and she died on Earth before the route was a thing, I'm 100% in.

[Frontier]

So James confronts Ailey about how much he knows about James' situation...and nothing builds trust like an adorable demon dog like Ribbon! And if Ribbon likes James, there's no way he can be really bad !

James is actually Ashtarte, it's his demon name, he's just never used it any more. Which begs the question who the fake Ashtarte is and why they're trying to frame him ?

"You're similar to the person I like" - I think that's the first time Aileen's ever said out loud she likes Claude .

Claude can do his job as director well, and he has a wonderful fiancé, but deep down he just wants to have friends and enjoy the school festival! He only just has to get by Keith to do it .

I did not expect the duck uniform to turn the entire student council into a Super Sentai Duck team security force, but it was just as amusing as that one kid having a pipe in broad daylight .

So Claude went incognito in the school festival by wearing a mask...that fools virtually no one. Nope, he's just "Black," a passing by traveler not at all associated or connected with the Demon Lord! And he's already enjoying himself quite a bit at the festival .

I think that's the first time I've seen a kabedon with someone in a duck costume. Even Aileen's not sure how to react to it, although it's still effective .

I like how Aileen can't consider that her man would ever lose in a swordfight but also thinks the best way to stop him from getting turned into a demonic dragon again thanks to church plotting is to drug him...too bad Selena took a page out of Aileen's Villainess playbook and gave him a love potion that counteracted what Aileen had planned .

Aileen insulting herself to get Claude to try and kill her and roping in Kyle and Walt to get knocked around by Claude to stop the Demon Incense is way more entertaining than Claude just fighting Auguste. Especially with the duck costumes !

So all's well that ends well...Keith in his rage narrowly saves Aileen from having her identity exposed, Claude is saved and the church agents are captured, and Claude acknowledges Auguste as his first friend !

Rachel and Isaac, huh? The first man to really support her and give her confidence in herself...and he's a very cunning man. I can see why Rachel would fall for him .

Man, Selena really is the true villainess. Rachel looks so amazing in that dress but then she physically sabotages her by throwing her down the stairs and making it look like Rachel's fault. What a jerk! But now there's only one woman who can beat Selena in a beauty contest, and that's the one true beauty of a Villainess, Aileen !

[magnuskn]

This series continues to be highly entertaining. The mini-arcs are quite nice, too, since they present a new problem each time. I wonder how many sequels that first otome game spawned.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

This series continues to be highly entertaining. The mini-arcs are quite nice, too, since they present a new problem each time. I wonder how many sequels that first otome game spawned.

I'll honestly be disappointed if the third arc isn't the 3rd game in the series .

[Magewolf]

Good news,it looks like the hair was just magicked away not cut.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Magewolf

Good news,it looks like the hair was just magicked away not cut.

Or she was wearing some kind of amazing wig .

[Rasty]

I wonder why Selena sabotaged Rachel. No matter how you look at it Selena would win against her in a straight-up fight. Now she is in trouble since a certain duck is actually better than her. Though I am pretty sure certain masked fencer is going to take a look at the competition making this into a lot more awkward situation.

Though Claud seems to be pretty much onto what Aileen is doing there, so he might be enjoying himself now quite a lot.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Rasty

I wonder why Selena sabotaged Rachel. No matter how you look at it Selena would win against her in a straight-up fight. Now she is in trouble since a certain duck is actually better than her. Though I am pretty sure certain masked fencer is going to take a look at the competition making this into a lot more awkward situation.

Though Claud seems to be pretty much onto what Aileen is doing there, so he might be enjoying himself now quite a lot.

I mean, at this point it feels like Selena has been setting up all the issues at the school since it's not like they've introduced another culprit, although I don't see what she gets out of it since it's not like she's made any progress romancing the guys and her attempts to woo Claude won't go anywhere.

Maybe she's taken the wrong lessons from Lilia .

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Rasty

I wonder why Selena sabotaged Rachel. No matter how you look at it Selena would win against her in a straight-up fight. Now she is in trouble since a certain duck is actually better than her.

I wanted Aileen to win the competition in a duck costume...

[Kuroageha]

This has been fun so far.

[FlareKnight]

At this point the only realistic candidate for mastermind of this situation is Selena. Be a bit sad to just throw a random antagonist in at the late stage. Especially with all the time they've spent setting Selena up as a villain anyways. Might as well run with it.

It makes sense with the situation to have the villains be the heroes and the heroes villains. But seems almost too easy for the story to just make every protagonist from the game inexplicably evil.

Originally Posted by Rasty

I wonder why Selena sabotaged Rachel. No matter how you look at it Selena would win against her in a straight-up fight. Now she is in trouble since a certain duck is actually better than her. Though I am pretty sure certain masked fencer is going to take a look at the competition making this into a lot more awkward situation.

Though Claud seems to be pretty much onto what Aileen is doing there, so he might be enjoying himself now quite a lot.

Honestly it seems like the only reason she did that is because the story needed her to. There's no good reason for her to so overtly try to sabotage Rachel. Rachel is a good girl, but she's not winning that 1v1 in a legit competition. Maybe you can say Selena is so arrogant at this point that she thinks even doing something like that won't harm her so...might as well.

I suppose the story couldn't let someone one-up Aileen anyways. Even if it was a good girl like Rachel. Protagonist has to clean things up herself .

[ryllharu]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Honestly it seems like the only reason she did that is because the story needed her to. There's no good reason for her to so overtly try to sabotage Rachel. Rachel is a good girl, but she's not winning that 1v1 in a legit competition. Maybe you can say Selena is so arrogant at this point that she thinks even doing something like that won't harm her so...might as well.

I suppose the story couldn't let someone one-up Aileen anyways. Even if it was a good girl like Rachel. Protagonist has to clean things up herself .

I wouldn't say there's no reason.

Selena wants to win the title of Lily Princess and use it to steal Claude from Aileen. She simply doesn't know that Aileen is right there clashing with her this whole time. Selena doing more petty evil things like posting someone else's letters is Mean Girl stuff and not characteristic of Selena's original persona, which that's why I lean more towards the idea that Aileen isn't the only transmigrated character in this arc either.

Aileen should be the one to clean this all up because it is ultimately all her own fault. She saved Claude, changing the timeline and stole the Holy Sword Maiden title as well. In the original timeline's game sequel Selena idolized Lilia. Selena is resentful toward Aileen for stealing the holy sword but was also provided an alternative capture target that is more her style (or if there's more than one transmigrator, someone she was just after and pleased to find alive).

Rachel was merely a steppingstone in the way of attracting Claude's affections and getting revenge on Aileen for Lilia. From Selena's perspective, this is all win-win.