My Castle received no visitor.
The third time now. There are far too many lazy people in this world.
No—in this reincarnate's case it is not laziness. It is excessive greed.
After all, what she obtained with the Goddess's Gift, [The Power to Have Any One Wish Granted], was [A Permanently Active State of Charm Magic That Enthralls People].
She is what is commonly called a villainess.
This world is not an otome game world—a "dating sim for girls," as they say—or anything of the sort. But a man from another world who once reincarnated into Nation G used the Goddess's Gift on a wish with otome-game elements to it, and Nation G had been transformed into precisely that kind of country.
The villainess, born into that Nation G, had been engaged to the prince for the purposes of a political marriage.
She did nothing but behave arrogantly, using her position as the prince's fiancee as a shield, and so the other women hated her.
Then the prince fell in love with another woman, and she became an obstacle.
And so she was assassinated by the prince's agents.
Stabbed in the back, she wandered the border between life and death and then died—whereupon the Goddess gave her a Gift and reincarnated her, on a promise to fight for the peace of the world.
Her reincarnation took the form of having wandered the border between life and death and pulled through.
"It is far too late now to come begging me to return."
Every inch the villainess, she enthralled the prince with her Charm first, and then turned him down flat.
On top of that, she captivated one handsome noble after another, the prince included, and built up a considerable power bloc by the name of a reverse harem.
I slipped into the dream of the villainess as she slept soundly on a handsome noble's arm.
In it, she was walking elegantly through a marketplace with the envious gazes of the merchants fixed on her alone.
Even in the dream her Charm remained active, scattering enthrallment about like a virus.
The merchants, men and women alike, were all transfixed by her.
Then a thick, booming voice rang out loud enough to drown the noise of the market.
"Thief! Caught you at last. After everything you've stolen from me, I'm not letting this go! I'll beat you to death!"
What the fat shopkeeper had by the scruff of the neck in one thick arm was a small boy dressed in rags.
Some five apples lay scattered on the ground nearby.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
The shopkeeper, hair standing on end with rage, paid the boy's words no mind and drove a fist into his face.
Then he drew the fist back for another.
"Stop this at once!"
It was the villainess's voice that halted the shopkeeper's fist.
"Wh-what is it, my lady…"
The shopkeeper went meek in an instant. Rather like a man who had just been shouted at by his wife.
"I shall pay for them, including everything he took before. So would you not forgive the child?"
"Y-you would? Well, if my lady says so…"
The shopkeeper took the money from her and withdrew without complaint.
The boy gathered up the fallen apples, ran over to her, and thanked her with shining eyes.
"Thank you, miss!"
"Think nothing of it. This much is only natural."
A cheer went up from the market, and a storm of applause broke out.
The villainess, well satisfied, scattered smiles at the merchants of the market. Being praised to the skies like that must feel wonderful indeed.
"Hey, hey, miss. Why'd you help someone like me?"
"One does not need a reason to help someone."
—Snap.
I snapped my fingers and erased every human being in the market but the villainess.
And then I showed myself in front of her.
"There it is. You think you just said something profound, but it is nothing of the kind. Acting without thinking is simply being an idiot. One does not need a reason to help someone? Tell me—what if the one you helped were a criminal to the core and a murderer? He'll kill plenty of people. Plenty of people will die because of you."
"Wh-what? What is this?"
The villainess was confused, unable to grasp the situation. She had let almost everything I said wash straight over her, so I screwed it into her consciousness by force.
Having been made to watch that ridiculous, unsightly farce, I was in a foul mood, and I carried on abusing her.
"Besides, there is always a reason behind every human action. A speck of dust drifting through the air has a reason for happening to sway to the right—so of course an action your brain deliberately orders your body to perform has a reason. No reason simply means you weren't thinking. You were merely impressed by something someone else said, and then you delivered the borrowed, paper-thin line with a smug look on your face, which is proof you have abandoned thought. A fool who abandons thought has no value as a human being. Be a wild animal, as befits you. I shall turn you into a sewer rat."
One glare from me, and the villainess's body shrank rapidly, her white skin turned gray, and she became a sewer rat about the size of a grown man's fist.
"What is this?! What are you?!"
"I am [The Omniscient, Omnipotent, Strongest, Invincible, Absolutely Superior One]. I have come to punish a malicious hypocrite who unilaterally tore up her promise to the Goddess and is off enjoying academy life."
"I am a delicate woman. Why should I have to go rolling about in the mud fighting battles?"
Not the least bit contrite, the villainess glared fiercely up at me. Fiercely, though she was a sewer rat.
"You come from a noble house that made its name in battle, whatever state it may be in now. Not so much as a gesture toward facing a threat to the world—what exactly is going through your head? And having accepted the Goddess's Gift, you certainly don't get to talk like that."
"That is no business of a shabby little child."
Already forgetting the power I had just shown her, she looked at my white T-shirt and black shorts and began sizing me up as some pauper or other.
And such was her conceit that she was certain no one could fail to fall for the natural charms of a supremely beautiful girl even with the Charm switched off—so she was working very hard indeed at working out how this brat had managed to stand there unmoved.
"For the record, you cannot win me over. I am invincible, and absolutely superior."
I could just as easily make her fall for me and reduce her to a subordinate, but I dislike her, so I shall not.
And now, let us bring this unpleasant dream to a close.
—Snap.
I snapped my fingers, and the villainess woke.
She realized at once that she was still in the shape of a sewer rat and scrambled down off the sleeping noble's arm.
Just then the door of the room opened and the butler came in.
The butler's eyes bulged at the sight of a sewer rat, so the villainess tried desperately to tell him it was her.
But unlike in the dream, she could not speak human words.
After being chased around at length by the butler, the villainess was exterminated as a sewer rat.
I had left her Charm intact for the time being, but the butler was exceedingly conscientious about his work, and however charming the sewer rat seemed, he did not go easy on it.
"Right then. Shall we finish up."
Legs crossed on the throne of My Castle, I dropped onto Nation G a monolith—a twenty-kilometer black object cut to the shape of Nation G.
Perhaps I could simply have done that from the start this time.
But this is not regret. It genuinely makes no difference to me either way.