So You've Become a Villainess: an (Otome) Isekai Raising Project

You've gotten used to your new body and your new world enough to push it to its absolute limits. It's been two whole weeks since you've done your actual routine, give or take the time spent in a gaping infinity before you ended up in Grace's body.

To wit, you find yourself up at 4 AM, a dozen Hindu squats into your first set. Normally, you do three sets of 100 as a warmup, but you're young. You have to start slower. Only three sets of 50 today. Your muscles ache, then sing. You feel truly in tune with your body for the first time.

"Forty-nine...fifty!" You exhale pain and inhale glory, then bounce on your toes and loosen your body out.

<Sporty> "Maaaan, we should've gotten some weights or something."

<Flashy> "All this sweat is so gauche, but fashion starts with the self. Ah, the trials and tribulations of being beautiful~"

<Brainy> "Increased oxygen flow and improved blood flow makes my job of bending this world to my will easier."

<Emo> "Break a leg..."

After a light routine of 100 sit-ups and 100 pushups (you'd get back up to 1000 each eventually), you slip on the leggings Chiaki knitted for you and slip out the window she conveniently left unlocked for you.

Sure you haven't been spotted by the rest of the hired help, you start to jog to the outskirts of the estate. It's a good couple of kilometers there, through flat, lush, grassland. With such great conditions, you couldn't help but frolic through them in the few moments you stole for yourself.

Your feet know the safe paths by heart already, all you have to do is follow their lead. You keep a steady pace and steadier breathing, running with the rising sun. You start to feel a twinge in your hamstring by the time you close in on the edge of the estate; maybe you overdid it for your first real session.

<Emo> "That was nothing. Push through the pain, don't submit to weakness."

<Sporty> "Wait wha?"

<Sensible> "How about we don't do that?"

You slow down to a power walk and stretch when you reach the border between your estate and the next one down. There's a tree ripe for climbing and a well primed for drinking.

You pull yourself a bucket of water and drink, immediately feeling the cool sweetness hit your throat. You beergasm without beer and stretch your arms wide enough to hug the sunrise.

"This is GREAAAAAT!" you yell to the horizon, before letting pleasant exhaustion pull you down to the grass.

You inhale, noticing how much crisper and more soothing the air felt than your old world. Chiaki says it's the ambient mana in the air, you think it's the lack of smog and the power of nature. The grass feels so good you start making snow angels in it; motes of light float around you like dandelions.

<Sensible> "Nothing like nature to bring out the best in people."

<Sporty> "When was the last time we played around in the grass like this?"

<Emo> "Probably when we were actually twelve, and not wearing a twelve-year-old suit..."

As you lay on the grass, you see a raven-haired girl practicing swordwork. She's fluid and precise, beyond what you'd expect from someone your age.

You kip-up and watch her with rapt attention. She's going through a one-handed kendo-looking kata with something that looks like a curvier bokken. It makes your hands tingle with the impact of fights past.


[What Do You Do?]
[ ] Watch and learn {Medium Brainy check} (Brainy+, Sensible+, Stress--)
[ ] Strike up a conversation {Medium Flashy check} (Flashy+, Artsy+, Stress-)
[ ] Challenge her to a fight {Formidable Sporty check} (Sporty++, Flashy++, Sensible--)

[ ] Watch and learn {Medium Brainy check} (Brainy+, Sensible+, Stress--)
[ ] Strike up a conversation {Medium Flashy check} (Flashy+, Artsy+, Stress-)
[ ] Challenge her to a fight {Formidable Sporty check} (Sporty++, Flashy++, Sensible--)

Our Flashy skill is higher than our brainy skill(50 to 41), and our Sporty Skill at 90 is quite high.

I'll toss in an omake I've been working on:


"Wonderful tea, as usual," you tell Chiaki.

"It's a pleasure to hear that,'' your maid replies, giving a small bow.

Seriously, having delicious tea personally maid-ahem made for you by a maid was nice enough, but it being done by your best friend who happened to be that maid must be some kind of rare S class treatment! This was the kind of thing you'd usually see only in anime.

Still these pleasant little moments can only last so long, and soon you'll be back to working on your tutors-

"Instead of proceeding to our next lesson, I was thinking we could do something else, Young Mistress," your helpful maid suggests.

"Is doing nothing an option?" You ask hopefully. Alas, by Chiaki's expression you can tell it isn't so.

"Alas, Young Mistress, while your lessons have gone well so far, I think Lady Claudius would think any unoccupied time as…ill-spent after your lapse with Prince Alteisen and his sister."

You nod a bit gloomily. You supposed that would be true for at least a few months. Not that you didn't understand the need to work hard given the sky-high stats you'd need to clear the game, but you were aching for a bit of time off with your full schedule. Were other rich girls this busy?

<Flashy> "Appearances are one of the most important things to a young noblewoman! If you want to look your best, you have to put in the work."

<Emo> "The burden of expectations pulls down everyone."

"But I think I've been able to pick something you'll enjoy going over," your fellow reincarnate explains, as she presents you a few books. Rather than the heavy tomes you've been using for lessons so far, these are thinner. "Since Young Mistress has shown such an interest in combat and Lady Claudius, I thought you'd like to hear about adventuring and your family's exploits in that area.

You hurry so quickly you practically teleport to Chiaki's side reaching for the books. She laughs and hands the first to you. Embossed on the front is a picture of an adventuring party of two knights, a mage and an archer facing off against a vague monster just off the cover.

You skim through it, admiring the engravings every few pages. Very detailed sketches of creatures, intricate maps, and panels depicting victorious adventurers.

"This is a primer on Adventuring fundamentals, covering the different rank levels for dungeons, common monsters you'll face in them and the like," your maid explains. You nod. You recall bits of that from the game. There are various dungeons throughout the world of Our Bloody Valentine that were regularly cleared by Adventurers for gold and loot.

You hadn't paid much attention to it in game, as it was a real grind fest getting better equipment and the like. The best drops were pretty rare and were, of course, probably available in the in game purchase store.

<Emo> "Because why make something freely available when you can make a buck?"

Your maid hands you a bit thicker book, Adventurers Across the Ages. "And this one covers the history of adventuring. It profiles renowned adventurers and shows the shifts in tactics and adventuring styles over time."

Ooh, that one sounded a lot more interesting. You sift through it, the first entries covering the exploits of the earliest adventurers who helped subdued the dungeons centuries ago when they were a source of feral creatures and monsters that terrorized the kingdom. Nowadays, they were primarily a source of monster materials and the like for the kingdom and were seen even as an asset of sorts. They had become well studied with the sort of information the adventuring primer book held.

Sporty jumps up and down, her eyes lighting up and she mimes taking a boxing stance.

<Sporty> "I can't wait for the chance to beat up some monsters! Bang, zoom right to the moon!"

<Sensible> "Adventurers are seen in a positive light, so it might be a good source of acclaim and influence."

Chiaki catches your eyes lit up like Sporty's. "Yes I thought that'd catch your eye, Young Mistress. "Please look through it towards the end." Curious what your maid was hinting at you paged through it.

This book had an exceptionally large number of images, favoring a small one for minor adventurers, and a full page for especially renowned ones. Moving from page to page you see that there's a shift in the outfits of the adventurers beginning initially with some spears and shields gradually progressing to including more armor on the body over time. Chain mail, and then gradually adding armor plates till it was nearing full plate armor for the melee types. For Ranged users bows began to resemble medieval archers you had seen in some movie with some crossbows. Mages were also becoming increasingly common. Both pure spellcasters, as well as mage-knights who also wielded weapons AND magic.

At some point, enchanted equipment began to be more common and displaced armor a bit though it was still present especially for melee builds. Male adventurers were all over the place role-wise, female adventurers predominantly favored magic casting in some form. While there were some female weapon and melee fighters, they were almost always of the mage knight variety or favored ranged weapons like the crossbow.

Female adventurers favored avoiding hits over taking them, tending to favor enchanted clothing and light armor over heavier armor some knight types used. Ranged fighters and casters exclusively using enchanted cloth.

As you turned the next page you froze, because it was none other than an entry on Justine! It was exciting enough to find an entry on your mother, let alone that she had the lengthy entry the book reserved for renowned heroes. Along with tackling the highest rated dungeons with her adventuring party, she was also responsible for bringing to light some corrupt nobles who had neglected controlling dungeons near their lands in favor of politicking in the capital and personally clearing the dungeons herself. And while they were only mid-ranked, it wasn't uncommon for dungeons to become far more dangerous when they went feral let alone for one person to face. That stunt gave her great cloud not just as an adventurer, but as a noble at court too.

Your attention shifted to the included engraving which showed a younger version of her in her signature frilly gown and full skirt. While female adventurers in enchanted battle dresses hadn't exactly been uncommon before this, none had achieved the renown of your mother and she had been innovative in her use of stacked defensive enchantments in her full gown.

The article went on to note how much of an influence she had been on the latest generation, inspiring the adoption equipment with heavy enchantments. For women heavily enchanted gowns had become standard, none more so than melee fighters, where the protection afforded by the style allowed some female adventurers to finally take hits instead of favoring evasion.

Among male adventurers, gambesons worn beneath armor were now universally enchanted. Between both genders greater enchantment of weapons is also common, like sword and axe blades enchanted to be sharper or heat up on command.

Sure enough, as you flipped to the last few pages you could see that influence borne out. Every single female adventurer among those it featured was wearing a frilly enchanted battle dress. Initially, some of these also incorporated armor. Over time the armor became less emphasized to increasingly favor enchanted cloth. Eventually, female adventurers from ranged types like archers and casters to melee fighters were abandoning armor entirely in favor of frilly enchanted battle dresses with floor-length skirts.

"Mother is amazing," you cheered, hugging the book tightly. "I only wish there was more to read."

<Flashy> "Justine is truly an example to take inspiration from. Grace, elegant but strong."

<Sporty> "I'm with Flashy, she's pretty kickass however you look at her."

<Sensible> "As both a high ranking adventurer and noblewoman, doubtless she has a lot to teach us in both areas."

Your maid agrees. "Lady Claudius is indeed impressive, Young Mistress. And while this is the latest version, there is an updated supplemental extension of it," she produces a slim volume. Eagerly you accept it and open it.

This one features some new adventurers and updates of entries for previous ones mentioned including updated engravings. You actually recognize a few of the new adventurers it details, some of them making appearances in game as quest givers or in the case of one adventuring party they provide the in game tutorial for dungeon crawling. The earlier trend among female adventurers' stylings had progressed with more and more aspiring to the 'lady adventurer' archetype emphasizing feminine aesthetics and functionality that Justine was known for.

One of the book's quotes on her stands out to you.

"Lady Claudius was revered as an embodiment of the lady adventurer, as dignified and graceful as she was powerful. Hers is a shining example to all those who came after her."

<Flashy> "True paragons not only manage great feats, but achieve them with such style and acclaim they became the example others aspire too."

Curious to see how much things had changed, you compare the prior entry for a female swordswoman to her appended entry. She went from wearing an enchanted blue dress with some armor on top to a very frilly floor length gown with multiple enchanted underlayers of petticoats and grew out her hair. Every female adventurer entry you compare looked at had the same trend as all the previous women who used armor in their outfits were now relying exclusively on fuller and frillier enchanted gowns, often adding other feminine touches to their clothes.

Indeed you noticed that among the more renowned adventurers, there was a definite tendency towards very full skirts that rivalled your mother's gown in size. Recalling how expensive enchanted clothes got, it was immediately clear that it was probably only very rich and successful adventurers that could afford that.

Wow, you knew Justine was amazing, but to see other people recognize it too…You felt a sense of satisfaction in your choice to get an enchanted battle dress knowing that badass adventurers all seemed to come to the same conclusion too!