The (Alleged) Villainess' Dad - (Original Otome, VillainessDad!Reincarnator)

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Twenty years ago, at the age of 15 in my second life, I started my adventure in the wild magical world of Lenia.

At the time, I was just a young man with a magical staff, some basic spells in mind, and so many doubts on how this adventure would fare. I started partyless, but eventually found a group from which I raised my reputation to a decent enough level to warrant a noble title. First as a Baron, then as a Marquess, and then rising up to the title of Grand Duke. I ultimately crawled my way up to the Premiership of the Kingdom, and I have been the second strongest man in the Kingdom of Malica for roughly six years now.

My name is Fiall de Bendily, and I thought I had been the MC of my story. Sure, there was no evil demon king to face in the land, but my adventures, my deeds and my inventions have all shaped the world to slowly depart from its 'Early Medieval' shell and into a more industrial system. My tenure as a politician and then Prime Minister allowed me to gradually introduce reforms for the peasantry and also add more inventions and resources for the betterment of society.

I had to fight, I had to shed sweat and blood to get through most of my greatest achievements, but the one achievement I was the most proud of was my daughter, Meryall. As my only child and heiress due to the fact my kind wife, someone I married merely two years before our only child's birth, perished during the event due to complications. I had rejected remarrying as I found the practice unwarranted for the time being with all the chores I had between being a doting father and a dutiful political leader.

The result of my hard work as a single parent was that my sweet child was now a prominent student at the Royal Magical Academy, her fire magic as intense as her eyes if not more whenever she switched to her intense golden flames she inherited from her mother. Likewise, her proficiency with the sword, a skill learned through my loyal captain of the guards, gave her the edge against most female nobles seeking to duel their way to prominence.

As mentioned a while ago - things were fine, and I thought that I had indeed scored the best ending. My tale was over, I was now reaping what I had sowed, making sure that the Kingdom that gave me the routes to get grand could now give even more to its citizens, all the while entertaining the chores of being a good father. The monthly letters from Meryall were all stellar in their reporting, with the sole irritation being the one thing that I had been forced to enforce on her: a betrothal with the prince.

I had nothing against the king and the queen, both being well-meaning but also both wanting for their only spawn to be given the chance to have a 'loyal and good-willed wife'. In their eyes, my little girl was just that. I hated the imposition, but I could tell that a refusal would have raised some animosity between me and King Gerd.

And while I felt upset over it, Meryall was jovial around Prince Pirte. The same couldn't be said for the Prince towards my daughter, something that quickly raised a red flag when it happened. I chalked it out as childish reluctance for a situation I was working hard to stamp out but that would have to remain a thing for the higher nobility and the royal family for reform to succeed.

So, I had everything planned. I knew what situations were worrisome beyond the kingdom's borders as banditry had been solved with a 'carrot and a stick' approach to shatter poverty and criminality at once. I wouldn't say we were done with corrupt nobles, but major groups had been investigated and cracked upon the moment proof came out of their illicit affair.

All was well. And then I received a letter from Meryall mid-month.

I had been resting in my study, taking a break from the paperwork over the new acqueduct that was being built to expand the water supply of the kingdom to the lesser settlements... when Artebald, the Chief Butler of the de Bendily Manor, came knocking at the door with the envelope.

"Sir, it's from Lady Meryall."

I nodded and allowed him to deposit the letter on the desk, but I quickly spared a look on the calendar I had as I thought it odd for her to send a letter this early. I thought it was perhaps about some unexpected extracurricular event that required a parental signature but...

Dear Father, I am sorry for writing this early to you, but I don't know what to do about this situation and I require your guidance.

This is the sort of sentence that can easily make me pale considerably. Despite her own moments of fragility, my daughter was a tough girl and it takes a lot for her to bow down to needing help from her own family. I taught her to be quite independent by the time she got to the Academy, telling her of the basic concerns to keep in mind regarding powerplays and potential troubles.

Nowhere I had expected for her to end up becoming... the villainess of a fucking Otome plot!

I felt my blood boiling as I finished reading the letter, my eyes widening astronomically to the point of bulging out as I contemplated what I just read. My sweet Meryall, who was the furthest thing of evil, was getting lambasted as a cruel and cold person by other students because she was 'bullying' a commoner girl that was 'merely befriending' the prince.

Without political context, this sounded like a classic 'jealous/clingy' behavior from Meryall, but the girl was literally told to be protective of the bond she had with the prince. And the little royal shit was getting uppity because one of the two in the future marriage deal was trying to make it work?!

"S-Sir."

Artebald's nervous voice brought me out of my thoughts, making me realize I had emitted a dense amount of vicious pressure through my magic. I eased the intensity, but I was still pissed. I knew it- I knew that things have been too calm and, until I am dead, the troubles for me and my family were far from over.

And this Otome shit wasn't gonna go with me.

"Artebald, fetch me the Royal Messenger. I believe the King and I have to share a private meeting in regards to our families' tie."

The gentlemanly butler nodded, appearing mostly unfazed by the brief outburst. "Sure thing, sir."

As much as I didn't like having to move my political weight around in such a rough manner, a 'corrective' step was needed to nip the trouble at the bud before it became a legitimate issue for the entire kingdom.

Meryall de Bendily was not having a good week. Or two.

The girl had no issues with her classes - her grades were on top of all, and she was hardly a slacker despite her terrible mood as of late. Prince Pirte had shamed her twice now by siding with that odd commoner girl that kept on nagging at her and then skirted away from confrontations. Delilah Martesy was the little runt of the school- taken in due to her prodigious skills in magic, and a 'kind personality'. She was an user of the rare 'Holy' Class, which made her peculiar despite appearing fairly plain.

Meryall wasn't the kind of girl that judged people on their looks, but the few brief grins coming from Delilah truly frightened at times. For a time, she just thought she was overthinking it, but the blonde realized that Delilah was truly up to ruin her by sabotaging her betrothal with the Prince. A reaction was needed, and it occurred twice. Both occasions seeing her position shamed and condemned by the prince himself and... Meryall was caught off-guard by the overall vehemency she was subjected to.

Sure, she hardly worked to create herself an image of popular girl, not when she was trying to just study, consolidate her ties with friendly families with students at the Academy, and not think much about her upcoming future. For this to happen in such a delicate matter meant that she was getting besieged for not being too open about herself and letting someone else define her with misunderstood actions.

But while Meryall knew what was causing her so many problems, she had no solutions to it. A direct approach results in more trouble than not, and she rejected the mere notion of using her friends and allies to assault a 'little girl without friends'. She already got cast as a 'bully', she didn't need to give more wood to fuel the fiery rumors.

So, she did the only thing she could without exposing her weakness to any other students or teachers: she wrote home and she asked for advice. It felt humiliating to admit defeat so early on, but Meryall was not an arrogant girl- she knew that she was facing something unusual that was targeting her for some reasons and, as much as she felt upset for clearly losing the prince to such a troublemaker, she was also told about the manners of self-preservation.

A week went by after sending the letter, and the response came almost immediately as her father sent one of his lesser familiars to deliver a response.

Having been told of how stern some parents could get with their children when they failed to stand up on some of those matters here at the Academy, Meryall had expected a scolding, a lecture, and a punishment. What she got was a lengthy response that left her floored.

Dear Daughter of mine, there is no shame in seeking help - especially when it comes to such a cunning and dangerous social-climber.

The rest of the letter maintained the same degree of care and warmth that left her in tears. She had thought herself being in the wrong, having allowed part of her mind to concede that she was indeed an intimidating figure... but what she got from her father was a strong reasoning that shattered these doubts. For a starter, Delilah was the daughter of a noble's mistress who has been cast away when the noble's wife found out on what happened.

Thus, Delilah was not truly a commoner as she wanted others to know, and she wasn't truly 'in love' with the Prince. Rather, she was exploiting his starving desire for freedom to get him in her clutches.

The solution to this: do nothing. Or, better yet, 'do not let Delilah play like a fool.'

Her father described how he had to endure some second-hand experiences of similar affairs, never to the point of reaching the royal family, but it was close enough in her mind to know his advice was gold to her: Delilah sought validation and to be praised for 'doing nothing but be a good person' while also 'demeaning her opponents by demonizing them'. Thus, the best option was to not let her games trick Meryall any more and 'to let the Royal Family sort out this matter'.

This last bit surprised Delilah as she learned her father had spoken with the king and the queen, both very invested in her future with the Prince, and promising that they would 'straighten him out'.

This felt extreme, but her father didn't spare himself in the details: it was needed, the situation is delicate, and Meryall's current focus was to stabilize her reputation and ignore the prince and Delilah altogether. It sounded a bit absurd, but Meryall trusted her father and she wrote a short 'thank you letter' as a response so that his familiar could give it to him at once.

After that refreshing read, Meryall was off for some sword training when she saw Delilah trying to approach her by the courtyard, but the blonde picked up the pace and ignored her altogether despite noticing the prince trailing behind the brunette.

And while Meryall failed to notice the scowl in Delilah's face as the peculiar girl planned something to further wreck the noble girl's status, the blonde was aware that ignoring the issue was going to warrant an escalation - and she was told by her father what to do in that regard too.

AN

Dad Reincarnator vs. Social Climbing Reincarnator. Who wins? The Magical DILF or the 'Holy' Gold Digger?