The One Within the Villainess - Vol. 4 Ch. 21 - Trade Alliance

[14th]

WHY IS PINA SO GODDAMN UGLY LIKE GET OUT OF HERE

PINA GOT A WEIRD CASE, WHY IS SHE AROUND??

 

[mahtan]

Star Maiden is telling the truth, everyone is being deceived.... by her.

 

[gum_rummy]

Spoiler

Nope, she already become so disgusted by her own body because Lina wh*ring it. But Remilia 'makes' her new body with Angle's help. Pina just ask to be put into a male body because he already traumatized by having female one.

Oh. My. Gowd.

 

[Nemo2342]

even if she found it out, it wouldnt change anything.

my theory is that there is a time gap between the condemtion event and the day of miasma outbreak in the og story, and remilia speedrunned in that time gap

according to sophia that it took remilia only few months to restore the bareland when she visited remilia's, so less than 6 months

in ch7 pina lamented that she couldnt raise the favorability, and that she cant act because the problem of miasma wasnt still serious enough, and that was the time that remilia killed the lord of heavens

id say, even if pina started a bit sooner, by the time she starts to look for the 1st key, remila is already at 5th, as pina tries to catch up progressively (if we consider the story a RPG with linear story progression), by the time she reach the dwarven kingdom, remilia would have already killed the lord of heavens, and by the time she reach the demon realm, it would be already saved

and this is assuming that they are just trying to catch up remilia, not leveling, even if they catch up with her, they cant keep up with her power, and be left behind anyway

I mean, I was originally just adding some context for a person who had forgotten that while Pina is stupid and shortsighted, Remilia and the 1st Prince both deserved credit for working to shut her out from current events.

I do agree with you that there is something of a gap. The game as described appears to be a mix of dating/raising sim and RPG, with the plot really starting after the condemnation and then Remilia would have to "research ancient relics" to learn how to summon the Demon King and increase the miasma in the world. So I could envision something of a Prologue/Tutorial where the characters and mechanics are introduced, ending with the condemnation, then there's some free time to raise stats/build affection before the plot forces you into the RPG.

In Chapter 4 Remilia clears the "bonus" dungeon and gets the stat-boosting ring, which is when she notes that Pina must have abandoned her role in favor of chasing men. That dungeon was clearly within the Kingdom, so at that point even without miasma Pina should have gone there if she had cared at all about her mission to save the world. Chapter 5 will establish that it only takes "a few months" for Remilia to collect all 5 keys (which as you noted is reinforced by Sophia commenting on how quick it was for Remilia to turn around her fief).

Realistically, Pina lost from the very start. As Remilia points out, once she abandoned her role of summoning the Demon King there was no longer a world that needed saving, and thus no excuse for the Star Maiden and her noble friends to abandon their duties and go adventuring.

However if Pina had not been so selfish, stupid, and short-sighted she should have tried to figure out WHY the plot had gone awry, and then been able to do something about it. There's no way she'd have caught up with Remilia (and I suspect that those keys don't have multiple copies anyway) but she might could have beaten her to collecting one since Emi had boosted everyone's stats for her, or she could have used the influence gained from her premium items to help secure her position politcally instead of using it to get more loot.

 

[TristhaniaGevra]

Man scared for his life

his noise: "WHEEZE"

 

[bearybrown]

Finally the showdown has started.

It's bit weird that Pina just go barging in with no plan when her scheme at school works.

I know our dear Emilia cut everything off her but I want to see her exhaust every option before barging in. Then again, her barging in without a plan is her trait.

Oh boy, I really can't wait for the next chapter.

 

[Ranzo]

I hope things start picking back up after this because for me this series seemed to be on a downward slope after the demon realm was saved. So much time is spent yammering on about all the great new inventions and all the wealth that it harms the story. I wished they'd move around more while they spout endless exposition at the very least. I know they have to set up the slow build up to ultimate revenge but I wish it was done in a more interesting way.
Also

 

[ClemCa]

Her face on page 13... Great villainess face.

 

[SilverSour]

If I could slap any fictional character 100 times, I would give her 99 of them

 

[Kurbo]

People still have that misconception i see.

There was no brainwashing.

The potion "in game" raised favourability.
In world it makes people more amenable to the wearer.
Amplified by the star maiden it makes people outright like her, stacking over time.

It doesn't change their personality or influence their actions.

Everything they did was of their own free will. Had they fallen in love with someone naturally they'd have still been capable of taking such actions. Had they been given a different excuse they'd have still taken the opportunity and acted out against Emi.

That's still brainwashing, she used a drug to alter their minds and hearts. If this was a case of them falling for her acting and then doing all the bad stuff then I'd agree, but as it stands they aren't of sound mind. Even if they are "in control" and doing everything of their "free will" they literally can't not love her, even if she wasn't acting and was the plain heinous bitch she is in all of the male leads will still love her, it's literal magic.

 

[Kurbo]

Unfortunately it's not so simple as that. While the love potion played a part, they were also acting out of jealousy and spite towards Emi. It's why they got ensnared in the first place despite Emi warning them.

While I'm not going to argue that they are good people, I think it's also the positive feelings they had for Emi got overwritten by the maxed out affection for the "Heroine" leaving only the negatives. And keep in mind we learn in this chapter it's literal magic that forces someone to fall in love, no matter what they the male leads do they can't no love "Heroine" and follow her every whim and try everything to make her happier (like trying to get Emi).

 

[Maxoball]

Girl really said "when they go high, I go lowER" MF pulling out the "oh boifwend do something" card on political shit 💀🙏

 

[Kaito_Nishigami]

Oh for fs i hope they're not dumb enough to listen to her

 

[MangaMonger]

The art is so fucking good

If the anime carries over even just 20% of its charm (and doesn't try to squeeze it all into one cour) it'll be amazing...

Also Pina isn't ugly, she just scrunches up her face in a way that makes her incredibly punchable.

 

[konoerinada]

Personal opinion but i think the fact that Angel went straight to the "source" of the love potion and didn't get affected AT ALL pretty much prove that if the victims (the ones being affected) already have someone they are romantically interested in and if they don't mentally/physically cheat on that romantic s/o with some other person, then they should be fine with resisting the effect of the love potion. And if that's the case then yeah, the second prince probably wasn't that faithful to Emi in the first place, i think that was what the story is implying rn?
(Also just a thought, even if they have believable excuses to fall for the love potion, the mls can both be madly in love with pina and not being huge jerks to Emi? don't see why they have to be a-hole to Emi to prove their love to pina.)

 

[AnotherMMD]

Personal opinion but i think the fact that Angel went straight to the "source" of the love potion and didn't get affected AT ALL pretty much prove that if the victims (the ones being affected) already have someone they are romantically interested in and if they don't mentally/physically cheat on that romantic s/o with some other person, then they should be fine with resisting the effect of the love potion. And if that's the case then yeah, the second prince probably wasn't that faithful to Emi in the first place, i think that was what the story is implying rn?
(Also just a thought, even if they have believable excuses to fall for the love potion, the mls can both be madly in love with pina and not being huge jerks to Emi? don't see why they have to be a-hole to Emi to prove their love to pina.)

well, what you said is pretty much correct

 

[sketchy333]

(chanting) YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

It’s starting!!!!!! It’s fucking starting!!! The beginning of the end of this sham Star Maiden!!!!

And those pages of Angel walking into the negotiation meeting sent CHILLS down my spine. The art is so breathtaking as usual!!!!!!

 

[McAlastair]

Spoiler

Remember when Remilia gathering evidence in chap 15 and last page she said how 'its worth dirtying her eyes'? Remilia actually seeing evidence of Lina doing it with one of student in school. So yes Lina is actually a wh*re.

Spoiler

Sorry chief, I went back to check, but that very well could have been anything.
But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and agree with you on that. If she really went as far as to do THAT, no wonder Rina's so disgusted. But then that leaves me curious as to who the (un)lucky SoB was that got that opportunity and how does the karma train steamroll him. You don't have to answer that last one, you've already told us plenty.

 

[Rath_Attack]

While I'm not going to argue that they are good people, I think it's also the positive feelings they had for Emi got overwritten by the maxed out affection for the "Heroine" leaving only the negatives.

That's not how it works and doesn't line up with we saw.

Keep in mind before the "evidence" got stacked against Emi that William didn't believe the rumors (even if he was blatantly favoring Pino over her), but he never acted in her defense either. The condemnation event was supposed to be his way of giving Emi an out, however as Remilia pointed out there were means to dealing with it before reaching that point which he chose not to take (and we've seen that he's intelligent enough to know that).

And keep in mind we learn in this chapter it's literal magic that forces someone to fall in love, no matter what they the male leads do they can't no love "Heroine" and follow her every whim and try everything to make her happier (like trying to get Emi).

And Remilia outright said it wasn't brainwashing, the MLs gaining affection for Pino didn't strip them of their agency. The focus William got makes it clear it's a matter of his personality with him acting due to his complex rather than simply trying to please Pino.

 

[DyI]

Pina, please shut the fuck up