Taming The Villainesses

Episode 240.1

Elga reached for my head.

But it wasn’t for gentle reasons like stroking my hair or brushing a leaf off my head. 

It was to steal the straw hat I was wearing! Desperate, I had no choice but to resist.

“Not the hat…!”

“What?”

My resistance seemed to have annoyed Elga.

Her expression immediately crumpled. It was as if she was saying, “Would you look at this guy! You’re defying me?”

“Hand it over!”

In the end, Elga’s hand managed to remove the hat from my head. Despite my desperate resistance, the difference in our strength was like that between a child and an adult. 

“Now, that’s better. I can’t believe you’re so attached to a hat, you’re not like this…”

Elga, holding the straw hat in her hand, smiled with satisfaction. However, that satisfied expression didn’t last long, probably because she saw my head.

“Why is your crown like that?”

“What’s wrong with my crown?”

“Your hair is all reddish.”

“……”

I got found out in the end.

Since it’d come to this, I decided to face it boldly.

“It’s the time when my hair turns red.”

“Is there such a thing?”

“In autumn, leaves turn red. In winter, animals’ fur gets thicker. Some shed or molt. I’m similar to that.”

“… Really?”

Elga’s expression was easy to read.

At that moment, she seemed to be caught between believing me and not. I was relieved that Elga’s logic was straightforward and direct, and I added more to my explanation.

“But it doesn’t look good when my hair is patchy. I might look like I’m trying too hard to be fancy. That’s why I was covering it with the hat.”

My words weren’t entirely false, nor was it true. Thus, I could calmly say them with the help of Actor.

Red hair was considered rare among humans. 

But strictly speaking, it wasn’t uncommon among nymphs or imps.

Marmar’s hair could be called red since it was a shade of scarlet, and Imp Tartar, the one who wore an armband, had notably red hair.

In the end, Elga seemed convinced by my explanation and nodded.

“Now that you mention it, it doesn’t look that good. It’s like you’ve put a maple leaf on your head. Is it going to turn completely red?”

“I guess. It’s quite likely.”

“I didn’t know you had such a season. It didn’t happen last year or the year before.”

“Well… it varies. I’m a half-fairy, after all.”

“Is that so?”

Reading Elga’s expression, she seemed to think it was plausible. In the first place, the existence of a half-fairy was inherently peculiar, so it was something she could accept.

Come to think of it.

I felt glad I was a half-fairy.

If I had the body of an ordinary human, I would have lost my head multiple times by now…

Sometimes, I even wondered if becoming a half-fairy was a way to conceal Solomon’s bloodline. Of course, that might be an overblown thought on my part.

As Elga continued to touch my hair strand by strand, she said.

“So, one of your parents might have had red hair?”

“That could be the case.”

“Then the child could be born with red hair too.”

“Well, I’m not sure about that….”

“Hmm….”

While she seemed to have accepted the fact that my hair had turned red, Elga’s expression turned sour at the thought that our child might also have red hair.

Without me needing to ask why, she explained.

“Red-haired people are known as omen. They’re synonymous with bad luck.”

“Is there such a thing?”

“There is.”

It was the same with my previous world. Like the idea that blondes with big breasts are often a bit dim. Now that I thought about it, Elga herself was a blonde with one large chest. Yet, she was far from being dull.

“I didn’t know you believed in such superstitions, Elga-nim.”

“It’s not a superstition. Red-haired people generally have a troubled fate. Look at the former royal family Angmar. They’re the biggest proof….”

Elga seemed like she wanted to say more but then closed her mouth. The way her blue eyes narrowed slightly made me uneasy…

* * *

‘Red hair.’

Seeing this vivid red color seemed to trigger something in me. Although I had dismissed it, in retrospect, there were quite a few things that bothered me.

Red hair was originally a symbol of the former royal family Angmar. They were known for their brilliant, vivid, and radiant red hair.

Although it didn’t reach the level of those exaggerated praises, the red hue on the half-fairy’s crown was still quite vibrant. 

Among the myriad of colors, it could be described as deep crimson. Even redder than that, nymph red. 

‘I’ve heard that red is not a rare color for nymphs.’

There were quite a few nymphs and imps with red hair.

For instance, Marmar, a close friend of the half-fairy, had auburn hair. And Tartar had red hair from the start.

However, what concerned Elga was that this guy was not your average redhead.

He had shown exceptional talent for magic, breaking through to the 5th Rank in no time at all.

His achievements were overshadowed by Aira, a Rank 7 Archmage, but breaking through the 5th Rank in just a few months was something that few had done, except for the ancient time genesis mages.