Loved the chibi. Reminded me a bit of Reincarnated as the Villainess, All Routes Lead to Doom.

The Liz mind control thing is very concerning. If she’s doing it on purpose with some ancient magic, then that would mean she’s not the goodie-goodie she’s supposed to be. It might be some twisted sense of right and wrong where the end justifies the means. Or she could be like Alicia in that she wants to be the greatest heroine and get everyone, even the villainess, to like her. The latter makes the most sense to me in how she always praising and defending Alicia. Regardless, Liz’s motives are the most questionable thing for me right now.

I rewatched the other episodes and there seem to be subtle hints that Alicia’s birth coincided with the blossoming of a Black rose but her father is hiding this so Alicia can live a normal life. It would explain why she has the power to negate Liz’s brain-washing.

One other thing I found note-worthy is how Alicia is pointing out the differences between how things are playing out VS how they played out in the game. For instance, she was never at that tea party. It got me thinking about all the other deviations and the biggest one has to be that she was asked to watch Liz at all. If she was exiled in the original game ending then that means she wouldn’t have had royal backing to monitor Liz. I wonder what other differences will happen moving forward.