Chapter 1
She was in an accident on her way home.
The loud wail of the ambulance rang in her ears… and that was the last thing she remembered.
And when she regained consciousness.
‘Am I in a coma…?’
Her arms and legs wouldn’t move the way she wanted.
No matter how hard she tried, all she could feel was a strange sensation, as if she were floating underwater.
And not long after that.
An overwhelming pressure descended.
“Waaahhh!”
A baby’s cry rang out—too infantile to have come from her own mouth.
Wait a second.
‘…What?’
A baby?
She tried to shake off the jarring sense of unfamiliarity and gather her senses, but—
Her mind remained hazy.
“The princess is born!”
Even at a woman’s bewildered shout, the tears streaming from her mouth wouldn’t stop.
“Waaah, waaahhh!”
A newborn’s voice she couldn’t believe was coming from her own mouth—she tried to open her eyes and check what was going on, but.
‘My eyes…’
They won’t open?
No matter how hard she tried, her eyelids stayed shut.
“Hnnngg!”
All she could register was that her throat kept producing cries against her will.
In that chaotic moment, as she desperately tried to piece things together.
“I did need an heir, but…”
The words pierced her like an arrow…
“I didn’t need his child.”
A cold, detached voice.
“……Hmm.”
A hand crept toward her neck.
“I suppose… disappearing like this wouldn’t be so bad either.”
She couldn’t see who it was that reached out to touch her, but as a newborn, she instinctively knew.
Someone was trying to kill her.
‘No!’
She didn’t fully understand the situation yet, but one thing was clear: she had been reborn after an accident.
And judging by the way someone was lightly grasping her newborn neck… the woman standing by her side.
Was clearly trying to end her life.
‘You mean I just got born and now I’m dying again?’
She hadn’t even fully grasped the fact that she’d died, and yet.
Dying right after being born just didn’t sit right!
So, with a trembling, desperate hand.
Using all the strength she had.
“Buh… wuh.”
Tap.
She managed to touch the person trying to harm her.
“……”
The one who had tried to hurt her went silent for a long moment.
Then, their eyes, finally meeting the barely opened ones of the newborn.
“…Amethyst, huh.”
Locked onto her.
Though she was newly born and her vision was still unfocused, the baby could feel it.
A bone-chilling yellow gaze, like a snake’s, piercing through the fog. At the same time.
“Ugh!”
A wave of fury bubbled up.
‘You’re really trying to commit infanticide right now? Have you no shame?’
Perhaps sensing her glare of protest.
That snake-like yellow gaze, split like a serpent’s, stared down at her, unreadable.
They locked eyes for a long while.
“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
Whatever changed in her mind, the woman, now looking less hostile, stared indifferently at the newborn.
“Make sure she doesn’t leave the palace until I say otherwise.”
She gave an order in the gentlest tone imaginable, to what seemed like a subordinate.
“Y-Yes! Your Majesty, Emperor Rosiate.”
The underling responded in a tense voice.
Despite the serious situation, the baby thought.
‘Rosiate? That name sounds familiar.’
She realized the one who had tried to kill her bore a name she recognized from somewhere.
‘Where have I heard it before.’
As she racked her brain, a maid carefully lifted her up and, in a trembling voice, dared to ask the emperor.
“M-May I ask the child’s name…?”
She was visibly nervous as she spoke.
But contrary to her tense demeanor.
“Siéta.”
The emperor, with a chilly expression, responded calmly.
“Siéta von Ariace.”
She gave her a name.
Then turned her back and left the palace as if she no longer had any interest.
Staring daggers into the retreating figure, the newborn—no, Siéta—let out a small sigh of relief.
Whatever it was.
‘For now, I guess I’m safe?’
Straining her eyes to stay open for too long, she finally lost consciousness.
***
Six years had passed since that day.
“Uunngh…”
I scowled at the history book in front of me—which might as well have been force-fed propaganda.
Because within its pages.
Were endless praises for Rosiate von Ariace, the emperor.
My mother, who tried to kill me six years ago.
The emperor of this empire.
Long, jet-black hair, yellow snake-like golden eyes.
A cold, charismatic face drawn perfectly in the textbook.
Staring at that depiction, young Siéta scrunched up her innocent face.
‘A great ruler? my foot!’
Well, to be fair… history books usually only tell the good parts.
But still.
‘Not just the history books, even the newspapers are flooded with praise for Rosiate.’
Isn’t that a little too much bootlicking?
From the citizens’ perspective, maybe she did resemble a competent ruler.
It’s just, her personality behind closed doors was a total mess.
Siéta rubbed her forehead.
She began to organize everything she had learned up to this point.
First of all.
This wasn’t your average medieval western setting.
‘Honestly, I should’ve realized it was a romance-fantasy the moment I saw my silver hair.’
She grabbed her soft, wavy silver hair and tossed it over her shoulder as she thought.
‘Rosiate, that name sounded familiar for a reason.’
Even when her life had been in danger, the name Rosiate had stirred a strange sense of recognition.
Rosiate von Ariace.
She was the villainess of Siéta’s favorite romance-fantasy novel in her past life, <I Shall Punish That Villainess>.
‘She’s the villain!’
The ‘villain’ in the title, the worst villainess in the empire, that was her.
Siéta had tried denying reality over and over, hoping to find proof this wasn’t the novel she knew, but.
‘Down to the empire’s name, it’s all the same. No denying it now.’
Being the villain’s daughter was already bad enough, but of all people…
Rosiate, her mother, was her favorite character!
‘This is insane.’
What’s wrong with her favorite being a villainess?
Oh, a lot.
Because every favorite character she ever had.
Was, objectively speaking, a terrible person.
Villains have flawed personalities by default, sure.
But in the original novel, the Rosiate Siéta read about made the list of the top three worst villainesses in rom-fantasy.
She had a truly broken personality.
‘And I’ve always had a history of falling for characters with awful personalities. Aaaaagh!’
Favorites are meant to stay behind the screen, safe to admire from afar.
Not to be faced head-on!
And even worse.
Siéta’s identity in the novel, <I Shall Punish That Villainess>, was the only daughter of Rosiate.
The same daughter she framed for treason and had executed alongside her husband.
Upon realizing that truth, Siéta didn’t even consider cozying up to Rosiate.
‘I mean, if I suck up to her and she gets annoyed, she might just get rid of me even faster.’
She was born a princess, no way was she dying young.
‘Ugh, calm down. This isn’t the time to panic.’
Siéta buried herself in imperial records.
Desperately trying to find anything she could use.
Anything that could be considered Rosiate’s ‘weakness.’
Because on the day of her coming-of-age ceremony.
Siéta ‘will’ die by Rosiate’s hands.
Accused of treason. whether the charges were true or not remained unclear.
Which meant.
Before Rosiate could cast her aside, she needed to act first.
‘I need at least a justification, some reason to strike.’
No matter how desperate she was to survive.
She didn’t want to go down in history as the wretched daughter who shattered an age of peace.
‘And besides, the novel never detailed how Siéta died.’
The author only briefly mentioned that Rosiate had ruthlessly executed both her husband and only daughter.
If the ‘false accusation’ of rebellion wasn’t false, Then what? What if she really did try to rebel, only to make the original prophecy come true?
‘No way. I’m not playing into that ending.’
Just imagining it made her skin crawl.
