Chapter 1 Part 1
Though I made quite a bold declaration of going on strike, being done with being a villainess wasn’t exactly a simple matter.
After all, this body I possessed was that of Rosiel Laté, the ducal lady of House Laté—a family known as villains among villains, having inherited demon blood for generations.
Because of this, even without me actively doing evil deeds, the family itself was already treated as the ‘House of Demons’ by all citizens of the empire.
What’s even more unfortunate was that Rosiel’s heart was afflicted with an incurable disease of unknown cause, making it a ticking time bomb that could stop at any moment.
“When I can’t even escape from the original story, I can’t keep living with this terminal illness setting.”
Until now, I had faced my predetermined death twice as the ‘villainess Rosiel’ from the original story in my attempt to escape, but in this life, I have no intention of dying quietly.
Do you know how hard it is to act like a villainess while tormenting innocent protagonists?
Besides, dying obediently according to the original story gets old after once or twice!
Even though I was a heavy reader of dark romance novels in my past life, dying young three times in a row is too much.
Right now, I have only one wish: to live a long, peaceful, and happy life.
I’m human too—of course I’d rather live a healthy and peaceful life than face a grim early death.
Who cares what happens to the original story?
This time, I’m going to live for myself first!
“For that… I’ll need to deal with ‘that’ first.”
Breaking off my engagement with Abel, the male lead and crown prince—this was the first task I needed to resolve.
While my heart condition was certainly the beginning of my death, getting involved with Abel accelerated its progression at an extraordinary rate and depth.
In the original story, Abel falls in love with Hertiana, who appears as a Saint candidate while he’s engaged to me.
Although Abel and Rosiel’s relationship wasn’t one of love, they appeared to be quite close publicly, so when Abel abandoned Rosiel, she took a huge hit in social circles.
At this point, Rosiel’s brother Fergio kidnaps Hertiana in an attempt to avenge his sister.
The truly absurd part is… that Fergio appears as one of the second male leads in the original story.
A second male lead who kidnaps the female lead—what an absolute mess of a plot.
Anyway, Abel, being the proper male lead, leads the imperial army to storm Laté manor, which is crawling with magical beasts, to rescue Hertiana in her time of crisis, and in the process, Rosiel meets her death.
To summarize, Abel lights the fuse, and Fergio pours oil on the fire.
And the one who gets sacrificed… is sadly only me.
They say when whales fight, the shrimp’s back gets broken—who knew I’d be that shrimp?
But in this life, Fergio won’t have the chance to kidnap Hertiana.
Because…
“Lynn, could you bring me some red stationery?”
I’m going to break off the engagement before Abel falls in love with Hertiana!
The male and female leads can happily fall in love, which is good, and I can focus on treating my heart condition without getting caught up in the original plot, which is also good.
Ah, what a perfect plan.
“Red paper… That must be for His Highness the Crown Prince? I’ll bring it right away!”
Lynn quickly brought back luxurious red stationery with a velvet texture.
The soft touch barely registered on my fingertips before I began rapidly filling the white space with black ink.
“Lynn, send this one to the Imperial Palace, and this one to the Grand Temple.”
After finishing in an instant, I handed two letters to Lynn.
These letters contained the important first step that would mark the beginning of my bold strike declaration.
“Yes! But, my lady… Could this be a letter proposing to be His Highness’s partner for the upcoming Flore Party?”
Lynn’s gaze was intensely fixed on me, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
Sorry to disappoint you, Lynn…
“Hmm? No, it’s not. This is a letter announcing the termination of our engagement. And that one next to it is the formal engagement cancellation paperwork to submit to the Grand Temple.”
“I see, that’s what… Wait, what did you just say…?”
The light in Lynn’s eyes vanished instantly.
Seeing Lynn stuttering like a broken clock, I smiled gently and drove the point home once more.
“I said I’m breaking off the engagement with the Crown Prince.”
“B-b-but so suddenly?”
“No need to be so surprised. It wasn’t a real engagement to begin with. We’ve both gotten what we wanted from it, and I’m done playing the role of the foolishly in-love fiancée.”
“Then… wouldn’t it be better to meet with His Highness directly to make this decision? No matter what, announcing an engagement termination by letter is…”
Indeed, as Lynn said, announcing an engagement termination by letter was an unprecedented act of discourtesy.
But the word ‘discourtesy’ only applies when both parties are being courteous to each other.
Right now, it was about a month before the original story begins.
The Flore Party being held next month marked the starting point of the original story.
Around this time, Abel and my relationship was nothing but an extreme business arrangement.
Abel wanted House Laté’s political power, and I wanted the imperial family’s authority.
A relationship maintained solely for mutual benefit, without a shred of emotion between us.
This was the current state of Abel and my relationship.
“It’s fine. The Crown Prince doesn’t like me anyway. They’ll probably welcome this with open arms.”
Lynn, who had been wearing a worried expression, soon nodded in understanding and set off to deliver the letters.
“Feros will be absolutely delighted…”
A slight laugh escaped me as I thought of those who would welcome the news of my broken engagement with Abel more than anyone else.
In the Pendium Empire, there were two ducal houses that were complete opposites, like oil and water.
House Laté, symbolizing evil and destruction, worshipping Ertes the God of Death, and House Feros, symbolizing justice and divinity, worshipping Renesia, the goddess who protects the continent.
These two houses, clearly different even at first glance, had been at odds with each other since ancient times, constantly at each other’s throats.
Their relationship was so bad that they would even point swords at each other’s throats in front of the Emperor himself.
“Come to think of it, Feros was in charge of overseeing the Grand Temple’s affairs, weren’t they?”
True to their goddess-worshipping nature, Feros managed almost all of the Grand Temple’s affairs.
The Grand Temple, strongly supported by the deeply religious imperial citizens, wielded such powerful influence that even the imperial family was wary of it.
However, due to the absence of a Saint for the past decade, the Grand Temple had lost the trust of the imperial citizens who were its source of power.
A Saint was an irreplaceable, noble existence who could come closest to the goddess, their very presence signifying the goddess’s blessing upon the empire.
In other words, the absence of a Saint meant the goddess had abandoned the empire.
As a result, the weakened temple quickly fell under the imperial family, who had always been uncomfortable with religion’s great power.
Feros, who was practically the backbone of the Grand Temple, naturally saw their authority plummet, much to the delight of their rival, Laté.
The situation was so severe that there were even brutal rumors circulating that Laté had found and killed all emerging Saint candidates.
Actually… those rumors weren’t wrong.
The head of House Laté—my father—would always send someone to end the lives of anyone showing even the slightest potential of becoming a Saint candidate.
Feros must have known this fact. They just couldn’t do anything except grind their teeth in anger without concrete evidence.
But then suddenly, Laté became connected to the imperial family through an engagement, which naturally wounded the pride of Feros, who followed the imperial family.
And this was exactly why the original Rosiel got engaged to Abel.
To publicly show that ‘Feros is beneath Laté’ and rub it in their faces.
Similarly, the imperial family gained the advantage of securing House Laté—who were like birds of prey skilled in handling magical beasts and black magic—under their control, strengthening imperial authority through Laté’s dangerous influence.
“One of these engagement termination papers will be processed at lightning speed. They must have been desperately waiting for news of the imperial family’s broken engagement.”
Originally, the story began when the male lead fell in love with the female lead at first sight, and I, his fiancée, became jealous of her.
So if I cut ties with Abel now, ‘I’ would be removed from the original story.
Sometimes a boring romance without a villainess, where they just love each other smoothly, isn’t so bad, right?
Then the protagonists can have their beautiful love story, and I’ll focus on treating my terminal heart condition and live a long, happy life.
“But while breaking the engagement is as simple as announcing it… what about my heart?”
I could clearly feel my heart beating strongly in my chest.
Experiencing the agony of my breath stopping as I faced death twice was enough.
“…That man was right after all.”
I never thought there would come a day when I’d recall those words I had dismissed as nonsense.
Once, during my first life, I happened to visit the Grand Temple.
As this scene wasn’t in the original story, I was about to hurriedly leave when someone’s strange voice stopped me.
‘You, you’ll die soon.’
It was a mysterious man with violet hair that bloomed like the night, wearing a silver mask that covered his eyes.
‘…What did you say?’
‘The pure sacred power contained in your black heart will soon be corrupted. When that happens, you too will see the end of your life.’
‘What nonsense…’
When I ignored him in disbelief, the man spoke again.
‘Child, you are given only three chances at life. Remember that.’
The man in smooth white robes spoke these incomprehensible words in a gentle voice.
Though I couldn’t see his expression because of his mask, the man was clearly… saddened by something.
‘For a Grand Temple, security is quite lax. Letting in drunkards who spout nonsense even in broad daylight.’
The idea that my heart—born into House Laté, which communicates with demons, practices black magic, and controls magical beasts—contained sacred power was truly absurd.
I dismissed him as mentally unsound when he suddenly made this bizarre prophecy, and left the temple with a casual response.
But afterward, just as he said, I died twice from my heart stopping.
While I didn’t believe in gods, I had no choice but to believe in experience.
Finding that masked man was one of the tasks given to me in this life.
Given that he was wearing white robes in the temple, he must be a priest or of similar status. I’ll look for him when I get the chance.
The man said I had three chances left, which meant this life was essentially my last.
I briefly entertained a foolish hope—would I be able to escape if I squandered all my chances?
…but the phrase ‘chances at life given to you’ was rather disturbing.
It sounded like saying I wouldn’t have a fourth life.
“First, let’s try to remove the sacred power before it turns black in my heart.”
At least then I wouldn’t die young like before.
Surely removed sacred power couldn’t become corrupted.
The unfortunate part was that since I used black magic through contracts with demons, I couldn’t handle sacred power, which was its complete opposite.
“…I need someone to help me.”
The Grand Temple had many high-ranking priests with strong sacred power.
But since I’d never seen their abilities firsthand, it would be risky to trust and rely on them blindly.
Their status didn’t matter.
However, since this was a delicate matter of life and death, it had to be someone proven and trustworthy.
Specifically, I needed a universally acknowledged expert with sacred power strong enough not to be swayed by the dark power in my heart—someone even I would have to acknowledge.
