Chapter 1 - Chapter 1

Translator: Nox

Prologue

「She was truly a formidable and wicked woman. The villainess who ruined her family and even killed her own fiancé is finally dying!」

Those who heard the news of Roselyn Bellion’s execution burst into laughter, feeling a collective sense of catharsis.

The noble lady long discarded by the Bellion family.

The beautiful temptress who survived by devouring her fiancé.

The cruel villainess who abandoned even the laws of nature.

The wicked witch who ravaged the world.

There were many words used to describe her, but none of them were particularly kind.

And Roselyn herself was the type to feel no particular emotion toward those numerous labels.

Slap!

At the stinging pain against her skin, Roselyn slowly opened her one remaining eye.

Convicted of the attempted regicide of the 3rd Prince, the serial murder of various people over time, fraud through enchantment, and public indecency, her appearance was wretched.

She had lost one eye long ago, several of her fingers were missing, and only one of her ears remained.

Contrary to the grand epithets used to describe her, she was merely gasping for breath in a state of near-death inside a damp, moldy underground dungeon.

Of course, that didn't mean Roselyn was trembling in fear.

Even as her hair was grabbed and yanked back, she forced her eye open to look at the person holding her.

“Haha, look at this pathetic state.”

A stout man with a face full of freckles spoke, wiping away dripping sweat with a handkerchief.

“Really now, My Lady. When I offered to take you in, you should have said thank you and bowed your head! I was actually willing to marry a woman like you.”

Roselyn furrowed her brow.

It was because she couldn't recognize who he was.

Only after raising her gaze a bit further through her blurred vision could she ask in a hoarse, dry voice.

“Who are you?”

Whether he felt humiliated by Roselyn’s failure to recognize him, the man’s face instantly turned bright red.

“You fool! It’s ridiculous that they call someone like you a villainess or a witch! As if a stupid wench like you actually matters!”

He moved his heavy body to kick her through the iron bars, only stopping when he finally grew tired.

“I trust that with this, even that stupid head of yours will start working properly!”

Roselyn let out a smirk.

The man momentarily faltered at the sight of her beautiful, radiant smile that didn't fade even in this filthy gutter.

The pale, beautiful woman remained unblemished in her grace despite being maimed, naturally inciting a sinister sense of possessiveness.

“Ah, my apologies. Were you Baron Gilbert? As you can see, I’ve lost an eye, so please understand that I failed to recognize someone so insignificant.”

Cough.

Roselyn spoke nonchalantly, yet arrogantly, even as she vomited blood with a pallid face.

“You…! I am not Gilbert, I am Robert!”

Robert violently shook the hair he was gripping.

Her beautiful white hair, stained with blood and dirt, swayed with the motion.

Roselyn looked at the man huffing in front of her.

He was a man twenty years older than her, someone who had relentlessly made unwanted advances toward her ever since her debutante ball.

“Oh, is that so.”

She spoke in a pitying tone, but her eyes were full of mockery.

“But you aren't my type.”

Roselyn said with a sneer.

“I didn't realize you liked me this much. I should have told you the method.”

Roselyn spoke to the dull, foolish man who looked intrigued even in this situation.

She thought she understood why the Crown Prince had sent this insignificant man down to the dungeon.

“Baron Robert, if you’re going to hit on me, why don't you do something about that smelly, bloated body first? Along with that dim wit and the conscience it takes to hit on a woman twenty years younger than you. And I’d prefer if you didn't speak so close to me. Your breath stinks. I have a rather weak stomach.”

“……You!”

“The former Baron Gilbert must not have been able to close his eyes in peace. No wonder the man held onto the title until he was over seventy, only passing it to you after he died. Even then, the late Baron would be lamenting because of your lack of maturity.”

His face flushed red and purple, swelling like a pufferfish about to explode.

Shring—the sharp sound of metal rang out.

“Shut up, you lowly thing……!”

Roselyn glanced at Robert’s sword.

She had no intention of standing on the gallows as the New Emperor desired.

He seemed intent on using her death as a spectacle to solidify public support, but she didn't want to be used so easily.

He would only see her corpse.

And this lump of inferiority complexes before her would likely end up on the gallows in her stead for killing a high traitor.

This man was the perfect tool for Roselyn to use.

‘I just need to provoke him a little more…….’

Roselyn opened her mouth.

“Even a lowly thing like me is sickened by a filthy, smelly, vulgar pig like you.”

“You… you bitch……!”

It was just as the tip of the sword was about to pierce Roselyn’s heart.

‘Finally.’

The moment she closed her eyes in resignation…….

“Stop.”

A soft yet firm and calm voice cut through the vulgar bloodlust.

“That is enough, Baron Robert.”

“……M-Marquis Gerran?”

The moment Roselyn recognized the voice, she grabbed the sword blade that had entered through the bars with her hand and pulled it toward herself.

“Gah! What?”

Baron Robert, who had almost lost his sword to Roselyn, belatedly applied strength and pulled the sword back.

With a slicing sound, blood dripped from her hand as she lost her grip on the blade.

Step, step—.

Deliberately making the sound of footsteps, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his late forties emerged leisurely from the elongated shadows.

“She is merely trying to use you to die. If you kill her, you will be the one to go to the gallows instead.”

The voice reciting the words was soft and, at a glance, sounded almost kind.

Roselyn’s face contorted in anger.

With just a few words, he soothed the flustered and huffing Robert, sent him out of the dungeon, and then stood before Roselyn with a beam.

“Good afternoon, Roselyn. Tsk, your pretty face is a mess. That fool didn't know his own strength and handled you quite roughly.”

At the voice tinged with slight pity, Roselyn narrowed her eyes and remained silent.

A hand reached out and dryly brushed away the bloodstains on Roselyn’s cheek before withdrawing.

He was Geron Wilbrid.

The man who had personally captured Roselyn while she was living as a fugitive without leaving a trace and threw her into prison—a man who was her sworn enemy.

The gaze that had been mocking Robert had already transformed into a piercing stare.

“Did you come to pity me? Or did you come to mock me? You interfere until the very end.”

“I am merely trying to give you an opportunity.”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who has thwarted me at every turn.”

The man looked down at his amusing adversary, who still held her back straight despite being in tatters, and let out a low laugh.

“The world is quite boring. Dull and tedious…… The rare fun that appears ends much faster than expected.”

The middle-aged man, who had been looking down, watched Roselyn as he spoke.

Roselyn frowned.

This man, above all others, was someone Roselyn had been unable to understand for a long time.

One day he would act as her guardian, another day he would point a sword at her, and on another day he would hide her—only to relentlessly track her for over six months recently and finally capture her to rot in prison.

“Do you believe in parallel worlds, Roselyn?”

He asked with an ever-present smile.

Eyes slightly downturned at the corners, hair neatly slicked back but with a few stray strands suggesting a certain laxity.

He wore a suit and a coat instead of a uniform.

A truly elegant man whose appearance was refined, but who was actually incredibly violent and impossible to read.

His violet eyes rarely revealed any emotion, and a smile always lingered on his lips.

“What kind of bullsh*t is it this time, Gerran?”

That was why Roselyn hated him.

“You are only so harsh with me. It’s hurtful.”

“…….”

When Roselyn glared at him, the man, still dressed impeccably, shrugged his shoulders.

“What. It’s even in Zilbern Dande’s book. That there are numerous turning points in the world based on choices, and depending on those turning points, the same world can be divided into many different branches.”

“And that man was treated as a heretic and burned at the stake, and that book was classified as forbidden.”

“Which you and I have both read.”

Answering with a low laugh to Roselyn’s hostile words, he knelt on one knee on the floor covered in dirt and blood and met Roselyn’s eyes.

“Don't you have regrets sometimes? That it would have been better if you’d made a certain choice at a certain time. That it would have been nice to develop a slightly different relationship with a certain person.”

“…….”

“I’ve also come to find it a bit of a waste to let you die with the trivial title of a villainess. Don't you want to live, Roselyn?”

Roselyn narrowed her eyes for a moment, then exhaled a short breath and leaned her head against the iron bars.

Her vision was fading, and the blood pouring from her palm showed no signs of stopping.

Gerran only then faltered after seeing the pool of blood gathered on the floor and Roselyn’s face, pale even in the darkness.

“……You.”

“Did I not tell you, Gerran? I’m quite sickly. My body hasn't been very healthy since birth. I lived hearing that I might die at any moment.”

I lived quite long despite that, didn't I?

As Roselyn murmured weakly, Gerran’s eyes widened.

“Actually, I took a certain medicine before I was caught by you. It’s a drug where symptoms appear between seven to ten days on average. A drug that prevents blood from clotting.”

Though it was a gamble that required me to sustain a fatal wound by then.

Roselyn added softly.

If the blood doesn't stop, a person dies. It was a gamble using simple common sense.

Seeing Gerran’s hardened face, she chuckled as if amused.

“There were things even you didn't know. The final victory is mine.”

“……You are the first person to stab me in the back until the very end.”

That’s an honor.

As if she had shed the sharp thorns surrounding her only when facing death, a soft smile played on her lips.

“Gerran, I was lonely.”

Gerran paused.

“Running away wasn't that easy either. So……”

Roselyn knew her vision was failing. Because she felt the end, she didn't bother to stop her mouth from moving of its own accord.

A splashing sound came from the floor.

“……The answer to your question is ‘no’.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Roselyn’s body, which had been leaning against the bars, slowly tilted and collapsed onto the floor.

“……You always manage to surprise people.”

Long after the small mutter ended, green flames flared up from somewhere and engulfed the dungeon.

* * *

“……Praying for someone’s death, how can you even say such a thing? I’m so embarrassed I can’t live. It’s because you keep acting like that that everyone finds you so uncomfortable and dislikes you.”

And when she opened her eyes again, Roselyn was sitting on a bed, facing a person she missed quite dearly.

It was her stepmother, the very first person Roselyn had killed after leaving home and establishing herself long ago.

‘……Gerran, you son of a bitch.’