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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: The Reason That Villainess Took Up the Sword
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When they were young, Karon adored her.
However, after the Marquis's Wife remarried the Marquis, their relationship deteriorated beyond control.
Because Erin was the unruly daughter who wouldn't listen to the Marquis's Wife, and Karon became her precious son.
Well, none of that mattered anymore.
“Karon! That’s not it…”
Sara protested to Karon. It was a rather impertinent act for a maid.
Karon’s face hardened. But he didn't harden his expression because of Sara.
Karon belatedly noticed that the bandage wrapped around Erin’s hand was turning red. The wound had burst open from his brutal strength.
Karon, his face pale, flung her hand away. It was an involuntary action.
He looked at Erin with a face full of complex emotions. She sighed, looking at Karon.
He opened his mouth, seeming flustered.
“You… why didn’t you say you were hurt…?”
“If you have nothing more to say, may I leave?”
“What?”
“I just arrived and I’m tired.”
Karon was speechless at Erin’s words.
It was strange. This wasn't the kind of behavior he expected from her, who would usually scream in denial at every word.
Erin silently walked past the frozen Karon. Her actions were completely different from usual.
* * *
Mysterious green eyes. A nose neither too high nor too low. Lips stained red as if bitten by a flower petal.
Her hair was a common brown, but even that suited her appearance well.
Erin was overcome with emotion as she looked at her own face. Her appearance was utterly fragile.
Her slender limbs looked as if they lacked the strength to even walk.
In reality, Erin couldn't run or walk by her own will under the Marquis's Wife’s shadow.
When she was young, she thought it was natural. She believed it was her destiny to live like a doll displayed in the Marquisate.
As she grew a little older, she struggled to escape the situation, but each time, things only got worse.
Back then, she didn't know how to clear up people's misunderstandings.
She screamed denials and even shed tears, but people wouldn't believe her words.
Instead, they avoided her even more, calling it villainess-like behavior.
But now, she would no longer scream alone on a cliff edge where no one else stood.
Erin adjusted the clothes she was wearing as she looked in the mirror.
Unlike the students from other departments, the practical uniform of the Swordsmanship Department was visible.
“Young Lady, isn’t it better if you don’t go, even now?”
Sara was trembling with fear behind Erin.
Today was Erin’s first day in the Swordsmanship Department, and also the day of the swordsmanship evaluation. It was also the day she had been publicly humiliated in her previous life.
The Swordsmanship Department conducted a swordsmanship evaluation at the start of every new semester. While it was called an evaluation, it was more like an opportunity for each family to showcase their swordsmanship.
It was simply a matter of demonstrating the family's swordsmanship or the techniques learned in the department.
A time that would never be difficult for a typical Swordsmanship Department student. But Erin was no typical student.
In the past, she had been humiliated because she couldn't even properly hold a sword.
Furthermore, the malicious words directed at her had been so frightening that she ran to her dormitory and trembled for a long time.
Erin remembered Sara trying to dissuade her like this back then.
Unlike her, who knew nothing, Sara probably knew what would happen in class today.
“I’m fine, Sara. So don’t worry and return to the Marquisate. Understood?”
Sara grew even more anxious at her words.
Good Sara.
Erin thought so, staring intently at her.
Sara didn't know the Marquis's Wife's true nature.
When Erin, unable to bear it any longer, begged for help and confessed everything, Sara was killed by knights sent by the Marquis's Wife while trying to protect her.
“Young Lady, run away. My poor lady…”
Though she had become desensitized after two reincarnations, the shock of that moment still hadn't faded.
That's why she wouldn't reveal the truth to Sara in this life.
Because it was something she had to bear alone.
Erin began to move. There was no hesitation in her steps.
* * *
Atenz Academy’s Swordsmanship Department was the Empire’s last bastion. It was where knights were trained to defend the front lines from the increasing number of monsters.
As such, the students here took great pride in being part of the Swordsmanship Department.
They never missed a single day of training.
It was only natural, as only those with talent among the continent’s finest could enter.
Swordsmanship Department students, proud of their skills, were extremely sharp towards anyone who encroached upon their domain.
The gazes of several students in the training ground turned towards a single spot.
“It’s Erin Resus.”
As if that statement were a fuse, everyone's gaze converged on one side.
From the entrance of the training ground, someone who seemed utterly out of place was walking in.
Among those who practiced swordsmanship, there was likely no one who didn't know Erin Resus. And not because she was the Young Lady of the famous Resus family.
It was impossible not to know her, as she was a madwoman who had applied to transfer to the Swordsmanship Department despite having neither a knight’s pride nor skill.
And most of the Swordsmanship Department students opposed her transfer.
But her opponent was the Resus Marquis.
He was the head of the Resus family, one of the five families guarding the foremost line of defense against monsters.
Such repeated requests from the Marquis were difficult for even the Academy's Dean to refuse.
Thus, for the first time since Atenz Academy was founded, Erin Resus, who couldn’t even wield a sword, transferred to the Swordsmanship Department.
“She actually came?”
“She’s remarkable in many ways.”
“Can she even hold a sword with those arms?”
The gazes of the Swordsmanship Department students watching Erin were sharp.
It was natural. As Erin had been a knight in her past life, she could understand the Swordsmanship Department students’ reactions.
As long as she was part of the Academy’s Swordsmanship Department, she was no longer a lady they needed to protect, but a knight.
Moreover, it was clear that Erin’s skills would be the worst in the entire Swordsmanship Department, so they had every right to disregard her.
Erin averted her gaze from the students glaring at her.
The contemptuous looks from people were already so familiar that they barely bothered her.
However, someone else caught her eye more than they did.
Her eyes moved to a corner of the training ground.
There sat a man with golden hair like molten gold and lake-blue eyes.
Erin pressed her lips tightly together, emotions welling up within her.
‘He’s alive.’
He was breathing, moving, and speaking right before her eyes.
Erin’s heart began to beat faster and faster. It was as if color was being painted onto a monochrome world.
She desperately held back her tears.
The man was Ferdin Lexia, the Second Prince of the Empire and Erin’s fiancé.
Ferdin was conversing with his closest confidant, Derek Atern, who sat beside him.
She still didn't know why she had returned to the past.
But now, the reason didn't matter. Only the fact that she could change the future did.
Ferdin and Erin’s eyes met.
Unlike the others, he gazed at her with eyes devoid of hostility.
* * *
Ferdin was a person who stood out wherever he went. This wasn't merely because he was an Imperial Prince.
He possessed not only handsome looks and exceptional swordsmanship skills but also a captivating charm that drew people in.
The First Prince, Ditrion, was also renowned as an outstanding prince, but Ferdin was by no means inferior to him.
Nevertheless, the reason there were whispers that the First Prince was more likely to succeed to the throne was because Ditrion enjoyed the Emperor’s favor, while Ferdin did not.
‘I don’t even wish for his favor… but what the Emperor does is almost akin to hatred.’
That’s why Ferdin desperately needed the cooperation of Duke Ashili.
Derek found it irritating no matter how much he thought about it.
To break up with Princess Ashili in such a situation! Everything had gone awry because of Erin Resus.
Unaware of Derek’s burning frustration, Ferdin seemed to have little interest in the situation.
“The Marquis’s demand is absurd. Your engagement to Erin Resus is preposterous!”
“…”
“And did you hear what the Marquis’s Wife said while crying? She supposedly threatened the Marquis, saying she’d die if she couldn’t get engaged to you. It gave me goosebumps as an outsider, but you’re completely unfazed?”
Derek said, twisting his face.
“I don’t believe anything unless I see it with my own eyes.”
At that exasperating remark, Derek struck his own chest. His frustration was unbearable.
Ferdin was a composed man, but sometimes he acted irrationally.
He claimed he couldn't possibly fail to recognize a deceitful person, but Derek couldn't agree with that.
The worse the person, the more they’d try to hide that fact, so how could he possibly know?
“That has nothing to do with it! Erin Resus is just an obstacle in your path.”
“But it’s not like there’s a particularly good solution.”
“Why not? Can’t we just make her despise you so much that she won’t want to marry you?”
At Derek’s words, Ferdin frowned and looked at him as if he were pathetic.
Under that gaze, Derek opened his mouth with a serious expression.
“You, you could die if you mess this up.”
