🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter : 2
“I haven’t even left the house for the past few months!”
When I shouted that, the Crown Prince below me approached with a cold smile and spoke in a low voice.
“No. Through your maid, you purchased poison and delivered it to a servant of the Duke Nox family who planted it in the Imperial Palace. We already have a confession, circumstantial evidence, and even the poison itself.”
“I never did anything like that—!”
“And we even have testimony from a maid saying you often complained that you disliked how close I had become with the Saintess.”
I insisted that I had stayed inside the mansion the entire time, but it was as if no one could hear me. One accusation after another poured out, along with evidence for crimes I had never committed.
Even maids I had never seen before testified about my schemes.
‘Wait… even though the Duke’s family is being treated like a joke, Duke Nox is staying quiet…?’
When I turned my head after that thought crossed my mind, I saw Duke Nox smiling.
That was when I realized.
—He’s one of them!
That damned bastard. I should have known from the moment the novel described him as some gloomy silver-haired middle-aged man.
Once it became obvious that the Crown Prince was going to break off our engagement, he must have decided it would be better to support the Saintess and preserve his power.
While I ground my teeth and glared at Duke Nox, the verdict was announced.
“Eileen Fontetia Nox. Your noble title shall be revoked, and you will be exiled from both the Imperial Palace and the Nox territory.”
“Damn it, investigate again…! I didn’t do anything! I was just counting cracks on the ceiling!”
As I shouted in outrage, the Saintess slowly stepped toward me.
The pink-haired girl approached carefully, looking rather nervous, and I wanted to beg at least her for mercy.
Even if it wasn’t immediate execution, being thrown penniless into a world where I knew nothing and no one was basically the same as a death sentence.
Trusting the Saintess’s “merciful” character setting, I spoke to her.
“Saintess, this is a misunder—”
—Smack!
At the same moment, my head snapped to the side with the sharp sound of a slap.
Unable to even process that I had just been hit, I could only blink blankly as I heard someone crying.
It was the Saintess.
I’m the one who got slapped. Not you.
“My lady… I really wanted to become friends with you…”
Hey, I didn’t want that.
“Even though things turned out this way, still… I’ll forgive you for this.”
Just as I was wondering whether I should curse her out since I was practically doomed anyway, the Saintess let tears fall from her golden eyes and declared that she forgave me.
Startled, I turned to look at her.
With a faint smile on her lips, the Saintess clutched the hand she had used to slap me and sadly turned away.
“Then…”
“Once you receive punishment, you’ll understand that everything you did was wrong, Eileen.”
“Huh?”
“I hope next time we can become friends…”
As I stood there in confusion, knights grabbed both my arms and began dragging me away.
No, what happened to forgiveness? You said you forgave me! Hey!
As I thrashed around angrily, the Crown Prince approached me.
Then, personally opening the courtroom doors, he whispered quietly so only I could hear.
“Thanks to you, I’ll be able to marry the Saintess.”
With a beautiful face worthy of a male lead, his lips curved as he spoke.
“What…?”
“If not for you, I would never have been able to become engaged to the Saintess. For that much, I am grateful.”
“Wait, what are you saying—”
I stared blankly, unable to understand anything, while the Crown Prince continued speaking with a quiet laugh, as if talking to himself.
“To bring her out from the temple, I needed to publicly prove just how much I ‘loved’ her.”
“To the point of abandoning my fiancée.”
“And besides, a duke’s daughter tormenting the Saintess? It’s the perfect scandal to draw everyone’s attention.”
“So it’s all thanks to you.”
Even forgetting that I was being dragged away, I could only stare stupidly at the Crown Prince.
“To be honest, I’d rather just kill you and get rid of you.”
Still wearing that radiant face, he smiled in a way completely different from how he had ever smiled at me.
“You being executed would make my Saintess sad, wouldn’t it?”
The male lead had pushed me into danger and erased me from the world for the sake of his love alone.
Everything was for the female lead.
“Thank you for your sacrifice, Eileen.”
And then the doors closed.
I was chased out without even receiving a proper trial.
Before I could even vent my resentment, I was shoved into a shabby carriage that looked like it was meant for transporting criminals.
After traveling in that carriage for several days, we arrived at a run-down village completely different from the capital.
“Get down!”
“Aagh!”
You could’ve just told me instead of shoving me!
“His Highness said that if you live quietly like a dead mouse, he won’t bother hunting you down and killing you.”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“He said this is his final mercy. You’d better stay quiet.”
The two imperial knights snickered as they looked down at me sprawled pathetically on the ground before riding away.
Left there in shock, I looked around.
Buildings lined the streets, but most of them were old and abandoned.
“Damn it…”
If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve at least hidden some emergency money in my skirt hem.
With absolutely nothing to my name, I dragged my feet weakly through the streets.
People had to eat to survive… maybe there was some kind of job that included room and board.
Whether the original story progressed against my will or the Crown Prince used me as a tool for romance, I still had to survive.
At least, unlike in the original story, the Crown Prince hadn’t executed me.
Though honestly, throwing a noble lady into a commoner village with nothing but the clothes on her back wasn’t much different from telling her to die. Trash bastard!
I looked around listlessly, but there was no way a suspicious street filled with abandoned buildings would have jobs offering food and lodging.
“…This damn romance fantasy!”
So villains don’t get romance or fantasy in this world, huh?! If that’s the case, you shouldn’t have dragged me here in the first place!
Leaning against a building, I sank to the ground and started cursing at the sky.
Compared to the people around me, I was wearing a rather nice dress—though it was the most comfortable one I had—but seeing me sitting on the ground yelling at empty air, people passed by whispering things like, “Oh my, she must be crazy,” and “Well… I guess that happens.”
At times like this, shouldn’t some passing prince stop and ask, “My lady, is something wrong?” before rescuing me?
Or at least a grand duke! No, even the heir would do!
Isn’t that the standard formula for transmigration stories?
Filled with sorrow, I started crying.
I truly didn’t know what crime I had committed.
Was it just because I transmigrated into a villainess? Because romance fantasy stories need a villain?
And that villain had to be me?
After crying for quite a while, something suddenly shoved me from behind.
“Ugh—!”
“Oh my! What is this?!”
The spot I had been leaning against turned out to be a door. A middle-aged woman with brown hair who had just opened it stared at me in shock.
Still looking startled, she hurriedly gestured at me while I scrambled to apologize.
“I-I’m sor—”
“Oh my goodness! Why is a young lady crying in a place like this? Hurry and come inside.”
The woman kindly brought me in,
and overwhelmed by the first kindness I had received in this world, I burst into tears.
As soon as I stepped inside, the first thing I saw was an old tavern.
Wooden stairs leading to the second floor, a space built of stone and wood, and wooden tables.
It looked exactly like the fantasy inns from old games.
Maybe because it was fantasy, there were even slightly orange-colored lights hanging from the ceiling, and despite the situation, I found myself oddly moved.
A romance fantasy! A real romance fantasy!
The one who saved me wasn’t a passing prince, but a warm-hearted middle-aged woman who had come out of the building.
Her name was “Bell,” and the building I had been leaning against was her tavern and inn, <Libera>.
As I absentmindedly looked around the shop, I quickly came back to my senses.
Well, if someone heard loud noises outside their shop and went to check, only to find a woman crying and cursing her head off… I’d be startled too.
After I briefly explained my situation, Bell covered her mouth in shock as she looked at me.
“You were… a noble lady?”
“Now I’m a commoner. You can speak casually.”
My deeply ingrained Korean sense of hierarchy simply couldn’t allow an older woman to speak formally to me.
Ma’am, do you know what respecting elders means? Probably not. Romance fantasy worlds are like that.
Bell was an easygoing person, and since I was a Korean who had transmigrated into this world, I could comfortably talk to her without caring about social status.
After hearing my whole story, Bell sympathized with me.
“So… do you have anywhere to go?”
“No. I can’t even find a job that offers food and lodging, and even if I leave here, I don’t know where anything is.”
Bell looked thoughtful for a moment, then suddenly brightened as if she had realized something. Grabbing my hands excitedly, she said:
“That’s right! So it was you?! Perfect timing! Then would you take care of the shop for me instead?”
“…Huh?”
What in the world was she talking about?
