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Chapter : 02
The Circumstances of the Villainess (1)
In other words, this world is the setting of a female-oriented novel titled “When the Dragon Sets Beyond the End of the World.”
The protagonist of that novel is Georgiana. Born with powerful holy energy, Georgiana grows up as a commoner at first, only to later discover the secret of her birth and become the adopted daughter of the Goldwarde Ducal House, descendants of a saintly bloodline.
With her angelic personality and beautiful face, many men become enamored with her—including Cal Dryan, the descendant of dragons. Suffering from constant burning pain deep within his body, Cal realizes that only Georgiana’s holy power can soothe it, and he falls in love with her.
However, Georgiana marries Crown Prince Adolf. Heartbroken, Cal Dryan loses control and transforms into a dragon, burning the capital and bringing about the destruction of the empire.
It is, in short, a tragic-ending novel.
And my name is Viviana Goldwarde.
…You’ve realized it by now, haven’t you? I am the villainess of the original story—the step-sister of the heroine Georgiana.
When I first realized I had been reincarnated into a villainess, I thought to myself:
“So the reason the story ends in tragedy is because Georgiana doesn’t choose Cal Dryan. Then if she chooses him this time, wouldn’t the ending change?”
In my previous life, I died burned in a fire. And in this novel’s ending as well, Cal Dryan awakens as a flame dragon and burns the entire empire.
Dying twice by fire was an ending I absolutely did not want.
To change the ending, all I had to do was ensure that the male lead—Crown Prince Adolf—chooses a woman other than Georgiana.
And this situation was favorable to me. After all, Viviana was the Crown Prince’s fiancée.
“In the original story, the foolish and arrogant Viviana disgusts the Crown Prince, and then he falls in love with the pure and lovable Georgiana.”
Then, if I did not behave like the arrogant villainess of the original, wouldn’t the future change?
No matter how I thought about it, there was no better plan than this. I clenched my fist and made my decision.
“Good! I can do this! Let’s do our best!”
But as expected, life was not so easy.
Even if there was a method, what did it matter?
Viviana Goldwarde’s life was far too busy.
Extremely busy.
Early morning, when the cold air of dawn had not yet fully faded.
As always, I woke up early, got dressed, and sat down to write a letter. I was casually writing a polite closing line suggesting a future meeting when a maid outside called out loudly:
“Miss! Are you still in your room?”
“Got it. I’ll be out soon.”
At the voice from outside, I put down my pen—while I was writing a letter to Lady Nanari of House Dryan.
Then I placed the letter into the mouth of a large lizard standing by the window, its jaws wide open. The lizard swallowed it as if it had been waiting.
Tch. I know it’s just a magical tool for delivering letters and not a real creature, but it still feels unpleasant.
Even if the Dryan family’s ancestors were dragons, did their letter-delivery tools really need to look like lizards? Normally, they would look like small sparrows or pigeons.
Well, this one is basically a Komodo dragon.
But if it were a tiny baby bird struggling to carry letters, I might have softened and never written such thick envelopes full of long letters.
I stroked the lizard’s head lightly and turned away.
When I opened the door, dozens of people outside immediately bowed in unison.
“Good morning, young lady!”
A dazzling crystal chandelier illuminated the ceiling. Antique glass lamps lined the hallway. Luxurious wallpaper, countless works of art, and servants who couldn’t even meet my eyes.
This was the Goldwarde Ducal House. And I was the eldest daughter of that house, Viviana.
More precisely, I was an ordinary office worker who had possessed the body of Viviana Goldwarde.
I never thought I would end up possessing a character from a novel I only read.
When I realized I had possessed a villainess, I was actually quite happy.
Wasn’t that obvious? A villainess is the kind of role that holds everything in the story. Everything except one thing—men.
“Yes! In this life I have money and status! I don’t even have to wash my own face!”
I died while working in my previous life, so in this one I decided I would enjoy myself to the fullest.
But that joy didn’t last long.
As I walked down the corridor, the servants who had bowed to me began presenting their matters one after another.
“Miss, the tailor is scheduled to visit at 2 PM today.”
“The trading company has deposited your share of dividends as instructed, but the ratio seems… questionable.”
“Please review the menu order for next week’s tea party.”
Yes. I…
Viviana, daughter of the Goldwarde Ducal House…
Ah, I’m insanely busy!
There wasn’t even time to breathe.
A noble’s life in novels was supposed to be elegant and leisurely, wasn’t it?
Wake up late, have breakfast as a banquet, take a walk, drink tea, do a little work, read books, ride horses, eat another banquet.
But the life of the Goldwarde heiress I was actually experiencing was nothing like that.
If I had just acted like the original Viviana and ignored everything saying I didn’t know anything, I could’ve lived comfortably.
But as someone who had been trained in paperwork as a former office worker, I couldn’t pretend I didn’t understand documents I could clearly process.
So I handled one task, and then another came. And as I kept processing them one by one, I ended up buried in work instead of enjoying life.
No, wasn’t this a bit too much?
Why is everyone bringing everything to me for approval! What about my father?!
Frustrated, I gritted my teeth and stormed into my father’s office.
But what greeted me was not my father’s face—but a mountain of documents.
“Bibi? Is that you?”
Shockingly, the documents spoke to me. Instead of answering, I took a step back. The documents spoke again.
“Bibi! Do you have some free time? Then help your father….”
“Oh my, where could Father have gone? I don’t see him anywhere. I should look elsewhere.”
“Bibi!”
Leaving my father—buried in paperwork—I closed the office door and walked away.
Yes. My father was even more overworked than I was.
Oh dear, Father. I almost cried for you. But still, you should handle your own work, right?
Self-directed learning is important these days, isn’t it? Right?
Anyway, the Goldwarde Ducal House I was born into was extremely busy. A high ducal status, vast territories that came with it.
Unsatisfied with that alone, my ancestors had founded a trading company, a mercenary guild, and—apparently someone was eccentric enough—even an assassin guild.
Well, I already dismantled the assassin guild.
More precisely, in the original story, the decisive downfall of Viviana came from attempting to use that assassin guild against Georgiana and being discovered.
But dismantling it was just as hard as creating it. If you suddenly disband a well-trained organization and release skilled assassins into society, they simply become another social evil.
So I transformed the assassin guild into an intelligence department.
But if I had known I’d be this overworked, I might’ve just destroyed it completely.
Even today, a pile of documents from the intelligence division kept arriving.
When I submitted the request to repurpose the assassin guild, my father, as if he had been waiting for it, immediately dumped all responsibility on me.
“Indeed, my daughter! A talent who will carry the future of Goldwarde!” he said—nonsense like that.
It’s just sweet talk to work me to death.
What made it worse was that my body automatically reacted to work.
Whenever I saw mountains of documents, I felt like I had to process them immediately. When someone asked a question, I felt compelled to answer…
“Are you alright, young lady?”
“Silvy.”
Lost in work, my maid Silvy spoke to me. Her beautiful eyes were filled with concern.
She was originally an assassin raised in the guild before I converted it into the intelligence division.
Still dazzling as ever.
I had known many foolish men whose arms were broken after flirting with her, enchanted by her silver hair and lovely face.
Beautiful people naturally have thorns. Still, they’re precious. Just looking at her feels like my energy is being recharged.
I suddenly drifted into strange thoughts, momentarily dazed by Silvy’s beauty.
