CH 11

Episode 11: The Villainess Returns (X)

─➽⊰

Who was the boy I met then? That boy said that I shouldn’t get entangled with him, and he desperately refused to even face me…

After a while, I heard the news that the crown prince of the empire went hunting with close acquaintances, fell off a cliff and went missing.

Coincidentally, the place where the accident happened overlapped with my route to the Principality of Liloney.

‘Could it be that he was the crown prince?’

Surprisingly, despite being a ducal princess, I didn’t know much about the crown prince.

In my childhood, neither of us siblings attended social events because of our mother’s issues. Even my grandfather, who had a strong personality, did not dare to take us to public places.

Since the age of 13, I have spent most of my time locked in my room to study magical engineering.

He might have made a greeting at an event attended by all nobles, but I couldn’t remember anything in particular. Perhaps he has shiny silver hair and blue eyes, the symbol of the imperial family?

The prince, who was kind to everyone, often talked to me as well.

“Ah, Princess Kiana! Nice to meet you. But where are you going?”

“Greetings, Your Highness. I’m not feeling well, so I’m going back to the ducal residence.”

“Just looking at you, you look weak… Earlier, you were too picky with your meal, but you can’t do that when you’re growing. Would you like to eat a meat pie with me?”

“No, it’s all right.”

The whole conversation was like this, and I left quickly without even making eye contact.

Oh, and he was quite chubby. He was chubby to the point he might roll, but the most impressive thing was that he said he would soon become a sword master.

“Ah, Princess Kiana? Would you like to try this? These are ginger cookies from the Solar Kingdom, and they are very flavorful.”

“No, that’s enough.”

The blue eyes that were buried in the fat cheeks shone with good intentions. He was a boy who was always smiling with a face as plump as a baby bear.

Wait a minute, let’s be a little more precise. Among all the baby bears, he seemed like a rather generous baby bear.

‘And… He was like a person who lived in a different world.’

I instinctively hated people who were warm and bright like the sun. It must be because I was gloomy and dark. And since Melissa was just such a person, I was even more reluctant.

However, the boy I saw at a glance had exactly that kind of personality.

How many people must have been around since he was the only descendant of the imperial family and was facing the youngest sword master in the empire. He seemed busy just surrounded by people who loved him and having fun with them.

“Princess, it’s been a while. Do you like soda water? I got it as a gift, but it tastes so good, I brought it because I wanted to eat it with everyone.”

“No, it’s all right.”

Because of my attitude, people even evaluated me as ‘arrogant’ or ‘rude’.

But back then, I had something like an obsession: I didn’t want to draw people’s attention. Because my appearance, which didn’t look like a Prelai at all, would remind everyone of my mother.

Even so, I was a little bit envious of the chubby boy who was always surrounded by people. His world seemed so warm, pure and solid.

“Prin-Princess? This is really delicious…”

“Your Highness the Crown Prince! Come this way! Here, Lady Niat really wants to say hello to Your Highness the Crown Prince!”

“Your Highness! Here, Count Vias wants to talk about swords with you!”

There were too many people looking for the crown prince, and he would be called somewhere again at the same time as I was away.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince really looks like the incarnation of the first Emperor Tales! Such fine silver hair and vivid blue eyes!”

“If you lose a little bit of baby fat, I think you’ll look just like His Majesty the Emperor. Doesn’t everyone think so?”

Many people admired the crown prince, calling him a ‘true Tales’. It was because he was born with all the symbols of the imperial family.

The emperor loved him very much and openly favored him, as he was both his blood and a stable direct descendant.

I always turned around, and tried not to look at him.

But deep down I knew. That I was very envious of the confidence and recognition of that lineage.

‘So I didn’t pay any attention to him. I can’t get close to him.’

Anyway, it was possible the boy was the injured prince and we didn’t recognize each other.

‘Just by the silhouette… I think it was a bit chubby.’

He was just at the age when he was about to go through puberty, so his voice was also changing.

However, there were many things that could not be explained.

‘If that’s the case, wouldn’t he want me to take him to the palace right away and give a big reward?’

Why did he hide himself so desperately?

‘There’s something behind the scenes that I don’t know about… Or maybe the boy isn’t the crown prince.’

If he wasn’t the crown prince, he would most likely have been a member of a criminal organization. Considering he said things like betrayal and revenge at that age.

And how I shouldn’t get entangled with him.

‘Prince or criminal… It’s too extreme. Anyway, both of them would talk informally.’

After that, after arriving at the academy, I secretly purchased two mailboxes from someone at the academy, just in case.

“Buy me two. I’ll choose the one with the prettier number.”

At that time, the person who ran my errands looked at me with a face that said, ‘I’m doing all sorts of things’.

And I bought 1597 and 3125.

“I’ll make 1597 mine. I like it because it’s prime (a number that has only ‘1’ and itself as divisors). I’ll have to cancel 3125, which doesn’t have much features later.”

3125, of course, was not canceled.

It was fortunate that the person who ran the errands was not knowledgeable about numbers. 3125 was a pretty number because it was 5 to the 5th power.

Then, time passed, and I didn’t really feel the need to keep in touch. It was because I thought about what was important to me, and it was not a prince or a criminal.

I had intended to spend the rest of my life at the academy of the Principality of Liloney without going back to the empire if nothing happened.

So, in my life before regressing, I hadn’t contacted the mailbox the boy had told me about.

But after the regression, things were different. I didn’t know it because I was only in Liloney, but in the ‘original’, surprisingly, the crown prince’s strange revenge was starting.

The crown prince did not reveal himself and brutally dealt with the picnic participants one by one as if to show off.

“Since I survived, I can take revenge.”

I didn’t know why he didn’t show up, but for now, it was just the right move. And my guess was that Heaton, feeling threatened, took care of Prelai.

The Duchy of Prelai was the right-hand of the imperial family, and it had been so from generation to generation, so they would be on the side of the crown prince more reliably than anyone else.

Anyway, if the boy I ran into was the crown prince, I had to somehow speed up the revenge play that had just begun in the original work.

The current Heaton had complete control of the imperial family because he was the first in line for succession to the throne. However, it was over when the crown prince returned.

‘And if I make Prince Heaton powerless, Prelai won’t perish because of fake treachery.’

So, as soon as I arrived in the capital, I ordered Peep— Secretly leave a letter in mailbox 1135.

Are you alive? Contact me at 3125.

‘Peep said it would take a week, so I guess I’ll have to wait for her to come.’

I hadn’t told anyone yet that Peep became mine. The fact that Melissa handed over Peep to me made me guilty for some reason.

I had insisted that Peep was originally mine, saying that I dreamt of it every day since I was little.

Rather, that’s why I acted more bluntly towards Peep. Because when I saw Peep come to me, I felt as if I had fulfilled my immature childhood greed.

The reason why Peep was sent as soon as we arrived in the capital was, of course, to deliver the letter, but half of it was to buy time. No matter how much I was, it was a bit much to show up with Peep in front of others.

‘Because I openly insisted that it was mine, and it really became mine…’

Honestly, It was sure everyone would think I had finally robbed Peep from Melissa.

‘When Peep comes back…’

Still, I must tell my family. What would everyone’s reaction be?

While I was lost in my thoughts, the carriage stopped. It arrived at the general store.

─➽⊰

Cesare Levin, a dark-haired young man, leisurely began to prepare for an outing.

But, unlike usual, he seemed a little nervous.

The subordinates had to watch helplessly as their normally fussy and sensitive master chose clothes for a very long time.

“Marquis, you always emphasized that the relationship between you and the princess was ‘a simple relationship where we can only use each other’. But, to choose your clothes to this extent…?”

“Well…”

Cesare slowly raised the corner of his mouth.

“I’m afraid that my natural charm will lose and I’ll hear something like, ‘Well, goodbye,’ before I could say anything properly.”

At those words, Ragnac, the closest among his subordinates, tilted his head and asked.

“Ah… ‘Well, goodbye’… the same thing that’s said to an unlikeable man?”

Ragnac was from a nomadic tribe in the western desert region, and so his pronunciation was slightly off.

And since he didn’t have much experience in social life, he didn’t notice much about human affairs. But he was more loyal than anyone else, and he was also a capable confidant.

“It’s usually like that.”

So Cesare gave a kind answer in his own way when Ragnac asked about the ‘general situation’.

“I asked someone before, and they usually said it meant ‘get lost.’”

“I see. I didn’t know. But if you are worried about your attractiveness to the opposite sex, how on earth should other men live?”

At those words, Cesare looked at the mirror involuntarily.

A statue-like face was reflected. He already knew from experience that it was an appearance that many people would like. However, he did his best to decorate in his own way, so it looked better today.

“Then let’s go.”

Cesare, who finished his preparations to go out by putting on his gloves, smiled widely.

Ame: crown prince, marquis, criminal… are they all one and the same? fufufu