How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

However, Eve did not realize the fact until the day she died.

“Princess… Don’t you like it? Shall I get another pair of gloves?”

She was silently looking at the gloves, and the very nervous ladies-in-waiting looked at her.

“Oh, or should we bring another menu?”

“No, it’s okay.”

She put on the gloves and tasted each bite, starting with the one that looked the most delicious. Even the simple soup melted in her mouth as it was the finest food prepared by the imperial chef. 

After the meal, the maids carrying boxes entered the room one after another. The boxes on the left were all jewels. Countless diamonds, gold, rubies, milky pearls, sky blue sapphires and emeralds, amethysts… From the box, all kinds of jewels poured out endlessly.

On the other hand, the dress on the right was fully spread out. Silk and damask, velvet and muslin… All of them were gorgeous rococo-style dresses that one might have only seen in movies.

Even though it was a daily routine for the past 4 days, she was ecstatic every time she saw it. When she opened her eyes, delicacies spread out, and jewelry and dresses came in like mountains. It was a very luxurious version of unemployed life.

…A perfect life unless one were going to die in 40 days.

‘I have about 40 days left.’

Even if the sky collapsed, there was a hole that would rise. Fortunately, she had read <Flower of Pathetic Love> countless times.

Even though she possessed the villainess who would be killed after 40 days. Instead, she remembered every detail of how that world was going.

‘The problem is… Even if I knew the contents, there was no way I could escape by myself.’

She, the princess, couldn’t leave the imperial palace and run away at night. Besides, the person who was trying to kill her was the emperor, the owner of the empire. Even if she broke off the engagement at will, it would be restored with just one command from the emperor.

‘Besides, if you say you’re going to break up the marriage after making such a fuss, it’ll only make the reason for being killed more obvious.’

In the social world, a broken engagement was considered as humiliating as a divorce unilaterally. Every time she made all sorts of insanities about marrying the Grand Duke, now she couldn’t say, ‘I’m sorry. I don’t want to get married now. I want to break up’.

If she did that, even if there was no evidence, as soon as Eve was murdered, everyone would think the Grand Duke was the culprit. At that point, it might actually be considered self-defense.

‘Even if I escape this crisis, as long as I stay in the imperial palace, I don’t know when or how I might be used and die.’

The emperor was a man who killed even his own daughter. Even if they broke off their marriage, living in the imperial palace was dangerous.

She wanted to somehow get out of there and go somewhere safe. After thinking about it for four days, she came up with one answer.

‘I have to meet the Grand Duke.’

The only person who could help Eve in the current situation was the Grand Duke. Eve had an older brother, the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince hated her Eve so much that he didn’t care if his sister died or not. He couldn’t even pay attention to other things because it was too much for him to keep the position of crown prince. So it was clear that she couldn’t get any help there.

In the first place, the other three siblings were now out on the battlefield, so there was no way to go to them to ask for help.

‘So there is only the Grand Duke. I have to see him right away.’

However, meeting the Grand Duke seemed simple, but it was very difficult. Because the Grand Duke never came to see Eve. She heard that he hated Eve so much that even if he sent an invitation, he sent it back without reading it.

‘You didn’t even look at your fiancée while she was sick.’

Eve, of course, said she was going to marry the Grand Duke. She went on a hunger strike and she fell ill. As a Grand Duke, he wouldn’t want to see his fiancée or anything like that. Even if she begged him to come, it was obvious that he would not come.

So, in order to meet the Grand Duke, she had to go outside the palace and visit him myself.

‘But how do I get out of the imperial palace?’

Because of the fuss she made to marry the Grand Duke, Eve’s current reputation was completely at rock bottom. The Emperor ordered Eve to quietly reflect until her wedding day.

‘I’m not imprisoned in the palace, but I don’t think I can go out without incident.’

Should she ask her ladies-in-waiting to deliver a secret letter to the Grand Duke?

She studied the maids’ faces carefully. All of them looked terrified, but she couldn’t tell what they were thinking inside. Since she didn’t know which of the maids was on her side and who was the spy sent by the emperor, it would be useless to ask them to deliver a secret letter to the Grand Duke.

‘If I do something wrong, I’ll only raise suspicion.’

She was thinking about that, but the voice of the maid next to her brought her to reality.

“Princess. Her Majesty the Empress sent an invitation to the tea party.”

That word sparked her spirit.

“The Empress?”

She accepted the invitation from her maid. On a piece of paper decorated with gold leaf, a request to come to the tea party was written in fancy cursive. As she read those neat-looking letters, she remembered information about the Empress.

‘Clearly the current eEmpress wasn’t Eve’s biological mother.’

After Eve’s mother, the former Empress, died of illness, the Emperor remarried the current Empress. Virtually no one in this world liked Eve, but the Empress held a stronger grudge against her. That was because Eve openly disrespected the new empress, who came from a countryside family.

‘From Eve’s point of view, her father’s concubine took the place of her mother, so she might not like it.’

The current Empress was the emperor’s concubine even before the former Empress died, and she also gave birth to her son, 2nd Prince Billross, with the emperor.

‘Fortunately, the position of crown prince went to Eve’s older brother, the first prince Arentine.’

Still, since the woman who was a concubine took over the position of the original wife, she would not be able to get along with the original wife’s daughter, Eve.

As she quietly looked at her invitation, the lady-in-waiting seemed to think she was furious as she fell flat on the floor and began to tremble.

“Oh, she said that if you are still feeling unwell, you can rest without attending.”

“…”

‘She sent an invitation, and if I don’t want to come, I don’t have to come?’

If she were someone else, she would think that she would be considerate of the recovering Eve, but the Empress was not so simple. Eve, who had ill feelings towards the Empress…

‘You mean you don’t like me attending?’

Because she used to run away in anger. The Empress always aroused Eve’s temper in that way. She hoped that the violent and simple Eve could not overcome her anger and came and played a game.

‘Then people will sympathize with the poor Empress and curse Eve.’

Of course, she, other than the original Eve, had no interest in what the Empress did. The moment she heard about the tea party, she thought it might be a good opportunity. Now that the Emperor had left the palace, the only person who could actually let her out of the imperial palace was the Empress.

“No. She invited me, so I should go.”

She looked through the jewels and dresses her maids brought and quickly picked out the one to wear.

“This one and that.”

She chose a modest turquoise dress embroidered with white lilies in pearl thread. The other clothes were too flashy and she didn’t even have to look at them because yellow or beige would look terribly out of place with her red-blond hair.

The jewelry was also decided on a decent pearl necklace with a cut sapphire. She also picked out a small lily-shaped brooch. 

Wearing a dress and jewelry, she stood in front of the mirror. Even the ladies-in-waiting, who were looking at Eve with nervous eyes, admired it.

“Princess, you are so beautiful.”

“The dress and necklace look really good on you.”

The ladies-in-waiting desperately praised her to please her.

‘It’s kind of okay.’

The clothes were done, and there was one more thing to take care of.

“From here to there.”

She commanded, pointing to half of the jewel box the ladies-in-waiting were holding.

“Put these jewels in one place. Because it is useful.”

She had to be prepared as much as possible before going out. Because she must meet the Grand Duke today.

After finishing her preparations, she left her palace and walked toward the Empress’s palace. She had gotten used to it in the past few days, so she was able to walk gracefully in a tight-fitting corset and long dress. But it was still a bit difficult with high shoes.

‘Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve been going to another palace.’

The only places she’d been to so far were the inner room, library, and tea room of the princess’s palace where she lived.

She turned her gaze to the glass window overlooking the garden. She could see the world through a window frame made of white silver and inlaid with jasper.

It was snowing outside the window. Fluffy snowflakes dyed the gray garden pure white. The vast garden had become a winter forest full of crystals and ice.

‘It’s a snowy scene like a real picture.’

While admiring the scenery of the garden, she carefully inspected the entrance to the palace. Knights in military uniforms were coming and going throughout the hallway as well as in the garden.

‘As expected, sneaking out is impossible.’

Well, running away inside the imperial palace couldn’t be easy. She’s not just a maid, she’s a princess. Besides, Eve’s presence at the moment was quite important. Because it was planned to be used as the emperor’s chess piece. Even as a scapegoat at the center of the conspiracy she was not invisible.

‘As expected, there is only one place to ask for help.’

She walked down the long hallway carefully calculating the situation.

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