How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

The Empress‘s palace was much larger than the princess’s palace, so she had a very long walk. The ornaments adorning the halls and corridors of the large palace, which was divided into three buildings, were much more splendid than those of the princess’s palace.

‘It looks like a palace in a movie.’

As she walked, thinking, ‘Sometime I should take a good look at it’, she arrived in front of the drawing room before she knew it.

“Your Majesty, Princess Evenes has arrived.”

The door opened with the gentle voice of the maid. The voices heard through the door disappeared in an instant.

As soon as she entered, she smiled brightly and bent her knees.

“Thank you for inviting me, Mother.”

A heavy silence fell in the bright drawing room.

No one answered and when she looked up, she saw the Empress’ mouth open and blankly hardened faces. All of them were expressions similar to those who had seen a ghost. But she understood why they looked like that.

Most of the encounters between Eve and the Empress in the original story started and ended in chaos. Naturally, the cause of the problem was always Eve.

Eve, who had a quick temper and was stupid, could not get along with the Empress even with pretense. In particular, she remembered that Eve had never called the Empress ‘mother’ in the original work.

The bewildered ladies quickly exchanged glances. Everyone seemed to have no idea what it was all that about. The same was true of the Empress, who sat at her high table. The Empress looked at her with her bewildered face and stammered.

“Ah… That, yes.”

She said with a friendly smile.

“To repay the invitation, I brought tea leaves from the North. It’s weak, but please accept it.”

At her gesture, the lady-in-waiting took out the tea leaves from her fancy box. The Empress, who came to her senses belatedly, complimented her for her manners.

“These are really good tea leaves. Thank you, Eve.”

Even as she smiled, the Empress watched her intently with her uneasy eyes. She seemed to have no idea what was going on.

“I’m glad you like it.”

She didn’t have time, so she just picked some tea leaves from the princess’s palace. Apparently, the Empress was so flustered that she didn’t even take a good look at the tea leaves.

‘Well… Compared to the Emperor, the Empress was a simple and foolish person.’

The Emperor was fond of her Empress, but did not divulge her secrets related to her politics. It was because he did not fully trust the Empress, who sometimes was not deep in thought and acted emotionally. Thanks to this, the Empress never knew the truth about Eve’s death. Even now, the Emperor’s plans were completely unaware.

She sat down in an empty seat without saying a word. As soon as she sat down, the maids brought tea cups and simple desserts. There was silence for a moment in the living room since everyone seemed to be waiting for her to react.

Of course, she had no intention of speaking first. While heavy silence reigned around her, she held her teacup and drank tea in silence. Eventually, the ladies with teacups began to chatter while glancing at her.

“It seems like the place shines even more because the princess is here.”

“It would be nice if Princess Sorel was also with us, but she’s on the front line because of the war against Rasken…”

She was taken aback by the name that came out of a woman’s mouth.

Sorel.

Eve’s half-sister and the heroine of this novel. Also, she was the other princess of this empire. But she, Sorel, did not grow up in her imperial palace. Because she was the illegitimate daughter of the emperor with a commoner woman.  According to the flashbacks of the original story, Sorel one day appeared in the temple with a sign that proved she was the Emperor’s daughter.

‘It was a fairytale appearance.’

She was the Emperor’s daughter who suddenly appeared one day. However, most of the Empire people welcomed Sorel’s appearance. That was because Sorel had strong holy power befitting a princess and she was the owner of her innocent and good-looking appearance.

Eve had only useless foresight, but Sorel had powerful healing powers that benefited everyone. Many people liked Sorel because her personality was benign, kind, and pure.

‘… Except for Eve.’

When Sorel appeared, the people began to compare her and Eve as if they were rivals. It was natural for her to be compared in every way, since the princess who had only one had suddenly become two. However, in all respects, Eve was evaluated as inferior to Sorel.

First of all, the personality… And her appearance, behavior, and even her holy power. Sorel was much better in her opinion.

The heroine of this world was Sorel, so it might be natural. In the end, Eve, pushed into the background by her feelings of inferiority, tormented Sorel and committed all sorts of evil deeds.

“By the way, have you all heard? They said that the princess, Sorel, healed injured soldiers all at once. She did the same for all dozens of people.”

“Even the High Priestess praised her saying that the princess’s holy power has become stronger than before.”

There was only one topic of conversation: princess Sorel’s actions on the battlefield.

All glanced at her.

‘Well, Eve really hated Sorel.’

As for Eve, the sudden appearance of a half-sister would not have been liked by her, but even so, Eve was too mean to Sorel. The first half of the book was full of anecdotes about Eve bullying Sorel.

Some days she hurted Sorel, beated her, put rotten water or glass powder in Sorel’s food, and took away even the slightest bit of good from her… She bullied her half-sister so persistently that she couldn’t understand why she did it anyway.

Sorel said that when she came to the imperial palace she brought a small star-shaped necklace made of glass. It was the only keepsake of her birth mother that Sorel kept. But Eve, just because she was in a bad mood, threw the necklace into the pond in front of Sorel’s eyes.

… The whole time she was reading the book, she wondered if there was something wrong with Eve’s mind at this point. Eve hated Sorel to that extent, but those people only talked about Sorel in front of Eve.

‘These people. They expect me to be angry.’

In fact, most of the noble ladies who came to this place were probably on the Empress’ side. It seemed like everyone was trying to provoke Eve into exploding in front of the Empress.

Even in the original work, Eve was always angry, and the victim, the Empress, shed tears every time and received sympathy. It seemed that she wanted to provoke such a scene one more time.

Of course, he had no intention of making their wishes come true. Instead, she paid attention to the actions of the emperor described in the conversation for a while.

‘The emperor was out on the battlefield with his two sons and Sorel.’

Originally, it was planned to return in time for Eve’s wedding day, but the return was delayed because the situation on the front line had deteriorated. The crown prince returned to the capital for a while to run state affairs in place of the Emperor, but he went back to the frontlines soon after. In the end, all four of them couldn’t attend Eve’s wedding.

‘I guess he was trying to create his own alibi.’

An ill-tempered princess was murdered on her wedding day. The Emperor was going to attend the wedding of his beloved daughter, but the war prevented him from returning to the capital. On the other hand, the marriage partner, the Grand Duke, openly detested her fiancée, the Princess.

It was a situation where suspicion was more focused on the Grand Duke rather than the Emperor. In fact, even in the original work, no one doubted the Emperor.

‘No matter how troublesome Eve is, there is no way the Emperor would kill his own daughter according to common sense.’

And the Emperor usually covered up all of Eve’s depravity. He said that no matter what accident Eve caused, he would only nag her, he would not punish her too much, and let her spend his money as she pleased. There was no way the emperor, her real father, would harm the daughter he loved so much. People’s thoughts were that simple.

In the end, the only person pointed out as a suspect was the Grand Duke.

‘Looking back, the Emperor is a very meticulous person.’

Even though the Emperor pretended to love Eve on the outside, he actually cared little for her. It could be seen from the fact that he unreservedly killed Eve, his own daughter, to entrap the Grand Duke. But, even so, he always covered up Eve’s evil deeds.

Why?

‘Maybe he was brought up to come and take advantage of Eve’s stubborn personality someday.’

After all, Eve was put to good use in the original work. Even if he didn’t use it specifically, it was a good thing for the emperor that Eve would grow up to be stupid and mean.

The Emperor wanted to appoint the second prince, the son of the current Empress, as the next successor. However, the person who was now in the position of crown prince was Prince Arentine, the son of the deceased former empress and first prince of the empire.

In other words, he was Eve’s older brother.

If Eve grew up smart and wise, she would cooperate with the crown prince and keep the second prince in check. She would at least give power to the crown prince by marrying a powerful nobleman who could help her.

So Eve’s death was a win-win for the Emperor. With Eve’s death, a royal descendant who was a threat to the second prince disappeared, and at the same time, he was able to trap the Grand Duke, who was like a thorn in his eye.

‘I can’t die like that human’s plan.’

She couldn’t throw away the life she had gained again in a month. She had to find a way to live.

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Translator Note:

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