How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

“What is the princess going to do before getting married?”

Rot looked up at Terrence with a slightly disappointed look.

“I’m making a model as a wedding gift, and I don’t know if the princess will like it. I wanted to show it to her when she came to the mansion.”

The word ‘gift’ suddenly reminded him of the white flowers he received during the day. The flower was still lying on the desk in the office. He checked the note and it was useless, but he didn’t feel like throwing it away for some reason.

“Since it’s a gift you put all your heart into, the princess will like it too.”

Whether she likes it or not, he just needs to tell Rot that the princess liked it.

“Yes, I hope the princess comes here soon.”

Rot laughed bashfully, but Terence found it difficult to keep his smile.

“Okay, let’s play the game again later. It’s late today, so you should go and sleep.”

Terrence gently patted his little brother on the back and soothed him.

“You must do it again later!”

“Okay.”

Terrence followed his brother’s back as he went limp. Kamion looked at him and smiled lowly.

“Your Highness becomes a completely different person when you are with the young master.”

Kamion threw down his playing card and stood up, spitting out his cheesy joke. The break was over, so it was time to work. He got up from his seat to go back to the office with his lord, but why didn’t the answer come back?

He turned his head with a puzzled look since Terrence was sitting in his seat, looking intently at the two remaining cards in his hand.

“My lord? What happens?”

Terrence looked at the deck of cards and set them down on the table.

“…No, nothing.”

Two cards were placed side by side in front of him. Hearts and Clovers, two 7s, red and black.

* * *

Through the windows decorated with white ice, he could see the snow-covered city. Terrence looked out the window at the white landscape. The snow that had fallen for several days dyed the vast islands pure white. From the plaza of the capital to the roof of the Great Temple perched on a hill, it was covered with white snow like a white veil.

‘I definitely said today.’

Five days ago, the day that his fiancée, the princess, predicted was today. According to her, there would be a solar eclipse this morning. Terrence had been waiting for it. The moment the woman’s ability was demonstrated right in front of his eyes. The door opened with a short knock. It was Kamion.

“My lord.”

Entering the office, Kamion walked over to his desk and bowed his head.

“Did you find out?”

“Yes. As you said, I went to the Great Temple, Academy, and Observatory to find out.”

At Terrence’s order to learn about astronomical changes, Kamion went to the academy and the temple early this morning to meet with the astronomer and priest.

“Everyone was convinced that the Astronomy would not change in the near future. They said that neither a solar eclipse nor a lunar eclipse would occur.”

All three places were confident that there would be no particular change in the Astronomical Gate. Even the academy’s astronomy professor pointed out unknown data depicting the constellations and orbits and explained at length why a solar eclipse could not occur for a while. Kamion listened to the endless lecture and she barely got out. Kamion couldn’t understand why Terrence had ordered this all of a sudden. Did Your Highness become interested in astronomy? 

After hearing his report, Terrence turned the question around.

“What about the Emperor?”

“Sir Guyen, the leader of the Imperial Knights, is not showing any suspicious movements on the outside.”

Kamion cleared his voice, and he replied confidently.

“He seems to be rather too quiet,” he said. “While the Emperor was out on the battlefield, the Knight Commander looked very comfortable. But there was nothing fishy about it.”

Terrence did not take his eyes off the window as he listened to the report. He was quiet and still in his office. The white dawn light was filtering into the office. Kamion, who had been waiting for a while, asked Terrence.

“…Your Highness, what are you looking at?”

However, no matter how long he waited, no answer came back. Unable to wait, Kamion approached the window to see what he was looking at. As he cautiously approached Terrence’s side, heI could see the snow-covered capital city at a glance through the window. But there was nothing special about it.

“Is there anything worth seeing…?”

Kamion couldn’t finish the question. For as soon as he spoke, a shadow suddenly began to slowly cast over the stone walls of the mansion. He looked up in surprise and saw a black shadow appearing in the sky. The sun, shining white through the cloudy clouds, was slowly disappearing. The pitch-black shadow very slowly swallowed the light of the sun. The round halo of light gradually disappeared beyond the shadows.

It was an eclipse.

“Eclipse…”

Surprised, Kamion murmured as if breathing in. In an instant, more than half of the sunlight disappeared. The blue sky had turned dark like the setting sun. Kamion looked up at the sky curiously and looked around, then he murmured.

“Looking at that, I wonder why they are giving a huge amount of subsidy to the Academy or Daejeon. I can’t even guess what will happen in a few hours.”

“…”

Terrence looked up at the sky in silence. The sun completely disappeared behind the shadows. The clear winter sky was immersed in darkness as dark as midnight.

Terrence looked up at the sky and turned around without hesitation.

“My lord?”

“Prepare to go out quietly and unnoticed.”

“Yes?”

Terrence was surprised and walked out of the office without looking back at Kamion, who was following him.

“I’m going to the Palace right now.”

The sun, which had begun to come out of the shadows again, quietly cast sunlight into the empty office.

* * *

After the eclipse passed, the sky, which had been clear without clouds, lost its light and began to become gray. She looked up at the sky through the window. The solar eclipse had ended, but there was still no communication from the Grand Duke.

35 days left now.

In front of her was an embroidery frame on which a thin piece of white silk was fixed. A pure white fabric that was thin and light enough to see through. The delicately embroidered silver petals on it glowed softly in the morning sunlight. Anyone could see that it is the design of the bridal veil used in weddings. It was the custom here for the new bride to embroider her own veil, but Eve was so poor at embroidering that her maids embroidered it instead.

She was very fortunate. She didn’t even know how to do anything like embroidery. Looking at the half-completed white veil, she realized reality once again how her precious time was passing by again. However, there was no contact from the Grand Duke, so there was nothing she could do.

Maybe he would get in touch today.

Knock, knock.

She was sighing and fiddling with the frame when she heard a knock outside.

“Come in.”

A lady-in-waiting, probably about Nell’s age, pulled the trolley into the room. On the trolley, there was a three-tiered tray with desserts and a tea set with hot black tea.

“Princess, I brought you refreshments.”

“Oh yeah.”

The lady-in-waiting set the tea cups and bowls on the table in front of her.

“Thank you.”

Trying to smile as sweetly and affectionately as possible, she grabbed a pink dacquoise from the plate and placed it in the maid’s hand.

“This is delicious, try one. Oh, and this too.”

While holding the maid’s hand, she put two more dacquoises of different flavors into her hands.

“Oh, thank you. Princess.”

The lady-in-waiting wrapped the three dacquoises with thrilled eyes, bowed her head, and went outside. Eve followed her back with her eyes and let out a small sigh.

‘I still can’t see anything.’

How many times had she failed? She had held the hand of everyone around her for the past three days since she went to the temple, but she had only seen anything like a vision once. It was a scene where a maid was talking with another maid and dropped her bowl in the hallway.

‘As a result of observation, it became reality the next day.’

But that was all that could be called foreknowledge.

Wanting to hold something other than her hand, she directly fixed her handmaid’s hair when it was disheveled, and brushed her handmaid’s shoulder as she was cleaning, saying that her hair was dirty. In the past five days, he had tried about 30 to 40 times, but it only worked with the Duchess, the Grand Duke, and the bowl that was broken. Was it 3 wins and 27 losses?

Even if you take a multiple-choice test with your eyes closed, it seems that the correct answer rate would be higher than this.

‘This is more likely than I thought.’

Drinking the bitter black tea, she let out a sigh when a quick knock sounded. The maid who opened the door and entered politely bowed her head.

“The high priest sent an invitation to the princess.”

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Translator Note:

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