How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

Nell followed her gaze and explained.

“Oh, there is an attic upstairs. These are the stairs leading there.”

“Do we have an attic?”

It turned out that the wooden board on the ceiling was the entrance to the attic. She went into the storage room and pulled the string attached to the ceiling. As soon as she pulled the rope, the entrance to the attic opened in an instant and a wooden folding staircase descended. It’s like the attic you’d seen in movies and dramas. A hidden attic where one could pull the rope to descend the stairs and go upstairs.

“It’s a strange structure.”

She wished she had a place like this in her mansion. She stepped on the stairs and went up about half way to look into the attic. It was full of dust, perhaps because it had not been used for a long time. Still, there seemed to be enough space for two or three people to move. There was also a small window on one wall.

She thought it would be better to hide. Nell nagged her from downstairs as she kept looking around the attic.

“Princess, you need to dry your hair. If you keep doing that, you’ll catch a cold.”

“Okay. I will go down.”

She got down and pushed the folding stairs up again. The stairs disappeared without a trace, leaving only square wooden boards on the ceiling.

* * *

After Nell finished tending to her bath, she went back to her room. Chloe was still standing with a nonchalant expression on her face.

“I have somewhere to go with me in the morning. You have to get up before dawn.”

“All right.”

Chloe just nodded, she didn’t ask where she’s going or for what purpose. She liked her heavy-mouthed and serious personality.

“I want to go back without other people knowing.”

She kept a rough eye on the road during the day, but she had to move carefully to avoid being noticed. Fortunately, there weren’t that many people guarding the area in the evening.

There were knights directly under the Crown Prince sent by Arentine, the Imperial Knights brought by Mikhail, and Terence’s side, but the temple had asked to leave a certain number of people at night. It was because it was customary to have only priests and priestesses in the temple at night. Thanks to this, the knights guarded the walls and entrance of the temple, and the number of people in her quarters was small. After sending Chloe out, she changed into pajamas, lay down on the bed, and slept until dawn. Because of her nervousness, she woke up earlier than expected. She changed into her plain dressing gown and went to the annex next to the bedroom.

Knock, knock.

She knocked on the door, but there was no answer as if Chloe was still asleep.

“Chloe.”

After knocking a few more times, when her name was called, a voice leaked out of the room. After a while, the door opened and Chloe appeared with half-closed eyes.

“…yes, princess. Forgive me for being late.”

Fortunately, she was still wearing a maid’s uniform, as if she had prepared on time.

“No, it’s fine.”

She felt sorry for the person who she woke up when she was still sleeping.

“But were you awake?”

She thought she was sleeping because there was no answer when she knocked on the door. 

Chloe answered with a serious expression as she came out.

“I was taking a nap in my chair because I was afraid I wouldn’t wake up on time.”

She wouldn’t have had to do that. Come to think of it, Chloe was taciturn but very sincere. It’s because she didn’t say anything, she seemed to be working hard on everything.

“I have to go outside.”

Go through the garden and go to the chapel in the corner of the temple. They walked down the narrow corridor, stepping on flagstones stained by moonlight. The moonlight shining through the glass window cast a white halo on the dark stone wall. She carefully opened the back door to the garden and went out into the dark flower bed path. The garden of the temple was narrower than the backyard of the imperial palace. In the garden, trees, flower beds and statues are closely attached. Thanks to that, there was plenty of space to hide. It was when she passed through a small corner door and entered a certain room, where there was another chapel. A few steps ahead stood a knight wearing the uniform of the Imperial Knights. She hurriedly stopped and hid herself in the grass.

“Come here.”

Before she could gesture, Chloe came close to her and crouched behind a blade of grass. She was hiding in the grass next to her when he heard footsteps beside her. Could it be that she was caught?

However, she could feel the presence, but no one looked this way. They quietly crouched and held their breath. Just then, a familiar voice was heard in front.

“What is going on?”

It was Mikhail.

“I was looking around because I thought I heard something.”

“I will protect this place, so patrol over there.”

“Yes.”

The sound of footsteps quickly faded away. It seemed that the knight who was hanging around had gone somewhere else. But she still couldn’t get out. There was only one footstep that left. That meant that soon Mikhail would still be nearby…

“Princess.”

A low voice came from above.

“There is no one but me.”

…She got caught. For some reason, every time she sneaked out, she felt like she was being caught by Mikhail. Was there any strange relationship? She awkwardly got up and came out of the grass. When she went outside, Chloe, who was next to her, followed. Outside, as expected, Mikhail was waiting for her with emotionless eyes.

“Greeting the princess.”

“…yes.”

She was very embarrassed to be greeted in this situation.

“If you’ll excuse me, may I ask why you’re here?”

“You’re already asking.”

Looking at Mikhail’s expression, he didn’t seem to be willing to let go. She had no choice but to answer his question.

“I was on my way to the chapel to look for something. I didn’t tell anyone because I wanted to avoid being noticed.”

It was something she couldn’t tell him even if he inquired more closely. However, instead of asking in detail, Mikhail made an outrageous remark.

“I will go with you.”

“What?”

Mikhail had a very serious expression.

“This is not the imperial palace. There may be suspicious people. I can’t just send you two.”

In fact, Chloe here was the escort warrior planted next to her by the Grand Duke, so she must be strong enough. She was afraid that going alone would be a bit dangerous, so she was going to go with her… But she couldn’t tell the truth.

“Okay. You’d better do that.”

Chloe looked at her with surprised eyes. It was a look that asked if it would be okay.

“Don’t worry. Sir Sheldon can be trusted.”

Because this was a good male lead. Mikhail in the original work was truly a good and honest character. He wasn’t the kind of person to betray someone or engage in evil, even with a knife to his throat. Hearing that, Mikhail looked at her a little surprised.

She made him promise in a firm tone.

“Instead, there are conditions. Don’t ask me what I’m doing, because I can’t tell you. And of course, what happened today should be kept a secret.”

Mikhail, of course, had the attitude of knowing that such words would come out.

“All right.”

She took Michael and Chloe through the garden to find a small chapel in a remote location. It was the chapel of the Fetish God. There were usually few people visiting this place. Fetish gods were the most unpopular gods.

‘So they must have hidden the entrance here.’

“Are you going down to the basement?”

Mikhail asked as soon as he entered the chapel. He seemed to know that there was a road leading underground here.

“Huh. I’m going to the library in the basement.”

She opened the chapel door and found a set of stairs leading downstairs. Mikhail opened the door on the side of the stairs.

“I know the geography of the temple well.”

As she turned around, he added an explanation.

“I worked here for a while when I was young.”

It was the same thing in the original story. That man as a priest… It should fit well. Just looking at his appearance, she felt like a priest suits him better than a knight.  After going down to the basement floor, she entered the end of the hallway. At the end of the hallway was a small door. It was the door to the library.

“Wait here.”

She left Mikhail and Chloe and went inside the library. The inside of the library was dusty. There were only a few empty bookshelves on the wall. There were a few pieces of parchment or something in the middle, but even that was too worn to be recognizable. She approached the bookshelf at the far end and pushed the empty bookshelf aside. When the bookshelf was removed, a messy stone wall made of bricks appeared. A library on the lowest floor of the basement. A bookshelf at the end of the library. A stone wall hidden behind it. It was just like what she read in the book. A brick of a different color was sandwiched between the old bricks. Although it was a small brick, it was piled up on the wall, so even if she pushed it with her own strength, it didn’t seem to budge.

‘Did they say it reacts to the blood of the imperial family?’

Eve was clearly a princess and she had her holy power, so it must be possible. She carefully pushed it by hand. Fortunately, the bricks that were firmly fixed went inside smoothly like toy blocks.

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Translator Note: Sorry for any mistake during the migration ^^,