How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

The Duchess confirmed that the wedding was over and moved to the reception hall. The wedding was very luxurious and extravagant. Since it was the wedding of a Princess and a Grand Duke, it would have been natural for it to be held in a luxurious manner, but this was a more extravagant wedding than planned. It looked like Terrence decided to spare no expense on this wedding. The invited nobles were also impressed by the unusually beautiful and sophisticated wedding.

 

She heard someone talking next to her.

 

“It seems like His Highness the Grand Duke really loves the princess.”

 

“Then why did he suddenly change his mind? He hated the princess so much.”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“There was also a rumor that the princess used black magic.”

 

“It doesn’t make sense. Would that work? The princess can’t even use her holy power.”

 

Everyone seemed to agree with those words. It was a very famous story that Eve lost her holy powers. The person next to her expressed a different opinion.

 

“But lately, the princess has become very gentle. They said that on the anniversary of Her Highness’s death, the Princess visits Her Majesty’s residence and looks after the young Grand Duchess. Maybe he was attracted to that side of the princess.”

 

People were silent for a moment after hearing that opinion. This was because the words Eve and virtuousness did not go together very well. She felt a sense of disconnect, as if the middle-aged knight commander Sir Gyren and a cute rabbit doll were tied together. There was a lot of chatter here and there, but fortunately no one seemed to notice that there was a problem with this marriage.

 

The Duchess drank champagne, hiding her mixed feelings. Terence was not simply in love as others seemed to think. They may be playing the happy couple to escape the intrigue surrounding them.

 

At that time, the Empress who was sitting at her head of honor suddenly stood up. People’s eyes all turned towards that direction. The Empress said something to the Emperor who sat next to her, and then she went out. One of her waiting palace maids followed her.

 

When the Empress disappeared, people’s whispers continued again.

 

“So, I heard that Count Parmes was sentenced to death.”

 

“Then, as expected, Her Majesty the Princess…”

 

There was no one who did not know the news about the Count Parmes family, the Empress’s parents. The Empress remained in her position with an expression of disinterest throughout the wedding ceremony.

 

“I can’t believe it. The Empress has cared very much for the princesses.”

 

After hearing those words, some people made meaningful expressions. Among the nobles of social circles, there were those who sensed that the Empress’s behavior was nothing more than a pretense on her part.

 

It had nothing to do with her, so she was just watching.

 

“But why did Her Majesty, the Empress, try to harm Princess Eve?”

 

Not even the Crown Prince, her biological son’s rival. She couldn’t understand why she tried so persistently to harm the princess twice, which would be the end of her life if she got married. Even if the prince was trying to blame her for the fire incident, why did she try to drug her?

 

“The rumor is that the Empress was displeased with this marriage from the beginning. If Princess Eve becomes Grand Duchess, His Highness the Grand Duke may take His Highness the Crown Prince’s side, right? Maybe she was wary of that?”

 

She saw others nodding their heads in agreement with the answer someone gave. The Duchess listened to the whispers around her and recalled what happened three days ago. That day, the Duchess met Eve and her daughter-in-law here.

 

Eve called her to a quiet place and she asked bluntly:

 

“I need you to help me. I need the lady’s help.”

 

“What’s going on?”

 

Eve briefly explained her situation. The Empress was targeting her wedding day so she’s up to something. Fortunately, she said, she had obtained information in advance and was preparing to act in consequence. When the Duchess heard the details of the plot, she was very surprised. It was a terrible plan that an ordinary person could not even think of.

 

The Duchess quietly walked to the table next to her, avoiding everyone’s gaze. She was there, the elderly Marchioness Connell, tasting one of her desserts, caramel sorbet.

 

“Hello, Marchioness.”

 

“Princess. Have you finished eating?”

 

The Marchioness of Connell welcomed her warmly. The Marchioness looked at the Duke of Rohan, who was chatting with other nobles on one side of the banquet hall.

 

“It looks like the Duke is completely recovered now.”

 

“Yes, fortunately he recovered quickly.”

 

The Marchioness of Connell was an old woman who was worn out in social circles, so she loved gossip and was quick-witted. The most important thing for her was that she did not like the Empress. After all, Connell was in rivalry with the Countess of Parmes over trade with the East, her family’s main business. However, over the past few years, she has been pushed out by the count family with the Empress at their back.

 

The Marchioness glanced at the Grand Duke sitting in front of her and she smiled.

 

“It’s the most gorgeous wedding I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said. “The Grand Duke knows how to please a woman.”

 

“I’m glad you two seem to be a happy couple.”

 

Terence was sitting alone. Princess Eve left the table for a while after eating. The Duchess let out a brief sigh of her own. the Marchioness asked with concern in her eyes.

 

“What makes you uncomfortable?”

 

“I’ve been on edge since morning, and my head hurts.”

 

“Well, should I ask you to bring some headache medicine?”

 

“No, I think it’ll be okay if I get some air.”

 

The Duchess pretended to look out the window, then she proposed.

 

“If it’s okay with you, would you like to go look at the garden with me?”

 

“In the garden?” the Marchioness asked with curious eyes in her.

 

The Duchess lowered her voice and whispered as if to tell her interesting story.

 

“Actually, there is an amazing greenhouse here.”

 

* * *

 

A little distance away from the greenhouse, there was a place overgrown with short shrubs. The Empress pointed to the place and commanded her maid.

 

“You should keep an eye on who is coming from here.”

 

The maid silently lowered her head. Because the garden was so large, there was no one passing by around here. Still, in case someone passed near her, she decided to station her maid as a guard.

 

The Empress took off her fur coat that she was wearing and handed it to her maid. She didn’t want any blood to get here. After handing over her cloak, the Empress dressed in a thin formal dress and headed to the greenhouse where Sorel was waiting. As Sorel explained, there was a glass greenhouse in the middle of the garden. It was an octagonal greenhouse with large glass windows on every wall. The glass on the window was a mirror, so the inside was not visible from the outside. Looking outside, she felt strange and a little eerie. She didn’t know when it was made, but the person who made it must have had strange tastes.

 

Sorel, waiting inside, saw her and turned her body.

 

“Are you ready?”

 

“Yes. Here you are.”

 

Sorel took the dagger from her arms and placed it on the table.

 

“No one else saw it, right? Didn’t someone follow you?”

 

“Don’t worry. No one saw it. My maid stands guard over there.”

 

The Empress took out a small glass bottle that she had hidden in the pocket. There was a little dark red blood in it. It was the blood of the Emperor. She originally planned to get this on her hands before coming here, but the wedding ceremony and reception took longer than expected, so she didn’t have time to do that. She couldn’t even go to the garden because she had to come with her maid. No matter how trustworthy she was, she couldn’t reveal the royal secrets.

 

The Empress put a drop or two of the blood in the vial on her palm and rubbed it lightly. Sorel watched quietly and said.

 

“How amazing.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

The Empress asked without hiding her displeasure. The blood seeped into her palm and disappeared without a trace, but the uncomfortable and unpleasant feeling did not go away.

 

“I’m surprised that’s possible. Do you know anything? Except for direct descendants, there were very few people who could use this sword.”

 

“So?”

 

Sorel answered, smiling brighter than the flowers in the banquet hall.

 

“I guess true love is that rare.”

 

The Empress glared at Sorel with annoyed eyes and then looked away. This was why she planned to come prepared in advance.

 

The Empress did not like Sorel. Sorel’s biological mother was a lowly woman who worked as a maid. Every time she thought about how one of her maids gave birth to the Emperor’s child, she became angry.

 

The Empress harassed and mistreated Sorel without anyone knowing. However, unlike Eve, Sorel did not fall easily to her wiles.

 

“Eve is taking a bit long.”

 

“It’s going to take a while to get here in that dress.”

 

Even though she worked hard to get here, it took her quite a while. It was her first time here, so it took her some time to find her way.

 

“Don’t worry, everything will go as planned.”

 

Sorel tried to reassure her. The Empress became even more displeased as she felt like she was being treated like a child.

 

It was a simple plan. She would stab Sorel and hide her body in the garden. As soon as Eve arrives at the greenhouse and checks Sorel, come back into her greenhouse with her maid. She will be able to succeed as long as there is no one watching her. She liked the fact that she could put everything else aside and stab this obnoxious stepdaughter right in front of her with her knife. Of course she would be even happier if she could see Eve caught in her scheme and thrown in prison.

 

But as her wait dragged on, she had an ominous feeling. The Empress looked out her window with her anxious eyes. There were garden trees and a grove of shrubs nearby. But even though she looked closely, she couldn’t see any traces of people. Even if there are people passing by, they won’t be able to see anything because of this glass window.

 

The Empress asked again, out of curiosity.

 

“Have you checked all the windows?”

 

“I looked around before coming in here. Do not worry. Everything on the outside is a mirror.”

 

Before the Empress herself came inside, she looked into the window next to her. It’ll be okay. The only people who know today’s plan are the Emperor and Empress, Sorel, Vilos, and Gairen.

 

“You probably took the medicine, right?”

 

In response to the Empress’s question, Sorel quietly nodded her head.

 

“Yes, I ate it beforehand. The efficacy of the medicine is spreading.”

 

Sorel said she would take a sedative with an anesthetic effect beforehand to help her endure the pain. Once the effects wear off, her mind becomes clouded. If you’re going to lose, you can pretend to faint and fall down. Sorel, who was looking out the window at that time, said happily.

 

“Oh, I guess my sister is coming this way.”

 

As she was wondering what was going on, a white bird as big as her finger flew to the window and sat down.

 

“What? What is that bird?”

 

“It’s a signal from my maid.”

 

Sorel smiled contentedly and turned her body toward her window.

 

“Do it quickly. The arrival of a bird is a sign that my sister is near her corridor.”

 

Was Eve really coming? Eve was still nowhere to be seen in the corridor or garden. The Empress, in an anxious mood, picked up the dagger on her table. Even as she held it, her blade did not disappear and still shined sharply. The Empress grabbed the blade of her sword and plunged it deep into Sorrel’s shoulder.

 

It was much deeper than planned.

 

“Oww…!”

 

Sorel screamed and curled up her body. But the moment she stabbed Sorel with the sword, an alien sound was heard from behind her.

 

Fiuw.

 

It was a short, dull sound, like a door closing.

 

‘What?’

 

The Empress was startled and quickly removed the sword. The blade was quickly pulled out and blood poured out.

 

“Ugh…!”

 

Sorel fell to the floor, clutching her shoulder as if in pain. The Empress quickly looked around to find where the sound came from. But there was still no one in the greenhouse.

 

“Well, what was it… What was it?”

 

Sorel, who was lying on the floor, also turned his head as if he heard the sound. As he turned, blood began to trickle down from the wound on his shoulder. Sorel’s eyes were becoming unfocused, perhaps due to the bleeding and pain, or the effects of the sedative spreading quickly.

 

“Well… I don’t know what that was.”

 

At first, the Empress did not notice what was wrong. As she was looking through the greenhouse, a change caught her eye. The glass window on one wall had turned into a mirror. To be exact, the glass window that illuminated the garden on the left side of the greenhouse.

 

“What, what? Why…”

 

The Empress quickly ran to the glass window. She could see her own face turning blue in the glass window that had turned into a mirror. How did this happen? She unconsciously placed her hand on the mirror. The moment she touched it, the glass window slid to one side, leaving a gap about the size of her finger.

 

‘Rotating window?’

 

She thought it was a solid glass window, but it turned out to be a revolving window that could be turned in the opposite direction. She was told that she had a window that could turn 360 degrees like this. It was her first time seeing her in person since she wasn’t in the imperial palace. But was this the original window that worked like this? From the inside, she had no idea. She thought it was just an ordinary window. On the outside, it looked like an ordinary window and had a handle to open and close it. However, she was able to turn the window the way it was. It was a hidden revolving window that was made to look like an ordinary window.

 

“Has the window here always been like this?”

 

She asked in a panicked voice, but Sorrel had already lost her consciousness and was lying face down on the floor.

 

‘Did she stab herself too deep?’

 

In fact, she deliberately plunged her blade deeper than she had planned. She was seriously injured at this point, so I wanted her to be in pain and have any aftereffects. Sorel has healing powers, so she quickly recovers from any wound. It looks like she lost her mind sooner than expected because of that. The Empress left Sorel alone and turned her gaze back to the mirrored window.

 

‘But why did she go back alone?’

 

As soon as her thoughts reached that point, a cold shock penetrated her heart.

 

‘Could it be that there is someone outside?’

 

The Empress, shocked, frantically turned the window. The glass window rolled back easily like a sheet of paper with just a slight touch. She wondered how a window that worked so well had been so firmly fixed earlier, but she didn’t have time to worry about it. She needed to find out immediately who ran this. She hurriedly turned the window, and the mirror surface disappeared and the dried glass surface appeared again. Fortunately, there was no one near the window. The moment the Empress was relieved and looked around, she froze.

 

She saw people a short distance away from the greenhouse. Three women were standing next to a thick, grassy shrub. There was a young maid and two noble ladies. The maid was the first face she saw, but the other two were people the Empress knew well. They were the Duchess of Rohan and the Marchioness Connell.

 

‘What, what is it? Why are those women here?’

 

The embarrassed Empress realized another shocking fact. Those three people must have seen exactly what happened in the greenhouse.

 

The Empress dropped the dagger she was holding.

 

The red blood on the blade left a dotted mark on the tiles of the greenhouse.

 

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