How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

She stood in front of the store for a moment and looked at the closed door.

 

‘What did the owner just say? A curse?’

 

She thought it was something like that she had been cursed in the past. What a curse. It was a creepy word to hear, but it didn’t sound very serious.

 

‘I guess they’re just saying it. Isn’t this a business tactic to sell amulets or something?’

 

Considering Eve’s past actions, it wouldn’t have been surprising to hear that someone had secretly created something like a curse doll. There were countless nobles who were harassed by Eve. Since she did not have the ability to take revenge on the princess, she may have been trying to borrow the power of superstition. Even so, Eve enjoyed a happy life as a princess until she fell ill and died from fasting.

 

‘I just went to buy scented candles, but I felt uncomfortable and heard a strange noise.’

 

She erased the owner’s words from her mind and headed to the ice cream shop where Lot was waiting. After purchasing scented candles, she spent the afternoon looking around stores in the downtown area. She bought Lot a toy and new clothes, and she also bought small perfume and ribbons as gifts for Nell and Chloe. She also picked out a pretty yarn set and a book to give to Diane. 

 

Finally, they went to the pet store and bought a fishing rod with a rat toy for Bayan. Of course, it was a useless waste of money, such as a rat fishing rod, but Lot wanted to buy it, so she just bought it.

 

‘Yeah, it’s not like I don’t have enough money.’

 

This was the first time she had enjoyed shopping like this since coming to this world. The structure of the downtown area and stores was similar to where she lived. In the world she lived in, there was no princess riding a carriage with knights. By the time she returned to the mansion after buying as many things as she could, the sun was already setting. After dinner, sending Lot up, and taking a warm bath, it was already time to go to bed. A whole day has passed since she went out to look for scented candles. Now she didn’t have to count the remaining days like she did before she got married, but she still felt impatient as she watched the time go by day by day.

 

Meanwhile, Diane’s life seemed to be decreasing by the day. She put on a dressing gown over her thin pajamas and went out to the reception room next to the bedroom. She had all the scented candles she got today moved to the reception room. Thanks to this, the bitter smell of grass filled the reception room, just like Diane’s bedroom seen in the preview.

 

‘I think I saved enough.’

 

Now how did she make a cure out of this? Diane just had this piled up in her room. Will her illness get better just by keeping it next to her? However, even though she filled the room with scented candles, Diane was unable to cure her illness and she died.

 

‘There must be some other way. There must be a way to make medicine by boiling it, extracting juice, or combining it with other herbs.’

 

At first, she was planning to tell the doctor all this and have him develop a medicine. However, time was too short to just leave it to the doctors and sit idle. Could she figure out a cure for Diane before she dies? Even if she developed a cure, if it was too late, Diane would die while receiving it. It would be nice to get a hint through foresight, but that was impossible at the moment. In the future she saw last time, the doctor gave up on Diane’s research after she died. In that case, they were saying that the ‘future of discovering a cure’ would not exist in the future.

 

“What should I do?”

 

She looked back at Bayan, who was curled up on the table. Bayan was kicking the fishing rod Lot had brought him with his front foot, causing it to fall under the table. Lot tried to get Bayan’s attention all evening, but of course Bayan looked insulted and ignored him. Bayan, who heard her explanation, answered in a sour voice.

 

[The only ability you have is foresight, so I have no choice but to use it to see the future and find out something.]

 

“How do you see a future that doesn’t exist? I can’t even see the future properly.”

 

While complaining, she picked up a scented candle leaf and smelled it. There was a bitter smell of fresh grass.

 

“Is there a way to change the future and have doctors develop treatments?”

 

Then they could find out what the cure was.

 

[The future continues to move and change. Isn’t the future bound to change depending on what we do now?]

 

“That’s right.”

 

The future that Diane first saw lived until a cure was found and died around the summer. But because she was so enthusiastic about helping with my wedding, her death was hastened. Just by looking at it, she could clearly feel that the future was constantly changing. 

 

While she was thinking about that, she suddenly saw notes piled up on the table. It was the notebook she used to take notes and calculate numbers while organizing her ledgers. The moment she saw that, a solution came to mind.

 

Yes. The problem was money.

 

She took out the ledger she kept on the bookshelf and checked how much money she currently had. Fortunately, she had enough money saved separately, including the money she spent at the imperial palace and the money she received here as pocket money.

 

She rang the bell and called the maid.

 

“As soon as the sun rises tomorrow, please contact the Academy and call the doctor in charge of the Rohan family to the mansion.”

 

* * *

 

The doctor came to the mansion the next morning. It seemed like he came running as soon as he received her request. Well, he couldn’t just sit back and relax when the grand duchess, the princess, called him. Thanks to this, she was able to sit across from the table with the doctor early in the morning.

 

“Are you looking for me, Your Majesty?”

 

“Okay, welcome. In fact, it was no different than asking you to come here.”

 

She looked at the bag of scented candles placed by the window in the reception room. The doctor was also glancing in that direction the entire time he entered the room. The smell of grass was so strong that he couldn’t help but notice it.

 

“I think I found a scented candle that will help with Miss Diane’s illness.”

 

“Scented candles?”

 

The doctor looked at the scented candles by the window with a very surprised expression. She first offered an excuse with a slightly embarrassed look in his eyes.

 

“After listening to you last time, I brought some scented candles and tried them on the princess, but they didn’t have much of an effect.”

 

“Yeah, but you haven’t tried that, have you?”

 

“Yes, actually, this is my first time seeing grass like that. What exactly is that?”

 

She explained where the scented candle was used. Of course, she didn’t mention the shaman and said she got it from the temple.

 

“I heard that every time Miss Diane goes to the temple, she feels better. I was wondering if it was because of this.”

 

“Oh, yes. The Duchess has said something like that before.”

 

The doctor frowned slightly and said. He must have been displeased and worried that the Duke and Duchess would go to the temple to cure their illness. The doctor didn’t seem to have much faith in the sound of a temple this time either. Well, if you were to tell her to experiment by simply going to a temple and feeling better, they wouldn’t listen. So she shamelessly added a lie.

 

“A maid from the North once said something like that. She said that in her country where she lived, she used this scented herb as a treatment for her skin diseases.”

 

Of course she had never heard anything like that. It was a story she made up randomly to explain why she chose this scented candle.

 

“I see. This is the first time I’ve heard this.”

 

Fortunately, the doctor seemed to believe me to some extent.

 

“Because the empire is so large, underdeveloped countryside has its own unique treatment methods. Some of them have little evidence, bordering on superstition, but there are also treatments that are effective in their own way.”

 

Surprisingly, there were some folk remedies that had real medical basis.

 

“Then, use this scented candle to research a cure for Miss Diane’s illness right now.”

 

“All right. I will take it to the lab and test it right away.”

 

The doctor answered confidently, but she didn’t have much faith. Even if she researched this from now on, there was a high possibility that she would not have enough time. There were only a couple of months left until winter ends. She couldn’t sit back and wait for this doctor to finish his research. He needed to find the recipe for the cure right away.

 

“Hey, and this is a story assuming a bad situation…”

 

She trailed off as if she couldn’t even bear to say it.

 

“Even if Diane’s disease cannot be cured, I hope the research continues. Forever and until we develop this cure.”

 

As soon as the doctor heard her, he showed disapproval.

 

“If I could do that, I wouldn’t have anything more to wish for…”

 

“I know, research funds will be a problem.”

 

The doctor expressed his approval with silence. She took out the check that she had left between the notes and pushed it to the doctor.

 

“It’s only a small amount of money, but I’d like it to be used for research expenses. If it’s not enough, I’ll send you more money every year.”

 

The doctor, who blankly took the check, checked the amount written on it and his eyes widened.

 

“Oh, no… This is definitely enough. Thank you so much, Your Highness.”

 

The doctor looked very grateful, but at the same time he seemed confused as to why she was doing this. The princess, who was known to have a bad personality, suddenly gave away a large sum of money to use for research expenses. She even wanted to continue the research even if Diana died. It was definitely a difficult situation to understand.

 

“Actually, Miss Diane was my bridesmaid at my wedding. She’s not feeling well and I feel like her illness got worse while she was helping with the wedding. It breaks my heart.”

 

She put one hand to her mouth and spoke with a sad expression.

 

“I heard that there are many people suffering from such a rare disease. Isn’t this so heartbreaking? I’m doing this because I want to do something helpful as a princess, so don’t worry about it and just focus on your research.”

 

“Well, that’s right. These are truly gracious words.”

 

The doctor still looked skeptical, but he didn’t ask any further questions. There was no need to argue since he would just continue to give her research funds without any conditions in the first place.

 

‘If we do this, even if Miss Diane dies, her research will continue.’

 

In the future she last saw, when Diane died, the research funding was cut off, and eventually the development of a cure was stopped. As of now, they haven’t figured out anything, so if they continued like this, the future would proceed as we predicted at the time. But what if they continued to fund research even after Diana died? So, if they continued research, wouldn’t they develop a cure someday?

 

‘So, make sure to fund research in advance to develop a cure. After supporting , how about taking a peek into the future?’

 

If, in the future, this doctor continued his research and developed a treatment thanks to her fund research… If she looked at the prognosis by specifying ‘the time when the doctor developed the treatment’, she may be able to find out the recipe for that treatment. In other words, she would find out information by changing the future so that the information she wanted comes out.

 

‘I’ve never used foresight like this before, but it might be a good idea to experiment.’

 

If it went well, it could be successful. As long as the foresight comes out the way she wanted. Although she still couldn’t control her precognition as she wanted.

 

‘But it seems like foresight comes easily these days.’

 

No matter how hard she concentrated, there were still many cases where she couldn’t see anything. Still, the last time she saw this doctor, she easily saw the future she wanted. She naturally grabbed his wrist, desperately hoping that it would happen this time too.

 

“Then please take care of me. Please work hard to find a cure for Miss Diane.”

 

At the same time, she focused on thinking about ‘a future in which this doctor develops treatments and explains them’ or ‘a future in which other patients are treated with the treatments that he has developed.’

 

“I understand, Your Highness the Grand Duchess. I will do my best.”

 

The doctor nodded his head confidently, but she was so focused on holding his hand that she couldn’t even hear what he was saying.

 

‘Please, show me something.’

 

Was it because she prayed with an earnest heart? At that moment, it started to slowly get dark before her eyes.

 

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Translator Note: