How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

The familiar darkness came, and as if opening a curtain, her vision became bright again. Last time, it was a small laboratory with a bookcase, but this time it was a large room filled with all kinds of medicine bottles. The wall and the shelves in front of it were filled with bottles filled with potions, empty medicine bottles, and transparent boxes containing dried herbs and strange ingredients. Was it like a laboratory?

 

The doctor and the young man who had appeared in the previous forecast were standing together at the desk by the window. The young man had a lot of grass on his desk and was trimming it with his hands. What he was trimming was the ancestral rite candle that she had been looking for.

 

“I’m glad the treatment is simple.”

 

“That’s right. It’s so simple that I couldn’t have imagined it.”

 

The doctor who was looking at the note smiled lowly and answered. As she listened to their conversation, she understood what they were doing.

 

‘You’re making a cure right now.’

 

Until a little while ago, it focused on showing scenes of a doctor making a medicine or treating a patient with it. It seemed that the foresight came as requested. There was a large brazier in the center of the room, and a cauldron hung above it. She guessed they’re boiling medicine over there. She quickly walked over to the pot and looked inside.

 

She thought they were making a cure, but contrary to expectations, the pot contained only clear plain water. Was he still preparing? Instead, she observed the clothing of the two people. Both the doctor and the young man were wearing thin clothes.

 

Winter was long gone and it seemed to be late spring or summer.

 

“There was no need to research it in the first place.”

 

The doctor laughed as if all the effort he had put in was ridiculous.

 

“She said that when the princess went to the temple, she felt better. She should have heard that and thought.”

 

The doctor spoke indifferently, but there was a hint of guilt in his voice that he could not shake off. Was Diane still dead in this future?

 

The young man responded as if trying to change the subject.

 

“I know, right. Ah, it looks like the water is boiling.”

 

The water in the pot was bubbling. A young man who was trimming scented candles lined up the roughly cut scented candles on a cutting board and began to crush them one by one. Then he put the crushed candles into the boiling water. When he put the scented candle in the hot water, the smell of the bitter grass mixed with the moisture and became even stronger.

 

‘After you crush it, you put it in water and boil it.’

 

She concentrated his mind to watch the process of making a cure with scented candles without missing a single detail. There was a lot of cut scented candles in the boiling water. White steam mixed with the smell of scented candles rose like smoke from inside the pot. At that time, the door behind her opened again and an old woman dressed in white came inside.

 

“Please come this way.”

 

The old woman approached the pot in a familiar manner. Was she a patient? The old woman was wearing a white gown that reached down to her wrists, and there were no red spots visible on her exposed skin. A young man came to the old woman carrying a thick cloth. The old woman lifted her gown and exposed her arms. Her arms were clean, with only a faint reddish spot on the inside of his wrist.

 

‘The patient is right. But she has much less symptoms than Diane.’

 

The old woman stretched her wrist over the pot without hesitation. She flinched in surprise the moment the woman held out her arm, but the young man was not at all embarrassed and wrapped a thick cloth around the pot. Because the cloth was wrapped around the pot, the steam rising from the pot gathered like smoke on the wife’s wrist.

 

“Isn’t it too hot?”

 

“No, I’m okay.”

 

The old woman looked at the steam gathering near his wrist with a relaxed expression. The doctor near the desk approached the woman and thanked her.

 

“I think I need just a few more days of treatment and everything will be better. Thank you for your cooperation.”

 

“No. I was cured of a long-standing illness thanks to this treatment.”

 

The old lady smiled with the carefree expression on her face. She looked at them blankly. At that time, her vision went dark again along with a familiar sensation.

 

* * *

 

As soon as my vision cleared, she muttered absently.

 

‘I just saw a scene where the disease was treated.’

 

She thought they made it into a medicine by adding some other herb to the scented candle. The doctor was using an unexpected method. A very simple yet unusual method.

 

“It’s fumigation therapy.”

 

“…yes?”

 

The doctor who was sitting across from me suddenly gave me a puzzled look as if asking what she was talking about.

 

‘Okay. I have heard that there is such a treatment in the world where I live.’

 

It was a treatment method in which the steam released when boiling herbs is applied to the affected area or inhaled directly through the nose. It was used to treat wounds and inflammation with herbal ingredients that seeped into the steam. She heard that fumigation was used in that way even in ancient and medieval times.

 

“I suddenly remembered that it was the maid who told me about this scented candle. This should be used as a fumigation treatment.”

 

She quickly made up an explanation in front of the embarrassed doctor.

 

“They told me to crush the scented candle, boil it in water, and apply the steam directly to the inflamed skin. They say that then the skin disease will disappear.”

 

“Oh I see.”

 

The doctor nodded, looking at the scented candle in his pocket.

 

“Then I understand that the princess’s symptoms improved slightly when she went to the temple. The incense used in temples is made by crushing and clumping scented candles.”

 

When she thought about it, it was such a simple thing, but she couldn’t find it until now.

 

“If it’s okay, can we test the effect right now? I heard that there is another patient suffering from a similar illness to Miss Diane.”

 

The doctor seemed surprised to see that she knew such things.

 

“That’s right. There are patients who are cooperating with the study. I will discuss this with the patient and try this method.”

 

The doctor loaded all the scented candles I had saved into the carriage and returned to the academy. It will take a day or two to finish testing with other patients. She really wanted to try it on Diane right away, but the Duke and Duchess would have faith only if she told them that she tried it on another patient and it worked. After sending the doctor away, she thought about what happened a little while ago. In this way, she could change the future and get only the information she wanted. It was a new experience.

 

Anyway, she felt much lighter now that she had found a way to cure Diane’s illness.

 

“I don’t think I need these books anymore.”

 

She organized the books she brought into the boudoir. So she headed to the library to put everything back in place. She could have asked the maid, but since there was nothing else to do, she thought she would go to the library and see if there was anything worth reading. As she was putting the books she had taken out one by one back to their original places, a thick book suddenly caught my eye in a corner of the bookshelf.

 

<History of the Saints of Albion.>

 

For some reason, only that book looked clean and completely free of dust. Who took it out? She was just passing by without thinking, but then she got curious and took out the book. As expected, it was a book about a saint in imperial history. From the founding of the empire, the emperor’s daughters were all born with holy powers. The book contained detailed personal information about the princesses and their abilities. It seemed like all the princesses were there except Sorel and herself. In the past, princesses had strong holy power, but somehow it feels like it was getting weaker with each successive generation.

 

As she looked at it, a question suddenly arose.

 

Sweet.

 

At that time, she heard the door opening behind her. Then a familiar voice was heard. It was Terence.

 

“Are you here today too?”

 

“Yes, I’m going to organize the books I put in the boudoir.”

 

It seemed like they would see each other in two days. Terence returned to the mansion late yesterday due to work at the imperial palace, but left again at dawn. It seemed like things were going quite busy at the imperial palace.

 

She glanced at Terence. There was no sign of displeasure on his neat face. He seemed happy to meet her. She guessed he was so busy that he hadn’t heard about Lot and her meeting Mikhail yet.

 

‘You can tell me later.’

 

It’s not really that important. They met alone two days after asking him out, and she didn’t want to ruin the mood from the start. She closed the book and changed the topic.

 

“Right. I found the cure for Miss Diane.”

 

“Is that true? Good.”

 

She told him how she did it. Terence was astonished after hearing her explanation.

 

“That way, you can choose the future you want.”

 

She definitely realized that through this incident, she could change the future and get only the information she wanted. If she could use her foresight freely, she would be able to continuously observe the changing future and create the future as she wanted.

 

Since she couldn’t control her precognitive abilities, it was still a long way off. Still, it seemed like foresight came out easily these days.

 

“I’m so glad we were able to cure Diane’s illness.”

 

“Yes, treatment hasn’t started yet, but it’s been a while.”

 

She tried to put the book she was reading back in its place.

 

“What were you reading?”

 

“A book about imperial princesses.”

 

She showed him the title written on the cover of the book.

 

“Oh, it’s that book.”

 

“Have you read it?”

 

“I looked at it some time ago and found information about the princess’s precognitive abilities.”

 

That was probably right after she revealed her precognitive abilities to him.

 

“I’ve been curious about this for a long time.”

 

As she put the book back on the shelf, she brought up the question she had in her mind.

 

“Only the princesses have holy powers, so why do the princes continue to become emperors?”

 

Of course, this world was so patriarchal that it was reminiscent of the actual Middle Ages, so it may not have been thought from the beginning that the princess would become emperor. By the time the empire was created, women’s status would have been lower than it was now. It was highly likely that the princess was not even considered as a candidate for emperor at all. Still, among the princesses with such strong holy power, it is reasonable for one or two of them to have ambitions for the throne. The princess could use her own sacred power to claim the throne, rally her supporters and start a rebellion, or, even more extreme, try to assassinate the other princes. However, if you look at this book, she was the only princess who attempted such a thing. At that time, a calm voice next to her gave a shocking answer.

 

“Because I killed him.”

 

“…yes?”

 

She looked back at him blankly. What happened? Terence answered indifferently, looking through the bookshelf.

 

“In the early days of the empire, there were rumors that disobedient princesses were secretly assassinated by the emperor.”

 

“Well, what? Is that true?”

 

“I don’t know if it’s true, but there are rumors like that.”

 

Of course, she also thought that might be the case.

 

“But if she coveted the throne so much, her holy power must have been strong. How did he assassinate a princess with strong abilities?”

 

It’s not easy to kill just by looking at it. Her foresight was poor, but thanks to her foresight, she was always able to recognize and escape a crisis. If it had healing powers like Sorel, it would be easy to kill. Actually, most of the holy powers that the princesses had were things like healing power, the ability to fix broken things, and the ability to control the other person’s mood or the weather. Should they say that it was an ability worthy of the name ‘sacred power’? Even though it was highly useful, it was not an ability that was greatly helpful to one’s survival. A princess with proper precognitive abilities was quite rare, and a princess born with attack-type abilities was even rarer. So, because it was her family, did they take advantage of the moment when their guard was relaxed and kill them?

 

“Well.”

 

Terence also looked uncertain.

 

“Actually, this is like a ghost story passed down from an old noble family, so I don’t know how much of it is true.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“It’s possible that it’s just a rumor. If you look at history, no princess has been assassinated. There are very few princesses who have died in accidents or died mysteriously.”

 

That was it. Just looking at this book, there were several princesses who got sick and died at a young age, but there were no princesses who were murdered or died mysteriously. If she had died on her wedding day as in the original, she would have been the first princess in history to be assassinated. Then it could just be an unfounded rumor targeting the imperial family.

 

‘Whether it’s a rumor or the truth, it’s an unpleasant family.’

 

As she put the book away and turned around, Terence suddenly held out his hand to her. What was this? As she was looking, she heard Terence’s calm voice.

 

“I never tried it yesterday, so wouldn’t it be a good idea to try it now?”

 

Oh right. She decided to look at the forecast every day. Because she had to look at her future.

 

“Well, I don’t know.”

 

She had already seen a vision once today, so she was not sure if she would see it again.

 

“Then once…”

 

She didn’t know why she felt so embarrassed when all he did was hold her hand. Now that they had officially decided to date, this was nothing. Actually, they already did more than this on the first night.

 

When she remembered that day, her cheeks got hot without her realizing it.

 

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Translator Note: