How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

She stood there in a daze and listened to the judge’s explanation. The circumstances of the case were simple. Michael gave the Grand Duchess a gift at the Duke’s dinner. However, a small bomb was hidden inside. The Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess were seriously injured in an explosion while returning to their residence.

 

‘The accident that I saw with foresight…’

 

The image of Terence and she lying on the frozen river clearly came to mind. After hearing that explanation, she understood what happened. At the end of the dinner, Mikhail would give her a gift and she would take it and get into the carriage. And while returning to the mansion, an explosion occurred. What’s strange was that if the bomb had exploded inside the carriage, they would both have died instantly, but from what she saw, Terence and she only fell under the bridge and seemed to be more healthy than expected.

 

‘Did it fall under the bridge before it exploded?’

 

She thought they may have noticed that an explosive had been set off in the middle of the attack and hurriedly got out. 

 

The judge asked Mikhail if he had any rebuttal. But Mikhail bowed his head in silence.

 

“Do you admit that you planned the crime under orders from Princess Sorel?”

 

Only after that question was asked did Mikhail raise his head with difficulty.

 

“That… no. This is just me alone…”

 

In response to Mikhail’s listless response, the judge took out a small wad of paper.

 

“Here is a letter you exchanged with the princess a long time ago.”

 

She realized what it was. In the original work, it was a letter secretly exchanged between Sorel and Mikhail through a stone wall. When she first met Mikhail, she mentioned it as a business deal.

 

‘How did you find that?’

 

When the topic of the letter came up, looks filled with curiosity and suspicion fell on Mikhail. Most of them were full of curiosity as well as suspicion. People sitting in the audience began to whisper.

 

“You mean that Princess Sorel had a bad relationship with her archduchess?”

 

“I heard that the reason the princess was kicked out of the villa was because she had a fight with the Grand Duchess.”

 

“I heard she didn’t argue, but tried to harm the princess. Wasn’t this meant to frame the Grand Duchess?”

 

“Then the princess is with that young knight…”

 

“They said Princess Sorel was a kind and holy person, but I guess it was all a lie.”

 

She was a princess who committed a crime and was imprisoned in her villa. In fact, she had been close to a commoner knight for a long time. Through the knight, the princess intended to harm her half-sister, with whom she had a bad relationship. It was just a provocative story that people would like. This seemed more like entertainment for the people of the empire than a trial. There were different voices whispering, but most were convinced that Sorel and Mikhail were the culprits. The Duchess, who was sitting in the VIP section, also quietly whispered to Diane.

 

“I can’t believe he did that.”

 

“Was it really a romantic relationship with Princess Sorel?”

 

Diane asked, looking at Michael with her questioning eyes.

 

“Well.”

 

On the other hand, the Duchess looked a little skeptical. She seemed disillusioned with people who focused on Sorel and Mikhail’s relationship.

 

“Anyway, because of this incident, Princess Sorel will never regain her former reputation. This incident became known to everyone, and she brought shame to the imperial family.”

 

When she heard that, the world turned black again.

 

* * *

 

After the preview, she spoke with Diane again to decide what to make of her dress. Diane was so focused on the dress that she didn’t notice that she looked away for a moment while she looked at the vision.

 

On her way back from the Duke’s house to the Grand Duke’s residence, she took a different route than usual. It was because she wanted to see the bridge in question that she heard about at Mikhail’s trial. There were many tributaries of rivers flowing through the islands and numerous bridges. This was a small bridge in a high-class mansion. When she saw it during the day, it looked smaller than when she saw it with her eyesight. When visiting the Duke’s residence during the day, do not pass through this bridge. There were a lot of people passing by here during the day, so whenever she went to the Duke’s mansion, she always took a different route that went a little further. But the duke’s dinner would end late at night. At that time, it would pass this way.

 

“It’s okay. Now let’s go to our mansion.”

 

As she rode the carriage to the mansion, she summarized the contents of the prediction she had seen earlier. There was a bomb in Mikhail’s gift. It must have been given by the emperor. It is unlikely that Sorel, trapped in her own palace, would be able to obtain the bomb and send it to her. Sorel would need Mikhail’s help to get gunpowder right now. No matter how much Sorel asked, there was no way Mikhail would get a bomb to harm Eve So the emperor must have sent her a gift in Sorel’s name. The reason he relayed this to Mikhail, saying it was from Sorel, was probably with the intention of putting the blame on Mikhail and Sorel whether the job succeeded or failed.

 

‘Mikhail said he did it alone, but he must have been forced to confess under duress or torture.’

 

During the trial, letters secretly exchanged between Sorel and Mikhail were revealed. That would mean that the emperor was already aware of their relationship. Maybe he took Sorel hostage and threatened Mikhail. With that in mind, she went to see Terence as soon as she entered the mansion. He was working in the study, and as soon as he saw her, he was surprised and asked.

 

“Is there a problem?”

 

Her expression must have looked quite serious.

 

“I saw a prediction about an accident. however…”

 

She hesitated for a moment and then continued.

 

“The culprit was Mikhail.”

 

The moment Terence heard that name, he looked at her in horror.

 

“What exactly was the prognosis?”

 

She explained to him what she had seen. Terence had a bewildered expression when Michael’s name first came up, but he calmed down as the explanation continued.

 

“It’s a little strange.”

 

After listening to her story, he sat down on the back of his chair with a thoughtful expression for a moment.

 

“It feels a little strange that the emperor would plan things in such a hurry, even at the expense of the imperial family’s reputation.”

 

“It’s definitely a little weird.”

 

Was there any reason for the emperor to go to such lengths and try to kill them? The imperial family’s reputation has been lost due to the Empress’s affairs and Sorel’s incident, but now they were targeting her and Terence by exposing the relationship between Sorel and Mikhail?

 

‘Could it be that you noticed something?’

 

If the emperor found out that she had regained her precognitive abilities, he would want to kill her immediately. She wondered if it would be a good idea to make a reasonable excuse and not attend the dinner party. If the emperor was suspicious of something, he had better act as normally as possible. Now that they knew that Mikhail’s gift was the cause, they just needed to avoid it. As naturally as possible.

 

While she was thinking about that, Bayan, who had been quietly listening, suddenly came next to her. Bayan put his nose to her arm and sniffed it as if examining something.

 

“Bayan, what’s wrong?”

 

[Weird.]

 

Bayan said while sitting on the table and looking at her.

 

[These days, it feels like the saint’s body has some increased holy power.]

 

“Can my sacred power increase?”

 

[Of course, such cases are rare. Because holy power is something you were born with.]

 

“Then what? Why did it increase?”

 

[I felt that way ever since we went into the underground storage room and came out. It was such a slight change that I thought it was my mistake.]

 

Bayan touched his chin and pondered for a moment, then raised his head.

 

[Can you feel the amount of holy power you have now compared to when you were young? …Probably not. Sorry. I forgot that the saint could not feel her holy power at all.]

 

Of course, she still had no idea where her sacred power was, so she had nothing to say.

 

“I’ve been seeing a lot of premonitions these days.”

 

The same went for the accident on the day of the dinner. She only caught Diane today, but Mikhail’s trial also came out.

 

“Does it have anything to do with that diary?”

 

The princess’s diary. It was left behind by a princess who lived in this country a long time ago.

 

“Bayan, you said you could feel divine power in your diary. It must have contained the princess’s sacred power, right? Was she influenced by that?”

 

[Maybe so.]

 

Suddenly, she remembered that Princess Enclid, the owner of the diary, had the ability to grow. Although her book states that she simply had the ability to grow plants. Could it be that the power she contained before she died also affected Eve?

 

Bayan lay on his stomach on the table and muttered in vain.

 

[It certainly seems like a lot happened while I was asleep. It seems like sacred power and magic have changed in many ways.]

 

He spoke in the tone of a hundred-year-old man who has lived the whole world. Actually, Bayan was actually hundreds of years old.

 

“But I wouldn’t have found out anything without your help. Thank you always.”

 

If Bayan hadn’t told her, she would have already fallen victim to the Emperor and Sorel’s scheme during her wedding. Bayan lifted his little face and looked at her and said:

 

[The saint is the first contract I have seen in hundreds of years. I hope she lives a long life without dying.]

 

“Thank you.”

 

Anyway, she was thankful that there was someone who wanted her to live a long life in this world. She raised her hand and gently stroked Bayan’s head.

 

“Bayan, if I could give you a lot of holy power. Can you attack someone?”

 

[Of course it is possible.]

 

Bayan nodded his head and then placed one condition.

 

[I may not be able to attack strong enough to kill the opponent. With your holy power as a saint… Even if you give away all of your meager sacred power… That is impossible.]

 

“…Right.”

 

This meant that it was virtually impossible since she could not give him all of her holy power.

 

[But if you need to get rid of someone, I can help you.]

 

It seemed like he’s turning into a shadow and spying or stealing something like before. She nodded and muttered.

 

“If possible, I want to kill the emperor.”

 

The emperor had been trying to kill her from the beginning. The events of the banquet day, as well as what happened at the wedding, would not have happened without the emperor. At this point, she would rather kill the emperor first. Even if there was no emperor, 90% of all risks would disappear. Terence, who was only listening to our conversation, or more precisely, to what she was saying, quietly intervened.

 

“If possible, how about Shinsoo become a shadow and poison the emperor’s cup?”

 

Although it was difficult to succeed, it wasn’t a bad idea.

 

“If you want to do it carefully so as not to raise suspicion, you have to give a lot of holy power.”

 

“If we don’t want to be suspected, we need to create suitable suspects in advance.”

 

Both were difficult.

 

“But I have to hide in the emperor’s room and secretly take the poison when no one is looking. First of all, it’s difficult to do with Bayan’s cat.”

 

Terence and she looked at Bayan’s front paws on the table. Bayan looked just like a cat and moved like a cat. Bayan’s hand… No, it meant that the front paws were identical to those of a cat. Because it was a divine beast, it moved its hands more freely than a real cat, but delicate actions such as opening a glass bottle and pouring poison into a glass were difficult. Bayan also lifted his front paw and looked at it, then spoke listlessly.

 

[Unless you have to open the lid… It might be possible if you make it in pill form…]

 

“Then you have to put the poisoned pill in your mouth.”

 

Since it’s a divine beast, he wouldn’t die immediately from the poison, but if you put the pill in food, it will take some time for it to dissolve. When the emperor eats, he always uses silverware that is detectable for poison, and servants stand by and watch until the meal is finished. There’s no way the servants would just sit by and watch while Bayan appears from the shadows and injects poison. It even takes time for the pill to dissolve. It would be difficult to avoid the eyes of the emperor sitting at the table in the first place.

 

Bayan thought for a moment and then spoke again.

 

[If you give me more Holy Power, I can move objects. If I have strong spiritual power, I can even bring objects from far away.]

 

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