Episode 104. Beth’s Story (1)

Beth stared at the man before her. A handsome man with neatly arranged black hair.

Daniel Bohan.

‘The male protagonist.’

His face was slightly flushed, and behind his back, he held a single red flower.

From her position, she couldn’t see the flower, but she already knew what it was and the meaning it carried.

This was, after all, the end of Daniel Bohan’s route, a scene she had seen many times before.

In the otome game [Victorian Love], Beth was a character with dazzling golden hair like strands of sunlight, and eyes that sparkled like a lake. Despite her beauty, she was born into a humble status that didn’t match her gorgeous looks.

The people of Count Bohan’s family recognized her gentle and kind heart, and they came to deeply love her.

There were five possible routes.

The Count Bohan route, the second son route, the reverse harem route, the bad ending, and finally, the Daniel route.

Beth’s favorite ending was, of course, the Daniel route.

“Beth, there is no longer an evil woman in the world who will torment you.”

Right after the downfall of Sienna Liata, Daniel would propose to Beth by handing her a single flower, unable to contain his excitement, as they stepped out of the ballroom.

“Be mine, Beth.”

Behind Daniel, a beautiful meteor shower would fall, and under the radiant stars, the two would share a kiss.

It should have been like that…

* * *

“Uh?”

Cold droplets of water splashed onto Beth’s face, causing her to open her eyes.

She had just been about to accept Daniel’s proposal and share a sweet kiss, but the sudden shock jolted her awake.

Even after opening her eyes, Beth couldn’t comprehend the situation and sat there, stunned.

What she saw before her were damp, hard, gray bricks and black iron bars.

‘What is this?’

What should have been the beautiful night of a meteor shower before her eyes was now just bleak darkness.

Another droplet of water fell onto Beth’s face. It was raining outside, and the raindrops were seeping through the ceiling, dripping onto her.

Finally snapping back to reality, Beth bolted upright. She shouted at the guard outside the iron bars.

“Hey! It’s raining! The water is leaking in!”

The guard didn’t respond. Beth grabbed the bars with both hands and shook them with all her might, yelling.

“How can you keep a person locked up in a place like this!?”

“Quiet down!!”

The guard, having reached his limit, shouted back. His harsh tone made Beth shrink back in fear.

“Do you think you’re some noble lady or something? If you were, would we lock a witch like you in here? You should be grateful we’re not putting you somewhere worse!”

“A w-witch? I don’t have any powers. You can see that, can’t you?”

Beth put on a pitiful expression. In this game, she had learned that acting like this often worked, so the pitiful act came naturally to her.

‘Yes, anyone with eyes should be able to see how fragile and pitiful I am.’

The guard flinched slightly at Beth’s demeanor. Feeling her strategy was working, Beth flashed a triumphant smile and subtly made her request.

“It’s so cold… Could you at least give me something to cover myself with?”

Just when it seemed the guard might relent, he abruptly turned away and dismissed her.

“Shut up.”

Damn, I thought I had him. Still, he was the only one she could rely on. Beth spoke again in a softer tone.

“You must see that this is too much. I’ll freeze to death like this. Please, I beg you. It’s so damp that I can’t even sit down properly. Just give me something to cover myself with.”

Whenever she spoke like this with tears welling up in her eyes, everyone had always fallen under her spell and granted her requests.

But this guard was different.

“Shut your mouth, witch.”

In reality, it wasn’t just the guard who was different; everyone had changed. But Beth, lost in her own delusions, couldn’t grasp this fact. Unable to contain her anger, she kicked the iron bars and shouted.

“If I were really a witch, do you think you’d be fine right now?! You’re blind as a bat!”

“You little—!”

The guard roared, looking like he might hit her, and Beth shrank back into the corner once again. Just then, another guard, who had come to check on the commotion, grabbed the first guard and urged him to calm down.

“Shh. Haven’t you heard the warning that this witch can control people’s minds? Don’t even make eye contact with her.”

“But she keeps making noise!”

“Don’t respond to her. You don’t want to end up burned at the stake with her, do you?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Hearing their conversation, Beth suddenly realized the gravity of her situation. The guard wasn’t leaving her alone because he found her beautiful or appealing. He left her alone because he thought she was a witch, and even interacting with her could get him accused of being a witch himself.

The idea of being called a witch made Beth so indignant that tears welled up in her eyes. The guard, noticing her frozen in shock, spat in her direction.

“A witch should be locked up in the northern tower to starve to death like the witch she is.”

The look he gave her was one of complete contempt. Having never experienced such disdain before, Beth was utterly shocked.

‘This can’t be happening.’

Even after the system collapsed, Beth couldn’t grasp the reality of her situation. She clenched her fists tightly.

‘How could I end up like this? I never imagined something like this could happen.’

In this game, there was only one person who was supposed to be scorned: the villainess, Sienna Liata.

But now, she was the one being despised, not the villainess.

Just thinking about the banquet where everyone had stared at her with such contempt made her body tremble. Beth gritted her teeth.

‘If I had known it would come to this, I wouldn’t have turned back time.’

Sienna might not remember, but Beth had already turned back time once to have a second chance at their first meeting—the day Sienna had come to Count Bohan’s mansion and spilled tea on her.

During their first meeting, Sienna had poured hot water on Beth, causing severe burns on her face. For Beth, it was a shocking event that she hadn’t anticipated.

‘Damn, why did she do that?’

After all, this wasn’t something that was supposed to happen in the game.

But because of that, Daniel grew to hate Sienna even more intensely, and it seemed like the story was progressing smoothly toward Daniel’s route, so she let it go…

– A woman with a scarred face can’t become the next Countess of Bohan.

Suddenly, this reasoning was used to push Daniel aside, and Count Bohan claimed her instead. Beth, who loathed the Count Bohan route the most, was naturally horrified.

‘Damn it! This shouldn’t be happening!’

So she turned back time. Knowing that Sienna would pour tea on her, she made sure to bring lukewarm water this time. Thanks to that, she avoided getting burned.

But as a result, that incident ended up being used as one of the pieces of evidence at the banquet to accuse Beth of being a witch—claiming she must have known the future to have brought lukewarm water.

‘I never imagined something like that would come back to haunt me!’

Beth gripped her skirt, furious. No matter how much she regretted it, the situation had already unfolded, and the outcome couldn’t be changed.

“Damn it! Why can’t I turn back time again?! Why is the system broken?! Why!!”

“I told you to be quiet!”

Unable to contain her anger, Beth stomped her feet, prompting the guard to yell at her again. Just then, a voice interrupted.

“What’s going on here?”

“My lord Marquis!”

A man, dressed too neatly to match the grim prison, entered with soldiers following him. Beth’s ears perked up.

‘A marquis?’

What would a marquis be doing in this underground prison?

‘Is he here to save me?’

Beth’s heart raced as she listened closely to the marquis’s voice. Sure enough, the first thing the marquis asked about was Beth.

“Is the witch behaving herself?”

“The witch…”

The guard shot a disdainful look at Beth before answering in a stiff voice.

“She’s causing too much noise, making the other prisoners uneasy. I think we should confine her to the northern tower.”

“Is that so? Take the witch out.”

The marquis immediately ordered, but Beth couldn’t find any joy in his words.

‘Move me to the northern tower?’

What had the guards said about the northern tower earlier?

‘They said it’s where people are left to starve to death.’

They wanted to completely isolate her because even being around others was seen as too dangerous. Beth trembled as she watched the door open. Dragging heavy shackles, she followed the soldier who had received the marquis’s orders.

As she was being led away, one thought kept swirling in her mind.

‘I don’t want to starve to death! That’s a horrible way to die!’

She would have preferred if Percy had killed her quietly. At least that would have been over in an instant.

The soldiers escorting her paused for a moment to remove the shackles from her ankles.

“There’s no way to escape from the northern tower anyway. If we lock her up with those on, it’ll just be a hassle to take them off later.”

The more Beth listened to their conversation, the more terrifying the northern tower seemed.

The soldiers seemed to think she was just a frail woman, so their vigilance was lax. Seeing this, Beth’s eyes lit up.

‘This is my chance. If I don’t escape now, I won’t survive.’

Beth used all her strength to shove the soldiers with both hands. The soldiers, tangled up with each other, fell to the ground. Beth left them behind and bolted out of the palace.

‘I made it out of the palace!’

Her joy was so overwhelming that she didn’t question how strangely easy it had been. Once outside the palace, Beth came to a halt, her expression blank.

‘But where do I go now?’

The scenario was gone. There was no answer.