“Aah.”
Peach-colored cheeks that looked like they might burst at any moment, thin lips that twitched as they searched for words. Brown hair styled into two braids and a headdress made of flower petals, each one bejeweled. A dress with ruffles and ribbons in an adorable design.
And last but not least, lovely blue eyes, which looked like they were made up of large sapphires, with a determined gleam in them, as if she had made up her mind to do something.
This young Lady was <The Villainous Duke Family’s Little Treasure> main character, Vivi Lucienne El Castraine.
The apple of Duke Castraine’s eye, who was well known for being ruthless. A lovely young lady who wouldn’t change even if you offered her a whole gemstone mine.
She was the youngest daughter of a villainous, merciless duke, and was treasured by her three stepbrothers. A girl with a reputation for being bossy, affectionate, and clever beyond her years.
She was not actually the Duke’s biological daughter, but she still had Castraine’s blood in her veins, and she kept many secrets, not the least of which was the truth of her birth.
“Um, I mean, that is.”
The very same girl was blushing in front of me, searching for words. I scanned the table in front of me, unable to figure out what she was trying to say.
Croquembouches, tarts, eclairs, and macarons… Desserts of various kinds and flavors, along with tea, lined the table.
I was nervous about the way she looked at me as she fidgeted with her favorite dessert, opening and closing her fingers and pressing her lips together. I cautiously opened my mouth.
“Uhm, Vivi. Do you have…”
“Please, don’t break up with my brother!”
“…what?”
My teacup slipped slightly from my grasp, loosened with surprise, and a bit of tea spilled out. It was a sunny spring day, and I had just set up a tea table in the beautiful garden after my companion for this tea party insisted on it.
“Ooh, I know my big brother, of course. He’s very blunt, he talks out of turn, he never communicates with anyone, and when he does open his mouth, he doesn’t seem interested in anything but talking about me!”
“…”
I froze, as if someone had cast a freezing spell on me. Then, the cute, adorable girl, who looked like a living, breathing doll to me, started spitting out words that seemed to have been rehearsed.
“But I would hate it if Tia didn’t become my sister-in-law!”
“…”
I was a little dumbfounded and could only stare at the tiny girl, her blue eyes burning at me.
…You’re telling me I can’t break off the engagement now? When all the paperwork was done and all that was left was the public announcement? Something so crucial for both Duke Castraine and my future?
Curious, I glanced over at her escort knight and maid who never left her side wherever she went.
The two were a familiar presence around Vivi. The escort knight was an exiled member of the royal family of a ruined country she had personally rescued from the slave market, while the maid’s youngest sibling’s life was saved by Vivi.
Wasn’t her knight a potential male lead and the maid an assassin?
In any case, if they were this loyal, they would not hesitate to point out the errors in what Vivi had just said, even in front of me, a member of the Imperial Family.
I looked at them with great confidence…
‘…Why don’t you stop her instead of just nodding your heads like that?’
The jet-black-haired boy and the sweet-looking maid next to him, who seemingly seem indifferent but never miss Vivi’s every move, betray my expectations.
Rather than correcting her, they are, as usual, in a state of ‘my lady is right about everything she says’. I gulped.
“Uhm, Vivi…”
“Ooh, and my big brother is handsome.”
“Oh, that’s true.”
Without even thinking, the truth came out of my mouth. As soon as she heard my words, Vivi’s eyes sparkled.
“And, he has a lot of money!”
“Uh huh, yeah…”
I agreed with a faltering voice.
In <The Villainous Duke Family’s Little Treasure> the Imperial family was just a figurehead. The Ducal Family was the guardian of the Northern Border that protected the Empire, and they were in charge of its defense against the threats of monsters. They were the ones who held the real power and a legacy that made the Imperial Family feel insignificant beside them.
The Duke was also in charge of sales of monster cores and mana stones, making him extremely wealthy. The Imperial Family was merely a backdrop to emphasize the Ducal Family’s position as ‘the number one in the empire that even the imperial family could not treat lightly’.
Believing only in their Imperial status, they were also a plot device to give the Duke their share of hardships by having a few imperial family members, who were full of inferiority complexes, as antagonists.
And I was one of those antagonists.
The current Imperial Family had a total of three children.
The eldest son was born to the First Queen, who was from a Marquess family. The second son was born from the current Empress. And me, the daughter born from the Second Queen, who was from a Count family.
As a means of keeping the Duke of Castraine under control, the Emperor betrothed me to a Young Lord of Castraine as soon as I was born.
Naturally, the Duke of Castraine’s side had been eager to break this one-sided engagement at the first opportunity.
The only current Imperial Princess, a title that sounds good on paper… But was, in reality, a shiny poisoned apple.
My mother was the second daughter of Count Bradley. Elaine Austin von Bradley had been renowned in social circles for her beauty since her youth. So much so that even the Emperor, known for his lecherous ways, took an interest.
So Count Bradley blackmailed my mother, who already had a lover, into going to the Emperor. She entered the Imperial Household for her lover’s safety, and after listening to the Emperor’s orders, she had me.
But her lover had already been secretly disposed of by her father.
When my mother found out later, she was so shocked that she gave birth to me prematurely. As a result, I was so frail as a child that I was told I could die at any time. After the age of ten, I became reasonably healthy, but my mother had no interest in me at all. The Emperor, too, turned his attention away from my mother and focused on the First Queen.
In the midst of it all, I almost died. Before I became aware of my past life, I…
I shook my head, struggling to swallow the sigh that threatened to escape.
‘I was… pathetic, pitiful, immature, and selfish.’
I still sighed when I thought about it.
A young princess who grew up neglected and unloved by her parents. Her only redeeming qualities were her beautiful platinum hair, which resembled her mother’s, and her striking green eyes. She had the appearance of a fantasy princess, raised in the imperial court, as long as she kept her mouth shut.
An unloved and uneducated child, she fell in love at first sight with her fiancé, who was handsome, capable, and from a great family that even the imperial court could not ignore. The prideful princess, who had grown up in the Imperial court and had no real grasp of reality, did all sorts of things from then on.
She followed him around, threatened him not to speak to anyone who wasn’t a member of his family and behaved like a petulant child. Then, when she couldn’t get his attention, she insulted the Duke of Castraine at every turn because her pride was hurt.
But a child’s petulance wouldn’t be enough to break the marital union between the Imperial Family and House Castraine.
Let’s see, in the original…
As Vivi begins to distinguish herself in many ways, the Emperor sets his sights on her as well.
Furthermore, the First Queen, who was desperate to place the First Prince on the throne, tried many tricks to get Vivi to be her son’s fiancée. One of them was the attempt to break up the union between Princess Titania and Duke Castraine’s heir.
Even as a princess, she was not a powerful woman after all. Even her mother, the Second Queen, had died of an illness at that point and her relationship with her fiancé, Raymon, was at its lowest point due to all the misdeeds she had committed.
It was easy enough for the First Queen to provoke her by spreading rumors that the imperial family was going to break off her engagement and push for a marriage between Vivi and the prince.
‘…So I got really stupid and tried to poison Vivi.’
No tricks, no nothing, she just ignorantly invited her to tea and served her a poisoned drink.
Needless to say, it failed.
The Emperor then threw her to the enraged Duke to deal with as he pleased.
-I did it because I love you!
And there Titania clung to Rayman’s feet and begged uglily.
-I love you, I love you. I really love you… God, God, you always look at me, like, like I’m such trash!
She threw away the pride of a princess and hung on but, of course…
-You know why I’ve been looking at you like trash all this time.
She only received a cold, bitter scorn in return.
-I can only be glad that you’re finally realizing it.
Looking into those cold, withered eyes, Titania despaired in her heart.
Knowing of such a frightening future…
I stared anxiously at the heroine, who pointed her cute little finger at me, trying to convince me to stay.
“And my big brother, he’s the second most important person in the world, after my dad!”
Cute and lovely heroine, first of all, this is the Imperial Palace…
Please don’t be so proud to say that the Duke of Castraine is the most important man in the world in a place where an Emperor with an inferiority complex lives…
Although I agreed that the Duke of Castraine did have more power than the Emperor.
“So no matter what happens, I can save Sister Tia!”
That would have been nice if I wasn’t planning to run away…
A wry smile twisted my lips. But I guess I left a good impression of myself so far. I mean, that was a nice thing to hear from the original heroine.
“Vivi.”
“Yes, Tia!”
“First of all, thank you so much for being so good to me.”
“Hehe.”
“But no.”
“Uh, wha, why…?”
In an instant, her big, blue eyes widened as if she was about to cry. Ugh, I almost clutched my chest. But I kept my outward demeanor stoic, locked eyes with Vivi, and spoke softly.
“Vivi is dear to the Duke of Castraine, isn’t she?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“…It’ll be no good to have the Imperial Family and the Duke of Castraine entangled.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Sweet Vivi.”
I laughed, not a fake laugh, but a genuine one. Quietly, I reached out and stroked Vivi’s brown hair.
“You are worried about how I’ll be treated after we break up, aren’t you?”
“…”
Vivi fell silent.
