The Villainess makes a splendid debut

 

The Villainess makes a splendid debut

Prologue

 

—The Last Princess of King Inuas, Her Engagement Got Called Off!

 

Erdella’s face contorted once she saw the headline of the newsletter. When glancing at the clock, she was convinced the rumor must have reached every corner of the capital. Princess’ honor was at stake.

“Where the hell did the crap come from?” she murmured. “Royal engagement got called off… How could it be possible?”

The princess’s grumbles began in a quiet and low tone, but they soon became a roar, hissing from her tiny lips.

“Natan, where’re you? Get me the damn writer right now.”

“It’s just a piece of gossip in a trivial newsletter. It’s not even a formal newspaper. So, princess, please calm down.”

“Don’t you see that, Natan? That petty newsletter is ruining my face altogether. So, I want you to drag the bastard at my feet right now. If he can’t be fetched, get me, at last, the paperboy who circulated it. If I put the screws on him, he might tell me of the name of the writer I am looking for,” said Erdella in a fury.

Who dare say my engagement got called off!

She reread the article and was bombarded with the same sensation, dumbfounded!

This year, Erdella turned nineteen. She would have a coming-of-age celebration and have to marry a pre-chosen fiancé when she became twenty. It was the tradition that had long passed down to the direct descendants of King Inuas. Of course, Erdella had her prearranged fiancé since she was the daughter of the deceased King Inuas. The lucky guy was Joshua Tanen in the Royal First Knights.

Gritting her teeth, Erdella recalled her fiancé with short silver hair, which reminded her of an innocent boy and his deep green eyes as if a whole forest had been transplanted in them.

“Who dares to disdain me, the princess of King Inuas, like this?” she fumed out in extreme anger.

Having long been a secretary and servant for her, Natan thought that tea would be helpful to calm down his master. So he brewed tea and bent his steps to the table with extreme caution not to touch her raw nerve. 

The princess turned to him when he finally set the well-brewed tea down on the table. 

“Princess.”

“Natan.”

It was simultaneous.

“Would you please speak first?”

“Catch the rumor-monger. There’s something that baster has to correct.”

“I will.”

“By the way, what were you about to say?”

“I’ve just received a letter from Sir Joshua.”

No sooner had the servant finished pouring the tea than he took out the letter from the inside pocket and handed it—it was well tied with a green ribbon—to the princess with his two strong hands. Erdella’s eyes started to change expressively when she took it. 

“Well, he always uses a green ribbon for a letter. Damn it! It is the same filthy color as his eyes,” the princess murmured in discontent, fiddling with the ribbon. Natan cleared his throat, pretending he had not heard any nasty words from his master.

He had to be quiet until the princess finished what she wanted to say. Then she finished.

“Would you like to send him a reply, princess?”

“No. Let’s pretend we haven’t received it.”

“Pretend not? What do you mean, princess?”

“I mean, we have to pretend that his letter was lost in the middle, so it has never reached us. Or whatever excuse you could think of, it should be. I’ve never seen it,” Erdella said, crossing the room.

Natan tilted his head while looking at her back.

“Princess, every addresser and addressee are recorded without mistake and exception the moment when a correspondence passes through the gate of the royal palace. I don’t know what you are up to, but the pretended ignorance is too lame.”

“Lame?”

“Yes. Unless we can come up with a more plausible excuse...”

“Then here is a deal, Natan. You lost it in the middle. When you dropped it by mistake, unfortunately, very unfortunately, a strong wind blew it far away.”

“What?”

The servant was at a loss. But Erdella gave no further attention to him and threw the unopened letter into the fireplace’s flames, followed by Natan’s scream.

“Oh, no! You should still have checked what it was about!”

“No need! It must be the notice of disengagement.”

“What?”

Erdella looked bothered with her secretary repeating ‘what’ like a deaf.

The princess rested her eyes on the burning ribbon leisurely but not long. Shortly, she swiveled around to her servant and ordered.

“Don’t make me tell you twice. I never got the letter from Joshua.”

Given that she had never wanted to receive the notice, the action she had just taken turned out discreet and intelligent. 

If Joshua really wanted to break up their engagement, he would have no other choice but to write her letter again or come see Erdella in person.

Erdella scanned her servants as if she had been very curious about how he could always keep his attire perfectly neat. Then she tapped him on the shoulder.

“The fate of this plan depends on how good you are at lying, Natan. You don’t want me to be a woman whose heart is broken by disengagement, do you?”

Having been only blinking eyes in the dumbfounding situation, Natan gathered himself and nodded his head as a sign he eventually understood what she meant.

The secretary didn’t need to ask her how she had known what the unread letter was about. And such was not even allowed because she was the princess of King Inuas.

“Get the carriage ready. I think I have to go see Joshua myself.”

“I will.”

“And what I said earlier … the rumor-monger….”

“Of course, you will meet him as soon as you come back from meeting Sir Joshua.”

“Good!”

It was not until then that Erdella picked up the tea and appreciated its deep flavor with a contented smile.

Even though the tea cooled down, it tasted not so bad because she envisioned what would happen after a while.

Erdella planned to change everything because she didn’t want to repeat her terrible former life. Her resolution was manifested as she bit her lips.

She wouldn’t let it happen again that Joshua had had a change of heart and broke off the engagement one-sided, that she had watched her princess title usurped and eventually the kingdom perished, and that she had died at twenty-seven, young and beautiful, in the cold palace. 

Purposeful, Erdella sprang to her feet. She’s going to find Joshua and notify him that she first would break off the engagement. 

She would instead choose to be a progressive woman who ditches an unfaithful fiancé than become a victim who is notified of disengagement one-sidedly. 

 

3 years had passed since her reincarnation in this world, and finally, the time came that she had waited for a long time in bloody tears.

 

Chapter 1

As the carriage passed the streets of the capital, they were swarmed with the throng of people. They came out to see the celebrity. 

 

The only live royal blood of King Inuas. 

One that would succeed the throne. 

 

These were the tags to Erdella following wherever she went. Her father, King Inuas, passed away when she was very young, and her cousin Chantia Kristian had since taken care of the state affairs. 

The mandate would end soon when Erdella became an adult and married.

As she was 19 now, she would marry next year at twenty and ascend the throne if everything would go smoothly as planned. So, about a year lay to her glorious future. 

It wasn’t a wonder at all why the people poured out and flooded the streets to see her in the carriage who would become a ruling queen sooner or later.

Erdella opened the curtains that covered the windows of the carriage.

“There she is!”

“Princess Erdella!”

Just her gloves with white laces, which were barely seen between the windows, were powerful enough to stir out admirations and cheers from the people around the carriage. In response, the Princess, in a faint smile, waved her hands to them for a while. 

Her carriage came to a halt when it passed the square and turned the corners twice. She was at the huge mansion where Duke Chantia Kristian lived.

He lived there, near but not in the palace because he, though born a royal member, was not in the direct line of the royal blood.

Natan looked puzzled in the carriage.

“Did you say you were going to see Sr Joshua, Princess, didn’t you? But you are at the mansion of Duke Chantia, not Count Tanen. Do you know that?”

“Soon, you’ll see why.”

Giving no clear explanation, Erdella alighted from the carriage lightly. Her sudden appearance startled the guards keeping the front gate of the mansion. They instinctively knelt down to show her their respect. But their eyes were still full of astonishment.

“I will inform the duke of your presence immediately.”

“That’s good news. But you have to do it so raucously that even mice sprang out the holes.”

As ordered, the guards hurriedly disappeared, and the Princess moved her steps behind them. Her movements were rather quick, but every one of them was engrained with the dignity of royalty.

At the royal Princess’ sudden visit, a butler rushed out almost barefoot with a head maid at his heel. Now, when Erdella walked into the main entrance and through the house’s garden, more and more people scurried behind her.

“Princess, will you grant us an honor to serve you a cup of tea inside?” the butler said. And he retraced his steps into the wide-open gate through which well-decorated interiors of the duke’s mansion met the royal visitor. 

But Erdella wouldn’t move at all, which made the butler puzzled because he had thought she would have been following him behind. 

“Princess?”

“Quiet. I am thinking now.”

He withdrew, seeming hurt at her cold and harsh manner of speaking. Natan consoled him with eyes that indicated he could understand how the butler must have felt because it was his first time to meet the Princess. 

“It’s certain that a guilty man always prefers a back alley to an open road,” Erdella murmured to herself as she finished pondering.

Then she steered her way into the path to the left of the mansion.

‘Thud!’

“Ouch. Oh, it hurts deadly.”

When she took the six steps into the sideway, she heard someone drop down from nowhere, probably from the sky. She gave an icy stare to the fallen creature and opened her mouth.

“That can’t even hurt your fingers. So, don’t be stupid.” 

It was a malicious remark.

“Oh… Erdella?”

The fallen man had short silver hair and such deep green eyes that no woman could resist them. Erdella cried very loudly on purpose as she was watching him.

“First, get dressed properly, Joshua.”

It was a very suspicious situation. How could it be explained? That Joshua Tanen —the Princess’ fiancée, a knight of the Royal Knights, and the eldest son of Count Tanen— fell from the sky in broad daylight! More suspicious was he landed on someone else’s property. 

Next question: had he been about to dress or undress? The maids, in doubt, started answering one another in a whisper. 

“What happened to you? You suddenly fell from the sky! Did God give you an angel’s wings or something? Or did you jump out of a room to escape, doing something fishy upstairs, when you heard someone saying I came?”

Erdella’s words caused a great stir among the spectators. It forced one of the maidservants to track the orbit of his fall, and, to her astonishment, she spoke the discovery of her survey unwittingly. 

“That’s… Miss Lily’s room!”

At that tiny voice, everyone there threw eyes simultaneously toward the room where Joshua had jumped. Although no one was in view in the room, the curtains were seen apparently fluttering through the slightly open window. It presented solid evidence that Lily had just been there, looking down.

Lily Christian.

She was the sister of Duke Chantia Christian and cousin of Princess Erdella.

“No way! Miss Lily and Sir Joshua …” Natan murmured in both surprise and disbelief. 

Unfortunately, he was overheard around and poured oil over the boiling suspicion.

They began to look at Joshua with terrified eyes, who, as the Princess’ fiancé, had been in an affair with her cousin. 

“Don’t do this to me, Erdella.”

Joshua stood up and made uncontrollable laughter, dusting himself.

“I don’t know how you found me, but… if you are doing this because you pissed off with the notice I sent you….”

“What notice?” the Princess interrupted him.

“Didn’t you get the letter I sent you?”

As it came to the letter, Erdella put on an innocent face and turned to Natan. Natan nodded his head once and then spoke to Joshua in a very sorry voice.

“The letter had arrived in this morning. But… I lost it by mistake, sir. It’s gone for good. I’m really sorry.”

“Are you saying you lost it?”

Joshua looked between Natan and Erdella in disbelief.

“Yes. I am. I received it in the morning and was on my way to the Princess. But suddenly the wind blew really hard, and it took the letter away. I tried to find it, but it was hopeless because the palace was too wide, and I had no idea where it had gone.”

In serious face, Natan narrated precisely the same as told before. He paused for some air and finished his speech.

“Therefore, I sent a maid to you carrying a letter that informs the fact. I guess she had already arrived at your place, and you could have met by now if you hadn’t come here to see Miss Lily, I suspect….” He slurred the end of the sentence.

This made it evident that the Princess had never received the letter from Joshua. Moreover, Natan implied like plain truth that Joshua and Lily were in an inappropriate relationship. Even his clipping of the words was so natural. Seeing all these circumstances, Erdella had a hard time hiding her contented face.

On the other hand, Joshua’s face couldn’t be whiter and paler. He had to admit that they were still engaged because his fiancée had not been notified of the disengagement. And though it could be acceptable that a nobleman saw another woman when in the state of disengagement, seeing another when still engaged was a fatally disgraceful act against the honor of the nobility.

Worse, he could be punished for tarnishing the royal family’s reputation because he engaged with the royal family.

In a word, Joshua had to kneel down and beg her forgiveness, even which could not be enough to help him dodge bullets.

“Erdella, let’s talk somewhere else.”

Now getting the picture, Joshua grabbed her slender wrist and led her to a corner where the people’s eyes couldn’t reach.

“Joshua, I will break up with you,” she said softly but shook off his grip harshly. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

With the last words, she stepped back from Joshua and raised her head, and said.

“From now on, Treat me in due courtesy as a member of the royal family.”

“Erdella… !”

“If you call me the Princess the name once again, I will behead you right here.”

Joshua could not find anything warm and affectionate she used to show anywhere in the Princess now. Even her voice seemed to carry no attachment at all to him. 

“Joshua Tanen, revere the order of the royal Princess.”

Thud! Joshua knelt down with the suffering face in despair and kissed Erdella’s feet. Not to the lips of his fiancé but the soiled shoe of his master.

He had no choice but to follow her order since she meant it. The butler, the maid girls, and even Natan also knelt down to honor the royal decree in no time.

With the eyes tightly closed, Joshua was waiting for the Princess’s following sentence.

“From this hour on, I announce that the engagement between Erdella Inuas, the Princess of King Inuas, and Joshua Tanen has been called off. His deception, cajolement, and insult are the very reason for disengagement.”

All voices were hushed as if every single word from the Princess had suppressed and stopped the whole world. 

“Consequently, the earldom, which was bestowed to him when he became the fiancé of the royal Princess, is deprived immediately and effectively. And anyone who belongs to the Count Tanen’s, leave the capital and go back to the local viscounty where they came back.”

Joshua jerked up his head. It didn’t seem he had expected her to take away the title.

Fixing her stare to his green eyes that she once had ardently loved, the Princess imposed another punishment.

“And all the land and property granted when the title was conferred upon him are confiscated.”

Joshua’s countenance lost its brightness because it couldn’t be more twisted and distorted. When a count has no lands and property, he is not an actual count anymore. And it was plain that the estate on the edge of the kingdom, which was the only he could possess now, wasn’t useful at all. It was dead land. 

Thinking that every fame and fortune he had enjoyed until now would be gone like a daydream, Joshua didn’t know what he should do to live in the future. Erdella didn’t miss the moment that a last beam of hope was dying in his eyes and took a long breath.

“Lastly… I order Joshua Tanen not to travel beyond his territory until my forgiveness. These are his punishments for disgracing the family of King Inuas until my forgiveness.” 

Those were inconceivable punishments. The fame and power Joshua had gained as he became the Princess’ fiancé were obliterated in a moment.

Just nineteen and young, yet she was already diffusing a formidable aura. Everyone else on the spot had to shudder and recoiled at every word of her retribution on him. 

“I call Natan Kaura, my aide, and all the occupants of the Duke Christian’s castle to witnesses of all this fiasco.”

No sooner had she finished her verdict than she turned about and left the scene without any hesitation. Only some of the royal knights from the palace to serve the Princess was left behind to transport Joshua Tanen.

 

***

“Open the door,” said Erdella, who had come upstairs and stood at the door. The maid serving the occupant of the room trembled like a leaf in terror.

“Miss Lily… ordered me not to wake her up… she said she wanted to sleep more.”

“Do you really expect me to believe that the daughter of the noble duke family is still in bed when the sun is high up? Even in this mess?” snorted Erdella when the door, which had been fast locked, opened slightly, and Lily appeared through it. 

“Don’t you think you are making a fuss way too much for your little sister having touched your toy just once?”

She had blond hair shaken loose to the side and intense eyes. Lily stared at Erdella with a beautiful smile like a flower of alluring fragrance.

“But it makes a completely different story if the sister you called is the royal Princess and the toy you just mentioned is her fiancé, doesn’t it?”

Erdella pushed Lily back and stomped into her room. There was no one but Lily and herself, which meant that no one could stop her if the Princess decided to kill her.