IVPCB 01

Chapter 01

The floor was of crimson velvet, the furniture an ivory color adorned with lavish vine patterns, and in a blue porcelain vase from the East, fully bloomed freesias were arranged, releasing their fragrance……

It was a bright and cozy room, yet the air within it was chillingly cold.

It was because of the two men standing in the room, confronting me.

The middle-aged man with crimson hair was loosening his cravat in frustration, his face flushed with anger, while the fair-haired young man with bright gold hair was glaring at me with icy eyes.

Though the expressions of the two men were vastly different in temperature, they shared a common trait: they were both furious with me.

“How could you do such a thing!”

The middle-aged man, who had been heaving deep sighs, finally couldn’t contain his anger and roared.

“I’ve turned a blind eye to all your misdeeds until now. I thought it was because you weren’t loved, that’s why.”

Count Posha, the middle-aged man with crimson hair and my father, rubbed his eyes in anguish and poured out his resentment.

“Even when I heard rumors that you were tormenting Lady Luna Margrita, or that you were chasing after the Crown Prince, I let it all slide.”

I could fully understand why Count Posha was so enraged. Everything he said was true.

I had been desperately infatuated with the Crown Prince Delta, and because of that, I had persistently harassed Lady Luna Margrita, whom Delta favored.

‘Switching her tea with ditch water, not informing her of the dress code for an invited tea party to embarrass her, tripping her at the New Year’s ball by sticking out my foot… What else was there?’

As I mentally tallied the misdeeds this body had committed, I soon gave up. There were so many wicked things I’d done that it was overwhelming to recall them all.

“Anais, are you listening?!”

Noticing that I was distracted, Count Posha growled.

“Yes, my ears are open.”

At my nonchalant reply, the Count pressed his temple as if he had a headache.

“What was the one thing I told you never to do?”

As he himself had said, Count Posha had mostly turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of his delinquent only daughter, Anais.

When I was young, Countess Posha had been caught in a fire accident and passed away with severe burns. Because he lost his beloved wife so suddenly, Count Posha devoted himself solely to the family business and neglected me as a child.

Thanks to that, the House of Posha became one of the five wealthiest families in the Empire, but I grew up as a spoiled, delinquent young lady.

Count Posha believed my twisted character was due to his neglect, and so he turned a blind eye to me and cleaned up the messes I made.

Yet, every time, Count Posha would ask me to observe just one single taboo.

“Don’t touch the sacred relics, you said.”

Here in the Bergen Empire, there existed three great sacred relics passed down since the nation’s founding.

The Celestial God’s Pocket Watch, the Sea God’s Spear, and the Earth God’s Sacred Tree.

Each relic contained a unique divine power. The Celestial God’s Pocket Watch was owned and managed by the royal House of Hwiter, and the Earth God’s Sacred Tree by the House of Aldebaran, rulers of the Sidony region.

The Sea God’s Spear was reportedly plundered by some of the Beastkin and then lost during the past Tachia War.

As befitting the name ‘sacred relics,’ they were meticulously maintained and strictly regulated by imperial law. The reason Count Posha told me never to touch the relics was that damaging them would result in judgment under the strict national law.

Even though the House of Posha was obscenely wealthy, the crime of damaging a sacred relic could not be avoided.

“But how could you, how could you… break a branch of the Sacred Tree?!”

Count Posha screamed, nearly choking on his own breath.

Seeing him like that, even my conscience, which I thought had grown numb, stung with guilt.

‘I’m sorry, Count. But I had no choice if I wanted to live.’

Committing a crime that even a five-year-old Bergen child wouldn’t do was, paradoxically, to save my own life.

[Warning! Feeling guilt for your villainous actions may decrease your reputation as a <Villainess>.

―Your <Villainess> Proficiency: 53

―You are a ‘Small-Time Villainess’!]

An unpleasant mechanical sound rang in my head, and a blue system window blinked before my eyes.

‘Right, I’m a villainess right now.’

I barely swallowed the curse that rose to my throat about this wretched situation.

Instead, a brilliant smile bloomed on my face like a flower as I opened my mouth.

“Because the branch was pretty.”

A very villainess-like answer.

At my reply, the Count froze with a stunned expression, and the young man glared at me with eyes that could kill.

‘Ugh… I’m scared, I can’t take this.’

Knowing that the young man was someone who could tear me apart on the spot if he felt like it, his gaze made my knees tremble.

“What?”

The Count, incredulous, narrowed his eyes and asked back.

“It was so pretty and sparkly, I wanted to put it in my room.”

“Of all things! Were you lacking jewels? Or dresses to wear?”

“It’s a different kind of beauty, special in its own way.”

[An exemplary answer as a Villainess!]

Along with a slightly higher-pitched mechanical sound, the system window notified me that my proficiency had increased by 1 point. Of course, I wasn’t happy about it at all.

At that moment, the young man interjected.

“You are truly… as I’ve heard, quite immature, my lady.”

Judging by his deeply furrowed brow, he seemed utterly unable to tolerate my nonsensical behavior.

However, much to his regret, thanks to him, my spirits, which had hit rock bottom, lifted a little.

‘Because provoking you was my goal.’

I acted out a look of disgust, as if I’d bitten a bug, and shot a glare at the young man.

The young man, not backing down an inch, met my gaze and slowly spoke.

“The House of Aldebaran demands either the lady’s wrist, or 100 billion gold in damages, for this incident involving the desecration of the Sacred Tree Nebula.”

“Lord Casis, please have mercy!”

The poor Count, whose only crime was having a delinquent daughter, pleaded, but the young man called Casis remained firm.

“Given the lady’s attitude, it seems there will be no compromise.”

For a while, the room was filled with Count Posha’s sighs and a heavy silence.

The Count, who loved his daughter, would not give up my wrist. Therefore, the only option left for him was to pay the 100 billion gold.

The problem was that this 100 billion gold was an astronomical sum that would stagger even the House of Posha.

Of course, I had no intention of paying that money willingly. I didn’t plan on shifting the burden to the poor Count. I had a contingency plan.

“There is one more way to be forgiven for breaking a branch of the Sacred Tree Nebula, isn’t there?”

I tried to put on the brightest expression possible as I broached the subject.

“What are you talking about now, Anais!”

“I know that if I work as a gardener for the House of Aldebaran for 10 years, I can be forgiven.”

A flicker of surprise crossed the young man’s eyes. An expression that seemed to say, ‘You even know about that?’

But he quickly hardened his expression again.

“……There is such a clause, but it was established as a relief measure for the poor who cannot afford compensation.”

He let out a sigh, looking at me, my eyes still wide, and added an explanation.

“If you become a gardener, you will be stripped of your noble status and property for 10 years. That’s why it was considered completely out of the question.”

He spoke in roundabout terms, but in essence, it meant that no sane noble of Bergen would ever choose this option.

Like any conservative class society, the nobles of Bergen valued honor greatly. Being stripped of status and property was a disgrace worse than death for a noble.

Probably, the young man had intended to extort a hefty compensation from the wealthy House of Posha through this incident.

Unfortunately for him, I was not a normal noble lady.

“Perfect! I’ll do that.”

At my answer, the young man’s fine brows crumpled sharply.

“……I believe I misheard.”

“No, I’ll become a gardener.”

I reaffirmed my answer in a gentle tone.

“It’s so romantic! Living in a quiet countryside, tending to flowers and trees. I’ve always wanted to live like that someday.”

I even clasped my hands together and made my eyes sparkle as I said this.

“Do you really see the gardener of Heliweka Castle as a romantic position?”

This time, the young man gave a faint smile, but his eyes were murderous.

“Of course!”

“……Anais, please just shut up.”

Exhausted by my words, Count Posha interjected in a half-hoarse voice.

“Father, you know what you always say.”

“What?”

“If I cause one more scandal, you’ll disown me. You’ll lock me up in the Convent.”

“Anais, that’s…….”

“Wouldn’t it be better to lock your daughter away as a gardener rather than a nun?”

A look of bewilderment crossed Count Posha’s face. Because that was something he used as a habitual threat.

Of course, I also knew he didn’t really mean it.

But he seemed at a loss for words when I quoted his own words back at him in rebuttal.

“Your name is Casis, right? There’s nothing I can’t do as a mere gardener. I’ll do it.”

Meeting the young man’s eyes defiantly, I drove the nail in.

*Grind.*

The sound of teeth grinding.

The young man’s jaw tightened.

‘If this weren’t the Count’s residence in broad daylight, I’d probably be torn to shreds.’

The overwhelming pressure washing over me like a tidal wave was quite menacing.

[Experiencing excessive fear! ‘Thick-Skinned’ activated!]

Fortunately, this time, the system setting of being a villainess protected my mind.

As a capricious villainess, I possessed various self-serving passive skills, and ‘Thick-Skinned’ was one of them.

Thanks to that, I could keep a brazen and fresh expression plastered on my face.

The young man, seemingly unable to bear my behavior any longer, turned his head away.

“Fine. Then have your things packed by tomorrow.”

A declaration enunciated word by word.

Though I couldn’t see it directly, his face was surely twisted unpleasantly.

“Please!”

“There will be no reversal. Starting tomorrow, you will be the groundskeeper of Heliweka and my disciple.”

Count Posha’s desperate cry, filled with grief and urgency. The young man’s firm proclamation cutting him off.

As the young man strode out of the room, as if there was nothing more to see, an air of solemnity pervaded the room.