Prolog
"She was truly an extraordinary and wicked woman. The villainess who ruined the family and even killed her own fiancé is finally dying!"
Upon hearing the news of Roselyn Bellion's execution, everyone said the same thing and burst into laughter with satisfaction.
A noble princess abandoned by the Bellion family long ago.
A beautiful seductress who survived by devouring her fiancé.
A cruel villainess who abandoned even familial bonds.
A wicked witch who ravaged the world.
There were many words to describe her, but there were actually not many good ones.
And Roselyn was also the type who wasn't particularly moved by those numerous modifiers.
Wow!
At the pain lashing against her skin, Roselyn slowly opened her one remaining eye.
She looked wretched as she was sentenced to death for various crimes, including the murder of the Third Prince, serial murder, deception, and public indecency.
She had lost one eye a long time ago, her fingers were sparse, and she had only one ear left.
Contrary to the grandiose description, she was merely breathing heavily like a dying cola inside an old, damp, and even moldy underground prison.
Of course, that did not mean Roselyn was trembling with fear.
Even while her hair was being grabbed, she raised her eyes and looked at the person who had grabbed her hair.
"Haha, look at that."
A man with a kind face and a face full of freckles said as he wiped the sweat from his face with a handkerchief.
"Indeed, Princess, you should have at least bowed your head and said thank you when I agreed to accept you! After all, I personally offered to marry a woman like you."
Roselyn frowned.
It was because she didn't know who the opponent was.
Only after raising her eyes a little higher through her blurry vision was she able to ask in a hoarse, dry voice.
“Who is it?”
As if feeling humiliated that Roselyn did not recognize him, the man's face immediately turned bright red.
"You idiot! Calling someone like you a villainess or a witch is ridiculous! What do you think a stupid girl like you is anything?"
He moved his heavy body and finally kicked her through the iron bars, but soon stopped, as if he had grown tired.
"With this, I believe even that stupid head of yours will work well enough!"
Roselyn chuckled.
Her beautiful and radiant smile, which did not fade even in the filthy gutter, was enough to make even the man pause for a moment.
The beautiful woman with a pale appearance remained radiant despite being disabled, naturally arousing a sinister possessiveness.
"Ah. I apologize. Was it Baron Gilbert? As you can see, having lost an eye, I ask for your understanding that I failed to recognize even the humblest of you."
Cough.
Roselyn spoke nonchalantly and arrogantly, even as she coughed up blood with a pale face.
"Ugh...! I’m not Gilbert, I’m Robert!"
Robert roughly shook the hair he had grabbed.
Beautiful white hair stained with blood and dirt swayed.
Roselyn saw the man fuming in front of her.
He was a man twenty years older than her who had been flirting with her at all times ever since she had just had her debutante ball.
"Oh dear, was that so?"
She spoke in a sorrowful tone, but her gaze was filled with mockery.
"But you're not my type."
Roselyn said with a mocking smile.
"I didn't know you liked me this much. I should have told you how."
"What?"
Even in the midst of this, Roselyn spoke to the dull and stupid man with a cold expression.
She thought she knew why the Crown Prince had sent this insignificant man down to the underground prison.
"Baron Robert, if you're going to flirt with me, why don't you do something about that smelly, obese body of yours first? And that dim-witted head of yours, and that conscience of yours for flirting with a woman twenty years your junior. And I'd prefer you don't speak to me this close. Your breath smells too. I have a weak stomach."
"...You!"
"Former Baron Robert must not have even been able to close his eyes properly. It is no wonder he held onto the title of Baron until he was over seventy, only handing it over to you after his death. And yet, the deceased Baron must be lamenting because of your immaturity."
His face turned red and blue and swelled up like a pufferfish about to burst.
Srrng, a sharp metallic sound was heard.
"Shut up, you lowly creature...!"
Roselyn glanced at Robert's sword.
She had no intention of standing on the gallows as the new Emperor wanted.
It seems they intend to use her death as a spectacle to solidify public support, but she does not want to be easily exploited.
He will only see her corpse.
And as punishment for killing her, the traitor, this bundle of inferiority complex right in front of her will take her place on the gallows.
This bundle of inferiority complex right in front of her was the perfect target for Roselyn to exploit.
'I just need to stimulate it a little more...'
Roselyn opened her mouth.
"I hate that lowly thing because it is disgusting—a filthy, smelly, and vile piglet like you."
"You... you dog-like bitch..."
It was just when the tip of the sword was about to pierce Roselyn's heart.
'At last.'
The moment she closed her eyes, submitting to everything...
"Stop."
A soft, firm, and quiet voice cut through the vulgar killing intent.
"That's enough, Baron Robert."
"...M-Marquis Garen?"
As soon as Roselyn recognized her opponent, she snatched the blade that had slipped through the gap in the iron bars with her hand and pulled it toward herself.
“Huh, what?”
Baron Robert, who had almost had his sword snatched away by Roselyn, belatedly tightened his grip and pulled the sword back.
With a scratching sound, blood dripped from her hand as she dropped the blade.
Jumble - jump -
Making a deliberate sound with his footsteps, the one who leisurely emerged from the stretched shadows was an elderly man who appeared to be in his late 40s.
"She is only using you to get herself killed. If you kill her, you will be the one to go up on the gallows in her place."
The softly murmuring voice sounded gentle and, at first glance, affectionate.
Roselyn scowled intensely.
With just a few words, he soothed Robert, who was fuming in embarrassment, chased him out of the dungeon, and stood in front of Roselyn with a smile.
"Good afternoon, Roselyn. Tsk, your pretty face is a mess. What a fool; he couldn't even gauge his own strength and moved his hands recklessly."
At the voice tinged with faint regret, Roselyn narrowed her eyebrows and closed her mouth.
The outstretched hand dryly wiped the bloodstain on Roselyn's cheek and moved away
He is Garen Wilbreed.
He was a man who was like a sworn enemy to her, having personally caught Roselyn, who had been living as a fugitive without ever being caught, and thrown her into prison.
The mocking gaze that had been directed at Robert had suddenly turned into a piercing look.
"Did you come to pity me? Or to mock me? You're getting in the way until the very end."
"I am merely trying to give you a chance."
"I don't want to hear that from you, who interfered with me at every turn."
The man laughed low as he looked down at his amusing adversary, who was still standing tall despite being in a mess.
"The world is truly boring. Boredom and tedium... and the enjoyable things that appear end sooner than expected."
The middle-aged man, who had been looking down, looked at Roselyn as he said those words.
Roselyn frowned.
This man, more than anyone else, was a man Roselyn could not understand for a long time.
One day he acted as her protector, another day he pointed a sword at her, another day he hid her, and recently, after persistently chasing her for over half a year as she fled, he finally caught her and threw her into prison.
"Do you believe in parallel worlds, Roselyn?"
He asked, still smiling.
Slightly drooping eyes, hair neatly slicked back but with a few strands out, revealing a messy look.
Instead of a uniform, he wore a suit and a coat.
A truly noble man who appears dignified on the outside but is actually extremely violent, whose thoughts are inscrutable.
The violet eyes rarely showed any emotion, and a smile always lingered on the lips.
"What the hell are you up to again, Garen?"
So Roselyn hated him.
"You are so harsh only to me. I feel hurt."
"..."
As Roselyn glared at him, the man shrugged his shoulders while still wearing his proper clothes.
"What? It's in Zilbern Dande's book, too. It says that there are countless branching points in the world based on choices, and depending on those branches, the same world can split into many different paths."
"And that man was treated as a heretic and burned at the stake, and the book was classified as a banned book."
"You and I have read it, you see."
He answered with a low laugh at Roselin's enemy's childish remark, knelt on one knee on the dirt and blood-stained floor, and met Roselin's gaze.
"Don't you sometimes have regrets? Things like, 'I wish I had made a different choice back then,' or 'I wish I had developed a relationship with this person in a slightly different way.' Even I find it a bit of a waste to kill you off with the trivial label of 'villainess.' Don't you want to live, Roselyn?"
Roselyn narrowed her eyes for a moment, then let out a short breath and leaned her head against the iron bars.
Her vision was blurry, and the blood gushing from her palms showed no signs of stopping.
Garen paused only when he saw the pool of blood on the floor and Roselyn's face, pale even in the darkness.
"Didn't I tell you, Garen? Why am I so sickly? I wasn't healthy from birth. I lived hearing all the time that I could die at any moment."
You've lived quite a long time for that, haven't you?
As Roselyn weakly murmured that, Garen's eyes widened.
"Actually, I took medicine before you caught me. It's a drug that prevents blood from clotting, and on average, symptoms appear between a week and ten days."
It was a gamble where she had to suffer a fatal injury by then, though.
Roselyn added in a low voice.
If the bleeding doesn't stop, the person dies. It was a gamble based on simple common sense.
Seeing Garen's stiff face, she chuckled as if amused.
"So there was something you didn't know, too. In the end, I'm the winner."
"...You are the first person to stab me in the back until the very end."
"That's an honor."
As if she had withdrawn the sharp thorns surrounding her only when faced with death, she wore a soft smile on her lips.
"Garen, I was lonely."
Garen paused.
"Escape isn't that easy, either. So..."
Roselyn realized her vision was fading. Sensing the end, she did not bother to stop her mouth from moving on its own.
There was a slapping sound from the floor.
"... The answer to your question is 'no'."
No sooner had the words been spoken than Roselyn, who had been leaning against the iron bars, slowly tilted and slumped to the floor.
"...You always surprise people."
Long after the quiet murmuring had ended, a green flame blazed up from somewhere and engulfed the underground prison.
***
"...Praying to live? Does that even make sense? I am so ashamed I can't live. Because you keep doing this, everyone finds you uncomfortable and dislikes you."
And when she opened her eyes again, Roselyn was sitting on the bed with someone she missed very much right in front of her.
Long ago, the first stepmother Roselyn killed after leaving home and settling down was her.
'...Garen, you bastard.'
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