The Perks of Being a Villainess

Chapter 4

Patrick blanched after glancing at the clock, realizing his lecture had gone on too long. He seemed to be recalling the way the previous prestigious professor had found himself hung upside down out the window. He bowed, continuing to ramble. “M-my lady, there will be no homework, of course. Thank you for listening to my humble lecture. I was so moved by your passion for the subject, my beautiful lady, that…”

“Get out,” I said.

“O-of course!” Patrick fled as soon as I gave the word.

No homework? I’m relieved, I thought to myself, stretching my arms above my head. I only had to attend one more class about magic circle theory and then my lessons for the day would be over. Weirdly enough, Deborah had refused to listen to the mere four-hour morning class, saying it was too much of a bother.

She’s also stupid and lazy on top of everything else… Shaking my head to myself, I walked toward the annex where one of the researchers from the Magic Tower was waiting for me.

“My lady, welcome,” said a woman with dark gray hair, bowing deeply when I entered the magical training area set up inside the annex. Her hands, clasped together politely, were quivering with fear.

This was not surprising, since Deborah had gone through more magic teachers than I could count.

“Don’t you dare say that I was born in a body unable to sense mana! It’s you who is unqualified as a teacher! I’m a direct descendant of the House of Seymour!”

Deborah had refused to admit that she was completely lacking in magical talent, blaming her innocent teachers and throwing tantrums at every turn. Everything that could be thrown had been removed from the chamber, which just served to show how much trouble Deborah had been causing of late.

The Seymour family was well known for its affinity for mana, and I wondered why it was that Deborah was no good at magic. From what I’d read, most protagonists who found themselves transported into a novel could use magic and were well acquainted with the sword, sometimes even capable of controlling spirits to do their bidding.

Because I’m a villainess, I guess I get none of that… I lamented my lack of ability for a moment but quickly changed my mind. Deborah was impressively good-looking, wealthy, and had connections. I couldn’t really complain.

And it also occurred to me that the protagonist in most novels often became the subject of intense jealousy and persecution precisely because they possessed unique abilities. Deborah, on the other hand, had been torturing the people around her because she felt inferior. As long as I behaved myself from here on out, things would be just fine.

“This is pretty good,” I muttered to myself after the class was over, satisfied and eating macarons specially baked by the greatest chef in the entire capital. He apparently made only seventy-seven of them per day.

All I had to do after class was pass away the time, and in the evening the servants came and attentively helped me bathe with great care.

“My lady, is the water warm enough for you?”

“It’s all right,” I replied, sighing with pleasure as I sank into the huge tub, petals floating on the water’s surface around me.

The attendants used a pleasant-smelling natural oil to massage my muscles, which weren’t even stiff. They were extremely careful and meticulous as they washed my hair as well. I struggled to get used to their attention at first, but surprisingly enough, I found myself adapting to my new lifestyle in no time at all. This is nice, I thought, flopping into my bed wearing a silk gown that pressed softly against my skin.

Another peaceful day had passed. I hoped that all my days would be like this, but in order to make that happen, I would have to implement a few changes in the villainess’s life.

I lay around for a while before finally rolling out of bed and strolling into the next room, which had been set up as a study. Turning on the mana crystal enchanted to give off light, I started to mentally summon everything I could recall about the novel.

Deborah was a very simple-minded sort of villainess who’d ended up meeting a terrible fate after doing her very best to make the female protagonist, Mia Binoche, utterly miserable. She had pulled Mia’s hair, slapped her in the face, and even laced Mia’s drink with a drug that would liquefy her esophagus.

The most impressive length she’d gone to was creating a doll that looked just like Mia and using it to curse her. It was the crown prince, one of the many men that followed Mia Binoche like a puppy, that exposed Deborah’s crimes to the general public.

It was the only truly satisfying chapter in the entire novel. The crown prince had accused Deborah of blasphemy after learning that she’d made the doll. It was a smart strategy. In the empire, the only thing that outranked the authority of the emperor and the high nobles was the reputation of Saint Naila.

Saint Naila, who’d driven away evil by sacrificing her own life, saving the people of the empire in the process, was the empire’s most beloved figure. She’d split her body into six parts and used them to create a powerful magical barrier, and thus the citizens regarded her as a goddess and respected her deeply. Even the saint in this novel is pretty hardcore.

Mia Binoche had so much pure divine power within her that some regarded her to be the manifestation of Saint Naila, and because Deborah had already built herself a terrible reputation, the crown prince’s accusation had easily gained traction.

Even a child belonging to one of the houses that had contributed to the founding of the empire could not be forgiven for sacrilege toward the saint, and thus Deborah was put on trial.

The men Mia had wrapped around her finger arranged a jury filled with people they’d bribed, and Deborah was declared guilty and confined to a monastery near the barrier which basically amounted to a prison. Readers had criticized the author without mercy since it didn’t seem right that the only punishment Deborah received was being sent to a monastery after everything she’d done.

If I recalled correctly, the author had replied, “She’s the daughter of the House of Seymour, one of the founding houses of the empire. She can’t be executed.” Many readers had stopped reading the novel altogether in response to the author’s obsessive faithfulness to the story’s world-building.

I’ll have to make sure I don’t go about torturing the female protagonist if I want to avoid being sent to a convent. The reason Deborah, someone possessing such powerful connections thanks to her family, had run aground was simple—she’d picked on the novel’s heroine. But I have no intention of being mean to Mia.

One good thing was that the novel had just begun, so Deborah had yet to even meet the female protagonist. Thanks to the pink diamond necklace Duke Seymour had mentioned, I realized that I’d been transported into Deborah’s body during the first chapter of the novel.

In the first chapter, Pilav Montes, one of the many men the female protagonist offered false hopes to, was gravely injured by a powerful monster that had emerged from a mysterious rupture in the fabric of space. Mia Binoche had used her divine power to heal Pilav after the attack.

As was the norm in many reverse harem novels, Pilav fell in love with Mia, his healer, at first sight. In addition, he pitied her for her poverty since she was the daughter of a ruined noble house, and wished to do anything he could to help her.

“Lady Mia. I’d like to repay you for saving my life in whatever way I can.”

The House of Montes was also one of the contributors to the empire's founding, just like the Seymours, and his words were not to be taken lightly. Pilav made it obvious he would do anything and everything for Mia, but she had only shaken her head and smiled at him.

“I only did what was necessary.”

“Lady Mia…”

“The only thing I want is for you to get better soon, Lord Pilav.”

He was touched by the pureness of her heart and learned by chance that her birthday was approaching soon. Wanting to give her an impressive gift, he searched far and wide before hearing about the existence of the pink diamond.

It was the first diamond ever found that was naturally pink, and as it happened, Mia Binoche had pink hair. Pilav decided that the pink diamond necklace was the perfect gift for her. But Deborah had a ravenous hunger for luxury and had also been pursuing the only pink diamond necklace in existence for herself.

Hearing that the Houses of Seymour and Montes were both vying for the pink diamond, other nobles began to take an interest in it as well. Before long, the price of the diamond had soared to astronomical heights.

In the end, it was Pilav Montes who ended up getting his hands on the necklace. The price had gotten so high that not even Deborah had been able to afford it with the wealth she had access to, and Duke Seymour, sickened by Deborah’s vile antics, had refused to buy it for her.

The naive Mia Binoche, unaware of the value of the gem, wore the necklace Pilav had given her to the Academy. Then Deborah grabbed her by her pink hair…

The necklace had been torn from her neck, leaving a gash behind. Deborah’s harassment of Mia only grew worse by the day since the villainess also happened to have liked Pilav from a young age.

First of all, I should never grab her by the hair. And I’ll just pretend not to notice when I see her wearing the pink diamond. Using a quill, I jotted down a few of the things I’d need to watch out for if I wanted to survive in this damned novel, then I laughed incredulously. It would probably be far easier as the villainess Deborah to avoid a bad ending than to live life as pushover Yoon Dohee trying to survive in South Korea’s fiercely competitive society.

Deborah had beauty, money, and connections on her side, but I’d had nothing. I’d needed to get a job just to feed myself, but I had very little to show in the way of qualifications. I’d wasted most of my life being taken advantage of and had little time left over to invest in myself.

Even if I managed to land a job somehow, I would probably have had a hard time because I wasn’t actually all that well-suited to my major. I wanted to study for one more year before attending university.

“Dohee, you know we can’t afford for you to study another year, right?”

My father’s comment—made right before I was set to take my CSAT exam—had made me anxious, which resulted in me getting much lower grades than I’d gotten during my mock exams. I’d have liked nothing better than to wait another year and retake the exam, but knowing that we weren’t doing all that well financially, I hadn’t even had it in me to bring it up.

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say my family had worn me down until I could say nothing at all. I’d also somewhat complacently assumed that I’d just get used to my major in time. I sighed as I thought about my past life, putting down the quill and getting to my feet.

I need to get my act together from now on, even if it’s too late for my past self. I couldn’t just spend my days lounging around like this—or rather, if I wanted to continue living this pleasant life, I needed to work to improve my situation.

My highest priority should be improving my relationship with Duke Seymour. It was a huge issue that the duke, who could be of immense help to me if he wanted, despised me. Objectively speaking, all the wealth and benefits Deborah enjoyed came directly from Duke Seymour. If she lost his support, all her money would vanish as well.

I needed to maintain a good relationship with him no matter what, and he also happened to be an easier target for me to focus on as far as I could tell. Deborah is the only one of his children who has any resemblance to her mother, after all.

Pushing aside the curtains in front of the window, I gazed at the scenery outside the Seymour townhouse, where night had fallen. I need to get a move on soon.

There was a mystical flower garden located near the main building, which was also the building the duke’s office was located in. There was a powerful preservation spell cast over the whole garden so that the flowers bloomed all year.

Duke Seymour, who had loved his wife truly and deeply, had preserved the rose garden that she lovingly cared for while she was still alive so that it remained in its original state.

The same garden was also where the eldest son, Rozard, had initiated an R-rated, rather sadistic, love scene with the kidnapped Mia. I remembered the scene very well since I’d read that part of the novel avidly.

I never knew then that reading it would end up coming in handy. Counting myself lucky, I tucked the parchment I’d been scribbling on away in my drawer and locked it using a key.

* * *

Deborah has been too quiet of late, Duke Seymour thought to himself, as he looked through the ledger containing records of his daughter’s spending. Her love for the finer things in life was unrivaled, but she’d hardly spent any money at all in the last month other than buying a few dresses. Why was that? Was it because she’d been confined to her room?

Surprise flashed in his cold eyes. Being locked inside would have done nothing to prevent her from spending money. She was more than capable of summoning the staff from the many dressmakers and jewelry shops she frequented to the mansion every single day. What was she up to?

She was a slave to her whims, making this lack of activity even more suspicious to him. She had fasted and even resorted to hurting herself all over a diamond. Deborah would never be content without getting her hands on what she wanted, and there was no way she’d given up on the pink diamond as trendy as it currently was among all the nobles.

It went without saying that the duke was beyond sick of Deborah’s behavior and had no intention of getting her the gem with its overinflated price. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. How dare she try to blackmail me using my affection for her?

Grinding his teeth, Duke Seymour hardened his resolve—he would never buy her that jewel.

“Y-your Grace. Lady Deborah is in the garden...”

The duke was already scowling angrily to himself when his aide arrived with this report.

“What!”

The duke shot to his feet immediately upon hearing this shocking information.