The Villainess' Son is Innocent - Chapter 1
Chapter 1.1
Arc 1. Son of the Villainess
“Why…!”
Blood trickled down the blade that pierced my stomach, dripping onto the ground.
It hurts. The pain is so excruciating I can’t even scream. But there was a question tormenting my mind, and it bothered me more than the burning agony in my stomach. The question spilled from my lips.
“How could you…?”
I knew the man who had thrust the blade into my stomach. I knew him better than anyone.
Emil Ronchisté Calixt.
My dear friend. My only childhood friend, a poor boy shunned by others because he was the son of a villainess.
I trusted him as much as I did my family, but here he was, delivering me to Death’s doorstep.
My legs gave way, and I collapsed to the ground. It hurts. My hands were shaking as I clutched my stomach, and my arms quickly turned red from my own blood.
“Answer me, Emil… Why…?”
“…I’m sorry.”
I truly am, Vel.
Emil fell to one knee, bringing his hand up to my face to stroke my cheek, resembling a knight pleading to an oath.
He was crying. The boy who had stabbed me was crying. He’d faced so much discrimination, and not once did he cry. Up until now.
This boy with such strong pride was now looking down at me as I lay at his feet.
“…If you and I are going to live as puppets, then things are better off this way.”
He muttered something I couldn’t understand, and his crazed eyes drew closer.
What I saw reflected in those eyes made something in the back of my brain click. The madness of the villainess—it had also taken hold of Emil.
My strength was fading, and my body could no longer support itself, so Emil cradled me gently, bringing me to lay across his lap.
Drip, drip, his tears landed on my cheeks.
Hah, I genuinely believed I was happy in this life…
The sword he lodged deep in my stomach felt agonizing. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die…! But despite my wishes, my eyelids grew heavier.
“…I’m sorry.”
And then…
Emil said something else, but I couldn’t make out the words.
Thus, my second life came to an end.
* * *
My mom was a heroine.
Isméralda Ephrish. The heroine who was murdered by the mad villainess, Roveline Castone, the only princess of the Castone Empire.
It would’ve been ridiculous for a story to end with the protagonist’s death, but why would she be the protagonist if not for a reason?
My mom was a time traveler who would come back to life again and again, no matter how many times she died.
“I hoped we could become friends.”
“…Princess Roveline.”
“But I must pay for my sins.”
Scenes flashed before my eyes at the speed of light, reminding me of a book I once read.
The book was titled, No One Saved Her.
My former self saved up money for it by starving herself for an entire day, just to buy a limited edition copy. It tells the story of Isméralda, who experiences twelve deaths and rebirths at the hands of the villainess.
Isméralda never wavered in her beliefs and stood strong against Roveline, even after facing situations that would’ve driven anybody else insane. This very Isméralda was my mom in this new life.
‘Is it because I died that I can see what happened in the past?’
I observed my mom, the young yet mature heroine, who had grown to be more open-minded through repeated cycles of time travel.
The hushed voices of two women disrupted the silence of the prison. They spoke to each other through the gaps of the cell’s iron bars.
“At first, I couldn’t understand you, Your Highness. But now, I think I do, just a little.”
“That doesn’t make the sins I’ve committed any less real. Just as I cannot undo what’s happened, I cannot deceive those I’ve killed by pretending it never happened. But…”
‘So that’s why it felt familiar.’
The moment I heard her speak those lines, I knew the scene I was witnessing. It was the book’s final chapter.
“Isméralda, would you check in on my son once in a while, to see how he’s doing?”
The princess, with her dark, almost jet-black hair, was a character consumed by madness.
Even though my mom had been killed by this woman more than ten times, she willingly agreed to her request.
“Of course, Your Highness. Don’t worry, your son is innocent.”
“This marks my third debt to you.”
Roveline the villainess.
She was the epitome of evil, a woman driven by madness who ruthlessly killed innocent people. But this madness of hers did not reduce her sentence.
Although, the root cause of her madness was enough to evoke sympathy from the heroine, Isméralda.
“If none of this happened, do you think we could’ve eventually opened up our minds to each other?”
“Of course.”
“I wanted to know more about you.”
“You already do, Your Highness. You know me in ways others do not.”
Their visitation time was short. After their brief conversation, Roveline offered my mom one last smile.
And my mom gave her a faint smile in return.
Even after reading the story, I never knew the reason behind those smiles.
Roveline stepped back from the iron bars.
“Time’s up.”
“May God enlighten your path, Your Highness.”
I followed my mom out of the prison. As soon as we exited outside, the scene changed, almost like flipping to the next page in a book.
As planned, my mom ended up marrying my dad.
As a picture-perfect couple, they vowed their love for each other under the blessings of the public, and a week later, Princess Roveline Castone was sentenced to death for killing a total of twenty-one people and torturing them indiscriminately.
I wonder if you know that your son killed the daughter of the only woman who ever understood you.
Probably not. Like a ghost, I watched Roveline’s execution from beginning to end.
And that’s how the book came to an end.
* * *
My previous life was always filled with poverty and loneliness.
I lost my parents in a sudden accident, and I hated that they left me to fend for myself. I hated the debt my father left behind, and I hated the relatives who turned their backs on me after hearing the amount of money I owed. I despised it all.
I just wanted to live a normal life, in a happy family like everyone else, even if it was only once.
And it seemed my prayers were answered because, on a particularly unlucky day, I died in an accident.
‘Excuse me, you dropped your wallet earlier.’
Even when I tried to be kind, my worn-out appearance made others automatically suspicious of me.
‘Hey, there’s some money missing from my wallet!’
I insisted on my innocence, re-running the CCTV footage, and by the time I finally left the police station, the sky was already dark.
I wasted time trying to prove I wasn’t a thief, which got me fired from my part-time job. I constantly had to worry about surviving the next month without enough money, and now, the thought suffocated me once again.
Crossing the street at a red light, I thought to myself with a bitter smile on my face, “There’s no way I’ll get hit by a car, right? Things couldn’t possibly get any worse than this.” But my thoughts soon turned into reality.
‘Ah, damn it… is this really how it ends?’
I realized that I was dying, and so I accepted the fact that I was better off dead. That’s how I closed the chapter on my life.
But then I woke up in a place that felt familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.
“It’s a girl!”
Confused and trying to fully grasp what was going on, I listened to the names of the strangers surrounding me.
‘I’ve heard these names somewhere before…’
As soon as I realized where I was, I couldn’t help but be shocked.
‘No way!’
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