01. The Villainess’s Story

“Annelotte, I hereby annul our engagement.”

The cold voice of my fiancé, Crown Prince Fluorite, echoed through the palace hall.

Why…? There was no need to ask.
Beside him stood a baron’s daughter who had risen from the commoner class, wearing a vivid red dress.

She clung to my fiancé’s arm and looked at me with a smug grin.

What an utterly shameless woman.

“I’ve heard that you’ve repeatedly harassed my friend, Lady Lubka Dior.”

Lady Lubka Dior.
A former commoner adopted into a baron’s family after her rare magical strength was recognized.

Her hair was bright red and her skin sun-tanned.
When she laughed, her teeth showed in a way that could hardly be called elegant, and her lack of education made her nearly incapable of using polite speech.
Her manners were unfit for noble society, yet her wildness and innocent smile bewitched the sheltered sons of the aristocracy.

“Flora, you look so handsome.”

“Fool. That is a name you should only use when we are alone. In public, call me His Highness, Crown Prince Fluorite.”

Even my fiancé was completely captivated in no time, and now this is the result.

“With all due respect, Your Highness, I am unaware of any such behavior.”

“Do not lie. Lubka told me herself. You tore her dress out of jealousy for her pure heart and innocence.”

“Are you finished? Such childish talk only makes me sleepy.”

A woman without education is foolish even in deceit.
Her little tale sounded like a quarrel between children, and I nearly yawned from boredom.

Snap.

When I snapped my fingers, my servant, who had been instructed beforehand, extinguished the surrounding lights and plunged the hall into darkness.

“Ah…!”

Lubka’s panicked voice rang out.

“I have already learned that the way you bewitched that foolish fiancé of mine was through your unique skill, charm magic.”

Charm magic activates through direct eye contact.
Once the room is shrouded in darkness, that power becomes useless.

“A-Annelotte… I…”

“What have I been…”

As the magic faded, the men who had surrounded Lubka finally returned to their senses.

“You deceived the crown prince and tried to disgrace his fiancée with false accusations. You will pay for that crime.”

“…Damn you.”

Such filthy language. So this is her true nature.
She must have found great amusement in deceiving others’ fiancés.
Days filled with luxury, entertaining not only the prince but other men as well.

“To use your tricks among commoners is one thing. But everyone here is of high rank and connected to the royal family. Your crime will weigh heavily.”

“Human lives are all equal, you know.”

“It says nothing of the sort in the law.”

Ah, what a fool.
Just speaking to her gives me a headache.

I could no longer stand hearing that shrill voice, so I signaled the guards to seize her.

“Annelotte, I still love you.”

“We can discuss this another day, Your Highness. If it is about the annulment of our engagement, then we must do so in the presence of my father.”

“No… I was deceived.”

His pitiful plea echoed through the hall.
Of course he was.
He still holds the title of crown prince only because of my father, the duke.

But I no longer care.
A man foolish enough to be swayed by a woman like that is not worth keeping.

“Annelotte.”

I shook off the pathetic man clinging to me and turned my back on that ridiculous scene.
I was about to return to my estate when…

Splash.

A violent burst of liquid resounded.

“Kyahhhhhh!”

Before I could even turn around, I heard the terrified screams of the other young ladies.

“Oh dear, and I rather liked them too. The people here.”

Lubka’s voice drifted through the chaos, calm and lazy, completely out of place in the panic.
When I turned back in shock, there she was, Lady Lubka Dior, smiling beside the corpse of a guard, her body splattered with blood.
Even in the darkness, I could clearly see the glitter of the blade in her hand as she smiled.

“I wanted to be friends a little longer.”

“L-Lady Lubka… what are you…”

The guards tried to restrain her, but one by one their throats were slit by that single slender knife wielded by the fragile-looking girl.
With each death, the noble ladies’ screams rose in hysteria, and the hall turned into a vision of hell.

“You… bloodthirsty young lady.”

“Ahaha. That is a good one. I think I will start calling myself that.”

Those were the last words I heard before a cold blade pierced my throat and my consciousness faded away.

* * *

No one yet knew that the royal castle of Kingdom A had been drenched in blood.
Lubka hid her blood-soaked dress beneath a cape, left the castle, and vanished into the night.

“I have wiped out every family funding the revolutionaries. There. Hey, little crow, deliver this letter to Iris for me.”

Tying a letter, written in clumsy handwriting, to the crow’s leg, Lubka released it into the dark sky.
She watched it disappear, then turned to leave.

She walked down a straight path toward ruin.

The otome game flos.
This was the brilliant debut of its most vicious and wicked villainess, Lubka Dior, the bloodthirsty young lady.