Unfortunately, I'm an Evil Villainess

Chapter 18 - Hunting with Father (II)

We trekked through the forest, the sunlight streaming through the leaves. It was pleasantly warm, with a gentle breeze. Insects buzzed around, despite my best attempts to swat them away. They were only adding to my irritation.

Beads of sticky sweat were beginning to form on my forehead. It would've been much nicer to be relaxing in my room with a nice and cool cup of tea, but now I was here, I wouldn't give it up for anything. I was going to hunt.

Finally, Father stopped near another clearing. I almost bumped into him, but stopped myself just in time.

"Let's wait."

Father and I crouched down again, and thus began the tormentous challenge of patience. In this life, no one had dared to make me wait for long, so this was refreshing in a bad way.

Though humans have accomplished this much, nature was the one thing we couldn't conquer. Perhaps that was why hunting was entertaining to people that were at the top of society, like nobles, because it provided something they could not have.

People always wanted what they couldn't have. In my past life, I wanted success and the affection of my parents. Now, I wanted the throne and the male leads of the novel, everything that the original Valentina couldn't get but the female lead received.

It was the same the other way around. The male leads strived for the female lead because she, unlike the other noble girls, wasn't attracted to them on sight because of their looks or status, and because they couldn't win her over when they tried to.

Basically, the author wrote all the other girls as extremely shallow to portray how lovely the female lead was in contrast, and also made her 'interesting' because she was hard to get. It was so wrong, on so many different levels, though I couldn't name all of them if I tried. The toxic tropes used in the novel were now the societal issues I would have to deal with.

And it angered me just to think about it. Everything was handed so easily to the female lead just because she was chosen by God and the author to be the protagonist. If I wanted to defeat her, I would need to become a ruthless villainess. Yet here I was, not even able to kill a deer.

I shook my head in frustration. This unfairness was infuriating. Just because fate was against me, I would have to give up on my morals. You couldn't have everything in life, not unless you were the female lead. My bitterness boiled into a rage ready to spill over.

Then came the soft but unmistakable sound of an animal's steps. A rabbit bounded into the clearing and started munching the grass.

It was so cute! Its pelt was fluffy and a light brown colour, and its eyes were black and shining. Innocent, careless, adorable, naive, pure.

Somewhere along these lines I began to think of the female lead instead. Hadn't the prince often described her as a bunny, when he thought she was 'interesting'? If I couldn't kill a rabbit, how would I kill a person, if the circumstances required?

The target may be a living being that may have feelings, but it was also an obstacle in my way. That applied to both the rabbit and the female lead.

My head and heart cooled until I was rational once more. I aimed with preciseness, and fired.

The bullet shot straight through the rabbit's fur. For a moment, I thought nothing had happened, but a spot of red gradually appeared on its pelt, and it fell.

"Yes!"

Father stood up with an exclamation and so did I, and we rushed to the rabbit's side. Its chest was still rising and falling, but soon came to a stop. It lay with its eyes wide open, frozen, and dead.