Juliana's POV:
“Julia, yesterday after school――”
This world is an otome game, and that is a fact that I am aware of.
The title was .… I forgot exactly what it was, but the stage was set here, in this academy of magic.
The heroine was an unrelenting young girl who always smiled. Despite being a commoner, she possessed magic, a power exclusive to members of nobility, and for that reason, she was enrolled in this school.
However, in a school where the daughters of distinguished families gather, she was not met with warm welcomes.
Nevertheless, despite continuous bullying she was subjected to, she remained steadfast and persevered through it. And in doing so, the capturable characters witnessing that sight slowly become drawn to her――well, at least that was how the game’s synopsis went.
I am Juliana, the evil villainess who tormented that girl.
Juliana, with her clout as a duke’s daughter, utilized her title as the first prince’s betrothed, the future queen, to discriminate against others.
Juliana, who held lineage absolute, could not stand the presence of a peasant.
After failing to lay the blame on the heroine for numerous crimes and after her countless assassination attempts were thwarted, the full extent of her evil deeds were ultimately exposed and her engagement was then canceled; disowned by her ducal family, she fell to the rank of a common folk.
“You see, I――”
I was 7-years-old when I came to that realization.
I am glad that I was not even a year later in remembering. After all, it is on her seventh birthday that Juliana becomes engaged to the first prince Kelton.
To the root of all evil (my arbitrary opinion), the first prince.
The moment I recalled that fact, I was in a panic. I had to avoid the engagement somehow.
I don’t want to stop being an aristocrat. I hate working. I want to continue eating delicious food. Those were the selfish thoughts I had. Noblesse oblige? What’s that? Is it tasty?
The decision I made while running around in an overly restless state like an idiot was to enter a marriage with some Marquise's son whom I ran into by chance while walking aimlessly and losing my way at the tea party I was invited to the following day.
It is ridiculous, right? Because I think it is incredibly absurd too. Why did I choose him? He who I know nothing about.
Most likely, that was just how much of a panic I was in. Otome game? Villainess? What does that all mean?
But either way, I got dragged along by the eager young boy over to our mothers during the midst of their friendly conversation where he proclaimed the following.
“Mother, I want to marry this girl!”
What? Why? Was the face that my mother made, and it was also the face that his mother made. And I too made the same face.