In the world of the otome game Song of Walpurgis, the villainess Lillian Lancaster stands in the way of the heroine's quest for true love, preparing an array of devious traps with ravenous monsters in order to get the heroine crushed, cursed, kidnap...
Heavy, wrought iron. Shackles clutched my wrists, while cold, clinking chains slithered between my clasped hands, palms sweaty beneath my gloves. I kept my eyes to the polished floor, staring at the tips of my boots poking out from beneath the hem of my dress. I stared at my feet because I couldn't bear to look at the judges and jeering, snooty nobles all around me. Their gazes pierced me, seething with hatred.
And above all...I couldn't bear to look at that miserable girl. That foolish child, two years my junior, yet she would be the one to steal Prince Luther away from me. A prissy, pink-haired commoner with a dopey, doe-eyed gaze, as though she'd just been expelled from the womb and had not been tainted by any of life's hardships. That infuriating girl...Lilac Ellmeyer. With a bow in her hair nearly the size of her head and a frilly pink dress that looked far too big for her bony, curveless frame, she had no business being in the royal palace. Yet here she was, having stolen my place as Prince Luther's betrothed...and here I was, on trial for attempting to murder her. What an awful day.
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Lady Lilac Ellmeyer, the heroine of Song of Walpurgis
The judge's booming voice forced me to look up, to gaze my accusers in the eye. "Lady Lillian Lancaster, of the great House of Lancaster," he announced. "It has been determined by this court that you are guilty of attempting to stab Prince Luther's betrothed, Lady Lilac Ellmeyer, in a fit of rage at your 18th birthday party two weeks prior. Such outlandish behavior cannot be tolerated by members of the nobility. Do you have anything to say for yourself? Better yet, will you apologize to Lady Lilac?"
I twisted my lips in a snarl and spat on the floor. "I have no desire to apologize to Lady Lilac Ellmeyer. You'd have to rake me over a bed of hot coals before I would consider such a thing. Do you expect me to strip all of my dignity as a noble's daughter before you? Would you have me strip naked in front of you all as well?"
"Lady Lilac will one day become the future queen of the Kingdom of Walpurgis," the judge retorted. "Have you no decency?"
"Up until two weeks ago, that title belonged to me," I hissed back. "Do any of you have any inkling of how much I've sacrificed, how hard I've worked for this...only to have it snatched out from under me by a worthless little commoner girl just because she has pink hair and a pretty face?! I gave up everything to be by Prince Luther's side...and he threw it all away like I was trash!"
"Don't shift the blame onto me!" Prince Luther barked. In his spotless white suit, with his ruffled blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes like a cloudless sky, Prince Luther Eckhart seemed like every woman's dream. He beguiled me with such charms as well. What a fool I was to fall for it. On the inside, he was nothing but a rotten carcass infested with squirming maggots. "You know full well what you have done, Lady Lillian!" Luther continued. "You were jealous of Lady Lilac, so you attempted to get rid of her because I chose her over you!"
