Living Snake

Growing

If I go through all the possible routes the heroine could take, it would all end with me being murdered one way or another. This world also included various magicians, as well as magic scrolls. The incident that my brother was talking about is the first big checkpoint for the heroine, that was when her healing powers had awakened, which resulted in Athene getting jealous and 'accidentally' knocking both of them out, meaning that the Crown Prince and Sileni are meeting in secret before the last gathering when he takes away my title for crown princess before my death a few years after. The last gathering would be in a year at most.

"Maid, you over there tell my father that I request an audience from him, as soon as he can, I will not take no for an answer."

"But- Miss..."

"Who are you currently serving? It is me, your mistress, right? Or unless..."

"Eek, y-yes, your maid will go and fetch the Lord."

That maid knows no boundaries, maybe either Artemis was sleeping with her, so her arrogance came from that. My goal to meet with the Duke was for him to let me learn swordsmanship, or even better, summoning magic. The maid came back telling me that the Duke had agreed to the request, I stared at the maid expecting her to do something.

"Maid, what should you be doing now?"

"Um, I-I don't know miss..."

"Idiot dress me up!"

"S-sorry..."

This maid has officially given me brain damage, I thought only the protagonist could be this clueless. After walking to the mirror, the maid actually had a great fashion sense, for people in the Victorian aesthetic. She had dressed me up in an outfit that complemented my eyes and hair, huh, good job.

"Here, take this, it matches your hair."

"But- miss, are you sure?"

"Yes, I think you did a good job with the dress, if you keep on doing things like this, then maybe you would have enough accessories for the next grand ball."

I could see the maid staring greedily at the earrings that I gave her, they were lined with ruby and were long and dangly with tourmalines shaped like teardrops, it was quite an expensive gift, but I needed allies in the house, to make my escape plan happen. Walking along the busy corridors I saw multiple pictures of me and the duke and maybe one or two with Artemis. I thought that I was missing something but I couldn't get what I missed in the game, it was something about-

"Athene! My dear daughter, what do you need, your father can get anything for you, new dresses, a new mansion, what do you want darling?"

Ah, that's what I was missing, the duke loves his first daughter the absolute most. No wonder he called for me to meet him as soon as the maid had told him. I thought that this request would be hard to convince him, I could probably learn both.

"Father, I wish to request to learn how to use a sword."

"Dear? Nothing- nothing else? B-but your father had gotten prepared to buy you so many things..." What the heck, no comment from the Author.

"Uh, how about you send some summoning books as well while you're at it and I'll go with you to get a new dress?"

Phew, I thought the duke was very elegant and sophisticated, but in reality, he's just a giant puppy. There are around two months before the very my death, this is giving me a headache, usually, villainesses are given a couple of years before they die, why am I about to die after I took over Athene? Before I knew it the duke took out multiple dresses and asked me to choose one.

"Father, is, is that necessary? I would like to take the dark red one with lilac details, that's it, also please make sure that the sword master will be able to teach me starting from tomorrow, thank you! I love you!"

"You-you said you love me! This is the happiest day of my life, of course, darling, love you too!"

Walking back I decided to take a detour to look at the flowers that the dukedom had planted, they scarily resemble Athene in a way, with lilacs and roses everywhere with the occasional lilly. Virtual games truly are the best in aesthetics. I heard a knock on the door of my room the moment I stepped in, it was the butler who came in tow with the summoning books behind. The duke really knows about time limits, no wonder Athene was spoiled back then, if you were this spoiled who wouldn't care about dying? The reason I don't want to die is because of how I died in my life before. This time I will die an honourable death as the villainess all the way. The Villainess, should I act like that, towards Sileni and the maids, to get exiled by the crown prince, then get murdered by the demon king maybe later on? No, my first job of action is to get on friendly terms with the demon king, I should take a vacation after the next event.