Reincarnated As Both The Villainess And Heroine...?

A Certain Prince's Perspective

Ever since I was born, I was destined for greatness. At least, that was what father has always told me. That was what the servants would always proclaim. I, the crown prince of a great kingdom, was destined for greatness.

It was something that eventually I had started to believe, be that a good or bad thing. As the value that an individual saw within oneself increased, the opinion of others would eventually decrease as well.

If I was born into a seat of the highest possible prestige, what better could anyone else offer? Be it peasant, commoner, baron, count, margrave, or duke, it mattered little. They were, at the end of the day, someone ranked lower than me.

It was laughably easy to lose interest in them. They were all the same, fools who approached me either to curry favor from father, or appeal to me in preparation for the day when I would inevitably become king.

Yet, it was equally easy to miss out on truly interesting individuals. Or perhaps I didn't. After all, the girl who I still wonder about regularly...her fascinating oddity did derive from her status as a future duchess. She was forced to change, but into something quite intriguing.

Who was I referring to? The girl who conducted herself as a wallflower. She cared little for most affairs, observing things with an indifferent expression, as if she understood everything completely. Even words that would surprise others would fail to move her most of the time, as if she had the ability to predict what was going to be said.

The girl who, like most nobles, was a rather beautiful individual. However, that wasn't something that I was too impressed with, since beauty was meaningless without a good mind to wield it.

What I meant in bringing up such a point, however, was how unnatural it was. Every bit of her features, from her light ashen blond hair, to her cold pair of grayish blue eyes, it was inhuman. To best describe it...it would be "an appearance crafted by god, but cursed by a witch".

It was beauty, but it was also cruelty. It was pleasantness, but cursed by a pervasive sense of evil. Even when she smiled towards the distance, as if dreaming of a faraway place, it was a grin that could only cause one to tremble out of instinct.

Well, I suppose, it was an inevitably that one would meet individuals that bore strange appearances. What was the most peculiar aspect of her, however, was her personality.

She spoke like a fool, moved like a jester, obeyed like an idiot, but she was anything but an individual with poor intelligence.

Elizabeth...she knew far more than she let on. Even though I would never admit to this, but I honestly did not know what was going through her head. Vengeance? Hatred? Rage? Despair? Mercy? Forgiveness?

She hid all those beneath a mask of...etiquette? No, that wasn't right. It was something akin to that of "duty". She was bound by something, but I knew not what. She cared little for what a normal six-year-old would, but bore the intensity of a determined will.

Ah, really. It wasn't like me to take interest in someone else, especially one that was beneath me. However, if I really had to pick one, she would be the one that I would be intrigued by. She wasn't so easily read, and that was exactly what excited me.

What would be her next move? What snarky comment would she make, breaking her act of cold indifference? What about that face of surprise when I had told of the location of the individual that murdered her mother? Was she overjoyed that her plan was proceeded already? Or did she struggle within herself, attempting to find forgiveness for a girl of her age?

Elizabeth Bathory could be a ferocious child whose schemes could be something nefarious. She could be a saint, but chained down by those emotions of hers. Or she could be none at all, bearing a surprising personality beneath.

Whatever it was, I could only observe her next move with foolish excitement. Everyone was the same when I looked down upon them from this throne of mine, but Elizabeth? She stared back at me, as if seeing through my past, present, and future.

Ah, what promise! What anticipation! If she was going to turn out uninteresting in the end, I will toss her away, but at the very least, it would be an amusing journey. If she didn't, then I wonder..? Would a saint be more suitable to be the next queen of the kingdom? Or perhaps the very embodiment of all the world's evils? Or was she far more pragmatic than both?

In any case, I shall be observing her plenty over the coming years. The academy shall be an excellent place to test her character, be it good or bad. Ha! I make myself laugh sometimes.

It was just as father said. Good or evil did not matter in a human being. What was important was how useful that human was. Personally, I was sure Elizabeth would be useful. Whatever wisdom she obtained after the murder of her mother...I will surely come to comprehend it one day.

Then again, who knows what the future holds? The years to my coronation was long, and the road was shrouded in an intriguing mist. Whatever the case, I'm sure the coming years in the academy were going to be quite fruitful...not to mention that treasure thief was going to be there.

That transfer student from the Sakura Empire, she was going to be easy to hate. An enemy of the kingdom? An enemy of one of the strongest duchies in the kingdom? A commoner? A holder of a treasure? It couldn't get any better than that.

I suppose she would be another interesting person to meet one day. Speaking of interesting things, earlier this morning in the capital, I walked past a girl with rather strange hair. It was red, a color that was rare in the kingdom. Perhaps I should go investigate further? Not for any specific reason, but simply because I was bored.

What is a king, but one who lived based on his whims? And, I don't know if I have yet to make this obvious by now, but I intend to make a better king than my father ever was. Well, I suppose before that, there was some fun to be had with the daughter of Bathory. She was going to be an excellent distraction...until I find the next one, that is.