“You don’t need to be this nervous.”

Allen said as he turned to look at Ann, who was unable to hide her nervousness as she fidgeted.

The two of them had returned home, and now, they were standing right in front of the royal castle, ready for the planned meeting with the saintess… the heroine of the game.

Naturally, the game dictated the heroine and the villainess would never get along well, and it had always been like that in any other series as well.

How could Ann stay calm after knowing that?

 

At first, Ann thought she’d have some time to prepare her mental, but who knew she’d only spend the night at the residence calmly before having to meet with the saintess the next morning?

Apparently, they had agreed it’d be best for Ann to quickly see the saintess, especially after what had happened… Everyone agreed, except for Ann, who was practically unable to be fully prepared for this.

The game itself started when the rebel’s faction was discovered as well as the villainess’ identity. The villainess would join the rebel faction, while the heroine just returned from her pilgrimage right at this moment.

The kingdom was very chaotic at this moment, the Schwartzen residence failed to uncover the truth and arrest the villainess, and was the one receiving the most harm done. However, they were also a victim in this fraudulent marriage. Since the identity of the bride was a fraud itself, the marriage was annulled.

Then, the heroine entered the setting exactly at this point.

No matter if they were in Allen’s route or in others’ route, the villainess would always be executed at the same date. Even if their method of capturing the villainess and the crime she had committed before her execution differed according to the route, it was always the same. Including the fact that the villainess would obviously go for the loved heroine who was also an important person in this battle, as the heroine was the saintess who could go against their strong army of dark magicians.

 

The scenes of the game played through Ann’s mind repeatedly, she even had a nightmare of the game’s scenario last night…

As a result, she was unable to calm down at all!

It was true that she had turned the tables on her fate so far, but what if the meeting with the heroine would trigger the game’s script to awaken, and somehow the same result would happen?

That would be scary…

 

“Hey,” Allen put his hand gently on Ann’s shoulder when he felt like Ann wasn’t paying any attention to what he had just said.

“U-uhm…”

Sure enough, Ann finally snapped out of her train of thoughts when she felt Allen’s hand on her shoulder.

“Everything will be alright,” Allen said.

“…Will it be?” Ann asked back.

“Yeah. I promise,” Allen said.

“…If things went south, you’d help me, right?” Ann asked again, with her eyes looking intently at Allen’s.

“Of course,” Allen said with a reassuring look.

 

Then, Ann felt like her dress was lightly tugged from the other side. When she turned around, she saw Faye who was looking at her worriedly.

Nothing bad’s happening yet, I shouldn’t be jinxing it.

Right. I have to calm myself down.

If I don’t, Faye and the others will be infected with my anxiety.

Ann took a deep breath.

 

“Let’s go, I’m ready.”

 

***

 

“Your Highness, they are here.”

The door to the private audience room was opened by none other than the eccentric Miles, who was staring daggers at Ann the moment he saw her.

Okay, why, why, why?

Out of all the people that can escort us to the room where the prince and the saintess are waiting in, it has to be Mila?! I mean, Miles… I can’t even comprehend why she’s crossdressing in the first place, let alone why she’s so hostile towards me, or towards the villainess?!

Ann tried so hard not to notice Miles’ stare at her and only looked down.

During the way here, Allen had noticed Miles’ stares at his wife, but the moment he tried to catch Miles red-handed, Miles would cleverly look elsewhere.

But this had happened several times and Ann was clearly affected by it, so Allen scolded him, “What are you staring at her like that for?”

…to which, Ann cheered in her heart. Bravo, my husband!! As expected as my husbando of choice who has become my husband, kyaa!

 

“It’s just your feeling,” Miles coldly answered and proceeded as if nothing had happened.

“…”

Miles’ answer rendered both Allen and Ann speechless.

How shameless can you get?!

Mini Ann screamed inside her heart chamber, severely scolding Mila.

 

Back to the present…

The moment Miles reported, other voices could be heard from inside the room.

“They’re finally here!” –a familiar voice that Ann had heard a few times in this world, but more than enough in the game. It belonged to the other male capturable target, Fremont.

“Let them in,” the prince’s calm, yet domineering voice was heard.

“Oh, where’s that Anne girl?!”

The last voice belonged to a girl probably around her body’s age.

Her voice sounded nice to the ears, and from the tone of her voice, she sounded enthusiastic to meet her.

 

Ann shuddered… wondering if the heroine was indeed a naïve person who’d like to have a friend around her age too, or… if the heroine was actually a reincarnated person as well who was currently excited to meet the villainess so she could proceed the storyline further… What if the heroine wanted to go with Allen’s route? All the more reason she’d be so excited to kill Ann off!!

Ann wasn’t naïve. Since she could transmigrate here as the villainess, she believed that there was a possibility others might be reincarnated or transmigrated as well, and if the heroine was also reincarnated and an avid fan of this game…

Thinking of the worst case scenario where the heroine would jump to choke her the instant they met in order to progress the plot… Ann felt like she wanted to time skip to the time when she could finally be happy.

But sadly, she couldn’t do that, so she could only follow after Allen, entering the room.

 

“Here they are,” Prince Kiehl stood together with a woman who was around Anne’s age. Her long gray hair was smooth and silky, and it was straight, contrary to Ann’s current hair that was wavy.

“Nice to meet you! My name is Laurence Holly Ainsworth, but you can call me Laura,” the girl said with a friendly expression, her hand extended towards Ann, and her purple eyes were looking at Ann eagerly.

Ann was about to command her body to shake Laura’s hand, but suddenly, she became faint-headed all of a sudden.

What came next was the unfamiliar feelings that made her choke.

This… I know where this is going, and it’s not good!

Is this really the game’s correction taking effect?!

 

Sure enough, now Ann became a spectator of the scene unfolding before her, as the real owner of the body suddenly reclaimed control.

At the worst possible timing!!!

Ann wanted to scream so bad right now, but she already lost control over her organs.

“…?”

Laura’s bright expression turned into one of confusion as Anne only managed to lift her hand halfway and not taking her hand at all.

 

The next moment, however, Anne quickly rushed over to Laura with the intention of harming her, and the others around them also noticed that.

“You finally showed your real colors!” Miles shouted in alarm.

Prince Kiehl and Allen weren’t really expecting this, so they were stunned at first.

Before they could react, however, the frightened Laura did her fight-or-flight mechanism and she chose violence.

She quickly used the only self-defense she could do, and that was to lunge a light magic in defense towards her aggressor.

 

When the light magic entered Anne’s body, she felt so much pain and fell over to the floor. At this moment, the control over her body was given back to Ann, who felt that her whole body was burning in pain as her consciousness started to fade!

Before she fell unconscious, however, she heard Laura’s gasp.

“This girl is scary!!”

If Ann had any power left, she would have screamed back in pain, “No, you’re scarier, dear saintess!”

After all, she had never expected that having the saintess’ light magic enter her body would feel this painful!!!

 

Isn’t light magic supposed to be something warm, soft, and peaceful?

Why is it that her light magic is very painful to me?!

Is it simply because of the villainess’ body being so incompatible to the heroine’s light magic, and that is also why the villainess is the villainess and the heroine is the heroine?!

Ann felt like crying when she realized that perhaps… she had encountered her sworn enemy here?

How she wished it wasn’t the case, since it’d complicate her life a lot!!!