"Forget the saintess and marry me."
The villainess.
Judith la Roche.
When I read the original work, The Golden Chain, I honestly didn’t have any particular feelings about this character.
Because the position of “villainess” itself is a cliché you see everywhere.
The type who hides “please love me” behind the words “please marry me,” appears out of nowhere, interferes with the protagonist getting together with the male lead, and eventually gets punished.
A character readers watch while cursing at her.
In other words.
‘If this woman shows up, it means the original story is finally starting to move in earnest.’
Which also means I shouldn’t be here.
Because I was smack in the very center of the original plot.
I was already reduced to hiding behind a sofa to avoid one crown prince, and if the villainess joined in too, this was just a disaster.
I carefully held my breath.
Hurry up and fight, then hurry up and leave.
Please.
"……."
The crown prince’s silence stretched on.
That man had turned not answering into an art. To think he could convey “rejection” so heavily without saying a single word.
It had the weight befitting a crown prince, and a sense of solemnity too. He really was the cool type after all.
No. Why am I analyzing characters here?
‘Damn occupational hazard.’
"……Are you aware that unsavory rumors are circulating about the saintess?"
The young lady’s voice changed.
The earlier desperation was gone, replaced by a much calmer, sharper tone.
Anyway, rumors?
Were there any bad rumors to circulate?
"Lady. You are crossing the line."
The crown prince’s voice had sunk coldly. But the young lady did not back down.
"Are you not aware as well, Your Highness, that seditious books about the saintess are secretly circulating through the empire’s back alleys?"
For a moment, my heart dropped.
Seditious books?
That’s my comic she’s talking about!
‘No, what the hell, why am I getting dragged into this?’
Before I even had time to complain about the injustice of it all, the young lady opened her mouth.
"Does smoke ever rise from a chimney where there is no fire? The saintess’s purity may, in the end, be nothing more than a shell. Do you intend to stand by and watch such a woman become the mistress of the imperial family?"
Her voice burrowed in like a viper.
Wow, she really is a villainess to the bone. The level of what she says and the sharpness contained in it are completely drenched in subculture clichés.
But the crown prince’s reaction was so calm and rational that it rendered the young lady’s provocation meaningless.
"I intend to personally find the rat who made that blasphemous book and make sure they pay. You would do well not to cause a commotion with baseless speculation."
Wow.
This bastard of a crown prince is a proper man.
Look how cool he is. He doesn’t suspect the saintess here?
Of course, that’s all just how it looks on the surface, but no, that’s not the point.
‘He’s saying he’s going to wreck me.’
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Don’t get caught.
Absolutely do not let anyone find out my pen name is Extra.
Step—
Soon after, the crown prince’s firm footsteps faded away, and the door to the lounge shut coldly.
The fight ended there.
In conclusion, the crown prince was the winner, and the young lady was probably going to be extremely humiliated.
‘And the loser is me.’
Because the crown prince had planted a death flag on me.
‘...Fuck.’
Well, anyway.
The fact that I’d die if the crown prince caught me was already an outcome I’d more than expected, so thinking about it, not much had changed.
Rather, getting involved with the young lady here would be the worst.
I just had to stay hidden like an invisible man, then quietly slip out once that woman left.
It was a perfect plan.
— Bang!
"Aaagh!"
Before the plan could even finish, a pathetic scream burst from my mouth along with a dull crashing sound.
Unable to overcome her anger, the young lady had taken it out on the chair in front of the table by kicking it hard.
Of all things, that heavy wooden chair toppled backward and struck my shin with perfect accuracy as I lay flat behind the sofa.
"Who is there?"
I was caught.
And in the most perfect, most unsightly way possible.
Clutching my throbbing shin, I staggered to my feet.
And the moment I looked forward with resentful eyes, I had no choice but to stop breathing.
She was incredibly beautiful.
Truly, an overwhelming beauty that physically brought a person’s thought circuits to a temporary halt was standing there.
Gorgeously waving black hair, and bewitching, lethal wine-red eyes.
Even her cheeks, flushed red with anger, looked like a masterpiece.
Only then did I keenly realize why this obvious rofan world could proudly contain such an inefficient position as “the villainess.”
Because they were beautiful.
That appearance itself was the narrative’s plausibility and persuasiveness.
"I believe I asked who you were."
The young lady was looking down at me.
With her wine-red eyes narrowed coldly, the wicked woman waited for my answer.
‘What should I say?’
There were three options.
First, run away.
— Impossible. I’ve already been discovered.
Second, reveal my identity and grovel.
— Impossible. The name Ian Ash is rock-bottom in this world.
Third, shamelessly push through.
The quick wit I’d honed while living as the webtoon artist Kang Dohyeok before my possession, overcoming countless complaints from readers, activated.
At times like this, if you make some half-baked excuse or grovel, you just look easy to push around and die.
Instead, you have to be shameless.
Because these ultra-high-ranking nobles, like flowers raised in a greenhouse, are surprisingly flustered by unexpected boldness and shamelessness and lose their pace.
I lightly swept back my black hair and opened my mouth, pretending to be as relaxed and sly as possible.
"I was tired from the banquet, so I came in here to rest for a moment. Then it got noisy and woke me up."
"Are you claiming you didn’t hear that conversation just now? What a shameless lie—"
"Of course I heard the conversation."
I shrugged once.
"Because it was so noisy it woke me up."
I added with a very gentle smile.
"You even kicked a chair. I thought my shin had snapped. To be honest, I’d rather receive an apology first."
"…Wh-what?"
The young lady’s eyes went round.
I took a step closer and leisurely presented my logic.
"This is a ‘lounge’ outside the banquet hall. Naturally, you should have considered that someone tired from the banquet might be quietly resting here. Is consideration for one’s surroundings and for others not a basic quality of nobility?"
She was clearly, completely flustered.
Did I win?
This shameless way of speaking had worked when driving off the estate’s creditors too, but it seemed to have a pretty good batting average even in another world.
However, after that momentary wavering, the young lady’s eyes narrowed.
"Just what family do you belong to?"
There it is.
The villainess’s signature pattern of crushing people with the name value of her family!
If I kept acting insolent until the end here, an assassin might be standing by my bedside tomorrow morning.
I bowed my head deeply with an exaggeratedly courteous and elegant motion.
"I am Ian Ash of the Viscount Ash family. It is an honor to meet you like this, my lady."
When dealing with this type, you have to lower your tail and bow your head decisively at a moment like this.
After all, boldness only creates charming tension when there’s a push and pull to it.
Judith crossed her arms and looked down at me as if intrigued.
"The Ash family… that pauper art… Do you know who the person who just left was?"
"No, I do not. But in relations between men and women, they are simply a man and a woman. That is why I did not understand."
"You did not understand?"
I shrugged and spoke bluntly.
"Seduce him and charge straight in. With a face as incredibly beautiful as yours, what on earth are you hesitating for?"
For a moment, a heavy silence flowed through the room.
Judith’s wine-red eyes trembled faintly.
"…Are you trying to seduce me in this situation?"
No, what the hell.
In this world, is simply stating the objective fact that someone is pretty considered seduction?
How little flirting do these people usually do, living so dryly?
‘Ah, come to think of it, this novel did advertise itself as wholesome.’
A direct compliment might have been a little too stimulating.
This is troublesome.
But, like the villainess she was, the young lady quickly regained her composure.
"Then, how would you suggest I seduce the crown prince?"
A provocative question followed.
Oh, that was quite an excellent question.
How a proud and charming villainess like this should seduce an indifferent man.
The storyboarding switch in my head clicked on, and the vast directing big data I’d accumulated as an erotic manga artist flashed by.
"Hmm… a maid outfit?"
The words popped out of my mouth by reflex.
Ah, damn it.
The inertia from drawing maid erotic manga still remained, so an answer that was far too erotic-manga-like came out without passing through my brain.
Just as I realized I’d messed up and tried to fix it, her reaction was strange.
"……."
Judith began to tremble slightly at the shoulders.
Was she angry?
Telling a noble lady to wear a maid outfit—I wondered if I was about to get slapped, and just as I squeezed my eyes shut.
"Pfft… hahahahaha!"
She began laughing loudly, as if she found it so funny she could die.
It was a hearty, unrestrained laugh that contrasted with her gorgeous appearance.
Kind of scary, actually.
She elegantly wiped away the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes and looked straight at me.
"You really are vulgar, and direct too. We can communicate."
"...I’m glad it pleased you."
"If you had said that to anyone else, your head would have flown off immediately for lese-majesty."
"But you seem to have the broadest heart of anyone in the empire."
At my sly answer, the young lady burst out laughing once more.
"Pffhahahaha!!"
This time, she really lost it.
As if even covering her mouth had reached its limit, she turned slightly away before looking back at me again.
"Why are you wagging your tail so often and so shamelessly? You’re quite an amusing man."
‘…I’m not, though. I never wagged anything.’
I swallowed my sense of injustice inwardly.
With an expression that had become much lighter, she turned around.
The hem of her splendid dress fluttered elegantly, giving off a pleasant fragrance.
"I found today’s events quite entertaining, so I’ll let you off specially. Thanks to you, my gloomy mood has been perfectly lifted."
Opening the lounge door and walking out gracefully, the young lady added in a low voice.
"How amusing. I’ll be watching you."
...Watching? What? Me?