The Villainess Is Sh Chapter 1

Chapter 1

***

One day…

My mother, a slave trader, brought ho the heroine of this world.

“Today is really a lucky day. On my way back from the auction, I found a carriage that had an accident due to slipping in the rain. Look at this, lody.”

Besides the girl, my mother also showcased various jewels and dresses she had salvaged from the carriage.

“It must be belongings of a noble from the capital, right?”

My mother asked excitedly, but lody couldn’t share in her joy.

In fact, she felt despair.

It was the eleventh spring since lody was born as the daughter of a slave trader in the world of the original novel.

The ‘first chapter’ of the original work, which she had hoped would never begin, had opened just like this.

The start of that first chapter went as follows:

‘The five-year-old female protagonist loses her mother in a carriage accident and is captured by a cruel slave trader.’

The cruel slave trader and his daughter were the first villains to appear in the original work, and their role was simple.

To rcilessly tornt the young protagonist, Loretta, eliciting anger and sympathy from the readers.

And towards the end of the first chapter, they would be perfectly punished by a ‘Duke’ from the capital, never to appear again.

After all, they could never return, having planned to kidnap a noble and sell them as a slave, they wouldn’t even face trial before execution.

“…Um.”

lody cautiously opened her mouth, thinking to advise her mother.

Even though a villain, she was lody’s only blood relative.

“Isn’t it dangerous to carelessly take things belonging to the capital’s nobility…?”

lody’s voice trailed off towards the end, slightly scared at the thought of her mother possibly resorting to violence.

Still, her advice was sincere.

…Though her mother, true to her character in the original work, just scoffed.

“Those nobles have so much of these things, they probably pile up to the ceiling.”

“But still, Mother.”

lody began to persuade again, looking at the small female protagonist whom her mother had grasped by the hand.

“Even those people… have only one daughter.”

Considering the original novel’s title was “The Duke’s House Has Three Sons and One Daughter” (abbreviated by fans as “Duke’s Children”), it was clear.

“I don’t know.”

But again, her mother gave a villainous reply.

“Nobles breed like rabbits; they probably have as many children as they have items piled up to the ceiling.”

It was a comnt unfit for children, and not the least bit funny.

Yet, her mother doubled over laughing.

* * *

lody recalled her past life around the age of five.

Initially, she didn’t know it was a past life and was scared and crying.

She was alone in a world where no one smiled.

Once, unable to bear it, she clung to her mother’s skirt, stuttering about her frightening mories.

“Busy as I am, and you bother , tsk.”

Knowing that annoying her mother would result in a harsh scolding, lody stopped talking about these mories.

Fortunately, however.

lody began to adapt little by little.

Thanks to realizing one fact: the world in her mind was just the path the forr lody had already traveled.

As a few more years passed, around when lody was ten, the fragnted scenes in her head began to form into concrete situations and connect.

Each night, lody went through these mories as if reading a storybook.

In lody’s mories, she was not an adult. Even at her oldest, she was barely a fifteen-year-old girl.

That girl faced many difficulties because of money, in front of peers and adults alike.

Perhaps because of this, her viewpoint often included worn and wrinkled shoes seen while bowing her head.

lody wished soone would pat the girl on the back. But that never happened.

It seed there was no one to do so.

She was always alone.

Even on sick days, and nights of thunder that scared her so much.

Often, the girl vented her frustration, mostly towards the void.

“I’m sick of this!”

It was the residue of anger, unassuaged even after so long, but young lody did not understand that.

She just felt incredibly lonely each ti she cried out alone.

Yet, in her mories, the girl had one joy: reading books.

lody naturally ca to know the girl’s favorite book.

“The Duke’s House Has Three Sons and One Daughter”

For so reason, she could recall this strangely titled story more vividly than other mories.

From the beginning of the story, through its crises, to its beautiful end.

lody soon grew to love this story, with the sa mories and emotions as her past self.

‘Maybe my past self wanted to tell

this story?’

Sotis she thought this, without any basis.

‘Or maybe because the villain who shares my na appears at the beginning, it stuck in my mory more vividly.’

It was an amusing thought, so lody chuckled to herself.

However, her enjoynt of revisiting this fun novel didn’t last long.

One day, lody picked up a scrap of newspaper at the edge of the village and found several place nas that matched those in the novel.

‘How can it be this identical?’

After a brief confusion, lody began to compare the world of “Duke’s Children” and her reality, one by one.

And she reached a short conclusion at the end.

‘Is the slave trader’s daughter lody at the beginning… ?’

The light villain who tornts the female protagonist and is punished for it.

Her mind went blank for a mont.

She had thought her lonely past life and current life were similar in so ways but…

In fact, it was.

‘…I ended up in an even worse situation.’

Her heart began to boil with a mixture of feelings.

She felt unjust and sad, but there was nothing she could do.

Just spit out the residue of her anger into the void.

“…I’m sick of this.”

She felt incredibly lonely, just like in her past life, as she repeated the sa words alone.

* * *

Yet, lody could still harbor a small hope.

‘I have mories of my past life.’

lody knew why she would be punished.

So, if she could just avoid ‘that incident,’ she might save her life.

She imdiately ran to her mother.

“Mother, you have to stop being a slave trader! Otherwise, sothing terrible will happen!”

It was advice given with the expectation of being scolded. And as expected, she was reprimanded.

“How dare you talk back to the person who struggles to feed you! If you’re going to say such unlucky things, get out of my house right now!”

That’s how lody gave up on her first plan.

And a year passed, the day her mother finally brought the female protagonist ho.

That’s when lody’s second plan began.

‘If I treat the female protagonist kindly, perhaps I can at least save my life.’

But there were two obstacles to this goal.

First, my mother.

She undoubtedly had the mindset of a pro villain. Otherwise, she couldn’t be so cruel.

“lody! I told you to keep her quiet, not to treat her like a noble!”

Treat her like a noble? I swear I didn’t. In our poor state, how could that even be possible?

lody had simply ensured the child’s als were regular and provided her with a blanket for her bed.

Yet, despite this explanation, my mother fully unleashed her villainous nature.

“If you go elsewhere, you’ll be treated even worse. Be grateful you at least have a slly blanket.”

Amid my mother’s continuous misdeeds, lody tried her best to be kind to the female protagonist.

However, being kind and building rapport were entirely different challenges.

After all, doesn’t kindness require ’empathy’ between the giver and the receiver?

‘But Loretta and I are too different…’

lody, almost a slave herself, but the daughter of a fearso slave trader.

Loretta, lovingly raised under a kind mother, growing up pretty and cherished.

It seed impossible for these two to share empathy, even if the whole world did.

Furthermore, Loretta, new to this strange place, was terrified of not just my slave trader mother, but

too.

“Hey, Loretta.”

Startled, the child scurried to a corner to hide when lody called her na.

“Um, you see.”

I added an unnecessary explanation, fearing she might be startled.

“I saw your na engraved on the small necklace you were wearing.”

lody gestured the shape of a round necklace.

“It said Loretta. That’s your na, right?”

Truthfully, I already knew her na from the original story, but I still tried to initiate so conversation.

“…”

Of course, there was no effect. The child remained curled up, facing the wall.

I felt sorry for her frightened appearance and decided to stop for the day.

“Are you hungry? I’ll leave so bread and milk here. Eat when you feel comfortable. This is for you.”

I pushed the basket towards her and slipped out the door.

‘I hope she eats well.’

Concerned, lody peeked through the door gap, observing Loretta’s actions.

The child remained vigilant for a long ti until finally relaxing and cautiously looking around.

She quickly found the basket of bread. Hungry as she must have been, she began eating imdiately.

‘Thank goodness.’

lody sighed in relief. But it seed Loretta noticed her watching.

Holding the bread, the child hid in the corner again.

Escaping from lody’s gaze.

‘It seems it’s still too much for her.’

lody’s efforts continued into the evening.

In the original work, Loretta would barely sleep on an old, hard chair in my mother’s room.

lody found it heartbreaking to think of a young child enduring such discomfort.

So, waiting until my mother fell asleep, she would bring Loretta to her own room.

“Today, you’ll sleep in my bed again. Okay?”

Though humble for a noble lady, it was certainly better than a chair.

The child hesitantly climbed onto the bed.

Then,

Perhaps overwheld with emotions,

she soon curled up and began to whimper softly, stifling her tears.