TOEFN Chapter 2

The Untold Circumstances of the Villainess

Crazy.

Now I understand why I hadn’t realized I had transmigrated until this very moment.

Lilliana was deeply engrossed in her own thoughts, completely unaware that Tesid’s expression as he looked down at her was curdling.

As the blatant title, <After the Elder Sister Died, I Married the Brother-in-Law.> suggested, the novel was the story of the heroine who, due to unavoidable circumstances, married her older sister’s fiancé after the sister (the villainess) had died.

‘So, this world’s timeline starts only after the older sister dies, right?’

Yes, and that older sister was me!

Lilliana sighed with a bitter expression.

It was, in a way, natural that she hadn’t realized she was a transmigrator until now. The story she had read before transmigrating also began after the sister’s death.

‘So, I was the villain who died in the prologue. But why does the situation feel a little different from what I read?’

She recalled the description of ‘Lilliana’ in the novel.

Lilliana, the adopted daughter of the Count Widdersohn family, grew up to be a selfish child despite the devoted care of the Count and Countess. Lilliana was always coveting her sister’s possessions and often abused her. Nevertheless, the kind sister, Sylvia, loved her sister dearly and missed her for the rest of her life after the sister slipped off a cliff and passed away.

‘Is that right? Even for a supporting character, isn’t that a bit too briefly written?’ She thought.

She couldn’t believe how much conspiracy and untold backstory had been omitted in the short line, “The sister who slipped off a cliff and passed away.”

But since I’m alive, I definitely won’t let those two live happily ever after, getting all lovey-dovey. How should I get my revenge?

“Hey.”

Lilliana, who was preoccupied with sharpening the knife of revenge in her mind, was startled. She met the gaze of Tesid, who was looking down at her with a murderous glare.

Oh dear, now what?

Lilliana, belatedly realizing she had just pointed her finger at the most psychologically unstable person in this world, squeezed her eyes shut.

Is this a new death flag? I really won’t live out my natural lifespan.

“Haaa, I feel dizzy…”

She then tilted her head and pretended to lose consciousness. In her mind, she prayed frantically:

Please save me.

God, Buddha, O God of Web Novels, please look upon this pitiful transmigrator.

“How dare you be so rude…!”

She expected Tesid to immediately toss her aside after uttering those words. Instead, for some reason, he carefully lowered her onto the sunbed beside them.

“She might be useful, after all. I should summon the guards and take her to the castle.”

Tesid stroked his face, which looked even smoother than before, and turned to look at Lilliana.

A little while later.

“What? Where did she disappear to?”

Tesid, who had left to call the guards, looked around the clearing. The sunbed where the woman had been lying was empty.

‘Did I imagine it?’

But the soft touch on his lips felt too vivid for that.

As Tesid’s sharp gaze slowly scanned the surroundings, something caught his eye.

“As I thought, it wasn’t a dream.”

Tesid bent down and picked up a green ribbon from beneath the sunbed. It was what had been attached to the tip of the woman’s flowing platinum hair.

“Surely, those eyes were this color too.”

Tesid let out a small laugh, recalling the woman with those deep emerald-green eyes who had boldly dared to point her finger at him.

He then flipped his hand over. The skin that had been burning red under the harsh sunlight had magically calmed down after contact with the woman.

Tesid then stroked his jaw, which had become astonishingly smooth beneath the ruby veil, and his eyes glittered fiercely.

‘I must find that woman, no matter what.’

Every moment had been agony for him since the terrible curse fell upon him. But the refreshing sense of relief he felt upon touching that mysterious woman was like a light in the darkness.

‘I’ll have to rely on the power of the ‘Marriage Conscription Order’ that Father kept pushing. I’ll have to tell them to put every woman with platinum blonde hair and green eyes on the list.’

Tesid resolved, clutching the green ribbon tightly.

A few hours later.

“Are you, by any chance, Freya? My baby!”

Someone abruptly hugged Lilliana, who had collapsed on the roadside while desperately running away.

“Pardon? I’m not that person.”

Lilliana shook her head after regaining consciousness.

“But you look so much like my lost daughter, and you say you’re not?”

Marchioness Laurelle asked, her eyes welling up with tears.

And upon hearing Lilliana’s predicament—that she had nowhere to go—the Marchioness offered to let her take on the identity of her lost daughter.

“Thinking that my poor lost daughter might be suffering like this somewhere… I can’t simply overlook your difficult situation, Miss.”

Marchioness Laurelle had inherited a vast fortune after her husband’s death. If the disappearance of her daughter, the next heir, were known, relatives aiming for the inheritance would eagerly descend upon her. Thus, she had kept her daughter’s disappearance a secret and was searching for her privately.

Up until now, she had avoided the debutante ball by claiming her daughter was too sickly, so Freya’s appearance was unknown to the public.

“Freya is alive, isn’t she? It’s been so long since anyone saw her…”

However, since her existence had been hidden for too long, voices of suspicion were beginning to emerge. Therefore, the Marchioness also needed someone to stand in for Freya.

“But what if someone suspects…?”

“My daughter also had green eyes and platinum blonde hair just like you, Miss. No one will suspect a thing.”

Lilliana gratefully accepted the Marchioness’s offer.

‘This might be an opportunity I won’t get again.’

I must not forget.

This is a world where the story only begins after the elder sister dies and the two protagonists get together. I must keep a low profile until Sylvia and Hans, who believe I am dead, get married and are legally recognized as a couple.

‘I want to sabotage their marriage right away, but I can’t get revenge unless I survive first, can I?’

Lilliana hardened her resolve.

After that, she truly enjoyed unprecedented luxury in the Marchioness’s household, where the Marchioness treated and cared for her as if she were her own daughter.

It was a time when she felt that perhaps living a quiet life of luxury and comfort like this wouldn’t be so bad.

A few weeks later.

“A Marriage Conscription Order! What kind of nonsense is that? They want to put our Freya on the list of Princess Consort candidates?”

Marchioness Laurelle exclaimed in an angry voice.

Hearing the noise from outside the room, Lilliana, who had been sound asleep, snapped her eyes open.

A few days ago.

The moment she saw Tesid Bayliss wearing the red ruby veil, the novel’s title immediately came to mind. She then quickly fled when he left the area.

“She might be useful, after all. I should summon the guards and take her to the castle.”

She had even overheard him muttering this to himself, so there was no time to hesitate.

He was the tyrant prince notorious for killing his brides on the wedding night. What he meant by “useful” was obvious. To survive, she had to run.

She thought she would never encounter him again. So why this bolt from the blue?

‘A Marriage Conscription Order! How did the timing get moved up like this?’

Lilliana abruptly sat up in bed.

The ‘Marriage Conscription Order’ had indeed happened in the novel.

However, it was an event that occurred only after the heroine’s sister—that is, her—funeral and the three-month mourning period were over.

Under the pretext of avoiding becoming a candidate for the tyrant prince’s consort, Sylvia, the novel’s heroine, hastily got engaged to her dead sister’s fiancé.

That’s where their romance began.

‘Romance, my foot! But why so fast…? I thought I had more time.’

Lilliana, questioning why the novel’s timeline had changed, bit her lip hard.

‘It’s because of me.’

Because she didn’t die.

The title of the novel, <After the Elder Sister Died, I Married the Brother-in-Law.>—no, this entire story—seemed determined to drive her to her death.

She had borrowed the name of the Laurelle Marchioness family to hide and live quietly. Instead, this very name would now place her on the list of Princess Consort candidates.

‘This won’t do. I have to leave the Marchioness family before I get dragged away.’

It was regretful to leave Marchioness Laurelle, who had treated her so warmly like family, but she had no choice. Becoming a candidate for the tyrant prince’s bride meant death.

“I was hoping to try out being a beloved Marchioness’s daughter for a while. Sigh, my life was never meant to be easy.”

Lilliana quickly prepared to embark on a long journey once more.

However, an unwelcome guest soon burst in. It was a court secretary carrying a royal decree.

“Lady Freya Laurelle of the Laurelle Marchioness family has been given the honor of being placed first on the list of Princess Consort candidates!”