TUSM 3

Chapter 03

“Since there’s a risk of escape, lock her up in the underground prison. In three days, we’ll proceed with her banishment from the capital.”

“How merciless.”

I’d even turned myself in, and they wouldn’t give me so much as a moment to remove the magic restraining device before throwing me straight into the dungeon. What a heartless emperor.

“Well, at least that’s something. I avoided execution.”

I slumped down onto the cold stone floor and let out a shaky breath.

This was the deepest part of the underground prison—the very place where Charlotte had been held before her execution in the original story.

“It feels strange, seeing it in person.”

I ran my fingertips over the dull stone floor. It smelled musty, and whether from moss or dampness, it was unpleasantly slick.

“No wonder Charlotte hated this place.”

With her temperament, this would have been hell.

Although Charlotte was the villain in the story, I never truly hated her. If anything, I felt sorry for her and grew attached to her as I wrote.

Because she resembled me.

People you couldn’t call family.

A warped personality born from never being loved.

Even the fact that she could never become the protagonist of the world.

She was entirely a projection of myself.

In truth, I’d immersed myself far more deeply when writing Charlotte than when depicting Leoni, the beloved female lead.

“Seriously. It’s not like I wanted to become Charlotte.”

If this was karma, then so be it.

As I sat there, staring up at the ceiling with mixed emotions, a commotion suddenly arose at the dungeon entrance.

Multiple voices overlapped, followed by the sound of approaching boots. Soon, flickering torchlight revealed a small figure in a robe.

It was a familiar face.

“…Leoni?”

The knight following behind her spoke nervously.

“Lady Schmidt, this is a vicious criminal His Majesty has ordered to be exiled. It could be dangerous.”

Oh, please.

I’m Lady Schmidt too, you know?

As I stared at the knight in disbelief, Leoni smiled gently and replied,

“It’s fine. I heard she’s wearing a control device. Please open it.”

“…But—”

“Please.”

There it was.

Leoni’s specialty.

Smiling with an utterly harmless face.

“T-Then just for a moment.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

At Leoni’s words, the knight’s ears turned red. He cleared his throat and opened the cell door.

Clank.

Leoni stepped inside and removed her robe. Her wavy cherry-blossom-pink hair—nothing like Charlotte’s—spilled down softly. Her pale sky-blue eyes looked down at me with a complicated expression.

“Charlotte, you look terrible.”

“What brings you all the way here? I thought you’d collapsed.”

“…Is your head okay? I never thought Mother would do something like that.”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Come to think of it, was this the first time Leoni had seen Charlotte get her hair pulled? Despite abusing Charlotte relentlessly, the countess had tried hard to keep that from Leoni.

After a brief, awkward silence, Leoni asked,

“…Why did you do it?”

Her voice was filled with resentment.

“You knew I loved him. Why would you do that?”

It felt strange.

Count’s daughter Leoni, standing upright in a clean robe, blaming someone. Criminal Charlotte, wearing a control device, sitting on a filthy, gloomy floor, receiving that blame.

If the real Charlotte had been here, she would have sneered coldly—

To hide her own misery.

But I wasn’t the real Charlotte, so I didn’t feel that raw, pure despair the way she would have.

That’s why I answered Leoni’s question as objectively as I could.

“I wanted to know what it felt like to be loved.”

“…What?”

“Everyone loves you as if it’s some unchanging law. I was jealous—envious—so I wanted to take away what mattered most to you. Even though I failed.”

Yes, that was it. Charlotte had never been loved. She envied Leoni. She wanted to be like her. And she knew no other way than taking something away.

“Ha…”

Leoni let out a trembling breath. Her raised hand shook violently.

Smack.

My head turned weakly to the side.

“I thought of you as my own little sister. How could you do this to me…!”

Wow. Did Leoni just slap me?

My mouth fell open.

When I turned my head back, I saw tears welling in Leoni’s eyes. She was the one who had struck me, yet she looked more fragile and pitiful than I did. At a glance, she was delicate enough to stir anyone’s protective instincts.

Yes—this was Leoni.

The heroine of my novel.

The one who received everyone’s attention and love. Someone who lived without ever knowing the world’s darkness or pain.

Leoni had never known about the abuse and contempt Charlotte suffered at the hands of the count and countess. To Leoni, they gave nothing but affection. Even this incident would probably seem to her like the countess simply losing her temper.

If Charlotte was my self-projection, then Leoni was the embodiment of everything I never had.

That was why, whenever I looked at Leoni, a strange mix of envy and deprivation always surfaced.

Honestly, if I were to become a character in a novel, I’d wanted to be someone like Leoni.

And yet here I was—Charlotte—getting slapped by Leoni.

Was this black comedy?

I rubbed my cheek, which still stung slightly, and spoke.

“Once I’m banished from the capital, His Highness the Crown Prince will regain his senses soon. I designed it so that the brainwashing would slowly fade once he was away from me.”

“So that’s why you requested exile to the Duchy of Lucifenia?”

She heard about that already, huh.

I nodded.

“It’s the farthest place from the capital. Wouldn’t that be better for you too?”

This is how I think of you all.

“…Do you even know what kind of place that is?”

“Yeah.”

The Duchy of Lucifenia.

A borderland of the empire at the edge of the continent, once under the influence of black mages.

And Leoni had reason to say this.

Because of the current lord of that territory.

He hated black mages enough to seize their land and make it his own. Since he planted his banner there, Lucifenia had been called the graveyard of black mages.

“You’d be better off going to the middle of nowhere. What do you even plan to do in the duchy?”

“Who knows.”

I shrugged vaguely.

I understood her concern, but I had to go there. Only then could you all be happy—and only then could I survive.

Leoni looked at me like she couldn’t understand me at all. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then abruptly turned away.

“Fine. Do whatever you want. I won’t think of you as my sister anymore. You… you shouldn’t have tried to take him from me.”

For a moment, I was at a loss for words.

Something lodged heavily in my chest.

Leoni felt unfamiliar.

This girl, who had never lost anything, suffering so deeply from having her lover taken—even briefly.

This girl, who could so casually hurl resentment at a sister about to be exiled.

It felt strange.

I was the one who knew Leoni’s innocence better than anyone.

Was it because I was Charlotte now? The situation felt unbearably miserable and sad.

“Leoni.”

I met her blue eyes. I quietly took in that freshness—something Charlotte, with her pale gray eyes, could never possess.

After a brief silence, my lips parted.

“…Let’s never see each other again.”

That would be the path to happiness for both you and Charlotte.

I didn’t say “Take care.”

My heroine would be fine—just as she always had been.

“……”

Leoni never answered. She simply pressed her lips together and left the cell.

The flickering torchlight receded.

In the pitch-black darkness, I stared at her retreating back for a long time.

Clank.

“Come out.”

On the third day of my confinement, the cell door finally opened.

So it’s time.

My back was killing me—I thought I’d die.

“Um… could you take this off?”

I held out both wrists, still bound by the handcuff-like control device.

The knight glanced over me coldly, then turned away.

“It’ll be removed after transport.”

Seriously?

That’s harsh.

You’re already moving me—couldn’t you at least take this off?

Judging by the atmosphere, it didn’t seem like he’d listen even if I complained more, so I quietly stepped out of the cell.

Two imperial mages were waiting in the corridor. They would be transporting me to the Duchy of Lucifenia.

“Begin.”

As they chanted their spell, a blue magic circle appeared at my feet.

Flash!

Light filled my vision—and when I opened my eyes, instead of the black dungeon ceiling, I saw a blue sky.

A vast grassland stretched out before me, low trees swaying in the breeze, and in the distance, the familiar ducal castle rose faintly.

“…I really made it.”

Never in my life did I think I’d come here.

Well, I never thought I’d get possessed either.

With complicated feelings, I wiped my face. The control device still clinked around my wrists.

“Man, this hurts like hell. How am I supposed to take this thing off?”

They could’ve at least given me a key.

I couldn’t do anything without removing it—and after starving for three days, I didn’t even have the strength to walk.

I was struggling awkwardly, using both hands and even my mouth to try to free myself—

Shing.

A sudden, chilling sound, and something cold pressed against my neck.

“Hello, witch.”

A soft voice spoke.

“Welcome to your grave.”