The Villainess is a Marionette

Her hands trembled.

The letters she sent to Rezef, begging him to save her. Long clothes that she was forced to wear even in the summer to hide the bruises. Memories of hiding in the darkest places of his castle, as if she was playing hide and seek.

Cayena had nowhere else to turn. Rezef had thoroughly abandoned her. So in the end, she wrote a letter to Raphael.

The letter seeking mercy did not even make it to the Kedrey duchy.

It was discovered by Gillian.

‘Yes. On that day, Gillian killed me, asking if I had lingering feelings for Raphael.’

The fear was deeply imprinted in Cayena’s heart. She clasped her trembling hands together.

“Which family are you from?”

Fortunately, she was able to speak calmly.

Gillian’s face was polite, but he couldn’t hide his disappointment.

“…Henverton Gillian greets Her Majesty, the Princess.”

It was painful even to just hear his voice.

Why didn’t she think anything about Gillian before? Was it because it was so terrible that she subconsciously repressed these memories?

Cayena pretended to be unaffected and said, “So you’re the son from the Gillian viscounty.”

“We danced together at the banquet hall last time. Do you not remember me?” he asked, stepping toward Cayena.

‘I don’t know what he’ll if I try to shake him off and say I don’t remember.’

Cayena recognized the madness in his eyes. She felt nauseous.

“I think I remember, now that you mention it.”

At her reply, Gillian took another step toward her.

There were only three steps left between the two.

“At that time, you danced with me twice. I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again ever since that day, but I didn’t expect that we would meet like this today.”

It was a laughable comment.

It was obvious that he had rushed here after hearing that Cayena was at the library.

Cayena didn’t want to continue the conversation.

Vera, who had been watching the situation from the side, intervened.

“Your Highness, it seems like the carriage has arrived. We should leave.”

Gillian’s horrible gaze turned to Vera.

Cayena tried to walk away, but she felt that she might collapse if she took one step.

‘Don’t lose focus. None of that has happened now.’

She tried to keep her cool by thinking that.

Now, Gillian can’t confine her, hit her, or stab her with his sword. But the more she thought about it, the more she felt as if she couldn’t breathe.

If only she had the veil covering her face.

She was already exhausting a lot of energy by pretending to be okay and maintaining an expressionless face.

“I shall take my leave.”

Gillian would never withdraw unless Cayena left first.

But when Cayena said goodbye, Gillian stepped closer and extended his hand to her.

“Then, I will escort you, Your Highness!”

It felt like a terrible threat to Cayena.

At the moment, his image overlapped with the older man who had run her through with his sword, eyes glistening, in her previous life.

Cayena hastily stepped back.

In that moment, she lost strength and almost fell, when—

Bam!

Strong arms wrapped around her.

Her back fell into someone’s wide embrace, and instead of falling down to the ground, only her hat fell off.

“Are you all right?”

Cayena slowly turned her head to see the man holding her.

His red eyes that looked down at her were very clear.

She called his name like a sigh of relief.

“…Raphael.”

***

Originally, Raphael had been visiting the Imperial Academy.

“Did you hear?”

It was a strange affair.

Normally, he wouldn’t have listened to the hanger-ons as they gossiped with his attendants.

But today, strangely, their excited words caught his attention.

“What’s going on?”

Baston, who liked to gossip as much as followers, asked right away.

“Princess Cayena has visited the imperial library next door!”

“What? The princess?”

Raphael, who was filling out the documents about a problem with one of the duchy’s scholarships, stopped.

“So now, the students are going crazy trying to go to the library. She hadn’t been out recently.”

“That’s true. But to think that she’d come to the Imperial Library as her first outing in a long while…”

Baston frowned and tilted his head. The library didn’t really suit Cayena.

“What’s the fuss?”

Jeremy asked as he entered the drawing room.

“Jeremy! Did you hear? Now at the Imperial Library…”

“You’re getting in the way of Sir Raphael’s work.”

The hanger-on glanced at Raphael and shut his mouth firmly. Jeremy approached Raphael.

“You’ll have to wait a while to observe the swordsmanship training. What would you like to do?”

“How long must I wait?”

“It’ll be 40 minutes.”

Raphael looked outside for a moment.

The Imperial Library entered his sight through the window. Since it wasn’t far, the time might be right for a short visit.

“I’ll wait at the Imperial Library.”

The follower and Baston’s eyes shone.

It was because they knew he was going to see Princess Cayena.

Jeremy asked,

“Shall I prepare a carriage?”

At that word, the follower quickly told him the information he heard.

“Excuse me, but they say that a line of carriages is forming to see Her Highness. It will probably take a long time to go by coach.”

“Since it’s close, I’ll just walk.”

“I’ll follow you!”

Baston hurriedly trailed after Raphael. Raphael’s red eyes glanced over Baston.

“I will go alone.”

Then, without waiting for an answer, he left.

“Oh… Our master certainly is acting a little weird?”

Baston glanced at Raphael’s back as he moved away.

Then Jeremy slapped him on the head with some papers and scolded him.

“Disloyal jerk! Don’t use your mouth for such useless noises.”

“Did I say something wrong…? This is already the second time to he’s gone to visit Her Highness first.”

“Of course he’s going to see her. Don’t you know that both the social and political circles nowadays are paying attention to the princess’s every action?”

Jeremy was criticizing Baston like that, but in fact, he was also doubtful of his own words.

Raphael never said otherwise, but Jeremy knew that he was reluctant to contact or have a relationship with people.

But he had reached out to the princess for the second time, and it was quite unusual.

‘The princess has changed a little recently, but…’

The indulgent attitude Jeremy had seen so far remained strong in his impression of her.

‘If the madam learns about this, she’ll definitely push him to get married even more.‘

He scratched between his eyebrows and sighed.

Raphael walked along the path from the Imperial Academy to the library.

‘It seems that it’ll rain soon.’

Clouds had started to form in the sky in the morning, and now, the sky was dark gray. It would probably rain within the hour.

‘The princess may be getting ready to return now.’

He walked a little bit faster.

He wanted to meet Cayena. Of course, he told himself that this wasn’t because of any personal feelings.

It was just because of politics. Otherwise, he had no reason to think about the princess.

Like the others, he always kept an eye on the imperial family, so he knew of the recent events.

He heard that Cayena collapsed because of an allergy and that all the ladies-in-waiting were banished at the order of the Emperor.

In addition, he heard that Prince Rezef was placed on probation.

‘They say she petitioned for the prince for three hours and fell from kneeling for so long.‘

Then, the Emperor temporarily transferred the authority of internal affairs to her.

Now, the aristocrats were debating whether this was planned or merely a coincidence.

Raphael believed it was all according to Cayena’s machinations.

‘It isn’t widely known because the public was distracted by the princess, but one of the bridal candidates has disappeared, just as she predicted.’

The Avon county was absorbed by Archduke Heinrich because they could not pay their debts.

The incident was far less entertaining than the excitement at the Imperial Palace, so people only talked about it for a moment before it was quickly forgotten.

Raphael was walking along the aisle and found a familiar form.

‘It’s the princess… And is that the son of the Gillian family?’

There was no one on the path except for them.

But something about the atmosphere was strange.

There was a sense of coerciveness in Gillian’s expression as he approached the princess.

Moreover, it didn’t look good as he took a threatening step toward Cayena.

Raphael, who slowed down his pace, started walking quickly again.

Gillian stretched out his hand toward Cayena, and she stumbled back.

If it went on, she would fall over.

Bam!

Raphael quickly grabbed Cayena into an embrace. A subtle scent arose from her.

“Are you all right?”

~~~