“That’s good to hear,” Lacius said with a smile.

“Please give me half of the sum as a down payment,” I replied.

“And now you’re even being polite.”

Money was one of the most important things a person needed for survival, wherever and whenever they are. I had been worried about how I would support myself if I couldn’t find a way to go back to reality, but now here he was offering 10 billion gauts!

I’ll just disappear once the heroine shows up! What could possibly go wrong? I won’t try to kill her, instead, I’ll even support their relationship. I’ll give them my blessing and leave, without a doubt. There’s no way we’d actually make it past the engagement stage, I’ll never actually marry him. It’ll be fall in no time. I’ll make the deal with him now, take the money, and then I’ll suggest that we call it all off by the time the heroine shows up and they can fall in love with each other. What a splendid deal for me!

I banged my fist on the table in excitement, to which I saw Lacius flinch.

“I will become the wife you want, but I want to add two more conditions,” I said confidently.

“And what might they be?”

“First, you will be on my side no matter what, and secondly, if you ever actually fall in love, you will let me go in peace, and you will make sure that no one can find me.”

The villainesses of this novel were no joke. They were stubborn enough to follow me to the ends of the earth for revenge, so it was important to make sure that I would be protected. Not only that, but I was also a art mage. If I wanted to live safely to reach a ripe old age, I needed someone powerful to protect me. Shaye was killed in the novel because she was framed and no one tried to help her.

Lacius looked like he was both worried about what I was going to do and impressed that I was being so open and straightforward. He seemed like he was hoping that I’d do something wild based on everything I had said.

“I’ll do anything you want, as long as I get to live my life,” he said finally.

“Don’t worry. Let’s get married and get divorced later! I’ll get rid of every woman who’d dare to approach you!” I shouted my promise with resolve.

If I manage to dissuade all those obsessive fans, it’ll be easier for him to marry the heroine later.

Ten billion seemed like a reasonable price to do this.

Ten billion! With that money, I could even buy several buildings! My dear mother, I will make my dream of owning many buildings come true in this world. Of course I’m sad, but I’ll enjoy the life I have here. Let’s meet again in the next life.

“Theobalt,” Lacius called.

“Yes, master.”

“Bring us the contract.”

It was time to sign the contract and seal our deal. A few conditions were added to the contract based on the conversation we’d just had. Now all I needed to do was sign to get my down payment of 5 billion gauts. The contract was extremely detailed, even down to the new identity and name I’d use.

And... what? He’s already opened up a bank account for me?

“You must have prepared this thoroughly while I was asleep.”

“Precisely.”

“Hmm, so my new name is... Titania Oberon. A fairy name, it fits me well. I like it.”

It was obviously a fake name. Anyone would be able to notice, which would end up making me appear even more mysterious. I licked my lips with contentment and said my new name a couple more times.

“You’re the daughter of a poor family of viscounts from the countryside. You lost your parents at an early age, so you came to the capital to find a job as a lady-in-waiting and ended up getting captured by those human traffickers,” Lacius explained my backstory.

“Oh, so it’s a Cinderella story.”

Lacius looked puzzled since he had never heard of Cinderella. I waved my hand casually and grinned at him.

“What I meant to say was that everyone would love this romance.”

They’d be dying to learn more. It was the most cliche love story. I immediately grew fond of the name Titania Oberon.

In my excitement, I reached out my hand to Lacius. “Let’s do our best.”

“Yes, let’s—”

Our hands were only an inch apart when he suddenly leaped over the table, held me in his arms, and pushed me down to the floor.

My ears started to ring, sounding like sirens were going off inside my head. I was stunned and it took me some time to realize what was going on.

“We-we’re under attack— Ugh!”

“Shh, quiet. The enemy’s still out there,” Lacius ordered.

I almost screamed, but he clamped a hand over my mouth. My heart was beating fast, which told me that I was at least still alive.

“What was that?” I gasped.

“Needles. Half are poisoned, half contain a sleeping drug.” Lacius raised his left arm that he’d covered my face with. There were thin needles embedded in it.

What... what the? I got goosebumps all over my body. So someone just threw those needles at my face? I’d barely avoided such a dangerous situation.

There’s only one person who’d take such evil measures to get rid of someone...

It had to be Villainess No. 1. No, that’s not important right now.

Suddenly feeling angry, I grabbed a quill from on top of the table. It had been dipped in ink, so I could use it right away.

“Turn around, please,” I ordered.

“What?”

“And take off your jacket.”

The sane thing to do in such a situation was to take cover, so Lacius couldn’t understand why I was telling him to take his jacket off. I, for one, had a fighting spirit, so I needed to get my revenge. I hadn’t expected to do the second most evil thing of my life inside a novel, but here I was, calmly using the quill in my hand. I drew on the shirt spread across Lacius’s broad back, simultaneously using it as a shield.

It has to be paper for the spell to work perfectly, but you have to use what you can get your hands on.

“The enemy’s still out there, right?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Then take this off.”

I pulled at his shirt. I’d already doodled on the back of it, so he wasn’t going to wear it again anyway. Lacius didn’t look very happy, but he clenched his teeth and pulled off his shirt. I rolled it into a ball and crawled to the window. He realized what I was trying to do, so he undid the window lock for me.

“Take this!” I yelled as I threw the shirt out the window.

It took about three seconds for it to reach the ground and spread out. Moments later, I heard screaming, as well as a lot of grunts and groans. It was music to my ears. I was pretty pleased with myself as I stood up. Lacius listened to the sounds coming from outside, and then he soon nodded.

“They’re gone,” he confirmed.

“I thought so.”

“What did you draw?”

Of course he wanted to know, but I just winked at him. “It’s a professional secret.” I couldn’t say I’d drawn butts being stabbed by flaming arrows. I had to maintain my dignity, after all. I gracefully put my hair behind my back and rested my hands on my waist. “Now, my 10 billion. You can’t forget.”

“I won’t, don’t worry. You know, when we are outside, you must call me by an appropriate term of endearment.”

His blue-gray eyes were finally filled with something akin to hope. He was excited that he finally had a way out of his awful situation. It made me feel good, so I raised my nose high.

“Husband, dear, honey, or darling. Pick one out of those four,” I said.

Lacius’s face turned gray at the sound of each.

* * *

I got the room with the best lighting in the whole manor to use as my bedroom. Its neat ivory and Irish blue interior felt extremely refined. I lay on the fluffy bed with new bedding. It felt like I was finally being compensated for everything I’d been through, and for once, I truly felt happy. I let out a big sigh, stretching my arms and legs like a lazy cat.

So many things had happened since I’d woken up. I’d been caught up in all that drama, and I was just beginning to feel like my head was working normally again.

A deal that’s worth 10 billion gauts...

I’d intended to not get involved with the male protagonist in any way, but Lacius had looked genuinely desperate. He had the face of someone who couldn’t handle the burdens of life and just wanted to disappear.

I don’t care how evil this world’s villainesses can be. I’m sure I can defeat them all. There’s no way I could refuse.

I let out a sigh and hugged my soft pillow.

Well, I’m sure they’ll try to kill me again.

But I knew well how to cope with various dangers, thanks to my mother’s special coaching. I knew that I was fearless. Even now, I didn’t feel like running away at all.

Why should I run anyway?

“Well, then let’s see what I can remember!”

With that, I took a quill and started to write in an empty journal that Theobalt had brought me.

—Villainess No. 1, Lady Peridot Krysiona, daughter of the duke.

—Villainess No. 2, Princess Dioles Teran, daughter of the emperor.

—Villainess No. 3, Lady Macy Amantine, daughter of the count.

I should work on the easiest targets first.

I started with Villainess No. 3. She was the president of Lacius’s fan club, which in and of itself wasn’t a problem. I thought hard but couldn’t recall anything memorable that she’d done, so she wasn’t even that evil.

What would she do? At best, maybe hire a hitman to assassinate me because she hates me so much?

In the novel, she did no more than harass the heroine in a pretty mild manner. She poured her drink on the heroine’s shoes to ruin them, and invited her to a fake picnic. Once she lied to the heroine about the theme of a party and made her the laughingstock of the group. The worst thing she did was order her fellow fan club members to ignore the heroine. They pretended not to hear her no matter what she said, treating her like a ghost. In short, Macy bullied her.

She also did exactly the same to Villainess No. 4, Shaye.

Well, luckily none of that will affect me at all.

I was used to being mistreated, and I didn’t get offended easily. I twirled my hair with a finger and nodded.

Next, Villainess No. 2. The princess.

For this one, it was all fun and games. Dioles didn’t care who it was, as long as they could entertain her. She liked unusual and quirky people, and she openly hated timid people with low self-esteem. Sadly, despite her splendid beauty, Villainess No. 4, Shaye, had every trait the princess loathed. I rather liked her for it because I thought that was relatable, but...

I need to work on winning over the princess first, if that’s possible.

Befriending a person of power will do you much good in any world, especially within a social hierarchy.

The princess was tormenting Lacius just because she was bored. I could kill two birds with one stone by making her stop bullying Lacius and getting her to like me. That would be the first step to achieving the ordinary life that Lacius yearned for. People would be much less interested in him once those papers stopped gossiping about him.

But the biggest problem is Villainess No. 1, Lady Peridot Kyrsiona. She’s the real deal.

She was truly evil. Befriending her was not an option. I’d hated her the whole time I read the novel. She kept trying to use Shaye. She had no morals. In other words, nothing was off limits for her, since she was the daughter of the duke. She definitely had to be behind today’s attack.

Needles with both deadly and sleeping poison... I remembered that Villainess No. 1 used those in the novel.

“Hmm, I could end up getting poisoned to death.”

Even so, to ensure my employer was able to lead a comfortable life, I had to confront these villainesses and all their dirty threats. It was even possible that I could somehow lose my ability to use art magic. I needed to do as Lacius said, but I also needed to survive with the least amount of damage.

I rolled over on my stomach and clicked my feet together as I thought intently.

—1. Recruit the powerful princess to my side.

—2. Make a strong friend who knows how to fight.

I wrote those down. There was only one person I could think of who could fill the second role.

Sir Siontine Adeles, the heroine’s aide and biggest supporter. She wasn’t one of the villainesses, but she was an important female character. She also happened to be a great warrior, as she’d been knighted through nothing but her skills. She had a temper, so it wasn’t going to be easy to win her favor, but it was better than nothing. Plus she was a colleague of Lacius’…

Then, a voice from outside brought me some pleasant news.

“Miss, I’ve brought you a late-night snack.”

I leaped to my feet at the word snack and ran to the door. The butler looked as neat as he had been in the daytime. As there were only two servants in the manor, he had to do all kinds of chores until late in the night.

I took the strawberry cake he’d brought me and smiled brightly. “Thank you, Theobalt!”

“It’s nothing. You need to take better care of yourself, miss,” he said with a smile before pouring me a cup of tea that would help me fall asleep.

I put my nose to the strawberry and sniffed. It didn’t seem any different from the strawberries of my world.

“You seem to be a very positive person, miss,” Theobalt said calmly.

I gave him a puzzled look, still holding the cake. “Huh? Is that an insult?”

“No, it’s a compliment. You’ve been through a lot, so I’m glad you remain so positive despite it all.”

He managed to not directly mention the fact that I had been captured, trafficked, and sold as a slave.

Well, most people would need therapy, be bedridden, and would probably be deathly afraid of others after going through something like what I did.

That was probably the normal response, but I felt fine, at least I thought so. Drama and chaos were my own coping mechanism to get over the huge trauma. I hadn’t been able to take a proper break so far because new things kept happening, so all of this still didn’t feel very real yet.

“I’m really happy that you are so positive. My master has suffered a lot, which has made him become cold and blunt. I believe you’d be able to help him.” The old butler smiled kindly.

Lacius had fired all the servants and maids except for Theobalt and Maynard. They must have had a lot of trust in each other.

I brought my fork into Theobalt’s line of sight.

“Mr. Theobalt, look here.”

“Please call me Theo.”

“Okay, Theo. You see this fork in my hand?”

“I do.”

“From now on, if anyone dares to mess with my client, um, I mean my darling...” With an innocent smile, I stabbed the strawberry on the cake in two. I stabbed it, again and again, until only a mush remained. Then, I put it in my mouth and swallowed. “No matter who they are, they’ll end up just like that.”

Needless to say, it meant more than a thousand words.