Having hastily fled from the dining room and into a random hallway, Regina found herself lost, confused, and deeply nervous that she might not be able to find a potential escape route before some lurking assassin found her.

She had had a single glimpse of red hair the third time she had circled the same hallway complex and attempted to follow the person in the butler outfit, only to find herself even more hopelessly lost.

‘By the blood,’ Regina thought in increasing panic and annoyance, ‘were the architects behind this place inspired by bees?!’

Before she could turn back and try to navigate the complex series of corridors linking all the different rooms of the royal palace, Regina found herself stumbling directly into the path of someone with the same brilliant, blood-red hair of the butler she had been attempting to follow.

However, this person was dressed as a maid.

Blinking, she timidly asked the servant, “Were you not just wearing a butler’s outfit?”

The servant just smiled and said, “Perhaps. Memory is a strange and changing power, is it not?

Before Regina could say anything else, the servant bowed and said, “Please follow me to the tea parlor, Lady Regina. You have yet more people to meet.”

Before Regina could wonder how the servant knew her name, she was walking down a strange hallway that she had never previously noticed…

…that suddenly opened into an outdoor parlor.

Twisting to thank the servant for their service, she was shocked to realize both the hallway and the servant had vanished.

Disconcerted, Regina turned back to the parlor in front of her…

…only to find herself in front of all the nobles she had seen in her first vision, all bowing to her in unison.

“Please,” Regina spluttered as she saw the downturned heads of Dukes Neville and Kuzey, Marquesses La Belle and Poisson, and Lord Robin Buren as they paid respects to her new position as a soon-to-be-princess. “I-it would please me greatly if you were to rise. I hope to establish friendships with all of you and your families!”

After all, the more “friends” Regina had, the more valuable it would be to keep her alive… and the less time she would be alone and vulnerable to assassins.

Robin was the first to rise out of his bow. As he did so Regina could have sworn he even winked.

“Then friends we shall be,” Robin cheerfully said. “I could never refuse the friendship of such a lovely and lively lady!”

“Do try to repress your instincts to flirt with our future princess,” Duke Neville said, sighing. “Lady Regina, please do not take offense at anything that comes from the mouth of Lord Robin. He would flirt with a plank of wood if it was shaped sufficiently like a woman.”

“That was one time,” Robin responded, brow twitching a little, “and it was not my fault that you shaped the tree to look so… buxom.”

As Duke Neville raised his hand to his brow to massage it, Robin turned to Regina again and smiled.

“Do not worry, my dear princess. No one could ever mistake you for anything but the reason why Prince Artem is the luckiest member of the royal family.”

Regina felt a furious blush spread across her face… a blush that faded fast when the rest of the noblemen began scrutinizing her.

Unfortunately, even if Robin Buren was willing to be kind, the rest of the noblemen were far less… supportive.

“Have you ever thought,” Marquess Poisson asked, “of incorporating more fish in your diet? Fish oil would give your hair a little more… luster. Perhaps you could even massage it into your skin nightly.”

“If she does that,” Duke Kuzey thoughtfully noted, “then she had better take care it is the right kind of fish. If a feet fish helps soften skin, it is only to better penetrate that skin with their teeth.”

Before Regina could think through what that even meant or worse, have another traumatic flashback memory to that hideous rose-gold feet-fish mask grasping her corpse in her last vision –

Marquess La Belle interrupted, with a sharp and condescending click of his tongue.

“No,” the beautiful red-haired man snapped, even as he stared at Regina in abject dismay. “You are all fools! Why try to prescribe a long-term solution to an immediate problem? No amount of oil from feet nor fish will help her dull complexion at tonight’s ball. What she needs is this.”

Then, to Regina’s horror, he pulled out and then opened a small compact full of face powder –

Face powder that could be laced with anything.

“Hold still, Lady Regina,” Marquess La Belle said with a terrifying look in his eyes. “I promise this will not hurt… much.”

Regina had no time to think.

With a level of gymnastic ability Regina had never realized she possessed, her hand shot out and…

…unerringly knocked the compact flying into the air-

Showering everyone but her with powder as she dove to the side to avoid the spray.

Regina stared at five of the most powerful noblemen in Carcosa that she had just covered in potential poison. There was only one thought left in her mind.

‘Perhaps if I actually kill off the entire backbone of the upper nobility, my family might help me live out of sheer joy at their new political position.’

Unfortunately, it soon became clear that nobody in this room was going to die immediately, thus meaning that Regina actually had to deal with the situation. In a fit of terror and panic, Regina borrowed the spirit of the only person who could help her… Artem at his most ridiculous.

“I am but a pale moon in the presence of so many beautiful suns!” she said, babbling but trying to desperately remember some of Artem’s more poetic lines. “Such color is only meant for people as – er – as already colorful as all of you! So… so… so what can I do but share the bounty from Marquess La Belle’s hand?!”

Regina braced herself, wondering how quickly she would die for not only the initial powder, but the insult of her stupid words. Would it be through a quick thrust or would someone challenge her to a magical duel? Which would be less painful?

As Regina closed her eyes in resignation, she suddenly opened them in shock as…

…she felt her hand grasped and then kissed by Marquess La Belle.

“My dearest princess!” the marquess cried, his eyes now alight with wonder rather than deep irritation. “I had no idea you valued beauty so deeply! Indeed…”

Now, the marquess sighed as he closed his eyes, seeming overcome.

“Even if you have no beauty of your own,” Marquess La Belle tenderly said, “you can still see it in others, particularly me. My dear princess, even as you are as plain as a piece of paper, your discernment makes you worth cultivating.”

“Er,” Regina replied, managing a tight smile. “How very… kind of you to see that in me.”

“Indeed!” Marquess Poisson cried, coming to hold Regina’s other hand as she now turned to him in dumbfounded shock. “Your eloquence is far beyond what I expected. If your schedule allows in the days to come, please do visit one of our parties!”

Apparently feeling left out, Duke Neville and Lord Robin then approached, though the former seemed far less enamored with Regina than the other victims of her panic.

“I, too, thank you for your compliment,” Duke Neville said dryly, “as well as the notion that my complexion needed powdering.”

Before Regina could apologize, Duke Neville snapped his fingers and Robin held out a lovely white flower that Regina had never previously seen.

“In return for my burst of color,” the Duke said, “I would have the pale moon accept an equally pale flower. What do you say, my lady?”

Thus, Regina was left to stare in horror as Robin’s flower-holding hand came ever close to her as her hands were held captive –

“I am the palest moon here,” the silver-haired Duke interrupted calmly as the rest of the room gawked at him. “So this present should belong to me.”

With those words, Duke Kuzey suddenly sent a wave of ice around the flower, pulling it toward him before crushing the poor bloom.

For a frozen moment, Regina could only stare at the Duke of the North’s casual display of power. As the shock slowly released its hold, Regina realized that Duke Kuzey was not only strange but also terrifyingly powerful… and dangerous.

Then, with an agility she had never seen in the man who mostly resembled a frozen pole, Duke Kuzey disentangled her hands from the two marquesses and spun her around three times, until she was away from all the other nobles the room contained.

Turning to Regina with unblinking eyes, the Duke Kuzey whispered, “Even if you are unlike a three-headed raccoon and cannot turn your head in all directions for attacks, I admire how well you twist. It is entertaining. Therefore, I am going to give you a chance to prove yourself agile.”

As Regina stumbled back in shock, Duke Kuzey turned around, bowed to the rest of the nobles and said, “While our future princess occupies herself with the rest of her preparations for her ball, I have prepared a sign of friendship for my fellow lords.”

With a flourish, Duke Kuzey produced two blades made of glittering ice for himself… before making copies for every other man in the room.

“Tell me,” Duke Kuzey said with soft, silky menace. “Have any of you gentlemen heard of the Northern custom of sword dancing?”

On that ominous note, Regina decided to take advantage of the distraction and flee.

It was only once she had entered the convenient archway that she realized she was back in the same strange hallway that had vanished before her previously. As she tried to determine how that had happened, it was less of a surprise when she looked up and the same elegant but eerie red-headed servant was standing in front of her once more.

“My lady,” the servant, now a butler once more, said softly. “If you would please follow me, Prince Artem and his… special guests have been waiting for you and time is a terrible thing to waste.”

“Special guests?” Regina cried. “Who? What? When? Where? How do you change outfits so quickly?!”

The servant did not answer and Regina followed as if her feet were moving on their own.

“I know,” she said softly, “that time is precious, but what can I do when I have so little of it?”

For the first time, the servant paused in their stride and looked back at her, golden eyes flashing.

“Perhaps,” they said mildly, “you need to find the time that was taken… and take it back.”

As Regina stared in utter horror, the world seemed to shift around her and her head ached and her eyes closed…

When she re-opened her eyes, Regina frowned.

“What was I doing?” she said.

Shrugging, she continued forward into the strangely familiar garden.

“Perhaps,” she said with a soft smile, “I do have time to smell the flowers.”

Author's Note: Thank you for tuning into another chapter of our story! We're delighted to see you here... and we wonder if you managed to note which Save the Villainess character made a cameo in this chapter...?

Also, if you want to know what the illustrious (and very canny, beneath his quirky exterior) Duke Kuzey looks like, look up Izel Kuzey of Save the Villainess. Izel is this Duke Kuzey's descendent and they share more than a few similarities... including long silver hair and striking cheekbones. I think Regina can be forgiven for being flustered in his presence - even if she doesn't wish to marry him for fear of feet fish!

See you on Friday for more shenanigans, friends. Regina may have outwitted her assassin so far but there's still a garden to navigate and an engagement ball to attend. She's hardly out of the woods yet...!

(P. S. Are you following Save the Villainess' precampaign page to get notified about our game demo as soon as it releases? We have over 900 followers and counting... so please feel free to join us!)

♥ Kickstarter Precampaign Page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/565568843/save-the-villainess-an-otome-isekai-roleplaying-game