This Villainess Wants a Divorce!

Chapter 2

Now that he mentioned it, my cheeks did feel warm. Was that why my body felt so heavy? Because I had a fever?

I had engaged in heavy labor while wearing nothing but a thin dress during the chilly season of early winter. And, I had a child’s frail body.

“Give me back the blanket.”

Caesar didn’t respond.

“I’m sick. I have a right to rest longer.”

Caesar returned the blanket to me. I quickly buried myself in bed, worried he would change his mind. This is what simple happiness is. How fortunate that the high-class are able to enjoy beds like this.

“Call a lady-in-waiting for me on your way out. I should take medicine.”

Caesar didn’t respond. Instead, he nodded and left.

I closed my eyes and dozed off. I had only been awake for ten minutes, yet I fell asleep fast. I guess I really wasn’t in a good state.

Absentmindedly, I wondered whether I should stay awake until I was brought medicine. My logical side was yelling at me to keep my eyes open until I could take the medicine, but my heart whispered to go to sleep. Well, I’m sure she’ll wake me when she comes.

I fell fast asleep.

Several hours later, I was made to regret that decision.

* * *

It hadn’t been easy for me to adjust to this world. In my old life, I’d suffered a car accident, and then I’d suddenly awoken in this fairy-tale world. It would have been weirder if I had adjusted quickly.

I knew in my head that my original body had died and that I couldn’t go back. However, knowing that hadn’t made it easier to accept the reality of my new life in this world. It’d taken me a whole year to accept even a little bit of it. The next problem had come shortly thereafter—a marriage proposal had arrived from the imperial palace.

I’d had no choice in the matter. After all, I couldn’t change the novel’s sequence of events. All I could do was find a way to survive within the fixed timeline.

I wondered whether I should just be grateful that I wasn’t a slave in this classist society. I tried to think that way at least.

Ignoring everything else, Carnelia Easter was a noble daughter, and if I managed to negotiate a peaceful divorce with the prince, I could live the rest of my life peacefully.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to remain positive in every situation. For example, how was I supposed to feel when my (step)parents hadn’t hesitated to sell me off to the imperial palace at the age of twelve? Was I supposed to remain composed when the ladies-in-waiting of the palace were subtly rude to me?

In this world, I didn’t have parents. I didn’t have friends. I was made to become fully aware of this throughout the wedding preparations.

How would my life have been different if I hadn’t gotten into that car accident in my old world? I probably would have married an ordinary man in the next ten years. As a married couple, we probably wouldn’t have received fancy presents—we surely wouldn’t have been praised by our country’s people. Instead, I would have had friends and family who prayed for my happiness.

My family. My friends. My life in my old world.

My eyes stung when I thought about it all.

“What have you been doing for her to still be in this state? Did you even give her the medicine?”

“W-well... Her Highness kept sleeping, so...”

“So that’s why you didn’t call a doctor or give her medicine this entire time?”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness!”

I heard these voices penetrate the black space I was in, where I’d been devoid of sight and sound. My ears rang. I couldn’t tell who was speaking.

That angry voice... is probably the prince. The desperate one... is probably the lady-in-waiting. I don’t know her name.

My body felt strangely heavy. I couldn’t open my eyes. I couldn’t even move. It was like I had sleep paralysis.

How did I end up like this again? I went through my memories slowly. So the wedding happened, then I slept through the first night. When I woke up, the prince and I fought over the blanket...

Oh. That’s right. I had cold symptoms.

“Carnelia Easter! If you don’t want to become a dead princess the day after your wedding, you’d better open your eyes right now!”

Ugh, that despicable prince... I know you don’t like me, but is it that hard to speak more nicely? Do you have to talk that way? Still, it did occur to me that it would be embarrassing to go down in history as the princess who’d died from a cold the day after her wedding.

“If we don’t lower your fever now, you’re going to die!”

I think he wants me to get up and take medicine. I wondered why. I’d assumed he would be grateful if the wife the empress had forced him to marry ended up dying on her own.

At the same time, I considered the possibility that I might return to my old world if I died. This seemed like a remote possibility when I contemplated the amount of blood I had lost in the accident. But perhaps my original body had become a vegetable in some hospital, and if I died, I would wake up in my old world.

The more I thought about it, the more enticing and feasible this seemed. Let me just die here. Maybe when I wake up, I’ll see my mother crying with her arms around me. As I imagined this, I let all my strength leave my body.

Suddenly, my mouth was forced open, and a spoon was shoved inside. I tasted something terribly bitter.

I coughed.

The coughs exploded out of me.

Clearly, I was being medicated by force. Even if medicine was less advanced here, the taste was seriously awful. Horrendous.

Before I could complain, the spoon was in my mouth again. One spoon, two spoon. I couldn’t even taste the bitterness anymore. Only the most remarkable tastes are so strong that they numb the tongue.

“Will that be enough?”

“Her Highness’ fever should go down. I cannot vouch for more...”

“You quack!”

The sounds of multiple people quarreling continued to ring around my ears. Ugh, I’ve got my medicine now, so can you all just shut up? My head seemed to ache even more.

But soon enough, the sounds muffled, and it was silent once more. I wondered if I had actually died. I tried to move, but I was still motionless.

Was this death? I had died once before, but this had never happened. I should have taken medicine before sleeping earlier. Belated regrets washed over me.

But then...

“Jaehee.”

I heard my mother’s voice.

“Jaehee!”

I felt my eyes fly open. I floundered in the darkness, seeking my mother’s voice. It was this way... I know I heard her here...

Mom. I’m right here. I want to go back.

My fever was gone. I wondered if the medicine had worked or if I had actually died. My body, once so motionless, felt light. I advanced forward, feeling my way through the dark.

Mom, save me! I’ll be a good girl if I can come back!

“Jaehee!”

I heard my mother’s voice again. It’s this way. I ran madly in the direction of the voice. I saw a pinprick of light at the far end.

My old world was there. I knew it.

The dot of light grew bigger and bigger until it swallowed me. The overwhelming brightness seemed to burn my corneas. Once it faded, I could see the contours of shapes.

The first thing I saw was the face of someone with black hair. I couldn’t see their features clearly, but I had a feeling... I was back.

My mom was looking at me. Tears slipped down my face.

“Mom...”

I reached out for the blurry face.

“Am I back home...?”

Then. I fell back into the darkness of unconsciousness.

* * *

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying down in a red room.

I felt the silent irritation well up inside of me. I thought I had returned to my old world, but it had just been my imagination.

As I cast my eyes around the room, I spied Caesar nodding off on the sofa next to the bed. I could no longer deny my reality when I saw the prince—this was still the world inside the novel.

If this was how it had to be, I would’ve rather skipped those visions during my hallucination. I thought I had abandoned all hope already, but that had turned out to be wrong.

I pounded my fists against the bed and rolled around.

“What are you doing?”

Caesar was looking at me.

My movements must have woken him up. He was in a rough state, as if he hadn’t slept properly. Yet, befitting a protagonist, he was still handsome. Not that it was any of my business.

“I want to go back,” I murmured.

“What?”

The words had slipped out of me uncontrollably—I had thought them thousands of times since coming to this world.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Never mind. You wouldn’t understand anyway.”

I lay back down with the blanket over my head. I would never be understood, even if I tried to explain that I was actually from another world. Frankly, I would be relieved if such a confession didn’t label me a madwoman.

I had been so sure that I was over it—that I had emotionally dealt with my transmigration. Yet my thoughts were still so twisted. I had just heard my mother’s voice. Would dying actually have returned me?

The fever had made me delirious, but now that my reason had returned, I no longer thought the same way. It was probably impossible to go back. This was what I told myself, yet a part of me still held on to hope.

“I heard voices while I was asleep,” I said. “You told them to force-feed me medicine, didn’t you? I might have died if I’d been left alone. Thanks for saving me.”

Then, I couldn’t help but ask a needless question.

“But why’d you do it? Why’d you save me?”

Caesar didn’t respond.

I was actually curious. I was an obstacle in his way. He couldn’t form a marriage alliance with a powerful family because of me, and I could become the empress’s spy.

It would have been wiser for him to think of me as an internal enemy. Carnelia had basically tried to do as much in the actual novel. She had just been too stupid to actually succeed.

The prince should have been glad if the spy planted by the empress died of her own accord. Caesar had no reason to prevent my death. He would have gained more by watching me slip away.

Caesar seemed to understand what I meant. After a long silence, he responded in an unexpected way.

“Why... do you have to think in such black-and-white terms? I get that you miss home. Of course palace life is unfamiliar and hard, and of course you miss your mother. But it’s not like you can never see your family. You can always invite your direct family to the palace.”

What’s he talking about?