This Villainess Wants a Divorce!

Chapter 3

I felt my eyes fly open.

“It’s been decorated like this for now, but this is my room, and the bed you’re lying in is my bed,” said Caesar. “I’ve lived here for over ten years! I do not want to have to move a corpse from my room. Especially a twelve-year-old girl’s corpse!”

U-um... Pardon me, Your Highness, but...

I sat up to at least try to explain myself, but Caesar already had his back to me. He walked away before I could even open my mouth, grasped the doorknob, and then offered an ultimatum.

“This is the last day I’ll let this go. Go back to your palace before sunup.”

“Hey, wait!”

Caesar slammed the door before I could even say anything.

“Uh...”

He seemed to have interpreted what I’d said as if I was bemoaning him saving me when I wanted to die. From that perspective, it made sense that he was angry. Here he was, getting brief bouts of rest on the sofa after he had resuscitated a girl he should consider an eyesore, and yet, when she woke up, she had asked, “Why did you save me?”

If I were in his shoes—perhaps I had just prevented someone from jumping off the roof—and they asked why I’d saved them, I would be mad too.

Should I apologize? I curled up and wondered if I had done something wrong.

Then, there was a knock at the door. Was he back? I responded happily, deciding that I would explain myself better.

“Come in!”

The door clicked open. To my disappointment, several ladies-in-waiting entered the room. They wore the same hair, the same clothes, and the same expressions on their faces.

They gathered in front of the bed and knelt. It was a strange sight.

“Forgive us, Your Highness!”

“Huh?”

What are they going on about? I looked at them with consternation.

“Your Highness seemed so deeply asleep... that we thought it would be wrong to wake you.”

“It was presumptuous for us to assume that Your Highness was not suffering from a serious illness. We thought some rest would suffice.”

“Forgive us.”

“We have done something worthy of death!”

“Oh, uh, sure...”

I’d assumed they had left me alone because they found looking after me tiring. The empress managed most of the palace affairs. Naturally, most of the ladies-in-waiting and manservants in the palace worked for her.

I was in a sort of ambiguous position.

Because the empress had chosen me, one could say that I was on her side. Yet, was I actually important to her? The answer was no. I was the wife of the first prince, who would be ousted from the palace once the empress’s son, the second prince, became the heir.

And it wasn’t like I had any reliable family or connections to speak of. Carnelia was basically a noble only in appearance. I was a young girl with no chance for power, and they had neither the reason nor obligation to tend to me.

Nevertheless, I was still a princess, and their inattention had caused me to fall seriously ill. This was a grave offense that could have affected their later promotions. And that was why they were begging on their knees when they otherwise wouldn’t even look at me.

What should I do?

My goal was to divorce quietly and live a peaceful life. In order to achieve this, I couldn’t cause too much trouble while I was here.

But... should I have let them off the hook?

Regardless of the actual circumstances, I was the third highest-ranked woman in the country. They had neglected me just because I was sleeping. If Caesar hadn’t found me at death’s door, I might have actually died. This should never have been allowed to happen, but what did my position in the palace actually amount to?

If I forgave them with reduced pay for a few months, would they be grateful? Obviously not. They would only disdain me more.

If what happened today was passed off as a minor happening, worse would happen later on.

It would be better to take issue with it now. The main problem was that I had very little power in the imperial palace—this very incident was proof of that. These weren’t even the ladies-in-waiting from my palace.

The reality was that the empress had the most power over the palace personnel. Thus, I only had one choice. I had to borrow the tiger’s influence.

I went up to the lady-in-waiting at the very front.

“I will be telling Her Majesty the Empress about this in full detail.”

The ladies-in-waiting’s heads shot up. They looked incredulous. I knew it.

Now I was sure I’d made the right choice. Clearly, they had assumed that some gentle words would be enough to assuage some girl who’d just come up from the countryside.

“This was an attempted assassination of an imperial family member.”

I didn’t know the laws in this world all that well, so I wasn’t sure if this was true. However, what mattered more was that they probably didn’t know the laws well either. They visibly paled.

“An imperial family member nearly died due to your inattention. I am the first prince’s wife, chosen especially by Her Majesty the Empress. Her Majesty chose me because she needed me. Do you know what that means?”

The empress had chosen me to be her pawn. She could throw me away whenever it pleased her, but now was not that time. If I died randomly right now, she would need to find another princess. Yes, this land was abundant with noble daughters whom she could use as her pawns, but planning an imperial marriage was no easy feat, even for the empress.

What was more, if I had died, this would have given the prince sufficient reason to turn down a marriage. He could say that he was too devastated by the loss of his first wife to remarry.

“I will tell Her Majesty everything about today. But wait, I assume she has already received a report. Her Majesty knows everything that occurs within the palace walls. She will be the one to determine your punishments.”

“Y-Your Highness! P-please forgive us! Just this once!”

“Please forgive us, Your Highness!”

The ladies-in-waiting clung to my feet in despair. The way they trembled at the mere mention of the empress made it clear to me how much influence the empress had over the palace personnel.

Despite the odds being against him in the novel, Caesar managed to turn the tides of the war around and win in the end. He had that protagonist buff.

“Her Majesty will decide your punishments. Begging me will not change anything.”

I shook off their hands and returned to bed. I was suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion.

“My head still hurts. Could you all leave so I can rest? What if I fall gravely ill again?”

“Y-Your Highness...”

The ladies-in-waiting looked up at me with tears in their eyes, but I had no eyes to spare for them. They were, after all, probably the daughters of low-ranking noble families that had some connection to the empress. They would not actually be beheaded for the attempted assassination of an imperial family member.

When they realized that no amount of cajoling would make me look at them, they bowed and left the room. I relaxed as soon as the door closed with a clack.

“Ugh.” I sighed and slumped over the bed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

I bet those girls are frantically running around and trying to use all their connections to minimize their punishments. What should I do now?

My fever had gone down, but my thoughts were still in chaos.

* * *

I received a report on Caesar’s activities for the day as soon as I returned to my own palace. I ordered a servant to tell me this information, and he just blinked at me, as if he didn’t understand why I would ask. I made my face as expressionless as possible and pressed him. I said something about how it only made sense for a wife to want to know what her husband was up to all day.

Ugh... embarrassing...

Having a husband at the age of twelve was ridiculous enough, but the fact that I had to say these things...! Ultimately, I managed to get Caesar’s daily schedule.

“He has a swordsmanship lesson in the afternoon.”

I questioned why the male imperial family members in these fantasy novels always had to learn swordsmanship even though it wasn’t like they were going to be sent to the front lines of war. Caesar would, of course, but he was a special case.

Regardless, his swordsmanship lesson would be a good time for me to approach him. I couldn’t do that during his history lesson. Imagine if I barged into a quiet room in the middle of his studies—that would be embarrassing. It would be much easier to bump into him outside during his swordsmanship lesson.

“Annie,” I said.

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“Is there still ice in the basement?”

“There is still enough stored up.”

“Good. Have the head chef make fruit sorbet by this afternoon. Enough for multiple people.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Oh, and help me prepare to go out. Immediately.”

Annie hesitated. “Um, may I ask where you are planning to go? You don’t have anything scheduled this morning.”

“I am going to go to the empress’s palace.”

“Pardon...?”

Annie’s eyes grew wide, and her jaw dropped. Her face seemed to ask why I was going to see the empress. I looked her in the eye and grinned.

I was the princess, and I had one good reason to visit the empress in her palace.

“I must tell her good morning.”