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🖤 The Villainess Just Wants to Sleep

Chapter 4: The Blade in Silk

> “She dances like a noble, but her blade speaks like a soldier.”

— Captain Rouren, Palace Instructor

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The courtyard behind the eastern barracks was quiet at dawn — meant for guards and squires, not for girls in silk slippers.

Yet there stood Kaelaira, only ten, a black ribbon tying back her raven hair, a wooden training sword in her hand. She wore a training tunic over her usual silks — though she’d stitched the seams herself in secret, to avoid drawing attention from the court seamstresses.

This was not part of her official education.

It was rebellion — silent and disciplined.

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Across from her stood Lord Eristen’s son, a smug noble boy two years older, and already arrogant with titles.

“You?” he scoffed. “You’re going to spar me? But you’re a girl.”

Kaelaira tilted her head.

> “I’ve never seen a sword care about gender before.”

The instructor stifled a laugh, then cleared his throat. “Begin!”

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At first, Lord Eristen's son lunged with confidence, swinging hard. Kaelaira stepped aside, graceful as if she were dancing through a royal hall.

She didn’t attack. She let him exhaust himself.

> One. Two. Three. Wild swings. Bad form.

She was counting his mistakes. Calculating his balance. Measuring angles with the mind of someone who’d studied both anatomy and blade theory under candlelight while other children slept.

He lunged again.

She sidestepped.

This time, she struck.

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CRACK.

The wooden sword slammed into the back of his leg.

He stumbled.

She pivoted and tapped the base of his neck with the tip of her blade.

The match was over.

He dropped his sword in shock. “You cheated!”

Kaelaira didn’t even blink.

> “I studied.”

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The instructor approached, frowning. “Where did you learn to move like that?”

Kaelaira offered a small smile.

> “Books. Observation. Practice.”

The boy stomped away, humiliated. But the guards nearby had seen. And so had the instructor. And soon, the whispers began to slither through the palace walls:

> “The concubine’s girl bested Lord Eristen’s heir.”

“She trains alone. They say she never rests.”

“She moves like a shadow — beautiful, silent, deadly.”

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Later that night, Kaelaira returned to her rooms with scraped palms and aching muscles.

Her mother noticed the bruises beneath her sleeves.

“Training in secret?” she hissed. “How common of you.”

Kaelaira kept her voice calm.

> “I am learning how to protect myself.”

“Protect yourself from whom?” her mother snapped.

Kaelaira met her mother’s eyes for the first time in days.

> “From everyone.”

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She didn’t cry. She didn’t complain.

She washed the sweat and blood off her hands and whispered to herself, just before sleep:

> “If I can’t rest now, I will make the world rest beneath me.”

And in the shadows of the palace, the villainess was being born.

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End of Chapter 4

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