The Villainess Turns the Hourglass

Chapter 1

“Make her raise her head.”

At Cain’s command, someone grabbed Aria by the hair. A rough grip pulled at her blood-stained locks and forced her head up. Her once beautiful blonde hair had been dirtied by the mud and was now filthy and wiry, like a pig’s bristles.

“You already know your crime.”

Aria remained silent. She was too exhausted to answer. Even if she had the energy, she wouldn’t have been able to speak with her tongue already cut from her mouth. She couldn’t even think of repenting through the pain, which was exacerbated by the salt that had been poured onto the bleeding stump that had once been her tongue.

She struggled to force her swollen and bruised eyes shut. They had once been a beautiful green that captivated the hearts of men, but now they were dull, like the eyes of a dead fish. All she could do now was wait for death.

“Dear Brother, I have one last thing to say to Aria.” The saint, who had suffered at the hands of this villainess countless times, walked daintily onto the public execution stage. The saint had forgiven Aria for falsely accusing her of thievery, as well as for pushing her down the stairs, after which she had merely smiled and claimed she was glad she hadn’t been more injured. Even this time, when Aria poisoned her, the saint must have said that it was all right. Everyone gathered there agreed on that.

Cain shook his head. “I can’t allow that.”

“Please. There is something I must say to her.”

How can she be so kind and benevolent to such a wicked woman, even after all the suffering she has endured? Cain wondered. There was no way anyone could resist the saint’s teary-eyed request.

Cain sighed and nodded to Mielle, who looked as delicate as a wildflower as her shoulders trembled. She approached Aria almost silently, her fragile body seemingly incapable of making much noise.

“I’ve been keeping this to myself for so long, Sister. Now that this is the final opportunity… I thought I ought to tell you.” Mielle kneeled in front of Aria, dabbing at the glistening tears in her eyes with delicate fingertips. Everyone in the audience grew tense, ready to jump to her aid if necessary.

The saint reassured them with a gentle smile and then brought her lips to Aria’s ear. To all the onlookers, she was simply a kind girl delivering comforting words to a wicked woman before she died. However…

“You poor fool,” Mielle whispered. “Was it fun being manipulated by my maids all this time?”

Aria’s eyes bulged in shock. She struggled to turn her stiff neck and look at Mielle, who smiled graciously. The saint looked pure and fragile, like a delicate and beautiful blossom. Aria blinked furiously, trying to focus and make sense of what she had just heard. With her tongue cut out, she couldn’t even ask Mielle what she meant.

The saint was kind and benevolent, however. Seeing the confusion on Aria’s face, she explained, “The maids who pushed you to do those bad things and assisted you were my maids. It was all done to ruin your reputation and lead you to this moment.”

Aria couldn’t even show her shock.

“Since this is the last time we’ll ever speak, I’ll tell you the truth,” Mielle continued. “Ever since you and that harlot mother of yours showed up, I’ve wanted to kill you, as painfully as possible. The two of you were a disgrace to our family, and I wanted you gone.”

Mielle couldn’t stop a small chuckle from escaping her lips. She had evidently been waiting for this moment for years. She gave Aria a bright smile like she was fighting the urge to begin dancing. That glee, invisible to anyone else, was like a dagger in Aria’s chest.

“I considered poisoning you like I did your mother, but decided against it. That wouldn’t have been any fun. So instead, I gave my maid the poison intended for you and had her put it in my cup. I didn’t drink it, of course.”

“Agh… Ahhh!” Aria tipped forward and fell onto the platform. She twisted her body with all the remaining strength she could muster, but it was a futile effort. Crimson tears flowed from her eyes as her blood vessels burst. Unable to speak, all she could do was continue to wail.

Now that she had said everything she wanted to say, Mielle rose to her feet. She returned to her seat, far from the stage, sadness written across her face once more. “I so enjoyed our time together. It breaks my heart to think that you will no longer be with us, Aria…”

Mielle was, by all appearances, a saint weeping for the fate of the wicked woman whom she had forgiven. But her hands covering her face only hid the joy that she could scarcely contain. Those assembled in the crowd hoped that the saint wouldn’t be pained or guilt-stricken over the death of such a villainess. They all worried for Mielle’s wellbeing.

Cain raised his hand high, his feelings of regret about Aria’s fate long since discarded. At his signal, a knight raised his sword high into the sky. Its keen edge, sharp enough to cut through bone in one swipe, shone brightly in the light.

As the reflection hit Aria’s bloody eyes, she felt as though she saw a strange vision. The light seemed to take the shape of an hourglass, its form lingering before her. She used the last of her strength to reach for it like a drowning person reaching for a rope, but the knight above her planted his foot on her shoulder and stopped her.

Finally, Cain dropped his hand. It was a signal for the knight to bring justice to the villainess before him. The sword swooped down, slicing through the air, and the slender girl’s head was separated from her body, unjustly extinguishing her life.

“Eeek!” Someone screamed as her head fell. As it rolled across the stage, the image of the hourglass in her vision rolled along with it.

It was strange. Aria could feel no pain or sadness. She watched the hourglass spin several times until it was unclear which way the sand was falling. I want to go back. Back… to a time when I could turn my life around… Like flipping an hourglass. In the few seconds it took her brain to register what happened, the hourglass spun. And then, as death took her, the light in her eyes finally faded.

* * *

“Aria! Aria!”

Crash!

The cup in Aria’s hand plummeted to the floor, shattering into a hundred pieces. A maid rushed forward from her position behind her to begin cleaning up the shards.

Aria stared blankly at the floor, then turned her attention to where she had heard someone calling her name. It was Mielle, worry plain on her face, staring at her from across the long, marble table. Even at this young age, she looked exquisitely beautiful and so sensitive that she might burst into tears at any moment.

Why does she look so young? The last that Aria could remember, Mielle was twenty-three years old. However, the face in front of her looked not much older than ten. Sitting next to Mielle was Cain, glaring at Aria with a frown. He, too, was a much younger man than she remembered—perhaps only seventeen years old.

Aria blinked in confusion, unable to understand what was happening. A cold voice from beside her suddenly interrupted her thoughts. “Aria, are you all right? I said your name several times, but you didn’t respond.”

“Mother?”

The voice belonged to her mother, who had died from a heart attack after being poisoned. She was a beautiful woman, whose voluptuous body and lips redder than a rose had captivated the heart of a nobleman. She was once again young and lively, and was scolding Aria over her table manners. She had never once displayed even a hint of motherly love to Aria since she was born.

Finally, Aria realized she was in a dining room. There was a mess of poorly cut blood-red meat on her plate. Her salad bowl had been cleared away, though bits of salad were still scattered across the table. I haven’t eaten this messily since I was humiliated on my sixteenth birthday… she thought.

Aria looked down and discovered the small, soft hands of a child. There was no trace of the scar she had sustained after throwing a bottle at Mielle. That had been the first bad thing she had ever done to Mielle at the age of fifteen. The glass bottle had been full of water and too heavy to go far, so it had landed at Aria’s feet instead of hitting her intended target. The sharp shards had wounded her foot and the back of her hand, and she had bawled loud enough for the whole manor to hear. She was goaded into it by a maid who Aria only now knew was directed by Mielle herself.

I had no idea at the time that all those maids were working for Mielle. After pushing her time and again to hurt Mielle, the maid eventually betrayed her, revealing all Aria had done and accusing her of being a villainess who had plotted all of her misdeeds herself. She was a foolish daughter of a courtesan who had trusted and confided in her maid, leading to her tragic downfall.

No way… Aria began to realize what this situation implied and looked around the table. Everyone around her bore more youthful faces, and even she herself had a smaller, more fragile body. Which meant…

I’m alive! It wasn’t a dream or a hallucination. She could tell because the broken glass cup had cut her leg, and it stung. When she lowered her hand to touch her leg, she could feel that it was wet, though only a little. When she raised her hand again, there was bright red blood on her fingers.

The maid who was cleaning the floor noticed and went pale as she bowed her head low.

“Aria?!” Her mother, sitting next to her, noticed as well.

Aria’s hand trembled. Her lips were dry, and the color had drained from her face.

As she stared down at her hand, several gazes turned to her in clear irritation. They all expected the rude girl to start screaming at the top of her lungs. It happened before when she had gotten hurt, so they were expecting more of the same reaction. Aria had worn away their patience so much by this point that no one had any sympathy for her.

However, Aria calmly closed her eyes. She pondered for a moment about the possibilities that lay before her, before opening her eyes with a determined expression on her face. “Jessie, please give me your handkerchief. My leg seems to be injured, so I need to have it taken care of. I’ll have to leave the table early. Please excuse me.”

Contrary to everyone’s expectations, Aria reacted calmly and evenly. She took the handkerchief her maid offered her, wiped her hands, apologized for the disturbance, and left. Everyone at the table sat there frozen, rendered speechless by her completely uncharacteristic reaction.