Reincarnated As Both The Villainess And Heroine...?

You Know, I Might Prefer Shiro Now

The key to remaining calm in front of a person with an incredible aura was to drink tea. Lots and lots of tea. I'm probably going to regret this half an hour later, but for now this was the best I could do to numb my nerves.

The crown prince of the Kingdom was slightly older than me, by about two years. Nevertheless, that still made him a kid seven years of age. Although, to him, it must be a significant gap because currently he was looking at me with a spiteful expression.

With those blue eyes that pierced one's soul, he continued to stare at me mockingly, all the while pursing his thin lips in a rather spine chilling manner. Occasionally, he would run his hand through his blond hair while sighing.

He was the typical prince charming of fairy tales, the individual who was both handsome and talented. Even as a child, his confident aura never faded. Well...almost the cliche prince. After all, you would expect a gentle and romantic personality out of prince charmings.

Whoever it was that designed the male leads, they had awful tastes. It was like they cooked an egg, and decided it wasn't good enough on its plain old self, so they dumped all the world's sauces onto it. In other words, causing trouble when none could be found.

"Hmph," he finally broke his silence, albeit with a rather haughty tone of voice. "I expected someone much more 'visible' with how father had described your house. What a disappointment, you barely display your authority of a noble."

I replied, keeping my shaking hands concealed as much as possible, "I wouldn't dare to hold such arrogance in front of His Highness."

The prince snorted, "Naturally. You are but someone who lost to a commoner of the Sakura Empire. You are only still here out of consideration of your father's achievements. I'm surprised you even dare to sit at the same level I am. Perhaps you should use the cold hard ground?"

So what exactly do you want from me!? Display pride, or display shame!?

"If that's what Your Highness wants, then—" however, I was interrupted.

"Forget it," the prince waved his hands dismissively. "To take such abuse so submissively...are you sure you are the daughter of that duke? How boring. I expected you to be more cold. Someone much more worthy of my attention."

Well, I'll give you that one, prince. You were right. This probably wasn't how Elizabeth would have acted. However, there was one major problem. I had no idea how Elizabeth acted in this scenario.

As far as I played into the game, there was no scene about Elizabeth and the prince's first meeting. Even if there was, it was only mentioned in passing. So, how would Elizabeth react to the prince? As indifferent and cold as usual? Well...it's more complicated than that.

As one probably have inferred by now, the prince would soon become Elizabeth me's betrothed. All the way up until Rin me potentially swings in and captures the prince heart with her—or should I say me?—heroine charms.

Thus here lies the problem. Elizabeth Bathory, she...Well, let's just put it this way. Elizabeth, as much as a monster she was, still was capable of love. It was obvious from the way she treated the prince, and how desperate she would appear if the player went down the prince's route. Tragic in a certain way, but we as the players lost sight of sympathy since she was the villainess.

So should I act lovey dovey? Or did Elizabeth's love for the prince appear later down the road? The latter seemed like the most plausible answer, but I didn't want to risk messing with the continuity of the world.

The optimistic outlook was that since this scene was not depicted in the story at all, it was a possibility that this meeting wasn't something important to the overall plot. If that was the case, my actions now wouldn't matter as much as, say, interfering with my mother's death.

Well, in the end, it was still optimism. It was something difficult to handle, because if I reacted too extremely, it could potentially change things in the future. As a result, I decided to act in factory default mode. That is to say, I would react neutrally to the prince's actions and words.

"Do you not feel any ounce of regret? Humiliation? Sadness? Why are you here staring at me silently?" oops, I was accidentally lost in my thoughts, as well as dealing with Shiro on the other end.

"Do you want me to feel something, Your Highness?" I answered in a robotic manner.

The prince clicked his tongue in annoyance, "Perhaps it's exactly because of this attitude that you didn't get chosen by the treasure. That your mother died."

Ugh. This guy was annoying. Even though I had claimed to dislike lovesick puppies, but I would really prefer a clingy boy than this arrogant brat right now. Why in the world were all male leads like this? I get it's about character development and all, but still...

"Perhaps so."

"Oh? So you do not care about your mother?"

"I never said such a thing, Your Highness."

"Then why are you so indifferent about her death? Because you received no love from her? What a tragic childhood, hm?" the prince continued to provoke me, as if he was taking sport in trying to break my neutral expression.

"It's not like Your Highness was raised personally by Her Majesty the Queen, either," even Lily, who was standing at the edge of the room without a movement prior, twitched at my words.

...Oops. The crushing silence that followed informed me that those words that I uttered without any sort of processing were something that could cause my head to leave my neck. I did not intend to shoot back at him, but it appears he had taken offense...

"H-heh...?" the prince was shaking slightly, which only caused me to down another cup of tea in a panic. "So you weren't just a mere emotionless doll I thought you to be...T-this is the bare minimum, after all."

Your eyes are swimming, Your Highness! Did that quip of mine really do critical damage to you!? Stay strong, okay!? I don't want to be executed before I turn six!

The prince suddenly sprung up from his seat, then pointed at me with his index finger, "Rejoice, Elizabeth Bathory!"

Eh? Me?

"I have deemed you to be interesting and worthy of my attention!"

It's not very cool when you say such a thing with a reddened face, you know...

"You are no longer a mere insect in my eyes, mongrel!" he said as he scooted closer to the door.

Oi, hold up. I'm a what now?

"Then I shall now go to inform father that you are an acceptable candidate!" his hands were already on the doorknob.

Wait wait wait! I don't think you realize what this meeting is actually for, prince!

"I don't understand why he wanted me to meet a girl, but I see now! Girls are such amusing creatures! Worthy of my friendship!" he continued trying to erase his embarrassment with laughter.

Gah!!! He really didn't understand what this meeting was!!! Stop, prince! Stop!!! I know we'll get engaged sooner or later, but it shouldn't play out like this! I apologize for that snarky remark, so please hold on!!! Don't g—ah. He left.

As I stared at the slammed door in disbelief, my facial expressions could only devolve into a series of twitches and cramps.

How...how did things turn out like this...? This wasn't in the game, you know. Who could have known that the prince was such an easy to tease person? That one remark was enough to do him in? That he was actually an innocent kid underneath that blinding pride? Above all else...

Please return my ideal image of the prince. I don't care if it's an arrogant brat, a lovesick puppy, or a handsome prince charming...anything was better than that surreal scene I had just witnessed.

Screw you, scenario writers. Screw you and all your unnecessary details of characters.