Reborn as the Villainess?!

The Shadowy Figure

My routine as an infant was menial. Considering my heritage, I was surprised how much the maids here cared for me. Lettie treated me as if I were her own daughter. She made sure I went outside everyday, she didn't completely spoil me, and she even showed me some picture books. Surprising still—she even read to me.
From my past memories, it was to my understanding that servants didn't know how to read, although that may have been one of the reasons she was my maid. Did being a higher tier servant of the household of the De Villanova's mean that you were required to read?
I wasn't too sure.
Because every day was much the same as an infant, all the days I spent here began to blur together. The servants in the east wing became my world and I was never taken outside of the east wing.
My sense of time and place was also distorted. The sun here appeared slightly larger, and in the sky I could see the outline of other planets very close to ours. At night, there was many stars, and once a month, a second moon would pop out behind the main one.
Because I could see the moon from the cot where I slept at night, I knew that time was passing as I saw the second moon appear and reappear. Every time the second moon reappeared, my body also continued to grow.
Slowly but surely, I gained my awareness of my body and it's functions. It reached a point where my limbs no longer lagged and moved on command.
I also learned to speak for myself.
When I said my first words, it had been at dinner and I had been practising my vowels at night for ages.
"More please."
Lettie dropped the spoonful of food in her hand and it spilt over the table. Her eyes widened and she seemed to go into shock.
"Miss Edythe!" She suddenly gasped, regaining her composure. "Do my ears deceive me? You're much too young to be speaking!"
Oops.
I hadn't given any thought to that. Did that mean I was now to be labelled as a freak–
"A genius!" She exclaimed, breaking off my train of thought. "You must be a genius!"
Oh no.
I hadn't wanted to draw attention to myself. Not if I wanted to escape.
Escape meant I had to keep a low profile.
I thought it was normal to speak at this age? Perhaps the rules were not the same on this world.
Then I remembered how in the novel, it spoke of Kael's age. Although it had not given a specific number, it said that he had been one of the witnesses of the first war.
A witness.
How old did that make him?
A chill ran down my spine. How powerful did that make him?
Now I could understand the sheer wealth of this place. Especially if had been acquired over hundreds of years.
And it looked like he hadn't aged a day.
Had I somehow inherited that gene? Was it stunted growth?!
Well, it wasn't as if I could asked the maids now.
After that little incident, it then provided yet another reason for them to fawn over me. Attention was the last thing I wanted.
Apparently my first words had been reported to Kael, but I knew he didn't care. After hearing rumours from some maids that said apparently when a maid reported my first words to Kael, he said if she ever mentioned anything about me to him again, she would lose her life.
I felt sorry for the poor girl.
And as much as I tried to ignore it, there was a little piece of me that died inside. Perhaps it was the last remnants of Edythe's hope when she had been alive. Hope for a family.
That was now crushed.
I had never met my biological parents on earth, and my biological mother here had died before I met her, and my demon father hated me.
What was the point of even reincarnating?
Not only was I hated, but destined to die young as well.
At the hands of my father, no less.
Feeling somewhat flat, I walked out onto balcony attached to my room.
"Careful miss," Lettie warned as she followed behind me. Ever since I had learnt to walk, she had become my shadow, guiding me around the manor and picking me up when my little legs got too tired.
I silently cursed my puny legs.
"If it is too cold we will have to return indoors. I do not want you to catch a cold." She continued.
Outside the sun was slowly setting into the distant horizon. The lower it settled into the distance, the more colours blazed through the clouds, creating a golden trail that deepened in colour with every passing minute. The sunsets on earth could not compare to this.
Off to the side, I saw the two moons begin to emerge as the sky darkened steadily.
Yet another two moons had passed, and I was still nowhere near my goal. I had to be crafty.
Still, I could not help but sigh as I stood there.
The idea of trying to change fate was more daunting than I thought. I was going to have to fight against everything the novel had made me to be.
I would need to recreate Edythe De Villanova.
How was I meant to recreate the main antagonist? Her fate was pretty much already etched into a history that hadn't passed yet.
Later that night, I was listening to the maids chat as they cleaned up my already ridiculously clean room.
"We need cake!" One (Mary?) exclaimed. "If we're celebrating the new year right, there always needs to be cake!"
"And pudding." A smaller, more dainty maid with hair that seemed to float mysteriously around her. She looked like a fairy. "Pudding is a must."
My mind was blank.
One year.
I had already been here for almost a year.
Again, I was left dumbfounded over how much time flowed differently as an infant. Especially considering how I slept most of my days away.
Later that night, after the maids had left and I was finally on my own, I gazed out my window and into the moonlight.
A feeling of surrealness overwhelmed me. It was strange to think I had already spent almost a year here. I was unsure as to what time of the year I originally came here, but I knew it had been towards the beginning, judging from the festivals I had heard the maids gush about.
One year. In the world of a novel.
Every day I went to sleep, it felt as if I would wake back up on earth, alone again, in reality.
Yet, every morning, I woke up to sun pouring through a large bay window into a room grander and more regal that anything I could have ever imagined. Every morning I woke unbelieving that I was still here, and a child at that.
I don't know when I fell asleep, but I must have drifted off because I found myself waking up to a feeling of tight pressure around my neck.
Suddenly, I was fully awake.
I couldn't breathe.
I couldn't move.
I was stuck.
My eyes flew around the room in a panic.
Is this it? Is this how I die? Not at nineteen, but at only three years old?
I was dying.
I could feel it. Energy was leaving my limbs, and my mind was turning fuzzy.
Was this SIDS? Sudden Infant Death Syndrome? I couldn't think properly.
Dimly, I thought I saw a shadowy figure by my bay window. The moonlight cast a long, dark shadow across the entire room, straight to my cot.
Who was it?
An assassin?
I couldn't be sure. But I was positive that Kael had plenty of enemies.
With what little air I had left in my lungs, I let out a smirk.
Fine. Better to die from an assassin than in a setting of public humiliation. Have at it then!
The pressure suddenly wavered and I was able to suck in a tiny, involuntary breath.
That small breath spread like fire throughout my body, oxygenating my muscles and limbs and giving more life to my brain.
What was that?
Suddenly the darkness and cold tendrils surrounding me retracted. The tightness on my lungs unleashed, as if the hand holding them had unclenched.
Then I blinked, and the shadowy figure was gone.
My mind was too fuzzy to even comprehend the figure.
Had they run away?
Had they missed their window of opportunity? Whatever the reason, he was gone.
What I was left with was a now panicked mind, the more I realised how close to death is just come. Again.
Not only was being noble dangerous, but I could only imagine how much enemies Kael had.
Did they know he now harboured his own blood related daughter at his own house?
Did that make me a new target? I knew in the book that it mentioned many enemies trying to target Kael's life. But in every paragraph, it always mentioned how Kael made sure they died very, VERY slowly.
Great, my father was also a sadist.
That night, my mind was plagued with visions of darkness and me standing on a podium before hundreds of people. The same darkness closed in around me, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't run away.
Nor could I run away from the blood red eyes that watched me wherever I ran.
Eyes that were exactly the same colour as my own.