Act 1 – The Villainess Charlotte, or the Maid Juju

"That bastard's child."

On the day Charlotte was born, a maid in the Moden Marquis household uttered that with contempt. Even before receiving a proper name, it was a curse branded onto her like a baptism.

Thanks to that, she knew from a very young age that she had two mothers. The mother the girl knew was the Marchioness, but she knew that her real birth mother was someone else.

In truth, even if no one had told her, she would have realized it naturally. Unlike the beautiful Marchioness, Charlotte was, at best, ordinary. Her hair was like straw, and her nose was covered in freckles.

Why would her father, Marquis Moden, leave his beautiful wife to touch her lady’s guard?

Perhaps it was a feeling where he wanted to pet a stray dog on the road rather than his usual kennel pet that day.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left the woman carrying his child to die in childbirth.

The only bit of conscience the Marquis showed was officially registering Charlotte as his daughter. Whether he considered how the poor wife felt, suddenly having to take in a second child, is a matter of conjecture.

Anyway, thanks to her father’s penny-worth of pity, Charlotte didn’t fall into being a maid like other noble bastards.

She was a young lady. And unlike other young ladies, she had an extraordinary childhood.

The Marchioness outwardly treated her half-brother and her without discrimination but couldn’t erase her fundamental coldness.

It was impossible for the servants to like a child who was out of the madam's favor.

Unlike other noble ladies who started their lady-like education early on, Charlotte's education was somehow lax. Considering that the Moden Marquis family's territory was deep in the countryside, it was clear neglect.

In this situation, having friends was out of the question. Young Charlotte’s hobbies were dancing alone in the garden or secretly watching her half-brother's swordsmanship lessons.

She was quite confident in her physical abilities. Even if lace ribbons and shoe laces tied her as a lady, they could not suppress her reflexes that could catch even falling flower petals. A practice wooden sword her brother had impulsively swiped became her favorite toy from that day.

On gloomy days, Charlotte would go out into the garden with her sword. In fact, she went out even on non-gloomy days. When she twirled the sword on her tiptoes, the anxiety that was weighing down her, from years of being aware of her situation, would ease a little.

When she got bored of even that, she hid under flower vines and got lost in sweet and salty fantasies. The content was usually copied from picture books.

‘I am cursed and trapped in this mansion. Someday, someone will come and open the doors to this cage for me.’

Whether it was her birth mother’s spirit or a fiancé decided upon by the family, someone would definitely…

"Lotte. It is Prince Albert, the seventh prince. A lady does not look with open eyes."

...Appeared unexpectedly quickly.

Compared to the country bumpkin lady Charlotte, the prince, who was two years older, was such a handsome and melancholic boy!

Whether he was the thirteenth child of the late Emperor, who saw him in his seventies, or was completely pushed aside politically by his older brothers, or had been sent down to this remote corner as a princely territory.

Such difficult stories were not important to Charlotte at all. If she was a crow, Albert was a star. Indeed, his muddy blonde hair looked like a morning star in the fog.

"Y-Your Imperial Highness. I am Charlotte. It is an honor to meet you..."

"Don't be nervous, just call me Albert. We are the same age anyway.”

My goodness, he was even kind. He didn't have a cold gaze or a sharp tongue!

"There is nothing here, so it must be boring. Make sure you come visit often."

Did Albert know that those words were like salvation to Charlotte?

From that day on, Charlotte became a butterfly chasing after the star, Albert. She didn’t want to stay stuck like a spiderweb in the corner of the Marquis’s household anymore. The habit of visiting him whenever she felt upset had become a daily routine.

It seemed that the boy, who was in what was like exile, did not dislike the blind affection of a girl of his own age. He was always kind, and sometimes showed attention that even her parents had not shown.

“You’ve never even had formal training but you’re this good? Lotte, you have to take my lessons with me! I’ve seen some of my sisters handle swords but you’re beyond that. You might even be able to use aura!”

Me, a country bumpkin bastard child?

Charlotte had heard about aura. The power of the soul that is drawn from breathing in the atmosphere. However, she heard that it required a great deal of training and exceptional talent. Albert's excitement was bewildering.

In the end, Albert's insight was right.

Well, if he didn't have such great insight, he wouldn’t have been able to trample over all his older brothers and become Emperor.

As he reached puberty, he found it bothersome to be confined to the estate. From a certain day, he boldly started the habit of going into town in plain clothes.

In that countryside territory, Albert made friends regardless of their status, and discovered and led their talents.

They were all great friends. The repeated interactions turned into a gang before anyone knew it. The adults treated them like a neighborhood troublemaker gang, but even their careless games were fun.

Charlotte was always with them. Next to Albert, she finally made friends.

To her, who couldn't find a place in her family, the group was so precious.

When she got too excited and a surge of emotion hit her, she would tell him.

"Albert, you can become the Emperor."

In fact, around that time, she began to see the world a little more clearly.

The Emperor was over eighty years old and still alive. He was still invigorated by his accomplishments in unifying the continent, to that age. Far from letting go of power, he was deluded by nonsense about immortality and such things.

The fight for succession was getting more and more intense every day. The atmosphere where brothers would kill each other was complete.

Even the youngest prince, who was already exiled to the countryside, could not avoid it. If he wanted to survive, he had to become the Emperor.

Encouraged, Albert looked down at Charlotte with an indescribable expression. She could not know what kind of emotion it was, but,

"Lotte. If I become Emperor, I will place a pearl crown on you.”

Hot confessions followed every time.

Even though he had said it several times, the friends whistled.

"Here it is! Albert's poet side!"

"Empress, please do not forget your humble servants!"

“Ah, really. Shut up!”

Even as Charlotte yelled, Albert spoke earnestly.

“I’m not joking. You will always be by my side, and next to you will be an Emperor."

It was an expression of affection that no one had ever given to the bastard child. Her eyes getting hot, Charlotte vowed in her heart.

‘I would do anything for Albert.’

One night, in his bedroom, she also thought.

‘I would give anything for Albert.’

If only she could give him even a single strand of her shabby hair.

However, she was not looking for the pearl crown. Even to Charlotte, that was too much ambition.

She was just a country Marquis's daughter, and her origins were also uncertain and she wasn't beautiful. Due to her neglected education, her upbringing was not very good either.

What she was confident in now, and always had been, was dancing alone.

From a certain point on, Charlotte danced with a sword. A dance only for Albert.

Her singular goal left no room for distractions. Naturally, she became stronger.

Starting with preemptively killing the Second Prince who tried to harm Albert, she became the leader of numerous political assassinations and attacks, earning a terrible reputation.

She killed that person because he was dangerous. She killed this person because he might be dangerous. After cutting, stabbing, and chopping, she had cleared everyone out, and,

Albert finally became the Emperor.

The help of others was also significant. In the bright area of the surface, the abilities of her friends shone.

Perhaps history books would record it like this:

Irene, who was nothing more than a daughter of a butcher, had financed the cause with her extraordinary financial sense.

Pascalina, who was from a minority tribe, was exceptionally promoted to general.

Jonathan, who was a nuisance at the temple, gained the support of the religious community.

Dietrich, who was the third son of a court noble, did his best to unify the nobles.

However, it would have been much more difficult without Charlotte, who danced behind the scenes. In terms of merit, she was the most distinguished contributor.

“Charlotte, you have done a great service to get us this far. I’ll probably be in your debt for the rest of my life…”

One day, Albert, after his coronation, said while looking out of the window of his office.

Even as she felt he had become somewhat stiff, Charlotte smiled and answered.

“It was all for you, Albert. Call me Lotte like you used to."

“...Everyone else was awarded official titles. Do you want anything? Your contributions are mostly things that cannot be known by the public, but I'll do my best to handle it.”

At those words, she fleetingly thought of the pearl crown but shook her head.

"I don't need anything like that. If I can just keep helping you, Albert.”

“I see…”

Albert answered without looking back. His blonde hair, darkened by the backlight, had an even hazier and foggy color.

The world turned upside down a few months after that conversation.

"Assigned as a local lord?!?"

Charlotte, bewildered by the sudden notice, protested.

“Let me see Albert, the Emperor! Why do you want me to go to a land I have no connection to?! It’s a backwater with barely a few houses!”

Even if she didn’t want anything, this was unfair treatment. However, the Emperor never met with her, always claiming to be busy with official duties, so Charlotte kept asking for help from those around her.

“Irene, Pascalina, Jonathan, Dietrich! You guys think so too, right? I also wanted to make Albert Emperor with you… you guys always watched!”

Only frightening silence came back.

The friends who had made it big for helping set up the new Emperor, acted like they had never known her and none of them answered.

Instead, rumors spread in the palace that “Charlotte publicly shows her dissatisfaction with the Emperor.”

In this incomprehensible chaos, the incident finally broke out.

“Charlotte Moden. Do you admit to attacking the newly chosen Duchess Batilde, out of delusional desire to become Empress?”

“No! I never did such a thing!”

“If the Duchess had not been lucky enough to be safe, what a tragedy it would have been. It seems like a typical thing you’d do."

"I didn't even know that Duchess Batilde had been chosen!"

"The testimony of your subordinate, Hilarion, and many others. The plans that were discovered in your mansion. And you still say that you didn’t?"

“It's perjury! It's a setup! Everyone knows that I've never been selfish before...!”

However, not one of the friends gave her a warm look like before.

“Charlotte, you have always been disrespectful to his Majesty. You don’t know your place even until the very end.”

“I always advised him to be wary of your cruel actions. His majesty must finally understand."

"You should have kept your ambition in check. Did you think that you could ever be the Empress with your background?”

A bastard child, indeed.

“Even if you are the most terrible villainess, it wouldn’t set a good example for the future if we killed a meritorious person... There’s no choice. Cripple her and put her in a prison cell. Instead, we’ll wipe out your entire family to enforce order.”

Albert, who was so kind and like a star, gave the sentence with cold eyes.

Charlotte, completely dazed, could only look up at him. Not even a tear fell.

Why? Why?

Where did she earn his hatred?

She had always loved him consistently.

In the meantime, the four friends whom she had trusted carried out Charlotte’s sentence.

Irene restrained her. Jonathan read the verdict. Dietrich gave the signal. Pascalina broke her knees.

As she cried out in screams and sobs, Charlotte, unable to walk, was tied to a small box-like cart and thrown into the northern ice prison.

In the first year, she cried, saying that there was a terrible misunderstanding. In the next year, she begged for forgiveness.

In the third year, she had the delusion that everything would go back to normal one morning, and by the fourth year, she was lost in resignation, thinking that everything was over.

While enduring countless abuses and violations, Charlotte constantly went back over it. Where and what went wrong.

However, the answer was so obvious that it was difficult to face it head-on.

Her abilities were dangerous to keep around, they were worthless in the new Emperor's world, and the debt from her past merits was a heavy burden.

Disposable.

Used and discarded.

That was all.

Finally accepting this truth, on a certain day of the fifth year.

"I won't die here. I will get out of here. I won't die here. I will get out of here. I will..."

If I don't die here and get out, what should I do?

"I’ll kill those fucking bastards.”